I love Studio G

I love Studio G, don't you?! I occasionally stop by Mike's and check out the dollar stamp bin, but every now and then pick up an entire set of Studio G's releases, mainly thru the kind folkes at SheetLoad of Cards (no affiliation other than being a satisfied customer). This is one of those releases. If you're interested, here's the link!

A Technorati-based image of what my blog's all about. Google your own and grab a visual of what tags you post about most often. It's an interesting read and makes for a cute graphic!

I'm looking for a program that'll take a bunch of words you supply and make a mish mash of vertical and horizontal sizes ... similar to Wordle but different outcome, similar to StampingMathilda's purrfect day sample here. Anyone know of one? Please share if you do!

nice Silhouette review

Julia Stainton of Belle Papier blog fame has written a nice review of the QuicKutz Silhouette for Craft Critique (click on its picture to check it out). And if you don't already follow her blog, you really should - she's awesome!

Easter's late this year

Or so it is at our house. My eldest was rummaging thru the kitchen cupboards this afternoon and happened upon some Easter cookies I'd picked up for a craft project and then forgotten about. Cute, eh? We colored one each and ate 'em up - YUM!

shoutout to Elaine

Here's a thank you shoutout to Elaine of Elaine's Creations blog fame for posting a reprint of t'riffic tips she notes that scrapbooking.com had posted for using SU's Crystal Effects. I wish I could post the specific link at scrapbooking.com but I wasn't able to find it.

Today's my folkes' anniversary! Thinking of you, Mom & Dad!

I'm a fontaholic

Hi! I'm Sue. I'm a fontaholic. Admitting you have a problem is the first step of recovery, they say, right?! NOT! Here's a couple sites I check out occasionally (honest, DH!), for the fontaholics stopping by today (click on the pictures to visit the sites):

FontSpace - hmmnn ... I just listed about a dozen FREE "gotta haves" from this one!

ScrapNFonts - just a quick "heads up," folkes, that the CK fonts will retire soon! Get 'em while they last! I check these folkes' sales - nominal fees for most, sales monthly

Got others to share? Please share some love and leave links in your comments!

happy b'day Beth!

This card's heading to work with me today - a coworker's birthday was over the weekend and I wasn't able to get the card to her in advance. Beth sails (wink! could you tell by my Glam Girl?), and races with teams from a Port Huron area yacht club. I picked up 3 used Glam Gals sets this past year (thanx, Crystal - I LOVE 'em!) and knew at once this one was destined for Beth's birthday this year! It's based on this past Friday's Fab Friday Cuttlebug Challenge, below. What?! You couldn't see the Fiskar's wave texture plate in the background? Or the Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls? Well, to tell you the truth, I oops'd, taped and adhered the background, and then recalled I'd meant to run it thru my trusty Cuttlebug first. Sigh ... of all the things I miss, I miss my mind the most, y'know?!

stamps: CC Designs' Layla and Virginia; paper: BasicGrey's LilyKate DP, SU's Bashful Blue and unknown white cardstocks; ink: StazOn's Jet Black, SU and Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: Bazzill's Stitchin' Buttons brad

WOWzer online book

Of all the nicest "green" ideas I've spotted this past week, this one takes the cake! I'm sure you've spotted Scrapbook Trends' magazines in crafting and book stores - Cards, Bead Trends, and Simply Handmade - well, they've now offering an online subscription version!

BUT it gets even BETTER! To celebrate the wonders of technology as well as their new upcoming Mini Albums Idea Book, they've provided free unlimited online access to their previous Mini Albums Idea Book - click on the picture at left to see it!

I just returned from my fist scan thru the book - just under 150 pages of YUMMY mini albums, it's WONDERFUL! They say this prior print version sold out quickly and you can definitely see why - so check it out and tell 'em SueB sent ya!

a two-fer to welcome spring

I'd spotted the new McGill bird punch at Impress earlier this spring and was MAYBE able to hold myself back a month tops before breaking down and ordering it, LOL! Soon to be winging it's way to my brother, it's inspired by this lovely and talented Kim Hughes' card and is based on a couple challenges - the CPS 112 sketch (see below) and Sharon Johnson's Let's Pipe Up! ssnotime84 challenges.

