I'm Stampin', I'm Stampin' ...

Once again, I fulfill my life's purpose by showing you my work space just one week prior to a Clean Sweep:

How does it get like this?! Oh, wait a minute, I know. My brain is so fried by the time I get home from the Day Job, and I have so many card ideas that want to work their way out of my brain and become one with the card stock and ink that I have at least five (5) partial projects going at any given moment. So you see, I cannot put anything away until I am done, and I am never done. Such is my lot in life.

BUT, all this mess, believe it or not, can be quite inspiring! Stuff just lands next to something else and voila! A new color combo is born! I swear to you, half of my ideas that are not CASEd come to me in this manner - Happy Accidents one and all!

See? I stamped something! This card was made from items from my re-discovered scrap heap when I cleaned off the table in The Other Room. ('Nuf prepositional phrases for you in that sentence? Oh, there was another one.) I decided to make a 10-pound card and put all of those layers together. I made four or five of these, and now all those parts-is-parts are gone, gone, gone. They now live in a box in my car, and some day maybe someone will even buy them!

Here we have another made-over CASE card. I was inspired to steal this idea, but I made it over by using different colors and adding, of course, some ribbon. One thing I really like about this one was my idea to fill that void to the left of the sentiment with a stamped image instead of hardware. And you will notice I did not do something crazy like try to stamp more than one image, as I could guarantee you it would not have been straight ... not even close. I know when to quit.

I made this one a Retirement card, and it will be the first and only card in my new Retirement section. I even had to make a divider for it a few minutes ago. A crafter's work is never done.

Here is another card that finally came together. Except for the white base, it is 100% scrap. Yay! The blue layer with the strip of DS paper is from the same Heap I mentioned above. I used the circle (because it was out), and it was stamped on a white scrap. (BTW, it punches out nicely with a 1 1/8" punch, but SU does not sell one of those, yet.) The dotted paper is Artichoke. The pattern on the white scrap was made using my Scor-Bug. And then of course, we have Maddie. :-) The sentiment (from Rosie's Roadshow, newly purchased from Angela's) is stamped on another white scrap and punched out with my new SU Modern Label punch. I love that punch, I really do.

Finally, I have a little Sales book I made for the kids that sell beverages at our market. They are not keeping track of what they sell (they figure it out later), so since I already taught them they DO know how to make change without a calculator ($1.75 plus what makes $2.00? 25 cents. $2.00 plus what makes $5.00? $3. Okay, so how much change do you give someone who pays for a juice ($1.75) with a five dollar bill? ... The light goes on ... $3.25!!! We DON'T need the calculator! My work for that day was done.), this week I told them I'd make them a book to keep track of their sales.

This is a mini composition book I made forever ago and it never sold, so I grabbed it from my stash of unsold and unloved items in The Other Room. It already had the paper on it, so I just added the cork letters that I picked up in a rare Mike's moment a few weeks ago. Done!

Being a total buttinsky, I made a sample page for them. If they do not know the tick-mark method of counting, they will next Saturday! I think this would be the simplest way for them to keep track of what they sell, and we all know it's ALL about what *I* think, right? RIGHT?!?!?!

I also am gifting them with a pack of colored pens from my stash. I bought them years ago on sale somewhere thinking they were glitter gel pens, but they are not ... just glittery-looking pens... and now I have finally found a use for them. I'll suggest they be kept in their money till so they do not get lost. :-)

Okay, that's all to which I will subject you today. I'm off to rustle up some grub. No, I have not eaten yet, as the 20+ Jalapeno Poppers I consumed last night instead of dinner have been having a field day in my tummy and I just have not been too hungry. But now I am ravenous, so I'm thinkin' left-over poppers chopped up and mixed in with some eggs. Yum! I'll be f-i-i-i-n-e.


Thanks for stopping by!

