Snowpocalypse!

Well, my son woke up this morning after sleeping a record 14 1/2 hours (!) and seems to be feeling fine this morning. He drank a ton of water shortly after getting up, but otherwise seems normal. I'm grateful it seems to have been a short-lived bug. Plus I got some much-needed extra sleep--my hubby has been traveling this week and sleep is usually the first thing to go when single parenting!

The only bummer of the morning is that I wanted to go grocery shopping with my Phil and Ted's stroller because of the greater basket capacity, but as I pulled it out, I realized that the other tire had blown as well (one of the rear tires blew a few weeks ago after my husband over inflated it--sounded like a bomb went off when it blew!-- and we had to replace it). Oh well. Thank goodness for the internet, where one can replace parts on an Aussie stroller pretty easily. So out came the umbrella stroller, which was okay, but definitely left a bit to be desired in the basket department. But we have a major snowpocalypse on the way (12" expected tonight!) and we needed food for the onslaught!


Today's card was made using the Colour Q color challenge for this week, which was to use Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Old Olive, Baja Breeze and white. I liked the challenge of incorporating the Baja Breeze into the other colors, which already seemed to suit one another. I had a cordouroy Baja Breeze button left over from a swap from last year and decided that would be the accent. The card design is basically CASEd from the last issue of Stampin' Success, which is the magazine that Stampin' Up! sends to all its demonstrators every month. I just changed the colors and textures, plus a few little details.

Supplies:
Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Old Olive, Whisper White cs
Sanded, Razzle Dazzle stamp sets
Old Olive, So Saffron ink, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, So Saffron markers
paper snips
rhinestone brad, baja breeze cord button (retired), So Saffron 5/8" grosgrain ribbon (retired, 2009 SAB)
metal edge ruler for distressing

A wild and crazy afternoon

It's been a wild afternoon at our house. My two year old woke up from his nap and promptly threw up, and then threw up 4 more times in the next hour, freaking himself out every time and necessitating a LOT of laundry. So even though we don't have a television, I let him sit on my lap for about 45 minutes and watch Sesame Street clips on Hulu to keep his mind off his stomach. He wanted to go to bed early and has been quiet since, but I've been running around cleaning up all the messes and keeping the washing machine busy.

The card I made for the Saturday cinema challenge was one of those cards that just did not want to be made. The challenge was to use silver and blue, and the inspiration was the movie Titanic. I tried yesterday and came up with the card below, which I didn't like at all. I thought that the car reminded me of the car that was hoisted onto the ship and later part of a memorable love scene. I let it sit for several hours to see if it would grow on me, and it didn't. I think it needed more color or something. So I dismantled it and set out supplies for a new card for today, which I made while my son was napping and before all the fun began. This one just uses blue and silver, which I generally think look good together. I also pulled out my Serene Snowflakes set from the last Holiday mini catalog (also bought at the 11th hour!). Originally the layout didn't have a sentiment, but I thought it looked kind of bare without one, so I added the "Thanks", which was a SAB set I got in January. I'm not sure I like it where it is.

I'm still not totally satisfied with it, but it will do for now. I think after working with all the color challenges of the last week, this card is too monochromatic or something. Maybe it will grow on me in time.

In any case, given the day, I'll just be glad I made a card today. Tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it.
Edited: I couldn't leave it alone, so I redid the central panel (the crooked snowflake bothered me), reoriented the card and changed the sentiment. And I think it works better now!

Owl on an Easel

I received Forest Friends yesterday with a Sale-A-Bration order and had some fun playing around with it last night. I needed to come up with a Make-N-Take for our monthly Philly Inker's meeting next Monday and also had in mind to make an easel card--suddenly these babies are everywhere! You can find a tutorial here.


The make-n-take came together pretty easily (I'll show that off next week after the ladies have had a chance to make it!) but I struggled a lot with this card. I had been stamping with Creamy Caramel for the make-n-take and liked how the Forest Friends looked with it, but I didn't realize how hard that color is to use as a base color for a card! It works better as an accent, I think. In any case, I wanted to use Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch for this week, which lent itself nicely to the easel format, since it was square, but I had a lot of trouble with the layers and the dsp, getting the composition right. I also wanted to use my scallop corner punch to create a cool border on the circle, an idea I got from Lynn Pratt over at Stamp-n-Design, but had to fuss around a bit with it to get it right. I keep thinking I should have done some sponging or something else, but in the end, I just had to put my hands in the air and tell myself to walk away from the card. (I've been known to tell my mother that very thing many times!)