Want in on a secret? My brother's more of a softie than he lets on. Yep, it's true. Once when visiting him while he still lived out east, I arrived at his place before he returned home and noticed that he'd made a collage of the cards and postcards I'd sent him on his bedroom door. Now, it COULD be becuz' they were so artsy-fartsy cool (wink!), BUT methinks it's just that he loves me ... he really loves me! I don't think he reads my blog so our secret's safe! Don't go telling him that I told you!


stamps: Imaginisce's twitterpated spring (a t'riffic deal at Paper Addiction (sets of 5 stamps for only $3), SU's Short & Sweet; papers: BasicGrey's Stella Ruby DP (bummer! I'm almost out of this now!), Paper Reflections' black and SU's Kraft cardstock; ink: StazOn's Jet Black, Versamark; accessories: BasicGrey Bittersweet buttons; tools: McGill bird punch (see the 3D wing? how cool is THAT?!)

a side note: tho' I'm glad to have received a deal on the cute Imaginisce paper and stamps, I'm bummed to report that Paper Addiction is closing shop and that's the reason for the deal. I'd spotted the mention of a sale on Michelle's blog, had planned on picking up some closeout BasicGrey 6x6 pads, and shared news of the sale with a couple scrappin' buddies. Well, by the time we had our orders prepared, the 6x6 pads (my original reason for the order, sigh) had sold out (this is my usual sense of timing, folkes)! Head over and see what deals remain!

my sister, my friend

I'm a pretty lucky sibling, I've decided. My siblings and I all pretty much get along. Sure, we have our days, but when it comes down to it, they're all there for you. My sister and I were best buds growing up and hung around with the same group of friends 'til midway thru high school. We're still close, but I work weekdays and she works weekends and we live an hour apart so we don't get together nearly as much as I'd like. Sometimes day to day life just gets in the way, y'know?!

This card and altered notebook are from last night's class (thanx, Mary - loved 'em all!) - all SU supplies except the little notebook which we altered. One trait my sister and I share still is that we're both list-makers; we have been, forever! I recall in the days before the Internet us hanging on to every word between music countdowns, feverishly creating our lists of the year's top 100 songs. Sheesh! Why that was so important, I'll never recall! Karen, did we maintain separate lists or work on the same one, do you recall? LOL - thanx for stopping by for my trip down Memory Lane, folkes!

ice cream, anyone?

This cutie patootie is my fav card from tonight's class w Mary, tho' it was REALLY hard to decide. Here I've been just thankful for whatever spring weather we've had the last couple weeks and she's got us thinking about summer!

No specific deets on this one - all supplies provided by the lovely and talented Mary. The ice cream scoops are from scalloped circles in varying color cardstocks - that's the only thing I'm certain of! We used brown ink and a sponge to smudge the edges and popped up the scoops using dimensionals. Easy peasy but oh SO STINKIN' CUTE, eh?! I'll share more examples later. Thanx, Mary - they're all t'riffic!

edited to add: see Angie Kennedy Juda's video creating this card here

Earth Day 2009

Here's a card I made for my sister based on last Friday's sketch #229 from the Card Sketch A Day blog. It's a trip down Memory Lane, as I recall us attending the first Earth Day celebrations in Philadelphia PA where we lived in 1970. Wow, how time flies when you're having fun, eh?!


stamps: SU's Branch Out, Lots of Dots; paper: SU's Kraft and Old Olive, Paper Reflections' black cardstocks; ink: StazOn Jet Black, SU's Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Mellow Moss, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive; accessories: SU's Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, globe pic from the Internet

reduce ... reuse ... recycle

My buddies know I'm into recycling. I used to store all numbered plastics in separate paper bags in my basement and whenever one container filled, drive it 30 miles north to a recycling station that accepted all plastics ... sigh ... which has since closed its doors. I break down presentation books at work so that I can reuse the cardstock and plastic pieces and sometimes the binding materials in cardmaking projects, and recycle the paper. I grab telephone books from my coworkers' trash bins and shredding from our departments, and keep paper recycling containers in my office.

