Sites of the week

I have to admit that I haven’t really gotten into the whole pirate craze, but there is no way I could resist this Sprinkle stamp and sentiment from The Cat’s Pajamas. It just so happens that I needed to ink this baby up and today is TCP Tuesday…YAY! So to play along with this week’s challenge {a sketch}, out came the pirate stamps and off I went to stamping this card.

Although the sketch that is given is not shown as a square, I took artistic liberties to make it one. Why, you ask? Well, it’s just easier that way! I am true believer in the phrase, “Work smarter, not harder.” It just makes sense! To get all the panels to easily line up I took two squares that measured 3.25″ and cut them diagonally in half. The long edge was used toward the outside and I lined up the other edges with each other. The red panel has white stripes adhered to it. I did not have any red and white stripe paper and I like how it gives it a little bit of texture. The black panels are clear embossed with the Skully stamp. The main image is colored in with Copic markers. The finishing touches that I put on this card are the Swarovskis in the corners of the large panel, as well as the flag. I also used my Stardust pen to highlight the water, although I don’t think that the camera picked that up.

I hope that you want to play along with us. After all, you could win some Cat Cash! Here’s all the info that you need to know about TCP Tuesday…

1. Each a week one of the The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project HERE.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS, please use the keyword TCPTUES07 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

Good Luck and Happy Stamping!!

It seems so foreign, and yet so familiar. There is no question that when I show up, I will recognize the surroundings, but they will be all new faces. Seats filled with people having more or less the same goals as me, willing to pay the price (supposedly) to see it happen. I have high expectations this time around (I wouldn’t have made the sacrifices if I didn’t) yet the looming threat of disappointment remains the elephant in the room. Have I made the right choices? I can’t second guess them: when made, each was made with the best intentions and the deepest of thought. So theoretically, I have put myself in the situation I need to be in for success.

A lot of people say success is what you make of it. Or put another way, you get back what you put into it. Same difference. But in reality a large portion of your success is 100% in the hands of others. The decisions they make and the paths they choose, help define the situation you are in.

But I can’t help myself. I am so excited for this next chapter I can barely contain myself. For a long time it seemed like I would never have the opportunity, and then when the chips fell just right, time slowed down to a snail’s pace as each interminable day flipped off my Dilbert Desktop Calendar.

Alas, the day is neigh. What seems like an eternity of waiting is almost over. Preparation meets dedication when on May 22, the new Indiana Jones movie hits a theater near you, and I will be at the one near me.

As far as I’m concerned, Harrison Ford is the coolest man alive and has been since before I was born (since Han Solo says me, others may argue for Bob Falfa). Nobody else matches his resume for coolness when you count Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Jack Ryan, Dr. Richard Kimble, etc. Well, at least nobody off the top of my head – and who would do research to prove themselves wrong?

In 2 Fridays, His Coolness (tipping the figurative scales at 2 months shy of 66 by my calculations) dons the whip and Herbert Johnson hat once more, almost 20 years since The Last Crusade. Some think the movie will act as a torch passing to newcomer Shia LaBeouf. (Rumor has it the torch was primed and ready to be handed to Ben Affleck some time ago, before the Bennifer & Gigli debacles and no one wanted to see Ben on the big screen again). Others are cringing at the though of another of their childhood favorites being ravaged by the Hollywood sequel machine.

Either way I don’t care. I just want to see Indy on the screen one more time, and enjoy the movie like I have the first three.

Wait, did I start writing this to talk about Indiana Jones or the fact that I’m going back to work on Monday for my summer internship? Who knows. Indy is definitely cooler though, so I’m glad it went that way…

*cue Indy theme music*
Da-da-da-daaaaa, da-da-daaaa

Td

Hooray it’s Saturday! I’m actually just glad that this week is over. I’m not waiting for anyone to play me the world’s smallest violin, but I will tell ya that it has been a heck of a week. Tony completed his finals…YIPPPEEEEE!! After pulling several nearly all nighters he is officially done with his first year as an MBA student. Three cheers for Tony!!! The bad part about all that is that he got sick half way through the week. Boo!! I had already taken Ellie to the doc on Monday with her first ear infection. Poor thing has the worst cold ever! It moved from just being a good ol’ snotty cold into her eyes and ears. Can I tell you how much “fun” it’s been administering antibiotics?…ahhh!! Not only are the 2 of them sick, but I am, too. Ugh!! That’s most of the reason that I new week starts tomorrow. That’s not even the “awful” part…Since Tony had been studying so much, and I had been prepping and going to the Arlington Shoebox Swap last weekend, we had a bunch of stuff DVR’d. All week we knew that Thursday night was going to be our night to chill out with some ice cream and our shows. We were watching the season finale of Dexter and it started skipping. Tony tried to fast forward and it froze. After waiting several minutes for the system to do it’s integrity check we called DISH. The kid on the other end of the line told us to unplug the box and it should reset itself and be fine. NOT TRUE!!!!! When we plugged it back in, we got and error message that said that our system had been wiped clean. So here I sit wondering what happened to Dexter’s sister, not to mention Grey’s and we also had 2 episodes of The Shield {the last 2 of the season- on reruns}. Life could be worse, I suppose. BTW-DO NOT SPOIL THESE FOR ME PLEEEEEASE! I will get around to seeing them sometime.