Razzleberry Matchy-Matchy

As most of you know by now, I am an equal opportunity hoarder. I love Stampin' Up! and I buy all their stuff, and I have Stamp Camps where I lure others into the Stampin' Up! goodness, but that does not mean I do not own an equal amount of (nay, MORE) non-SU stuff and I use it often. But not this morning. Nope! This morning I placed myself into "OMG-my-stamp-camps-are-next-weekend-and-I-only-have-two-things-planned-so-far" mode, and I began lurking. I am a Professional Lurker, and I have a vast store of other people's great projects. I mostly do this to get ideas for my SU-only projects that are needed for The Ladies.

So here is my latest CASE. I found the original here on SCS (actually a pic of four projects), and I set off to make it my own. I changed a few things, as is my M.O. I dropped the bow to give The Ladies a break; I used punches that left a small white border on the stamped images, and I used a different sentiment.

I actually plan to have The Ladies choose any sentiment they'd like from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set. A lot of them come with a plan to make certain types of cards (think: I need a birthday card this month), and they are not shy about asking for different sentiments to use on a project. I try to accommodate them where I can, and this set is perfect, as it will cover just about any occasion.

As for the matchy-matchy part, I used everything Razzleberry here: card stock, textured card stock, ink, ribbon, and DS paper. Too freakin' easy! This is one of the things I love about SU!

This design is a great one to use for people who stamp like I do. You know, where you stamp an image and only half of it got enough ink? Yeah, like THAT! For this design, you just use the 'good' part of the image and cut away the rest. Ask me how I know....

Okay, enough with the SU worshiping! I'd like to leave you with something really funny, so I will send you to JanTink's site to read her conversation with herself regarding Demo Math, and how we get so sucked in. It is so hysterical, and so true!

I have more stuff to show you, but I'll post it later on today. Thanks for stopping by!

A Capital 4th Observation

Every year our Nation's Capital has a real bang-up Fourth of July celebration. They spend the first part (while it is still light out) exposing the masses to culture in the form of song from various venues. We just had a Soprano sing one of Irving Berlin's songs that was in the running for our National Anthem. Now, to put that in perspective, I am watching Jerry Lee Lewis play Great Balls of Fire, and most of, if not ALL of, the people on stage with him were not yet born when Jerry Lee hit it big back in the 50's.

Didn't he marry his 14 year old cousin or something? Then these people could be his grandkids or great-grandkids. I'm just sayin'.

And now we move on to the 1812 Overture. Oh, wait. It's dark out on TV, but not in real life. And there's fireworks on TV. WHA?! Are they re-running LAST year's celebration!?!?!? THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS!!! And man has not really landed on the moon, either. It is all a facade! THIS IS JUST WRONG! I cry foul!!!! FOUL!

That's it! I'm off to write a letter to the producers of A Capital* Fourth.

ETA: Yeah, that was A Capitol Fourth 2008. I am okay now. A Capitol Fourth 2009 is starting now. Never mind.

* The Capitol (with an 'o') is the physical Capitol building in DC. Every other use of the word capital (with an 'a') is spelled with an 'a'. They can call this show A Capitol Fourth (with an 'o') because it is held on the steps of the Capitol. [I've warned you I am full of trivial, sometimes useless, information.]

July 4th Market Update

It was a glorious day today, and the market was hopping! Apparently everyone did not leave town this weekend.

Actually, my city has a pretty decent 4th of July event every year. They open up the Fairgrounds and people bring blankets and chairs and we fill the available fields. They have a band to entertain us until the festivities begin, and it is a super duper band! The Mayor and City Council members usually read part of the Declaration of Independence to remind us why we are there, and then the fireworks begin at dark. I went every year when my kids were little, but I have become a slug and now I just watch the fireworks on PBS. Lame, I know.

Before I begin with the photos du jour, I thought I'd post this pic of my handsome tent weight for Stefani. The purpose of this is to show how the rope is wrapped around the tent leg before it is tied up to the inside of the tent. This is really a much more effective anchor than if you just tie the rope to the tent without wrapping it.

