Feelin' Punchy

This is my stapleless stapler and I used it for today's 365 card challenge to attach something - It was a little more hassle than I thought it would be since the stapler was really made for paper and not cardstock. It clips a teensy slot and a little hole and then neatly tucks that cutout into the slot. But on cardstock it just clips the piece and you get to tuck it by hand. No, by fingers. Actually might be best by tweezers!

FLorida here I come

I

I should be packing but instead I am looking at my favorite inspirations. Tuesday is such a great day, I get to make a card for 365 cards which has a new surprise every day plus I get to go to a teaparty at mothermarks. Today her party is being catered by cats so of course it is a great day for me.
Since I am off to Florida, I wonder if I can get her to come visit me down there - the space shuttle is scheduled to take off this week and we can see it from our driveway, or maybe she would prefer to go to the beach and find shells and waves. However, Florida this time of year is hot hot hot so maybe I should wait to invite the girls later in the year.
My text inside this card will read:

The dog’s in the coffee,

The cat’s in the tea

Your birthday card’s late

Oh shame on me!

365 cards is at Day 136 - What is Black, White, and Red all Over?

Your Card!!! That means these are the only colors to use on your card. How's that for a challenge?

Shake the G man

Today's challenge over at 365 cards (http://365cards.blogspot.com/) was "I challenge you to create a window on your card using some see-through material. I pulled out some old transparencies and played around with creating a gingerbread man with a sizzix die.

I have been working on a bead project but the colors were perfect. I just hope that I have enough beads left for the pendant I am making now that I pilfered a few for this card ...

When I went to put his smile inside the card, I just coudn't resist changing that smiley gingerbread man to a snowman.

I think I will handwrite Gingerbread wishes

And snowman kisses

Have a sweet and cuddly holiday

Please leave a comment by clicking on the word "comments" below.

Godspeed

Special thanks to schirmcat who inspired this card ... it is not my usual style. But I got a call from my firstborn telling me he had been sailboat speed racing on the Hudson when his boat collided with another racer. It was the other guy's fault, and my David wasn't at the helm when they crashed. He said they were all shouting, "leeward leeward," but the other boat didn't turn. The girl who was in command at the time had a great explanation -- the other boat was supposed to turn and didn't have the right of way. Guess she showed them!

At any rate, a sailboat card was in order and this is the one I came up with. The e e cummings quote was the only seaworthy quote I could find in my collection. But I thought it made the boat look a lot like a photo on the wall with a brass plate underneath. I have a great imagination, betcha you didn't see that at all till I pointed it out.

Those darn brackets!

Those darn brackets are everywhere and as an English professor, it rattles my cage that they are not being used correctly and ... ahem ... it is summer, you say, so all the grammar police are off duty and at the beach?

This was my first try at a 365 cards challenge (see sidebar on left for link) and I think it was great fun. I continue in dotsy mode; and made the brackets with my tab punch which was really easy and might just convince me ( me !!! ) to use brackets on my cards more often.

As you will notice, it is one more cupcake card for Amanda's birthday. If she ever finds my blog in cyberspace, the whole surprise will be spoiled!

Cupcake case

A "cased card" means "copy and share everything" (I think, ) and my birthday card was inspired by a card by Sandra over at splitcoast. You can see her card here and see what I did with it.

Mermaid Inspiration

Here's the inspiration, a doll from the store "Chasing Fireflies," and the mermaid card I made.

If it's Christmas in July, it's gotta be palm trees

Click on the photo to enlarge ...

I have been playing with my Christmas palm today - Splitcoast challenges suggested using a cut out of your image at least 3 times. My first tree was just the tree cut 3 times so that wasn't quite the idea. But I like the card anyway. Next I tried using the trunk of the tree, cut out for a frame, and the top of the tree as a fanciful pointsettia. I was pretty pleased with the results. Finally a topsy turvy card with the top of the palm tree 4 times. I folded the red to see where to cut it and liked the tabs the folds created. Serendipity is the best muse!

Tweet-pot

Teapot Tuesday at Mothermark's site ( see my left hand column for a link ) and here is the teapot she chose to inspire us. We are all to think of a lovely tea party in an Irish botanical garden, but were warned to wear hats in case the birds think it is their garden too.