You get the drift ... so when the kind folkes at Craft Critique wanted to see some recycling in action, and I HAD to make another birthday card today from my boys to their Dad, I took a peek at some past birthday cards ... 'cuz yes, I recycle "previously loved" cards too!


Here's one for this year. I'm geeked about how closely I matched the inside sentiment to that used outside. It's just Arial Narrow and CK_Alis_Writing (LOVE her font) but it's a pretty close match, don't you think?!

a TECC64 Mother's Day

I made this card to match a mini album I made at a class held at my fav LSS - Capture-a-Memory (link at right) - see the mini album's post here - so now all that's left to do is picking the photos to put in the album! This one's based on Taylor's TECC64 sketch (pictured below).

I'd originally picked up the DP to make this card for Lindsey, the daughter of my stampin' bud Pat. She's collected frogs over the years and was heading into town to help her Mom out while recovering from surgery, being the sweet kid that she is. I hadn't realized how similar the cards were 'til right now when hunting down the link to her card, LOL!



stamps: n/a; paper: Creative Imaginations Debbie Mumm DP, ColorMates' Dark Autumn Red, Dark Outdoor Olive, and Deep Outdoorsy Olive and SU's Whisper White cardstocks; ink: PC-generated (as was inside sentiment: "A mother holds her children's hands for just a short time, but holds their hearts forever" - unknown author; accessories: Basic Grey buttons (to match bittersweet DP)

good morning!

I'm LOVIN' the michigan.org travel commercials lately and this one's a beauty. Enjoy your morning - spring's arrived in Michigan - whoo hoo (my DH is planning on running the remainder of the gas out of our snowblower today, so I HOPE it's here to stay, LOL - we won't remind him he'd been planning on doing that on April 5th, okay (see this post)?)!

hi there

Just a quick post to share today's CAM make-'n-take card.

My youngest needed to work on a project at school and he timed it to coincide with the weekend's make-'n-take at my LSS. We used a flower die and some two-sided DP - easy peasy and finished in a snap!

Later I got together with a few friends for a belated b'day get-together where we had pizza and watched a couple of the comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham DVDs - he's hilarious and I recommend you catch him if you can! My fav of his "dummies" was Walter.

FYI re ColorBox ltd ed pigment inkpad giveaway

Dorothy of Never Enough Rubber Stamps blog fame is giving away a ColorBox limited edition pigment inkpad, pictured at left. Click on the picture to visit her post! Thanx, Dorothy, for the blog candy opp!

die cut machine give-away

I just happened to be blog trolling this evening after my son finished playing his latest PC game (I KNEW there was a reason I hadn't picked any PC games up for him in a while ... the battle over our only household PC!) and happened upon a post noting there's now only 2 hrs remaining in Simply Handmade's die cut machine give-away! You've been served notice! They're on Mountain time, so head over asap! Click on the picture to visit their blog!

happy b'day Garrett

Time flies when you're having fun, I realize, but how'd I get old enuff to have a 21-year old, I ask you?! And at that, it's my YOUNGEST's b'day today that I'm talking about. Sigh ...

We generally have a family b'day party later and on the day of our birthdays, the b'day person gets to pick the restaurant of their choosing and we open a present. I know that means we're eating Middle Eastern tonight. I'm betting we just order the food and eat in so he can high tail it outta the house and go join friends for the evening.

no deets: this was the product of a recent make-'n-take at CAM, my fav LSS - link at right

story time, baby?

Isn't this the cutest designer paper?! I ALMOST don't want to cut into some DPs, but broke down and made a onesie from this Karen Foster DP for my boss this past week. She'd been out of town on business and had recently shared that her niece is pregnant again, and I thought it'd be a nice welcome back gesture to have the card with her mail on her return. Well, she makes the CUTEST bonnets from hankies, and another coworker provided a cute poem to accompany the hankies (see this post), so it makes for a SWEET presentation.