And last week I posted how a few of my rubber bands had inspired me to put some SU colors together, so I thought I'd show you the rubber bands in action. My card rack is really a CD rack, so the slots are not the right size and the cards go in on an angle. When the wind picks up they go flying, so I put on these rubber bands to keep them in the rack. And no, I sold NONE of those USA cards, but thanks for asking.

Now on to today's market update.

This is Sophia, whose Dad (or maybe Mom) bought her a nice Holiday bow.

More sour cherries. Yum! I had a basket-full for breakfast.

Our cutie-pie beverage vendor was hanging out with the Rock lady. Check out that shirt! I tell you there is inspiration everywhere!

In addition to bats, he likes mice and he asked me to take this photo of his current favorite.

More sweet peppers! A bunch of these guys came home with me.

And the lady who makes the purses also makes these cup cozies. She thought it was a shame we buy coffee and put a cardboard sleeve around it, and the sleeve gets tossed with the cup. No more! You can own a reusable coffee cup cozy!

Here's the one I got. If you ignore that stray thread, aren't those kitties cute?! And the colors are very bright, and so not 'me'. :-)

Speaking of cats, I was drawn to some fabric that Mary Beth used for one of her dresses. Remember Mary Beth? I mentioned last week that I was horrible with names, and I had yet to even ask her what her name was. Badbadbad. So she told me and I was sure I'd forget. She tested me today, and I passed!! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I thought I'd do a mini-feature of Mary Beth's booth at our market!

Check out these dresses she makes. Oh, too far away and you cannot see them? I had not planned to do a feature when I took these photos, so all I have is this shot of the back of her booth. Ugh. Here's another try:

The dresses are really cute.

This is the fabric that spoke to me. Surprised? Probably not. It has cats and it has green. 'Nuf said.

This is her latest creation. I am not sure if they are tu-tu's or just froo-froo-y skirts. My confusion here is largely based on (1) I had boys, so I never paid attention to girly stuff, and (2) I did not bother to ask. I have failed as a reporter. I promise, Mary Beth, that I'll do better next week.

This is her favorite of the week. ;-)

And see those hair clips in the background? I bought one of her bows, then asked her to take a picture of the back of my head.

This, my dear readers, is as close as you will ever get to a photograph of yours truly. Please ignore the grey hair. The Red, White & Blue ribbon was mine. The pretty blue corker is the one I bought. Pretty nice, huh?

Moving right along, check out these beauties. What are they? They are amira, which is a Middle Eastern cucumber. The seed are hard to get because you need to grow the fruit really big to get seed, and then the plant stops producing. If you keep picking them this small, the plant keeps growing more. ANYway, I bought some and they are wonderful!

See those cherries there next to the cukes? They are sweet as opposed to sour, and they also came home with me.

Tweety came by for a visit. He's a vocal little guy! His Dad said it is a good thing he is already deaf...too funny! Tweety let me hold him, eventually, but he really could not wait to get back on his Dad's shoulder. I think Tweety just tolerates me.

Towards the end of the market, we had a blimp fly over us. Pretty cool! But then I am easily entertained.

Okay, I am done now. I really did stamp some stuff yesterday, but I'll hold off showing you those so you can go do something more constructive than reading this blathering. Plus, it'll give me something to post tomorrow. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Big Shot Die(s) Giveaway Alert!

I have been on the fence about getting a Big Shot ever since Stampin' Up! began offering it in their catalog. Because I live in a teeny tiny condo, I have no room to house a Big Shot, so until I clear out The Other Room, it's just not gonna happen. $100 can buy me a lot of pretty paper!

But the dies are another matter entirely! I have plenty of them already, and so far I have been using them in my Cuttlebug (but not for workshops, because as we all know, that would be wrong, and I would never do anything wrong). So when I got word of some FREE DIES being given away (that's a badly constructed phrase if I've ever used one ...), I wanted to throw my name into the hat, so here we go:

Stampin Addicts dot com is giving away a Big Shot Die Pack as part of the Stampin’ Up! summer celebration. To enter, all you have to do is write about it on your blog. This is my entry, and I sure hope I win!!!

