A Brilliant Plan Goes South

Yesterday evening for giggles and grins I ate some expired peanut butter.  Ah, but you say, that stuff is so chock full of preservatives that it's no mind!  Ah ha, I say, but this was fancy no-preservative-bought-it-over-priced-at-that-kind of store peanut butter.

While lying in bed nauseated as heck, it dawned on me how useful it would be to have detachable arms.  I decided this was a brilliant plan* and I needed to jump on it immediately so that I could make millions and hire someone to eat bad peanut butter for me so I wouldn't have to do it for myself. 

Just think!  If you were at the doctor's and were afraid he'd diss you for your weight gain, you could just detach an arm or two before weigh in. You could do the same thing at Weight Watchers meetings.

You could take them off to squeeze though tight areas, or like when someone parks too close to you and you need to squeeze into your car door (or through their car window so you could take a dump on their driver's seat, not that anyone of us would do something so diabolical).

You could take one off so you could lie on your side more comfortable.

You could take one off to snuggle up closer to your sweetie.

You could take them off at night so when you slept funny wouldn't wake up with your arm asleep and all creepy feeling and your shoulder out of whack!

It was brilliant!  What could go wrong with this business plan?

Then it dawned on me that if you detached both your arms you wouldn't have any arms left to put them back on with.  Serious design flaw there.  So, nevermind.

Oh yea, and some cards.

The Fine Print: *Well, of course I hadn't gotten around to all those niggling details like bones, and muscles, and veins, and arteries, and shit.  That's why you hire a development committee to work around all that.  Cards by Club Scrap Navajo, dude.

Navajo Delights

Certainly you didn't think these past few days reprieve meant you were safe from the never-ending Club Scrap Navajo kit, did you?

These are the last (I think?) of the smaller note card blanks that came in the kit. I made these before I went on the A Muse kick, but never fear there are more Navajo cards to come!  While I haven't been photographing the insides of these cards, they all have been decorated on the inside too. I don't usually do that but maybe it is a nice habit to start.

The Fine Print: Wait, didn't you read a darn thing I wrote? This stuff is all by Club Scrap from the Navajo kit, except for a couple of Marvy oval punches and the little notch corner punch used on the last card by Marvy, back in the day before Marvy started their 'clever lever' punches.

Workdesk Wednesday--Someone call Matt Paxton!

Last week I mentioned that I should have shown my never-before-seen-by-my-adoring-public (that's you) computer desk because it would make my fellow clutter bugs happy.  Not one to let you down, here you go:

But why keep clutter contained to just one area, why not mess up the main desk too!

Why am I showing you my crafty clutter, you ask? Why yes, I would like to meet Matt Paxton* someday, but this is all just part of Julia's madness called What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday where we bare all to our fellow nosy crafters.

For you non-clutter people here are a couple of other photos to relieve the wounds to your soul that the previous photos caused.  Poppy doing a yoga pose:

My menacing fish:

Why yes, that is a shark.

*Matt Paxton--an extreme cleaning specialist who operates a business called Clutter Cleaners that specializes in cleaning hoarded homes and who is featured on a TV show called "Hoarders"

The Fine Print: another couple gallons of vodka and it will all be fine. Sorry I don't have cards or works in progress to share but someone is behind on her homework.

Love Conquers All

Love conquers all...
...especially if it is a love of stamping.

Today I'd thought I'd show off a couple of cards I made using the Love Conquers All stamp set, another one of the A Muse Studio spotlight sets.  This set is featured in the holiday/Valentine section of the catalog.  I have to confess that I didn't really like it that much when I first saw because all the images were bold and had words attached to them.

However, words can be cut off and used separately or not at all, and bold doesn't have to mean bad (I'm still learning that lesson after much experience).  I bought the set because of many of my customers ooh'd and ahh'd over the set so I figured I had to make the plunge.  So far, I'm still the only one that actually bought it! 

I suppose some folks might not see its versatility since it is in the Valentine's section, but it really can be used anytime.  The love it portrays isn't mushy so you can use it to send cards to your mum or BFF.  Or you can chop off the words and just use the images like I did.

That's it for this post. I spent too much time feeling smug about getting my first humanities homework assignment in on time that I forgot that the second assignment comes up next (and soon). I gotta get cracking!

The Fine Print: Everything but ink (Memento) and dies (Spellbinders from A Muse Studio. Apple and balloon from the Love Conquers All set; one of a kind greeting from the Sweet Love set; smile greeting from the Handscripted set; cardstocks used-cherry, cherry gingham, sugar, onyx, and cloud print; and onyx pearls.

Calendar Fun

Please excuse me if I go running out of the room, screaming and pulling my hair before I finish this post.  I stopped and said a few words to the neighbor outside and we got swarmed by mosquitoes.  I swear I still feel them on me!  They might not no longer be on me, but they were as I have the welts to prove it.  ARGH!


Creepy boo-hoo day is more how I feel right now.

I thought I'd take a break from shoving Club Scrap atcha and show you some A Muse Studio stamps.  This set is called Calendar Fun and is one of the featured spotlight sets for September and that means it is on sale.  I liked this stamp set from the first time I saw it.  I liked that it had all sorts of small icons for various holidays.  I could see these stamps being very useful stamps and would look good stamped on an envelope.

