it's all about honeycombs

Today's make-'n-take at CAM was to create this stinkin' cute honeycomb card. Toad-illy cute froggy on the outside ... BUT ... open it up and the cut-out shaped as a toadstool opens to create a 3D effect! In case you've not seen Inky Antics' Honey Pot collection in your travels, here's a link to their stamp sets AND a quick 4-minute video tutorial on the process.

stamps: Inky Antics' Frog HoneyPOP; paper: unknown green, white card stock, Inky Antics' Green Honeycomb paper pad; ink: unknown brown; accessories: brown/white dotted grosgrain ribbon

happy Arbor Day!

Greetings and happy Arbor Day to you from a self-professed tree-aholic ... just ask my DH!

I've only planted a few trees in my back yard, but you'd think I'd over-forested the area according to him. He'd prefer we remove at least one of them, while you'll find me extolling the virtues of adding yet another to the front near the southwest corner of our house. I'd love to have a Red Bud tree there ... sigh. It's what I ask for any time he asks for anniversary or birthday wishes.

Today's a great day to celebrate trees and I've a few fast figures for you, compliments of treehugger.com and uloft.com:

• 25 billion
  The number of styrofoam cups thrown away every year by Americans
  
• 50 million
  The number of homes that could be heated for 20 years with the amount of wood and paper we throw away each year
  
• 40 million
  The number of acres of tropical rainforests, equivalent to the size of California, that are destroyed by burning or logging each year
  
• 25 million
  The number of trees saved if every American recycled one-tenth of their newspapers

Check out the Arbor Day Foundation or timeanddate.com for additional info including the history or Arbor Day. And, I hope that you're able to head out to your nearest park and enjoy and/or plant a tree today!

you're my cup of tea!

One of my coworkers and fellow tea aficionados is celebrating her b'day this week, so I pulled out my Coffee Cafe stamp set ... it's mainly coffee-related but included this tea bag ... and put in some stamping time today. I found this cute 50's era family of fabrics thru an e-mail I received today! How timely, eh?! It's strange how everything old is new again. The same burnt oranges and harvest golds are showing up again in ceramics, pots, and pans, tho' it may be a bit brighter this time around; I'm not sure. This pattern reminds me of old kitchen wallpaper.

Beth and I both enjoy teas and she maintains a stash of a variety of 'em at work ... which is a good thing, 'cuz she shares them w me! Happy b'day, Beth!

stamps: TPC Studio's Coffee Cafe; paper: Purl Soho's Earth Kitchen fabric scan, SU's Dusty Durango, Staples' White card stocks; ink: SU's Soft Suede, PC-generated inside sentiment; accessories: SU's Dusty Durango dotted grosgrain ribbon; tools: Spellbinders' big scalloped rectangles

pinwheels

I used a pinwheel cut from designer paper using a die from CAM (Capture-A-Memory, a Flint-area paper crafting store I frequent) for today's card - that and complementary cardstock is all this CAS Easter card took, add a bit of ribbon, and voilà! My final Easter card for 2011! Thanx, CAM! I needed that!

Those mailing their pinwheel cards flattened their pinwheels. Mine's being hand-delivered on Sunday - sigh, the only Easter cards that will be on time this year besides the eCards I try to send!

Hope you have a t'riffic Easter!

happy Earth Day!

I'm on a trip down Memory Lane ... and celebrating Earth Day (and Good Friday) today!

Forty-one years ago today (my, doesn't time fly?!) I'd skipped classes and taken the train downtown into Philadelphia to celebrate the first Earth Day festivities, and was listening to speakers and music in Fairmount Park. US Senator Edmund Muskie, consumer protection activist Ralph Nader, landscape architect Ian McHarg, biochemist George Wald, US Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, and poet Allen Ginsberg were there. The celebration was the culmination of a week's long series of activities with a common theme - to raise public awareness of environmental problems and their potential solutions.

I'm constantly surprised when I meet people who DON'T actively support recycling, especially when they're younger than me. I hope you do!

