Dream Big

So last night I was trying to wake myself up enough to ask my husband to please pass the hole punch that was on his side of the bed. Once I was awake enough to actually form the words, I realized that I was not crafting. That said, I did lean over him and check to see if he was hoarding craft supplies on his side of the bed though.  He was not.

The Fine Print: Bra die by MFT, greeting by Hero Arts.

Dancing the Night Away

Hi! My name is Cindy and I'm gonna write this blog post today because my momma she doesn't write blog posts any more and peoples are starting to worry about her.

Anyway, you shouldn't worry about my momma because she is just fine. She is just busy doing other things that are not making cards. Like the other day she was busy petting me and then the other other day she wented to the swimmings pool and today she going to go dancing like she has rhythm or something. Oh my! I can't imagine how funny that must look.

I bet it looks a lot like this sassy lady here, only you gotta imagine that all the other peoples dancing have their other arm up and are facing the other way. That's how my mom does it, opposites all the way.

The Fine Print: Sassy lady by Stampin' Up. Cindy's original name was Sassy but since she didn't want to be named after a Disney character she had her name legally changed. First she had to sign a paper that said she wasn't a terrorist. And usually she isn't. 

Here Today Gone Today

At work yesterday they implemented a new procedure. And by "they" I mean the people that work at the main office who don't really know what happens at the branches that actually serve the public. As soon as those in my department heard about this new procedure we came up with about 15 different questions regarding it.

The managers just shrugged and said they knew no more than we did and that if we encounter problems we should just refer those people to them.  It is all fine and good for the managers to say that because problems like to show up at lunch time when the whole lot of them are gone from the building.

Lunch time came and of course a problem cropped up but it was a problem that our department hadn't anticipated with our 15 questions. Nope, this problem involved another department--the one that takes the money.  See in the past this procedure had a $3 option and a $10 option. The new procedure was for an eight dollar fits all process.  Cashiering isn't set up to take $8 for said transaction. Their computer system bulks because it thinks you've either paid too much or too little.

Anyway, by the time lunchtime was over so was the new procedure. Now we're back to doing things the same old way with our two different price points. We haven't heard anything further since yesterday but you just know they will iron out the one wrinkle and throw it back out there for us until the next insurmountable problem comes along. It'd be easier to ask the front line people for input but just winging it much more fun and more in line with our other business practices.

The Fine Print: Stamping stuff by Stampin' Up.

The Artist

I recently found some of these 3D decoupage sheets stashed away. I had them all set up to make 4 cards but somehow never finished them. I made this one first and another one second, and then called it a day and put them away so I can pull them out again in a decade or so.

The Fine Print: Some lady copied these and sold them to our stamp group for the price of the copies, probably a violation of several federal laws.

Delicate and Feminine

Recently my coworker (the one who told me to hang out with my hair more often, or something like that) was looking at a photo of a woman.  "Isn't she pretty?" she asked, "Wouldn't you like to look like that?"

I peered over and agreed that the lady was pretty but that no I wouldn't want to look like that. My coworker was confused by that and asked why not.

"Well," I explained, "Because she looks very feminine and delicate--and almost waifish, and I'm just not that kind of person. If I looked like her I'd have to be a whole different person."

Which does beg the question, does what you look like help determine your personality?

The Fine Print: Gosh, imagine if I looked like that delicate woman? I'd have to shriek and stand on a chair when I saw a spider. I'd probably have to drive a Pruis and gush over babies. You know I'd have to iron my clothes and they'd have to match! What a terrible life that would be!  Stamps 'n stuff by Stampin' Up. 

It's My Birthday!

I'm Poppy and mom says I'm ten years old today.  Mom says she's older than that today too. It's a birfday kind of day now that we are elderly ladies.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Art Impressions. 

Bouncy Bunny

The Fine Print: I lack words today. Bunny stamp by A Muse Studio.

Dream Day Sunday

I think that dreams mean something. And I don't mean that like how you read a dream analysis book* and they say: Oh, you dreamed about a tomato, that means you are going to be invited to a wedding. I think that dreams are far more personal. They are your brain pondering a situation or trying to work something out.

That said I like to try to figure out what my dreams were telling me. Sometimes it is real obvious and other times it is a puzzle. Sometimes the big obvious thing (the elephant in the room) in the dream isn't the message your brain is trying to send you.

I don't think all dreams means something. Occasionally your brain has extra energy to spend and slaps you with some weird ass stories to use it up with. I find that happens if I take certain medications or vitamins in the evening. For a night of vivid dreams, pop some B vitamins before bed. I find those dreams to be not conducive to a good night's sleep. It's like you stayed up all night watching television.

Most of those kinds of dreams (for me anyway) tend to be epic adventures with large casts of characters. Sometimes even those have some deep seating meaning.  I have a friend who also has the epic dreams with large casts. She once noted that in dreams you skip the boring parts and just jump from one adventure to the next. She's so right and that's a good way to explain how/why dreams jump around so much.

