A Color-Inspired Card

Tonight I begin with a card I received as opposed to a card I made myself. My Blogger and Twitter friend, Libby, sent me this card:


Isn't it super?! You know *I* didn't make it because all the pieces are straight. Sigh. This card was included with a stamp set I coveted, and now she expects me to actually make something with it. Ack, the pressure! :-)

But I did, miraculously, make a card myself this evening. It was inspired by the clothing worn by the woman ahead of me in line at the Post Office at lunch time. (That could be a record-breaking sentence as far as prepositional phrases go ...) She was wearing khaki slacks, a white T-shirt and a Crushed Curry sweater. Swap out "khaki" and replace it with "Kraft", and you have my color combo:

... which was just a starting point, as I failed to include any khaki in this card:

The idea for this design came from this card, and I wanted to CASE her idea, yet make it my own. I started with the In Color DSP and punched the 3/4" squares for the Curry. I thought it would disappear into the curry card base, so I added a layer of white. I also thought the Kraft would be B-O-R-I-N-G here, so I used Soft Suede instead.

Then I had a brain fart. I was looking at 12 tiny squares of paper that needed their corners rounded. I then realized the pieces were too tiny to fit into my corner rounder punch with any hope of the corners actually landing in the right spot to punch. Sigh. So in a Good Demo moment, I put some Dotto onto a strip of cardboard, one-at-a-time stuck each 3/4" square to it, inserted it into the corner rounder, and punched it. I did this 12 times. It was tedious. I only did one corner of each piece instead of two. I did not go back and read the original post about how she managed to round the corners until after I was done. (She used scalloped scissors, not a corner punch.) In the Twitterverse this is known as a #FAIL on my part of epic proportions. In my world it is just par for the course, though.

So I lined up the tiny squares as best I could and stuck them down. I hated intensely disliked it, plus it was, you know: crooked. In an effort to make this passable, I spied my scraps of Curry ribbon in my I-cannot-bear-to-throw-these-away-yet pile. I proceeded to stick one piece across the middle of the DSP squares and tied another piece into a knot.

The sentiment is from my newly-mounted Picture This set, which is a Hostess Set in the soon-to-expire Occasions Mini. Oh, look: I stamped it crooked. Oh, bother.

This card can be for any occasion - just swap out the sentiment! It's also a great way to use up scraps of paper! Not that *I* used scraps, but you totally could. I will not be using this as a workshop card, even though it ended up being 100% SU. Why? Because (1) we did the corner-rounding thing last month, and (2) I want The Ladies to come back, and this card might send a few of them over the edge. Nope, I still need two more cards for next weekend. Gah!

In other news, my Farmers Markets start tomorrow! YAY! Woo-hoo! And since it is May 1st - May Day, there is a parade in the neighborhood, and we have to get there really, really early, so I plan to go to bed really, really early tonight. Still left to do is dump out my "bag" from last Winter's holiday shows, triage the contents (things tend to collect in there so by December it feels like I am carrying bricks), and put back only what I need for this season. I also need to grab a few table cloths from my pile in the middle of the Living Room.

It is supposed to be GOR-JUS tomorrow, so I hope to get some decent pics to share with you. I might even sell something. Hey, it could happen!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's All About the Food

I am my father's daughter. When we were kids, we joked that my parents planned our vacations by first selecting the restaurants at which we'd dine, then they'd see if there was anything else to see in that particular town. Now that I think back, I'm pretty sure that's what they did. So it should come as no surprise to any of you that my latest mini road trip was planned around what I'd eat and when.

I promise I won't tire you with a run-down of everything I ate, not that you'd even have time for that, but it would also be booooooring. I'll just show you the highlights. Plus, I didn't take pics of everything, so there.

Let's start with the star of our show: the Kentucky Hot Brown. This sandwich was made famous by The Brown Hotel in Louisville, but you can get it just about anywhere in KY, though some purists will tell you they are cheap imitations. Ya know what? If it's slathered in cheese, who really cares?!

Being a blogger, I always have my camera at the ready. Here is an intact Hot Brown:

It looks tame, right? Please note that is not a dinner plate, but rather a bowl that is as big as a dinner plate. And it is deep. All you can see is the vat of cheese on the top, along with some tomatoes, grated Parmesan and BACON.

