Stamps, Paper, Scissors

Rubbahdultery...it's a good thing

Hey, this is not my fault! Honest!

I was putzin' along, just minding my own business when Melanie Muenchinger from Gina K. Designs contacted me, out of the blue, and asked me to play with her latest stamps! Said she's send them to me for free!

Well, you know me, say "WHO WANTS FREE STAMPS?" and I'll be the first one to raise my hand and say, "ME, ME, ME!"

The stamps, a set called "Cuddles & Hugs" arrived last week and they are STINKIN' CUTE!!! Gina K. Designs stamps are sheets of very deeply etched rubber, mounted on cling foam. You do need to cut them apart when you get them. This particular set comes with so many sentiments, you may never need to turn to a different set to use a sentiment. I particularly liked the ability to combine sentiments to create new phrases, so that's what I did here.

Ingredients: Stamps - Gina K. Designs Cuddles and Hugs, Cornish Heritage Farms Pretty Pattern Backgrounder; Paper - Basic Grey Sugared 6 x 6 DP, Papertreyink Sweet Blush, Spring Moss, Stamper's Select White, SU! Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip; Ink - Adirondack Espresso, Papertreyink Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss; Other - Papertreyink Berry Sorbet twill ribbon, gold brads (SU!), Chocolate Chip marker, white gel pen, Scalloped & Classic Heart Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol

Isn't this STINKIN' CUTE?!?!? (YILM!) I used the phrase "Hugs and Smiles" and the word "Kisses" and stacked them on the same acrylic block, placing some scotch tape over the word "Smiles" before I inked up and was able to create the phrase "Hugs and Kisses" so that I had a nice rhyming sentiment for "for the Mr. & Mrs.".

I chose the flamingo stamp first , because flamingos remind me of my grandma, who had the ubiquitous plastic pink flamingos popular in the 50's and 60's in her yard. She also loved chunky costume jewelry and knick knacks, usually some sweet animal made of porcelain with some sort of glitter stuff all over it that would change colors according to what the weather was or ceramic elephants or roosters. She enjoyed making refrigerator magnets out of thin colored foam and sequins too...ah, the memories. It was fun making this card on my yellow formica and chrome stamping table, which used to be my grandmother's kitchen table.

This sketch is from Jen del Muro's blog i{heart}2stamp and is the "Sketch for You to Try" from June 14th. A little late, but better late than never!

Well, I promised myself the pleasure of waking my children by vacuuming up their popcorn mess from the night before, terrifying them into wakefulness with the roar of the vacuum...I'm such a mean mom...it's almost 10 AM, though, and they are still in bed! Time to get UP! Tah!

The Tale of a Card.....

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has done this. Tell me I'm not! But first, let me 'splain, Lucy!

Okay, so I'm in the FedEx/Kinko's near me a few weeks back photocopying the church bulletin, just like every Saturday. And, like every Saturday, I have to get a receipt. Since this is one of the "mini" Kinko's, they don't have a kiosk so that I can get my receipt myself, allowing myself to stay buried in my little 21st century cocoon, cut off from real human contact and only communicating with people online, but instead I actually have to ask a real human for the receipt. By the cash register is a card display and one catches my eye. It's a Mother's Day card and it is just PERFECT for my mother! It only costs a couple of bucks. But I just. can't. bring. myself. to. buy. it! I can MAKE a card like that, but BETTER! Yes, I can! I am STAMPER hear me ROAR!!!!

You can see where this is going can't you?

So I am mulling this card over in my mind, wondering if I have the stamps to make it. Of course I don't! Let me introduce you to rule number 1 of Jan Tink's Law of Trying to CASE Commercial Cards:

Rule #1: You will never have the kind of stamps you need to duplicate a commercial card.

Which means, of course, that you must buy them. And I knew just where to buy them. I had been eying them for some time, wanting to purchase them badly, but putting them off buying them because I didn't really NEED them, but now, of course, I did.

The sad thing was, of course, that I could not satisfy my design needs with just one set. I needed two different ones. You can see where this is going, can't you? So yes, after trying to find these things locally and from some of my favorite web-stores, I finally had to spring for them directly from the company. And bless them, they shipped them very fast and I got them in plenty of time. Of course, each set cost $25.95. So let me introduce you to the second rule of the Law of Trying to CASE Commercial Cards:

Rule #2: It will always, always cost you much, much more to make a CASE of a commercial card than it would cost you just to BUY the card when you see it.

