I've Been Tagged, and I'll play, BUT:

~ and that's a big but- I don't go to enough blogs or know enough people with blogs to feel safe tagging anyone else. OTOH, I just love talking about myself, lol, so here goes!!

Things I Love:
1. Life
2. The family, the DH in particular, and the babies especially
3. Eli Lily Company- they are why I remain alive every day
4. Eating cookies and drinking coffee
5. Discussing politics, religion and philosophy, sharing a cider- or guiness when cider is not available

Things I don't love
1. When I mess up
2. Butter and mayonaise
3. Cigarette smoke
4. When the DH invites people over and forgets to tell me
5. The morning of the day of the night of work- did that make sense?

Songs on My I-Pod:
Don't have one. Our TV gets one channel. I listen to some talk radio, that's it. I do have a CD player, I mostly listen to Shaker music, and George Winston, some nature sounds CD's.

Favorite Foods/Drinks:
Am I limited to 5?
1. Cookies and coffee, alone but better together
2. Anything crunchy, chips in particular
3. Cider (the alcoholic kind!), Guiness if no cider is available
4. Chinese- General Tso's chicken, egg rolls, and pork fried rice served with cider or Guiness is a perfect meal in my eyes
5. Every evening around 6 pm, he calls 'dinners ready', and holds out a plate of food to me- considering, it's all my favorite and I tell him so!

House of Haunts

This is the Halloween card I made my daughter~ now that it has been delivered, I can show it here!

I started with SU Whisper White, and stamped the graveyard from Haunted House (SU 2000) with Versamark and Versafine Onyx Black, then quickly put a mask down and did the tree from this years House of Haunts the same way, then embossed them with clear embossing powder. I brayered YoYo yellow over the entire piece. Next I punched a circle with a Marvy punch, and sponged Only Orange (I think!- it was some orange from SU) all over. Lastly I sponged Basic Black- well, it coulda been Versafine, I forget it was so long ago, lol...- all around sort of in a circle.

Next I matted it on Only Orange, and popped it up onto a piece from Halloween Night paper. I used the key tag punch to male the corners. I threaded some 1/4 inch black grosgrain around and under the top layer, and tied a knot- then added a knot in Only Orange 1/4 inch grosgrain. I matted the entire piece onto Only Orange again, and put black brads in the corners. Lastly I made a square card from Basic Black, and put the entire 20 pound piece on that.

All products Stampin' Up! Halloween Night paper is from a while ago. Don't ask me how long ago, because then I would have to think about when it was, realize it was a long time ago, agonise over how quickly time is passing and how fast I am aging, and that makes me depressed... well, don't ask.

Moving the horse and hippie!

Testing 123: Where oh where did the grandchild go?

I did drag it, but there was no cut and paste with a right click- and dragging was not easy, and if it looks right it might have been accidental. Doing it in HTML was actually easier once I figured out what the 'code' was for the picture!

Don't Mind Me

I'm just testing some picture sizes, here. These are the grandchildren, having fun in a costume class at a local stable.

Polka Dot Cheers

I had pieces of polka dot cards- yeah, and pieces of candy, lol!- on my table this morning, so I put this one together. My brain is awash in dots, and I think I will vacuum or something to try and get beyond them!

I have to make a challenge card, send some photos to my DD from yesterdays horse show, get Halloween packages ready to mail or deliver, and make about 20 baby cards. I think I have 2 days to get these projects done. I have to get dots out of my head, lol!

Stamps: 2008 Tag Set: Papertrey

Inks: Ripe Avocado: Papertrey

Paper: Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Holiday vintage 8 x 8,: Papertrey; Diagonal Stripe: Basic Grey 6 x 6

Other: Pure Poppy Twill: Papertrey; Liquid Pearls Ruby Red: Ranger; Border Punch: Fiskars; Hole Punch: McGill; Scallop and Circle Punches: Marvy

Random thoughts about blogging

OK, now I am going to wax philosophical- As I was blog hopping last night, it occurred to me that there was an incredible amount of creative things out there to see, but it takes forever to go see and comment on it. You can lose hours looking! I am aware that being on the computer too much takes away from creative time, and maybe I do a little too much replicating of what I have seen on blogs- and mostly I forget what I have seen earlier when I am on for too long.

