Peacock

I made this peacock at a Stampin' Up workshop a zillion and half years ago. It's all I have to share with you today. That's because I haven't made anything the last several days....

...that's not entirely true. I've made lots and lots of snot the last few days.  It'snot funny.

The Fine Print: All the everythings by Stampin' Up.

Happiness in Green

I highly enjoyed this kit and the bright colors in it. I'm also happy that my friend lent me her stamps so I could actually use this kit.  I have done a little searching for my stamps and have found lots of good and interesting things, just not them.

I have a new interesting place that I need to check out. This is a scheduled post so by the time this goes live I just might have my stamps.  I won't have my friend's stamps anymore because by then I'll have already returned them yesterday.  Whoa! Time travel in a sentence.

The Fine Print: Club Scrap "Pure & Simple" for the stamps, toppers, and some ribbon, Cuttlebug for the embossing folder and my stash for the rest of the ribbon and brads.

Simple Cards

Here are some simple cards I whipped together recently. These are from the same kit that I shared cards from last weekend. Since the kit is called Pure & Simple I didn't see the point in trying to make elaborate cards.  You know, not that I ever do!

The Fine Print: Stamps, cardstock, and toppers from Club Scrap, brads and ribbon from my stash.

Butterflies and Flowers

Sometimes I manage to amaze myself with a card I make.  This one was one of those since I don't tend to do abstract or collage style well.  Of course the secret is that the paper is doing all the work. It is some fun stuff that I have been hoarding for quite awhile.

As an added bonus I can join in with Mrs A's Butterfly and Flower Challenge this time around. Butterflies are such a fun and easy thing to make cards with and they can be used for all sorts of occasions.  Meaning, why don't I use them more often? I don't know.

The Fine Print: Butterfly stamp by The Angel Company (RIP), flourish die by Cheery Lynn, and flower punch by EK Success.  Sorry, don't know who makes that fabulous paper since I've now cut it all up.

The Little People

Where I work we've had some real winners occupying the position of Head Cheese, and by "winners" of course I mean losers.  We've had the guy who tried to pass off his honorary degree as the real deal and the more recent perv-o-matic.

But the one that really sticks in my mind is the one who came to visit our campus Big Wigs (one of whom I work for).  When Head Cheese got into the office one of the Big Wigs started to introduce us assistants to him, but Head Cheese waived him off and said, "I don't need to meet the little people. I've already met the important people I need to work with."

And that, my friends is a bad attitude to have.

The Fine Print: No, there's not really a point to this story but there is some poetic justice.  See, all us little people are still employed here and respected by the community which are both things Mr. Big Cheese can't claim. House Mouse stamp by whoever is making them these days, kitchen kitsch stickers from  someplace or the other, and other stuff from my stash. I'm just chock full of useful info today!

Another Boring Desk Day

It's Workdesk Wednesday and once again we are faced with a sad and boring cat-less desk.

It isn't much different from how it always is these days, but it is different from how it was in 2012 which is pictured below. I really like having a whole lot less on my desk. It gives me more room to make a mess when I play.

Here's a batch of cards I was fiddling with last night.  The upper left one I just received from a friend and the other ones I made. I was trying to get some samples together using stamps that were in the new A Muse catalog.  That feather is not in the new catalog so that card has to go.

That's it for me. I'm counting on you all to be up to something more exciting and interesting. I've been keeping it low key since I'll be out of town next week... and probably out of my mind too but that's another story.

The Fine Print:  Um.......  yeah, I got nothing. Hey at least I'm not trying to pass off cleaning light fixtures as something crafty, huh? *wink*wink*nudge*nudge* I shouldn't mock Julia as cleaning is something I would totally do on vacation.

To Cat or Not to Cat

I'm Charles.  I'm hogging the blogging today.

A Very Important Date

I've been thinking about ATCs lately and how I have several notebooks full of them. I tend to only look at them when I am trying to be inspired to make an ATC.  I don't make ATCs anymore so I don't look in the notebooks anymore.

