Stampin' Spots & Other Crafty Thoughts

Mini Thumbprint Art Fun

2007-08-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

(again, posting ahead while I have Internet access)

Here's a collection of cards from my To Replicate stash. They all use the "O" or "0" (that's letter O or numeral 0) from the retired "Alphablocks" sets. They are one reason I insisted on hanging onto the sets. These little critters were all inspired by the art and books of Ed Emberly who has the knack for turning the letters l, V, U, O, M, and W (any others?) on fingerprints into all sorts of images. These projects were especially fun for me because they fall under the Cute Little Things category. The blocks are about 3/4"square, so the little ovals are about 1/4" from top to bottom. Tiny! So, if you have "Alphablocks" or something similar or an intact pencil top eraser or an inkable pinky tip, think about making some prints and doodling them into cards. It's great fun and a cool scrap stash bustin' activity!

P.S. The punny greetings (oink! oink! and Best fishes!) are personalized stamps that I had Stampin' Up! make for me.

Ribbit, Slurp!

2007-08-19T00:02:00.000-07:00

(posting early while I have Internet access)

Being on vacation, I'm having such a good time with my family...but I surely do miss my stamps. Here's a card using an old, old, long-retired set that while ignored remains one of my faves. I just love frogs and this one all dolled up wearing a ho-hum blase expression cracks me up! Once again, this is a card from my archives/to recreate stash. I want to make more of these for that Cards a la Carte supply!

I water colored the images using our Watercolor Brush and Ink Pads (doing CPR on the ink pad cases to get ink on the lid then picking up the ink with a watercolor brush). I'm certain that I can do a better job now with Aquapainters and layering colors. I still need to practice my water coloring techniques. Another fun thing about this card is that it's crimped after the artwork was done. I did not paint into ripples and such! I also like my stamped, heat-embossed button with real embroidery floss knots. It might me time to make a bunch more of those as well. The image is from either an incentive stamp or along-retired set. I'm thinking any of the images that would go with the 1/2" Circle Punch could work as well. Emboss a bunch then punch them out! Or, use the S'U! buttons that coordinate beautifully with our colors.

DDGG-Dazzling Diamondsed Grey Guiding

2007-08-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite make and take cards that I did way back when I was a new demo in '99. I need to make more for my Cards a la Carte Stash. "Fabulous Flourishes" has been retired for awhile, but if you have it or another bold-line floral, you can recreate this look. It's rather impressive--showier in person--and not all that hard to execute!

Step 1:
Stamp floral images all over confetti cream panel using Going Gray Classic Ink. Start with biggest images then fill in with smaller ones and foliage.

Step 2:

Load Sponge Daubers (I call then olives) with Stampin' Pastels and scrub colors over the images. I use two colors for each image to give depth, for example a Summer Sun + Only Orange for the yellow flowers. You are using gray images to guide your pastel application, and when you're done, the gray will have picked up the colors. (Interesting trivia: I didn't invent this technique but I did name it!)

Step 3:

Buff pastel crumbs into and off the panel using a soft disposable dusting cloth. Even though disposable, these can be washed out, dried, and re-used.

Step 4:

Use a 2-way Glue Pen to draw over the formerly gray guide lines then bathe the glue lines with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. You can work quickly or work in sections. If the images look over glittered, stop! Don't pick or fiddle with it as it'll smear. instead, allow the glue to set and dry then use the pads of your fingertips to gently rub over the glitter in circular motions to remove the excess.

Step 5:

Affix decorated panel to a mat and then the mat to card. Ooh and aah, put it into a Crystal Clear Envelope, then ooh and aah some more over your newly-created "$15 Papyrus" card.

White On!

2007-08-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm going through my archives of cards to replicate for my angel policy Cards a la Carte stash. This is one that definitely bears repeating. I created these for my friend Lillian whose husband threw her a surprise birthday tea party. I couldn't attend because I was giving a workshop then, however, I told Lil that I'd make her some thank you cards to use. Now, the glitter is Lil's touch! For some reason I thought she'd not like it, but I was wrong! While the stamps used for this card are retired, many of my customers have them..."Soft Swirls" background and "Vertical Greetings" done in White Craft Ink on the retired Positively Pink Card Stock. The white mat is Whisper White. Really, this combo of the opaque white ink on any medium or deeper colored card stock would work! The only hang up is to allow for adequate drying space and time as the craft ink can smear and takes awhile to dry. So worth it, though!