BUT: and you knew there was a but, right? I have come to really like showing off my stuff, lol. I love comments! I love viewers! I am sad when I put something up and get no comments! I wnat everyone to come see and enjoy! How's that for a contradiction?

If anyone out there can tell me how to upload a photo into the middle of text, please let me know. When I choose None for where the photo goes, I can't figure out how to move it-

Papertrey Blog Hop!!

Oh my gosh, it looks like that logo is going to be there where I wanted it to be! Who says you can't teach an old fog new tricks? Or was that dog?

Well, now I tried to add some candy to eat while you are here, but it isn't where I wanted it to be, lol... woof woof woof.

PseudoDots

Doesn't it look dotty? Really, it's just the ribbon doing it! I sliced the edges of every other block on the Papertrey paper from the Holiday set, then wove the Swiss Dots Ripe Avocado and Pure Poppy ribbons through. The little dots on the sentiment (from the Believe set) are done with Perfect Pearls Ruby Red.

To get as much ribbon and dots as I could, I had to go with a biggo card- finished sixe is almost 7.5 x 6.25. it would only have cost me $89.00 to mail, but since I put a bow on it, well now it will probably cost me $89.99.

Baby Dots

Here's a perfect example of my 'if it looks plain, put polka dots on it' mathmatical formula. Ok, there are not dots on the boat bottom, but I can fix that if you like!

I have lots more ideas, but they will have to wait until tomorrow! There are 2 cards in pieces, and a bag of candies sitting on my table. Company is due in 5 minutes, and he says I have to come now and help. What does he want? I lit all of the pumpkins already, and the candles in the Living Room are lit. Really, that's all I know how to do.

The boat is from a Cuttlekids die, isn't it cute?!? the background paper and the sun are from Papertrey's Polka dot papers. The waves (Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides) I dotted with Polka Dot Basics. The blue sails are a paper from the craft store, the flag is Pure Poppy Dots ribbon, and the stork stamp is I don't know who and I am late for dinner!

PapertreyInk's Blog Hop

I've been thinking about Polka Dots today. Lots of polka dots. where can I put polka dots? Can I mix sizes of polka dots? Why am I thinking about polka dots? Because of Papertrey's Blog Hop, of course! You can read about the blog Hop at Papertrey, here.

Of course there are millions of ways to highlight polka dots, and Papertrey just released a set of polka dotted papers. At the moment my table is covered with little circles I punch out with a hole puncher. don't ask my what I was thinking- I'd have to pick them up with tweezers, touch a glue pen to them, and line them all up perfectly somewhere... yeah, I don't think so!

Instead, I started with an easy way to do polka dots, lol! I started with an older SU In Color blue, and paired it with Papertrey's new Ocean Tides cs. Next was to use a Cuttlebug embossing folder and die- Welcome Baby (they come together). Next was a scalloped square, then layer on a paper pieced duck from Papertrey's Bitty Baby blessings set- done!

Papertrey's Ripe Avocado!

I wonder if I order stamping things just because I love to open the boxes. There is something so...so...so... well, I don't know what the emotion is, but there it is every time I open a box with color pouring out.

Ripe Avocado is one of Papertrey's October releases. It is a beautiful color, and one I think I will go to often. The ribbons are some of the best PTI has released to date.

'Regal' was the word that came to me as I was undoing the ribbons- and that reminded me of the Anna Griffen style. I had some of her paper and stamps, and lo and behold- the 2 new colors looked pretty good with this one!! I also used SU's So Saffon (or was it Apricot Appeal??) and the threading Water punch by Fiskars. I sewed a thread through the center of the Swiss Dots ribbon, and pulled at both ends to get the ruched ribbon. 97 glue dots hold the bow in place.

Since I work with babies and new moms, I know what the card is all about~ but let me know if you think I should put a little bald head sticking out of the basket, lol lol!!

Newest Papertrey color

Papertrey released two colors in October, Ocean Tides and Ripe Avocado. They were very regal sitting nect to each other in the box. Of course, that could have also been the effect of 10 rolls of matching ribbon spilling out of the box, too! The Avocado is deeper than SU's Old Olive, but along the same color 'line', I'd say. In the photo above, I placed a spool of Aqua Mist twill under the Ocean Tides twill, I hope you can see the color difference. I'll try and work with the RA today. Actually, I tried last night, but got too tired- the first thing I thought of was Anna Griffin, and pulled out papers and tried to make something work... well, I'm sure you know the story- you just end up looking at stuff as your head sinks into your chest. So! I'll try again today!