So if you think they might pull your name instead of mine :-), go on over here and enter yourself!

C'Bug Challenge #38 (but not quite)

I was inspired (! finally !) by the Cuttlebug Challenge blog's Be Inspired #38. The challenge is to use (I read it more closely after I was done ...) Red, White & Blue; button(s); and the Swiss Dots folder as a bonus. I failed on two points, so I am not going to enter, but heck, I got a card out of it, and I have jump-started my mojo, so who cares?!?!?! It's not like I'd want to actually risk winning or anything (I DO NOT NEED MORE STUFF), so I just use these things to get the creative juices flowing again. Plus, by not entering contests or challenges, it takes off all that pressure to meet a deadline, and have all sorts of people looking at your stuff and critiquing it and ... and ... I could not handle all the pressure. If it's not fun, I'm not gonna do it! :P

This card is a 100% stash and scrap, and yes, I am very proud. We have: A Muse striped cards, A Muse Polka Dotted strip, stash ribbon, A Muse Polka Dotted letters, and a scrap of PTI Shimmer dark blue card stock. Not bad, huh? I used SU's small star punch to punch the stars (!) and SU's Night of Navy ink on the letters. Oh, I used the C'bug Swirls folder, cuz I did not want to add dots to the dots - gotta think about all those people reading who might get vertigo by looking at dot-embossed dots ...

I made a few of these for tomorrow's market, bagged and tagged 'em, and now I'm off to try something else. I realized I am in my usual "OMG I have one week before my Stamp Camps and I have no projects made" mode, so hopefully it will come to me this weekend.

If I manage to create anything else this lovely Friday, I'll be back!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Funny Thing Happened At The Office ...

I am in a funk. I think it is because I have TOO MUCH STUFF. This morning I am sad to report I have nothing (NOTHING) newly-stamped to share with you. :-(

HOWEVER, I do have something to share that I learned yesterday at work. Maybe because it was Virtual Friday (we have the 3rd off), or maybe I need a vacation, or maybe we were all working SO HARD we needed an outlet. Yeah, that's it - we were working SO HARD!

What did I learn? I found a secret Microsoft code for flipping your entire desktop on its ear! Wha? Gimme a sec to explain.

I used to be in Systems Security, and I always always always lock my desktop when I leave my desk, even if it is just to go to the printer. By 'lock' I mean Ctrl+Alt+Delete + Lock, and you have to enter your userid and pw to unlock it. It's what keeps people from sending emails from you to the CEO when you are not looking.

So I had to go to a meeting, and I did my usual Ctrl+Alt+Del + Lock and ... ... my entire desktop TURNED SIDEWAYS! OMG!

It went from this ...

... to this.

It totally freaked me out! I said something incredibly intelligent like "GAH!", then I locked my desktop and went to my meeting. Afterwards, I went to a fellow worker and asked if she knew how I could get my desktop right-side up again, and she started to laugh uncontrollably. She even came by to look, and she had no clue how to fix it, but thought it was hysterical anyway. And no, I had no plans to tilt my head for the rest of the day!

It was endless entertainment for a while until a very quiet cube neighbor told me to hit Ctrl+Alt and the Up arrow. It WORKED! While the rest of us were laughing at my dumb luck, he'd been searching forums for my little problem. As it turns out, I'd hit Ctrl+Alt and the Right arrow instead of Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

So let this be a lesson to you. Strange things happen when your time sheet looks like this:

(available vacation hours)

(available sick time)






I'm just sayin' ......

Recycle/Reuse

I am a recycler ... it is what I do. I check the bottoms of my plastic containers and save the foil pie plates and break down all my boxes. This is serious stuff! I talk about people that think they can recycle pizza boxes (you cannot), or that think they can take the weekly city paper in its plastic sleeve and toss it into their recycle bin (they cannot), or that think they can put out 5 cans of paint and expect it to be magically picked up (not). Yeah, I am pretty militant about it.

