belated b'day greetings

My DH's brothers celebrated their birthdays last month and I was BAAAADD! This is my belated greeting to Dale, a gift card holder to celebrate with some night life in the big city!

It cracks me up, tho' - we're both playing catch up this year. He did a "drive by" this past weekend and dropped a card off for my son and his brother in our newspaper delivery box, so we're gonna have to do the same, natch'! Happy belated b'day Dale!

The gift card just looked too small, so I ended up mounting it on a 5-1/4x5-1/4" double matted cardstock that matched the DP, and double-matted some matching ribbon between those 2 layers using some unknown ribbon I had on hand. It's Beate's weekend WSC45 sketch layout now!

stamps: none; paper: Fancy Pants' Sweet Spring, Prism solid cardstocks, vellum (for inside sentiment); ink: printed sentiment from PC; accessories: QuicKutz cityscape die set, Making Memories' charmed words, unknown ribbon

did you know? ... re: Britannica Online offer

did you know? ... that if you regularly update a Web or blog, the kind folkes at Britannica now offer a free one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online?!

05/04/08 - edited to add: as part of the subscription service I've also signed up to receive their "on this day in history" emails -- and that kind of stuff hooks me! Lovin' it!

Got kids? Then check this out, snipped in its entirety from the 4/21 edition of The Chronicle's Wired Campus Newsletter:

'Encyclopaedia Britannica' Is Now Free to Bloggers
Encyclopaedia Britannica, which apparently fears being nudged into irrelevance by the proliferation of free online reference sources, has started giving bloggers free access to its articles, TechCrunch reports. Reference sites such as Wikipedia, which are often criticized for their amateur (if zealous) authorship sources, have made the expensive, expert-vetted, hard-bound book set a less popular purchase. (Comscore analysis, also reported on TechCrunch, found that "[f]or every page viewed on Brittanica.com, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia," or 3.8 billion v. 21 million page views per month). Under a new program entitled Britannica WebShare, the encyclopedia publisher is allowing "people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers," to read and link to the encyclopedia's online articles. The company seems to hope that by offering its services free to Web publishers, links to Britannica articles will proliferate across the Internet and will persuade regular Web surfers to cough up $1,400 for the encyclopedia's 32-volume set, or perhaps $70 for an annual online subscription. - Catherine Rampell

belated bday to Monique

Hmmnn ... it seems like I'm doing lots of belated greetings this week! Here's another, a b'day greeting to a buddy who moved out of state last year. I used one of Lauren M's challenges for this layout; she made hers a 5-1/2" square card but I downsized a bit to 4-1/2" square due to the size of green cardstock I had that matched this beautiful DP I'd picked up last year at CAM, my fav LSS. Hope Monique likes it!

stamps: SU's Vases In Vogue; paper: A1 Cardstock's Natural White, ColorMates' Med Mostly Mauve and Deep Spring Green cardstock, Melissa Frances' Dawn DP; ink: SU's Always Artichoke; accessories: DCWV's rose envelope seals

it's belated this year

My brother-in-law's b'day recently passed so I've made his belated b'day card based on Jen's SFYTT weekend sketch. I picked up this pretty geneology-themed paper this past weekend at my fav LSS with the intention of breaking it down to pieces and it went so nicely with the soft seafoam green/aqua ribbon ... sigh ... IRL it looks SO much prettier! I used the negative inking technique and swiped the brown ink across the flat side of the embossing folder before running the cardstock thru the machine. Now I've gotta whip up a card for his twin!

stamps: SU's Short & Sweet; paper: Paper Loft's grandma's house DP, Prism's unknown aqua/seafoam green and dark brown cardstocks; ink: ColorBox's Dark Brown chalk ink; accessories: unknown ribbon; tools: Cuttlebug w Textile BK embossing folder, Fiskar's Spring stencil

great minds think alike

My DH celebrates his b'day this weekend so I made this card for him. See the "love you" sentiment stamped on front? Well, it was intended to be off white to match the card base. I tried stamping it with Colorbox Cream White and then Versamagic Off White but on each attempt when I added the clear embossing powder both seemed to disappear. On the 2nd attempt I tried adding a beige shadow to the text. Then I brought it with me on a shopping trip to help me remember to pick up a new white Sakura gellyroll pen. I got distracted while in JoAnn's (like my Mom used to tell me, "the road to hell is filled with good intentions") and ended up picking up a couple new Cuttlebug embossing plates instead. Well, I found these cute b'day sentiment stickers while at my LSS yesterday and ended up using them. I'm DONE w this puppy!

