A Bad Driver, and UHC # 15

Things are always busy in my life - always something going on. Monday (that would be yesterday) when I checked my mail I had a little package. I LOVE prezzies! Though usually it is something I've bought, but still ...

Imagine my glee when the package contained this:

This is my new Crackberry case, hand-made for moi by fernfiddlehead. Fernfiddlehead is one of my Tweeps, and she makes cloth envelopes for the Mac Book, sleeves for the iPod, and (because I asked) the Crackberry. On Twitter she was telling us how she got some cool men's suiting fabric and some shirting fabric, and was going to make some new envelopes out of them in combination. Next thing you know, I owned a custom Crackberry case! So if you know anyone looking for a case for their phone or mini laptop, check out her etsy store! Quality schtuff!!!

I had the third of three Stamp Camps last night, and this is kitty helping. Don't know what I'd do without her. Poor thing had no clue that she was destined for her annual Vet appointment this morning for her scheduled pokes, plus I have the Vet clip her hind claws (she will only let me do the front ones). He also checked out her front ones, and took care of two almost-ingrown nails. Hey, if she snaps at me, I stop clipping, and I must have missed them. He said everything checks out well, and the nails were the worst thing. Glad that's over with. I was a mess! Oh, she was, too. Could not WAIT to get back into her carrier! Poor thing.

This afternoon, a friend and I went to Angela's (the LSS in Reston, VA). We both had ordered stuff, plus, well, you just never know what you might find that you NEED. I picked up (among other things) the makings for this card:

I think she is a hoot! This is another of my truly 'fusion' cards. Witch is by A Muse; Brick wall is by Hanna Stamps; sentiment is by Eat Cake Graphics; card stock by SU; Cream ink from PTI; markers for coloring the witch are Copics. I love it when I can put stuff together like this!

Next we have a timely Under-Appreciated Holiday card. Today I bring you "Talk Like A Pirate Day", which is celebrated annually on September 19th.

FINALLY, I got to break out my Cornish Heritage Farms "Ahoy Matey" set that I bought last year, just so I could use it for 9/19. I love Kim Hughes' images! Perfect for irreverent sentiments. They are cute, but still a little leery, if you know what I mean. :-)

The yellow and white scraps, as well as the green card base (also from The Heap) are all SU; Images from Ahoy, Matey by CHF; patterned papers by Basic Grey (Lime Rickey, I believe).

So yeah - I am back in the stampin' saddle and ready to ink up a few more of my new stamps. Hopefully I'll have something to share with you tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

UHC # 14

Today's card celebrates Thread The Needle Day, which is celebrated on July 25th. (Oh, look: a whole [a little out of date] blog called "Threading the Needle"!) I chose to interpret this in a sewing sense, but I suppose 'threading the needle' could also be interpreted as 'something difficult'. I'm going with the sewing angle today.

I used this Under-Appreciated Holiday to force myself to blow the dust off my PTI Quilters Sampler stamp set. (Yes, I also have the second quilting set they released...leave me alone.) I used all PTI here except for the yellow patterned paper, but I'll get back to that in a sec.

I had this idea to use the needle, which is part of the "Hand stamped by ..." image together with the spool of thread. Clear stamps, no problem, right? I almost made it, too! I used my Memento black marker to ink up only the part of the needle image I wanted, then I squinted and stamped.

I lovelovelove their Ocean Tides color, and I thought it would look good with the Lemon Tart. I think the contrast might be a bit too much, so I added some white layers.

To make this card, I needed to open my pack of polka dotted papers as well as the yellow satin ribbon. I hoard well, but using stuff is another matter.

Now, about that SU paper that snuck into the project. We all know I have issues with white space and bright colors. So when this Lemon Tart card base stared back at me, all I saw was "ACK! BRIGHT!", and it needed to be subdued. I had a scrap of SU Razzleberry Lemonade out, and this piece with Crushed Curry was just the ticket to save me.

I added the buttons at the last sec - thought the card needed something. I had to open a dusty pack of Bazzill buttons to find these.

I also made this other version, mostly so I did not have to put away the other cut half of the Lemon Tart card stock. I am so freakin' efficient lazy.

