Thursday, September 8, 2011

Doilies

I had no intention of getting this doily set, but Hostess Dollars can be very alluring, especially for something on your "maybe" list. :) Then Sue, one of my tweeps who I've met in person by the way all the way from Vancouver yes that's right, showed me a very cool card and I CASEd it. Here's mine:

She used Cajun Craze, Pool Party and Daffodil Delight, with a Pool Party layer, punched Lace Ribbon Border and In Color brad. I went with Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Island Indigo, and Calypso Coral layer & brad, and I'm pretty happy with the result. :) There is a big empty bottom right in which they can stamp a sentiment, or not.

This card was crazy-easy to make. They will love that!

Okay, one more project to go before midnight Sat/Sun. I think I can do this! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

I Made Another Box

It's been a slow, slow, non-productive week here in the Crooked household. I've started a bazillion projects for this weekend's Stamp Camps and made nothing but a mess. In desperation, I thought I could distract The Ladies with chocolate - hey, it's worked before! :) In my world, chocolate needs a reason for being out on the tables ... it needs to be disguised as part of a project so it's not so obviously a distraction ... it needs a box project.

Last month I made this box out of some new Christmas papers, but since it's too early for Christmas projects in September, I decided we'll make one with Halloween papers instead. I just made this:

It's a 2-5-7-10 box, and I used the new Simply Scored tool which makes it easy-peasy! No measuring - there are tabs on the Simply Scored to mark where you need to ... score. Here's what makes it so easy:

(Sorry for the really, really awful photo, but it's NIGHT here, and it's DARK.) You put the tabs at the 2, 5, 7 and 10 marks, put your paper in, and just score at each marker. For my Stamp Camps, measuring and scoring projects can be fraught with "oops" and "oh, no" to where I just want to make things easier. This could do it! :)

The DSP is from the Frightful Sight pack. The ribbon is Delphinium (retired) so I'll probably switch it out with Concord Crush. Wouldn't these make great co-worker treat bags? *I* think so.

Okay, that's 1 1/2 projects down, 2 1/2 to go. It's gonna be a long week, people.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

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!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Jingle Belles Rock # 36 - Love's Labor Day Lost

If you're looking for the Fall Fun Blog Hop, please scroll down to the next post. :)

This week those Jingle Belles pulled a fast one on us. In honor of Labor Day here in the USofA, we were asked to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit ... really? I thought it was Copy And Steal Share Everything ... hmph) someone else's card from the vast submissions lists of weeks past, even one of our own.

I had planned to spend days perusing the Jingle Belles' archives, and I did - in fact, I did NOTHING all day Sunday but blurf and make a horrible mess at the Captain's Table - but I kept coming back to this one:

These are by Lisa H of Recklinghausen Musings, and were in my Top 3 from last week's Midas challenge. I loved how her cards were mostly all white or cream, with just an accent of gold or silver. So using them as my inspiration, I made this:

In making my mess yesterday, I had stumbled upon a 12x12 sheet of that bling-y paper and pulled it out in case I got inspired. Fortunately, those bling-y bits are evenly placed so all I had to do was line up my paper cutter between the rows. I'll call it "snow" for the purpose of this card.

I die-cut a remnant of the paper from my own Midas card for the deer. He is leaping at an awkward angle because of where I had to place the teeny tiny strips of dimensionals between the rows of bling. I did the best I could. ;/

I reached into my box of Miscellaneous ribbons and pulled out that piece of ruffled white and a spool of skinny gold. Poifect! Naturally, I thought the deer's neck looked nekkid, so I used a piece of the gold ribbon to make him a bow.

The sentiment is (poorly) embossed with gold embossing powder. Maybe the person looking at this card in November or December will be blinded by the bling and not notice. A girl can dream.

I still have 3.5 cards to make for next weekend's Stamp Camps, so it's back to work for me!

Thanks for stopping by!


Fall Fun Blog Hop



Welcome to the Fall Fun Blog Hop! A group of online buddies decided the holiday weekend in the US would be a GREAT time to get inky together, and so we've put together a fall themed blog hop to inspire you as Autumn approaches. As you meet our stampy bloggers today, you may discover that some have goodies for you, so be sure and visit everyone on the list. We have hoppers from all over the globe today, and they are amazing artists.

Thanks for visiting us - grab yourself a nice fall beverage and enjoy!