The snowflake card uses both Snowfall and Snowfall Additions, and the sentiment is from Believe. The Ocean Tides card is stamped with Ocean Tides ink, and many of the snowflakes have glitter glue or a glitter pen on them. The center medallion is from the 2008 Tag Set, stamped on white with Ocean Tides ink, punched out with the Blue Marvy scallop punch, and Dazzling Diamonds around the edges. Ribbons are Ocean Tides of course. The sentiment is stamped on with SU's Whisper White craft. Again, if you blow up the photo, you should be able to see all of the glitter.

It's A Stretch

With the end of this SU catalog looming, these may be the last cards I create as samples. I wanted to show how one set, with one layout, can make lots of cards. I didn't use sentiments on all of them; it is true a sentiment set would be needed with It's A Stretch- so, 'one set' isn't quite true. that's a mere technicality, I hope!

The first card uses the stocking, colored with SU markers. it is mounted on the green stripe from Summer Picnic, and stamped with Merry Christmas from... um... ok, too lazy to go look at the name of the set, lol... but it's in the catalog. Brads are the red from bold brights.

The pink card uses paper from Pink Pirouette DSP, some Bashful blue, and a bit of Pink gingham ribbon. I used one teensy tiny bead from the Pink/White bead set, and colored with pastels over Versamark. Easy and quick!

4 Cards, One Layout

The silver card using the tall cake is meant to be a wedding congrats- inside I put a litle piece in silver at the bottom with a punched half circle at the upper edge, forming a little pocket to put a check or cash into. It's just touched a little with a Pretty In Pink marker, then with a Versamark pen and some Dazling Diamonds along the edges. I think the Going Gray taffeta ribbon looks good with the metallic silver cs.

The pink 'spring' card could be a Get Well or Happy birthday, it highlights the scallop border punch, but lol, I suggest you make the border first, then cut your layer to start and end with dull scallops. The image is colored with Watercolor crayons, the green layer is Certainly Celery.

Yesterday's SU party!

Yesterday was the SU catalog party at Sandy's house (also known as LittleMable on Papertrey's forum!). In really getting ready, I decided that fine cutting and glitter required for the blue snowperson bag I showed you earlier this week might be too much for the less experienced. So! I changed the colors and stamp, and made it just a tad bit easier. I think the reults are very cute!

Making cards and projects at a workshop is always fun, but Sandy had food that was out of this world! Little pretzels with Rolos melted on them and pecans squished on top will be on my holiday table this year!!

I made a red bag while I was at the workshop, so when I got home I took a few moments to finish it. Of course, working by myself and for myself, I could add glitter! Here is a close up of red and gold Stickles on the front layer- also added some Old Olive ink around the edges. If you click on the photo, I think you will be able to see the glitter in the close up.

Candy Bars!!

We needed a little something to stick out of the purses, and candy bars seemed to fit the bill! They are full sized bars, wrapped in Holiday Treasures and Chocolate Chip paper, then decorated with tags from Punch Pals and Deer Friends; a Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon finishes them off!

Last SU Only card!

Isn't this the cutest image? It's from Punch Pals, a set we will perhaps highlight this weekend at a SU catalog party. Once I had the layout figured out, it went together very quickly. Not sure if you can see it, but I stamped the snowflakes from the set onto the paper (from Summer Picnic) with Versamark, then embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. The layers are Chocolate Chip and Riding Hood Red. The snowflakes are from the Winter Mini, of course. I did very little to the snowman, but did take the glue pen and made 3 swipes along his left side, and embossed with iridescent Ice there, too. His nose and hat have just a wee touch of markers to give him a hint of color.

Read down to see some of the other cards that will go on the board, but that's all from this bout of muse, lol!

Another SU Only card~

Well, sometimes things work and sometimes, well, they look a little limp. I wanted to show off the new label die, so I made a background paper with the positive image from the Cardinal set, using Real Red and Old Olive markers. I colored the bird with Riding Hood Red ink and a blender pen. I think that the colors are close enough that it worked from a 'match' stanpoint.