So I am in one camp: do not throw out - recycle. Then there's the reuse/re-purpose camp, where you never throw out anything, and everything gets altered or somehow made to serve a different purpose. This is not me, largely because I have no space. For me, recycling is the best option.

For tonight's project, I would like to start out by saying: I tried. A lot. I really did, but I have failed you. My goal this evening was to take the instructions in an SCS Demo post* about how to make a woven basket from your SU packing paper (or some newspaper, or a magazine). What a great idea, says I. I am crafty. I can weave. I have SU packing paper. Let's give this a whirl!

First, I rescued a few bits of packing paper from the recycle staging area in my Kitchen. There are three pieces in this pile.

Whaaaat? Three pieces of paper = three shipments from SU since I last recycled a week or two ago. What's your point?

I stretched out one of the pieces ...

... and cut it into 37+ inch lengths.

The instructions said to cut the paper into strips 37 3/8 x 3 1/2, so mine are about 37 by pretty much 3 1/2. Here is my helper with the 3 1/2 part. She was holding down the larger pieces so they would not fly away.

And here she is guarding the pile of torn strips. Cut? I was supposed to cut them? Bah! Who has the time?!?!?

I guess she decided to settle in for a while.

I folded the strips as instructed ... in half, opened them up, folded each edge into the center and re-folded. Think back to when you made chewing gum chains, and you'll get it.

She looks so serious!

The base is 10 strips by 10 strips, so here are the first two strips woven in ... so far, so good.

Here's the completed bottom. I should have stopped here. After this point, I got just a little frustrated.

Next I wove each side into a triangle/diamond as instructed, and it sorta started to come together, but not really. I have made real baskets before, and most basket material is stiff, where this stuff is not. I spent a lot of time dealing with all the flopping over silliness. Ugh.

I would have taken some pics of the 'sides' part of the effort, but it was all I could do to deal with the floppy sides and stubborn ends, and like I've said before, my third arm was out for repair.

Here I have two floppy sides done, and I had to move my helper to work on side three.

I ran out of clips, and all my flat, non-clip clothes pins are holding my ribbon stash, so you can see I've used some paper clips here to try to hold things together.

After finishing all four sides, I was supposed to weave the corners together, and that's where this all went South. Not pretty. So since the base was still sound, I thought I'd try to take another piece of the paper and cut it into loooong strips, then try to weave with the single long strip of paper.

Here is the folded piece of loooong paper ...

... off of which I hacked a strip. Think of this as a chiffonade and you'll do fine.

I would like to say that after a few pathetic attempts, I gave up, even with Plan B.


The bottom is not so bad ...

... but the top is a real mess!

I think this really is the best use for this paper. Until tomorrow, when it shall be recycled. I know when I'm beat(en). She wins.


*If you are not totally discouraged by my tale of woe, and you would like a copy of the instructions, please let me know and I'll send you the file. It was printed in a Canadian magazine, so it is not a secret or anything ...

Just Stash Cards (No Tome)

I promise tonight's post will not take you an hour to read like yesterday's post did. I need a hobby. Oh, wait, I HAVE a hobby. Never mind.

I have spent a bit of time playing with some of my rediscovered stash, and along with some help from my fellow bloggers, I made these:

The idea for this started with June's card where she used this rub-on from SU. When I realized I also owned the same rub-on set (can you say: too much stuff?), I broke it out. For the layer under the rub-on, I thought the 'love' was Regal Rose, but that was too pink, so I tried Ruby Red - too red. If I'd been paying attention, I would have also CASE'd the color June used - Cameo Coral. Oh, well. I used Ruby Red here.

But my coup d'etas (my HS French teacher would be so proud of all this French I scatter about!) was the fabric. That's right - fabric. I was talking to BR #2 last night, and she is once again out of control, but this time instead of collecting rubbah, she took a side trip to Quilting, so she is collecting fabric this week. Our conversations led my thoughts to the pile of Fat Quarters I carefully ironed a year to two ago, as I was sure I'd have something to go with Baja Breeze - and I did! In my Fat Quarter-buying phase, I bought mostly fabrics with a gold thread running through them, and if you look closely (go ahead, click on the pic - you can see the gold thread in the pattern ... I'll wait ... ... ...) See? Gold!