My buddy Pat and I sometimes are very similar-minded. Well, it seems we both made 3x split panels on cards this week. I stamped that gorgeous Essence of Love stamp with Versamark on the background 2x, then once using Always Artichoke on the Natural White cardstock and cut that one into thirds and matted it. Simple but effective look that I like!

stamps: SU's Essence of Love, Short & Sweet; paper: A1 Cardstock's Natural White, SU's Kraft, Old Olive; ink: Versamark, SU's Always Artichoke; accessories: unknown olive ribbon, Bo-Bunny b'day stickers

a collaboration

the "stamping gals" (Allison, Anna, Jackie, Monica, Suzy, Theresa and Zarna) have combined forces to bring us Stamping Links to Love (see permanent link on sidebar) where the gals link up sketch designs, blog challenges, tutorials, candy offerings and their favorite creations from the vast community of stamping and scrapping bloggers. Stop by for a visit!

thanx, Beate!

Beate wrote a nice explanation re: how to use Nestabilities dies/embossing plates with her Cuttlebug as her blog post today, so I thot I'd pass it along JUST IN CASE you aren't a daily reader of her's (read more). Also, scope out Sharon Harnist's review at Craft Critique's site.

These have been high on my wish list but I'd not broken down 'til now to purchase any. I'm starting out w their classic small rectangles, but also love their circles, ovals, and squares ... how 'bout you?

Jeanette, this one's for you

Here's another baby card, this one for a coworker whose step daughter's having a baby boy. I was having "show 'n tell" at work one day, showing Jeanette the baby card I'd made for my boss recently based on Lauren M's post. Jeanette's the one who'd taught my boss how to make the baby bonnets from a hankie, and provided us the sweet poem for the inside sentiment (see sample bonnet and inside sentiment on this post). So, thanx again, Jeanette ... this one's for you!

stamps: SU's Short and Sweet; paper: Basic Grey's Two Scoops; ink: American Crafts' blue glitter marker, CTMH's Outdoor Denim, Tri-C watercolor markers

Mistylynn's got blog candy

Just a quick note to advise that Mistylynn of L'il Buck's Creations blog has some t'riffic blog candy on today's post ... I figure if I don't win it one of you should, right?! So, go wish her well and congrats on reaching 10K hits!

I'll be back tomorrow to post a new baby card and hopefully a b'day one as well! 'Til then, g'nite now!

happy b'day Garrett!

My son's birthday is fast approaching and I made him this card. The jean exterior is SO Garrett that I had to grab that stamp when I first spotted it. This is my first attempt at a collage card, used for the interior of this one in response to a collage challenge the kind folkes at Hero Arts' blog issued recently. It was fun to try out! I stamped the jeans image twice and popped up the pocket and belt tabs, and overdid the walnut stain a bit around the edges, then inked the edges of the DP to make faux stitching around the edges and folded it into the pocket to look like a bandana. I was a bit bummed that the gift card didn't fit the pocket better, but I don't think that'll matter at ALL to Garrett, do you?! LOL! I downloaded that beautiful Scriptina font (used for words gifts, cake, wishes) and printed the b'day sentiment from my PC, but the rest of the collage is from various stamps.

Omigosh! Has it really been a week since I last posted?! Where DOES the time fly?

stamps: Hero Arts' Birthday Definition, Inkadinkadoo's diamond prints, script, and butterfly/timepiece portion of another collage stamp, a Judi Kins' jeans, and SU's Genuine Articles; paper: A1 Cardstock's Natural White, CTMH's Outdoor Denim, SU's craft cardstocks, Keepsake Essential's bandana print DP; ink: CTMH's Outdoor Denim, Hampton Arts' Vibrance, SU's Always Artichoke, and Tim Holtz's Faded Jeans and Walnut Stain distress inks, and GellyRoll white pen (thanx, Claud!)