Now for the real reason of this post, today’s Sketch For You To Try…

Here’s my sample using Cecily Cinnamonsticks from the chichiboulie line at Stamping Bella…

Detail shot…

Guest Designer Toni Whitnell’s sample…

I hope that you will play along, too! Please link your creations to this post and if you upload to SCS, please use the keyword SFYTT. As always, you can see more great creations with the sketch from Amy, Carole, Shannan and Susan. Have a great weekend!! Tony will be here tomorrow…yay!! Stop by and give him a virtual high five for getting through the first year of the MBA program.

Now how’s that title for getting your attention!?! LOL! I’ve known all along that today’s ABC project would have something to do with the new MFT release, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. While browsing through the resources section of SCS, I came across Jenn’s 2-5-7-10 box tutorial. Ah-Ha! I thought this would be perfect to make a little dog treat bag. So off I went to create. Hmmmm…what colors to use? which image would I choose? Pink is kinda my thing. Never was before I had a baby girl, but now I could cover myself, or at least my projects, in pink pink and more pink and be perfectly happy. I chose one of the PaperTrey colors, Berry Sorbet. I really like this color of pink, because it’s not in your face pink. It’s a lot bolder with some hints of orange. Perfect, plus there is ribbon to match…YAY!! I love me some matchy matchy ribbon! For the image I chose the poodle from the Gone To The Dogs set. You know what I did to that poodle?…I flocked it! It’s hard to tell from the pic, but the white portions are flocked. I colored the “pink” parts using the Berry Sorbet inkpad tapped on an acrylic block {since I don’t have any of the re-inkers} and an aquapainter. Viola!…pink and white dog, or should I say berry fuzzy dog? Ha! I crack myself up! Oh, and BTW- the circles are from the Build A Bouquet set. Ok now… Well, I will cut out the yipyap and get to showin’ you the project…

Some other deets about this…
If you go to the tutorial, you won’t see anything about a cut out/acetate window. I decided to cross my fingers and run the box through the Cuttlebug with my Nestabilities dies. To do this, I had to fold up the bottom flap over where the hole is now so that it would fit through width-wise in the Cuttlebug. You can’t see the “damage” done, but if you turn over the project the bottom flap looks like someone came along and took a chunk out of it with a circle die…imagine that! To achieve the scalloped frame, I took a piece of Whisper White cardtock and cut {via the Cuttlebug} out the same size circle that I cut in the bag. I then took a larger scalloped circle and placed it over the circle in the Whisper White cardstock and ran it through the ‘bug again. Viola…scallop frame. Of course what’s a girl with Swarovskis to do, but bling out that frame…to match the collar, of course!!! Another thing that I changed up was the flap. I wanted to make the flap white, so I cover the original flap with a piece of Whisper White cardstock.

Did you come to the release party last night. I must say that it was so much tamer. I think that a lot of us are still recovering from this past weekend. Not to mention that a few of us are under the weather {including me and everyone in my house} and Carole was listening for tornado sirens {you ok, Carole?}. I have a couple more cards to share with you that use the new releases from My Favorite Things.
This first card was a sample that I made for this month’s My Favorite Guest challenge. The challenge is to make a project that uses an animal stamp. Of course, I chose to make a card using one of the new sets, Gone To The Dogs. The paper on this project is from Hot Off The Press. I used it as a panel, and to paper piece her outfit. The leash and the dog’s collar are covered with Platinum Stickles {very cool Stickles color!}.

This second card uses the Friends Furever set. I added the ponytail and the flower on the shorts to make it girly. Michelle also did this; you can see her card HERE. I also gave the dog a little girly bling by adding a Heidi Swapp Flower Jewel to the collar. The flower is from Creative Imagination’s Creative Cafe and the brad is from Making Memories.

Detail Shot…

See you tomorrow for ABC Friday. This Saturday I will have another fun Sketch For You To Try. Then, on Sunday, Tony is blogging since he missed last week due to all his finals.