Then what to do?? I'll have to go search web sites to see how others are tying ribbon around the label, lol, becuase you can see I had some difficulty!

Cutest Little Bag!

I can hear you all going 'oohh' and 'aahh'! So now that you are done, know this: I shamelessly copied it from Sue Robertson, you can see her card here . Because this will part of our SU Board that goes to SU parties, I just changed the colors to this years In Colors, and didn't use a CB. I did use the snowflakes from the Holiday mini.

It's so cute in real life, and would hold 2 candy bars~ I'll get 2 and put wrappers on them, then we can eat the candy on the way home, lol! If I get time, I'll make a little card to match!

Papertrey Guest Star Stamper entry- October

Here is the first of two GSS entries for PapertreyInk's october release night. Hey! that would be tonight!

I made this card at the same time I made the other alcohol inks; this one just came out a bit browner. I cut a yellower portion out with a Coluzzle circle, stamped the Witch from Spooky Sweets II, stamped the clouds from Stampscapes, and edged the moon a bit with sponged on Archival Jet Black. It is popped up on another piece of the inked paper which is also stamped with the clouds and edged in black ink. The layers are an orange from Bazzil, and a black gigundo paper I get from my local stamp/paper store.

This card concludes the best of the Halloween alcohol inks, lol... yesterday I made some pink and blue inked papers using Copic refills- hadn't tried that before and it worked! It's a bit of work for baby cards, though- I also bought some red and green Copic refills, so watch for inked Christmas cards!

Papertrey Guest Star Stamper submission(s)

Well, it's 1930 ET here, so I suppposed it is ok to upload this months entries into the Papertrey Guest Star Stamper contests. Every month I swear I am not going to play, I always do, I never win, but I'm always glad I did it! Actually, I won an Honerable Mention once, and being on Nicholes blog was much better than a free stamp set, lol lol lol!! That was like rubbing elbows with the famous!

Anyway~ I made these from white blank Christmas balls from Michael's. I dabbed alcohol inks with blobs of gold onto the balls. For the Red one I stopped there, made 2 acetate snowflake tags like Jennifer Holmes did with her snowman box for last months blog hop (see her blog Simple Flourishes on the side bar), then tied Pure Poppy ribbon on. Be careful, when embossing on acetate you have to make sure you have heat resistant acetate!

The Aqua Mist ball was another alcohol ink that matched well enough, then I gold embossed the small snowflake from Snowflake Seranade around the ball, and rather than tie a bow I just made a big hanging loop with the Aqua Mist ribbon. Two more Snowflake Seranade acetate tags, this time edged with a gold pen completed it~

Wow! October 14th and 2 Christmas gifts done! I will make 2 acetate boxes at some point and if I buy the tag set being released this month- well then! Ding Ding! Christmas here we come!

3 Cards with One Set!

The DD is doing a Stampin' Up! catalog class this weekend,and I thought we should have some samples from the Holiday mini and the Fall/Winter catalog. Not knowing how experienced the group will be, I thought I'd show how one set could be used a couple of different ways.

I used A Wish For Piece, Whisper White and Kiwi Kiss paper, and Black Staz-on , Kiwi Kiss, and Night of navy inks. The ink on the trees is put on with a Blender Pen, same with the sky. The yellow in the church windows is done with a Summer Sun marker. The Kiwi layer is just eyeballed, and the ribbon is just knotted- to save ribbon. I did put the image up on dimentionals, but it could just be layered with Tombow to save costs.

I think 3 ink pads, a pack of Whisper White and Kiwi Kiss paper, ribbon, a Blender pen plus a marker would do it- a pack of 40 sheets of white paper would yield 80 cards... I'd have to do the math on how many spools of ribbon it would take to do 80, lol... but still, I think this is a pretty and pretty easy card!

This is essentially the same card, but with an extra bit of layering, 2 colors of ribbon, and a tag. The tag is stamped from Punch Pals, and punched out with the word Window punch. The brad is the red from Bold Brights, doesn't look bad here! Without the tag, this card would only add the cost of the Riding Hood Red paper, and a spool of Kiwi Kiss ribbon.

