Squeeeee!

I'm so excited! I admired a sweet stamp on Squirrel's blog and she informed me that it came from a freebie sent with the latest issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft.  Oooh!  I immediately dispatched the hubby to the bookstore across the street from where he works.  Those UK craft magazines can be slippery to find here in Tucson--you have to catch the right store at the right time, but Barnes & Noblel usually has them. I looked up the latest issue but couldn't tell the month or issue number, so I described it to him: overall pinkish look, cards along the bottom, big card on the right side, and a large 173 on the left side as it says 173 fresh ideas.

Meanwhile, the lovely and gracious Miss Squirrel offered to pick it up in the UK and mail it to me all the way across the pond.  The hubby came home with the March issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft.  He noted that it wasn't the one I had requested, but it was the one they had and he wanted to bring me something.  Such a sweet guy!  The issue in question is the April issue, so it hasn't hit the stores over here.  Concerned that we wouldn't catch it at the right time (sending the hubby to the bookstore every week could be expensive even if they don't carry Boom comics there anymore), I took Squirrel up on her offer to send it to me.

Yesterday a package arrived from the UK and the hubby asked, "Hey, is that the magazine with 173 things that you asked me to look for?"  Dang!  He remembered.  Indeed it was.

And here are two cards I made with the free stamps. Oh, never fear, there are several more stamps to play with. The set is so sweet and fun.  I can see that I will be playing with it a lot.  Thank you, Miss Squirrel, you ROCK!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Adam Prescott, papers by DCWV, happy birthday greeting by Hero Arts, punches by Marvy and EK Success (scallop circle), flourish die by Quick Kutz, pearl "bling" by A Muse Studio.

Step Up!

I made these really great step cards last night. I was so excited to learn to make these two cards.  One is tall and skinny and one is short and squat and both are neat. I was also excited that I got a chance to play with a different group of ladies this time in an absolutely fabulous studio.  All week long I haven't felt like stamping or making anything.  For those of you who have seen my stash, you know that attitude is no good.  I need to make at least 30 cards a day if I am to use up all my stash before I die at the ripe old age of 102. Playing last night really got me in the mood to dive into my stash again.

And here are the objects of my excitement.  Aren't they fabulous?

Okay, if you aren't seeing photos it is because I haven't added them yet. I promise to do it as soon as I get home from work.  Well, maybe after I make the old man dinner.  He may not want to wait for a photo session, especially since I got the fixings for one of his favorites.  That's right! How did you know?  Hummus and sprouts on 12 grain!  hee hee hee   I can hear the retching from here, can you?

The Fine Print: Everything from Stampin' Up.

Easter Cards

One of the crafting places had a Facebook update today that had a link for "last minute Easter card ideas."  I guess it is coming down to the wire on Easter card time.  All week random Easter thoughts have been shifting around in my mind (they have lots of room to move about in there) but nothing has really come together solidly yet.  I do have a couple Easter cards that I made previously to share though. 

The Fine Print: Sorry, don't remember who makes the eggs and flowers stamp, colored with my new (at the time) Copic markers in spring colors, flowers by Prima, brads by Lasting Impressions.  Happy Easter stamp by Stampendous, buckle punch by EK Success, colored with Prismacolor pencils.

WOYWW and Wind

WOYWW is one of the biggest crafty blog hops around.  We each share a photo of our crafting space with all its bumps and warts or halos and angel wings.  You can check it out at the Queen of Desk Snooping Julia's blog Stamping Ground.  I am warning you though, it is strangely addicting.  Since there are so many desks to visit WOYWWers stop by only briefly so quick, here's my desk.  It looks a lot like it does most Wednesdays, stuff piled to the sides and some working space in the middle.   Some items to note on the desk this week are a couple new stamps I got recently and a project I'm working on for a swap. 

Here is a bonus photo peek at my hall closet.  This closet is big enough to hold a washer and dryer.  But alas, there are no hook ups so it contains paper and stamps.  And cat litter, extra blankets, and random household things, but who's counting those?







Another project on my desk is one I worked on for the A Muse Studio Challenge Blog.  This week's challenge is called Which Way the Wind Blows so I made the following card.  You don't have to use A Muse products to join the challenge-although they like it when you do-so why don't you think about joining in? 

The Fine Print: On Guard stamp by Penny Black, Make Your stamp by Hero Arts, Butterfly Dream punches by EK Success, and proof you can squish a bottle cap in a Big Shot if you know what you're doing, sticker letters by unknow, pinwheel and Life's a Breeze stamps by A Muse Artstamps, as are the petite polka dot papers and the scallop die, the die cut around greeting is Labels 11 by Spellbinders.