This is a rule that new stampers learn very quickly. I started out stamping so that I could save money on Christmas cards. Yeah, you can stop laughing now. I have heard this sad tale from more than one stamper, always followed by a manic laugh and a rolling of the eyes. WE know, don't we? We know how quickly this becomes an OBSESSIONI!

Anyway, because I only really liked the card for it's cute sentiments/sayings and the rest of it was just sadly plain if not a bit ugly, I had to resort to rule number three:

Rule #3: You dang well better make your CASE so much much cuter/more beautiful/more clever than the commercial one. Or you will feel guilty. Very guilty.

I think I've managed it:

Ingredients: Stamps - Crafty Secrets Coffee & Tea, Kitchen Classics; Paper - SU! Real Red, Basic Black, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Summer Picnic DP, PapertreyInk Stamper's Select White; Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, SU! Bashful Blue; Other - Fiskars Mini Scallop scissors, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, Red dotted ribbon (American Crafts), Sakura Stardust Glitter pen; Font - fontdiner.com Loungy

Isn't this STINKIN' CUTE?!?!? In case you're having a hard time reading that, it says, "A smart mother knows her way around the kitchen". I printed it off on my printer using a cool FREE retro font from fontdiner.com.

Here's the inside:

I hasten to add that my mom is a great cook. I've learned a lot just tasting her food. The kitchen was too small for me to  help much when I was growing up (at least that's what I always used to say.) But these days, it's just much easier for her if she and Dad go out to eat. So that's what they do. Often. So you can see why this is just PERFECT for her...she'll get a big kick out of it!

In the meantime, I can enjoy my Crafty Secrets stamps...only, when I went to look at the website just now so I could see what the names of the sets are that I used because I was too lazy to go downstairs and look, I saw yet another set I must have...that Little Chef set must be mine! Mine!

So there you have it...my sad little tale of my lack of control when it comes to stamping...I'd try to grow up, but I'm having too much fun. See ya!

Mea culpa....

Bless me, my fellow stampers, for I have sinned. I have commited Rubbah-dultery yet again.

Well, I couldn't resist! The stamps were so stinkin' cute, they just called my name. And since it WAS my birthday, I thought I deserved to have a least a couple of these sooooo cute stamps! Which stamps? Stamps called Friendly Critters from Cornish Heritage Farms. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms Helpful Chipmunks Friendly Critters, Friendship, Pretty Pattern Backgrounder; Paper - PapertreyInk Spring Moss, Aqua Mist, Stampers Select White, SU! Almost Amethyst, Ballet Blue; Ink - Adirondack Espresso, SU Lavender Lace, PapertreyInk Spring Moss; Other - Slit Punch (SU!), 1" circle punch (EK Success), Prima Flowers, Lovely Lilac button (SU!), copper eyelet (SU!), crochet cotton, dotted organdy ribbon (Michael's), Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol

Isn't this both GOJUS *and* STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?! (YILM!) I also purchased one of the Cornish Heritage Farms backgrounders that I have been eyeing for a while. In fact...there were several things sitting in my shopping cart that I had put there long ago and backed away from...those sneaky people had left them in there! So when I went to check out, there they were and I realized that YES, I still wanted them and just ordered it all. I was in the grip of a FRENZY!!! I ended up with a couple of the Friendly Kritter stamps, 3 of the sayings to go with them, plus two backgrounders and an ink pad (the Espresso) and reinker. Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday, you stampin' genius (YILM!) Happy Birthday to me!

I'd love to tell you those were the only stamps I bought for my birthday...but I'd be lyin'! But since the other ones haven't come yet, I ain't gonna tell you what they are until I get them, so there. Ta!

Happy Annivesary to me, Happy Anniversary to me!

Guess what?!?!?!

It is my DEMO anniversary!!!! I am 5 years old today! Woohoo!!!! Guess how I celebrated?!?!?

