Easel card

Finally....it's been a while but I finally did make an easel card, which was a tutorial on S&S a bit ago....

I'm frantically prepping for the Tour this weekend....so I'm keepin' this short!

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*pant pant pant*

It's closing in on midnight and I almost forgot to post today! In a couple days, I'll have survived the first full 6 months of a card a day....wahooo!! Love it when a New Years resolution is doable, eh?

Today's card uses some *new paper*!!!! When I was at the cardmaking party Saturday, I gave away just a bit more paper than I had planned — though it was incredibly freeeeeeeing for it to be gone! So I treated myself to some new paper. I did buy some single sheets, and also a couple pads - this is from one of the latter. And it also uses the current sketch on the Stars and Stamps blog:

I added a little more paper and the sentiment inside, one I tried below and the other above - not sure which I like better? What do you think?

I've nearly finished the Independence Day video I've been working on...tomorrow I hope to get some exporting help from some video experts at work. The first one I tried exporting from this new software came out all kinds of fuzzy, so I'm hoping this one comes out nicely - I'm excited about it!

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Use it up!

I get on these kicks every once in a while to use stuff up. And right now - I am one determined chick! My dining room table is taken over - by piles of itsy bitsy bits! I need to get rolling on using them up. Some of it may end up in prize kits.....if I can find fun pieces that match. I did get rid of a lot this past weekend at the cardmaking party - I put out a box with piles of stuff in it and the ladies raided it - including my giant shoebox of patterned paper! So this week I get to finally go through my 12x12s and find some NEW stuff. I am so excitedddd!!!! Well, I get to do that after the scrap pile starts dwindling.

These cards today used up a halfsheet of rubons that someone gave me...yes, people do send me leftover half sheets of things. Not sure why, but I guess they know I can't throw anything out, and I'll use it! So here are some cards with these rubons...I'm not a fan of the product, but - as I said - can't toss it. So now one package is gone! :)

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Happy Columnists Day

Yes, sometimes inspiration comes from odd places! Today's National Columnists Day, so...here's a card with columns! I have tons of scraps piled up that I am *determined* to use up. As well as embellishments, and other bits and pieces. This is an odd image from Dustin Pike....and, uhm, I dunno what the sentiment would be on a flying monkey card? Maybe "Hide, Toto!!" lol. But....I saw this sentiment in my scrap pile, and decided that I'd use it - there's a particular marine who I think will enjoy sending this home - he'll be going on R&R in late summer, and this would be great to send to his son. At least I hope so---let's cross our fingers the child isn't traumatized by the flying monkeys scene in the Wizard of Oz!

 It promises to be another crazy week 'round here....it's almost Independence Day and I am sooooo not ready! The Tour needs tending and prepping, an eNews to write and produce, and most importantly - my 4th of July video! I can't believe June escaped me before I got around to working on that. We'll see what I can get done in just a few days....eeep! Maybe I need some flying monkeys to help me......

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Geeky thank you

This card is a bit of an inside joke. I survived a week-long training session at work, most of which didn't apply to me at all; I'm a graphic designer, and only needed to know how to export some files into a new system the company's instituting. But...I still got to sit through five long days of teaching on running production on the concatenation of one to many merged data from csv files exported to the boolean checker in the nested flow of the transformer array. Or something like that. I know they said a bunch of those words, but I'm not at all sure what order, or which are related to which! I just like sayin' stuff that makes no sense. And now I have a ton of unknown words that I can toss into conversation just to mess with people!

I was pretty much the comic relief, since I was so totally outta my element. But being also a cardmaker, I had the idea to make this little gem for everyone to sign for our trainer. He was a nice guy, very patient, sharing a ton of info with a team that asked a lot of questions and never seemed to come back from breaks on time. During a mind-melting session that lost my attention, I had busied myself by creating a crazy pattern in the workflow program (and of course I know nothing of what it means, but it was apparently quite funny to all the data people) - and I decided it'd be great patterned paper for his thank you card. It's probably the first time the guy's ever gotten a card for training somebody in a data project like this!

The signoff on the back of the card has this little tidbit; I had to laugh when I looked it up---because this was a word that became my "I have no idea what anyone's talking about so I'll just say concatenation and pretend I'm part of things" word. The definition is just precious. And seeing it on the back of the card got the biggest guffaws from the team!

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Get well soon!

This is a new image by MelJen - and I can see getting a lot of use out of it for our heroes! She makes the cutest digis! :) I had a lot of fun trying to create contrasting textures in the image too - fuzzy wuzzy bear (with head, cast, and one foot popped up), and the slick shiny balloons!