Knowing I would not survive eating a whole one of these, I opted for a small side salad and I split a Hot Brown with someone. This is what half of one looks like:

Uh-huh, yeah. See how deep the bowl is? Mmm-hmmm. From the bottom up we have: toast, turkey, ham, cheese, cheese, cheese, tomatoes and BACON. OMG, it must be about 1800 calories for just half of one. Seriously.

The next day, after I awoke from my cheese coma, I hit a local farmers market. In my world I call it "industry research"... you know, being a market veteran I must compare other markets to my own, even if they are in a different state. The stand-out at this one was this cheese (I sense a recurring theme, here):

Oh.My.God. I had samples, and I couldn't stop eating this one and the Asiago variety. I wanted to buy some, but being on the road, refrigeration was not gonna happen. Then he presented me with this:

For $2, he would sell me an insulated bag. It would hold a lot of cheese and then, even if you were in a hotel room, you could fill it with ice and the cheese would stay cold. SOLD! I bought a bag and two cheeses. Isn't that clever of them?!?!?!?

Moving on ... one of the things I treat myself to on the road is sweets. Candy. Rare candy. I crave very few things of the sweet variety, but these things will stop me in my tracks:

Necco wafers. One sleeve is one serving, and you can't tell me otherwise.

Also, these:

Circus Peanuts. Between these and the Necco wafers, the sugar is enough to keep a body going for days.

On another leg of my journey I met a friend for lunch outside of Cincinnati, and it just wouldn't be right to be in Cincy and not eat their famous Five-Way Chili. This is what it looks like:

The 5 layers are: spaghetti, beans, chili, raw onions and CHEESE (there it is again). No, this was not mine. I got a booooring chili + cheese, a wimpy 2-way. I could not have lived with myself with the beans and the onions, and I can live without pasta. So my 2-way chili was just a light lunch in a 5-way world. In Cincy you can buy the chili in cans. They also have a drive-up window. Seriously. My pal told me they use it often. Mmmm.

Next I found myself in Pittsburgh. (Did you know that if you address an envelope with PghPA, it will get there? What? You don't address envelopes any more? For shame!) Anyway, several years ago, I was visiting PghPA with a friend and we went to the original Primanti Brothers restaurant. The one I go to now is just down the street from Pitt and Carnegie-Mellon. I took this picture of the sign because I seem to be incapable of remembering the name of the place. I always say "that P restaurant with the fries inside the sandwiches". Yes, I embarrass my son. A lot.

So here we were:

No matter what kind of sandwich you order from the menu, it has the fries on the inside. Here is a side view of half my sandwich:

That is corned beef topped with a handful of fries, then about a pint of cole slaw. SO good. One of my Tweeps said it looks fairly high in carbs. Um, what's her point, do you think? And yes, I ate the whole thing.

For the last leg of my journey, I stopped at a rest stop on the PA Turnpike. On purpose. Not only did I need a potty stop, I needed one of these:

A hot soft pretzel. I rub off most of the salt, but oh, is this good. You can't get them at the new-fangled modern OH Turnpike rest stops, just the older PA Turnpike ones. If you love hot soft pretzels as I do, you will remember to stop at a PA rest stop to get one. If you are lucky enough to be the passenger, you can also get mustard or cheese, but as the driver, not a good idea. I pass.

So there you have it - my culinary tour of the Midwest. In future posts, I'll update you on some of the scenery and historic things I saw. I just had to show you the food first.

My farmers markets start this Saturday (yay!), so I'll also have weekly market updates for you. I need the road trip stuff for my blog because I have made nothing card-wise - NOTHING - and I am soooo far behind with the inventory. I put my boxes in the car tonight and I only have three boxes, where I usually have five. ACK! Panic sets in ...

Thanks for stopping by!

Report From The Road

Before the skies opened up today, I had the pleasure of stopping by some horse farms outside of Lexington, KY. Lots of wide-open, here. I took this pic on my phone, but I have a bunch more on my camera I'll share once I get them edited and uploaded.

I also toured a bourbon distillery. Hey, it had to be done.