So what to do with all these ATCs? Well, turn them into cards and use them of course! I have a friend who collects masculine cards to send as birthday cards to hospitalized Veterans. This are a couple of the cards I whipped together for her.

Hmmm.... I just realized that they both have rabbits on them.  Well that's how the bunny hops sometimes.

The Fine Print: Cards put together from various bits and pieces from my stash. I did not make those ATCs though.

Simply Pure

I have a couple more of these bright green cards with the cutouts to share with you today. The entire greeting of this first card (you can only see part of it) is "Happiest Birthday to you."

I had so much fun making these!

The Fine Print: Club Scarp "Pure and Simple" except for mesh die cut which is Memory Box.

Purely Simple

I have some old kit cards that I made recently to share with you. First I have to tell you that I love this kit with the bright colors and the bold stamps.  However, I have been unable to locate the stamps that came with it so that's why the kit just sat.

Thank gosh for great stamping friends though because I borrowed the stamps recently so I could make my cards.

Of course I added some bits of this and that from my stash to mix. I just adore this bright green paired with black. It really makes an impact.

The Fine Print: Kit and kit parts by Club Scrap. It's called "Pure and Simple" which is the best name because it describes the cards to a tee.  Additional supplies: Make a Wish by Hero Arts; flowers, thin ribbon and green brad from my stash.

Fantabulous Friday!

In honor of it being a happy Friday I shall share a happy pink step card with you. I'm not sure what one has to do with the other, but there you have it.

I can't share the sideways photo I took of it to show off its stair-stepped-ness because my camera already started its weekend drinking and made the photo all blurry.

The Fine Print: Stamp--an oldie and goodie from Stampin' Up, papers and felt flower from my stash.

So Hot It's Cool

It has been like this lately:

Which is why we need ice cream to cool things down a little:

The Fine Print: All products by A Muse Studio. Stamps-We All Scream; Cardstock-Cherry petite polka dot, sugar, French roast, toffee, and cherry; other products-French Roast grosgrain ribbon and star trio dies.

Workdesk Wednesday #315

Here we are again at Workdesk Wednesday, not that I have a lot to titillate you with this week but I do have a desk. I got rid of that last little plastic bin up top and put my pencil cup up there instead. I'm still reaching over to the old spot whenever I need a writing utensil. I'm sure one of these days this old dog will learn a new trick.

I have a pretty random assortment of stuff on my desk. From left to right I have a little bowl of brads and pieces, some paper things I want to work on, my pretty pink sparkly princess supply box, that cat proof tape dispenser, my felted covered notebook, red white and blue papers and supplies for Independence Day card making, a pocket letter, some cards, my new A Muse catalog, some card bases, my friend's Big Shot platform (don't ask), and some more papery things.

I haven't played much so I don't have much to share, but I do have other people's things to show off. This really cool bokeh technique card I got in a swap:

And this fancy birthday card/present that my friend sent me. She says it is called a pocket card and is the latest rage. As you can see, it is an ATC pocket page with little cards tucked into each pocket. Since this is for my birthday behind each card are little crafting presents like bling, ribbon, fancy tags, and the like.

The Fine Print: Is this a coincidence that I just emptied out all my ATC sheet protectors or do you think my friend has been spying on me?  Stamps and punches on the bokeh card by Stampin' Up.

Dream

I have too much of a headache today to update my blog.  But if I didn't have a headache, probably I'd show you this card.

This is a card I made by putting an ATC I made on the front of a card base.  I did a little bit more to it than that as you can see adding some layers, a punched border and some brads, but basically it is just an ATC on the front of a card.

The Fine Print: Check out that rowdy gingham card base I found in my stash! Diamond background stamp by Hero Arts, flower and greeting by Endless Creations, and other stuff from my stash.

It's Happening!

Oh my gosh! After all this anticipation and wait time the new A Muse Studio catalog is finally here! I've been dying (no, really) to see what all was in it because well... you know how A Muse Studio picked which stamps to retire?  They went into my craft room and said, "Judy owns all of these ones, we'd better retire them!"