The challenge this week is to make a tag, or a bookmark, or a tag on a card, or...well you get the idea! And me being the overachiever had to do a bookmark as well as the tag card. The new release set is just so inspiring, I kept goin'! The flower I printed onto a piece of paper with the quote I found on the internet. Seemed perfect for a flower image! The flower was printed out a few times so I could pop the top layer of petals as well as the center of the flower even higher up. The scroll flourish is the last little piece of a Queen & Co self-adhesive felt embellie that you've seen in the last week or so on my blog. All gone now....*sniff*

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Moooooooooooooooooo

Nuff said, eh?

Okay so I can talk a little more maybe. I've gone paper-piercing-crazy lately, dontcha think? Something about distressing with piercing makes me feel like a card is totally 'finished' for some reason! The image here is another RAKd one....papers are scrappy bits and the sentiment is alpha stickers.

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Teacup of love

This card may look similar to the kit I posted recently - because it is! I simplified this one for the kit. But this is one I made for MelJen's lace/ribbon challenge, which got posted on her blog yesterday. I'm "on" every other week over there, but I'm making cards for each challenge because I'm just a little slow of brain—if I don't keep up with all the weekly challenges, I'm likely to forget which week it's my turn! But what a blast it is being on a team that's as talented as hers :)

Anyway, the card details...image by MelJen of course, colored with Copics, edged with distress ink and manual paper piercing. Papers are random stash bits. The sentiment was on a piece of patterned paper.

Thanks for being so faithful in following my blog...stay tuned next week, my blogaversary is coming and I'm trying (ha) to plan a week of special treats before then to celebrate!

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Bring out your bling!

Here I am just under the wire - again! lol. Though I'm pretty sure I posted a blingy thing here at some point this week, this one I did specifically for the challenge on S&S....the felt swirly things are from Queen & Co...background paper is yet another piece of my wax resist left from the hop, but with hand-drawn quilted stitching. Image is a RAKd one. And the butterfly punches are all blinged out! :)

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Sketch #22...lol

This is a Dustin Pike image....and I couldn't get this sentiment outta my head. Now that it's done, I can go back to normal cardmaking sentiments. :)

It's for this week's sketch on S&S...a nice simple sketch! (Note to self: make sure denim paper is turned the same direction next time....yeesh.)

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Miss you, Dad

I had a special treat this Father's Day....some photos that I'd stashed safely away have been found! And I didn't know these shots of my Daddy in his uniform were in the packet... :) :) :) In the photo above, he's in the 2nd row from the front, 2nd from left.

The photo of the whole unit has names on the back, so I'm going to do a little digging around :) Maybe I can find one of his fellow soldiers, who knows! But what a treat on Father's Day - discovering some surprise photos!

I made a card in honor of my Dad today....and with it I'll tell you a crazy little story! We were at the beach on vacation, and I think I was pretty small, perhaps not even in school yet. I was big on collecting seashells, and had my little bucket with me. I started scouring the beach for shells, and was looking and looking for pretty shells. At some point I was suddenly scooped up - by hysterical parents who thought I was lost! I remember telling them I wasn't lost at all — I knew exactly where they were at. (Even if I probably just hadn't had enough sense to know I was lost!)

So this little stamped image made me think of that day - and I hope that a deployed daddy thinks of his little girl at the beach and sends her this card. :)

(And by the way, this one is using last week's sketch..better late than never!)

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Happy Saturday!

It's been quite a busy one here in my little corner of the world! First this morning, the delivery fairies arrived with a new toy: my new washer and dryer!!!! Yay!! I bought it a week ago and was trying not to get overexcited; they were 'on order', and expected only one at a time to arrive, but they both got here. How fantastic!

Then I spent the day at my friend Dee's house, and 8 of us had a grand day. We made all kinds of cool projects....I wasn't sure what to expect, but the card I brought to share was wayyyyy easy compared to everything else! lol. Usually it's me who brings projects that are over the top - but we were using modpodge and beads,  folding boxes, altering books - it reminded me of my pre-OWH days!

