did you know? ...

A couple of my coworkers and I always remind each other of the significance of these "special" days - it's just a matter of who thinks to e-mail the others first - so I HAD to post a timed entry in honor of today, don't you know?!

it's 1:11 p.m. on 1/11/11

Pantone unveils Color of the Year for 2011

I'm on a quest these past few days, making Valentine's Day cards in advance of when I actually need them ... I know, what a concept, eh?! My brother still teases me about the time he announced a girlfriend had pulled into our driveway, and rather than head to the door, I sprinted to the bedroom to wrap her Christmas present! Hey, why rush things, I figured ...

I made today's card last night just before heading to bed, from a kit I'd won as blog candy from a Paper Crafts mag blog post last year. I hadn't pulled it together as I had no need for it yet (you see, things haven't changed much here ...).

I just realized today that, as I'd been missing the green DP heart they used in the kit, that I'd printed off LAST year's tribute to Pantone's 2010 color of the year - some turquoise digi-DP I'd ordered from Jessica Sprague's One Buck Wednesday offerings - the DP's Orchard & Broome's West 4th collection in cool tones (7 coordinating DPs in 12x12" jpg format). It may be a little hard to tell from the small picture, but the blues in the heart reflect the blue stripes in the brown ribbon ... and the brownish-gray in the heart's DP seems happy paired w the ribbon as well. So, isn't today's card timely?!

As we celebrate a new year, Pantone (the industry standard for all things color), has named honeysuckle as its new color of the year - a beautiful reddish-pink that they describe as courageous, confident, and vital. Look for it to pick up steam in the fashion and crafting worlds. I don't lean towards bright colors often but this looks like a great color to pair with black and white, kraft, or browns, just to name a few color combos. Doesn't viewing it automatically make you think that spring can't be far off?!

stamps: n/a (PC-generated sentiment); paper: BoBunny's Blush Dot, My Mind's Eye Happy Days, Orchard & Broome's West 4th collection, unknown white card stock; ink: n/a (pre-printed sentiment); accessories: American Crafts' Stitch ribbon; tools: Marvy Uchida corner rounder

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

all u need is L-O-V-E

Today's make-'n-take card from Capture-a-Memory is my 2nd post of the day - a mix of DPs all cut into twinchies and rounded with an item long ago added to my wish list - the corner chopper. I chose to pop the DP pieces up, and used the Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper by We R Memory Keepers to cut some thin cardboard to back it, rather than use pop dots. It cut thru like buttuh! Yes, I MUST get myself one of these! Thanx, Jill, for sharing your cool tool! And for helping me get another Valentine's Day card ready!

no deets today - I didn't check out the DP maker as I had my youngest son waiting on me in the car, hot to trot off to Best Buy to spend some Christmas cash that was burning a hole in his pocket. I dunno what they cut the letters from either. SUCH a slacker am I! We made a cute rouned box from a die and repeated stamping that's not pictured here.

repost to the king

Bobby Fischer won the US Chess Championship on this day in 1958


and the king of rock 'n roll was born on this day in 1935.


Now, I dunno about you, but I immediately thought to myself, "hey, I have a card to celebrate that!" I know, it's a sickness ... {grin}! So ... it's a repost, but you know I HAD to do it!

College Town Holiday Food Drive

Woot woot (see Sue grin. see Sue doing the arm pump action)!

Congrats to all who helped return the coveted College Town Holiday Food Drive trophy to Kettering! Kettering donations topped 40,000 pounds for December's Food Bank of Eastern Michigan food drive.

The four schools collected a total of 107,016 pounds of food to feed the hungry in the region! And what was the final tally, you ask?

• Baker College - 28,505 pounds
• Kettering - 40,691
• Mott - 12,400
• U of M - 25,420
  

and the award goes to ...

I'm an award show junkie, so you know where I'll be tomorrow night. Yep! Sitting right here in my living room watching the People's Choice Awards (at 9 p.m. on CBS)! If truth be told, I'll be checking the scene out on the red carpet beforehand too. All the while munching on pizza and amaretto coffee, 'cuz Wednesdays are pizza night at the Blondin household.