So I wanted to see what was left and what was new and frankly I got myself into a pretty good tizzy over the whole thing especially since my printed catalogs have not yet arrived.  This little lady is one of the new stamps. She's not my usual fare because I'm more a thick line kind of gal but I can see some potential for her.

The Fine Print: All products by A Muse Studio, "Girlfriends" stamp set, Heart Trio die set, slate stitched grosgrain ribbon, and sorry to say that polka dot paper is retired but they do have a smaller-dot version.

Still at the Beach

 Here are some more beach cards from my pretend trip to the beach the other day. 

Cindy helped me with these cards, particularly the water coloring part.  She sopped up the paint with her paw and left pink prints everywhere.  Luckily she didn't get the fronts of my cards except just a smear on the bottom of the top card.

Up until then that image was made to be just in black and white. Now that I've added a hint of color to it I feel the bottom card feels naked. I might chalk in a smidgen of color before mailing it out.

So that's my pretend trip to the pretend beach.

The Fine Print: Everything by Club Scrap "Cape Cod."

At the Beach

I wanted to be seaside at the beach the other day but this is the closest I could come:

Which is probably just as well. With my luck I'd get stung by jellyfish or something as equally as rude. I'll just stick to my seaside-less sandy desert home and pretend it is a beach.

The Fine Print: Stuff and stuff by Club Scrap "Cape Cod."

Glossy Paper

One of the neat things about digging through and cleaning up your stash is you find things you forgot you had, even things you used to love. In my case I recently unearthed a stash of glossy paper. I used to have this real thing for glossy paper because it makes you look like a stamping expert.  Bold images come out so crisp and clean on it...

...like this black and white with a pop of yellow card I made the other day.  I even had a gloss envelope to mail it in!  That's some fancy pants stuff right there.

The Fine Print: Moonlight cat stamp by Memory Box, greeting by unknown, and everything else from my stash.  And Dio says he is a wild jagular no matter the time of the day and wild jagulars don't get picked up and get their faces covered with kisses from their mommy.  I beg to differ.

HB from Me and the Cat

Yesterday I shared with you a card I received in a birthday card swap.  Today I will share with you the card I sent. I was really happy with how this card turned out.

First of all, since I've been doing so many kit cards later I've hardly touched my stashes of patterned paper so I was happy to be able to drag some out and have at it.  Plus, this is such fun paper, how could you not be happy?  Then I got to use this cool balloon die I sort of forgot I had. I also got to use this shimmery piece of blue cardstock I found and it worked out great.  Shimmery paper and I often don't get along well.

It's all happiness!  So from me to thee, HB!

The Fine Print: I think that stamp is Stamp Francisco, balloon die by Paper Smooches, paper by Doodlebug.

Workdesk Wednesday #314

I was standing around this morning, pondering my existence and voiced the following, "It is Workdesk Wednesday today, but I'm not sure that I care." Hubby said, "I care."

And I know that a whole lot of you do too.  In fact, what I meant was that I wasn't sure I wanted to bother with it. I'm in a bit of a funk you see... and as you can see the desk isn't that much different from before:

I didn't work on any organizational things like I had planned, but I did do something far more exciting. I made cards! I made lots of cards. I know we can all agree that crafting trumps organizing any day.  Here is one of the cards I made this past weekend (pre-funk).

And here is a close up of the card that is lying smack dab in the middle of my desk. I received it from a friend for a swap.

The Fine Print: My card stamp from Club Scrap "Cape Cod", silver embellishment and white photo corners from Recollections. The funk is caused by one of those soul-killing, life-force-sucking, completely-annoying-and-aggravating problems that show up like clockwork. Cuckoo clocks, that is. 

Happiness

Happiness is warm cat food fresh from the UPS truck.

The Fine Print: Or so I've been told.

High There!

I hope you are having a fabulous, high-flying day!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Club Scrap "Up, Up, and Away."