A cat in the way, as always.



Biology 101: How to Dissect that Pesky Neighbor Dog

I work at a school, not only is it a school, but it is an institution of higher learning.  You've heard the saying, "Those who can, do.  Those who can't, teach?"  Well, I can't do but I don't teach.  What I do do (heh heh, she said "doo doo") sometimes is answer the incoming switchboard.  Anyone who insists that there is no such thing as a stupid question has never answered a call center.  M'hum, that's what I'm saying.

Not all inquiries are stupid.  Some are curious.  Yesterday I got a call from a lady who wanted to know if we had any biology courses where you could do dissection.  I perused our course descriptions, but alas, none of them said, "You will cut open former living things in this course."  Since I didn't know the answer I transferred the  Dexter Wannabe to the science department.

Later I mentioned to a coworker the serial-killer-in-training call I recieved.  The coworker shrugged me off saying that the lady was probably a squeamish person who was trying to avoid doing dissection.  Oh.  Yeah, I suppose that makes sense.  I like my version of reality better.

What does that have to do with today's cards?  What did I say about stupid questions?

The Fine Print: No frogs or pesky neighbor dogs were harmed in the making of this post.  The lady and the frog stamp by Inky Antics, Perfectly Good Frog saying by Ann-ticipations, corner punch by Carl.  Single frog stamp by Ann-ticipations, Kissed Them All saying by Inky Antics, border punch by Fiskars.

Dance for Me!

Dance for me!  *claps hands* Dance!  Dance, you fools!

Well, thus proving I'm not really a princess and I have no clout.  This is now the 400th hour of this day and it ain't nowhere near done yet.  How come the weekends don't get these sneaky extra hours put into them???

This weekend I crafted on some of this and some of that and did a bit of this other thing and a big lot on that dohickey over there, but did I actually complete anything?  Nope!  That means it is time to break out something from the old files.

If I can't make you dance, I guess I can't get you to cook for me either.  *sigh*  And so it goes in the life of a princess.

The Fine Print: kitchen stamps by A Muse Artstamps (an old clear set), greeting by someone else, I highly suspect the scallop punch is Stampin' Up and the circle is Marvey, I got nothing on the corner punch or the papers.  See what a useful and informative person I am?

Spring Easel Card

I made this easel card the other evening using my spring fling papers that I really have been enjoying.  I didn't have much time so I thought I would start on an easel card I needed to make for a swap.  Once I found the cutting dimensions, it just all fell into place rather quickly.  Don't you love that when it happens?  If I had to do this card over again I would make the strips of pink and green floral print longer.  I didn't really think about how you can see down into the crack there.  I don't think it is a flaw in this card though; it is just food for thought for next time.

This photo was taken on my desk.... there was actually enough free space for a photo shoot. That's impressive!

The Fine Print: Stamp by Penny Black, papers by DCWV "spring fling and summer days combo pack," flowers by Prima, jeweled brad by Recollections.

Pop Goes the Wea... Pop Up

Once upon a time, in a galaxy close to this one, so close in fact, it probably was this one, there was a card swap that I joined.  The theme was pop-up cards.  The theme had been suggested by someone who felt some oldie but goodie techniques should be re-visited.  And indeed they should.

How did you learn about pop-up cards?  There seems to be two different camps on that.  One bunch of folks, like me, learned to make slits in your card that crossed the center line.  Then you popped that section the opposite way of the card fold and attached whatever image you were popping up onto it.  That did mean your card was two layers thick--the outer layer and the inner layer that you cut slits into.  The other camp was made up of people who used strips of cardstock to fold up boxes or rectangles to glue into the inside of the card.  Those, too, had the image to pop up glued onto them.  That made for a one layer card as your card base had no cuts in it.

Then came the advent of multipe cuts into your card to create an entire tiered staircase effect.  You could even buy pre-cut cards for that (DeNami comes to mind).  Then there were side fold card with interesting cuts to make popped out shapes, such as a heart.  Then came Pop-Ups by Plane Class.  They were brass stencils that you centered over the crease of your card and painstakingly cut out sections so the popped up section spelled a word like so:

However, that took a very sharp exacto knife and a whole lot of patience and time, so as neat as that was, people, like me, might have bought all the brass stencil templates, but then rarely used them.  THEN, on the seventh day, when people though he was resting, God invented the die cut machine, and Pop-Ups by Plane Class changed their name to Pop-Dies.com and made the same templates that would run through your die cut machine with ease.  People, like me, looked at them and thought, "I already paid big bucks for the exacto knife version of these templates, do I really want to buy them again in the easy-to-use, no-fuss, no-muss versions?"  The answer, of course, was: HECK YEAH!   So there you have my pop up card and here's the front:

And, of course, the ever present cat from the card photo shoot:

The Fine Print: I admit that my theology may be a bit off.  Fancy paper by Imaginisce, corner and bornder punches by Martha, celebrate die by Pop-dies.com, flower punch by Stampin' Up, circle punches and butterfly punch by EK Success, Happy Birthday by Penny Black, flowers by unknown.  Devil Cat by God, made on a day He should have taken off.  I feel, indeed, an excessive use of commas happened in this post.  And, for that, I apologize.

Bottle Cap and Tires

For those of you following along, you heard how I pondered running over a bottle cap to flatten it.  My hubby thought it was a bad idea and later took pliers and a rolling pin to a bottle cap to flatten it.  However, I still pondered running over a bottle cap to see the results.  I had people worried I would pop my tires--c'mon I bought these in December they still have LOTS of tread left--or worried that the bottle cap would become embedded in my tires--I always planned to put the bottle cap open side down.  No one worried that I might embed the bottle cap into the asphalt, but I guess folks realized it wasn't yet July so our asphalt hadn't reached its usual summer semi-liquid state.  There were concerns about dirt, grime, and tire tracks but I planned to cover the bottle cap with a cloth.  So today commenced THE GREAT BOTTLE CAP RUNNING OVER EXPERIMENT.  My husband laughed and took the bottle cap with him so I have no pictorial evidence of the outcome, but suffice to say it was very disappointing.  If you are looking to put a dent in your bottle cap then by all means, run it over.  If you want to flatten it, try something else. And here is what I made with my flattened bottle cap. And if anyone knows what brand of drink that cap is from, the husband is curious.

The Fine Print: stamp by Unity, wave punch by Fiskars, dot border punch by Martha Steward, pinking circle by Spellbinders, papers by Queen and Co. And yes, I know there are lots of tutorials on the web on how to flatten bottle caps, but running it over was more fun.  Next time I'll use my Big Shot. Or a mallet.  Or the husband's pliers and rolling pin method.

Groovy Love Birds

I didn't feel like crafting yesterday.  Some days I want to play but the mojo isn't there.  This isn't one of these times. This time I just wanted to sit on my butt and be a lump.  Or rather, be a lap.  If you sit too long on the couch in my house a cat will take over your lap.  So, some old cards to show today:

I was going to share this card around Valentine's Day but somehow never got around to it.  I think it is such a fun stamp. It does take a bit of coloring though.  And here's another oldie but goodie I had lurking around:

I made this card quite awhile ago (like last year) when my hubby bought me the Hippie Chic paper pack from Die Cuts With a View.  It had some pretty funky paper in there.  I thought this stamp just screamed out to be used with this paper.

I like laps.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have some new stuff to show you. After all I do have new dies from the convention last week, new stamps from an on-line order, new goodies received with my new magazines, and new purchases from a visit to Hobby Lobby and of course, all the old stuff to play with too!

The Fine Print: Birds and Hearts stamp by Obsesiosn Impression, paper by My Mind's Eye, van by A Muse Artstamps, punches by Marvy, paper by DCWV.

WOYWW 146 -A Snakeless Post

My hubby took out the trash last night and came rushing back to grab the camera and rush back out.  It turns out he had seen a snake on the sidewalk and thought a photo of it would be great for Workdesk Wednesday.  I did point out that said snake was not on my desk but he was wise enough to know that I put photos of other things on the WW blog post too.  Further pondering made me wonder if a photo of a snake would have had y'all up on your computer chairs shrieking.  The hubby is no fan of snakes but said this one was skinny and cute so it probably wasn't very intimidating. And given our cold weather it was a surprise he got away before his photo session.  He had to be slow moving.  Anyway.... THE DESK:

Here are the piles on the right and left sides:

Here's a blurry picture of the project I worked on--postage themed ATCs for a swap on Saturday and a bottlecap I planned to stick under my truck tire to flatten.  The old man intervened on that one and used pliers and a rolling pin to flatten it.

Here's a project I need to get back to work on at some point. And I took this picture with the camera pointing the regular way and yet it rotates when I upload so I had to use the photo editing software to put it on its side so it uploads okay.  Gotta love it.

This last photo is a pile of brads and twine that were scattered about on my desk.  The twine is twine by the yard I bought awhile ago. I took it with me on my travels recently and it got wadded all up.  The brads are gifts from a friend.