Tonight I've got a tweet-up with four of my Tweeple, and we're going to consume Hot Browns for dinner. I'll take some pics!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

This 'n' That

Today has been weird. I only worked until noon, then I began my loooong weekend. Had the oven repaired "between 1 and 5", which turned out to be 4:00. Not bad. While I waited I opened the back door for kitty to sun herself. Just look at this:


If this is not a perfect example of a lazy afternoon ... well, for her it was. Me? I was doing laundry and trying to keep Google Reader under 1000 unread posts. I just need to accept that 1000+ is the new 100. But still, I try.

I took kitty out back for a bit since I am filled with guilt about my upcoming road trip (more on that in a sec), so I indulged her. Gotta keep an eye on that one, though. She is, after all, a cat, and has escaped between the gaps in the fence in the past. While I had one eye on her, I spied this:


Moss! IT LIVES! (Hey, I pulled most of the weeds ... leave me alone.) Some of you may recall the Great Moss Massacre of 2008. If not, let me brief you. I had a flagstone patio put in several years ago, and I thought it would be cool to have moss growing between the stones. Enter BR #2 with bags of moss harvested from her own yard. We "planted" it and waited for it to grow. That's when the aforementioned massacre occurred. But the few pieces the birds didn't get keep coming back, and with all the rain we've had this Spring, the moss that's there is quite happy! I may try to plant some more this year. Maybe.

Moving on. I made two cards! YAY! Woo-hoo! (The crowd goes wild.) Ahem. It was one of my usual CASEs because the panic for my May classes is already setting in, plus my markets start May 1st, which is NEXT WEEKEND, and I am sooooo not ready. So when I saw this card, I knew what had to be done. Here is my version of her card:


I stamped the medallion from SUs Wanted set thrice in white Craft ink on Kraft card stock and embossed it with clear EP. I used the 1 3/8" square punch to punch out the center. The card base is Naturals White, and look - I almost got them evenly spaced, too! I tied a piece of twine through an Earth Elements (or are they Neutrals?) button and stamped Happy Father's Day from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Choc Chip ink.

Then I made this version:

These images are from Pocket Silhouettes, and I used the 1 1/4" square punch for them. Yeah, they're a little crooked. Should I tell you I reattached those squares at least three times to get them that straight? True. That twine could use a little tightening, too. Oh, well. It's all about the idea, right?

So one of these might be a workshop project for May, which means I would only have two more to make up. Why the panic? Because I'm leaving for a short Road Trip tomorrow morning and I'll be far, far away from my crafty supplies. ACK! But I'll be doing fun stuff, and I shall report in, Internet connectivity permitting, with some pics of my adventures.

Meanwhile, don't break in and steal my stuff. I'm not worried, though. The cat sitter can take any of you with one hand tied behind her back. Seriously.

Thanks for stopping by!

Getting Beady

When last we met, I had a tweet-up with @holyxuxa and she helped me pick out some beads to use on my bookmarks. But before we get to that, I wanted to show you a minor modification to this card:


Originally I wrote the whole sentiment, which meant I stamped nothing. I was guilt-ridden, so I made the other 5 of them like this:


And it only took me about 30 minutes of hunting in my "word sets" drawers to find that tiny heart stamp in the SU Short & Sweet set. I like this version a lot better. Also, please notice the white band of card stock under the ribbon is a lot narrower than the first one. That's because I messed up punching the border and had to cut off the bad section and punch the other side. I know, I meant to do that, right? I actually like it better. I DO! Should I tell you I have more than one of these with a narrow border? Mmm-hmmm.

Oh, did you notice I added a comma to the sentiment? I did! It's only right.

Okay, back to the beads. I bought these:

Two different colors/types of the small round beads ...

... some small brown ones:

... and some really cool larger brown ones:

Did you notice I have re-purposed my empty SU containers for these guys? I saved them for years just for this moment.