So I cut the fabric (not straight - HA!), but the cool thing with fabric is you can pull the threads and it straightens itself! I added some gold cord from my hoarded stash - done!

Next, we have what I think is a picture of a piece of fabric. I think. (Oooh, a common thread in one of my posts.) I found it during the cleaning of the table yesterday, and I put it with my pile of Parent Sheets in The Other Room.

Aaaaand, I got some new goodies in the mail today - stamps from Purple Onion Designs. This shopping episode is brought to you by Lauren, who is totally responsible for my undoing. Once I saw this and this, I was doomed. She suggested I make a card to enter the contest to win free stuff, but puleeze, what part of 'instant gratification' was not clear here?! Like, I'd win, anyway! And if I did not win, I'd have missed the window for purchasing these lovelies at the advertised discount. So I shopped. It is still all her fault. :P

Now if you would please scroll back up to the photo, you may notice the embossed stamped image on that paper. That's one of my new stamps. I stamped it with Versamark and embossed it with Copper EP. The paper is mounted on a base of Dusty Durango, one of the new SU In Colors. The ribbon is some luscious satin I got at Mike's for $1 - for 15 yards, not the usual 3 yards! I bought many. I did a faux bow, which is cool because you can slide it over if you decide you do not like it in its current spot, and I did - move it, that is.

I decided to not cut out the center part of the flourish, and instead I dug through my trinket stash and found this pocket watch, which I stuck on with a mini glue-dot and tucked under the bow. No sentiment - I think it's busy enough. This one will go in my Any Occasion section.

Before I leave you this evening, I must show you something. This:

The cat is still trying to to get into my lap, but tonight she settled for putting her head on my shoulder and snoring. Her behind is on the arm of the couch, and she is draped over the pillow to get her head onto my shoulder. She is such a squishy feline.

Okay, I promised no tome tonight, so I leave you to get back to whatever constructive activity you were doing before you started reading this.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Steps in The Other Room, and Two Cards

I am about to take you on a very long tour of a very small part of The Other Room. When you see how much s-crap I have packed into this space, you will hopefully begin to understand the seriousness of my situation. Let us begin.

I was focused on the table top, but I thought I'd pick up this small, innocent-looking bag of UFOs from the floor to see what it contained. Oh, boy, what was I thinking?! From inside this small bag I pulled the following:

A few pieces of square patterned papers that I'd punched with my Wrought Iron punch, which I think I no longer own.

Some long-ago retired strips of patterned paper. I loved this blue back in the day... still do, actually. It's Brocade Blue, I believe.

Oh, look, more! These are actually pre-cut layers, ready to go on some cards.

More retired DS paper. I think this stuff was Holiday paper, but it looks very Preppy to me. This is a UFO ... a card begun but never completed. I see potential.

And more of the same papers, all Xyron'd and ready to go! Wanna take any bets on if there is any 'stick' left on these? I'll report back on that.

More paper I loved for the blue, and also the Cranberry. I should be able to make quick work of these two.

A pile of Cat bookmarks. I cannot bear to toss them, but I am not sure what I'll do with them. It might be time for some hacking into parts. We'll see. I no longer own this set, either, or I'd just toss these.

A card from BR #2! She does not even remember sending me any cards except the one on my Closet Door Gallery.

And, of course, the matching envelope. BR #2 always stamps the envelopes, too.

Some printed pics of ... I'm not sure what (maybe the canal) and a stray Rosie's Roadshow duck, all on top of a pile of computer-generated sentiments. All keepers.

TA-DA! A table top! YAY! (The crowd goes wild!)

I took the table DOWN. Then I set to work on all the s-crap piled up under it. Most of it was there because kitty helps me by jumping onto the table and kicking off miscellaneous items pretty much every day. So I did not consider my work here done until I also went through the stuff directly under the table. Just the loose stuff, mind you, not the boxes of stuff that will wait for another day.