If you want to know why I'm showing off photos of my desk mess, check out The Stamping Ground where tons of folks share their crafting space every Wednesday.  It is strangely addicting.  Check it out!

Mellow Gardening

I am still sporting my cuts and bruises from "gardening" in New Mexico last week.  Most of the bruises have gone green but a couple of them insist on holding onto their deep purple hue.  Today I'll try out some tame gardening that does not involve sharp things, cuts and bruises, violence, or snapping limbs (sounds like the plot of a bad horror movie minus the tramp in panties).

The Fine Print: Stamps by A Muse Studio "bunny business" set, oval and scallop oval punches by Marvy, scallop border punch by Fiskars, bling and papers by unknown.

Life's a Beach

Someone really needs to get out there and tell those snowflakes that tomorrow is the first day of spring and we don't appreciate their type coming around here... especially since this is SOUTHERN Arizona.  In hopes of warming my toes and my nose and the parts in between, here are some lovely warm beach cards.

I definitely feel warmer now, how about you?

The Fine Print: It's all fine, no really, we're fine here.  Beach hut, surfer chickie, and seashell stamps by DeNami Designs, fun in the sun greeting by A Muse Artstamps, papers by DCWV, beach border punch by EK Success, scallop and wave border punches by Fiskars, journey chipboard by unknown.

This, That, and The Other

What the heck, I'm back at home and planning to stay there for awhile, so why not jump into a card challenge.  The lastest Penny Black Saturday Challenge (#193) is called This, That, and The Other--Anything Goes, and can you guess what the theme is? No? Don't be silly!  The theme is do as thou will, just make sure it has a Penny Black something in it somewhere. 

I had fun making this spring-colored card. I wasn't really sure where I was going with it when I started but I do like how it ended up.  I'm still experimenting with putting different patterned papers together.

I can see that I need to monkey with my camera some more as it is suddenly taking low quality photos. I'm sure I hit some random series of buttons the other day and I'm sure that is what did it in.  And by "monkey with my camera" I mean give it to my husband and have him fiddle it right.

The Fine Print: mice stamp by Penny Black "hugs!" set, greeting by Hero Arts, circle and scallop circle punches by Marvy, corner rounder by Stampin' Up,  patterend papers by DCWV, twine and bling by unknown.

It's All About Green

I remember as a kid I hated St. Patrick's Day because if you didn't wear green the other kids would come around and pinch you, repeatedly. Of course, being a kid I had far more important things to remember than what date it was so it was only pure luck if I had green on that day.

Luckily, somewhere along the line that pinching stuff fell out of favor.  Perhaps after a few drunken brawls where bones were broken and teeth were lost it was decided that it was better to keep your pinchy fingers to yourself. Anyway, here it is St. Patrick's Day and apparently that even as an adult I have far more important things to remember than the date because it came as a surprise to me.  Little things did clue me in though, like the amount of people wearing green; green Marti Gras beads everywhere; shamrock pins, broaches, hairbands, and light-up flashing glasses; and corned beef tacos on the menu.

And no, you can't pinch me. I'm wearing green.  Green, in the form of guacamole I dumped down the front of my pink shirt, but green nonetheless.

True I didn't remember the date, but I did remember that today is when the Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Expo comes to town and that's way more important to me than pinching people, wearing green, pretending I'm Irish when I'm not, drinking green beer, and eating corned beef.  I think I have my priorities right.  I made this card at a make and take there:

The Fine Print: Top Card stamp by Rubber Soul, Top Knot die by Stampin' Up, flowers by Prima, paper and ribbon by unknown.  Bottom card as far as I know all supplies by Stamping Fun Journey (stamps, paper, inks, glitter, paper, twine), colored with Zig markers.

More Springy Things

We'll be traveling today so this is scheduled post. These are cards I made in the past (i.e., pre-blog life). This card was inspired by something I saw in a magazine (or maybe a website). There was a series of cards done up with multi-patterned grids of butterflies. I'd seen many other cards done with grids of multi-patterned circles and squares. Since my butterfly punch is rather small I added in another layered piece to round out the card.

I made this spring time sheep because I wanted to use this hunk of ribbon I had. To me it said "spring" so I hunted down a springy image and some springy paper to go with it.  I remember being proud of myself for using that patterned glitter paper. At the time I was still into hoarding such paper so the fact that I was willing to cut into it was a big deal.  I've gotten much better about that now.

The Fine Print: Butterfly and border punch by Martha Stewart, ribbon from Joann's dollar bin.  Sheep image by Penny Black, greeting by A Muse Artstamps, sorry don't remember who makes the paper.



