thinking spring

Switching gears from navy blue birthday cards to spring colors ... and aren't these just what you needed to add a spring to your step?! I'm talking about one of my fav mags, and a freebie one, to boot!

The spring edition of Scrapbook & Cards Today mag is now available. You can EITHER download the digi version by clicking on the picture at left OR view the entire mag online - thanx, S&CT!

out of this world

Today's card is a hybrid of sorts, based on PCP's sk032611 sketch challenge, pictured below. I went to town yesterday and used my gift card (thanx, Pat!) to purchase white flocking, Bo-Bunny and Reminisce card stocks, and Bo-Bunny chipboard and petals elements. Pat and I have been meeting beforehand for eats, then heading to a noon make-'n-take at CAM. Afterward I've been heading to the local mall (aka "The Valley") to walk a few laps, as I've recently signed on to the Walking Spree program. I avoided other shopping trips, tho' I've been meaning to stop by JoAnn's to see whether they have any cute bunny buttons that I could use on Easter cards ... must make a note to do that soon! We celebrated 3 birthdays this weekend with my extended family today, so my mind was set on getting the house picked up and making a card for my eldest.


Anyway, the Bo-Bunny card stock was all heavyweight, and one piece was printed tags on one side and sectioned into quarters of larger pictures on the reverse ... which perhaps you could use for 6x6" album pages ... and well, hoarder that I am, I decided I couldn't bear to cut into it. Besides, this particular tag that I used for the sentiment included a smaller monkey on its left, and I ended up using PhotoShop to erase it so that it wouldn't show if I used the larger chipboard monkey on the card. That, and I used a color picker to obtain the font color and added some personalization to the card. OK, so in a different font ... but remember, I still had to clean house!

Two things I must share that I think are strange: 1) that Bo-Bunny and Reminisce DP was used in the making of this card ... I mean, look at how similar they are?!; and 2) check out the background and the "constellations" ... well, see how the monkey constellation's face and arm appear to continue into the light blue of the border on the vertical DP strip?!

stamps: n/a; paper: Bo-Bunny Blast Off and Reminisce Space Monkeys DP; ink: PC-generated; accessories: Bo-Bunny's Blast Off layered chipboard stickers; tools: Crop-a-dile's corner chomper

lessons from the Easter Bunny

Today's make -'n- take at CAM was this cutie patootie card and basket combo led by the lovely and talented Jill, who stamped lots of the sentiment in advance and kitted our packets. We were able to use some of the extra stamped sentiments to choose which pictures from the sentiment we popped up. I dunno if you can tell from the photo, but I popped up the bunnies and the carrot. We also used flocking, which I added to the large bunny on the basket, and to the tails of all the smaller bunnies on the matching card. To finish off the basket, we added "grass" and marshmallow bunnies. YUM! Mine's gone already ... I know, how'd THAT happen?! grins ...

all supplies provided by the lovely and talented Jill ... and I fought temptation and resisted purchasing the stamp, tho' it IS STINKIN' CUTE, eh?!

orange you sweet

I work with a great group of friends. We celebrated my b'day this week at work. I arrived to find a dozen of my fav brand of golf balls and cookies at my desk, then later received additional cards, stampin' supplies, a gift card to a local stampin' shop, and was treated to lunch. It doesn't get much better than this, right?! Brings to mind the saying, "When I count my blessings, I count you twice!"

The card's based on this week's Tuesday Trigger color challenge. While perusing blogs this evening, I also came across one that challenged us to use what we have on hand and I recall that I HAD to have both these stamp sets but have rarely used them!

stamps: Oriental Trading's fruit salad, polka dot alphabet; paper: SU's Really Rust, Whisper White card stocks; ink: SU's Pumpkin Pie, studio g's lime green, and Ranger's black soot distress ink; accessories: The Twinery's Lemon Drop twine

purple goodness

We've snow on the ground but check out the spring I rec'd from my stampin' buddy Kimmi! Purple flowers on purple background with purple chalk ink and a new spring sentiment - "Spring is in the air." It CAN'T be far off now, right?! I know spring's already here but I'm talkin' spring WEATHER here, folkes!

Kimmi's a master at coloring with pencil and stubs ... sigh ... it's beautious! Thanx, Kim! Thanx also to Beth, Joyce, and Susan, who were sweet to remember my b'day w cards and golf balls and cookies! Yum AND Fun!

stamp camp fav

Yesterday evening I attended a monthly stamp camp but on an alternate date from that originally scheduled with friends. Usually at least 3 of us get together for eats after work and head to a 2nd Thursday girls night out to stamp 5 cards with the lovely and talented Angie Jarman. Well, this month that date ended up conflicting with a family celebration at the Blondin homestead, so I opted to switch. But oh my, I'd been looking forward to my original 2nd Thursday outing ... this HURT to wait so long for camp! I was apparently having stamp camp withdrawals!

