Random on Purpose

Catching Up (at least a little...)

Busy week (as always!), and another one brewin'...  First a little tidbit, then some other stuff:  Yesterday Sherry and I went downtown to the Oncenter, where they were holding the Scrapbooking and Rubber Stamping Expo, and wandered around learning new things, buying new things, and enjoying ourselves (until Sherry hit her pain threshhold, at which point we departed).  I've already used a few of the things I bought, and I'll be sharing more of them as the days go by...

Sherry bought me an early birthday present (as in a month early), but I've used it already,thank you very much!  It's a stamp that you use to make these folios:

 

Pretty, huh?  You stamp the stamp in a square like this:

 

then cut the whole thing out, score across the straight lines, and fold it up - done!  I embossed mine on Close to My Heart Spring Iris cardstock with detail white embossing powder.  I tried a couple of variations adding color, but liked it best just like this.  The company that makes the stamps is called Too Much Fun Rubber Stamps, and they have quite a few different ones to choose.  They also have mini-folio stamps, and stamps that fold into suitcases, shirts, and purses.  I wasn't all that impressed with the finished samples they displayed, but the stamps themselves are pretty cool. 

My favorite booth in the whole expo was the Stamp Camp one.  FABULOUS background stamps, beautiful samples on display, and very friendly, knowledgeable, and generous owner/rep/whoever!  She goes around the country doing shows and teaching classes.  Sherry and I are going to talk to a couple of local stores and see if we can get somebody to sponsor a class.  We learned SO MUCH just by talking to their rep at the show!  (I wish I'd remembered to ask her name...)  I got three background stamps, and have inked up all three, but so far I've only made one card with the stamped background:

 

Yep - that red gingham is STAMPED!  Do you love it or what?!  I'm in total homespun heaven right now!  The card is a CASE of THIS ONE from Rox's gallery on Splitcoast Stampers (you guessed it - she's today's featured stamper!)  I added a layer, used a stamped background instead of a solid, altered the colors and theme, and switched places for the sentiment and the flower.

I did another challenge today, too.  Yesterday's inspiration challenge was to be inspired by a book cover, and there was a link for a book cover archive, where I discovered this cover:

   

I love the title of the book, and - although I think the teeth are a tad gruesome - I think the art is kinda cool, so it inspired me to make this card:

 

Yeah - no teeth - and I added some speckles just 'cuz!  I thought that the concept of a smile in someone's hand needed this sentiment (which I handily already owned), so there you have it!  The hand was traced from a stencil, then altered slightly to make me happier with it, and the smile was just cut freehand.  Super simple, but fun, anyway!

TypePad is currently not allowing me to post supplies like I usually do, so I'll just have to figure out what's up and get back to ya on that...  Right now I'll just say that the sentiment on the cased card is from CTMH Free Spirit, and the one on the smile card is from Heidi Grace Quotes.

Okay, I have a project that I have to leave my house E-A-R-L-Y for in the morning, and I have some prep work to do for it, so I'm out for now!  Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

Sweet One

Today's "ways to use it" challenge on Splitcoast was buttons, so I did a quick little baby card:

Lots of Stampin'Up! stuff on this card: So Many Scallops stamp set, Lavendar Lace cardstock and ink, Top Note die and scallop circle punch.  I trimmed away the outer rim of the white embossed Top Note to layer it over the lavendar one.  The yellow is Sunkiss Yellow from Close to My Heart.  The little pink button is from Treasured Memories, and I just drew a little curl with a Bic marker.  A touch of ribbon and a tiny bow - done!

The usual refrain now - off to work!  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Wishing You Sunshine

Good Morning!  The sunshine's a little hazy today, but at least we have it!  I hope you had a restful three-day weekend and all...  Mine was alternately hectic and laid-back, and now it's back to 'business as usual'.

I was up most of the night cleaning my workroom (not what I had in mind - I went to bed at a decent hour, but couldn't stay asleep), so I'm a little punchy, but I really, really like the color challenge on Splitcoast today, so I made a card:

 

The colors today are Bashful Blue, So Saffron, and Pumpkin Pie - yummy!  This card is also a CASE of one of Mercy Kerin's amazing cards, since she was the featured stamper on Sunday.  I chose this card to CASE.  The changes I made were to offset the panels a bit, stamp the sentiment on the base panel instead of a separate piece, eliminate the piercing, and mat the blue panel with black instead of white.  I thought it was kind of cool that the card I wanted to CASE had sort of the same colors going on as today's challenge!