I used to love making all kinds of crazy 3d projects....but since OWH came along, I now find myself being the one asking, "So...what did I just make that for?" We even talked about that today - people who don't understand art for art's sake....and I think I'm slowly becoming one of them! Ack! I surely enjoy making cool stuff like this, but I really found myself pondering immediately what I can use these things for, or who to gift them to, or would it survive a trip to the Middle East. Not sure if this is a good or bad change in me - losing that art-for-art's-sake sensibility does keep the clutter around my house from growing, and assures that my creative time is productive for a purpose. But I left the day feeling just a little less a 'success' than on a cardmaking day. I may have to do some pondering and assess the pros and cons of this change in my creative focus....and see if it's good or not. Let me know what you think?

And on that productive note, here's a card for you today. This one uses a RAKd image - anyone know who makes it? I think she's just adorable! The design is ubersimple....and as I'm typing this I just realised I never did a card with this week's OWH sketch! Ack. Guess that'll be tomorrow's card, a day late...

And one more thing to share today - I got my Hawaiian box of goodies from Joscie (rhymes with Bossy!) from the bloghop!! THANK YOU!!! MMMmmmmMMMmmMMM yummmmmy!!!

Off to work on some new digis....yes, did I tell ya I'm going to have a new set for the July 4th Blog Tour? When they're ready I'll let you know, go check the OWH Forum in the next few days to find out how you can get them before release day!

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New storage tote

Ahhhhhh the weekend! It's finally here :) It's been quite the week at work...I'm going to a training every day next week, so I've been madly trying to finish up things before the end of today—compressing schedules makes for one busy week!

After work I went to J's, and found a lot was on sale - it's so hard to use that 50% off coupon! I decided to spend the coupon on this tote....I seem to always think if I had the "right" organizing system I'd be more under control, so I'll try this. It might keep me from letting the dining room get outta control...other than my boxes of paper, everything needs to fit in here or go back to the craft room! :)

For those of you with Copics - what do you keep yours in? I think I'd really like to find a bucket like Sparkle's.....I'd love to see a photo of your system and tell me where you got it!

I spent a nice evening coloring and coloring tonight....only assembled one card though! I think I needed a colorfest :) This is a sweet lil hedgie, who I think is by Penny Black; it was yet another image in my RAKbox!

Gnight all!

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Shower of blessings

Today at work we're having a bridal shower for my sweet friend Katie....hard to figure out how to do that while working on everything else I've been buried under! But it's coming together, so by the time this post is published, I'll be heaving a wonderful sigh of a relief after a party well done! Here's the card that our team signed for her to go with the group gift:

I'm not sure who made this image, it was in a box of stamped images RAKd to me....but it's perfect for Katie's card! The challenge this week on MelJen's blog is lace - so my fake-lace-stamped-border might count for that one too!

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Just for you

I'm going to yet another stamping party this weekend...feels like it's been a marathon of them lately! This one is just 8 ladies, and we're each bringing a project for everyone to do. Got mine done! I still need to put together a goodie to put in the goodie bag for each as well....

The image is from MelJen Designs...and as you can tell, I am back on my kick of creating borders with my piercer again :)

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S&S Masculine throwdown

I'm working my way through a lot of stashed images...and I think I've pulled out all the really masculine ones! So I was delighted to get a packet from a friend yesterday - and it included this sentiment/image combo. I thought leaving it uncolored makes it a little more masculine.

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Happy Flag Day!

Hope you flew your colors proudly! And happy birthday ARMY!! :) The photo here is my flag this morning...gotta love the red white and blue. I wore my flag scarf today, and used the opportunity to be really obnoxious and wish everyone who looked askance at me a happy flag day. That's how I roll!

I have a bunch of stuff to do tonight, but had to make cards for the occasion of course....so I'll be up late tonight working on all that. Eeep! Oh well. I finallllllly got to use a very special stamp sent to me by the sweet owner of Stacy's Stamps - remember the story Eric told during the hop? Well Stacy thought I needed that eagle - so here it is, first inking! I combined it with a K&Co metal sentiment and a flag stamp by Rubber Monger. (Very very old stamp, but very very nice!)

When Stacy mailed me the stamp...just LOOK at the incredible card she included! Thanks so much for both the card and stamp, Stacy! You rock :)

And heaven forbid I let this cute digi freebie from Dustin Pike go by without a quick coloring....

So....that's enough for now. I gotta scoot and get some stuff done!!

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A little birdie told me....

...that it's time to post a card! Don't you just love this little punch set?

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Exhausted mojo

Today was our STD stamping group day - long crazy story behind the name but we think it now means Stamping Together Divas or something like that! :) We get together monthly for a day of creativity....and what a day! As always I hauled too much stuff with me - I took up a huuuuuge space and had junk spread out all over! (Sparkle, I sat in your chair, hoping to soak up some of the mojo that lives there! lol!) The pic at right is early in the day, the mess of supplies laid out all over.