Did I:

a) take myself out for breakfast with my Stampin' Up! catalog and plan my next big order?

b) spend the morning stamping with my Stampin' Up! rubber and ignored all phone calls?

c) selflessly worked to create my tutorial for my Carousel Notes Purse Album so that my readers would love me even more than they already do?!?!?!

d) go get a mammogram and commit rubbah-dultery.

Well, what do you think?

I know, I know, you all wanted me to say C or at least A, but the answer was really D. What a thrill.

The best thing about getting a mammogram is after it's done. You've gone and suffered by having your boobs sandwiched in a machine that makes cows, experienced as they are with milking machines, run for their lives. You've had this thing done to you twice on each side. It hurts and that's why the technician stands WAY over there at the controls...not to keep out of the line of stray radiation. It's to keep the women, who are having their appendages treated to what feels like a trip under a steam roller, from grabbing the technician's hair and beating her head against the equipment as they writhe in pain.

So afterwards, you feel GOOD, A) that your doctor will not be able to nag you anymore about getting one and B) that you've probably suffered the worst pain you will have all day, so the rest of the day is bound to be much better!

I will say that the technician this time was much worse than the last time I had this done. Just glad it's done with. And that the technician stood so far away, preventing me from hurting her, because she was nice and she has to make a living somehow.

I did get a tiny bit of stamping done (my rubbah-dultery)...though I don't know if you can call it that, since all the stamping was done a day or more ago. What I did was put together:

Ingredients: Stamps - Technique Tuesday Whirly Words, Story Time; Paper - Cardstock (Bazill), Patterned Paper (K&Company Urban Rhapsody Iconic Brocade Shimmer); Ink - Tim Holtz Distress Inks  Old Paper, Walnut Stain, Black Soot, Adirondack Pitch Black; Other - Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon (SU!), Zig Painty Pen, Making Memories metallic brads, dimensionals

A close up:

I fell in love with the Whirly Words set at Scrappy Chic the other day and as luck would have it, it was Competitor Coupon day, so I got the set 40% off...gotta love that! And because I loved this sentiment, which says, "Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves" I had to have the StoryTime set as well with this clock face.

Then I felt this paper was a must for the card I had in mind. I found, however, that this paper was hard to work with. No matter how I cut it, it seemed like I would either have to cover up the owl (which I love) or the alarm clock (essential to my card theme). So I compromised and cut one of the owls out to put on the upper corner, allowing me to create that essential visual triangle between the owl, the clock face and the knot of ribbon on the side.

I had a heck of a time getting this done because I experienced a new disease...it's been a while and I've been very healthy lately, as you've noticed. But it was only a matter of time before I caught a new one. What is it? It's got a very fancy technical term: MOJO-A-GOGO-ITIS. It's very contagious, BTW. I've noticed it pops up quite often amongst those in the stamping community. What are the symptoms? Here they are:

a) A weird desire, when confronted with the tools of our passion, to run into another room and read a book or watch a movie.

b) The inability to settle to any stamping task.

c) The inability to design your way out of a paper bag, causing every thing that you attempt to look like doodie.

There seems to be only one cure and that is time. Oh, and chocolate doesn't hurt either. In fact, chocolate is preventative medicine for MOJO-A-GOGO-ITIS and the fact that I RAN OUT probably precipitated the current crisis. Right now, I seem to be better, a tiny handful of M & M's, found after a frantic search of the stamp room, having pulled me back from the brink, but no telling how long my current spell of health and wellness will last without more chocolate. Guess I know what I have to do this afternoon!

Speaking of Scrappy Chic, if you live in the area, you might want to sign up for some classes given by Lance from Rusty Pickle! Here's a link to the calendar...check it out!

As for the tutorial...I'm woikin' on it! Ta!

Duck!

New card comin' at yah! BWAHAHAH!

No, really! While last night I found my stampin' mojo had completely deserted me, Friday night I made this cutie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Duck in Boots (Sugar Nellies), Smarty Pants (SU!); Paper - Kaiser Design Studios patterned paper, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Night of Navy, Whisper White; Ink - Adirondack Pitch Black, Night of Navy; Other - light blue gingham ribbon, photo corner punch, sewing machind, dimensionals, Keytag punch, gold brad, Primsacolor pencils.

Isn't it just ODIFEROUSLY WINSOME?!?!? Okay, okay, I was trying to fool you...I'm really sayin' STINKIN' CUTE!! YILM!!

