SOS #62 - What Was I Thinking!?

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for another challenge at Shopping Our Stash! This week's theme is What Was I Thinking?!?! We'd like you to use something you HAD to have, but it's sooooo not "you". Maybe the latest trendy item that everyone else is using, or maybe something you liked at the time but now you have no clue why you liked it? Yeah, that.  Use it.

In my world as a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I am easily enabled to need all the new stuff, and in every color. I have an embarrassingly large collection of SU stuff that has never been opened, so my challenge today was to narrow it down to one or two items. I chose the Printed Petals stamp set (seriously? flowers? me?) and the pom-pom ribbon. Yes, pom-poms. I saw someone use them around the edge of a circle and I was sold ... bought it in every color ... twice.

Here's my card:

The pretty DSP is Comfort Cafe, and I layered it with Midnight Muse. If you'd like some background music, queue this one up. It's Midnight Blue by Louise Tucker, and I break into song (in my head) every time I use Midnight Muse ink.

The ribbon is Soft Suede polka dot, with the dots face-down. It covers a boo-boo. Speaking of which, the sentiment (Made For You) was stamped crooked so I saved it by stamping it again on a piece of Vanilla to make it look like I meant to do that. The button is also SU, from the new catalog. Pearls are also SU, colored with a brown Sharpie.

Now it's your turn! Go into your stash and find something you HAD to have because everyone else was getting it, but now you question your sanity. Use it on a card, then come over to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emboss Resist in Blue

I've been neglecting my Stampin' Up! stamps lately. In fact, my "you can't put it away until you've used it" rule has left a stack of stamps at my feet, and I get to look at them every day. It was only a matter of time before I got a clue, and last night I made this:

It's kindof difficult to tell, but those flowers are embossed. I stamped them in Versamark and embossed them with clear EP. I think they'd pop more if I'd used white EP.

I colored them with Midnight Muse, Island Indigo and Pool Party markers. It's important to note that when you go to wipe off the embossed part, you need to do it towards the center of the flower instead of towards the outside. Here's why:

 Yeah, that's not pretty.  Oh, and when I put my camera down, I saw this photo op (vertigo warning!):

I'm easily amused.

Now I can put both of those stamp sets away and move on to other crafty goodness. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp sets used: Betsy's Blossoms, Sweet Essentials

A 5-minute Card

Quick post - I had to share! I just made this card in 5 minutes:

This is one of the free - FREE - downloads from Stampin' Up! for Digital Scrapbooking Day. It's only available for a few days, so time's a-wastin'! You want some free digis? Just do the following:

Start at www.stampinup.com, then click on the image for Digital Scrapbooking Day.
There is a link on that page that says Fill out a brief survey. Click on that.
Take the survey - it's like 4 or 5 questions.
At the end of the survey are three links for downloading the free images. One is for My Digital Studio (MDS) for Windows, one is MDS for MAC, and one is Other. Just click on the link and your download will begin.
The one I played with tonight was "Other". "Other" means it works in other digital software. You do not need MDS to use these images.

The image I used is part of the Home for the Holidays file, called text tree. All I did was import it into Word (Insert, Picture, From file), size it, copy it so it was 4-up, and print it on my color printer. Then I cut it out, layered it onto a piece of Wild Wasabi, then on a Very Vanilla base. DONE!

This would be a fabulous way to get some quick cards for the office, or to include with gifts of food for neighbors and friends.

Now go forth and download! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

SOS Challenge #16 - Birds, Bugs or Beasts

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is to use Birds, Bugs, or Beasts (no people). I chose to use butterflies:

Somewhere in my CASE THIS, er, I mean my INSPIRATION file (yeah, that's better) is a card with yellow and black butterflies. I decided that the time I was spending looking for it to CASE it, I could make up my own, so I did. I'll still give it "inspiration" credit, though. If anyone knows the card of which I speak, please let me know so I can link to it. kthx

I stamped the Houndstooth butterfly from Butterfly Prints in Daffodil Delight on white and in Basic Black on Daffodil Delight, then punched them out with the Butterfly punch. The white card stock layer is in two pieces, and I dry-embossed the top piece with the Houndstooth embossing folder. (I tried embossing just the top 2/3 and it came out a warped mess.) I covered the seam with a narrow strip of black card stock, then stuck the butterflies on with glue dots. I colored some of the smallest pearls with a black Sharpie and used them as the butterflies' bodies. Lastly, I chose a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I think this is a potential card for my September Stamp Camps (which are next weekend - yikes!).

So go rummage in your stash and find some bugs or birds or beasties, make a card, then post it over at Shopping Our Stash so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock #34 - Fall To Layout (Maybe)

I'm back for attempt #2 at this week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge. They've teamed up with the fine folks at Clean & Simple and gave us this sketch:

We were asked to follow the sketch and keep it Clean & Simple. Well, I failed with my first attempt, so here's my second try:

I used some retired SU papers and for the circle elements ... I cheated. Yeah, instead of circles, I cut out some of the holly in the paper. I thought by keeping all those elements the same it would look less busy, aka: Cleaner & Simpler.

Eh, not my best work, but I'm okay with it. Time to move on to do a few more challenges I've earmarked for the "do these some day" pile. Hopefully I'll have something to show you later this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Market Update: Colors

It was another very interesting day in the neighborhood today. As usual I got up early due to a malfunction of the internal body clock, thought about stamping something, then instead went back to bed. I think this was the beginning of the end for me. I did manage to get out of here on time for the market - even remembered to put the boxes of cards back into the car so I'd have something to sell.