Here is the full list of our blog hoppers today:
I know I'm waaaaaay down on the list, so thanks for hanging in there! :)

I'm sure you've seen a fair amount of Fall- and Autumn-themed cards and projects by now. You know: Halloween, Thanksgiving, pretty leaves. Well ... not me. Nope. When I thought "Fall" the following little ditty popped into my grey matter:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

Oh, wrong "fall"? Kinda like the guys I went to college with who wore Hawaiian shirts to a Western party, and when queried replied, "Oh, too far West?" Yeah, that fall.

So here you go: my "fall" card:


(hee hee) The image is from Mo Manning (who rocks these sorts of things, dontcha think?) and I made up the sentiment. Most everything else is from my MASSIVE shipment of Webster's Pages goodies I got with a Groupon. The green pieces are all my doing.

Ready for the next stop? Head on over to Sue's blog and see what she's got cooked up for us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Market Update (09/03/2011) (long)

Yesterday there was a 5K race in the community where our market is, so we had to be there and set up by the crack of cranky, or wait until after the streets were re-opened after 10 am. Since it was also supposed to be 90+ degrees and humid, I opted (as I do every year) to get there at O'Dark Thirty (before 7:30 am). I mean, I don't even leave for WORK as early as I left the house on Saturday. (grumble)

It's usually worth it, though, because with all the runners (who mostly don't bring money with them) and their cheering sections (who DO bring money with them), we usually get a lot of extra traffic.

Let's have a look at Saturday's bounty, shall we?

Mmmmm, tomatoes:

Roma tomatoes:

Cucumbers:

Colorful bell peppers:

Eggplant:

Basil:

Someone bought a TON of this to make pesto.

Tiny figs:

Mushrooms:

Portabella mushrooms:

Baby bellas:

Shitake mushrooms:

Jalapenos:

HOTHOT peppers:

Story: Twice on Saturday some Tough Guys came through and Farmer Mike was giving them the Scoville Scale speech. One of the guys took one of the peppers and bit into it. Whoa, hot. WHOA, HOT. HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT! Tears flowed. Face reddened. We all laughed. Not so tough NOW, are you , buddy? HAHAHAHAHA. They ran away, allegedly to obtain a beverage to kill the HOT. I love tough guys, don't you?

Later, a guy was there with his wife and (with much less bravado) took a tiny bite with much the same result. Mike offered him a tomato to cut the hot. That guy was a good sport. :)

The other Tough Guys came back later and bought one of the "special" peppers (so hot they are sold singly). Sigh.

Moving on, okra:

(I count the days until it dies, though it does make a fine stamp.)

Over at Farmer Margie's, we had more peaches:

They were so ripe, their smell permeated our senses and forced us to buy some. Mine became a fruit smoothie when I got home. Sooooo good.

She also had some plums:

and Asian Pears:

Farmer Katie rocked the presentation again with some hot peppers of her own:

I mean, who ever buys an entire box of Scotch Bonnets? Most recipes I've seen call for one, and only one.

Candy onions:

These things are sooooo sweet when you cook them.

And Katie's fruit spread:

Over at the flower tent I might have gotten a bit carried away with the pictures. Here's some ornamental peppers:

a mixed bouquet:

and some pics of the different Gloriosa Daisies:







Zinnias:

And because I had time (it was sooooo early), I got distracted by the flowers' centers:





Don't you just love Mother Nature? Here are some small sunflower centers, while I was at it. These flowers were about 2-3" across tip to tip (very small):





And some Coleus that intrigued me:

I had a hand in building this bouquet:

(I suggested the yellow flowers for a spot of different color. :))

And my flowers:

I only took pics of a few dogs (sorry, Bunny). Here's two that were watching the race:

and another tiny one, also watching the race:

This one looks demonic, but the eyes were such a pale blue (and she wouldn't stand still), so it's the best I got of her. Beautiful dog, though:

And A PUPPY:

So fluffy! Four months old. Look at those FEET!

Right after the race was over, just before the normal time for the market to begin, look what we saw:

Ruh-roh:

We had a little rain. It pretty much killed the market before it really began. Sales were pathetically slow for everyone. I am happy I had a pavilion spot and was dry the whole time, though, so there's that. We had fun dumping the water off the farmers' tents. ;/

In other news, I still have four of four cards to make up for next weekend's Stamp Camps. No clue. I have made nothing today but a mess. Thank goodness I have tomorrow to hopefully get a clue. If I figure it out, I'll be sure to post something.

Oh, tomorrow is a Fall Fun Blog Hop, so do stop by for that! There's a bazillion of us participating, and my card might be, well, just a little "different". :)

Thanks for stopping by!