Oriental Snippets

Somewhere I saw a card that was sponged and stamped and I thought to myself, "Self, you could totally duplicate this card for an oriental themed one."

And so I did without the sponging and the stamping.  The variegated piece was brayered in three different colors onto a snippet of glossy paper.  Yes, you heard me right, brayered, my least favorite technique on the planet.  The flowers were die cut out of a scrap of textured black cardstock and the card base, is an oldie as well.  With all these pieces, I'm adding this card to Pixie's Snippet Playground.

Um, yeah, I did do a wee bit of stamping in the upper left corner.  I hope I didn't stamp it upside down! And I hope it says something wonderful like "peace" or "strength" or "hope" and not "fried wontons."

The Fine Print: Poppy die by Memory Box, Japanese symbol by Plaid Enterprises, inks by Memento.

Country Charm Merry Monday

Even if I hadn't had a screeching headache all week, this week's Merry Monday Challenge would have sent me for a loop. Country charm?! Stitches and buttons?! Lions, tigers, and buttons, oh my!

I liked the idea of the challenge and the folksy feel of the inspiration photo.  That didn't mean I had any idea beyond a stamp I felt had some country charm to it.  However, once I sat down with my stamp and my guidelines, my card fell together very easily.

I used a faux stitching along the edge, first putting down a line of tiny holes with a pattern tracing wheel and then drawing the stitches with a fine point pen. I couldn't find the small wooden buttons I wanted to use but that worked to my advantage because the star buttons I found had a nice country feel to them.  I was actually pleased with how this card came out.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stampin' Up, designer papers by DCWV, twine by May Arts, button from my stash, and colored with my old favorite Prismacolor pencils.  The wording along the stamp reads: Winter, a lingering season is time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sensational journey, and enjoy every idle hour. -John Boswell.

Women's Day

I heard that today was International Women's Day. 

So in honor of that, here's one for the ladies:

The Fine Print: What?!! Yeah, so he's cross-eyed and a little buck toothed, but he's a nice ass.  I though sweet little animals made ladies go "squee!"  Gosh, women are just so hard to understand.  Ass stamp by Copper Leaf Creations, greeting by Door County, faux brad by Stampin' Up, paper from my stash.

It's Friday! It's Friday

I'm not usually one of those people who jump all around and squeal about how it is Friday, but I am quite pleased that it is Friday today.  That makes me happy.

Not quite happy enough to ride around town with a kitty in a basket (because there be pollen out there) but pretty darn happy.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Penny Black from the Kitty's Day set, chevron embossing folder by Stampin' Up, paper flower by Prima, papers from my stash.  Have a good Friday!

Awwww...!

Yesterday's post was so long, that I'll keep this one short to try to even it out.

Here's a cute little puppy dawg to make you go, "Awwww...!"

See!

Short 'n sweet.

Kinda like me.

The Fine Print: Stop laughing.  I can be short 'n sweet.  You know, compared to someone taller and more disgruntled than me. Doggy stamp by Penny Black "A Romantic Dog," die by Stampin' Up, designer paper, flowers, small brads and big fat funky brad from my stash.

A Week of Workdesks

It's time for that weekly blog hop I enjoy so much, What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  Rather than bore you with the usual shot of my tidy desk I thought I'd prove to you that I do use my desk and get stuff out.  I decided to take a picture each day when my desk was at its messiest, which is kind of hard to decide when that is.

Above is a shot from the evening of last Wednesday's WOYWW post.  You can see that I've pulled a few things out since the morning and made a few cards.  I had already started to tidy up when I remembered that I meant to photograph first.

This is from Thursday evening.  I was pulling things out for a play date at a friend's house the next day.  I also got out a pile of St. Patrick's stamps and ribbons to remind myself to make something with it.

Friday night has all sorts of things pulled out, cards I made at my play date, cards I made last week, images, photos of snow on Valentine's Day (ick), embossing folders, dies, and my big green directory.

Saturday. You can see the Just Cards magazine I had out to garner inspiration from.  Sorry I didn't take this photo at a good angle to see what all is on there, but it appears to be a lot of the same stuff.  In fact, I didn't pick up my desk Friday or Saturday night.  I paid for it Sunday morning when the cats proudly showed me their crafting handiwork made by tossing the stuff I have off the desk.

Sunday.  I didn't feel like creating anything so I dragged out a bunch of old cards to package up to give to a friend.  I picked up this mess and then made another one after I got in the mood to make some cards.  Then I picked up that mess.

This is from Monday night when I started to play with the St. Patrick's Day stuff.  You can see that I still have some of the same stuff out on my desk, only tidier along the edges--the embossing folders, the cards, the stamps. The card in progress didn't get finished before I called it a night.

And last of all, my desk from Tuesday night which is how it looked this morning since I didn't get anything out. You can see the hanging heart piece that I won from Cindy's February blog giveaway and the pieces of the St. Patrick's Day card I'm working on.  I just tossed it together so you can get an idea of what it will look like. 

The Fine Print: St. Patrick's day stamp by DeNami Designs. Yeah, that's all I got today.

Weird Phenomena

The queerest thing happened this past weekend.  The sun didn't get up in the morning and the sky growled at us.  Then this watery wet stuff fell from it.  It was completely odd and possibly unnatural. 

That kind of weather reminds me of how as teens our mother would tell us, "Don't forget your rubbers!" which would send my little brother into peels of laughter.  We live in Southern Arizona, we don't have wet weather gear, which is a shame because I'd looked darling in a pair pink polka dotted boots like these.

The Fine Print:  Stamps by Taylored Expressions and papers from them too although they just kitted it together.  They didn't make the paper. They just made the paper come to me.