On a related note, I actually have a recipient selected for this card. Sadly, yet another of my coworkers has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I think we have contributed more than our fair share of victims, so someone, please make it stop!!! (I wonder if it is in the water .... ) She comes back to work tomorrow, post-surgery but pre-anything-else, so I thought I'd leave this on her desk for her.

Off to the Day Job! Thanks for stopping by!

UHC # 13

For today's Under-appreciated Holiday Challenge, we celebrate Repeat Day, which is celebrated on June 3rd. This theme is pretty easy, as all you need to do is repeat something. You could repeat an image, a sentiment, use two (or more) of anything at all! Too easy!

I chose to repeat my image. As usual, I used what was already out, which would be the penguin image (CHF), and my PTI Polka Dot papers. I used PTI Spring Moss for the base, and Spring Moss ribbon. The purple is a scrap of SU Perfect Plum from The Heap, and the heart brads were, well, out, and one of them covers an unfortunate ink schmear. I colored the beaks and eyelids with markers that were, um, also out. The sentiment is from PTI.

So where was that Grab It challenge when I had all this stuff out?!?!?! How unfair that someone such as myself, who almost never puts anything away, was faced with a Grab It challenge the night before my workshops, when everything was spotless!!! Sigh ... timing is everything, I guess.

So there you have it - today's UHC challenge and some gratuitous whining. Happy Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

UHC # 12

For today's Under-Appreciated Holiday, we'll celebrate National Dance Like A Chicken Day, which is observed every year on May 14th. I do not have a lot of chicken stamps, but I do have a LOT of duck stamps, so that's what I decided to use. After all, this is an inspiration challenge, right? Right! To validate my decision to use ducks instead of chickens (as if I need to validate anything I do on my own blog with my own made-up challenge), I just read this little tidbit on the link above:

"We did uncover the origin of the Chicken Dance song. It was originally titled "Der Ententanz" (The Duck Dance). "

It's Kismet, I tell you!

So here you go - my dancing ducks card. All images are by Rosie's Roadshow. The papers are from my Basic Grey Mellow 6x6 pack.

I actually cut out the white oval first, then arranged all the ducks so they fit onto the oval. To give the ducks a little dimension, I stamped them onto the oval and also onto scraps. I outlined each of the stamped duck images with my C-1 Copic, then I cut out the scrap bodies and glued them onto the stamped bodies. I drew those little floating notes with my Sahara Sand marker.

That's it! Now go and dance like a chicken! I dare you! :-)

UHC #11

Today's Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge is Save The Rhino Day, which is celebrated every year on May 1st. Normally, the holidays I choose are just fun, but as I researched this one I realized it was a serious holiday. Under-appreciated, but serious. Here are some serious links about the endangerd Rhino: SaveTheRhino.org, SavingRhinos.org, DesertRhino.org.

Okay, that's enough serious stuff for me ... now on to the Rhino card! The only problem is: I don't have a Rhino stamp. I KNOW, it's crazy, but I don't!!! So I made one. Well, you see, I have a Hippo stamp, but no Rhino, so I thought I'd sorta convert the Hippo into a Rhino by adding a horn. This is what happened:

Allow me to introduce the Rhino-potomus! (#2 made that up for me). There's quite a lot going on with this little card. There's the Rhino-potomus that I made by drawing the horn using my new Memento black marker. That's right - a marker. I got it in both black and brown and it is perfect for when I need to alter an image I plan to color with Copics, or to fix a poorly-stamped image I plan to color with Copics (which is more often the case).

The sentiment was stamped using my Making Memories magnetic alphabet which usually stays safely hidden away in its box because every time I use it, the sentiment comes out looking like this. I have alignment issues.

I used two of the gazillion buttons in the bag of buttons I bought, and sewed them to the ribbon with my SU Linen Thread. The ribbon is the long-ago retired (and hoarded by yours truly) SU Taupe grosgrain, and the DS paper is the flip side of some green leafy SU DS paper I've been using up. Even the base is from The Heap.

Not bad for not having a Rhino stamp, huh?

So go forth and adopt a rhino!

UHC # 10

Today we play with the Under-Appreciated Holiday of: Mother Goose Day (see also: The Mother Goose Society), which is observed on May 1st every year.
Since I was fatigued last night, I chose to focus on the 'goose' part of the holiday instead of using the opportunity to take advantage of many of the individual nursery rhymes that might have presented more colorful options for creation.

