happy Memorial Day

Hope everyone's having a nice relaxing time with family and friends. On this Memorial Day we stayed home and enjoyed a cookout (can I still call it that even tho' we moved the grill into the garage to cook 'cuz the weather was threatening rain?) with local family, bowled on the wii, and had a t'riffic dessert sampler (5 desserts in all - tiramisu, cheesecake, cut fruit, cupcakes, and bumpy tea cake - it's my fav, by Sanders, a Detroit MI company).

I'm packaging up a box of cards to send to our heroes in the military through Operation Write Home in honor of the holiday, and thought you may want to join me! What better way to celebrate Memorial Day, eh?! OWH can use a variety of themed cards so I think it's good to occasionally weed thru the cards in our stashes and think of our heroes. If you've been making more cards than you can use lately, please think of them, won't you?! They've some restrictions - #1 - no glitter - so check their site for more info, please!

thinking of you

When not making cards for anything specific in the near future, I sometimes make cards for various occasions to keep on hand. I seem to be in a "green" mood lately ... maybe belatedly because of Earth Day!? This DP is from a 12x12 sheet that is destined for a child's birthday card, and I thought I'd cut a section away to use in a card for embellish magazine's butterflies and black, green and kraft color challenge. Today's card is a two-fer as it's also for the FTL91 sketch challenge. The frond is another of my quarter stamp sets from Mega Meet. This set included an outline and solid image. I stamped the outline a few times in green on the green DP, then stamped the solid image in green, and outlined that in black. I'd never used ruffled ribbon in a card before, and it was a fun technique. I fudged a bit as I didn't locate the video tutorial on the technique until after I'd finished the card. The video's here - compliments of Ashley Cannon Newell. Sometimes I have an alternative motive for posting links ... it's often so that I can easily find things later, LOL!

stamps: Scrappy Cat's Botanicals, SU's Essence of Love; paper: Three Bugs in a Rug's stacked animals DP, Creative Memories' black, The Paper Co's Kraft card stocks; ink: Color Box's Frost White pigment ink, Ranger's black soot distress ink, SU's Gable Green; accessories: unknown green ruffled ribbon (yeah, it was even ruffled before I ruffled it!)

warm wishes, mr & mrs

This anniversary card was inspired by the cute "get well soon" robot card in SU's current catty on page 82 and Picture Perfect Creations' PPC13 color challenge - to use basic black, basic gray, green galore, and whisper white on a card. I'd just been telling my stampin' buddy Kimmi about this cute stamp set, Together Forever, as her daughter recently became engaged. I love this dark gray card stock, and the black, white, and a splash of color combination, so this color challenge was right up my alley ... and I hadn't realized 'til now just how close this green was to my blog's background color!

stamps: SU's Full of Life, Hugs & Wishes, Simply Said, and Together Forever; paper: SU's Basic Gray, Green Galore, Whisper White card stocks; ink: Color Box's Silver, Ranger's Black Soot distress ink; accessories: pretty satin ribbon from an unknown ribbon share

get well soon, Maria 'n Rick

My next-door neighbors are in recovery mode. First he had elected surgery, from which he's recovering nicely. Then last weekend she fell while visiting her daughter and broke her wrist, requiring an overnight stay in the hospital followed by additional recovery time at her daughter's home. And he wasn't able to travel, so wasn't able to go to her right away either! So, this card's for my next-door neighbors - BOTH of 'em!

Based on Karen's SSSC69 sketch challenge, this card's utilizing some of my latest toys - the felt flower and BasicGrey DP - that I purchased recently at Mega Meet.

stamps: Lizzie Anne's Get Well Soon, SU's Polka Dot BK; paper: BasicGrey's Green at Heart DP, Neenah Classic's Natural White, and The Paper Co's Kraft card stocks; ink: Ranger's Black Soot distress ink, SU's River Rock; accessories: Queen & Co's daisy felt flower, asst'd Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts' brads; tools: i-top brad maker w medium size brad, SU's trio flower and scallop circle punches

my class fav

Monday after work I got together with friends to attend a make-up stamp camp with Angie, as two of our crew weren't able to make our usual 2nd Thursday outing. Here's my fav card this month, using a punch that I'll have to order. I'm lovin' this bird and frond punch, and have tried talking myself into not needing any more bird stamps 'cuz I have a smaller one already ... but this is just so cool, don't you agree?! Methinks I must succumb to its charms!

all supplies SU
stamps: Inspired by Nature; paper: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White card stocks; ink: Old Olive; accessories: Chocolate Chip satin ribbon; tools: horizontal slot, word window punches

hello kitty

One of my nieces is a Hello Kitty fan, and her birthday's next week! Isn't the DP pretty? It very nicely picks up the green, pink, and orange from the Hello Kitty image's sleeve and bow, and is from a 6x6" BasicGrey green at heart paper pad that I got at last week's Mega Meet. I got this and kioshi, and a pack of Bazzill card stock that's intended to match the green at heart DP. And the touch of purple is just 'cuz it's my favorite color! I love that the kind folkes at embellish-it hand pick card stock to match the DP pads, and sell 'em in packages. The black, kraft, orange, and pink are colors from this week's Curtain Call 30 Color Challenge and included in my image and DP ... but there ARE others I also used. Hmmnn ... is it too colorful to post there? Time'll tell!