I've two favs from last night's cards, and had to employ my DH as a tie-breaker to select the one to post. Well, here it is ... tho' he didn't quite understand what's up with using paper clips attaching ribbon to cards, Angie!

limited deets today ... I know we used old olive and razzleberry and methinks sahara sand. we used a technique I'd seen on blogs but not used 'til last night, where you ink up an acrylic block and used that to stamp the background block under the main flower image. and we used a couple new stamp sets from the sale-a-bration catty that I hope make it into the next full catty! it was HARD to pick just one stamp set from this offering, and I waffled between the punch bunch and the digital content CD ... STILL wondering whether I should call Angie and tell her I've switched my decision to my other choice ... so many stamps, so little time!

a CAS Damask Day

Today's card was inspired by the lovely and talented Jen Tapler of Jen Tapler Designs blog fame and her February 28th post. You would not believe how long it took me to find my Damask stamp this weekend! I went through all my stamp sets, then all my individual stamps, and finally found this among my Heidi Swapp ones ... literally, within the last 4-5 stamps I own! I'd ignored that group as I thought all I had there were some very large sentiment stamps. Well, I straightened a bit and sorted some loose stamps into holidays/seasons, so it wasn't all for naught!

stamps: Heidi Swapp's damask; paper: SU's Old Olive, Whisper White; ink: SU's Old Olive; tools: ek success' heart to heart xl punch

welcome spring!

It's Sunday, and I'd put off making my cabbage roll recipe 'til today as it takes a whopping 2 hrs to cook, and I've another 45 minutes to kill still ... enough time to upload today's card and maybe head outside for a quick walk! I'll keep this quick ... it's a balmy 42 degrees Fahrenheit now and already after 6 p.m.

Today's card is to mark the start of spring ... and is inspired by some flowering crab apple trees outside my window - both at home and work - and Tiffany of I Heart Art's Sketchy Sunday TC012 sketch challenge I spotted while blog trolling this morning. I inked up the trees and added some blossoms , sponged on some blue sky and clouds in the background, then found this cute pink, brown, and white unnamed ribbon from among my ribbon stash. The sentiment's PC-generated using pink and brown ink. Voila! A CAS card to welcome spring!

stamps: All Night Media's bare trees, Just Johanna's blossom; paper: Staples' white card stock; ink: SU's Bliss Blue and Soft Suede, Color Box's Dusty Plum; accessories: unknown ribbon

a cypher of sorts

I was slowly driving myself crazy this evening, asking my DH, while watching Stranger Than Fiction (probably the BEST ever Will Ferrell movie EVUH!), blog trolling, and checking e-mail ...

me: what's that symbol called when you pull your initials together to create the symbol?
DH: I dunno, is this a test? what's it called?
me: I dunno, and it's making me crazy!
DH: can't you just type the question in and have the search engine return results?
me: (hold on ... busy typing)
DH: any luck?
me: sigh ... no. but I'm learning lots checking out these random sites.

Suddenly it just CAME to me! A CYPHER! We had a workshop in my needlepoint guild once, and all worked on creating cyphers, led by the lovely and talented Marge O'Brian (who we drove by today on our way back to work after lunch ... but too late to recognize her and beep a hello, so hello, Marge!). Some of us started using our cyphers to sign our pieces. Anywho, mine looked a lot like this picture, but with a less fancy letter "S."

See my initials in the gate? They're SLB ... the S is to the left, the B to the right, and the L goes down the middle!

I just wanted to share this w ya'll ... and it was kinda Irish too ... it's a picture of a section of a gate at Bunratty Castle, near the city of Shannon, in Ireland, taken by the lovely and talented kirby3131.

happy St Pat's Day!

Here's a quick post to share a pic of the Chicago River gone GREEN! Those Chicagoans know how to celebrate and start early - so the pic was taken this past weekend - and shared on Facebook by the daughter of a stampin' buddy o' mine!

So, want to check your St Pat's Day and all things Irish knowledge? Try out this quiz, compliments of Comcast, that they posted today.

sketchy kinda gal

I'm a sketchy kinda gal ... love 'em to bits! Here's another of this year's St Pat's Day cards based on last week's HHSC48 Hip Hop Sketch. The kind folkes at Unity have begun posting new Unity Challenges on the Ides monthly (aka the 15th monthly), and you can find them on their own tab on the Unity Blog! Thanx to Ria of Ria's Creations for the inspiration! My background in the pic's another of those extremely glitzy 12x12" pieces that I purchased last weekend at Capture-A-Memory - purty stuff, eh?!