Oddly enough, I didn't use these stamps to mark dates on my calendar.  Whoops! Then again, except for stamping a bomb on the first day of school (yes, you read that right) I haven't really marked my calendar this year.  Hey, maybe that will be my excuse for missing every one's birthday.

There are some of these stamps that I don't understand, such as the baby bottle.  What do you put that on the calendar for?  Don't forget to feed the baby?!  Don't forget to give birth on this day?  Hmmm... not sure. The bell? Is that supposed to be Christmas? And I can imagine weary moms stamping snowflake after snowflake after snowflake on all the kids' snow days and praying for sunshine.  Nonetheless it is a fun stamp set.

I was impressed that this stamp set had a little school in it because even though I have no school aged children, or any children at all for that matter, I do mark when school starts.  It is important to know so you'll have the house properly stocked with vodka and you'll know not to drive past the university any time soon. 

Later I looked at the little school stamp again and suddenly wondered if it really was a little church. Like the baby bottle, I didn't see why you'd need to stamp little churches on your calendar. You probably have that church going thing down pat and don't need reminders. And gosh help you if you have that many weddings and baptisms to attend...  Then A Muse made this card:

They made this card, not me. I bought the monthly sample cards and the corresponding workshop kit this month because everyone of them really sparked my imagination. This one was the use of glitter on red line tape.  That's an oldie but goodie technique that has totally slipped my mind. It was good to see it in person to remind me it existed.  When I do this card for a workshop I rather expect to hear that same sentiment from many other people.  We'll see!

Anyway, I got off track. I thought this was a school and then I thought it was a church and then I saw this card and thought it must be a thank you card for a wedding gift.  Then I thought, "Well, gee that isn't really wedding-y. Really that would make a better thank you card for a teacher.  "Dear Teacher, Thank you for letting little Billy back into your classroom after he poured super glue all over you chair. He sure can be a little rascal sometimes!"

Then I decided that with the addition of the lime green gemstone over the bell on the image it could be a card thanking someone for a housewarming gift.  That's right, that little figure could be a house too. Haven't you always wanted a house with a cupola?

So there you have it, some Calendar Fun cards and my weird thought process over one little stamp.  Thanks for helping me take my mind off my mosquito welts bites. I didn't run off during the post, but I'm not sure I can sit still long enough to do tomorrow's too.

The Fine Print: Spooky Boo Day stamps "Calendar Fun" and "Spooky Boo Day;" cardstocks orange, Seattle petite polka dot, and orange chevron; onyx stitched ribbon, and Labels 1 from Spellbinders.  Autumn Leaves stamps "Calendar Fun" and "Autumn Days;" cardstocks orange, fern, and French roast gingham; inks orange, papaya, currant, cherry, French roast, and Memento cocoa; scallop border die set; toffee twine; and chocolate pearls.  Hanukkah stamps "Calendar Fun" and "Mini Holiday Messages;" cardstocks Winter sky and ocean; clear twinkle stickers, and silver cord.  Thank you card stamps "Calendar Fun" and "Thank You Mix" (also a spotlight set); cardstocks sugar and fern; red line tape, lime glitter, cloud die diecut used as stencil; and winter sky Splash spray.

Next Verse, Same as the First

Ya'll are all going to think I'm stuck in a rut but I haven't made anything non-Navajo to share.  Perhaps tomorrow there will be a something different on the blog. After all I need to make a Monday Mailer card (which obviously isn't going out on Monday being as it is a postal holiday), two swap cards, and conjure something up for the next A Muse challenge.  Although the current challenge was extended* so maybe I'm off the hook for that for now.  But... there is a new September spotlight (being that it is September and all) so maybe I'll highlight that just to show you that I do still own A Muse stamps and can even use them sometimes.  Or maybe I'll just flake out, sit back and relax and pretend that it is a holiday and do nothing new.

 * For the love of everything holy, would someone please make something using felt and post it to the A Muse Studio Challenge blog so that we can move on.  And while we're at it, I'm open to suggestions for what theme I should do when it is my time to host the challenge again.

The Fine Print: All the everythings from Club Scrap "Navajo" set with the except of the peach ink which really is peach even though my scanner refuses to believe that (by Vivid) and the fibers on the Spirit-Joy-Soul card which come from my very extensive fiber collection (remember when fibers were all the rage?!)

September.... first?

So if I am to believe my computer and all the calendars in the house today is Septmber 1st.  If I am to believe my Mom it is September 4th.  I vote for the 1st because that means my 3-day weekend is still in progress!  And as an added bonus I got all my homework done so I don't have to do student stuff unless I want to!  And currently I don't want to.

Instead I opted to play some more with the Navajo kit.  Are you getting tired of it yet?  I'm not! I always get the "greetings to go" option and that comes with enough stuff to make 15 cards, but the kit itself has even more goodies in it so you could totally go to town and make even more than that.

And just in case you are a little tired of Navajo, here is a card I made using a non-Navajo stamp. I am not a huge fan of large cards and often cut down the larger cards from these kits. However, this time using a large stamp came to mind (how clever is that?). I knew I could color her up in colors to correspond with the papers on hand.

The Fine Print: September calendar stamps a combination of A Muse Artstamps and A Muse Studio "Rock Star." You are Loved card everything from Club Scrap "Navajo." Drown my Sorrows card stamp by Paula Best, corner punch by EK Success, everything else Club Scrap.