tonight's the night

parachutist's bad day

you know you're having a bad day when ...

SU Color Lab

Check out My Create Ink's SU Color Lab link listed at the Sites I Visit on the bottom right side of my blog. It's similar to the Scrapitude Color Combo site of days gone by. You can select colors, right-click to lock them, then have the "picker" select others. I plan to use it to play with color challenges.

More info, snipped from their site:
This site enables you to cross-match colors from various companies.

To get started, select your 'From' and 'To' choices at the upper left of the screen.

The lower left will present you with options for selecting specific color groups.*

*For Copic, you can optionally choose specific sets to match from/to..

Once you have made your selections, click 'Match Colors'

The matches with the highest rating will be displayed with the search results.
Δ means the match listed is based on color quantization (mathematics).
♥ means the match listed was recommended by a user.

You can suggest and vote on additional matches under the 'Advanced' links.


Thank you to all the people who have donated.
Your support keeps the ColorLab up and running.

If you would like to make a donation to help support and expand the ColorLab, just click the link to the right. Your donations are greatly appreciated.

We wish everyone a happy new year and hope you enjoy this new utility!

SC320 let's chat

To say that my sister inspires me is an under-statement, in more ways than one. She commented on one of her friends' Facebook pages the other day about a video the friend had uploaded - a humorous one about avoiding people you no longer wish to chat with ... so I posted a comment on my sister's page noting how that it made me think about when was the last time we'd chatted ... which in turn inspired today's card.

I printed and cut the various DPs last night but assembled the card this morning, as we're all home due to President's Day weekend for my eldest and snow days for my youngest and me. I downloaded all the DPs from Jessica Sprague's online shop just last week. I love gray and yellow color combos. I also love sketch challenges. This one's from SCS' latest, SC320.

stamps: PTI's On My Couch and On My Couch additions; paper: Carina Gardner's daisy jane digi DP collection; ink: Color Box's Antique Pewter and Charcoal; tools: Fiskar's threading water border punch

welcome baby, hybrid-style

I love the digi images from Pink Petticoat! When I spotted their recently introduced baby boy version to match last summer's baby girl buggy, I was right there, figuring it was only a matter of time before someone needed a baby boy card! LOVE their stuff! And ... I've gotta admit, I felt the need to break away from Valentine's cards! It felt good to make a non-V-Day card today!

I paper-pieced the baby buggy using some beautiful Crystal Wilkerson (of Creativity by Crystal) digi-DP from the August 2009 Collection at Jessica Sprague's online shop. I printed some 4x6" and wallet-size pictures of the DP, so it'd have a smaller pattern on the buggy than what was used for the background piece. And the best part of going the digi-BK route?! How about eight (count 'em ... 8!) different patterns in nine (yep, 9!) different colors, all for $1 ... and I can use and reuse 'em any time I like!

The baby's watercolored. I was going to curve the vellum sentiment to pop it up a bit, but I'm not sure whether the receiver of this card (Hi Susan!) will be mailing or handing the card to the future Mom at a baby shower ... so I tucked that under the scallops of the background. Each layer's popped up using dimensionals and I've had really good luck using Tombow's Mono Vellum adhesive to attach vellum paper and card stock to cards. Nichole's Make-It-Monday #2 challenge was to use a vellum strip for your sentiment; I didn't use any PTI product for today's card but that inspired the vellum portion! And the scallops? Check out this week's SCS CAS106 challenge!

edited to add: woot! woot! this card was posted as a hybrid gallery standout on mesoscrappy's blog!

stamps: Pink Petticoat Baby Boy Buggy; paper: Creativity by Crystal's Fresh Florals DP, Staples' white and SU's Sahara Sand card stocks, The Paper Co's vellum card stock; ink: PC-generated sentiments, Tri-C watercolor markers; accessories: Pink Hedgehog's sky blue brads (w inside sentiment); tools: my latest and greatest Spellbinders Nestabilities Big Scalloped Rectangles LG (they were on sale this week at my local Hobby Lobby - 40% off! - and I controlled myself and only purchased this one set!)

got pets?

... the things I would miss out on if it weren't for my younger brother ... sigh ... and I'll be back with a card to post later (grins)!

SUCH a grin ...

... 'nuff said (thanx for the grins, Allison; I HAD to share!)

Happy Valentine's Day

Saturday's make -'n- take project at CAM were these cutie tubes that we filled w candy which I'm planning on giving my sons on Valentine's Day morning. I have two sons, so my stampin' buddy Pat was kind enough to make one and I made the other. Thanx, Jill, for the cute project!

simply sublime

Today's is a birthday card using a cute sub stamp that I picked up recently from the kind folkes at AMuseArtstamps and a Paula Best sun stamp that I'm not sure where I found. One of my favorite shows is Sunday Morning on CBS, and I'm often blown away by the collection of suns they highlight between station breaks. This stamp immediately made me think of my show.

The sub made me think of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine song; it begged to be yellow. I stamped it a few times - once on the card base, again on bright yellow, and a third time on white card stock. I had to color in the propellers silver and made what I think is supposed to look like a window white.

I made the waves using a couple colors - aqua mist and turquoise - using a sponge and a scallop guide I'd punched from a piece of plastic, then kept moving the scallop guide up the card and repeating the sponging. It creates cool waves, don't you think? I think I first spotted this technique on Hero Arts' blog.

stamps: AMuseArtstamps' Simply Sublime, Submarine, Paula Best's a sunshine face, Gina K's Many happy re-turns (inside sentiment); paper: The Paper Co's white card/envelope pack, Staples' white card stock, SU's (so appropriately named) Summer Sun; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, PAPERTREYink's aqua mist, SU's Cameo Coral, Pretty in Pink, Summer Sun, Turquoise

blog candy enabler post

If you want to learn to watercolor with distress inks, then this is the CANDY for you! Angie's offering 1 free membership to her Distress Inks Class 1 on CMC Classroom. If I don't win, I think one of my readers should!

happy White Shirt Friday

It's White Shirt Day, probably most well-known in Flint MI as it commemorates those who participated in the sit-down strike of 1936-37 when GM workers sat down on the job. The strike began on Dec 30 1936 at the Fisher 2 plant when about 50 men sat down to protest the transfer of 3 inspectors who refused to quit the union. GM workers demanded better working conditions and pay, and eventually won UAW recognition from General Motors as its sole bargaining agent.

thar be blog candy

ENABLER ALERT: Jacque of Jacque's Joie de Vivre blog fame is participating in a Whimsy Stamps blog hop, and you know what THAT means! Jacque almost always offers blog candy during her hops! So hop on over by 2/13 midnight EST! Clicking on the photo will take you there, and I'll leave the blog candy notice on my sidebar 'til Sunday as well! If I don't win, I hope one of my readers does!