I'm now caught up on my cards for friends and family thru May, something that doesn't happen very often in this household. I have a tendency to put off 'til the last minute and then be scrambling to make cards! And next it's on to June events ... to be ready in advance for a birthday and anniversary (that I get to ink up a new-to-me stamp set I recently purchased)!

I used a couple punches to make a faux button to attach at the left side of today's card. It's just 4 layers of card stock from a circle punch that I then used a McGill hand punch to insert the double holes thru. I adhered the 4 layers together and it's about the same height as the smaller pop dots that I used to raise the Hello Kitty image from the base of the card. This is meant to be mail-able so I'm watching the bumps purposely.

stamps: Inkadinkado's Chelsea Sentiments, Picket Fence; paper: BasicGrey's green at heart DP, recycled white card stock from work; ink: Ranger's Black Soot distress ink; tools: McGill hand punch, unknown circle punch

on a wing and a prayer

A buddy of mine is celebrating a birthday next week, and today's card is winging its way to her today! Another black and white one for today; it's one of my fav color combinations when used with a splash of another color. This one uses a cool butterfly stamp (Joann of Karen's Creative Stamping provided that, and I've already forgotten whose stamp it was ... methinks inkadinkadoo or stampendous ... we'll see, if someone corrects me! Joann, you reading this?) stamped in black, double matted, and the yellow mat color is carried thru on the ribbon bow we used. I'm bow challenged, so pulled out my handy dandy bow-easy to make that. Easy peasy!

stamps: inkadinkado's (thanx, Joann!) butterfly flourish, Scrappy Cat's birthday (inside sentiment); paper: unknown DP, black, white, yellow card stocks; ink: VersaFine onyx black; tools: Cuttlebug with birds and swirls embossing folder, bow-easy; accessories: unknown yellow ribbon

check this out!

no, seriously ... do check out the UM-Flint Student Exhibition if you're in the Flint area. It's held at the Greater Flint Arts Council and runs from tonight thru June 4, 2010. And not just 'cuz my son has a few pieces there ... but he does! The opening reception was today, and we went up to scope it out for a while. I'll edit this to add a pic of his when I get a better one. All I had with me was my cell phone and I took a bad pic using it.

bling your thing?

Is bling your thing? I picked up some bling words last Thursday, and thought I'd put them to good use and work up a card for a couple challenges at the same time. And did I pick up any bargains at Mega Meet, you ask? How about this flower stamp set - 4 stamps for a quarter? Or the set of 20 Heidi Swapp clear extras for $1.49? I used one of the 4 butterflies from that set to dot the "j" in the word "joy" for today's card.

This card is in black, white, gray and pink for The Play Date Cafe's PDCC28 color challenge, and uses Mercy's MTSC72 sketch challenge as well! I stamped the floral background using the challenge colors, double matted and popped up that center panel using pop dots, then folded the butterfly to add a bit of dimension to it, and used my bow-easy to create the mini bow as I'm definitely bow-challenged!



stamps: Scrappy Cat's In Bloom; paper: recycled white from work, SU's Basic Black and Going Gray card stocks; ink: Color Box's Gray Whale, Ranger's Black Soot distress ink, and SU's Regal Rose; accessories: Heidi Swapp's clear extras and words bling, ek success' black grosgrain ribbon; tools: bow-easy

blog candy enabler

Debbie of Passion For Crafts blog fame is offering some SWEET candy to celebrate her birthday that I thought you'd be interested in ... I know I AM! Click on picture at left or link to visit and share some love!

some heroes aren't born ...