Today Earth Day's observed in 175 countries and is considered to be the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a half billion people every year.

OK, back to the present ... I'm still working on Easter cards! sigh ...

thinking of you

I needed a sympathy card and thought I'd use my fav color combo of black, white, and a splash of color for it. I purchased a few silhouette stamps recently, including this bird - they're part of a series and include 3 stamps to a set, from the kind folkes at Inkadinkado. This was my first time stamping on SU's textured card stock and it covered nicely.

stamps: Inkadinkado's summer assortment mini, SU's Trendy Trees; paper: SU's Whisper White textured, Bermuda Bay card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; accessories: Prima's transparent scrapbooking tape

what the ...

I didn't take a picture of the snow on our deck ... nor did anyone take one of me clearing snow off my car before heading to work ... so I stole this from Brit (thanx, Brit!).

Snow again, on Sunday ... and again on Monday ... but we haven't had an earthquake lately ... nor a tornado. I'll take the snow, thank you, and remind myself it could be so much worse.

Counting my blessings ...

you ROCK!

I picked up the cutest dollar stamp yesterday, and used it on the inside of today's card - one of imaginisce's Live Loud collection, this one's Drums. Not that anyone in my household plays drums ... it just went nicely with my "you rock" sentiment. My youngest son rocks, and this card's in celebration of his birthday which is this week. We celebrated with extended family last month - a joint celebration held between my two sons' birthdays. Later the immediate family celebrates, as is our tradition, with him selecting the restaurant of his choice, but I'm betting he'll select it "to go."

Today's card is inspired by the lovely and talented Godelieve of StampingMathilda blog fame, tho' I didn't pull out my sewing machine ... nor did I cheat and use any of my stitch-related stamps, but I DID make the card from scraps as she did. The "you rock" sentiment looks IRL like it's made from boulders and is something I found via an image search. A quick post today, as I want to sit and watch some golf w my DH still before we sup. Catch ya later!

stamps: Imaginisce's Drums, Karen's Creative Stamping's Happy everything, SU's Sanded bk; paper: Paper Reflections' black, SU's River Rock, Staples' white card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot, SU's River Rock; accessories: SU's River Rock ribbon; tools: Cuttlebug w Happy Birthday embossing folder

love is just a word ...

I love this Unity stamp, but hadn't planned on using it for a wedding shower 'til I went in search of another stamp and happened upon it. Tho' it's not in the colors I'd intended to use for their shower, it goes with the present I got them! I used the whole 9' of ribbon in tying knots around the gift and the tiny amount on this card ... which goes great w SU's Bermuda Bay, don't you agree?!

It's funny-strange ... I used to look at colors and sometimes know exactly the color DMC floss family it was ... still can with some of my favs. And when I was in the store a couple weeks ago and spotted the items I picked up as a gift, I just knew it would go great w the SU Bermuda Bay color!

So ... I'll have to use their wedding colors in my eventual wedding card! Sigh ... how is it that I hadn't established a "wedding" label category for my cards yet?! Later today I'll have to peruse the lot and label others!

stamps: Unity's love & meaning; A Stamp in the Hand's Best Wishes (inside sentiment); paper: SU's Bermuda Bay, Staples' white card stocks; ink: SU's Bermuda Bay, Old Olive, Soft Suede; accessories: Offray's dippy dots 3/8" ribbon

sending springtime smiles

What pushed me over the edge in selecting today's card as my fav from this month's Stamp Camp w Angie is the fact that it goes SO WELL with a springtime individual stamp that I'd purchased last year in Frankenmuth while on a stamping outing w friends. So it makes perfect sense to pick up an $18 stamp set as it complements a $5 stamp you already own. Am I right or am I RIGHT?! sigh ... I admit it; I'm addicted!

all items SU unless otherwise noted ...
stamps: Easter Blossoms; paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White card stocks; ink: Chocolate Chip, white uni-ball Signo gel pen; accessories: basic rhinestones; tools: Itty Bitty Shapes, unknown oval and scallop oval punches

I'm just asking ...