Friday Excursions

2007-08-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we have an early lunch in Orlando at something new for us: an A&W Drive-In! We placed our order from the comfort of our car with the A/C running and a carhop brought us our food! The corn dog nuggets and cheese curds were a treat! I am both relieved and happy to report that we made it to Plantation, FL (outside of Ft. Lauderdale) in one piece. The drive down was beautiful scenery-wise but super-scary driver-wise. Florida folks just have a very different style of driving to which we're not yet accustomed. They don't seem to use turn signals when they change lanes. They are very comfortable weaving in and out of lanes, squeezing into tight spaces as they do so. They (big rigs included) also seem very comfortable speeding so closely that they can probably tell the time using the clocks on the dashboards on the vehicles which they're following. Whatever happened to the one car length per every 10 m.p.h. cushion rule? It's no wonder we've seen more accident scenes here than anywhere else. We saw four more today as we ventured from Plantation to Miami Beach and back. They even have signs along the highways here that accident vehicles need to pull out of the line of traffic. Yikes!

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We parked the car in Miami Beach and found the system of paying for time on a ticket that can be used in any space until expired very interesting. The kindest gentleman took the time to provide a patient tutorial for us and another party. It turned out that he works with the "meters" for a living. He wasn't even on duty! We then strolled up and down the main drag shopping for a place to eat. They all had things that looked super! The pans of paella were very tempting but we settled on a table under the misting fanned and canopied Foxcafe. Everything was superb! I took no pics--darn! Dewey ordered a delicious penne arrabiata. Greg had the gigantic shrimp cocktail with a spicy sauce with fresh horseradish. Jon had some delicious fried chicken wings with fries...he's easy to please. I had the most delicious lemon-olive oil salad dressing on seared tuna with roasted red peppers and was it arugula? Excellent food!

After lunch, we headed across the boulevard to the beachfront. This is the view to the left...

...and the view to the right...

and a view of the Woo Boys with the Atlantic Ocean behind them.

Here are a couple of views of the boulevard. Too bad I didn't capture for you the pic of the dude in the Pixie Pink thong stuffed with currency, scratching the rash on his cheeks...and I don't mean his face...or, the pic of the girls in a club dancing on tables...or, the pic of the overly-endowed mannequin with the revealing tank top to which G said, "Well, I'd say that was Dollycized!", and to which J said, "That's the biggest Barbie doll I've ever seen--ever!" Those pics, however, are etched in our minds. No biggie...we're from San Francisco!

The walk up and down the sidewalk here is very interesting because there are hostesses at every single establishment inviting passersby to eat at their restaurants. They showcase enticing sample platters of food and their menus and say how just about everything on the menu is 50% off.

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A hop in the car and the A/C blasting, we drove a short way to learn that...

the Holocaust museum turned out to be a Holocaust Memorial. We will have to take the kids to D.C. someday to visit the real one. It's supposed to be worth a stroll in here and they have songs playing, but there was no parking to be had. This photo will have to do. It depicts an identification number tattooed on the hand's wrist and the forearm is covered with starving, suffering bodies. Gregory and I read "Night" by Elli Wiesel in preparation for this visit. It's a very touching account of what happened in Nazi concentration camps from a boy's point of view, and a sobering reminder of all that we take for granted.

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A little more driving and we found ourselves in Little Havana.

Walgreen's Farmacia!

How rude of me to dig in without taking pics first. These were some of the pastries that we picked up at a local bakery. I was doing okay in rusty Spanish with the lady behind the counter to translate that the croquettes were de pollo (chicken) and that the turnovers were guava. The empanadas contained carne (meat). Then customers came over to help us. They were so friendly, asking us where we were from, and then telling us what all the yummy-looking items were. Pictured above are the rest of the best flan that Gregory and I shared along with an egg and sugar confection. The pink dot on the yellow ball was guava paste--yum! Apologies for the bite marks. They (the pastries, not the bite marks) would have gone well with a hot mug of tea. Yes, even in this heat!