Okay, that's my start to the day/week - off to a design appointment now!  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Summer by the Sea, Close to My Heart Free Spirit and Festive Thoughts; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin'Up! Bashful Blue, Blush Blossom, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron; Paper: Stampin'Up! Pumpkin Pie, Summer Picnic dsp, Paperbilities black, Strathmore watercolor; Accessories: Cuttlebug w/swiss dot embossing folder, dewdrops

Afternoon Tea instead of Barbecue on Memorial Day?!

Nah - that's just the name of the designer papers I used for today's Technique Challenge over on Splitcoast!  The challenge was to make a "hinged card", and here's mine:

 

The "hinge" is the brad around the ribbon stuck through all the layers of the card so it opens like this:

 

Pretty clever, huh?  If you'd like to make one, there's a video tutorial HERE, and a picture tutorial HERE.  Easy, fast and fun - what more could you want?

Off to the grocery store for some dinner fixin's - have a great day, and take a moment to remember those who've given so much to keep us safe and free!  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Best Yet; Ink: Stampin'Up! Chocolate Chip, Close to My Heart White Daisy pigment ink; Paper: Stampin'Up! Afternoon Tea designer series papers and Groovy Guava cardstock, DCWV brown textured cardstock; Accessories: Ribbon, bling brad, Fiskars apron lace border punch, Marvy scalloped square punch, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Cuttlebug w/floral fantasy embossing folder 

Little Oddities

Whew, what a week!  Busy, busy, busy, and then crash-and-burn!  Anyway, I played along with the inspiration challenge yesterday (and again today), so I thought I'd share, since I've been MIA all week!  The webstore we were perusing for inspiration was Little Odd Forest, which is full of fun and funky schtuff!  I chose this handbag for my "real" card:

   

I stamped and embossed a bunch of smallish stamps in a bunch of colors, then went over the whole thing with Really Rust to make the patterned paper for the pocket.  I took a few liberties - adding stitching, ribbon, etc., but I don't think I strayed too far from the inspiration piece...

Earlier I had done a "foolin' around" card because I thought these bibs were just too funky and fun to ignore:

  

Inside says "Thanks for dinner - it was delish!"  The little "cheeky monsters" were made with a key tag punch, an oval punch, and a couple of markers.   I also used the key tag punch to make the sentiment panel - I just stuck one end back in the punch to lop off some of the excess.  I wanted larger embossed dots than the swiss dot Cuttlebug folder, so I used the mat you're supposed to use to position small brads, etc., from Stampin'Up!'s mat pack and an Empressor tool to emboss these dots.

I am still tweaking my paper storage system , and thought I'd share the latest brainstorm.  I wanted to keep the scraps with the larger sheets, but they all fall to the bottom of the folder, and then the folders take up too much space and get all sloppy and I get all annoyed and cranky, and so I did this:

 

I trimmed a sheet protector as shown above - lopped off the three-hole punched strip (but left the seam intact), cut the pocket down to 8" high, then put double-sided sticky tape across the bottom, 4 1/2" up from the bottom, and at the two top corners like this:

 

Yeah, I know - it's sideways - play along...  I stuck that to the inside front of the folder and put the strips and smaller bits in the pockets created by the tape:

 

and, if there were large scraps and/or 8" x 8" or 6" x 6" sheets, they went into the pocket itself:

 

The advantage is that this method spreads the bulk out across the entire folder instead of all at the bottom, plus the scraps are with the larger pieces so I don't have to have a separate storage solution for them - hooray!  Maybe that's helpful for you...

We've been invited to our friends' house for filet mignon (yum!), so I'm gonna go get me some!  Have a great weekend (what's left of it), and a great week coming up, and thanks so much for checkin' in with me!

Oh - quick question before I go - what's your opinion of digital stamps?  You know - you pay a small fee, download a .jpg file and manipulate it however you want...  Any thoughts pro or con on them?  Thanks and see ya later - 'bye!

Summer...?

