Warm Heart Notecard

So... Once upon a time one of my husband's friends asked him what the secret to a good marriage was.  Hubby gave a surprisingly useful answer and it didn't involve boobs!

Mister Princess said that you absolutely need to agree on two things to get along. You can't go into a marriage thinking the other person will magically change their mind or that you can make them change it.  That way lies madness and strife. With those two things settled, then everything else pretty much falls in line.  Oh, those two things are: holidays and kids.

We both never wanted kids and we both never gave two hoots about holidays and we sure as hell never wanted to ruin a perfectly good day off work spending it with relatives or cavorting all over the place. Both of those we agree on and they make use perfectly content. For some reason our stance on those issues sure gives a lot of other people grief, but what do we care what they think?  We don't have to sleep next to those people.

The Fine Print: All products from Stampin' Up. 

Uplifting

You know what makes me laugh? And I mean the kind of laugh where it sounds like I'm wheezing and choking all at once while tears leak out of my eyes.

Those silly auto-correct bloopers. I don't know what it is about them but they crack me up every time.  I think part of their appeal is that is how my brain works.... can't think of the right word? Well then, just substitute something that sounds about the same!

Yeah, it doesn't really work but at least you can say you tried.

The Fine Print: Stuff by Stampin' Up. 

So Clueless

True Confessions Time:

I have no idea what I'm doing.

That's pretty much always. I just keep muddling away doing a little of this and a little bit of that (and not enough stamping) but I never know if what I'm doing is the right thing or worth the effort. Since I'm at work I'm probably okay on the first part but not so much on the second. And to top this all off, here's a fall card even though it is spring. Because I really liked the colors.

So there.

The Fine Print: All the stuffs by Stampin' Up. Probably. The white under the card is a matching envelope because sometimes I do that, but not often. Mostly because I don't have many A2 envelopes. I have oodles of A6 ones though because I have no pride and when work throws them away every May, I dig 'em out of the trash. It's like a birthday present to myself. 

Are we There Yet?

I keep getting spam emails from Uber and Lyft saying that I could make a zillion dollars a week with my car by becoming on of their drivers. I know they are spam because no one who knows me would hire me to drive since I tend to close one eye when I drive since I can't see diddly (or squat) and I drive down my own street at night asking, "Is that my house? No! Is it the next one? No! Is it this one? Wait? Did I just miss it?"

The Fine Print: stamp, card topper and all the other stuff by Club Scrap. By the way, I just had to click all the button to figure out how to make the fine print fine. Obviously I'm not a brain surgeon candidate either.

Bad Words Were Spoken

So once upon a time, not really that long ago, I was looking for something on the web and ran across this cool looking card design. I said to myself, "Eureka! Look at that!"

The reason it caught my eye is the petticoat (crinoline? frilly thing?) under the dress looked like a cupcake paper and that is just what I have this month as a mystery challenge item. So, of course, I had to try to CASE the card so I could use the cupcake paper I was given. Ours was a mini muffin sized paper so I could only get one layer of poofy thing under the dress, but it is all good.

I do want to say that I destroyed lots of designer paper trying to get that dress folded in nice pleats and looking correct. I even said a bad word or six. Engineering is not my thing. Apparently, neither are paper dolls.

The Fine Print: All the parts except the cupcake paper by Stampin' Up, dress form die retired but everything else is current. 

Walking Along, Minding My Own

At a meeting today at work someone mentioned, "It would be cool if we could do this." The people semi-in-change hemmed and hawed and muttered about how that cost money. I called them "semi-in-charge because they are the midlevel management, while the person I report to is the department head honcho.

I thought to myself that we should get a quote and find out just how much that would cost so we could make an informed decision about it. Not too long ago, I would have immediately called up the quote giving people and explained what we needed. However, as of late I get in trouble for just breathing, so I think I'll run it by the head honcho first.

Things just aren't what they used to be where I work and I'm not alone in that statement. Although, if the retirements and resignations keep up at the current pace--I will be alone.

Meanwhile, I'm just minding my own.

The Print: All the stuff by Stampin' Up, some old and some new, but none borrowed and none blue. And maybe it isn't breathing that gets me in trouble, maybe it's thinking that is discouraged. Or maybe existing. Hmmm....

Cold Snap

I have a lot of birthdays coming up in April. Why so many?! What was happening 9 months prior? First cold snap of the year?

I totally don't understand that. I certainly don't want to get naked when it is cold out. And I don't want someone's colds hands all over me. And I don't want to share my blankets. In fact, I'd rather just cocoon myself in my blankets with a couple of cats thrown in for good measure and call me in the spring. Yeah, not conducive to baby making.