The third card is a close CASE from page 38 of the Fall/Winter catalog. It uses the second image from A Wish For Piece, and includes the Soft Holly wheel. Color was added with the blender Pen and the Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red ink pads. If you click on the card, you will be able to see a teensy bit of Kiwi sticking out from under the holly. The front is a teensy bit shorter than the back so that when the card is closed, there is an equal amount of red showing below the green. Obviously, the scallop circle punch, White Signo pen, and 1/4 inch grosgrain would also be needed for this card!

A Framed Witch

What a pleasant surprise to be included in one of the "Best Of The Week' posts on SCS! I thought if someone liked the previous Halloween card made with alcohol ink backgrounds, they might like this one as well!

The finished dimension of this is 6 X 8, so I thought it would work well framed, instead of a card.

The alcohol inks are a combination of Pinata and Adirondack, the witch stamp is Inkadinkado, the clouds are from Stampscapes. The background paper is imported, probably Italian??

I hate how when you photograph at an angle, the layers get warped~ it really is straight, lol!

10 thanks cards~

That concludes the series of 10 Thank You/Gratitude cards for the sailors. Today is Thursday, they will go out in the mail to Nicole on Saturday!

Now, back to the spooky Haloween projects!!

Fall Leaves

I've been wanting to make a punched wreath- Claire (Waltzingmouse on the sidebar) did one a while back and I loved it! This seemed like the perfect time to try!

I was now at the end of the second day, and confess I was running out of steam. So, I apologize for the not so good sentiment in the hodgepodge, lol... I just wanted to be done!

The red paper is PapertreyInk's newest color, Pure Poppy. In just a few days, there will be a new realease, and I am hoping for a green to match!!

Stamps: None

Ink:None

Paper: PTI's Pure Poppy, First Fruits; SU's Old Olive

Other: Michael's ribbon, Carl leaf punch, SU Hodgepodge Hardware

Inked Leaves

I hadn't used the leaf stamp in the set, so golly, I did! I inked it using SU's markers, and stamped it leaving a space for the sentiment. Close To My Heart's ovals popped into my brain, and don'tcha know, it fit just swell! Golly gee whiz, if sure came out pretty using the Fisrt Fruits leaf paper.

Fun, but I'm still voting democratic!

Stamps: PapertreyInk First Fruits, CTMH Random Thoughts
Ink: Stampin Up! markers
Paper: PTI First Fruits; SU Very Vanilla; Unknown print
Other: unknown brads, ribbon

Alcohol Ink Background

I have been making alcohol ink backgrounds, getting ready for Halloween cards, and this one was sitting right next to me, and gosh, it looked like it could hold a wheat stalk just fine. So here it is! I used a Prism (I think) green cs, and a printed paper. The Thankful sentiment is embossed in gold, and edged with a gold pen- quick and easy!

Stamps: PapeertreyInk First Fruits
Inks: Archival Ink Coffee, Library Green; Adirondack & Pinata alcohol inks
Paper: Kromekoat, Prism, unknown print
Other: gold Embossing powder, gold Pilot pen

Wheat, again

I was tired, the day had to come to an end or I was going to fall over. This one was quick and easy. It's amazing how much space wide organdy can take up!

A Different Wheat Stalk

After 6 Cards, I confess, I was a wee bit tired of First Fruits. My heart wandered; my eyes flickered~ flickered right over to my fall stamps- and there it was. A brand new, never inked cluster of wheat. Well, maybe hay, but whatever. I couldn't resist.

I again used SU's markers, and stamped on SU's Very Vanilla. While I am a fan of Papertrey white and vanilla cardstock, the shear volume and amount of cutting and punching required in this series made me grab for the thinner SU this time.

Stamps: Inkadinkado 97205 DD; Papertrey Mixed Messages
Ink: SU markers; Papertrey Dark Chocolate
Paper: SU Very Vanilla; Papertrey Pure Poppy, First Fruits; Unknown green print
Other: Twine, brads

Happy Halloween!

Now then! Here is an example of what I like to do best- dark, scary...oh, sorry, only kidding.

I love to make background papers. That's right, I only stamp so I can use the papers I make.

The Inkadinkado bat and sentiment are stamped on a background of alcohol inks on Chromekote. The moon was cut from one piece, and layered on a second piece that was done with the same colors, plus black. The second layer down is stamped with clouds from Stampscapes. I use Archival Ink in Jetblack- Archival inks work very well on alcohol inks.