Dewey drove some more then we pulled into another bakery called Versailles. I know it's famous, but where did I hear about it? Was it Rachel Ray? Anyhow, they had case after case of good eats. Ready-to-press Cuban sandwiches, jamon con queso (ham & cheese) which Gregory sampled. I loved that everything here had labels in Spanish. If I weren't so stuffed already, I would have tried the pineapple tarts. The pineapple sliced looked grilled and juicy and covered in glaze. The besitos chocolate (Chocolate Kisses) were tempting, but would have melted by the time we got to the car in the parking lot. It was so kind of the customer, summoned by name by the lady behind the counter, to come over with his mouth full of sandwich to tell us that the tall prosciutto sandwich was not one that they put into a sandwich press.

~~~

We returned to Plantation for some quick shopping. While Dewey took the kids to Game Stop, I stopped at...

Michaels and took my sweet uninterrupted time looking at all the books and magazines. Picked up a Wilton cake decorating yearbook, the 25th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting and a Card Creations issue with 288 ideas, 'cuz one can never have too many card-making ideas.

A quick spin through Costco ISO local delicacies that can't be found at home yielded just one thing: a jumbo jar of pickled sausage. Too bad they weren't issuing samples, or I'd have tried a piece. The salads at Costco were just too big for us three salad eaters, so we just got a big bag of Maui Onion chips and a container of edamame (soybean pods). We then opted to pick up a family feast at Boston Market to enjoy in our hotel room. Mr. Mac 'n Cheese was quite pleased. Too bad this Sheraton doesn't have the Disney channel since "High School Musical 2" premieres tonight. I'm sure, though, that they'll show it lots more, so the boys can catch it another time.

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We had another fun day in the tropics! I think it's funny, and maybe you will too, that I think the A/C in the hotel is too-too cold!!! We turned it down to 70, and still I had to sleep under the comforter last night. Uh oh...

Vacation Notes Catch Up

2007-08-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

Dewey and I woke early this morning to pack up as we're checking out and heading to the Ft. Lauderdale-Miami area today. Time to post a catch up for our vacation journal before I forget what we did. Tuesday was another lovely day spent at Disney's Blizzard Beach water park. When it's this hot and humid, we love water parks! Our favorite ride is...I'm blanking on the name...but on where we climb, climb, climb up a series of stairs to get to the top of the mountain (where it's really scorching hot). If we're lucky, a cast member sprinkles us liberally with a hose. Then we hop into a family raft, sit down, and enjoy the longest, curviest, twirliest, wettest (water seeps into the raft from the bottom) ride. The stairs are lots of work in the heat, so we did it just once on Tuesday. Our next fave is the lazy river. We just sit in inner tubes and float about, unless the kids decide they'd like to tow and spin us. We saw the sweetest thing when a grandfather was gently taking his granddaughter to a relaxing ride along the lazy river. He was in the tube so that he could walk the river and his granddaughter was nestled against him, his hand shielding her eyes from the sunshine. He was softly singing her a lullaby. That has to win for The Best Nap Ever! Once we had our fill of the water park and a variety of Snow Balls--pina colada is yummy!--we returned to our sweet for a nice nap then headed back to Giordano's for a delicious dinner. Once we placed our order...boom! Torrential downpour with a few claps of thunder. The rain stopped just as we were finishing dinner, and things cooled down a bit. The Internet connection is the lobby was down, so I couldn't post anything on Tuesday.

Knowing that yesterday was our last Disney day, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to do Splash Mountain again and again and again. We seem to have an affinity to water, don't we? The kids got to do the Indy Racing attraction which is similar to Autopia in Disneyland.

Herrrrre's Jonnie! He's inviting to drive me somewhere for a change. He kidded that we we're headed to Miami, but about five minutes later, we we're right back at #4 where we started. How it worked out that he got a *blue* (his favorite color) car is beyond me.

Speaking of blue cars, Dewey was able to upgrade our rental for one with more power. We had a terrific scare on Monday as a big rig nearly ran us off the turnpike. Dewey saw that the truck behind us was speeding up no matter what so he had to veer to the shoulder where we nearly ran into reflective safety sticks and the truck just tore past us without even veering to the left. Meanie. It's quite freaky here as we've seen accident scenes with emergency vehicles with flashing lights *everyday*. You have to know that we've been here for two weeks. This lil gecko was decorating our car when we were about to go to EPCOT. (Do you like it's tail, Simmy???)