Think adding oatmeal to your diet via Subway's yummy oatmeal raison cookies really counts? I'm just asking ...

My eldest son and I stopped yesterday after our weekly jaunt to Blockbuster and picked up subs and cookies afterward for supper. I'd worked on taxes the past two days and neglected him - then came right home to finish off the city taxes - so after finishing taxes (ta da!), grabbed a quick supper and a movie.

Life is good! And maybe NEXT year I won't procrastinate, eh?!

nat'l start walking day

I forgot all about posting my personal challenge to try to walk 10,000 steps today in honor of it being National Start! Walking Day. The kind folkes at the American Heart Association provide tool kits in the hopes that more work places will encourage their employees to wear sneakers to work and take at least 30 minutes out of their day to get up and walk. Taking just 10 minutes three times a day to walk will help you live longer. In fact, studies show that just one hour of vigorous exercise will increase your life expectancy by two hours!

I'd started a walking program this past November trying to average 5,000 steps daily. In March I signed on with WalkingSpree, where I can upload my pedometer stats and track my food intake, exercise, and measurements online. So far it's been okay and I've been averaging 7,027 steps daily. I'd been trying to walk 7,000 steps M-Th as I don't walk that much on weekends, but that's changed this month too. I'm back to hoofing it around the local mall on Saturdays. While I haven't lost any weight yet, I DO feel my clothes getting looser. Life is good!

movie night at the Blondins

Sure, you may THINK of it as fate, but it COULD just be these non-human guys all wearing hats whose purpose in life is to make sure your life follows its predetermined path ... or you COULD have just seen The Adjustment Bureau, as I did! I rec'd an email from movieTickets, and while scoping out the upcoming movies, also checked what was currently playing at my local theater. This movie was now only showing at 8:40 p.m. so I guessed that meant the kiss of death - that the movie wouldn't be showing when Friday's new releases hit the theater, and I guessed right ... so we took in a mid-week movie!

It was really good, IMHO ... but I'm prejudiced 'cuz I think I could be a Matt Damon groupie. I LOVED the Bourne trilogy, but wasn't as crazy about The Hereafter. We watched that last weekend on DVD. I like having the movie theater experience and REALLY love large screen showings, tho' I don't know of any besides the IMAX screens in the area any more. Sigh ...

one day without shoes

Wanting to help get shoes on the feet of children in need, American Blake Mycoskie created TOMS Shoes. TOMS' business model is unique: For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donates a pair of new shoes to a child in need.

Today is TOMS' annual, international event, "One Day Without Shoes." According to its website, TOMS has asked people to pledge to go barefoot today to raise awareness for "those people who don't have a choice."

let's hang out!

I was out supporting the local economy this weekend and foolishly told my stampin' buddy Pat that I didn't need her extra coupons to use at Jo-Ann's ... 'cuz I was originally only heading there to check out bunny buttons. I perused the buttons (found some cute bunny and chicks and cheshire cat ones), an ensemble gift pack for something coming up shortly, and then headed to the checkout to peruse the stamping mags before checking out (FYI, at least our local Flint store has started carrying the Northridge Publishing mags). Turning the corner to the checkout line, I came across some dollar stamps, at which time I promptly placed my cart out of the way and started checking the stamps out. I limited myself to 11, but had about 20 in my grasp at one point.

Today's card uses some stamps from 3 of the 11 sets - an inside sentiment from one, outside sentiment from another, and birds and birdhouse from yet another. Stinkin' cute birdhouse though, don't you agree? They had 4 scripty sets similar to this birdhouse - the other 3 included a bird, a butterfly, and a camera - that I couldn't pass up. So here's another one-layer CAS card to welcome in spring!

stamps: Hero Arts' Whoo Loves You, Inkadinkado's spring and summer assortment minis, My Mind's Eye's Union Square "Perfect" Stamps; paper: Staples' white card stock; ink: Color Box's lavender, rose coral, smoke blue, and yellow ochre, and SU's brocade blue