These two layers then went on a piece of painted paper. That piece is rice paper, painted with Jacquard Lumiere and Neopaque paints. Ribbon is from Michaels, one of their Halloween rolls. I hadn't planned on doing the Happy Halloween sentiment, but had to cover up a bit of a boo-boo in the inked piece. I don't often use ribbons, but hey, it's Halloween!

Cute Little Baby!

Now that the Thanks cards are done, I need to get back to baby cards. I like to take about 10 per week; I only have 3 in my bag. It is 9:30 pm. I go tomorrow. This is not good math. But! I did this one while listening to the TV downstairs. I do have to be careful. I usually wear hearing aids, but am out of expensive batteries. Since I can barely hear it, I have to really pay attention to the sounds, and can get distracted from the cards. This phenomenon is exhibited here, where you can see little smears around the wheels. I stamped in Versafine Onyx Black then heat dried. while not paying attention, I grabbed Prisma Color Markers- oops, alcohol makes the Versafine smear. Well, hopefully no one but me can see it.

Stamps: Hampton Art

Inks: Versafine Onyx Black, Prisma markers

Paper: SU Very Vanilla, 2 Frances Meyer prints

Other: Pink Magic Mesh, Pink organdy ribbon, shiny brads

Little Baby

Have you ever cleaned off your desk, and had the pieces of a card float down from the rafters, practically making itself in front of you? That's what happened here. I had stamped and colored 2 babies like this last week, the leaves were the beginning of a thanks card that didn't come together, and the K&C package of embellishments was left over from baby card making a while ago. As I was cleaning up today- bing!- I realized it all worked together. The green card was going to hold a wreath I made as a thanks card (you'll see in the next dew days). I was trying to cut a hole so you could see through the wreath to the sentiment inside. yeah, well, that didn't work. But hey! Put the baby in that window looking out! Maybe you can't see the background behind the baby, but it is a polka dot, and is the background cardboard from the package of embellishments! ha! I love it!

Stamps: Close To My Heart- Baby Miracles; Papertrey- Beautiful Blooms; Savvy Stamps- sentiment

Ink: PTI- Dark Chocolate; SU's Watercolor Crayons

Paper: Unknown premade textured card, SU's Very Vanilla

Other: K&Co- embellishment ball, packaging cardboard, SU's Word Window punch, Handmade flower photo corners (no maker) with corner cut off

Another Acorn

Now, I had one acorn image that I thought could be salvaged, but it was kind of stickly. Stickly is my new word~ the marker ink had separated on the stamp, then the stamp stuck to the paper, and well, it looked kinda like alcohol inks with white showing through. Not bad, just different. It called for a different kind of background, I thought.

So I grabbed the great, wonderful, perfect leaves from PapertreyInk's Beautiful Blooms (you can buy it here , and you'll find First Fruits there as well) and just colored around with SU's markers. I also used some Old Olive from a cube and Pallette Landscape to give some depth. I added a piece of the Gratitude paer since it is, after all, a Thanks for You card. Little bit of twine, couple of brads, punched little holes in the scallops- done!

Stamps: Papertrey First Fruits
Ink: Various and sundry, see above
Paper: SU Very Vanilla, PTI First Fruits and Dark Chocolate; unknown green print
Other: brads and twine

Number 4

After I did the 3 wheat cards, I decided I wanted to work with the acorn. I often make bad decisions in cardmaking, lol, and this was one! think about it- an aacorn is brown~ well, when they are in the tree and first come down, they have a little bit of green around the nut, but they still are brown. I searched around, and found Jennifer's mini family album, you can see it here
(I've sent you to the first page, you may need to go back to see it, but you should look at all of her wonderful thongs, anyway). The thing I love about her album is how the circle with the acorn sticks over the side, and you use it to open the book. Hold that thought.

I tried making a scallop front like her book by using the SU scallop border punch. I love the punch, but it took away a lot of the card front. So much so I had to trim down the baack of the card. I stamped the acorn many times, and didn't like many of them, lol, I have lots of little acorn parts in the trash this morning! It just came out way too brown every time. I mean, these cards are not meant to be depressing, right?