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After our last hurrah at Magic Kingdom, we headed back for a good but too-short nap before having salad, corn, and leftover pizza for dinner. We then headed back out in the humidity (the heat wasn't so bad, but the humidity is cloying and makes it seem hotter) for a last run to EPCOT. This photo is of the landmark dome from the backside with the dancing waters fountain show set to music.

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We enjoyed the fantastic show by the young acrobats visiting from China. The kids got a kick out of understanding the entire welcome and introduction messages in both Mandarin and English. There was a unicyclist who balanced and stacked bowls on her head by kicking them up into the air and catching them with the ones already stacked there. To end, she added a cup and a spoon to the pile. Next was a set of twins--very strong twins--who did all sorts of ouch-eliciting comments from the audience. They made it look so easy. Seeing that I had trouble sitting down and getting up from the pavement to see the show, I have a very long way to go! The final act was what we think another set of twins and a sidekick. These boys, dressed in chefs' garb, were so cute as they juggled plates and cutlery. They spun plates and kept pulling out more tables and more plates till all were spinning. Fabulous!

We then enjoyed the 360-degree movie of China. Gregory was thrilled that the narrator was an ancient poet that he learned about in Chinese History from Tang Laoshi. We also enjoyed Impressions of France--beautiful scenery set to moving music. The line at the patisserie was far to long to warrant another pithivier purchase, so I'll have to try to find those at home.

Beautiful lotus pond in China. I took a picture of this in the late 80s when Dean and I ran away from home. (After he graduated from college, I took my big baby brother on a trip to WDW.) Hey, maybe when we get back, I can finally re-scrap that first trip to Florida along with this one!

Bragging on Pam Tsuzuki!

2007-08-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

Pam Tsuzuki is a fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, who's from Honolulu, Hawaii. Her upline is also from Hawaii but actually lives in SF, the next hill over from me. Small world! Anyhow, Pam and I have been e-mailing each other about blog things, Hawaii, etc.. I was so thrilled when Pam, en route from convention in Denver to visit her folks in San Jose and work in San Francisco offered to get together so that I could drool over her convention swaps. Isn't that the sweetest thing? We got together in my studio after our own family dinners. Wow! She had quite a nice collection of swaps! She also gave me these cards of her own creation. I'm sure you'll agree that she's quite a talented stamper with nice attention to detail and incredible color combos! Thanks, Pam! (T'anks also for da ono senbei and choc-mac shortbread cookies!)

spotlight technique

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check out the "smell my feet" H'wen medallion that goes with the orange baby foot prints--so clever!

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beautiful combo of In-Colors, double-stitched grosgrain ribbon, pearl pretties, stamps, and Designer Papers

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this card is my favorite...is it the Pretties' flower dyed to perfection with Chocolate Chip ink refill? the rich combination of papers, ribbons? the chic combination of boutique colors?...

...or that it opens, and ...

opens some more to reveal the special greeting? That's so easy! All of the above!!!

$15 Papyrus, fo' sure!

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Thanks for letting me brag on ya, Pam!!!

Glitter Got Your Ink Pads?

2007-08-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ever get so zealous with the glitter that you do the syringe flick only to realize that you perhaps should have moved your ink pads out of the way? Amazing to see the flecks of Dazzling Diamonds glitter flutter ever so gracefully, as if in slow mo. to land so prettily all over your Real Red Ink Pad. Or, for some reason, that solid imaged flower just doesn't stamp down solidly...what's the deal? A few stray spots of glitter on that ink pad that end up on your stamp is all it takes.

Does you ink pad look like this?

(glitterful pad pic coming)

Do you have this?

(glitterful stamp pic coming)

Try doing this. Just press and pull till it's all picked up...even on a wet pad!

(pics of glitter being lifted off with lengths of adhesive tape coming)

Problem solved!

More Vacation Notes