Another CAS design, I just stamped the Celtic design in dark green on white, matted the white card stock on dark green card stock, popped it up, and added a sentiment to finish this card. Simple but me likey!

stamps: waltzing mouse stamps' Irish Blessings; paper: SU's Garden Green, Staples' white card stocks; ink: Color Box's Deep Green chalk ink, Ranger's black soot distress ink

go green!

I'm just making a few St Pat's cards this year, and here's another CAS one, this time based on Julie's MOJO182 sketch challenge. I picked up this sparkly card stock this past weekend, but procrastinated on getting to the card-making! I must tell you, I EXCEL at procrastinating, and one of these days will look up how to join the Procrastinators Club!

BUT ... Kimmi and I DID get 90 wedding invites maybe 1/3 completed in preparation for her daughter's upcoming wedding. It surprised even us how much we accomplished this past Sunday! She treated me to some of her YUMMY pumpkin roll during a break, and I got to take the gist of the roll home afterward. Needless to say, we had dessert yesterday evening before supper! YUM!

stamps: SU's Go Green, Waltzing Mouse's Irish Blessings; paper: The Paper Co's cards 'n envelopes, SU's Garden Green; ink: Color Box's Dark Green; tools: MFT Stamps' big scallops die-namics, ek success' circle and scalloped circle punches

did someone say pi?

Today is nat'l pi day - not to be confused with January 23rd which is nat'l pie day (more info).

think Irish thoughts

Well, it's actually a pot 'o copper 'cuz I couldn't easily locate my gold ink ... but here's another one-layer St Pat's card made from a collection of St Patrick's Day sentiments for SusanR's OLW44 challenge. You're to make a one-layer card inspired by inspiration boards posted at Pinterest, a website for "pinning" photos of really cool stuff on your very own virtual inspiration board. Mine are based on a picture of a child's bedroom decorated mainly in greens with a touch of light blue-ish gray (here). I couldn't find my lime green ink pad, so this time I used a Dark Moss Color Box chalk ink - the chalk inks seem to work best when using these less expensive clear stamps.

stamps: studio g's series 26; paper: The Paper Co's cards & envelopes; ink: Color Box Dark Moss chalk ink and Copper & Silver pigment inks

an Irish blessing

I'm making a few quick St Pat's cards to mail out tomorrow and here's a one-layer card using lime green and gray for Susan R's OLW44 challenge. You're to make a one-layer card inspired by inspiration boards posted at Pinterest, a website for "pinning" photos of really cool stuff on your very own virtual inspiration board. Mine are based on a picture of a child's bedroom decorated mainly in greens with a touch of light blue-ish gray (here). I watercolored using a very light touch to keep it all very muted

This was my very first stamp set purchased from Claire of waltzing mouse stamps and she's got plenty more where this one came from that I'd love to pick up! I mixed and matched 'cuz the inside sentiment's from Our Daily Bread and Stampin' Up!

edited to add: sigh ... watercoloring on inexpensive card stock didn't pan out ... I redid the card on better card stock weight so uploaded a revised card

stamps: ODB's Blessings, SU's Go Green, and waltzing mouse stamps' Irish Blessings; paper: The Paper Co's cards; ink: asst'd Color Box chalk inks

and the winner is ...

I used random.org to select the winner of the My Favorite Things $10 gift voucher, and it's grandmalee, who commented...

"This is soooo gorgeous! I love the soft colors with that lace! I love the other cards, too! Thanks for supporting OWH!"

grandmalee, I've just ordered the voucher and when MFT Stamps and they note that to prevent fraud, each Gift Voucher purchased must be validated by the store owner. As this is a manual job, this may take up to a day. Check your e-mail as I've just contacted you for additional info required by MFT Stamps in order to send you the voucher!

And, congrats!

p.s. stay tuned ... my blogoversary is fast approaching and that calls for ... blog candy, right?!

from the heart

Sadly, two of my closest friends have lost members of their families this month. I'm off to the funeral home again tomorrow, and made this card last night for the family.

I must be in crumb cake mode, as I can't seem to get enough of it lately. Today's card is one of my favorite silhouette stamps from Unity. I colored the stamp directly using water-based markers, spritzed the stamp w water, and stamped the ivory card stock, then double matted it. The flowers are made w a base coat of the lightest color, then thumped with the medium color, and I added touches of the darkest color to their edges. Stems are Old Olive, sentiment's Crumb Cake. The stamped image is double matted and popped up.