This card is made from Basic Grey papers from the Offbeat 6x6 pack stuck to a white card base, and all the stamp images are from Rosie's Roadshow. And yes, I know that is a duck, not a goose, but I have a ton of ducks, and they also swim and fly like geese, so I stretched the theme a bit. So shoot me. (Actually, I sent an email late last week - at work - with the subject = "Just shoot me". Yeah, rough week.) Ahem, back to the card. The sentiment says, "A good Goose is hard to Find." Take that any way you'd like to take it. ;-)

So that's it for this Under-Appreciated Holiday. Now go forth and celebrate Mother Goose!!!!!!

UHC #9

Today's Under-Appreciated Holiday is Look Up At The Sky Day, which will be celebrated on April 14th. Think about it: When was the last time you looked up at the sky?

This card is actually SU-Only, so in theory I could use it for a workshop. In theory.

I'd originally planned to use a stamp I have (or rather had) of a dog lying on his back in the grass, looking up at the sky. But nooooo, it is nowhere to be found, so it is either lost or I sold it last year. As I spent today recumbent on the couch, feeling sorry for myself, I thought of an alternative, and as I dragged my sorry butt off the couch mid-afternoon (I do not sit still very well), I decided to make this:

(And it is all scrap! Yay, me!) Ahem.

I mostly use the sky in cards as a backdrop, so this time I decided to make it the focus of the card instead. Ingenious, yes, I know.

This all started over the weekend, when I was still mostly vertical, and I thought to open the set of SU Sizzlets Dies called Lots of Tags that I bought because I thought (in a Good Demo Moment) that I should. Uh-huh. When I punched out this one, I thought it looked like a cloud, and the little, tiny light bulb went off over my head, so I cut two more to get to the magic number of three.

To make it a bit more interesting, I put one of them at the top of the blue piece so it needed to be trimmed, and I managed to smudge the one on the right, which is why a flock of birds now lives there. The tree tops are made with the Branch Out set, stamped in Basic Black and Garden Green.

All in all, this was a pretty quick card to make. When would I give it to anyone? Who knows!? What's your point?! Now go back to whatever you were doing, and remember to look up at the sky on April 14th. That would be the day before the lines form at a Post Office near you.

UHC #8

Today's Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge celebrates Golfer's Day, which is observed each year on April 10th. I, personally, am not a golfer, though I did play one on TV. Oh, wait a minute, that was not me. But I did play in a golf league many, many moons ago.

Back at my very first job, the second in command in my Department (a woman, by the way) strongly suggested to me one night during happy hour that I really should take up golf. (She played on the Co-Ed Softball Team, too, just so you know this was nothing unusual. She was a lot of fun, actually!) Even though I'd caddied a bunch for my Father when I was growing up, I'd never actually played at the sport myself. I took lessons, once, and it did not stick.

So listening to the advice of my superior, I coerced a fellow non-golfer to be my partner, we went out and bought clubs, and the first time we teed off for the league was the first time we'd ever played. Ever.

Let me just say that we got the two highest scores that day, which I knew enough to know was not a good thing. It was a par 27 9-hole course, and we got 100 and 105 respectively. And our arms were really, really tired.

The funniest part of this whole story is that as we improved over the course of the season, we consistently had the Most Improved scores, so we kept winning all the prizes. It was really pretty funny! By the end of the season we were down into the 50's, and quite proud of it. We did not join up the next season...we knew when we were out of our league (I had to say that!)

So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Happy Golfer's Day, everyone, and I hope you live somewhere where it is nice enough outside right now to play!

UHC Challenge #7

This week's Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge celebrates Sorry Charlie Day, which will be observed on April 6th. This is a day for all of us who have been spurned, and yet somehow survived it.

For me, when I hear "Sorry, Charlie", I think of a puppy we got when I was a kid. A neighbor had found a 6-week-old pup by the side of the road, and my Mom agreed to take him. We cut down a box for him and filled it with towels for a bed. The box was a Charmin TP box, and we called him Charmin' Charlie. Turns out he was a sickly pup, and he was at the Vet a lot his first few weeks, and we changed the Charmin' Charlie to Sorry, Charlie. He did get better, but the name stuck, and he was in our family for over 13 good years.

So when I saw Sorry, Charlie Day, I thought of my Charlie, and did not feel like making a card about being spurned at all! 'Tis much better to make a happy card, dontcha think!?