2007-08-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I had much luck with the camera yesterday. I tried to do pictures of our trip to MGM Studios, but not many turned out. Maybe I didn't need to turn off the flash during "Beauty and the Beast"? Maybe I didn't use the right setting for the fantastic car stunt show. Oh well! We had a very hot and humid day at MGM and kept ducking into shops to cool off and to the rest room to wet our heads. The shows were fantastic, however! Lunch at the ABC Commissary was delicious--Cuban sandwich, stir-fried veggies & noodles which Gregory doctored up to perfection using the available condiment packs, fish and chips. The A/C was the best! We returned to the suite for a rest and relaxed dinner of leftovers then headed to DisneyQuest. The boys had a blast in the five-story building with all-inclusive simulator experiences and arcade games. It was lots of fun for me too until the noise level saturated my brain. The boys went back with Dad today and had a great time. I relaxed in the quiet, peaceful comfort of our room watching the "Poseidon Adventure" and tidying up a bit. I am happy to report that I've finally launched all 22,222 Blog Candies for which I received e-mails with snail mail addresses.

Add to this scene flashing lights, the sound of a gazillion arcade game machines, the plunking of skee balls, and the melody-lacking disco beat of whatever was playing with the volume and base turned all the way up! The boys (Dewey included) had so much fun they returned for another visit. Too bad I missed my camera as they just marched through the lobby, in the same descending height order with our dinner fixings to throw on the grill! Dewey had the gard bread, Greg had the hot dogs in the covered pot, and Jonathon had the tongs and his GameBoy DS! I need to sign off now, because they headed back to the room with the cooked food and are heating up the chili. After dindin we're headed out to catch the new Jackie Chan flick.

Got a Handle on the Entire Collection of Ink Cartridges!

2007-08-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

While I have my Stampin' Around wheels in S'A! cases in my stamp set wall of shelves, I have my handles and cartridges neatly organized right behind my chair on my accessories wall of shelves. It's working very well...

White basket houses both standard and jumbo Stampin' Around wheel handles and a Wheel Guide while the photocopy paper box lid (note the perfect fit on the shelf) houses...

all 48+ S'U! exclusive colors of Classic Ink cartridges in both jumbo and standard. Somewhere I have a photo of a case which is an XS Stamp Storage case which I'll sneak in here later. I have these cases filed by color family palette with the standard cartridge's label facing up. These cases really cut down on the evaporation rate of the ink. I like having both the mama and the baby stored together in their own little cocoons. It makes pulling and re-housing much easier.

The hardest part of this was matching up the singles, deleting duplicates or really off-colored retireds, and labelling and filling the jumbo cartridges. So worth it! Now, to get those ready-made color labels from the catalog that I missed the first time around! You see, I never got around to do those labels on the computer or just doing them by hand. Then I found them in the new catalog. There you go: another example of why it sometimes pays to procrastinate. Those color labels will definitely help further organize this very complete library of ink cartridges. I'll have to still do labels for VersaMark and any retired colors, though. I think I can handle that! (pun intended)

Rose-Scented Pretties Update

2007-08-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely ordering additional Pretties Kits to make more of my hand-dyed rose-scented flower pins. Just had to report that 1) I tested my hat pin on my hat here in Florida and it got drenched in several downpours and the dye did not fun...so the spray fixative on both sides of the flower parts does seal the color and prevent it from running, and 2) the hat pins are not very secure as my pin came off somewhere between Test Track (recall 65+ m.p.h. speeds) and The Land in EPCOT. Oh, well! Take it from my experience that perhaps the hat pins are good for cards and scrapbook pages, but that maybe sewing or hot gluing the posies to a traditional pin backing for jewelry-wearing purposes would be more secure. I enjoyed it while it lasted and hope that someone found it and is enjoying it too!

Postcards from Nepal & Africa

2007-08-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

The days are running together so I'm taking advantage of some down time to park in the cool (I'm wearing my shrug) lobby where the wireless connection is available (most of the time). The kids are enjoying their new Gameboy DS cartridges, Dewey's probably watching sports, so I'm catching up on my bog and e-mails. Before I forget and cannot piece it together, on Thursday we spent a second day at Animal Kingdom to do some of what we missed the first day. It's a really neat park!

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Picturesque vista on the hike into "Asia". I just love that a little hike can bring us from Florida to the base of Everest!

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Local bazaar.

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Local ice cream parlor.