Some heroes aren't born, they're built! But man, oh man, Robert Downey Jr was certainly born to play (to paraphrase Hollywood Life) the charming, surprisingly irreverent bad boy / genius / heir to a weapons fortune, Tony Stark. I took a vacation day today and my eldest son and I took in the opening day movie - not in IMAX but at a regular theater - and were both real happy with it. Sequels have gotta be tough on the actors. You want to keep the material fresh, but you don't have the newness of seeing the characters for the first time now. In the first movie I thought the interaction between the Tony Stark and Pepper Potts characters was a bit forced or stiff; here they're much more ... I don't know if believable would be the right term, LOL?! I liked and initially missed Terrance Howard playing the Rhodey character but Don Cheadle's great in this (methinks my fav Cheadle flick to date's been Reign Over Me ... how 'bout you?). And, it's funny; I can only imagine how rumbly noisy the IMAX version would be, 'cuz we could sure feel the sound easily in the regular version! I'd expect this to do great at the box office and think I'd give it 3.75 of 5*.

Great Lakes Mega Meet 2010

A couple stamping buddies and I took in the 11th annual Great Lakes Mega Meet in Novi MI on Thursday. We saw other scrapping buddies from work and play - those we see from local shops and/or vendor's classes. It was great ... and this'll be a quick post as I want to go play with my new toys still! We missed the crowd at opening and got to walk right up to the registration tables, and explore at our leisure thru the hall. There were 6 rows of 2-sided (for the most part) booths set up in the main hall of the Rock Financial Showplace with 80+ vendors. We walked thru 2-3 rows of vendors, then caught up to each other and broke for lunch at their concession area (mine was a yummy roll up sandwich and juice), then took in the remainder of the vendors. We didn't take classes this year (they offer over 50 classes, some at multiple dates/times thruout the weekend) and decided to give our feet a break and skip our previously planned excursion to a local IKEA afterward, and save that for another gals' day outing. I think our stop at Coldstone Creamery on our trip back home should be a regular pit stop - YUM!

We took very few pics, but I had to share a few. I'm SUCH a groupie ... we saw tim holtz of Ranger Industries and I got to watch him create a handful of tags up close and personal ... sigh ... I refer to tim as one of the rock stars of the stamping world! A fun time was had by all and we'll be back next year!

3 cheers for chairs

Chairs seem to be all the rage lately, and, personally, I'm figuring it's all about this sofa and chairs stamp set; don't you agree?! I made this card last summer but squirrel'd it away 'til my DH's b'day almost two weeks ago. I'm LOVIN' that soft yellow DP, and Old Olive's my fav SU green. What do you think? Am I saying we've "settled" into a nice, comfortable relationship?! LOL!

Have you visited Cath Edvalson's current Three Cheers for Chairs challenge yet? There's some knock-your-socks-off cards there, so if you don't already follow her blog, check it out!

stamps: PTI's On The Couch; paper: SU's Old Olive, Very Vanilla card stock, unknown Prism yellow card stock and unknown SU retired DP (picked up from a paper share); ink: SU's So Saffron, Color Box's Creamy Brown; tools: ek success' scallop diamond and Franklin Covey multi-hole punch (in place of using brads)

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

May the Fourth be With You!

Sigh ... a co-worker JUST stopped by and asked if anybody here took advantage of the unique opportunity that this Tuesday presents us with ... so this is a repost timed so that it LOOKS like I thought to post this on May 4th! I, of course, immediately told my boss that I had to run home to make a card, LOL!

OK, so it's NOT Star Wars ... but doesn't this DP remind you of space exploration? I used a little rocket and woman 'cuz originally it was originally made as a card in honor of Sally Ride's birthday!

FTL88 birthday wishes two-fer

A prior coworker's b'day is approaching and I've been picking up sock monkey-related items now and then, putting them aside, as they made me think of her. Well, her b'day's approaching, so I thought I'd whip up a quick hybrid b'day card to deliver to her house with the stash. This SHOULD have a sock monkey included in it, but such is life! I rec'd this stinkin' cute tulip pic in an e-mail this past week and used the color picker in Photoshop to make both the green card stocks. The FTL88 sketch layout called for ribbon across the card, but I didn't have any on hand that matched the card stock so a bit of white border punch did the trick! The greens and whites in Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger post inspired this green card.


stamps: MSE's Hand Written; paper: recycled handout card stock from work; ink: PC-generated card stocks and Ranger's Black Soot distress ink; tools: ek's dotted scallop border punch

happy nat'l scrapbooking day

My fav project from today's make -'n- take, this uses one of Karen's own stamp of the month offerings from last month. I picked it up a couple weeks ago, thinking it'd be cute for belated b'day cards, kid's cards, etc. Today's stamped turtle is popped up - I popped up both the face and neck, and then the face again, using pop dots. We colored the image using watercolor pencils, stubs, and mineral spirits - a fav technique of my stampin' buddy Kim's.

sorry - no deets today!

check out the STINKIN' CUTE tee a friend was wearing today - I'm lovin' it! My DH has a love/hate relationship with our local squirrels and I'd love to find one of these to give him!