I meant to pop out of bed and make a card but then a good friend emailed that her new job teaching kindergarten will have a frog theme in fall, so I was busy punching out frog parts to get in the mail to her. My card had to wait.

Once I got going, I realized I really am not into roses, but my new stamps from Elemental Doodles had some fall leaves that could imitate the flowers. Everything was fine until I tried to add a bird on top. That's when the cats got out and took a perfectly sane card and made it a little crazy. Oh well.

The Big 10

Jessica and David are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. Seems like yesterday I was holding her for her baptism and a very proud aunt at that! Now Jessica is pregnant with her 5th - I just don't know where the years went.

Shimmering stars

Pulled out my shimmery chalks for this simple but pretty card using my new stamps from Elemental Doodles. I don't think it needs any embellishment at all. The squares you see are from the square ink spots that I used because everything in the basement was put away to make room for the new flooring we put in!

Gingerwood challenge

The Gingerwood Saturday challenge was to take a poster and use it for inspiration. Here is the poster and my interpretation. Then I cut it up and made the cards you see here.

Decisions !

What a day ... a new SU catalog, new stamp sheet from Sweet Pea, and stamps from Elemental Doodles. What to do, what to do!

I decided to try out my new stamps from Doodles and fell in love with the star and trailers. The card above uses it .... 17 times ;)

Now I HAVE to get this room cleaned out so we can put the new floor down.

The glow of friendship

Tuesdays are such fun because I get to create a card based on a teapot posted over at the Mothermark site. Today's challenge was a teapot nightlight.

Here is the link ... http://mothermark.blogspot.com/

On the first card I was playing around with flowersoft - and managed to get it all over my desk, my scanner and myself!

On the second card, I really tried to capture the glow of the nightlight and I think I did it pretty well. It's a technique I learned over at splitcoast called "faux burned edges" and you ever so carefully dab on ink from 3 different colors of stamp pad. I was pretty tickled at how it came out. I drew the teapot with a gel pen and it only took 2 tries till I had one that kind of approximated the nightlight I was trying to copy. Once I got the glow on, I was scared to stamp the flowers over it !

The glow of friendship, warmth of tea,

This card contains a hug from me

Chinese take out

Here are the choices from Splitcoast's limited challenge today ... you need to choose one from each category.  link http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=444915

Menu #1 – Images (just pick one item from each menu!)
1. Planes, Trains, & Automobiles – basically anything with locomotion (this would include boats, too!)
2. Non-floral Nature
3. Neutral Images (stuff that isn’t girly, for sure) 

Menu #2 – Color Schemes 
1. Reds/Blues
2. Greens/Browns
3. Neutrals

Menu #3 – Embellishments 
1. Ribbon & Brads OR Eyelets (tie masculine KNOTS instead of girly BOWS)
2. Diecuts/Punches & Embossing Folders/Texture Plates
3. Natural Fibers & Hardware (hodpodge, charms, etc.)

I know I already made Mike an anniversary card, but I think this year he will get two. I tucked the first one in his briefcase, I will save this one for dinner tonight.

Steve's success: and our 38th anniversary

The card for Steve is kind of poignant ... he called to tell us he survived his first day on the floor and didn't kill anyone. He insisted some of the patients were quite eager to do it too. So I made him this card to celebrate his first day on thoracic rotation.

The other card is for our anniversary.  Gosh some of those 38 years went by really fast. Here is the card I made for Mike tomorrow - for Father's day we got matching pink and green kayaks. 

Lazy watercolor

I might have created a new technique this morning. I used a marker on my butterfly stamp and when I huffed it, it just didn't seem moist enough - and I have a brand new mister but it was upstairs and I was downstairs. However, right at my side was a bottle of stamp cleaner with a dabber on top. So I dibbed and I dabbed and then I stamped and I got the prettiest rainbow of color! The 2nd stamping was almost as pretty as the first. I mounted the 2nd one on a background I got from Susan K -- looks like polished stone on glossy. Once again, my scanner didn't do it justice!

I used today's splitcoast sketch for my card and punched some holes like the technique junkies" Heavenly Holes"  technique - was pleased as could be with the result.