I had bought some of these images from Funky Kits in the UK a while back, but hadn't gotten around to getting them on EZ Mount until now. Plus, I wanted to try out my new Janome Sew Mini! I love it. One of the things that is so great about it (other than that it is small, lightweight and doesn't take up much space) is that it only has one speed. That makes the stitch length very even...almost impossible to alter. When I'm zoomin' along on my big machine, sometimes changing speeds will cause the stitches to get crowded together. Not with this one! So I give it the JanTink Stamp of Approval (something which I'm sure you all set a lot of store by, right?!?!? LOL!)

Once I got the image colored and the base of the card made, I had to decide on a greeting. I turned to my new SU! set called "Smarty Pants" which had a few that I thought would work, but I decided that the Hokey Pokey stamp was what fit the best.

Well, I've got to go off and see if my mojo came back as I have a class to teach tomorrow and haven't got all the cards designed yet! Ack! Ta ta!

Rubbah-dult'ry, you're the one...(and a challenge!)

You make stampin' lots of fun!

Okay, I know I have this stack of new Stampin' Up! sets all waiting to get inky and wild, but I really started feeling sorry for some of the rubbah (well, polymer really, but let's not get picky) that I've gotten recently, especially FREE rubbah! I love free stamps, which is why I'm a demo after all!

So I decided to catch up on a bit of my obligation to use that rubbah that people give me.

First, I have to thank Julee Tillman for the great challenge for which I submitted the card in this post, which won her Mojo Monday monthly contest. I got a free set of the new Verve stamps for winning. It wasn't hard to choose, since I had been coveting Seeing Stars after seeing so many GOJUS samples on the design team members blogs. My stamps came on Thursday. So I made a card with them using the latest Mojo Monday sketch:

Ingredients: Stamps - Verve Visual Seeing Stars, Starlight, Starbright Remixed; Paper - Basic Grey Scarlett's Letter, Ruby Red, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black, Very Vanilla; Ink - Ruby Red, Old Olive, Basic Grey, Basic Black, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip; Other - 3/4" square punch, Large Star punch, white gel pen, black ribbon (American Crafts), dimensionals, gold brads, Stampin' Write Markers (Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Ruby Red.)

Isn't it GOJUS!?!?!? (YILM!!!) I wanted to go for a masculine card, since I make so many girly ones. My oldest daughter, though, covets this card very much, though she did say she'd rather have one in blue. I love the star sets that Verve has...I also ordered the Swirly Stars set with the Starlight, Starbright Remixed right after I told Julee the free set I wanted and she sent them all together.

In addition to the free set, Julee sent me a GOJUS card, which I will send you to your blog to look at here. SO GOJUS!!!! Thank you Julee, again, for the great contest, plus the stamps and the GOJUS card!

But that's not all! I got two cards done yesterday! And this is the place where I issue a challenge to you!

Recently, when we went to a Cub Scout meeting, my BFF Mary bought me a new coffee mug at Starbucks. Mary is like that...she is always buying spur of the moment gifts for people...she's a very generous person. Here it is:

She picked it out because it looked like SU! colors and I had to agree with her. So I decided to use some free rubbah and make a card that used the colors of my new mug:

Ingredients: Stamps - My Favorite Things Hot Stuff; Paper - Soft Sky, Bravo Burgundy, Fall Flowers DP, Sahara Sand, Wild Wasabi; Ink - Adirondack Pitch Black, Bravo Burgundy, Whisper White; Other - Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol, White Gel Pen, Hodgepodge Hardware Aged Copper, Antique Brass eyelets, 1/4" Whisper White grosgrain, dimensionals, sponge wedges, Bravo Burgundy marker, narrow burgundy organdy (Michael's).

Isn't it GOJUS!?!?! (YILM!) I used a sketch from Jen Del Muro's blog, I{heart}2stamp, which seems appropriate since she is one of their designers. I got this set from My Favorite Things in a recent order...I'd ordered a couple of sets when they had their next to last release party and found this set had come along for the ride. I was puzzled...I hadn't ordered it, so I emailed them to tell them I got an extra set, at which point they said it was a gift to me! Wow! I was totally floored and have been meaning to ink it up ever since as a way of saying 'Thank You!'