I played with those beads for hours, but my idea just wasn't happening. I thought they needed a little something-something, and I thought I had some metal beads in my stash, but find them? HA! So I was dejected. Then this morning I had a Happy Accident! I bumped some papers off the end of my file cabinet and voila! A pack of metal beads was lurking under them! Lookie:

So I set back in to work this evening, and I now present to you Attempt #1 at The Bead Idea. First, I took a perforating blade and ran it down the inside of a card:

Just once, people. Just once. If you run it twice, it actually severs the papers. (Ask me how I know ...) I then rounded all the corners of what is now The Book Mark. See? It's a card AND a gift! I put in an eyelet and wrapped the end of my silk thread through it a few times then knotted it. Then I strung a few of the green beads, one of the metal ones, and finally one more green one, then knotted the thread at the top. Ta da:

I wanted a flat bookmark (I only put flat bookmarks in my books!) but with a floppy, beady, hangy-off-the-end thing-a-ma-bob that will hang outside the book. What do you think?

I'll be playing with this for a while. Maybe get some thinner silk thread. I dunno. I'll be sure to show you if I manage an Attempt #2 that is actually blog-worthy. I am open to ideas or suggestions for improvement. Really! Bring it on!

And thanks for stopping by!

A Fun Field Trip and Some Magic Paper

What a GLORIOUS day it was today! I had a tweet-up with @holyxuxa in Charlottesville, VA, (she made my bracelet - go to her store and buy her stuff!) and it was just a perfect day: sunny, nice breeze, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect.

We ate, and we shopped, and we walked around, and we ate, and we drank, and we ate. Oh, yeah, a great day! We were in the main shopping area, which is a pedestrian-only, tree-lined, outdoor mall, and it was just beautiful. Check out the fleurs:

On our way to get gelatto we spotted this:

... a wheel barrow full of puppies! The owner was there with the mom, who looked very tired! The pups are not quite 8 weeks old and he was selling them. Shepherd-Chow mix. SO cute! No, I didn't get one, and no, I didn't bring one home for BR#2. I was so glad she wasn't there, because I'm not strong enough to hold her back. She would have paid the man for the whole batch and taken the wheel barrow full of fur home with her.

There was also some funky furniture out in front of some of the shops. Check out this couch:

Yep - mosaic. I sat on it, too!

Aaaand, I got crafty last night! Look what I made:

This uses some new SU goodies from the Summer Mini. First, that paper is magic paper. It has white embossing on it (this one has words) that shows once you add color. I started with a new stencil we have (also from the Summer Mini) and sponged Melon Mambo ink over it. So few of the words showed through, though, that I brayered the ink over the whole thing! I really like how it came out. I, of course, had to add ribbon. In a fevered moment, I added the sentiment tag to make it a wedding card, but then I realized that set is only available in the Occasions Mini, which ends April 30th, so I can't use this for my May workshops. Ack!

Then I decided the satin ribbon, though yummy, kindof hides most of the design, so I tried the white taffeta ribbon with this one:

Better. Boring, but better. So in yet another fevered moment, I thought to add the Love charm:

Ahem. That charm is certainly not SU. I'm still pondering what to do for a sentiment so I can use this for next month's workshops. I have a few weeks before I need to panic.

Oh, also while in Charlottesville, one of our planned stops was a bead shop. You see, @holyxuxa makes jewelry (go to her shop and buy some of it!) and she helped me pick out a few things to use on my cards. Just a few. Like I need more stuff, ya know? Hopefully I'll actually be able to execute my plan and I'll have something crafty to show you. :-)

I hope it's as pretty where you are as it is here. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

CASE Central

Welcome to CASE Central, wherein I CASE myself and also a card from a magazine. There has been much discussion on the Interwebz on the question of the existence of any original ideas any more. If you blurf like I do, you see a bazillion cards in one day. I couldn't tell you that when I get an idea that it was 100% of my own doing or not - probably not. But when I CASE something, even if I have a copy of it right on my screen, I almost never copy it 100%. That would be a case (no pun intended) of stealing, not being inspired.

That said, I CASEd both of tonight's cards. The other night I made one of the cards from my Basic Grey Marrakech card kit and altered a little, and last night I made another one based on that one. Tonight, I used the remaining cut pieces of card stock to make this:

I added another paper flower from my stash, and went a bit wild and put a piece of pink bling in the center of it. Me likey!