Sweetheart Bear and Gardening Tips

My over-exposed project of the day.  This is a Lily of the Valley image that came as a freebie in a recent magazine. There was a whole packet of LOTV images and I was so tickled. I love them but don't own any.

Us kids hiked up here today. This is behind the Space Museum. We also hiked up in a valley that was posted no tresspassing so we didn't take any photographic evidence. We'll deny it under pressure.  Maybe.

And for my friends in the blogosphere who don't understand why gardening would result in wounds and thorns, here's an example of the gardening I've been doing.  You take a bush like this:

And you break off all the dead branches so you get a bush like this:

Some of those branches don't go easy.  They refuse to snap, or snap where you least expect it, or snap back and take out some flesh.  They aren't actually thorny but they do have sharp edges. After you "prune" several bushes you get this:

That pile of branches is someone else's problem. The jury is out if they should go through the wood chipper or to the dump.  Creosote has an oily resin and not all these branches are as dead as most dead things. It isn't good for the chipper in large doses, and we have large doses of it. While gardening, you learn to avoid things like this:


Cholla cactus



The Fine Print: It's all good.  Image by Lily of the Valley, border punch by EK Success, papers by DCWV.

Pi Day! And WOYWW #17,349

Happy Pi Day for all you closet (and not so closet) geeks out there. 3.14, always a good day in my eye being quite the fan of pie.

And happy What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday to you too! I might be a little off on the numbering, but I'm sure I'm close. WOYWW is all about snooping around at various crafty people's desks. If you're feeling a bit nosy, go check it out at Julia's blog The Stamping Ground.

This is my parent's table in New Mexico, also known as my desk for the time being. I confess to taking this picture Tuesday evening since folks will be descending on the place soon since my father's memorial is today.  You can see a small collection of Copic markers, my box of embellishments, the spring fling card pack, random papers, stamps, punches, the images from a magazine, and tweezers. I was using those to try to remove thorns from my hand but was unsuccessful.

Here is the rest of my Copic collection and my travel case of cardstocks and papers.  Here is one of the projects I made:

The Fine Print: Penny Black image magazine freebie, love stamp by Penny Black, border punch by EK Sucess, 1" circle punch by Stampin' Up, papers by DCWV, flower ribbon by Simplicity.

Cheaper than Therapy

Spring has definitely sprung here in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The air is fresh and crisp and warm and the sun is shining. It is spring break, so it about time!

I hear a lot of folks refer to their crafting as therapy and I agree that it is very therapuetic.  Cost wise, it probably isn't that much difference except for you can't get insurance to pay for anything crafty (a shame really).  I think you have more to show from crafting than visiting a therapist, but that could just be my pesimisstic view of the world (my therapist and I will get right on that!).  Today I discovered a therapuetic alternative for those non-crafty people. It is called yardwork.  It is definitely good for your soul and cheaper than therapy.  It is probably more crippling than therapy though.  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow, assuming my fingers aren't too stiff to type.

And I just want to give apologies for not stopping by and visiting people's blogs like I usually do. I'll swing by at some point.

The Fine Print: Ballon mouse image by Penny Black, border punch by EK Sucess, all papers by DCWV, chevron ribbon by A Muse Studio, flowers by Prima.  Chick stamp by Printworks, greeting by A Muse Artstamps, border punch by EK Success, all papers by DCWV.

The Weird Papers

I really like the Die Cuts with a View paper stacks. I just thought I'd throw that out there in case you've been living under a rock and didn't catch onto that.  The one thing I've noticed with them though, is that there is always that page or two that completely baffles me as to what to do with it.  Sometimes I pass them on to other folks who are tickled to get them, which just goes to show you that we all have different tastes (and that makes the world exciting).  This time I thought I would challenge myself to use a couple of them.

This card is made with one of the spring fling pre-printed card bases.  The card had just the floral spray on it and I was unsure of what one would do with it.  I cut up another card to pop dot parts of the floral spray and added the bird in the open space on the card. I was quite pleased with the result.

For this card it was the background paper that really flummoxed me.  The pattern was very large and the colors weren't me. I realized that a larger image would go well over it.  I added another layer as an accent piece to pull this card together. I think this one came out well too.

The Fine Print: Card 1--Card base by DCWV "spring fling." paper flower by Prima, bird stamp by Stampin' Up, greeting by A Muse Artstamps, circle and scallop circle punches by Marvy.  Card 2--All papers by DCWV, sprinkling happiness saying by Stampin' Up gnome set, image by Penny Black that came as a freebie in a recent Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, flower by Prima, brad by Recollections.