When I was done, I had one of those 'Dang' moments- I had planned to put the acorn circle sticking off of the edge like she did~ how did I forget to do that? I work in the upstairs of my house, with no windows, and very little airflow. I can only blame it on lack of oxygen.

Stamps: Papertrey First Fruits
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, SU markers- Chocolate, Creamy CAramel, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive
Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Kraft; PTI Dark chocolate; unknown green print
Other: SU scallop punch, PTI Chocolate satin ribbon

Third Card~

With two cards done, I took a break and went into the Papertrey forum to see what others had created. I bet I spent 2 hours, and realized my brain was being sucked into the computer, and the day would end quicker than usual if I didn't stop. I figured if I just did a card quickly, the hours lost in surfing wuoldn't count!

this one I roughed up a little around the edges, mostly to hide an irregular cut I made by accident. The print of the larger scale Gratitude paper is such that it is best used in large pieces, and works well here. The under layer is PTI's Chocolate, as is the ribbon.

Second Thanks Card

I had stamped three sheafs of wheat, so I went on to do this one~ inked and colored the same way, but layered a llittle differently. I used SU's Old Olive as the under layer- the color is not quite right for PTI's 'olive'. I am hoping they will have paper and ink to match in October's release, since this greeen also shows up in last months Holiday papers. It's a lovely shade of green, and I need that paper! 6 brads finished it off. Very quick!

Stamps: Papertrey First Fruits
Ink: See above, lots of different inks!
Paper: Papertrey First Fruits, SU Very Vanilla and Old Olive
Other: SU brads

Thanks Giving Cards

Yesterday and today I spent celebrating World Card Making Day or Week, whichever you prefer! Nicole (mtisme on Papertrey's forum) thougth it would be nice to send her husbands detail some thanksgiving cards... did I say this already? I have done 10, and aother than putting some nice things inside and signeing the backs, they are ready to go!

I will post 2 tonight, and the rest in the coming days-

this first one is pretty much a copy from Debbie Olson's, seen here. I added some SU Hodegepodge Hardware. This particular hardware is not available any more, but it's pretty basic. You might not be able to see int he photo, but the wheat sheaf was stamped by inking in multiple colors; Iused SU markers. The center color is PTI's Lemon Tart sponged on.

Stamps: Papertrey First Fruits

Ink: All SU- Really Rust, More Mustard, Real Read, Chocolate Chip PTI: Lemon Tart, Pure Poppy

Paper: PTI First Fruits, SU Very Vanilla

Other: PTI Summer Sunrise ribbon; SU Hodgepodge Hardware

I've been tagged...

...and yes, it does freak me out. Jennifer of simple Flourishes tagged me, you can see all of her creations here.

The rules are:
1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here are 7 things about myself. I can do that part. It's the linking, and all of the computer stuff, that I have no idea how to do! Gosh, I do not know 7 bloggers well enough to tag them, lol!!!

Oh let's see, I really am -bor-ing.

1. For 12 years I traveled and lectured for a living.
2. I am sewing on an antique Singer Featherweight machine (my million dollar machine is kaput).
3. I do not know how to cook.
4. I have 3 articles published in journals, and have been referenced in other journal articles.
5. I have a tough time convincing myself I must co-exist with all animals- like mice and snakes.
6. I buy magazines, and only look at the pictures.
7. I really, honestly, rarely vacuum or dust.

Wait, that was really 8 or 9, lol!!

World Card Making Day!

Today is World Card Making Day, and I have been busy! Now, I worry about misplaced modifiers, and maybe cardmaking is really one word, but grammer aside... wowser, I've done well!

I have volunteered to make 10 (I think) cards to send to a detail of folks on a boat somewhere~ they'll be gone for all of the Holidays, and need little packages to cheer them up! So my 10 cards will be sent to Nichole on the Papertrey forum, and she will mail them off to her husband and his det. Actually, I don't know what a det. is, but I know they need thanks from us!

I've done 6 so far today, and should be able to get close to 10 by bedtime. I'll post them all later, but thought it would be fun to photograph them as they sit on the shelf~ they all use PTI's First Fruits stamp set and paper, and various and sundry inks, ribbons, paper, and some hardware.

I fiddled around with my camera settings, I will be interested in how you see this picture- let me know!

Another One!

I'm still way behind in doing the challenges~ every time I get one done another challenge gets posted, lol!