Google Reader - LOVE it!

A week ago I'd commented to Jane, whose needlework blog I read regularly, that I was glad she'd set up a mirror blog on Blogspot. She asked a few questions about Google Reader. It ended up as my post today, as I've meant to write a product review of sorts about the software. So, no card today - but have you established a Google Reader account yet?

My Google Reader reads Jane's Blogspot version of Blog much easier than it reads her Yahoo 360 version. Google owns Blogspot so I'm guessing that's why their reader works better for it. Not being familiar with Google Reader she asked me about it and this is how I explained it:

... this software allows me to subscribe to blogs, and it displays those subscribed blogs in a format similar to a Window Explorer screen or web-based email software. The left side - a thin tall pane - displays the name of all the blogs I've subscribed to. When I single-click on a blog name on the left, the right side pane displays the most recent feeds - just the posts, without the blog's headers or lists of links folkes may have created. One cool other thing it does is that it'll bold the name of those blogs who've updated since I last viewed them thru the Google Reader software. So no more checking on blogs, waiting for them to load only to find they've not been updated! Streamlines my blog checking. Isn't modern technology wonderful?! The only drawback seems to be that those blogs on typepad or yahoo only display the text of the entries ... I have to open those blogs within my browser to access the pictures.

Jane asked me for further clarification about how the Google Reader looked. Here's how I explained it:

Think of your blog as twofold - the "shell" and the "meat." The shell generally includes a header (where many include a pretty graphic to remain at the top of each page), footer (many include copyright notices at the bottom ... and many blogs include navigation here - the "prior posts," "home," and "newer posts"), and extras - here it's totally up to the user what they want to include but most include navigation links USUALLY at either side (lots of blog software allows for links to recent posts; lots allow for labels so readers can, for instance, search for all "woodlawn" posts (as Jane had done), etc) - but blog software can also allow the user to insert special html coding or javascript so the blog owners can insert their own slide shows or video, counters, guestbooks, etc. The content of this shell shows up on every page.

Then, there's the "meat" of the blog - your posts. What you see within Google Reader is the posts themselves in that right-hand side pane - without the part of the area I've noted as within the shell. IF you include a link within your post, it's still treated as a link and is clickable. Also, the name of the blog itself is a link that you still have the option to click on to open. I love the Google Reader and would recommend it to anyone who has bookmarked blogs they read on a regular basis!

If you are interested in using Google Reader, here's what Jane found out about it from the kind folkes at Google:

http://www.google.com/reader/view/?hl=en&source=en-mmm#directory-welcome-page

sneak peek

Check Michelle's blog for a sneak peek at this fall/winter SU catty's new IN Colors at today's post. She reports that they'll debut on August 11th. I'm thinking I LOVE that Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze!

love is for the birds

Another card to welcome Spring, this one's made with a new stamp set I got this past week - Inkadinkadoo's Birds Galore. I'd been to Joann's at least 4 times checking their stock for it, and finally a buddy of mine happened to call me about a magazine while at the store. I asked if she'd check the clear stamps for it and voila! - they had 2 in stock ... so now one's made its home with me! This one's made based on Beate's weekend sketch challenge, WSC40. I LOVE these l'il guys and love playing with Beate's sketches, tho' I'm woefully behind - this one's from her March 21st post!

UPDATE: I was just reading blogs before hitting the sack and realized this post applies to Julie's "thinking outside the box" post/tutorial here also.

stamps: Inkadinkadoo's Birds Galore; paper: Basic Grey's Lilly Kate DCS, Creative Memories' unknown soft pink card stock, SU's River Rock card stock; ink: Hampton Arts' Vibrance; accessories: dotted swiss sheer organdy ribbon; tools: hearts crimper, Creative Memories' circle cutter