Regardless of what the calendar folk say, it has become tradition for Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer, right?  And that's this weekend, right?  So, the color challenge for this week on Splitcoast must have had that in mind, because it's a pretty summery combo, in my opinion - Purely Pomegranate, Only Orange and Brilliant Blue.  Here's my card:

 

I decided to do a simple one-layer card this go 'round, but didn't want it to be too boring, so I added some shape and faux blanket stitching.  I scored and folded my cardstock and then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Top Note die to cut it out.  I lined the fold up just under the perforating line at the top to preserve my fold.  The faux stitching is done with a glaze pen.  Not much else to say, really, so it's back to work for me!

Oh, and I'm feeling much better now - thanks for the well-wishes and all...  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Delight in Life, Time Well Spent, and Priceless; Ink: Stampin'Up! Purely Pomegranate, Brilliant Blue, Only Orange;Paper: Georgia Pacific white; Accessories: Cuttlebug with Sizzix Top Note die, Sakura glaze pen, Offray ribbon, blender pen

Another time...

I'm supposed to be making a birthday present for Kim (one of the Fabric Mill girls), but I can't sit or stand without my headache and nausea increasing, so stories (and pictures) for another day...   Hopefully this is short-lived and I can get on with life in general soon!

Chicken Dance Update

I promised a report on how the chicken dancing went, so here it is:

The girls in the office at Decor Window Fashions (the parent company that owns the three stores I sew/upholster for) got up out of their chairs and did "The Chicken Dance" with me, their boss was not interested and thought we were marginally insane (What can I tell you?  He's a guy...)

Pretty much everyone was highly amused by the fact that a) There is such a thing as Dance Like a Chicken Day, and b) that I happened to know that fact and share it freely.

Last night was the first block party of the season.  It used to be held in the parking lot behind Bennigan's, then, after Bennigan's closed, they moved it to the Inner Harbor (we hated it there - too dark, hilly and you couldn't see the band - they were in a pit, sort of).  This year they've moved it to the Regional Market (a farmer's market venue).  They had three bands and food and drink and we went because we usually see people who've been hibernating all winter (like us)!  We didn't see very many people we knew, but there were A LOT of people there!  Again, much amusement about the obscure holiday knowledge, but not a lot of dancing.  One cranky girl, but maybe she was having a bad day...

About halfway through the evening I mentioned to Greg that he hadn't danced like a chicken yet (after all, he said to remind him so he could celebrate...) I also told him about dancing with the girls in the office.  Now, bear in mind that my husband HATES having attention drawn to himself in any way.  If I let them sing "Happy Birthday" to him in a restaurant, I'll most likely be in divorce court the next morning, he hates it so much!  However, he's also a tad on the goofy side, and randomly surprises me.  He informed me that "The Chicken Dance" is not dancing like a chicken, and proceeded to show me exactly how chickens dance!  Apparently, they flap their stubby little wings (He tucked his hands into his armpits to get the proper effect), do a "neck jive" thing, and strut their stuff.  All in a VERY crowded parking lot, and with total disregard to the several hundred people witnessing this performance!  Yay, Greg!  I joined him for round two, and we were pretty giddy and giggly about the whole thing.  Not sure what those around us thought because we were having too much fun between just the two of us for me to remember to look around!  Oh, and he liked his card...

Okay, I have to go upholster some walls in a home theater now.  Hopefully I'll be back in time to make something...  Have fun today, and make a fool of yourself if you feel like it.  Thanks for stopping by! 

Biker Chic

Before I get to the project du jour, I need to give a shout-out to Joy - she TOTALLY made my day with the sweet email she sent me!  Thanks so much, Joy!  Okay, on to 'business'...

Among the people that we ride with is my good friend Gina.  Gina is approaching her twelfth anniversary as a breast cancer survivor.  She has two daughters, both in their twenties now, that were young and Gina was raising them as a single mom, working full-time and still doing chemo and all the rest of it (radical mastectomy on the right side, too).  Her daughters are awesome, and Gina is totally "good people".  She used to throw a party every year to celebrate, but the last couple of times it got crashed by stereotypical biker types that just wanted to eat her food, drink her beer, and do drugs (which she is ADAMANTLY opposed to!)  She felt completely disrespected (which she was), so now we just do a low-key, few close friends thing.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I believe I've mentioned before that I rarely know what to do with the things I make - I just like the "making" - but this week I actually made something with the distinct purpose of celebrating Gina!