It might explain why I have so many cats though.

The Fine Print: Everything except the twine by Stampin' Up. 

Just Like Me!

It all started in my later high school years and carried on past that. People I know would say to me, "Oh you need to meet so-and-so, she's just like you!" Whatever that means.... (you are a unique and precious snowflake, just like everyone else). 

Anyway, within a short order of time I got the chance to meet three of those people who were "just like me" and guess what? I couldn't stand any of them. That begged the question though of if I was a lousy person whom no one could stand? So I asked my mother. Asking your mother if you suck is probably not the best way to get an unbiased answer, but she assured me that I was all right.

Perhaps I wasn't reassured by my mother because I later mentioned the whole sad story to a lady in a waiting room (complete stranger). She said it made sense that I wouldn't like people just like me because I already have me in my life and it would be better to have people who complement me or are different than me. That sounded plausible enough, however, it was something that sometimes crept into my brain from time to time and made me wonder.

Then the other day my friend excused herself during our lunch so she could grab a phone call. A quick minute later she was back. "That was my East Coast Judy," she said. What? She went on to explain that she had a friend on the East Coast who reminded her of me because she was just like me.

"Oh, you'd hate her though," she went on to explain.

Why?! "Well, because everyone knows you don't like people who are just like you!" Well, now I'm glad we've put that to rest. And why did it take me so long to accept it as gospel truth? Anyway, I'm glad I don't suck.

The Fine Print: Hedgies enjoying each other's company (because they have different personalities) stamp by Penny Black, corner punch by Martha, flowers by Prima, other stuff from my stash. 

Hello Sunshine

This is a CASE card from Pinterest. I don't peruse Pinterest much but every once and awhile something catches my eye and I have to try it out. The card I copied was black and white (and yellow) but I went for the in-color, Emerald Envy green since I happened to have the ink, the patterned paper and the cardstock. So matchy matchy!

I did this card at a card making class I conducted. My friends were out of touch with stamping so I wanted them to get a chance to experience the joy of die cutting. We used the negative piece for this card and they took the cut out word home with them.

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

So Cool

Really, you are very cool. 

The Fine Print: Stuff by Club Scrap except that ribbon which I suspect is Stampin' Up.

Top 'O the Morning

Here's the St. Patrick's Day card I made this year. I made several of the same design since I don't have enough St P's Day stuff to make a variety of card. This was a fun one. My friend gave me this stamp from her stash.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Cottage Stamper, designer papers by K&Co.

Having it All

I may not have it all...

But, by gosh, I do have the day off. And that's worth something!

The Fine Print: Parts by Club Scrap. 

Ides of March

There are several important things that happened on this day over the last few years.  Julius Caesar was murdered (not it!). King Charles II enacted the Declaration of Indulgence (I have no idea what that is but I want in on it). The first automatic voting booth was unveiled (hanging chads, anyone?) Bing Crosby won an academy award and Mister and Princess Palmer got hitched. I guess that was more than a few years ago... more like a quarter of a century ago. That's a long time. No wonder I feel so old.

The Fine Print: All the parts 'n stuff by Stampin' Up. 

Mistakes Have Been Made

Have you ever done something that sounded like a really good idea at the time, but later after it was said and done you realize that maybe it wasn't such a good idea?  See, ever since we moved last year I wanted a light in the master bedroom closet. It's sort of a walk-in type job and it is pretty dark and dank in there. I never know what clashing color outfit I'm going to come out with.

Now I have a light in there--as bright as a spotlight--just like I requested. But erm... somewhere along the line I forgot that I have no fashion sense. So even with light I never know clashing color outfit I'm going to come out with.  But at least before I could blame the lack of light. Now everyone is going to know just how clueless I am.

Ah well.

The Fine Print: Flowers by Maya Road, sticky letters by Basic Gray. And purple and brown go together? Don't they?

Spring Break

It's Spring Break week and isn't that cool? Nope, I'm not down in Mazatlan or Daytona Beach or any of those college kid vacation destinations. In fact, I'm right here in my office for now but there aren't many of those pesky kids around to ruin my day (only the usual assortment of pesky coworkers).

The Fine Print: Stamp, designer paper, and flower punch by Stampin' Up, dies by Spellbinders and twine from the Joann's Impulse Aisle. 

Off Size

I made this tri-fold card out of a random card base with pre-cut layers that I had lying around. After I made it I realized that while the card was 5.5" tall it was 4.5" wide instead of the usual 4-and-a-quarter.

Who does that kind of weird stuff anyway?! I suppose that's probably why it sat round unused for so long. I mail stuff in A6 envelopes anyway so finding an envelope wasn't an issue but it still struck me as so wrong.