So here is my Sorry, Charlie Day card (yes, I've added the comma, because it needs a comma).

I got this stamp in Florida one year, along with the sentiment, and I really like them. I sell a lot of cards with these images to dog-lovers, because really, no matter how bad your day was, when you get greeted at the door by your furry family beast, what could be better than that? Except maybe snuggling on the couch with the furry one. There's no better way to end your day!

The sentiment reads: "There is nothing better than to end a bad day covered in dog slobber."

Happy Pi Day! (UHC # 6A - Bonus!)

Today is Pi Day - March 14th (3.14 ... get it?). Check out some of the Pi quotes from the site:

--> Pi day is at 3/14 and pi moment is at 1:59 and 26 seconds on Pi day!

--> March 14, 2015... will be a special Pi day. It will be 3/14/15, or 3.1415 ;-)

--> If pi r squared, what shape are cakes?

--> “Knowing 30 digits of pi allows you to calculate the circumference of the “horizon” [of the universe] with accuracy of a millimeter.” - Unknown

--> A great palindrome: “I prefer pi.”

Also, did you know 3/14 is (was) Albert Einstein's birthday? Coincidence? I think not! And yes, I have an idea for a Pi Day card, which I will share later. Wanna take bets on if anyone buys it? :-)

My UHC #6 Card

First, I have failed. Miserably. My most excellent idea for my Multiple Personality Day card eludes me. Why? Because my stamp has gone missing, that's why! LOCK THE DOORS!!!!! Sigh ... somewhere In There, is a stamp that says, "You're just jealous because the voices don't talk to you." Do you agree that would have been a fabulous sentiment to help celebrate Multiple Personality Day? I thought so. It may not happen.

So I went back to my original Chocolate-Covered Raisins Day idea. Caution: Stream of consciousness is about to begin ... largely to justify the creation, you understand. Chocolate-covered Raisins ... Raisins ... The California Raisins dancing to "Heard It Through The Grapevine" ... Cool raisins ... small and brown ... coffee beans are small and brown ... and if they were 'cool' like the dancing raisins ... we'd have cool coffee beans ... and I have that stamp!!!! Lookie:

I am so very proud of this card! First, it started out as a CASE of this one (using SU papers instead) in an attempt to get to Project #4 for this weekend. After I had it pretty much all cut, I counted the layers, I thought about cutting them all for 12+ kits, and I promptly re-thunk the idea, but I had all the parts-is-parts laying there, so I used them.

Also, I remembered that SU introduced Sage Shadow grosgrain ribbon this year, and I (of course) bought it in August and I am just now opening it. Sad, considering Sage Shadow was the whole reason I even looked at SU 6 years ago! But I digress.

Because I am old, and I actually experienced the 60's, I know some hip phrases, even though I would only use them myself in jest. So I wrote them in around the beans. (Yes, my Close to Cocoa marker is dying on the pen side.)

So there you have it - a "Chocolate-Covered Raisin Day"-inspired card. And if I ever find that other sentiment stamp, you'll get to see a Multiple Personality Day card, too.

ETA: Patterned paper: SU To The Nines Specialty Paper; Stamps: Hambo Stamps

On another note, it snowed for real last night:

I love snow! I don't even mind shoveling it!

Doesn't this look pretty? Quiet solitude. A blanket of white, muffling sounds and just sooo peaceful. And on the way home this evening, you'd never even know it had snowed earlier in the day. Thank you, road crews!!

And thank you for stopping by!

Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge #6

For this installment of my UHC, I was going to do National Chocolate-Covered Raisin Day, but that's kinda tough, even though this IS a challenge... I suppose you could go with the 'Chocolate' part of the day, or maybe use Choc Chip card stock (feel free to stretch this as much as you'd like!) Or 'Covered' - think blankets! Actually, my kids spent the first few years of their lives snacking on chocolate-covered raisins, until I realized that even though the raisins were good for them (and kept them regular), the chocolate part was like eating candy and I made them stop cold turkey. Or how about this: the purple clay-mation raisins dancing to "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"? You could stretch that to doing a card about wine! Oh, yeah, stretch away! Or not.

No, I think I'll choose Multiple Personality Day (March 5th) instead. And yes, I have the perfect sentiment to use! I told you I have everything! Well, okay, I do not have a raisin stamp.

