Sites of the week

I’m married to one. It’s unfortunate really, because not even the show Intervention would be able to help me. On the bright side however, it’s not the illegal narcotic my wife craves, but the soft drink.

I mention this because in some people, “addictive personality” is a way of describing potential downfalls. But in her world (and yours) of stamping, it sure seems to be a blessing. Jen is relentless in her pursuit of perfection when it comes to putting together cards and projects. She is constantly tweaking, testing, exploring, reinventing new ways to put ink and paper together. Once Ellie and I oblige with the requisite “oohs and ahhs,” Jen returns to her cave to go after the next challenge (I have to admit, most of them look the same to me).

Meanwhile, my selfish parts just want my wife back. She has the most demanding job known to humanity (full time mom) and yet witness the volume contributed to magazines, blogs, design teams and her own site each day. Those of you who share this hobby I’m sure understand the sheer number of hours that go into any single project. I don’t know where the drive to do what she does comes from, but then I guess I don’t understand anything else about women, so why should this be different?

The girl that turned Jen on to stamping has actually given it up (for the most part) and taken up a new obsession: baking. Now THAT is something I could get behind! Imagine coming home to tasty baked goodness in lieu of every card she creates… mmm, I can feel my waistline expanding already.

Meanwhile, I am the great enabler. The other night as I was leaving Jen sniveled that she wished she had something to drink. Rather than stick to my guns, I stopped by the convenience store and doubled back with a 2-liter. I say that to say, as much as part of me would be thrilled if she threw away everything in that stamp room and learned instead the art of deep tissue massage, the part that loves her more remembers Red’s words from The Shawshank Redemption:

I have to remind myself that some birds weren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knew it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice. But your world is just that much colder and emptier when they’re gone. I don’t know… maybe I just miss my friend.

Speaking of gone, I might be missing from this space for a time. School starts back up before my next blog is due, and I’ll be carrying 15 hours plus trying to work at least 20. So if you really miss my ramblings you may have to settle for the archives - see you in 2009.

Td

It’s Saturday…already. I swear the days are going by too fast! Did you all watch the opening ceremonies? I actually haven’t yet. We DVR’d {greatest invention EVER} them and I hope to speed watch later today. Ellie {now 2} has seen the advertisements for the gymnastics team and I actually think she gets excited about it. She loves seeing them do all their flips and twirls. Yesterday she saw one of the commercials and said, “Oooh…dancing, forward rolls, big bars {i.e. high bars}.” We go to Little Gym every week, so she knows what she is seeing, just not exactly what is going on.

Like I said, it’s SATURDAY. You know what that means around here…SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY! I **really** like the sketch for today! Being that I like it so much, I hope you will play, too. Each person that links their creation to this post will be entered to win a **little something** from me. I’ll draw a random participant on Friday morning. Good luck!

Here’s the sketch…

My sample using one of the latest releases, Totally Witchin’, from My Favorite Things…

The web paper is from DCWV and the other DP is from K&Co. I wanted to do something other than the traditional Halloween colors and I thoughts these, along with the patterns are just perfect for this card. I put some black Stickles on the hat and their boots. It looks really cool in person, but didn’t come out as cool in the pic. Oh, well! The little bat is from a sticker pack that I picked up at Wal-Mart last year.

Bonnie Sharp is the Guest Designer for this month and she has created the cutest card {you know I love those chichiboulie fairies!}…

More great samples from my buds…Amy R., Amy S., Carole, Shannan and Susan. Just click on their names to be whisked away to their creative havens.

Tony, a.k.a. i{heart}thestamper, will be here tomorrow. Be sure to show him some LOVE!

Hip Hip Hoooooraaaay! It’s Friday and that means another edition of ABC {Anything But A Card} Friday. We are in the midst of giving Ellie her “big girl room.” We didn’t end up getting her the bed set that I showed in this post. I found the most adorable monkey sheets from Laura Ashley, so her room is brown, pink, green and MONKEYS! I had been peeking around stores for a cute little thing to put in her room, but wasn’t finding anything. Yesterday I came across a little wooden monkey at Hobby Lobby. I had the frame from way back when {from Target’s $ Spot}. I threw in a little American Crafts paper and viola…decor!

I also switched out the black ribbon that was attached with brown twill. Are you wondering how I got the monkey on there?…hot glue! I then added the Primas atop her head to make her a little more feminine…LOL! Can you imagine the possibilities with this project design? They have so many little painted wood items…airplanes, animals, flowers. I think I am going to make a trio for a baby shower gift.
Have a happy Friday. See you manana with a {what I think is} GREAT Sketch For You To Try.

When Jami contacted me about being in her new catty swap I hesitated for about half a second. I am about to be on my way out of SU!, by choice, and wasn’t sure if I wanted to take this one on. That was only for half a second, though! I told her to sign me up with the new In Colors group under Red Riding Hood. Then I was off to work on a good swap card. I didn’t realize when I was creating it, probably because I have always been more on the hobby side of demo-ing, but this is a good card to make sales. First, which I have already mentioned, it has one of the new colors. In addition, I used a background {Paisley}, Kraft paper, tools {mat pack, paper piercer and paper distresser, 3 punches} and embellishments {clear buttons and linen thread}. How’s that for up-selling a card!?! I guess I could have used dimensionals, too, but I didn’t want to make my swap envie too thick. Well, here it is…

Here are the other cards from my group. From top left, clockwise: caspen1973, camsmom, Tandra Boyer, Lodichick, MommaStamper, elyoho.

I want to thank everyone that came to the MFT release party last night. We had a great time! Tomorrow is ABC Friday, Saturday I have a real fun sketch for you and then on Sunday, Tony is back here with his wit and wonder.

The first Wednesday of each month brings new stamps from My Favorite Things…really cute ones! The SCS gallery is loaded with sneak peeks, I have already shown you 2 and I have 4 more for you today. But before we get down to the business end of this post, let me announce who won MONSTER SQUAD…

Random Integer Generator

132

Congratulations to:

132 Deborah
My favorite costume that I saw as a kid was this boy in my class who was a lego. He was inside a box that had four bowls (upside down) and it was all painted blue.
I was a bunny that year. Not that interesting. ha.

The first project I have for you is a card that uses some of the fun images from Totally Witchin’. I love these clever little jars! To get the “antiqued” edges I used my Warm Gray 5 Copic (W-5) and blender pen. Not bad! Gonna have to do that more often! The DP is from American Crafts and the ribbon is May Arts…2 of my favorite companies!

Next up is a trail mix bag topper using the Nature Calls set. On Susan’s lead, I used a scallop circle punch and sponged clouds. The sentiment is from Ride ‘Em Cowgirl; I just thought that it fit perfectly here.

As an elementary teacher, I was always telling my kiddos to READ READ READ! It’s the best thing that you can do for them and the best thing that they can do for themselves. In that spirit, I created a little “READ” sign from a small square coaster. The letters are from the Red Tag Alpha Cuttlebug Alpha. The bunny is from the newest Flopsey…What’s The Story? Here it is hanging on the wall…

A more detailed shot…

Finally, here’s another card using the Nature Calls and the What’s Your Sign sets. I have to admit that when I first started working with these stamps I was a little intimidated. I am not a “scene creator.” I know that there are stampers out there that have this down to an art form; however, I do not fall in that category. So, instead of stressing myself out about creating a cute scene, I went simple. I really like how it came out, too!

Detail shot…

All these sets are being released tonight. I hope that you will join us for the Release Party HERE from 9-11EST. There will be challenges to become the next My Favorite Guest and the next MFT Ambassadors, as well as the Ambassador Challenges. Fun for all!!