Solid Chocolate

Happy Easter!

The Fine Print: Stamps, dies and punch by Stampin' Up, designer paper from my stash.

Happy Easter Everybunny

They've been keeping me really busy, so that's why you haven't seen me around Blogland lately. I decided I'd better get my Easter cards up here to show you before the holiday is over and done with for this year.

Since I was lacking for ideas I came up with this card and then copied it several times over. You can see that I switched off between ribbon styles.

The Fine Print: Everybunny stamp set and dies by Stampin' Up, designer paper by Basic Gray, and ribbons from my stash.

Spring has Sprung

So it is yellow season here in Tucson. Yellow season is marked by oddly enough, the color yellow. You can also tell it is yellow season by the increase in facial tissue and allergy medication sales. Basically, I think yellow season is what the rest of you call spring.

Anywho.... spring has sprung here.

The Fine Print: Palo Verde tree photo shamelessly swiped from the web (Artist: Kirk Tisdale). Card stamps and dies by Stampin' Up, designer paper and glitter card base by DCWV. 

Cadbury Happiness

I saw THIS post on Sarn's site which included the niftiest Cadbury Egg Throne and I said to myself, "Self, you have to make this for your coworker." And so I did. And she squealed with joy.

The Fine Print: Chevron ribbon by A Muse Studio, yellow & white baker's twine by Doodlebug, and other products by Stampin' Up: Pear Pizazz cardstock by SU (from that generous friend of mine!), Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (to make the speckles on the egg), oval embossing folder, large oval punch, and 1.25" scallop circle.

Easter Bunnies

I've decided that I'm not a big fan of Easter cards. Every year I have good intentions and every year it goes rather bust. I did manage to make a couple cards each of these two versions. I actually started a third version and got interrupted. I'm pondering sending out those bits and pieces and calling them "Some Assembly Required" Easter cards.

The Fine Print: Bunny stamp by A Muse Artstamps, egg die by Cheery Lynn, stitched rectangle by L'il Inkers and other stuff from my stash (more of that green ribbon from my friend).

Happy Easter

The Fine Print: Stamps and matching dies by Taylored Expressions, cloud and grass dies by A Muse Studio, all other products from my stash.

Workdesk Wednesday - Number Tree Oh Tree

I have lifted the desk lid up for this week's Workdesk Wednesday Snoop. An amazing amount of this stuff is the same piles of junk* that have been on my desk for weeks but I do have some new things added to the stacks. There are cards I am working on, cards I have finished, stamp supplies I've used and stamp supplies I plan to use, along with whatever other mysteries there may be.

 

A couple of Wednesdays ago I said to stay tuned for some interesting desk photos as plans were in the works for this month.  Those plans sort have been shoved to the back burner for some other things that have to be done, but they are still viable.  Just you wait and see! One of these days I will empty everything out of this desk so I can rearrange and reorganize it.  That's the plan; it's not a big secret.  It will be, however, a big mess!

Here's a card I received from a friend yesterday.  I thought she was jumping the gun with this card, but after checking things out, I guess not.  Easter is a'coming!

The Fine Print: *By "junk" I mean good junk, of course! The card my friend send are made with Stampin' Up products. I recognize the stamp from a set in the latest mini catalog that was on my wish list.  I'm on a stamp and supply diet right now so I'll just have to admire hers and not get one of my own.

Happy Easter

Ummmm.... yeah....

that's what I got for you today:

Happy Easter!

The Fine Print: Both projects are blatantly swiped from the A Muse Studio blog so my crafty friends and I could make them.  Then I had to steal A Muse's photo of the treats because mine got mysteriously eaten.  All products from A Muse Studio except the treats which are by Trader Joe's and made with their usual Trader Joe Crack.

Be a Happy Chick

That being sick for 3 weeks thing really put a crimp in my crafting style.  Easter cards were pretty much abandoned but I still had some I wanted to send out, so I perused some A Muse Studio inspiration and came up with this CASEd card:

The original card lacked the patterned paper, but you know me and patterned paper. I had to get some in there somewhere.  Plus the original had "hello" as the greeting but I wanted people to be happy.  That's my quickie make for the day!  Be happy!

The Fine Print: All products by A Muse Studio. Stamps with matching dies "Color Me Happy;" cardstock used-pistachio, cocoa, and sugar; "Everything's Rosy" patterned paper; and happy die.

House Mouse and Friends - NBUS Challenge

I'm so excited that I just found out what NBUS means!  NBUS = Never Before Used Stuff!  Not that any of us crafters have any of those kinds of things lying around, oh no!!!  But just in case, on some off chance that you do, and it is House Mouse (or friend) themed, the House Mouse folks are hosting a challenge to get you to use it.

