i love you, alice b toklas

tee hee ... thinking Peter Sellers here! Another couple CAS Valentine's Day cards on a similar theme. The 1st one's matted and worked for both the current Paper Craft Planet sk010811 sketch challenge as well as Lucy Abram's New Year's Eve posted sketch challenge. She doesn't provide a "code" so I'm nicknaming 'em - let's call it LAsketch4, shall we?! The 2nd one was made in response to checking Lucy's sketch challenge.

stamps: Unity Co's Love Grows; paper: ColorMates' Light Berry Red, Scenic Road's Surprise; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink; tools: Marvy Uchida's jumbo heart punch

it's all about the candycorn

Ain't it the truth?! I almost titled this post, "be careful what you wish for," because I'd been thinking it was too bad that I didn't have any candycorn yet to use as prop items to sprinkle next to the card for the picture ... but then, if I DID have any, I'd be nibbling on them and we wouldn't have any by the end of October! This stamp set was a July purchase that was on sale - so I gobbled it up - this main stamp and 3 sentiment stamps for $4 - a deal, don't you think?! So of COURSE I kept shopping ... don't just want to ship one item and pay more for shipping than I did for the stamp, right?! So I have another BK stamp too, at 24% off its regular price. So sweet in more ways than one!

A new challenge site to ME, I was inspired by last week's Friday Mashup sketch challenge:


stamps: Unity's Hauntingly Sweet; paper: Paper Reflections' black, Staples' white 110#, SU's Crushed Curry, Kraft, and Pumkin Pie card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, SU's Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry (after the pic was taken I also added some Old Olive to the pumkins' stems) markers; tools: Fiskars apron lace border and Marvy corner rounder punches

recycling challenge winners!

Whoo hoo! The university that I work at (insert shameless plug here for Kettering University) recently participated in and won a local College Recycling Challenge with 6.05 pounds of recycled material per student. Our community dragged in paper, cardboard, & plastic to add to a big blue bin stationed on our campus for two weeks in April. This put us nearly 4 pounds per student ahead of our nearest competitor, Mott Community College. Read how we completely decimated the competition!

I'm a long-time recycler and brought lots of stuff from home and my department to participate in the challenge, and encouraged my whole work group to participate. Heck, I ALMOST drove thru my neighborhood to collect items from recycling bins on trash pick-up day! We have curbside recycling in the township where I live, and they recycle aluminum, paper, cardboard, glass, magazines, newspaper, plastic, steel, tin, etc. I feel fortunate as I USED to have to drive about 30 minutes north of here to bring my recycling to a recycling station that has since closed. How 'bout you? I'm wondering how many of you live in areas where they've instituted curbside recycling programs.

For this card I double stamped the tree, then stamped the woodgrain background on the tree and cut the trunk out; I sponged the leaves with Kiwi Kiss and colored the rest of the image with markers and a white gel pen. And my inspiration piece? Here; don't you just love Pink Petticoat?

stamps: Hero Arts' Woodgrain Pattern, Unity's Plant A Tree; paper: SU's Designer Series Paper Patterns in Kiwi Kiss, Creative Memories' Neutral and The Paper Co's Kraft card stocks; ink: Stazon's Timber Brown, SU's Close to Cocoa, Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, and Summer Sun markers, and Inksentials' white opaque pen; tools: Fiskar's threading water border punch

don't quote me, but ...

Don't quote me, but ... if friends were flowers, I'd pick Pat! A two-fer card based on Card Patterns' CP13 sketch and Caardvarks' "don't quote me" challenges, it's heading to my good buddy Pat who's my partner in crime in all things stamping-related! On Thursday morning she's picking up Kim (my other scrappin' bud) and me, and we're all heading to Novi to take in the Great Lakes Scrapbooking Mega Meet. Tonight she's taking delivery of our recent Stampin' Up! orders (and just MAYBE our latest Close To My Heart orders as well) so we'll have the necessary show-'n-tell before we start work tomorrow. I thought it'd be nice to let her know she's much appreciated by making her a card ... 'cuz, if friends were flowers, I'd pick her! I used the thumping technique to get the blotchy mixed color flower effect - IRL it really matches the shabby pinks in the card well if I do say so myself! (woot! woot! my first "me likey" from Allison, who I'm a gushing fan of ...)



stamps: Unity's Feel the Joy, PAPERTREYink's green thumb; paper: My Mind's Eye's Laundry Line DP, SU's Ruby Red and unknown white cardstocks; ink: StazOn's Jet Black, SU's Ruby Red and Cameo Coral, Tri-C watercolor marker; accessories: My Mind's Eye's chipboard borders, crocheted flower, and BasicGrey button

love grows

I love trees and leaves, and have to restrain myself sometimes from picking up yet another stamp in the genre, but HAD to grab this one! This card's for my DH, to celebrate spring FINALLY arriving here in mid-Michigan. It's mostly cloudy today and the temps are in the mid-30's but it's here ... I KNOW, 'cuz my Mom called me the other day to report that her crocuses have started blooming. Both my Mom and my late MIL have had crocuses in their gardens. I generally consider their arrival a first sign of spring. That, plus on a walk around the neighborhood last weekend, my DH and I spotted a couple robins! Thanx, Amy, for the sketch!










stamps: Unity Stamp Co's Itsy Bitsy Giggles, Love Grows; paper: SU's Kiwi Kiss designer series paper patterns DP, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White cardstocks; ink: StazOn's Jet Black; accessories: SU's Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon

welcome spring!

I had to remind myself this a.m. that, even tho' the thermostat read 19 degrees fahrenheit, it IS the first day of spring! whoo hoo!

In honor of spring I'm wearing pastel today ... mind you, it's a pastel blue sweater, but it IS pastel! I'm in awe of some of the clean simple lines of cards at the amuse blog (Julie, you ROCK!) and every now and then feel the pull to try creating a simple card - hence today's one! Ive always loved queens anne's lace and recently got this stamp (part of a mini 2-pc set) from Unity Stamp Co. To make the flowers stand out against the white cardstock, I colored them in a soft pink but touched 'em up with the white opaque pen. The sentiment's PC-generated but this flower set comes with a script sentiment that reads "feel the joy," which I'll use on the inside.

We're enjoying a cloudless blue sky today and it's supposed to get into the 40's here by mid-day. I've some flex time this week so I'll be soaking up some of those rays this afternoon out of doors! Hope you enjoy YOUR first day of spring too!

stamps: Unity Stamp Co's feel the joy; paper: SU's whisper white cardstock; ink: Inkssentials' white opaque pen, Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: unknown lilac dotted swiss ribbon