I get to the market, start to unload the car, see a man with a walker and a dog, and the dog is blind, and it looks like the man is stumped by my vehicle blocking half the sidewalk. As is my nature, I stopped unloading and offered to lend a hand, or an arm, or whatever.

I spent about 10 minutes with the two of them, making sure the dog did not keep wrapping around the man's legs and walker, helped him get a watermelon, untangled the dog again, picked UP the dog to unhook the leash to try to once and for all get the darn leash unwound from everything, and proceeded to get a doggie facial. What a sweet little dog. The nice gentleman said the dog whines if he (the owner) does not sleep with him. Soooo sweet - both of them!

I finally got the car unloaded and got part-way set up, when I realized I'd forgotten my card rack. I actually contemplated not going home to get it, but then broke down and made the trip. If I am stupid enough to leave it in the house (I'd unloaded the car to go on a fateful trip to IKEA earlier in the week), then I deserve to go back to get it.

Got back, got set up, went to Chloe's to pick up coffee and a bagel, came back and settled in for a hazy, hot and humid day. Opened the bagel - he only put the cream cheese on one side. WHO DOES THAT?!?!?!?! Sigh.

I was so proud of myself this week. I remembered my camera AND my Crackberry AND my Crackberry A/C adapter. Yay! I took out the camera to take a picture - - - no memory card. I'm tellin' ya, I should have packed it in and gone home to stay!

But since I had the charger, I used the Crackberry camera, so the following market pics are not of the best quality (as if my photos ever are), but there are a few fewer megapixels with which to work, so I thank you in advance for bearing with me.

This time of year the colors are amazing. We are in high season, everything is growing, and we've got it all. Here are today's colors:

Maters. Lotsa maters. There's also tomatillos there in front of the orange maters. I did not buy any this week.

Sweet peppers. Looove the multi-colored ones!

Gordon eggs, or eggplant. These are not maters.

Hot peppers. Farmer Mike was very proud of the HOT factor, and bragged about one at home that would peel paint. I sure hope he leaves it there. I think THESE would peel paint, and I won't go near them. But they are very pretty to look at.

And Cockscomb. Earlier this year he had the actual plants for sale; now it's the cut flowers. You can dry these, or stick them in water and just admire them. I did not buy any of these, either. I am an endless source of frustration for Farmer Mike. I think he is ready to start charging me for taking pictures of his stuff.

And they painted our poles! We have been instructed to not put any signs up with tape. We then proceeded to discuss the definition of 'tape', and what alternatives could be used. We are a wily bunch.

For our entertainment pleasure today, not only was there a guitar player outside of Chloe's, but two of Gaithersburg's Finest were stationed at the corner, with the intent of ticketing (or at least warning) the people who fail to stop for the stop signs, which is most everyone. This provided fascinating entertainment, and applause, for a few hours this morning. I am amazed every week that we have yet to see an actual accident.

Some Chloe's employees came through with smoothie samples. The Banana one was sooo good (not too sweet), I went over to get one, but ended up with Peach instead. M-m-m-m-m, did this hit the spot!

More color - I think for inspiration for this week. This is one of the purses for sale across from me. I see SU Dusty Durango, Vanilla and either Celery or Mellow Moss.

And here is another purse - I liked the touch of light blue with the greens.

At the end of the day, the kids who sell the beverages 'help' Farmer Mike sort through the remaining produce to pick out anything that won't make the trip home, and today they found this mutant tomato. Not only are two of them grown together top-to-top, but a third one is also along for the ride. In the background of the pic is the box of poblano peppers I bought. I might stuff them and roast them. With what? I have no idea.

To finish out the day, I actually stamped something! I stamped several things, but only this one is blog-worthy. I go through a lot of card stock before I hit on something that works. The following project worked only because it was a total CASE of this card on SCS. I wanted to use my new Sweet Centers stamp set from the Holiday mini catalog, and as I trolled SCS for inspiration this card just called to me.

It started out badly with a mis-stamped basket, but I realized the balloon part would cover up the schmears. Phew!

Ta-da! I did change a few small things, which makes it only about a 90% CASE. I punched the corners of the white layer and added brads; I left off a yellow layer; I did the sentiment differently; and I {GASP} left off the ribbon. I actually had it on there, but I opted for the layered punched sentiment, so the ribbon had to go.

Recipe (all SU): Stamps - Sweet Centers (Holiday Mini), Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper - So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, Mellow Moss, Whisper White, Patterns Pack III - Mellow Moss (Level 1 Hostess); Ink - Bravo Burgundy; Other - So Saffron marker, Lg Oval punch, 1 3/4" Circle punch, Vintage brads, Ticket Corner punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Scallop edge punch. (Wow - that's a lotta punches!)

Making that card was so exhausting (not) ... but look at this. Sound asleep. Don't you wish you could still get into a position like this? And get out of it without needing help?

That black swirly thing above her back is printed on the box - not part of the cat. It took me a sec to figure that out, so I thought I'd answer your queries before you knew you wanted to ask. It's my job to anticipate these things.

I disturbed her with the camera, and she woke up. See? Her eyes opened and her back legs stretched waaaaaaaaay out. I tell ya, her life is so rough. Protecting me from cardboard is an awesome responsibility.

That is all for this evening. Tomorrow morning I will get to Chloe's and do inventory. I WILL!

Also tomorrow, at Noon Eastern time, is the Bacon Blog Hop, and I'll be first! So stop back tomorrow and see what we all have to say about bacon. I am sure it will be entertaining.

Thanks for stopping by!