Next, I happened to glance through my latest (and final) issue of Paper Crafts magazine, and saw a card I wanted to CASE for Mother's Day. I am very low on Mother's Day cards, and I need to get my act together. I needed something pretty and a little different, but easy enough to make more than one without wanting to chew off my arm. This is what came out:

I used the same layout as the card in the mag, right down to the same MS punch. I used a piece of paper from my stash (by crate papers, I think) and paired it with SU Naturals White. The ribbon is from my SABLE stash from my trip 2 years ago (or was it three) to the Ribbon Outlet. (omg)

Now, about that sentiment. I have several Mother's Day sentiments that would have worked here, but in my world, I try really, really, really hard to not have holiday-specific cards, because then after the holiday, I get to store them in a box for 11 more months. Nuh-uh. So I thought I'd steal the sentiment from the mag, which could work all year 'round, but is unfortunately not a stamp I own. So I futzed a while with the computer trying to find a font I liked, and a color I thought would work, and a size that would be easily die-cut, and I finally cancelled the whole 'puter thing and said, "Heck, I'll just write it!" So I did*. I used my Bermuda Bay marker (gotta love the In Color markers, huh?) and die-cut it with one of my NEW NESTIES! Oh, yeah, baby! I got three new sets. la la la

Then the sentiment didn't fit nicely on the card, so I went totally out of control and turned the card horizontally so I could place the sentiment where you see it above. SCORE! I love it! Okay, maybe I'm not in love with my handwriting, but I think the idea has merit, which is good, because I have papers cut for 5 more of these cards.

I consider this a productive stampy session, wouldn't you agree? I'm pretty happy about the whole episode.

Tomorrow I'll finish up the other 5 copies of that Mom card and then try to eek out yet another creation from the grey matter between my ears. Aaaand, tomorrow is Friday, which means the next day is Saturday, and Saturday I'm driving to Charolettesville, VA, to have a tweet-up with one of my Tweeps from Lynchburg! Yay! Can't wait!

Hey, thanks for stopping by!

*And it's a good thing I decided to write the sentiment by hand, since my printer is dead due to lack of a replacement Cyan ink cartridge. That would have been a sad, sad moment, indeed.

The Marrakech Kit Influence

If you have children, you've probably heard of the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. And he wants to move to Australia. Well, I had one of those days today, and I wanted to move to Australia, too. But instead, I came home to scratch kitty behind the ears and then I got stampy. Getting stampy always helps The Mood.

Okay, maybe I didn't get stampy, per se, but I did get crafty, and I made two cards. Remember that Basic Grey Marrakech (spelled correctly this time) card kit I've used the last two posts? I had some rub-ons left over, and since I knew I had the Marrakech 6x6 paper pack, I decided it was time to see if my mojo was back. Let's have a look, shall we?

This first example is pretty simple:

I used three of the papers and the left-over elephant rub-on. The whole time I was working on the kit, the instructions kept referring to the "dark blue" paper that I swore was black. Well, the elephant rub-on is black, so I matted it on black card stock. NOW I see the background of that bottom piece of paper is very dark blue. Too late. The black mat stayed.

I added some SU Basic Gray taffeta ribbon, largely because black was too stark. For a sentiment, I opened and mounted my new (to me) SU Tiny Tags set from the Occasions Mini catalog, and I punched it out with the new (to me) Medium Jewelry Tag punch.

Let's zoom in for a closer look:

That is two separate stamps: the dotted outline and the sentiment. Can you believe *I* got them pretty much lined up? Amazing, I know!

Then I mostly CASEd the final card I posted here last night and made this:

I used the same papers, though in slightly different proportions. I also used other left-over rub-ons for the sentiment and fleurs on either side of it, and a paper flower to fill that lonely left side. The ribbon on top? That's to hide the fact that I attached the green paper a little, um, crooked.

So no stamping at all, but two cards. Yay!

I also played with a few new things, but I have nothing to show for it, yet. Hopefully in the next day or two I'll manage to complete something, although that Marrakech paper is a bit distracting. We'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Rest Of The Kit

Tonight I bring you the rest of my Basic Grey Marrakesh Kit cards. I made a few changes on these, so I will first show you the picture from the card kit as to what they wanted me to do, then I'll show you what I actually did instead. My changes were very minor this time.

The first glaring photo is of the Basic Grey "just a reminder" card:

... and here is my version:

I lost the chipboard elephant, moved the layers around a little, chose to not do the white faux stitching, changed the sentiment (who sends a reminder card except the dentist, the eye doctor, or the Vet?), and added a few of the extra rub-ons.