The Fine Print: All products by Stampin' Up except paper flowers by Prima. * Although dream analysis books are fun because of the weird and random connections they come up with.

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....

Life Looks Beautiful

Well, then I am pleased to announce that I am going to survive this current iteration of the plague that I managed to go and catch. I'm not up for dancing, singing and celebrating but am down with having a shower and being upright for a few hours.

Life looks beautiful on you! It looks rather ragged on me, but at least I have it!

 I'm going to enter my card into the Rubber Dance Blog's February challenge. My pink is a bit more rose than their hot pink offering but hopefully it counts. What the heck, you only life once!

The Fine Print: Stamps and designer paper (retired) by Stampin' Up, dies by Spellbinders.

Zumba

The other day I went to my Zumba class. I pulled and I pushed and I sweated and turned this way and that and jumped around and twisted myself almost inside out. And that was just to get the stupid sports bra on.  Who the hell invented those things?!

The Fine Print: Stamp by Hampton Arts, designer papers by My Mind's Eye. 

Last Gasp of Summer

Okay, it's probably not summer's last gasp for the year, but it is time to switch gears and start making fall cards. However, I had to get this last summer card out of the way first.

It is one of those sideways cards where you pull the two edges and then a flag pops up. When I first learned about them it was called a surprise pop up card. I also only had verbal directions so it was hit or miss on if my flag would pop up properly or not.

When cruising around Splitcoast the other day I ran across it called a wiper card. I checked out the directions and now I know the secret of the flag and how to get it to pop up every time.

I sent this card to my friend. Then a couple of days later I sent her the directions. She called me last night to thank me for the directions because she said she had it mostly figured out from my card but couldn't make the flag pop up reliably. Once she had the directions, it worked a champ.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stampin' Up "Sketches" an old retired stamp that everyone just had to have and that I missed out on. Then a friend had to give away. Bless her soul! Border punch by Martha, heat punch by EK Success, flowers by Prima, designer paper from my stash. 

Cupcake Girl Birthday

The other evening I decided that this lovely lady with an enormous cupcake was just what I needed to wish a friend happy birthday. I poked around in my various stashes and found the scalloped heart already cut and then ran across this designer paper that matched so well. Thus this card was born.

Since I used scraps and snippets to make this card I am skipping over to Pixie's Snippet Playground to join in the week 222 fun.

The Fine Print: Cupcake Girl and Greeting by A Muse Studio "Birthday Girl" and "Go Hog Wild," heart die by Spellbinders, glitter glue by Stickles, designer paper and green bling from my stash.

Tucson

An on-line friend of mine once went on rampage once and sent all sorts of people personalized cards. Here is the ultra cool one she sent me.

She obviously thinks I'm far more vogue than I really am.

The Fine Print: Background and lady stamps by Hero Arts.

Purple and Green Gal

This year I decided to challenge myself by... well, um... by joining challenges! You know how challenges are--they tell you what to do but often those directions are usually far reaching so you still have a lot of range to get creative in.  There are a lot of good ones out there.

So much so that I haven't always gotten my card made in a timely manner. I'm collecting quite a number of not-finished-in-time challenge cards on my desk.

This one was for the Snarky Sisters T is for Technique challenge. The technique I chose was paper piecing, because that one doesn't take a lot of talent. I finished it up this weekend because I am in need of a birthday card and this will make a great one.

The Fine Print: This is one of those Julie Nutting doll stamps which are cool, but rather large so not the best for card making unless you need some business envelope sized ones (its good to be different sometimes). Oh yeah, happy VD to y'all!

Beaded Inspiration

This week over at Inspiration Destination the theme is Anything Goes! Oh wait! That's what the theme is every week. However, the design team is featuring lots of young lady stamps this time which inspired me to pull out this stamp and have a go at it.

It wasn't just the design team who helped me to dream up the card, it was these pesky beads:

These were passed out at my stamp club last month to challenge folks to make something with them. You could do with them whatever you liked. I ended up unstringing the beads and making jewelry for my little lady stamp. I also fancied her up with a piece of eyelash twine.

The Fine Print: Lady stamp by Hero Arts, fancy printed vellum by Hot Off the Press, photo corners by Recollections, and twine 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.

Happiness on a Happy Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's out there and all you mutha's too.  And what the heck, I'm feeling generous today, Happy Mother's Day to you too, Mother Nature.  Now take the day off and stop making yellow.  It's hard on my nose.

The Fine Print: I bought this sweet old Stampin' Up set at a used stamp sale last month. I do enjoy the oldies! Well, um... in stamps I mean.

More Springtime Girlies

I found these sweet colored images in my box 'o images (the one that apparently has no bottom) and decided to make some spring cards with them. 

I apologize right now if you live somewhere where it is still snowing.  I swear spring is coming... unless of course it isn't. The hummingbirds have left here so they must have gone someplace with spring.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Penny Black, other stuff from my supplies.  When I say I found these colored images I mean I colored them (last year at the convention-I even remember where and when) not that they came pre-colored.