Now that I look at the mug, I think the green is probably closer to Old Olive, but I wanted to use Wild Wasabi. The blue isn't really that close to Soft Sky, but it isn't quite Cool Caribbean either. I love this combination!

Now, if you are familiar with the patterned paper I've used from Stampin' Up!, Fall Flowers, you'll be scratching your head going, "There isn't a paper that has Bravo Burgundy dots...it should have Really Rust dots!" And you're right, there isn't one. But after I put the paper down, those rust dots just overpowered the rest of the design and looked SO out of place. So I took a Bravo Burgundy marker and colored them all! Yes! I am THAT A-N-A-L!!!! But it just MAKES the whole thing to have those dots match!!!

Well, anyway...here's the challenge: find a favorite coffee mug, or just one that inspires you a lot, and make a card that is inspired by the design/color scheme/shape..whatever! And come back here and post a link to a photo of your card with your mug (coffee mug, not your face, LOL!) You've got until next Saturday at 8 PM EST...and I'll be getting some blog candy together to give to the best card...dunno what it will be just yet, but I'll post as soon as I know. So go and get stampin'!

God's in His heaven....

All's right with the world...that's from Pippa's Song by Robert Browning.

Pippa's Song

THE year 's at the spring,
And day 's at the morn;
Morning 's at seven;
The hill-side 's dew-pearl'd;
The lark 's on the wing;
The snail 's on the thorn;
God 's in His heaven—
All 's right with the world!

This is what I think of when I see this on an October morning out my front window:

Of course, the year is NOT at the spring, it's at the autumn, but autumn is my favorite, most inspiring time. Looking at our maple tree as the sun hits it makes it worth waking up in the morning! Even if you've stayed up late finishing compiling an application for a design team and writing an essay. Yawn! Up until almost 1 AM...I need more caffeine!

I finished another card for Scrappy Chic yesterday and ran up and dropped them off since I had to visit the Pepperidge Farms thrift store up that way (yes, she buys bargain bread so she has more money to spend on STAMPS!) And spend it I did...sigh...I need to start leaving my credit cards at home when I go up there. Another set of Technique Tuesday stamps plus three Distress ink pads and a bit of Rusty Pickle paper that had JUST come in.

Anyway, here's the card:

Ingredients: Stamps - Stampers Anonymous Winter Wonderland; Paper - Bazill, Melissa Francis; Ink - Versamark, Colorbox Fluid Chalk; ribbon - American Crafts, Gold Glory EP, dimensionals & Brads - Stampin' Up!

I tried to get away without embossing this puppy, but it simply cried out for it and in the end I gave in. Isn't it GOJUS (too lazy to go to thesaurus.com today!)? (YILM!)

After I had made dinner and had some time, I went downstairs to clean up the chaos that was threatening to take over my room. There is still lots to do, but once I cleared my desk off and found all the SU! stamp sets I had gotten in my last order, uncut, unmounted and UNLOVED, well, I had to stop cleaning and take care of them, you can see that, can't you?!?!?

In addition, I wanted to do the sketch and color challenges on SCS this week. So without further ado this is CC136 and SC146 all rolled into one:

Ingredients: (All SU!) Stamps - Illuminations, Linen, Tres Chic; Paper - Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla, Regal Rose, Rose Red; Ink - Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Regal Rose; Other - Very Vanilla Taffeta, Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain, light pink gingham, Pretties Kit, Ticket Corner Punch, stampin' sponge, Crafter's Tool Kit, dimensionals

I have someone particular in mind for this card and she's a demonstrator, so I wanted to stick to Stampin' Up! only. I had just gotten Illuminations and Tres Chic and I wanted to make sure the word "Heartfelt" showed below the "Thanks". After I did the focal image, I decided it needed more oomph. Normally, I might paper piece an insert for that letter, but I don't have any elegant pink designer papers (something I'm going to remedy next month with the Paper Party special!) So I decided to use the kissing technique to add texture to the center of the "T".

I inked up the Linen background, then pressed the uninked "Thanks" stamp against the inked Linen background. Then I stamped and cut out just the center of the image and popped it up on dimensionals. I am really happy with how it turned out...in fact I think (yes, Jan?) that it's GOJUS!!!!