I'll be back later this evening or tomorrow with any creations I manage to accomplish. I have a few ideas flitting around the old brain cavity. :-)

Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge # 5

Happy Monday, everyone! It's the middle of February, so I get to dip into the March holidays for my next Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge. This time I selected National Poultry Day, March 19th. I suspect this holiday was created by the combined turkey, chicken, and other poultry farmers of our great land, but it just has not made it to the mainstream yet. I am pretty sure Hallmark has not learned of it, though I did find several online card sites that offerred poultry-themed e-cards.

I was accused of selecting holidays for which I already own stamps. NOT SO! Well, maybe another way to look at this is perhaps you have not yet realized that I own them all?!?!?! I think I might ... So far the only exception was Ferris Wheel Day, and I am still looking forward to September 19th, which is Talk Like A Pirate Day, and I have no pirate stamps. Yet.

So in honor of Poultry Day, I used one of my ... chicken stamps! And no, I did not buy the chicken and the sentiment at the same time, but I did mentally put them together when I saw the chicken! I think I got the sentiment to use with my Best of Cluck set from SU, but then I saw the chicken, and I made him mine.

The patterned papers are left-over pieces of the Basic Grey Sultry papers I used yesterday to make my paper-pieced tree cards. I had all sorts of strips left, so I put them together to make a striped background.

I used more brown ribbon from my stash, and I thought it was stepping out of the old comfort zone for me to use that polka dotted ribbon with all those other patterns. Once I did it though, I liked how they looked together!

Here's two more, and these stand up like tents, just to be different. Almost all the scraps are gone, and I have used half the pack of BG papers. Yay, me! Unfortunately all this means is I am making room for more, which I have on hold at Angela's as I type this. I am weak.

Stamps by Inky Antics.

That's all for today, peeps! Gotta head to the Day Job to pay for all this paper! :-)

Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge #4

Another February Under-Appreciated Holiday is International Polar Bear Day, which is celebrated on the 27th. Yeah, I know, I am jumping ahead, but if I stay two weeks ahead of the game, I might actually see this challenge thing through the end of the year! So far, it has been working...

Here is my entry for International Polar Bear Day:

I am quite proud of how much stash I used here. The patterned paper is half of an A Muse card, and I had to open the pack to use it. The igloo, oval and sentiment are also A Muse, and the polar bear and sun are from Rosie's Road Show. I used Baja Breeze ink and card stock, along with Very Vanilla. I outlined the igloo and polar bear with my C-1 Copic marker to help them 'pop' off the page. The polar bear was actually stamped on a scrap and cut out because I had no idea where to place him, and this way he was movable until I decided. :-)

Oh, wait, the sentiment is crooked. Sigh ... surprise ....

Did you Know? It is believed that all polar bears are left handed.

Here is a funny I just found from the Feb. 27, 2007 post on Charlie Cray's site: "Did you know (I'm looking at my Greenpeace calendar right now) that today is National Polar Bear Day? Makes me wonder -- 30 years from now, when the Arctic ice sheets disappear during summer, and someone decides that it's a good idea to move some Polar Bears to Antarctica to help them survive (w/o asking the Penguins), will they adapt very well or not? Maybe, like some humans who have been driven into exile, they will become bi-polar."

You can read more about Polar Bears, and see some really cute pics, here.

My Ferris Wheel (Inspired) Card

Here is my entry for my Ferris Wheel Day card challenge. Now before you cry FOUL, hear me out.

When I first thought about being just inspired by a Ferris Wheel, I thought about a large scallop. I have seen several card sketches that incorporated partial circles, some scalloped, so that's where this all started. Of course, it totally morphed from that point into something completely different...

I started with another pack of Basic Grey 6x6 papers - this time it was the Bittersweet pack, with lots of pinks and reds and hearts and stuff. I traced a Stampin' Up! Carousel Note onto the back of the wildest piece, and being too lazy to cut it out, I figured out the retired SU corner rounder was just about the right size to punch out most of it, so all I needed to do was trim the points where every two humps meet. Huh? I cut it out, okay?

Over the next two days I added the gray layer under the scallops; the two layers of ribbon over the paper seams (that is lace ribbon, and I have a lot of it...think: ribbon outlet...); the cat, which was free-floating until the very end.