Up, Up and Away

I picked up a kit and made exactly one card from it. And none of these are it.  

I was pleasantly surprised to find several completed tri-fold cards hidden away in that box.

That could mean I made them and forgot about them. 

Or it could mean the cats took pity on me and made them for me.

Or it could mean I've taken to crafting in my sleep.

Which do you think?

The Fine Print: The card base for these cards is this really cool shiny metallic purple which really freaked out my camera. You can kind of see it here and there on some of the corners.  Kit stuff by Club Scrap "Up, Up and Away."

One of Those Sets

Do you have one of those stamp sets in your stash?  You know what I mean... the one that when you are rifling though things you pass it and wonder why you don't use it very often?  I'm sure I have more than one of those sets but recently I ran across this one.

I bought it because it has great images in it but I really love this truck. I thought it would be great for masculine cards and since I was making manly cards at the time I decided it was time to stop wondering about it and start using it.

As soon as I started using the set I remembered why I don't use it often.  This truck stamp does not stamp worth shit.  I tried different ink, different paper, different surfaces... and still it took me seven tries to get one decent usable image from it.

The stamp is by a well-known company with a good reputation for quality stamps but this one is just a lemon. I did buy the set used so maybe its previous owner did something horrific to the stamps or maybe that is just how this set goes. I understand that sometimes in life poop happens.  It might be happening right here.

The Fine Print: Stamp by a well-known company with a good reputation, you probably know who it is, papers and stuff from my stash.  I put the set in my sale pile but I feel kind of bad passing a lemon on to someone else. Then again the last time I passed on a lemony set the new owner had absolutely no problem with it. Maybe this set just doesn't like me?!

Bee All That You Can Bee*

*Unless you don't want to bother, of course, no pressure here!

Whilst rummaging around in an overly stuffed drawer of designer paper I ran across this black and white bee paper that I've had since my early stamping days.

Yeah, I know it isn't black and white now, but that is because I colored all those little bees in and then added the big queen bee in the middle and a greeting and called it done.

The Fine Print: Bee paper by Penny Black, queen bee stamp by Copper Leaf Creations, greeting by Peddler's Pack, circle dies by Spellbinders, and that's all there is to it.

Gone Quackers

We actually have rain in forecast for tomorrow according to the clouds and lightning bolt icon on my weather predicting machine.  That's kind of interesting.... and completely off season.

I still haven't bought myself any wellies* which is a shame because when it rains for real the rain hits the ground and bounces back up and you get soaked from the knees down.  Not that it is really going to rain tomorrow (she says as a flash flood carries her away).

The Fine Print: *Go Britain! Wellies is such a better name for rain boots than rubbers, which sound like I need some ribbed-for-her-pleasure Trojans. Seattle Girl and Row of Ducks stamps by A Muse Artstamps, oval dies by Spellbinders, designer paper from my stash, and yellow twine from A Muse Studio (it's baker's twine that I pulled apart to get only the colored strands.

Workdesk #313

It is time for another workdesk reveal courtesy of Julia's Stamping Ground. I'll start by showing you my desk from this past weekend. I had mentioned that I have a new desk organizer to put in place.  To get it in place I had to start by doing things like this (commonly called 'the piled high method').

I took everything off the top of my desk and piled it on the working surface. My original plan had been to empty all the drawers and do an entire desk re-org but I didn't/don't/still don't have that kind of time.  So I worked around with piles and heaps and shoved different things in different drawers. As of this morning it looked like this:

Here is a close up of my new organizer.  I kept one of the little plastic drawers I had before but now that I've gotten things somewhat straightened up I don't think I'll need it (which is good because my goal was to get rid of those).

Everyone one of my desk drawers is a disaster now but that is another project for another day. It's interesting how much pointless junk I had on/in my desk.

The Fine Print: BTW, Charles isn't overly pleased with the extra space on top of my desk. It has enough room for two cats and who ever met a cat who wants to share?