Supplies:
Creamy Caramel, Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla cs, Sending Love Specialty dsp (Occ. mini)
Itty Bitty Backgrounds (SAB!), Forest Friends (SAB!), Warm Words stamp sets
Creamy Caramel ink
Very Vanilla 5/8" satin ribbon (Occ. Mini)
Open scallop border punch (SAB)

On healthy food packaging

Have you ever noticed that so-called healthy foods are packaged in ways designed to keep the user from opening them, whereas "junk" food is ridiculously easy to open? Case in point: yesterday for lunch I was going to have leftover taco salad and needed some lettuce to make it a bona fide salad rather than just corn chips and meat mix (recipe is below--I should add that my husband thinks my version of taco salad is against all rules of order for tacos and I always have to make two versions when I make this dish).

So I pulled out a pre-washed salad mix (because I'm lazy that way) and attempted to open it without using a scissors. Mistake number one. As I was pulling on the seam of the bag, I thought to myself, this is going to end badly, just get a scissors, at which point the bag promptly burst open and salad mix went flying EVERYWHERE! It was like a lettuce bomb exploded in my kitchen! I think I will be finding small bits of carrot shreds and radicchio for some time to come. My son was sitting in his high chair waiting for a waffle to come out of the toaster and he said something like "Oooh!" when the lettuce leaves started flying and the subsequent clean-up occupied his attention long enough that his waffle got toasted without his whining that it was taking too long. Enough of the salad landed on the table to salvage for my lunch, but what a mess (and a waste of lettuce)! I'm definitely not a salad person, but it frustrates me when food packaging isn't intelligently designed. Plain mini shredded wheat is another culprit, but that is a story for another day...

But enough food packaging debacles. Here is today's card, which features Gretchen Barron's sketch challenge and the Embellish.com color/ribbon challenge for this week.

I love these colors together! They look so fresh and modern. The card is going to some friends in Brooklyn who had some hard times a little while ago that we just found out about and I wanted to send them something special.



Notice the new Pretty In Pink corduroy brads? Love them! Oh, and the new epoxy brad? And the satin ribbon? It is all new from the Occasions Mini catalog! I love embellishments. A little adhesive trick I picked up recently when using brads on the edge of a layer is to use mini glue dots to help the edges stick down better.

Another little stamping tip--my newest little technique (picked up from Diana Gibbs) is to stamp the sentiment over another image, as I've done here. The trick is to make sure that the image is faded enough for the sentiment to stand out. On previous cards where I have done this, the colors of the card made for a faded image, so it worked out, but on this card, Taken with Teal and Chocolate Chip are pretty strong colors. I first tried stamping off the image once before stamping, but the Chocolate Chip was still too strong and the Taken with Teal seemed to dominate the image, making everything look too busy. So I started again, remarkered my stamp, subbing Close to Cocoa for Chocolate Chip and and then took the corner of a scrap and stamped off the Taken with Teal once by hand, and then stamped off the whole image once before stamping. That seemed to do the trick! Then I inked my Sincere Salutations stamp with Chocolate Chip and it was finished.


Supplies:
Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Taken with Teal cs, Bella Rose dsp (retired)
Of the Earth, Sincere Salutations, En Francais stamp sets
Close to Cocoa, Taken with Teal, Pretty in Pink markers, Taken with Teal, Chocolate chip inks
PiP cord brads, PiP epoxy brad, PiP 5/8" satin ribbon


And the Taco Salad Recipe:

1# ground beef
1 packet taco seasoning (we like the Whole Foods brand one, Simple Goodness, I think it is called)
1 8oz. bottle Thousand Island dressing
8 oz. shredded Mexican cheese (I like a fine shred)
3-4 fresh tomatoes diced finely or 1 15oz. can diced tomatoes well drained (put it in a colander for about 30 minutes to drain and use a wooden spoon to push out the excess water)

Shredded lettuce
Fritos corn chips (Scoops are nice)

Brown the ground beef and add seasoning according to packet instructions. Let meat cool slightly and transfer to a serving bowl. Add cheese, dressing and tomatoes. Let cool to room temperature. Serve over lettuce and corn chips.

