Happy Memorial Day!

Well, it has been a bless-ed and glorious weekend, all three days! One of my favorite statements on Monday's is, "I need a weekend from my weekend." With my Farmers Market on Saturday's, and everything else on Sunday's, Monday comes way too fast for me. I don't seem to get a day to do nothing often enough. But with the three-day weekend, I got that day today! Actually, I spent most of yesterday being a slug and most of today stampin'! That laziness rejuvenated me!

At Saturday's market, one of the things I picked up was a bag of these:

I looooove spring peas! Sometimes I buy them early in the day and have them for lunch. They start out like the photo on the left and end up like the photo below.

One of the sweetest things known to mankind is freshly hulled spring peas. M-m-tasty!

The good thing about fresh peas is they balance out all the sinfull goodness of this heart attack on a plate I made to go with it. I left off the bread, though, so that should count for calorie-negation, too, shouldn't it? *I* think so! Then I had this for breakfast, and my fate was sealed. I needed to burn a LOT of calories, so instead of going for walk on the canal, I walked into my Dining Room for a day of stampin'! (Do you think I need a twelve-step program?)

I was determined to use some of the embarrassingly large stash of goods I have accumulated. Oh, did I tell you I went to the LSS again on Sunday? They called to say the Basic Grey 6x6 paper packs I had ordered were in. Since it was a GORgeous day out, I decided to put the top down on the Miata and drive to Virginia to pick up my stuff. I knew full well I would undoubtedly buy more than those paper packs, but I went anyway. So I was doubly-determined to use some of it to alleviate all this guilt I have.

So here we go!

I have had this card idea in my brain for a long time, but my closer (near-by) LSS that recently closed never had this The Cat's Pajamas image on the shelf, so I kept putting it off, just waiting for the day the stamp would appear. And what luck! There it was on the shelf of the LSS in VA, so I got it. And used it!

The top of this card is made with one of the Polka Dot Basic stamps from Papertrey Ink, stamped in Chocolate Chip on Bashful Blue card stock. I used the same technique to mat the dog as I did with the Grad the other day: I punched out two ovals the same size and just offset them behind the main image. All I really wanted was some contrast, and it works quite well! I put on three lines of grosgrain ribbon, and stamped the sentiment (also by TCP) in Choc Chip. It was very easy to make, as there is no coloring on the image. Brown dog, white bandages - what's to color? :-) I really like how this one turned out!

This one is also from the Ole Brain Archives. I bought this A Muse fish stamp a while ago, thinking I'd use one of the fish buttons I have to embellish it. I have given up trying to find the fish buttons in The Stash, and opted instead to use some of the paper I used for the card base. Clever and original (not), I know....The double-sided striped paper is newly-purchased, and I again used it as the card base. I tried stamping a diamond background over it in a light color (Bashful Blue) to soften the glare of the bright stripes, and I think it turned out just fine.

The fish was stamped on a scrap of the striped paper and cut out. The ribbon is part of the 1200-yard spool of it I have in the other room, left over from my Ribbon Outlet haul. Here I used about 5" of it. (At this rate they can mummify me in the stuff and still have some left over. What was I thinking?) I got the idea for layering the three punchouts for the sentiment from a ton of blog- and SCS-surfing. I like how it looks, and that I am actually using all those punches I have. Every once in a while I even remember to show The Ladies how to do this at workshops & classes.

Recipe includes: Stamps - Fish and Sentiment by A Muse, bg by Cornish Heritage Farms; Ink - Bashful Blue, Choc Chip; Paper - Misc stripe, Bashful Blue, Choc Chip, Very Vanilla; Other - Designer Label punch, 1" Circle punch, Word Window punch, misc brads and ribbon.

This is one of my new (a month ago) Emerson stamps. I soooo identify with this lady. I wanted her to be the central focus of the card, so I chose a soft patterned paper from my new stash, layered it on White Naturals card stock, and wrapped a piece of Twill around it. I added some Pewter brads from the Vintage Brads (love them!), colored her in and called it done. I think she will be a hit at the Market.

This whole card is a bonus for me. It uses my C.R.S. sentiment (River City Rubber Works) which was used on the one card that sold out at my December show and I needed to make more cards using it. I used a very pretty paper from the new stash. And I used a new image I picked up on Sunday - isn't that lady (American Art Stamps) great? Ooooooh, does she have possibilities with all the irreverent sentiments I am collecting!

This one is totally inspired by this post at SCS. It needs some work, but I think it is passable. There is no doubt what I intended to make, anyway. I did spend a lot of time today trying to get the sizes right. I started out with 1 1/4" large circles and a 1/2" small circle. They look great, but the card would have to be H U G E to accomodate all the pieces, so I started over. I found the 3/4" circle worked well size-wise for the billiard balls, but the 1/4" circle was a bit on the wee side. I think a 3/8" punch would have been better, and wouldn't you know it, I do not have one, if they even make one.

Then, of course, once I had it all stuck on the card, with the cue ball, I needed to think of a sentiment, or rather a reason someone would buy this card or give it to someone. Immediately, my mind went to the gutter, and I came up with "Nice Rack". What can I say? It fit in the oval, so I used it. I will let you know if anyone buys one!

Recipe (since there is a lot going on here): Stamps - PSX alphabet; Paper - non-SU textured dark green, Basic Black, Bravo Burgundy, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow, Real Red, Glorious Green, Only Orange, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White; Other - black marker, Designer Label punch, Lg Oval Punch, 3/4" punch, 1/4" punch.

And last, but not least, is my reason for being. I am the poster child for crookedness. If I accomplish nothing else in my life, if I can make even one person feel better about their stamping, I have done my job.

As I previously mentioned, the reason for my recent trip to the LSS was to pick up up several 6x6 Basic Grey paper stacks. I looooove Basic Grey. I may not use the paper once I buy it, but I still love it. You are aware, aren't you, that this is how hoarding begins, right? But I digress...

So I decided to use some of the new paper in my collection, and I chose the Cupcake Sugared papers. I opted to cut them into 1" strips, layer them on the card, then add a sentiment and ribbon (of course.) I mean, how hard could this be, right? Wrong.

I started on the left edge of the card front, and by the mid-point I noticed the strips of paper were all leaning to the left. By the time I got to the last piece, it was very crooked. This first one is the best of the four I made, and you can still see the right edge is off. Sigh.

This one was so bad I had to cut off the card front and trim it to a semblance of 5 1/4" x 4" to re-mount it on another card. So sad. It is still crooked.

And in case you were wondering, I no longer hang wallpaper, either.

Oh, one more thing. If you have not already done so, please take a few moments tonight and remember why we have this three-day weekend. I was reminded Sunday morning as I drove to meet a friend for breakfast. On every overpass were clusters of people watching the highway. By the third overpass, I realized they were waiting for the Rolling Thunder. If any of you have not experienced this, you should, at least once. Being so near to DC, we get to see (or hear) it every year, but I believe there are State chapters now, too. Next year, I think I'll pay more attention and be one of those people on the overpasses, camera ready. I am a firm believer that motorcycles are really just donor-mobiles, but once a year I have to say the sight and sound of tens of thousands of motorcycles convoying down the road, with American and POW flags flying, is awesome. So please make sure to thank a vet for all that we have today.

Well, I think I'll go have some of the leftover heart-attack-on-a-plate and call it a night. If I can finish up the laundry, I can go to work tomorrow. Yay....