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Gregory's favorite new ride, that thrill-seeker--Expedition Everest. Jon went once in the morning then decided he had enough, so Greg used Dewey's and my FastPass.

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There are a few interesting things to see in the gift shop which doubles as the exit for Expedition Everest.

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This is the temple where we line up for our favorite short by very wet ride, Kali River Rapids. If it's a good run, one can get soaked! If not, then a quick trip to Splash Basin is also helpful.

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I believe this was the local ladies' room (aka Splash Basin) in disguise...

and this the men's.
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We departed Asia headed off (on foot) to Africa to procure FastPasses for the animal safari. Our air-conditioned luncheon was great...eating delicious food in an air-conditioned cafeteria, that is.

We joined forces with an adorable troup of scouts and headed off to see (and smell) some critters...

that's a termite mound!

We saw lots more animals but we were riding in a bumpy jeep that didn't pause much so I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. Well, I did but Dewey's head got into a lot of them.

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We concluded our visit with an enjoyable Circle of Life Lion King musical. No one can do it quite like Disney! The singers, acrobats, dancers, "animals" were most entertaining. Then back to Splash Basin so that we could make it back to the car. We made a pit stop to the Chick-Fil-A drive-through for a shared snack of a couple of original chicken sammies and a side of cole slaw.

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We freshened up, took nice naps, then headed out for dinner at Giordano's. It's the same outfit that Dewey remembers from his Chicago days. We ordered a thin crust cheese pizza for Jonathon who devoured half of it all on his own. The sausage, mushroom, tomato stuffed pizza for the grown ups was delicious! Dewey's already made plans for a second visit for the spinach stuffed pizza. Gregory and I are game. Jon looks forward to more of "the best" cheese pizza.

Vacation Scrapbook

2007-08-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today we enjoyed a fantastic visit to Typhoon Lagoon. We're all for getting splashed...well, no, that's not accurate...we're all for getting doused with water when it's this hot and humid. High 90s with the heat index translates to 100+ degrees. This is certainly a change of pace. As we left the park at about 2-ish there was an incredibly long line to get into the park. They were having guests park on the grass as well as the cast members' parking lot.

Speaking of getting splashed and doused with water, I have to record what a magical day we had yesterday in the Magic Kingdom. We started the morning with two standy-by rides on Splash Mountain. The temperatures of the start of the day here far surpass the hottest part of the day where we come from, so getting wet right from the get go brought welcome relief. It was fun to get two rides in just like that!

As we exited Splash after our second ride of the morning, we were greeted by a special Disney crew that surprised us with the nicest gift! We received four of the last six Dream FastPasses of the day! Woo Hoo! This was a special badge with tabs that would get us through the FastPass lane once for each of the attractions at the Magic Kingdom that offer FastPasses! To celebrate, we let the boys ride on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad a couple of times while we rode Splash Mountain yet another time. We also obtained traditional FastPasses for Splash so that we could cool off once again after lunch before we left the park...excellent idea, Gregory!

The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction is very nicely done here and very different from Disneyland. The areas where the lines move are much more shaded and interesting, looking like a Spanish style fort. We appreciate any form of cooling that the parks provide while we're waiting in line.

The rear entrance to Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Too bad it appears that the Briar Rose storybook walk through was being refurbished. That's always fun. We enjoyed our FastPasses to Peter Pan's Magic Flight and Mickey's Phillar Magic--the best 3-D film attraction ever with no scary or stinky effects. We even did the Jungle Cruise with the funniest skipper ever; every single line that he uttered was hilarious!

We returned to our suite for a mid-day siesta and delicious dinner of grilled kabobs, grilled garlic bread, and corn on the cob then headed back to the park. I really do love having a kitchen in our suite with access to that gas grill out by the pool! It was even more humid, making it seem hotter, but we had to use those Dream FastPasses! The evening started with yet another ride on Splash. The kids did another round of Big Thunder. We got caught in the parade route, so we stuck it out to enjoy that--very much like the Main Street Electrical Parade at California Adventure. Stitch's Great Escape was cute only after I figured out how to lift the shoulder harness so I didn't feel as though I was being pinned down. We ended with the Monsters Inc. Laugh-something which was quite a delightful a live animation/audience participation deal. That was the most time we spent in any park in one day (because of the weather), thanks to those special Dream FastPasses. We only left three unused!