The second shot is just the cards I made...minus about another 10 that I did before leaving. You might see the tank cards in there - I used this week's S&S Tutorial, or at least tried; they didn't come out as I had expected, but I still like what I got out of them! (The tank's a new stamp to me, but a very old one I picked up at Impress last week.) I also had a bunch of digis I'd colored - MelJen's, some Stamping Boutique, a Hambo....lots of random things in here!

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Another comin' home card

I spent a little time making cards tonight, but I need to get packin' boxes.....so here you go! These images were all colored over the last week or two, so it was some quick assembly :)

I finished up these for one more card kit for the party on the 26th....

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Mom's card...plus a Puppy Shower!

First, Mom's card! She's been joining in on our challenges, so til I get her set up with a blog, I can post her cards here....(note to self, don't forget to do the challenge this weekend!) Great job, Mom, I love that digi from Elizabeth Dulemba!

And yes, you read that right. Puppy shower! I went to a sweet little party for a sweet little doggie named Skye last night!

Here's the card Ciara and I made...unfortunately it rained, so the people had an inside party and the other dogs had to stay home. But we did get to play with Skye :)

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Blinnngggggg Challenge!

Today's my first official DT card for MelJen Designs...I am so stoked!!! I've written this post up early, will add links to the challenge when it goes live, and to the digipack too!

This card is made with a kitty out of the adorable new compilation of digis - Cat and Mouse digipack - released TODAY! It's so full of fun little stamps. I colored this one to be a black kitty, in honor of my dear departed Inkspot...she made friends with mice like this lil guy! She once brought a mama mouse IN the house....and it had babies IN the house! eeeeeeep! I woke up to the pitter patter of teensy feet running up and down the wood floor hallway, and since I was only half awake, I squealed when I saw what all the noise was all about. So I'm betting Miss Inkspot is keeping heaven a happy place with her mouse buddies.

The bling around the scallop is from some cool stickers by Stampendous I got at Michaels a while back - I need to go see if they still carry them, I'm running low! Just a buck or two for this sheet, from my recollection - it has a ton of stickers. They're kinda holographic, I wish I could capture the twinkle on camera!

So....go play along on MelJen's Bling Challenge - but y'all remember, no glitter for OWH cards! If you want to use it, make your Mama's birthday card...then get yourself back to making cards for our heroes :)

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Ride like a one-legged frog

It's been a really busy evening in the card hospital at my house! But....it's all cleaned out, aside from new hospital cards that checked into triage from today's mail. So at least I'm keeping ahead of things! This pile...

Turned into this pile....

And all of that means that tomorrow I should be able to start digging out the craft room mess, since at least all the boxes of cards in need of repair are gone! That room's a disaster, so I can't wait to tackle it and get back to stamping in there.

Here's an ubersimple card....the stamp's from a cute little set I just picked up at Layers of Color during the bloghop. They had a sale and donated a % of profits to OWH...so I "had" to shop, right? Stay tuned for more cards with the stamps I got there!

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MiniAlbum project for Andrea

I think I've told y'all before that I sponsor a bunch of kiddos around the world. My newest addition, Andrea, has a birthday the same as mine :) (I was working on a project at work and came across her info...the second I saw her birthdate, I called the 800 number and said she's mine!)

I wanted to send her a special treat, since she's my new lil buddy. A dear friend said something that totally inspired me today - she said that everyone loves pictures of themselves, but poor kids might not have pictures of themselves. I've sent lots of pics of me and my critters to my sponsored kids, but never sent them one of the child themselves. So....I'm going to be rectifying that!

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Stars & Stamps Pot of Gold

My card (ack, no stamping!?!?) for the Pot of Gold challenge...I finally got around to punching some birds :) This one was so hard to photograph, it looks much better in real life!

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Announcement!!

Hi everyone! I have some huge-a-mongous news....and I am so nervous! I just joined MelJenDesigns' DT!!! Ack! Yeah, am I nuts, taking this on? Probably. But I use Melissa's images so much that...well, what the heck!

Today's card image is one of Melissa's....it's this adorable Raggy Puppy, could he be any sweeter!! I've been thinking about embossing him since I got him, and now that there's an embossing challenge on her blog, I just had to try it. I colored the image with Copics first, trimmed it out; I trimmed out the nose so it wouldn't emboss. Then stuck his shnoz back on afterward.

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