Refrigerate left over meat mix and you can eat it cold or allow to come to room temperature. Don't reheat it or the cheese will melt in strange ways.

Proud as a Peacock

Happy Groundhog Day! I don't know what Punxatawny Phil saw this morning, but I'm guessing a shadow, since winter has made a comeback here! I will admit to being a cold weather lover, however. When I lived in Moscow, I really enjoyed January and February. (I know, I've got problems...)

I made this card for the Stamping 411 challenge and also last weeks Color Q #17 color challenge, which was to use Real Red, Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal, Black and White. I actually thought that the color swatch looked more like Baja Breeze than Bashful Blue and substituted accordingly. The sketch challenge was so simple, I almost felt like I should be adding more to it, but sometimes simple is good!

I've been trying to come up with a card that uses the Very Thankful peacock stamp, since I think the color possibilities for the peacock are pretty interesting. Until now, however, I couldn't think of a design or color scheme that I liked. I fiddled a bit with the coloring on this one--I first tried stamping the whole image in Taken with Teal, but thought that was too boring, and then tried coloring it, which I think worked. I colored the peacock and sentiment in Basic Black, and then did the vines in Taken with Teal and the flowers in Real Red.

After I stamped the image, I went back over the body of the peacock with the Taken with Teal marker and then added real red accents to the circles on the tail. The final detail was the texture; I received Itty Bitty Backgrounds (as well as Very Thankful) as part of a Sale-A-Bration order (so they were both FREE!--contact me if you want to learn more about earning these stamps for free) and have been adding background texture ever since! I love this set. I used the splotchy background to stamp the Taken with Teal layer, and then decided to add a bit to the peacock part, and stamped it again with Baja Breeze. I finished the card with some of the new Real Red Satin ribbon and some rhinestone brads. I'm not sure why they aren't exactly straight--I used my piercing template and everything was straight before the little buggers went on the card, but those rhinestone brads can be kind of finicky, I've found.

Supplies:
Baja Breeze, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red cs
Baja Breeze, Taken with Teal, Basic Black, Real red Ink/markers
Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Very Thankful stamp sets
Real Red 5/8" satin ribbon
rhinestone brads/paper piercing tool/mat pack

A Portion of Thyself

According to Emerson, it is the greatest gift. So here is my little portion for your viewing pleasure. Forgive the secondary post (again!!) of the day--I just realized that the sketch challenge I used closes tomorrow and wanted to get it posted in time.

I used the Stamping Royalty sketch and the Curtain Call color challenge for this card and am quite pleased with the result. I love the Of the Earth hostess set (contact me to find out how you can earn it for free!)--it is so versatile--and Stacy's color combo this week is so lovely.



Supplies:
Lavender Lace, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Whisper White cs, Pumpkin pie dsp
Of the Earth hostess set (level 1)
Lavender lace, Pumpkin pie, garden green markers
Lavender lace 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (retired, I think)
Open scallop border punch (SAB)

Working on the Love Train

Good morning, friends! I have a stack of custom party invitations waiting to be finished (when did Elmo take over the Sesame Street franchise??) and a headache that I think only a decaf Starbucks gingerbread latte will cure, but at least the sun is shining and my house is getting clean today.

Today's card is one of the valentines that I made for the charity auction and my etsy store (you can order them from the link on the sidebar). I bought the Choo-Choo stamp set last summer and haven't really done as much with it as I would have liked--now that I have a Stamp-a-ma-jig, I can do more with it! I had this idea, one night as I was trying to fall asleep, of hearts on the cargo car, and the rest of the card came together from there! I did a little sponging on the hearts to give them some dimension (that was messy!) and some sponging around the edges of the main white panel just for added detail. I like it because I think it will work well for boys or girls.

Supplies:
Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Whisper white cs
Choo-Choo and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Real Red ink
15/16" satin chocolate chip ribbon (avail on SU! clearance rack; retired)
Scallop oval, large oval, 3 hearts punches