Links: Splitcoast sketch    http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=444498

Technique junkies: http://www.techniquejunkies.com/tutorials_artwork/0609/heavenly-holes-tutorial.html

Cards to copy

The challenge is to go through Christy's gallery and choose a card to copy. My cards are the larger images, the inspiration is the thumbnail sketch.

Tuesday with the queen

I love to visit this blog http://mothermark.blogspot.com/ for inspiration. Each Tuesday a different tea pot is chosen as the inspiration for a card. Since today's teapot came from Windsor Castle, I figured I needed to keep my little pinkie up - and made the flowers with my pinkie. The crown stamp is my favorite back-of-a-card stamp from Amy but seemed to fit just fine on the front. The crown made a great pot for the flower. I thought the ribbon looked like a windsor tie and of course had to pull out the pearls for the occasion.

Please leave comments because I am just playing with that function and I THINK I got it to work finally!

Mike went for a 60 mile bike ride on Saturday which gave me lots of time to go to the Di's Stamp in Bay City. We made 3 cards, and I bought a ton of stuff including the marigold stamp and several distress ink pads. 

The marigold card was made with vellum and staz on. After cutting out the petals and slitting them a bit, we wet both sides and the vellum curled up and made the petals.   Then I used the same stamp to do today's splitcoast simple card  challenge which was paper piecing.  Not sure which look I prefer but at least I now have another way to justify my marigold stamp purchase.

Denim bookmark

Tried out the denim technique featured on Splitcoast this morning and then in the forum, someone linked to this denim technique page ... http://ellenhutson.typepad.com/the_classroom_new/2009/06/dad-card-jeans-texture-by-debbie-olson.html ... Wow, lots of great ideas like the seam and the gel pen and the white smudging along the seam.

Another cup of coffee later and I found idea for a bookmark and knew this was perfect.

Check out Susan's blog http://susansdayoffcreations.blogspot.com/2009/06/summer-reading-list-bookmark.html

SHE got the idea from http://www.ginasmakingsandmusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/riley-bookmarks-and-reading-log.html .

Here's the card I came up with. ( remember how they say it takes a village to raise a child? Seems today it took a village to create my card ! )

Father's Day

  Were we really ever that young? This is the Father's Day card I made for Mike. 

Soccer shoes congrats

The Saturday splitcoast challenge is to find an image at Bugaloo ( http://www.bugalookids.com) and make a card inspired by it --- Here is the image that inspired me and the card I made in response.

Card for Trina

My card is a little late today since I had to take Penny for a weigh in -- my DOG is on the vet equivalent of Weight Watchers. Now if I would watch portion size of my own food, maybe I would keep a sleek trim figure like hers.  At 11, she is 77 in dog years and has lost 14 pounds. She looks better than I do!

This card is for Trina because she gave me the stamp set so she automatically has dibbs on anything that turns out great. And I was really pleased with this one, although the scan doesn't really show the contrast very well.

My First Christmas cards

Inside of card

I knew I wanted to use this week's splitcoast card sketch for Christmas cards with my holiday stack -- and believe it or not I now have 4 Christmas cards made!

I also did another cupcake card for Amanda. I have those on the left hand side of my blog; scroll down if you can't see them. Only 27 more cupcake cards to go!

Mothermark Teapot Challenge

Front of card

Inside of card

Like bacon with your eggs and toast

Like crumpets with your tea

 You two belong together

Happy Anniversary!

You can click on the picture to make it big enough to see the two tree frogs dancing on the knob of the teapot.  I have wanted to do a Monday teapot challenge  for a long time and today was the day to do one - but when I saw the teapot in question, I was sure that any card I made would be for my bulletin board and no place else.  Ahhh how the muse works. When I finished I realized it would be a perfect anniversary card for my friend Susan who treasures anything unusual. I made up the poem and printed it off in my current favorite font which is called "CK I AM FIVE YEARS OLD."  Now it is a perfect card for my friend ... but I think I will have to send her the link so she can see my inspiration.

Oh ... and YOU probably should look at the link too, it might explain things ; )

Check out the June 16th entry.

http://mothermark.blogspot.com/