The Fine Print: Card base and topper from Club Scrap, other stuff from my stash.

Friendship

Last summer I was sitting around with my coworkers eating lunch when one of them got up in a rush and gasped, "Oh my gosh! I FORGOT!" and ran off. She came dashing back with something wrapped in a plastic bag and with a big smile handed it over to another person at the table. Everyone nodded, smiled, and chuckled.

The recipient of the bag opened it up and pulled out one of those fancy hard plastic drinking cups with a straw. Somehow I was expecting something more exciting given everyone's response so I asked about it. It turns out that the first lady dropped and broke the second lady's drinking cup so she went out and bought a replacement cup.

I was really impressed with that. I also immediately thought, "I need a better quality of friend." Seriously, if a friend of mine broke something I'd be out of luck. They certainly wouldn't buy me a replacement. And let's not even talk about relatives; they'd come up with some story about how I needed to pay them for ruining my things.

However, before I got around to sharing that story with you, my friend came to me one day with a sheepish looking on her face and handed me a brand new die still in its package. She proceeded to tell me how she borrowed my die (the same one in the package) and couldn't find it anywhere. She looked and looked and considered it missing. So she bought me a replacement die. I was so touched!

So it's taken me many, many years, but I now have that better quality of friend. It's those little things that make it so meaningful.

The Fine Print: Card stuff from Club Scrap.

Charles Barles

This is Charles. He's kind of nuts, but I like him.

This is not Charles, but it sort of made me think of him. Charles usually isn't that introspective though. I sent this card to my friend and afterward she showed me how she shaded it in with inks. I was really impressed with the results. If I tried that it would have been a hot mess.

Charles tried shading himself in once with blue ink. That was a hot mess too with lots of random pawprints everywhere.

The Fine Print: Cat die by Tattered Lace.

HB 2 U

I haven't made any birthday cards lately and my stash of them is getting dangerously low. People need to stop having birthdays until I catch up!

The Fine Print: Made from a Basic Gray card kit.

Too Lazy to Rule the World

Last month my big stamp club gave out a cardboard coffee cup sleeve as the mystery item and challenged us to do something with it. I didn't get very creative with it as I just turned it into a cardboard coffee cup sleeve.

The Fine Print: Coffee cup dies by A Muse Studio, stamp by Stampin' Up, other stuff from my stash.

I Could Totally Do That

Sometime last fall I saw this video for an interesting card design and I watched it. I thought to myself, "I could totally do that!" Except I didn't. Then my friend made me a card with that design for Christmas and that got me thinking about it again--I could totally do that.

Except, again, I didn't. Then a local SU demonstrator said, "Come to my class and I will teach you how to make that design." I said, "Now I could totally do that!" And I did.

So here it is in all its glory--the famous Twist and Pop card that is not nearly as obnoxious to make as you might think (actually I didn't think that because I watched that video so many months ago).

The Fine Print: All products by Stampin' Up cuz it was a SU person who taught the class and that's super okay because SU has some cool things as evidenced by this cool card. Party on. Oh, that row of nifty bling across the front of the card is from a Dollar Store. It's mega cool looking in real life but probably all the Dollar Stores in your area have been pillaged of that item because no one can say no to it. 

Fairy Kitty

Two, yes count them, TWO different stamp groups I'm in have fairies as swap themes this month. I was rather lacking on fairy stamps and ideas until Fiki shared the fairy kitty card she made. I never thought about a kitty as a fairy before!

Since the image Fiki used was a digital one I knew I could have it in time to join those swaps. Here's my first fairy kitty card. Stay tuned for the second one; you'll have to wait a bit since it doesn't exist yet.

The Fine Print: Fairy Kitty digital stamp by A Day for Daisies, eyelet square die by Spellbinders, other stuff from my stash.

For me!

I've been too busy to share a card I made and write about it. So here's a card I received. I'm not going to write about it though, except to say CUTE!

The Fine Print: Made by DS with the Fox Builder punch. Of course now I have to go home and make a skunk with my fox punch!

March

Lookie! Lookie! It's a new month! And I'm going to assume that it is coming in like a lamb, well, like two lambs... well, like two lambs dancing in a pasture of greenery and flowers after they've had their allergy pills.  Yeah, that's what I'm hoping this month will be like.

The 25th is marked so I won't forget my big stamp club meeting (as if they'd let me). The 15th is noted since it is Mr. and Princess Palmer's 25th wedding anniversary. Twenty five years is a long time to put up with someone else, isn't it? I don't know how he does it!

The Fine Print: Calendar, stamps and dies by Taylored Expressions, background paper by DCWV.