The onesie card's based on one at Lauren M's blog - thanx again, Lauren!

stamps: n/a; paper: American Traditional Designs' Wel Baby VM Stripes vellum, Karen Foster's Story Time Collage and Rhonna Farrer DPs, ColorMates' medium outdoor olive and SU's Whisper White cardstocks; ink: PC-generated inside sentiment; tools: circle and scalloped circle punches

b'day card from Pat

My stampin' bud Pat delivered this card w a box of my fav chocolate treats, Charleston Chews, at work yesterday. The candy's gone (yummy while it lasted, LOL!) but the card's in my collection - LOVE it! My son's kicking me right off the PC in less than 5 minutes to get back to homework so today's a super quick post! Thanx for stopping by and I hope to have more play time tomorrow!

just for you, Jeanette!

The first person I ever met where I work is the recipient of today's card. She's retiring the beginning of May, and is known for having made sock monkeys for some of us at work.

My recollection's fuzzy but methinks we made this card at a club meeting led by Crystal (link below right) shortly after this stamp set was introduced, and I mentioned to my stampin' buddy Pat then that I just had to hold onto it 'til Jeanette retired! Well, it's been stored in a safe place and I just happened to receive the Congrats set as a RAK recently - how perfect is this?! The card's been modified - it USED to have another cupcake inside - NOW it reads
"congratulations
let the relaxation begin!
(happy retirement!)"

I LOVE a challenge!

My scrappin' best buds know I love starting cards with a sketch challenge and I keep some of my regulars bookmarked to the right side of my blog. The lovely and talented Allison of Stampin' When I Can blog fame just posted a mega list (here). It made me recall that Mel of Mel Stampz fame had posted another list that I'd bookmarked in my browser back in 2006 (here). Enjoy, folkes! If you stop by to visit, tell the gals that SueB sent ya!

a case of mistaken identity?

There's no mistaking ... and the inside reads "some bunny loves you! Happy Easter!" Here's another digi quickie that I made for my DH. Sorry for the picture quality - I'm scanning as it's after 10 p.m. and I'm too lazy to get out the camera, LOL!

I got an e-mail from my buddy Connie at work the other day that included a dozen pics of bunnies with what looks like matched sets of kittens and puppies - CUTE, eh?! My DH and I have collected bunnies for years ... or rather, I pick 'em up for every anniversary or birthday or whatever. So, this seemed a good fit for his Easter card for this year.

Have a happy Easter, everyone!

a digi Easter card

My DH just kinda groaned when I showed him this one ... sigh ... so, do you know why did the Easter egg hide? The inside reads "He was a little chicken!"

Did I happen to tell you I love my latest printer? It's a Canon MP610 all-in-one printer w scanner and fax. I had saved this cartoon that I'd received in an email years ago and added the text (Brody font), then used Photoshop's eyedropper tool to select the light blue from the picture to print as a slightly askew background, found this ribbon in my stash, and voila! Another Easter card - this one a quick digi version - ready to mail tomorrow!

it's beginning to look alot like ...

... Easter?! Sigh ... I'm really ready for the weather to quit with this winter stuff, aren't you?! We woke to what looks like about 4" of the white stuff this a.m., from the pic taken of my deck and back yard (thru my screen ... sorry 'bout that!). OK, it IS pretty when fresh fallen ... the trees look awesome. But ENUFF already!

UPDATE: snow's 4.8" deep in our area as of noon and still falling, expected snow flurries for 2 days

another QK cutie

I should be done w Easter cards by now as they're due to hit the mail this week ... but I'm NOT! Here's another from this past Saturday's QuicKutz Club meeting at CAM (link at right), led by the lovely and talented Pat L. I have this chick and used it as (methinks) a duck last year, judging by the coloring, LOL! It's much softer in Pat's colors.