I re-discovered my Just Rite stamper and some accessories, which I dutifully stored in one of my existing cabinets. Also among the items, I found ...

... my very first Farmers Market permit, which I got in September, 2004. That first day I set up in the pavilion with a card table and a table-top spinner rack. Ah, the old days.

I also found two of these partial cards (UFOs). Not sure what the paper is, but it is stuck to an Olive base.

TA-DA!!!!! The FLOOR! But I was not done!

For my next victim, I chose this pile of pillows and un-ironed ironing. None of the clothes in the pile still fit me, but they have been there so long, they need to be washed before they can be triaged for ironing. Then I'd probably give it all away. But un-ironed - no can do.


I tossed the pillows aside, then took all those clothes, and unceremoniously dumped them into the hallway. I have since washed them and as soon as they come out of the dryer (it took two loads), I have some decisions to make, and some ironing to do. This is the trunk post-ironing heap.

This trunk used to house my entire collection of craft items. That's pretty funny now, I know. Wanna see what's inside? Let's open it!

Hey, it's not even FULL! Wazzup with that?!?!?! Oh, look, some pipe cleaners and my stash of plastic canvas from my magnet-making days, and the no-longer-missing book of magnet patterns.

Okay, now THIS is old! How many years has MJDesigns been out of business?

Yarn and beads. Left from the days when my kids and I did crafts. We used these to make ....

... these! They are called God's Eyes, and they are a standard project in most pre-schools, which is when I think we made them. Given that my boys are in their 20's now, well, I'm just sayin' ...

And shells from years past that my kids could not leave behind on the beach. I have no idea what I will ever do with these.

Given the fact that all these items have been here for about 15 years, I think it is safe to say I need none of them. This means I could also get rid of the trunk. Well, I could! But not today, so I closed the lid, put the pillows back on top, and started some laundry.

While I washed all that un-ironed stuff, I went back to a project I started last night. I tried to do the Faux Linen technique and somehow incorporate the new SU Rich Razzleberry (I struggle with purples). I stamped the flourish from Baroque Motifs in Rich Razzleberry onto Glossy White card stock and dried it with my heat tool. I then used some sandpaper to rub off the gloss in one direction (let's call it 'vertical'), then in the other direction (that would be 'horizontal'). Then I sponged on some So Saffron to make the 'linen'.

This is one of those cards that just evolves. I sit there looking at it until I try one more thing, then one more thing, until I either give up or go to bed, which is really just giving up, only horizontally. Before bed, though, I added the sponged Razzleberry ink, then I distressed both the white and the DS paper, then I added the black layer, then I added the black brads, THEN I went to bed.

This morning, it was still there, taunting me. That's when I decided to work in The Other Room. But after The Other Room work was complete today, I had to face the music. I spied the first embossed Pretties Kit flower I'd done the other day. Remember the Melon Mambo flowers? Well, the first one I made was Rich Razzleberry. Then this card started to come together. I formed a faux bow out of a strip of the Razzleberry Lemonade paper; punched a black 1/2" circle for the center (and to hide all the seams); stuck in a black brad, which also goes through the flower AND all the layers except for the base; stamped the sentiment (it was out). Done! Whew! I am not sure I'll make another one of these.

Then I took one of today's re-discovered UFOs off the Mini Heap and made this. The image is from the several images Kristie sent me to try out. I colored her, cut her out, colored a chair, cut it out, and sat her on the chair.

The heart was cut from a Celery scrap and embossed with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I decided to put her on the heart off-center, and I added some ribbon from my stash and a(n) SU layered sentiment.

This was a LOT of work! I think I'll try something different with the other UFO. For now, it is back on The Mini Heap.

If you are still reading, I am amazed. I think I'll go finish the un-ironed re-wash so I can wash some clothing to wear to work tomorrow. Then I plan to get some sleep.

Hey, thanks for stopping by!