I tried to make the circles look like rattles~ this is another photograph that if you click on the photo, it will come up clearer.

I think I will shop for a new camera this weekend!

Stamps: SU Figures of Speech; Papertrey Trajan Monogram

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, SU various Bold Brights

Paper: SU WW; PTI Plum Pudding, DCWV Glitter Girly Little flowers

Other: Various tiny beads, Offray ABC ribbon and wide white Grosgain ribbon; Signo White Uniball pen, SU 1 and 1 .5 inch punches, SU 1/4 inch grosgrains

Casual Midweek Challenge # 16

My mojo seems to be napping today~ I struggled to get two cards out today! I musta stayed up late listening to the debate! Sarah Palin tried to convince me she is just like me, lol, and I am in no way ready to be the Vice President. I'll vote Democratic this time, just like every other time, lol.

If you are wondering why almost all of my cards are baby cards: My daughter and I make and sell about 40 cards per month to the hospital where I work. Each family gets a 'welcome baby' card signed by the staff who have cared for them. I like the cards to be all different but often run out of ideas; doing challenges are a good way to keep the cards diverse.

The hospital where I work has recieved the award of Baby-Friendly from the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative of the USA. You can read about the designation of Baby-Friendly here. One of the components of being Baby-Friendly is to not promote bottles or pacifiers. As such, none of the cards we make have pacifiers or bottles.

Well, I hope you like this one! The photo does not show that the background is stamped all over with yellow polka dots~ I just love polka dots!

Stamps:Papertrey Favor It Baby, Borders and Corners Circle; Stampin Up! Along The Same Lines

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; SU Baha Breeze, Apricot Appeal; PTI Summer Sunrise

Paper: PTI Lemon Tart; SU Whisper White, Baha Breeze

Other: SU Baha Breeze Striped Grosgrain ribbon

Ghoulish Gorey

Bear with me, I am trying to figure out how to take photographs, how to edit them, and how to upload them so they look the same! This post is really about the photos, lol!!

This is a quick, very ghoulish haloween card! I am an Edward Gorey fan, and this is a stamp from the story ' The Ghasliecrumb Tinies'. Well, I might not have spelled that right- Just a very plain card, using very few supplies. The lined paper is from Stampin Up! a few years back. Only Orange and Basic Black cs, and a Sizzix banner die. Some scalloped ovals, and that's it! Took me longer to photograph, fiddle, and upload!

I do think that the resolution is better if you click on the pictures to get an isolated look- then hit the back button to go back to the post.

Thoughts about my cards~

So, does this happen to you? You make a card, you think it's pretty good, you take a photo and upload it- still not bad. You back out of the page and go back in- and WHAM! You immediately see how much better it could have been. You immediately see how crooked the layers are. You immediately see how things don't really flow. You feel embarrassed, and inadequate. You can't talk to anyone at home, because, frankly, they have no clue. You can't call any stampers you know because you don't really want them to see it.

Sigh. I should have made it 'Cards by Annonymous'.

On a cheerier note, today I went to a local quilt shop, and got some of the most wonderful Christmas flannel fabric you have ever seen! I went to get just a wee bit more fabric to make up 8 more pillowcases (no stamping, thank you!), but fell in love with the christmas flannels. I came out with $90.00 worth, but it put me in such a good mood! How's that for retail therapy, lol!!!

Better yet, jmasse told me how to make words a link, and she is so clever! It works!

Close To My Heart Baby Miracles

I saw the cutest baby card over in the SCS gallery last night, you can see it here:
made by somebody named heyjudet. (Now if I could just figure out how to rename that!) I wanted a culturally correct card today, and I thought her card would fit the bill! Once I decided on the papers to use, it went together quickly!

I am still not happy with my photos, I've tried everything other than get a new camera. I don't think the light box photos are all that better than the non, and it's another thing to get out, lol-

Stamps: CTMH Baby Miracles, SU Bundle of Joy, Papertrey Beautiful Blooms

Paper: SU Sentimental Journey (ret), Bordering Blue, So Saffron

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, SU Old Olive, SU Watercolor Crayons

Other: Netabilities for Baby layer and mat, SU grosgrain ribbons, Unknown buttons (probably Jesse James from Michaels)