We made our lacy scalloped trim by using a 12" scallop punch, then running it thru a crimper and adding some extra crimps by hand on the flat edge, then positioning it around the circle. It's definitely something that will take a bit more practice on my part! Fun projects, Pat - TFS!

the incredible edible egg

Here's an Easter card from my weekend's QuicKutz club meeting led by the lovely and talented Pat L. We made two Easter cards and I love how Pat led us in converting this cupcake die into a basket. She has a knack for seeing possible uses in dies that others usually don't. Once we used a cannon die as a vase ... another time she pointed out that a ship could be an ice cream sundae bowl. Well, I collect bunnies so thought I'd share this one first! Pat provided all the "parts," we simply assembled our cards at the class. Thanx again, Pat!

a CPS109 b'day card

I got to stamp today - big time, for me (whoo hoo)! I'm generally a one-or-two-fer card-maker but today I made four including this one for my sweetie. His birthday's later this month, and I'd picked up this SWEET DP at my fav LSS. I'd stopped by after dropping my youngest off at school for their Saturday make-'n-take, then spotted this line - it's Laundry Line from the kind folkes at My Mind's Eye - and had to turn back! Boy, they do nice stuff, don't they?! The kind folkes at Capture-a-Memory have some revolving racks near the entrance with lots of My Mind's Eye paper lines, complete w complementing chipboard, acrylic, crocheted items, etc. I limited myself to 1 each of 3 sheets of DP and got chipboard border pieces, and crocheted flowers.

Here's the original sketch which you can click on to go to the original post at CPS.








The inside of the card reads "loving life with you by my side" ... awwww, sweet, eh?! I'd held off picking up this stamp set 'til now, telling myself that I HAVE ali's font on my PC - it's one I use most often on my cards so I DON'T need this set ... but it called to me again today and I had a 25% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket so the rest, as they say, is history!

stamps: Technique Tuesday's Loving Words by Ali Edwards; paper: My Mind's Eye's Laundry Line, SU's Whisper White cardstock; ink: SU's So Saffron, StazOn's Timber Brown; accessories: My Mind'e Eye's Laundry Line chipboard; tools: Nestabilities' standard/petite circles

Mama's got a brand new toy!

I've been meaning to pick up oval Nesties next (have classic rectangles but hadn't picked up other sets to date) and today happened upon a t'riffic sale at my LSS, Capture-a-Memory ... how's buy 1, get 1 free sound?! It works out to about $10/set rather than the usual $24.99 price! These babies got used in today's card. Pardon the pic - I lay them down on my kitchen floor and snapped a quick pic for show-'n-tell.

Now, on to fixin' supper! See ya tomorrow! Today was our QK club meeting and I'll have more show-'n-tell.

Shout Out To SheetLoad

The first of the month usually finds me doing some repetitive tasks ... I do my bank reconciliation (LOVE online banking, don't you?!) as soon as possible and then I check out some scrappin' online mags. Sheetload of Cards is one of these, as they provide a sketch and samples in each month's publication ... and it's all about the sketches, right?!

This month's Sheetload of Cards is now available and they're offering blog candy again! This month some lucky stamper is going to win a $15 gift certificate to the Shortcuts Online Store. Interested? See the April '09 issue at this post, and enjoy!

the SU mini catty's out

If it's April 1st that means SU's latest mini catty's now available - check it out by clicking on the picture at left! It's beginning to look a lot like Easter (and maybe I should delete the falling snow from my blog, eh?!)!

UPDATE: I removed the falling snow from my blog today, Saturday, April 4th. No sooner did I do that then I rec'd a pop-up severe weather alert notifying me that the weather service is predicting 6 more inches of snow Sunday evening! BUMMER! I'm SO ready for spring weather to stay with us!

CAM make-'n-take

Ahem ... did you notice anything different about this photo, folkes? Maybe just the fact that it's a photo and not a scan for today's post? Whoo hoo! My recent birthday seems to have coincided with the demise of my camera, so my DH replaced it today! We got a Canon subcompact - the PowerShot SD1100 IS - and while I'm on a learning curve, I've installed the software and drivers and used the accompanying software, so I'm back in business! The camera itself is smaller than my cell phone. The software doesn't accomplish everything my Toshiba's would do (it seems strange but I can't find an option to resize photos ... just crop and add text, various sharpness and brighness options, red eye, etc.) but I'm making do!

This is a make-'n-take from last Saturday at CAM. It's surreal but I've been out of commission since last Thursday about noon, was off work ill due to blood pressure issues, but appear to be on the mend now. I was feeling better Saturday and stopped by the make-'n-take after dropping my son off at school to work on a project, then picked up some paper for another project. Hope this finds you all doing well!