Then tonight the rest of it all came together in about 5 minutes. The busy scallop piece was really bugging me, so I cut a partial circle out of one of the neutral Basic Grey pieces to cover up most of the 'busy', then it all fell into place. Suddenly I had a place to put a sentiment! When exiting The Other Room, I stopped by my Box Of Miscellaneous Ribbons and grabbed a length of some fun yarn, and there you have it. I even stamped the sentiment crooked, just for old time's sake. ;-)

And now that I have spent my last grain of energy posting this little ditty, I need to go take a shot of something strong and hit the hay to rest up for another round of The Day Job tomorrow. I bid you g'nite.

Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge #3

[Note: Yeah, I know, it is still January, but since I use these challenges as an excuse to make up projects for my workshops, and since my workshops are in the first half of the month, I need to start two weeks out. K? K.]

When most people think about February, they think of the major holidays. You know: Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day. But those are appreciated and celebrated holidays, and that's not what this challenge addresses. (Did you notice the way I avoided ending that sentence with a preposition? I was going to say "what this challenge is about", but that would be soooo wrong.) This challenge is all about under-appreciated holidays, so today I bring you National Ferris Wheel Day, which is celebrated on February 14th.

Now do not be alarmed. I am not suggesting anyone make a ferris wheel card. Au contraire! *I* certainly have no plans to do that, but if you are so inclined, please be my guest. I am sure we would all love to see your ferris wheel card. But you can use the theme of the day to be inspired to create your card. Think "circle", maybe even nested circles. Or maybe a circle with "things" hanging off of it. Use your imaginations, peeps!

PS: Thanks to Merry in NJ for mentioning this holiday to me. I really like that it shares a day with another more-celebrated holiday. ;-)

PPS: I will post my card when I find the energy to leave my sick bed and stamp again. ;-(

For Mr. Hancock

Here is my card for the Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge #2a (BONUS!). I think it is just a little weird and over-the-top, at least for me, but I am all about stretching my wings and trying new things these days.

The base card is SU Naturals White, and all the patterned papers are Basic Grey Ambrosia. I chose them because they were flourish-y, or I thought so at first, anyway. When I saw the orange piece, I thought it would look good with black, and then I saw the b&w piece ... and then it got really crazy when I saw the flutterby page ... and then I thought that funky ribbon from the other day (which was put away during the Clean Sweep, thankyouverymuch) would go well color-wise ... and then I went searching for a flourishy-y sentiment ... and then ... and then ... Things can quickly go out of control around here.

I orginally had the sentiment on top of the flutterby piece, but then I liked it better up above, so the flutterby piece was nekkid. Thus began the task of how to balance the card without covering up those pretty images. I grabbed a Really Rust left-over Photo Corner from the workshops and decided to use red brads for both the corner and the sentiment. I felt the left side of the panel still needed something, so I punched a 3/4" circle, then a 1" circle over that to get the ring to place over the red butterfly. Didja notice the one just to the left of the red one is green? Sweeeeet!

I think I might go try some birds with this paper. Or maybe not. ;-)

Edited to add: If you played Spot The Mistake Round 4 the other day, remember to check out the answers and send your mailing address to me at lqhanna@gmail.com if you want your loot. Thanks!

Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge #2a (BONUS!)

Today is the birthday of John Hancock, born on this date in 1737. As a bonus challenge, I think we need to create cards in honor of Mr. Hancock. Think about maybe writing something on your card; in BIG LETTERS; or using fancy flourish-y letters; or just using flourishes (since that's what that kind of writing reminds me of); or read the link under his name and go with something new you've learned about him; or maybe go with the 'john' angle. Oooh, this could get dicey!

Play on!!!!!

Under-Appreciated Holiday Challenge #2

Today (TODAY!) is National Bird Day, so in my current fit of bird-ness, I have decided to make this the theme for my Under-appreciated Holiday Challenge #2. Now technically, the penguin (see my Holiday Challenge #1) is also a bird, so technically one could argue that you could "kill two bird challenges" with one card. Yeah, I guess you could, but I hope you see this as a weird cosmic coincidence, and you'll make two cards. BUT, if you decide to do one card for both, no one will say much, least of all moi, because it's not like you'd win anything either way, ya know? So play on!