Here is Basic Grey's "way 2 go" card:

... and here is my version:

The only thing I changed was the sentiment. Oh, and I put the orange strip of paper under the striped piece. I'm living dangerously, here ... The reasons I changed the sentiment are: (1) I hated intensely disliked it, (2) it seemed flimsy, (3) I lost misplaced the 'y' and the 'g'', and (4) I felt like being a rebel. The rub-on I used is from the stash I finally found in my 2004 Road Trip scrap book 'finish this some day' box of stuff. I actually rescued several sheets of Class A Peel sentiments from there, too.

Here is Basic Grey's "Elephant Card":

... and my version of the card:

The only thing I changed was adding the sentiment. Oh, and I skipped the faux stitching, too. Ya know, I think elephants are for remembering, not for luck. Oh, well, I like the card anyway.

This next one I did exactly as instructed, so there's no BG version of this photo:

Okay, I lied. I added the ribbon and a sentiment, but I just now added that sentiment. It looked like it needed one.

And finally, I bring you my favorite of the bunch. Here is BG's serving suggestion:


... and here is my version:

I got all crazy and put the orange flower thing on the left instead of on top of the right-side design, and I hated intensely disliked the original sentiment, so I replaced it with more of the provided rub-ons.

Speaking of rub-ons, the one thing I really like about these kits is you get so many extra rub-ons! Look what I've got left:

Now that I've played with the Marrakesh papers, I might have to find and break open my own 6x6 pack and actually use them. And I can use these rub-ons with them! Yay!

In other news, today was a crazy-busy errands day. While I waited for the oven repair guy to arrive, I cleaned up from my Stamp Camps , did a load of laundry, and paid some bills. After he repaired the stove (another story for another time) I packed up some stuff that needed to be returned, then I actually left the house and went to UPS, then stopped at the City Rec Center to turn in my apps for my two (TWO) Farmers Market permits, and filled up the car with petrol on the way home (not the inside of the car, the gas tank... sigh). The only things I did not get done were: make a few appointments, stop at Chloe's to re-stock my cards, and buy food. There's always tomorrow after work.

I think I'll go craft some more. I may even break out some of my new SU Summer Mini goodies so I can give you guys another sneak peek tomorrow. Then I may get some Chinese take-out. I'm hungry.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tackling Another Card Kit

Last night, during the Creative Avoidance phase of my Stamp Camp prep, I took out my Basic Grey Marrakesh Card Kit and got started. If you'll recall, I'm not big on card kits, mostly because I think when I use them I'm cheating on my stamps and card stock. It's easy to put together a card where everything is pre-cut and diagrammed for you; it's coming up with the idea that is most of the fun! But I had it in my stash, so instead of cutting card stock for my Stamp Camps, I made the Basic Grey cards.

Here's the first of three I finished:

I followed the instructions and didn't change a thing on this one.

The second card:

I went really crazy with this one and added the two brown chipboard circles to the left of the sentiment. They were the punch-outs from the 'o' and the 'p' from the first card, so, well, I used them on the second card.

The third card:

Oh, I broke ALL the rules with this one! The instructions said to put that striped piece of paper (on the right edge) on top of the paper flowers, but I went crazy and put the strip on the card first so the paper flowers are on top. See? Never let it be said that I don't have a wild streak. Seriously. I also chose not to center the patterned paper on the card base. I totally meant to do that.

Oh, look , the second 'L' is crooked. Oh, my.

There are 5 more cards I've started but set aside because I plan to change something on them ... I just don't know what yet.

Do you sense a lack of excitement with this kit? Mmm-hmmm. But it's 8 cards I'll have made for my markets that start in three weeks, so that's a good thing. Plus, now this kit is no longer part of my stash. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

In other news, I have a pounding headache, which is either the result of too much wine last night, or the fact that our pollen count is running over 4000 again, or a combination of the two. Whatever. I know you feel sorry for me. Not having had a headache in over 8 years, I am particularly whiney about it tonight, so I'll take my leave and spare you.

Hopefully I'll have the rest of the Basic Grey Marrakesh cards done some time Tuesday, so I'll post them then.

Thanks for stopping by!