And now, as I tell my customers in my newsletter, your stamps are hungry and their favorite food is ink, so go feed them today! Tah!

Someone new to blame....

First, I want to say that it's not all this person's fault...ahem...AHEM...the blame lies in so many of you who have not been that free with the comments lately...you know who you are!!! If y'all had been commenting, you surely would have diluted the impact of the following comment, but as it is, it stuck out and precipitated the latest spate of Rubbah-dultery:

A new comment from “Lynnette” was received on the post “Back to the sink...” of the weblog “Stamps, Paper, Scissors”.

Comment:
I love your Kitchen Sink! When will you get to the oven so we can see some Cake--as in Eat Cake Graphics stamps you said you bought a while back?

Well, you can see the problem here, can't you? Don't you remember? Sigh...I guess I'm the only one that really keeps track of this stuff, but I didn't actually buy any Eat Cake Graphics stamps the last time I looked at them...I managed to stop myself in time. But because this comment just jumped out at me, I had to go over to Eat Cake Graphics last night and buy some stamps! Because I didn't want to disappoint Lynnette...that's right! You can see that, can't you?

And because their stamps are so stinkin' cute and if I bought this one, I had to have that one, and because they offer unmounted and I have this almost full sheet of EZ Mount I have just layin' around here, I had to buy lots and...well, a NUMBER of them because they were such a great deal, right? So I'm not even telling you the total, only that my recent rubbah sales here have enabled me to spend some money.

And then there was this comment:

A new comment from “Susan” was received on the post “Back to the sink...” of the weblog “Stamps, Paper, Scissors”.

Comment:
Love your samples, Jan!  I'll be praying that you don't get sick!  Will you be posting the awesome Texas samples AFTER you get back, so those of us who can't go can see them?  Pretty please???  Susan PS Hope William feels better fast!!

I've been cranking out Joseph's Coat Inside-Out Samples to load my display with and I'm so DONE with this technique for a while. Should I trickle them out one at a time and make ya wait?

Or should I be truly evil and make you wait until I get back?

How about a little teaser?...'cause this way I can keep y'all busy for days because I have stamped FIVE new cards in the last two days using this technique. If I dribble them out one at a time, I can sit back and twiddle my thumbs knowing that my blog has been managed until I get back and all I have to do is pack! I can set up all the posts to post themselves while I am gone! Yes! That sounds both nice and evil at the same time!!!

So here's the first one:

Ingredients: Stamps - Super-Size Snowflake, Flannel Plaid; Paper - Soft Sky, Whisper White, Pale Plum; Ink - Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Not Quite Navy, Versamark; Other - Whisper White taffeta ribbon, dimensionals, Crystal Clear EP, 1/2" circle punch.

Isn't it GOJUS?!?!?!? I had a hoot of a good time with the Flannel Plaid background and this technique, but now you're gonna have to wait to see what ELSE I did with it, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

Happy World Card-Making Day!

Well, it finally happened to me. Didn't think it ever would, but life takes some funny turns, doesn't it? Life will never be the same again.

That's right....

I've...

Gone.....

Headless!

When I first started seeing the My Favorite Things stamps with the ladies with no heads, I was a little baffled. Where are the heads? Where did they go? I just wasn't gettin' it.

But then I was lured into MFT's website from a banner ad on SCS. They know I'm there, I tell ya! The psychic resonance emanating from those banner ads is irresistible!

Before I even realized what was happening, I bought three sets from My Favorite Things, including Meet Me at the Cafe, Boho Blossoms and this one, Think Pink. The best thing is that MFT is donating 50% of the retail cost of this set when you buy it to further breast cancer research.

Oh! Ingredients...that's right!

Ingredients: Stamps - Think Pink (My Favorite Things); Paper - Purely Pomegranate(SU!), Basic Black (SU!), Papertrey Stamper's Select White, Floral paper (Magenta), pink dappled - Frances Meyer; Ink - Adirondack Pitch Black; Other - ribbon eyelet (unkown), Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain (SU!), pink dotted organdy (Michael's), Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol.