Speaking of sentiments, don't you just love that font?! I do, and decided it was one I needed to add to my collection. Should that happen to you, you can upload an image to the kind folkes at MyFonts at their What The Font page and it will return suggestions of matching fonts. If their software can't match the font, you can test their specialists to see if they can figure out what font you've uploaded. Or stroll through the "solved" cases to find some cool fonts. I clip a photo of the font I want to match, upload it, then use google to find the font + "free." Easy peasy. This one turned out to be the Zapfino font, and alas, wasn't available for free ... at least from what I could find today!

stamps: SU's Holidays & Wishes, Unity's Feel the Joy; paper: A1's Neenah Natural White, SU's Crumb Cake and Old Olive card stocks; inks: CTMH's Cranberry, SU's Crumb Cake, Dusty Durango, Old Olive, and Ruby Red markers; accessories: SU's Very Vanilla seam binding ribbon

Blessed

If you're looking for the OWH bunny hop, please scoll down a post!

Otherwise, here's what probably will turn out to be an Easter card ... I'm not 100% sure yet, so left the inside blank for the time being. While checking the bunny hop posts this morning, I noticed that Christine of Christine's Crafting Capers posted three color challenges, so I'm posting this in response to challenge #2 - to use cream, red, lime green (I don't have any so substituted Old Olive), and brown. Kiwi Kiss may have been closer to lime green but I couldn't find my marker ... sigh ... Oh, I roughed up the edges of and popped up the cream panel.

Have you tried SU's seam binding ribbon yet?! It's soft and silky, and I was lucky enough to get into a ribbon share recently so I scored some in each of the colors listed on p16 of the latest Occasions Mini Catalog (Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, and Rose Red - thanx, Carol!). I'm lovin' the Cherry Cobbler color but had been putting off purchasing supplies in it 'til the Sale-A-Bration and now have to hurry before it's passed me by (I'll be calling, Angie!)! Anywho, it's very close to CTMH's Cranberry, which I used for the red parts of the flowers. So tell me, should I add more flowers or leave well enough alone?!

stamps: Hero Arts' Wreath of Leaves, Just Johanna's unnamed open flower, Studio G's Series 46 sentiment and silhouette mini flower; paper: A1's Neenah Natural White and SU's Crumb Cake card stocks; ink: CTMH's Cranberry, SU's Crumb Cake and Old Olive; accessories: SU's Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon; tools: Tim Holtz distresser

a beautiful day for blog candy

Spring's on its way, and we're celebrating with an OWH BUNNY HOP! My card's a mono- chromatic one using some recently purchased supplies (noted below).

If you've arrived here from Veronica of Circle B Enterprises blog fame, you're at the right spot! If not, why not join us from the beginning of the hop?! The kind folkes at Operation Write Home provide cards for those in our armed services to use to stay in contact with friends and family back home. If you enjoy making cards, chances are you occasionally have an overflow of stash ... well, here's where mine goes! I've a package to send shortly, as a matter of fact. As of 2/28/11, they've sent 855,632 cards!


If you'd like to make cards for deployed heroes to use to write home, please note the following deadlines:

• Easter cards deadline (March 18th) and
• Mother's Day cards deadline (March 31st)

Following these guidelines will enable the OWH folkes to get the specific holiday cards into the service person's hands in time for THEM to send them to someone stateside!

Still with me? After all, I mentioned it's a beautiful day for blog candy, right?! Well, leave me some feedback by Tuesday March 8th - including your e-mail - and I'll choose one lucky person at random to receive a $10 gift voucher to My Favorite Things store! I'll contact you IF you leave your e-mail (which I'll need to forward you the gift voucher as well). If I don't hear back from the winner within 24 hours, I'll select another! Good luck to all!

Now, on to the NEXT PERSON IN THE BUNNY HOP - Nichole of My Craft Room Creations ...

The card's deets ...
stamps: Delta's Girls Play, MFT's Die-namics Framed Greetings; paper: A1 Neenah Classic Natural White, SU's Crumb Cake card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, SU's Crumb Cake; accessories: Graphic 45 Trim No3 lace; tools: MFT's Die-namics Framed Greetings die w Cuttlebug

March 5th OWH Bunny Hop

Mark your calendar for 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST) to hop along and be inspired tomorrow ... as well as enter for drawings and pick up some freebies along the way. Visit a dozen blogs or all of them ... you'll be inspired either way!

I'm planning on having blog candy and many will do the same or offer tutorials ... or ... who knows?! Join us, won't you?!

air show disaster

Amazing photos show great detail. The pilot at low level had no control over his aircraft. It narrowly misses a crowd gathered for the air show and slams into four buildings. One can only imagine the horror of the occupants inside those buildings.




probably scared the *@%# outta the occupants, eh?!