The technique challenge this week was to make something using the bandanna technique.  I don't know the 'technicalities' of the technique, but - near as I can tell - you stamp images and outline them with white gel pen and add dots and such to make it look bandanna-ish.  I wanted to do something a little more interesting than straight-ahead bandanna, so I came up with this:

 

I started with pink textured cardstock, stamped the background with Stampin'Up!'s "Sanded" background block, a skull from Inkadinkado's "Rock Star" set, and a heart from Inkadinkado's "Flourishes" inchie set, all in Versafine Onyx Black (the love affair continues).  Then I added white gel pen outlines and dots and whatever.  The little semi-layer under the sentiment panel is stamped with a flourish from Basic Grey's "Heart Smudge" set.  The letters were stamped on a section of the pink that just had the sanded background and cut out.  I also stamped them on the white layer so I could have the wispy flourishy thingies without cutting them out (totally ripped off the idea from Lisa Johnson - one of the crafty chicas I adore!)  Since the other layers were sort of distressed, I added some pink ink around the edges of the sentiment layer with CTMH's stubble tool (LOVE that thing!)  Some studs, some piercing and stitching, some layering with foam tape...Voila, a card!

I totally blew work off today - we literally had NO FOOD!  I put the very last drop of milk on my Cocoa Puffs last night, and the last drop of half-and-half in my coffee this morning, and I can't justify fast food more than once a week (not even that often, if I can help it at all - so not healthy!), so I had to get something for dinner for Greg's parents, even if we're okay with starving (which Greg totally isn't...)  And the fake flowers we "planted" (don't ask...I just do what I'm told...) Sunday for Greg's mom looked very sad because there weren't enough of them to fill the space (I knew we needed more, but "the bank", aka DH, was concerned about the outlay of cash and called a halt to the purchasing.)  Of course, that meant I got a phone call Sunday afternoon with a request for more flowers at the in-laws' expense, so I did a flower run and picked up a prescription refill and made dinner and took it to them and spent two hours planting more fake flowers and came home and put all the groceries that hadn't already made it into the house (the non-refrigerator stuff) away and now here I am!  Whew!

I had a burger and fries with Sherry earlier (she went with me on my journeyings), so I didn't make myself anything for dinner, and now I'm a little peckish, as they say, so I'm gonna go get Cheerios (I've been very sad that I didn't have any this week - I was reduced to Cocoa Puffs - a rarity here!) and read a book and crash and burn!  Thanks for stopping by, and hooray for Hump Day being over!  Oh - and don't forget!  Tomorrow is "Dance Like a Chicken Day" - I need a full report of all the weird looks you got and questions you answered because you actually did "dance like a chicken"!  I'm gonna!  ("Your opinion of me is none of my business..." - words to live by!) Ta!

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Sanded and Hope Happens, Inkadinkado Rock Star and Flourishes, Basic Grey Heart Smudge, Hampton Art Postscript Alphabet; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Close to My Heart Pink Carnation; Paper: DCWV textured pink cardstock, Paperbilities black cardstock, GP white cardstock; Accessories: Studs (unknown), thread, Stampin'Up! piercing template and mat

Can You...

...dance like a chicken?  I know - WHAT am I talking about?!  Today's challenge on Splitcoast (no, I didn't/don't have time, but I couldn't resist) was to make a card for one of the holidays in May.  Did you know that today is No Socks Day and Have a Coke Day?  Or that May 17th is Pack Rat Day?  (We should all have a Virtual Cleanup/Organize Convention that day!).  Well, for my card I selected May 14th, which just happens to be Dance Like a Chicken Day.  When I saw that one on the list I knew IMMEDIATELY what I wanted to do:

 

Stamp: Inkadinkado $1 stamps; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: DCWV dp, black, white; Accessories: Computer (for sentiment - Farmer J Unicase font), Fiskars apron lace border punch, ribbon, Bic and Prismacolor markers

This picture popped right into Odd Brain, sentiment and all!  So, naturally, I had to execute before I lost it, right?  This is probably the fastest card I've done in ages!  I got to use my brand-spankin'-new, just-bought-it-yesterday Fiskars apron lace border punch and everything! 

Okay, I was serious about the no time thing, so I gotta jet, but I'll leave you with a little scrapling that I made for yesterday's challenge (complete with my pathetisad first attempt at crocheting a flower...be kind...)

 

Stamp: Inkadinkado Floral Flourishes; Ink: Close to My Heart White Daisy pigment ink; Paper: Stampin'Up! Kraft; Accessories: Crocheted flower, ribbon, corner punch

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!  Celebrate something!