Yep, I'm in the zone, folkes! Don't bother calling here after 9 p.m. 'cuz I won't even bother answering the phone!

an inspired valentine

Inspired by Susan Raihala of Simplicity blog fame (see this and that post), here's another Valentine's Day card in one of my favorite color combos - black and white with a splash of color - and that of my most frequently used splash of color, a bright red.

It was intended as a smaller (4-1/2") square card, but I found a couple red and white scraps when I went to my card stock stash that weren't much smaller, so it ended up as a 4-1/8 x 3-3/4" card. I stamped two envelopes, then cut one envelope out and popped it up over the other. I matted the envelope and sentiment on black card stock, and popped up that matted envelope and sentiment section onto a red base. I have some pop dots that are only 1/16" thick so this will still fit in the mail easily.

I find these Forever in Time 1/16" thick pop-dots at local dollar stores; they're 1/4" wide and are my preferred pop dots now. It's probably my most frugal scrap-related purchase, as I even save and cut apart the backing to use as pop dots as well!

stamps: Hero Arts' Just A Note, Unity Stamps' Love Grows, and SU's Holidays & Wishes (inside sentiment); paper: Color Mates' Light Berry Red, Paper Reflections' black, and SU's Whisper White card stocks; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, SU's Real Red; accessories: Cloud9 Design's heart rain dots self-adhesive accents

a CASE study

My first card of the new year is a case study of sorts! I'm forever inspired by Susan Raihala of Simplicity blog fame, and today's is CASE'd from this post. I'd been planning on inking up the Basic Grey "just because ..." stamp for a Valentine's Day card using a punched heart, but found these cute heart rain dots when I went to my punch stash. Using one for the dot on the J and popping up the notebook page adds a bit of dimension to today's CAS card. Thanx for stopping by! And thanx, SusanR, for the inspiration!

stamps: one of Basic Grey's unnamed value minis, Hero Arts' Just a Note, SU's Holidays & Wishes (inside sentiment); paper: SU's Bashful Blue, Whisper White; ink: PTI's Aqua Mist, Ranger's black soot distress ink, Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: Cloud9 Design's heart rain dots self-adhesive accents (65 assorted sizes to the pkg); tools: McGill 1/8" circle hand-held punch

New Year's day mail

I'm back with a 2nd post today, but still with no card of my own making! In my mailbox this a.m. - as neither my DH nor I thought to check it yesterday - were a couple of card-related items. I've gotta say, I love Reenee & Nicki of Clear and Simple Stamps. Not only do I LOVE their stamps, but they've such a nice business plan. Last year was my first time ordering a couple of their stamp sets, and at year's end I rec'd a beautiful "thank you for your business" stamp set in a card. This year, even though I didn't make any purchases, they still sent me the beautiful card pictured at left with the sentiment stamp used in the card. The sets they send as thank you gifts are custom and not available on their site.

The red rhinestones bling was included in a Hero Arts order that I ordered online that was fulfilled by the Simon Says Stamp company. They also included a $5 off coupon ... which I'll have to hold aside for later! I'd ordered a couple stamps from Christmas cash from my DH - the swirly Magical Background and Wreath of Leaves stamps (Tami won't be surprised - I've been gazing at a Christmas card they had in their office every time I stopped by these last few weeks, commenting that it reminded me of this stamp) and will have to get busy stamping now! Catch ya later!

check sidebar for blog candy

Just a quick note to remind you to check the sidebar for blog candy offerings ... I've added a couple more in the last week (and I hope to be back with a card a bit later)!

happy new year, folkes!

'nuff said, and inspired by the lovely and talented Kim Hughes ... it's just a picture now, but I'll have to mat it and send out a couple cards.

we're bringing in the new year in a calm manner - I sent out jacquie lawson e-cards earlier this evening, we touched base w family by 9:00 p.m., then settled in to watch a movie we'd rented (Salt w Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbaychski, and Andre Braugher) and switched to viewing the countdown moments before the ball took its plunge!