Here are my cards for this challenge. The cards came about because of an embarassing moment at Angela's on Saturday, when I fell in love with a stamp set that I already owned. As penance (no offence intended with that reference, by the way), I made myself dig the set out of The Other Room and use it.

Here is the set in question ...







... and here are the three cards I made using the set. The papers are from the Basic Grey Archaic 6x6 pack. I stamped each bird on four different pieces of the paper ...


... then I cut out the bodies, followed by the wings from the other colors. Everything is layered on SU Basic Gray card stock squares, which in hindsight I think should have been brown. Oh, well. I stuck the bodies on the gray pieces first, then I stuck the different-color wings on over the existing wings.


All the other layered card stock is from the same Archaic paper pack. Even the sentiments - stamped on pieces of the blue left over from one of the layers.

See that Linen Thread wrapped around the card and under the sentiment? Yep, I call it ribbon. Gotta have it, man! And at the last minute I added the bling in the center of the four squares. I just thought they needed 'something'.

And yes, I know the legs look funny. That's because I was an idiot and did the paper piecing without first stamping the birds onto the squares (I was just so excited to get started!), so I had to draw the little legs after assembly.

So there you have it! My birds for National Bird Day. I sure hope I get over this bird thing very soon.

January Holiday Challenge #1

Didja notice how the day after Christmas - and I'm talkin' like 12:01 am on the 26th - people started to make Valentine's Day cards?! I know, I know, it's the next 'big' holiday after Christmas, and one to surely require cards to be made, but ... I started to think, which is always a dangerous state for me... so what about poor old January? It's like January does not even exist! So I started to research if there were any worthy holidays in January, and you know what?! There ARE!!! Yeppers, and quite a few. Okay, they are kindof obsure, but still - I think they demand our attention.

Also, I was totally out of ideas for cards for my January workshops, so I was on the hunt. But don't tell anyone.

Also also, I have a pretty-much nekked 2009 calendar just crying for decorating, and I flat-out refuse to make February pink, so I started thinking some more, and guess what? I came up with A NEW CHALLENGE! Yep, I surely did. Maybe if this takes hold, I will increase my readership from 3 (maybe 4) loyal readers up to, oh, I dunno, dare I hope for 6 by the end of the year? It is a lofty goal, I know, but a girl's gotta dream.

So here's the challenge: I'll find an obscure (or maybe just non-mainstream) holiday that I think needs to be loved (I'll try my darndest to find one for which I can make a card), and I'll challenge ALL OF YOU to do the same! I cannot promise a weekly challenge, but I think twice per month is a noble goal, don't you agree? Yeah, the first* and third Monday's of each month, I'll post a new Holiday and you will have 2 weeks to make a card for that holiday. Can you tell I am making this up as I go? No, really, I have thought about it, I just have not written it down until now. No prizes, unless I actually start cleaning The Other Room and find some stuff I'd like to be rid of. You just never know.

So let us begin! Holiday Challenge #1 is: Penguin Awareness Day (Jan 20th). I was looking for this one specifically since I think penguins are cute, and January is still cold in most Northern Hemisphere locales, and one of my customers loooooves everything penguin, and I needed a card for January's workshops, and I also found this VERY cool turorial on how to make penguins out of SU punches. What else could I do? So here's my entry to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day:

Aren't they cute little guys? Or maybe gals (how could you tell?) I used some Frosty Day papers for the punched hats and scarves, I followed the instructions for the rest of the penguins except I used the 5-petal punch for their noses instead of the punch used in the instructions I linked to above. The base card is Bashful Blue, and the snow is torn pieces of Whisper White, edged with the 2-way glue pen and some Dazzling Diamonds. To finish it off, I used the white gen pen to make not only their eyes, but also little dots for snowflakes on the blue background. VERY easy, and I think it will be a hit with The Ladies in January. And if I change it just a little (read: lose the buttons on their hats) it would be 100% SU, and therefore legal for my workshops. I still have 2 weeks to get it right.

So if you'd like to play along, just post your Penguin card somewhere and add a comment here with a link so we can see what you did! And if you can help me think up a clever name for this challenge of mine, I might just slip you a little something from The Other Room. ;-)

*Yeah, I know, it is not Jan 5th yet, but by then I will be panic-y trying to get ready for my workshops, so just this once, pretend it is the first Monday in January, K? Thanks!