I took the opportunity to use some of the 8 1/2" x 11" paper I amassed for scrapbooking when I was still doing 8 1/2" x 11" format; I've been letting my daughters use that when they make cards, but why should they have all the fun?!?!? All that paper back in the days before everything had to have the name printed on the back so we could tell who made it! I only just managed to remember that the floral was Magenta...the Frances Meyer paper had the name printed on the back, I guess they were ahead of the game back then!

The ribbon eyelets were gifted to me...probably by my pal Heidi (pinkhedgehog) on SCS...somewhere, I have pink ribbon confetti she gave me to put inside the card. I'm going to put this in the mail for my friend Susan, who I met when our daughters were just babies at a La Leche League meeting. I just wish that we were both shaped like the ladies in the stamp...sigh....I used to be shaped like that, but marriage, chocolate, children, chocolate, life, chocolate, stress, and chocolate have all conspired to make me into a suburban dumpling!

Well, getting back to World Card-Making Day, I get to spend part of the day helping to run the bingo game at my kids' school festival. I have to go do the church bulletin and I have to take William to get fitted for his violin, since he starts lessons on Monday. Last night he had his first den meeting for Cub Scout:

I took these pictures before we figured out the neckerchief goes OVER the collar. Sigh. I have so much to learn. And unfortunately, Mary nailed me to be assistant den mother. Ack! Ack! She's very good at what she does. Anyway...isn't he STINKIN' CUTE?!?!?!

But back to World Card-Making Day...after I do the church bulletin, work the festival, rent a violin and whatever other activities I'm roped into doing today, probably sometime this evening I'll get around to making a card. Sigh...pass the chocolate!

Hump Day and a Cool Tip!

It's Hump Day and I think a little Rubbahdultery is in order, don't you?

I mean, I've been getting all these new stamps in and don't you wonder "has Jan even stamped ANYTHING with those Cats Pajamas stamps?" I've had them for a while now and remember...I have a RULE and the RULE says, "USE it soon after you get it, right?" So without further ado, my first Cats Pajamas creation:

Ingredients: Stamps - Cats Pajamas; Ink - Palette Noir, SU! Real Red, Soft Sky; Cardstock - Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Whisper White; Patterned Paper - Creative Imaginations (Rick Purdue); Other - ribbon - Michael's, Sakura Stardust Clear Glitter Pen, Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol, snowflake eyelets - Oriental Trading.

I had a ton of fun with this one, hunting out my most retro papers. I found this one in the stash and was thrilled that it matched Soft Sky and Blue Bayou so nicely. After I finished stamping and assembling, I realized it needed some glitter and jumped at the chance to pull out the Stardust pens that I bought last year from Starlitstudio on Ebay. I think it's STINKIN' CUTE!!!! (YILM!)

And now for the Cool Tip. You remember what my stamping table tends to look like, right? Like this:

One of the problems with this style of stamping (which I call Sem-I-Controlled Chaotic Order or SICCO for short), is that clear stamps do not really fit into the scheme of things. That's one of the things that has held me back from purchasing many sets of clear stamps, the idea that unless I clean it right after I use it and put it away, it will be buried in this mess somewhere and get stuck on the back of something else, or, heavens forfend, fall on the floor to be run over by my desk chair and suffer irreparable damage. Then GENIUS STRUCK!!! SHAZAM! I thought of the answer!!!

It is a stand up display frame, such as you might buy at Office Depot, to put a picture in or a flyer to display at a craft show. I have a number of these I use for my business; they are great for putting instructions for self-guided make and takes in or promotional flyers for displays. They are also made out of ACK-rylic, so clear stamps stick just ducky to them. So I stamp, I peel and I toss it on this thing. I can see where it is, it doesn't get buried, and I can even clean them right on here before I put them away. I am SO SMART!!!! (YILM!!!)

I hope this helps my fellow SICCOs out there!

In other organization news, I finally organized my clear and unmounted stamps:

I was amazed that I had so many (and I know there are those who are saying, "Is that all?" and you have my condolences!) and this isn't including the few CTMH sets I have, which have their own storage system. I had bought all of these jewel cases for making projects with them and didn't use them, so it was nice that I finally USED something I bought instead of buying a whole box (just to save money, you know!), using two and then stashing the rest! I have only 6 of them left now...which tells me I have to buy more unmounted or clear stamps so they won't go to waste!

Right?