That's right, House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #161 is to ink up that never before used House Mouse Designs stamp and have at it. I just so happened to have bought myself an Easter Mouse right before Christmas and here he is.

During the design phase of this card I knew it was lacking something so I consulted my husband.  He is not in the least bit crafty but often has some good input.  He said the egg needed grass, because it isn't Easter without Easter grass and by jove, he was right.

The Fine Print: "This Egg's for You" House Mouse stamp by Stampabilities, paper from my stash, egg die by Cheery Lynn, grass die by A Muse Studio, Madera Corner die by Memory Box, and pink bling by Queen & Co. And yes, next month I plan to be more timely with this challenge.

Happy Easter

So Happy Easter to y'all.  It seems that most of the folks I know celebrate and think of Easter in a non-religious way.  They consider it a celebration of spring, new beginnings, a time when the Earth is waking up and coming to life again, and, of course, the sacrifice of Cadbury eggs.  I also know religious folks who spend this time in remembrance of when Jesus rose from the dead.  Then I know a bunch of whacked out weirdos and nary a Zombie Jesus joke from any of them.  I am so disappointed!

But I am pleased to note that I've visited my craft desk today for the first time in a week.  That's gotta count for something.

The Fine Print: stamp from Stampendous, ribbon from DeNami, scallop border die by A Muse your guess is as good as mine for the papersStudio. And yeah, that's a random piece of fluff on the scan, not a bug.  I think.

Easter Bunny!

Last night a group of crafty ladies and I got together for the first time in forever. We have dinner and then work on our own projects or sometimes one of us brings a project for all to share.  I brought along my new stamps by Adam Prescott and my Copic markers with the idea of stamping and coloring.  However, since we hadn't seen each other in such a long time I wasn't surprised that we didn't get anything crafty done.  I did get the opportunity to peruse Tim Holtz' second book A Compendium of Curiosities Volume II.  It made me wish I was that person who could embrace all things artsy, grungy, and collage-like.  Well, I guess I can embrace it just fine; I can't make it for squat though.  The book does kind of make me want to try.  Don't hold your breath though. Gosh knows I have a lot of other pending projects and ideas floating around.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, another cutesy card from me! 

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stampendous, papers by unknown, ribbon by DeNami Designs, teeny weeny mini brads by Recollections.

Basket Case

Yesterday someone turned the wind turbine on full blast and left it running all day.  That meant that all the pollen in this county and several neighboring counties all went up my nose. It kind of gave me a bad case of the grumpies.  Having the grumpies isn't very conducive to playing so here is a card I made over the weekend.  I was being lazy and took a scan of it rather than a photo.  The scanner just does not like brads or other bumps.

The Fine Print: Basket stamp by Stampin' Up, greeting by unknown (how crazy an unmarked stamp), scallop die by A Muse Studio, circle punches by Marvy, border punch by EK Success, papers by DCWV, glitter brads by unknown.

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.

Today's Post

My original goal for the day was to go in search of my crafting table top, but somewhere along the way I decided that was boring.  Instead, here are some more cards from my snow kit.  Speaking of the snow kit, check out my giveaway in yesterday's post where I am offering up a chance to win the shaped cards and left over parts (there are still plenty!) from that kit.

The previous day when making snow cards I went in search of some fun foam snowflake shapes to add to my cards.  I didn't find them in the obvious places which means either I used them already, never really owned them in the first place and it was all a big hallucination, or that I put them in a not-so-obvious place.  Any of those are a possibility.  Instead I did find the snowman sticker package and of course I HAD to use him.  I'm quite pleased with how that card came out.  The other card is no slouch either.

Then I fast forwarded several holidays and made an Easter card.  Yesterday I received a gift of an iris folding book.  I really wanted that particular book because it offered general iris patterns.  The general patterns were a large square and a large triangle so you place any opening over it and make it into an iris fold.  I have wanted that for quite some time.  I even tried making my own (no bueno).  Now I have those patterns plus a tutorial on how to draw my own so I can be an iris fold fool!    For some reason an egg came to mind as the first thing to try out with my new book.  The pattern I used is the general triangle shape.  My egg was originally bordered by a gold sticker border, but that peeled off in the night.  I guess it wasn't happy trying to maintain an egg shape.

The Fine Print: Snow kit by Annie's Attic, mittens stamp by Imaginisce, snowman and flake stickers by Sandylion, Iris Fold book: The Simplicity of Iris Folding by Sarah Decker, gold stickers by unknown and greeting stamp by AMuse Artstamps.