Ahhhh: showers and a good nights' sleep and our batteries were recharged for yet another fun Disney day.

Allison's Calling Cards

2007-08-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Allison has received her Blog Candy from me, so it's safe to post this. It seems as though she's one of the first to realize it when I update my blog. I designed these cards just for her because she designated her prize of monogrammed cards to be done for her mother. I made those, but just had to do something for Allison! I'm calling these Allison's Calling Cards. The idea is that Allison can write notes on these then leave them propped up somewhere in hostess' homes, next to a little gifts, if she so desires, for the hostess to find after the guests have left! Join me for this Punch-Along Friday!

I cannot get enough of my favorite, albeit retired, "Little Letters" alphabet set! I also cannot get enough of these new flower punches by S'U! I love-love-love how these flowers stay 3-D thanks to the support of congealed hot glue! They don't smoosh!

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You'd think I worked in a factory in a former life. Here's how I laid these correspondence cards out to do all the alphabet stampin'. Correspondence cards are layered post cards. Bottom layer is 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" in Perfect Plum. Top layer is 4" x 5-1/4" in Bordering Blue. "allison" is stamped in Perfect Plum Craft Ink.

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Here are the flower parts: (clockwise from 1:00) Snow Blossom in Lavender Lace, Trio Flower in Almost Amethyst, 5-Petal Flower in Elegant Eggplant, 1/4" Circle in Brocade Blue, Large Oval, socred and folded in Old Olive.

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Place all botanical bits on the mat in the Mat Pack and use the big end of the Stylus Tool to press the centers down, cupping the shapes. On the larger shapes, I ended up pressing at the base of each petal.

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Now, get out your trusty hot glue gun. Work carefully and quickly to apply the hot glue to the backs of the shapes and press the bases to the paper layer below. Do not flatten. Press things down using the end of your Stylus Tool. As the glue sets, it'll hold the flower's shape.

Gregory's 13th Birthday

2007-08-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Monday was a magical day for our family, especially for Gregory who celebrated his 13th birthday anniversary in the Magic Kingdom. The day began hot and muggy. We nearly passed out in the shade of a tree right before the park opened. The breakfast beverage of choice has become ice water! Anyhow, Gregory is soooo thrilled to be an official teenager! How time flies!

Singers greeted us with an opening ceremony at the Disney Mainstreet USA Railroad Station. How they can look so cheerful and happy in their costumes in the heat and humidity is a mystery to us. They are to be applauded.

Chip (the one-toothed chipmunk) and a couple of cast members.

The Woo Boys pose in front of Sleeping Beauty's magnificent castle which now houses a suite to accommodate overnight guests. Wouldn't that experience be a gas? As long as it's equipped with A/C...

Uh, sorry...I don't know this family and I didn't procure any photo releases but I was trying to get a picture of two attractions we decided to leave for the next trip. It was getting too-too hot after lunch. Our morning was pretty spectacular, though. Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters here cannot measure up to Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters in L.A.--my favorite ride! The laser guns aren't very mobile and it was hard to aim or even know that we were aiming. There were also only circle targets, none of the squares, diamonds, and triangles like Disneyland. Still, I scored 120800-something points. How? I do not know! We then headed to Frontierland which is a much shorter hike than in L.A. and got in two standby rides on Splash Mountain (different/wetter than L.A. the last time we rode before they re-did it in April), two standby rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (better than L.A.). We even did FastPass rides again for Splash and the boys did two rounds of Big Thunder. Then it was time for lunch--yummy--in a big air-conditioned cafeteria.

We stopped at Guest Relations on our way in so that Gregory could sport his b-day pin. The Disney cast crew were so good about wishing him a happy day! That was very nice.

Thrown in the slammer with Zorg, the villain from Buzz Lightyear.

Jonathon befriends a cute rodent.

Bon jour, Ratatouille! Come talle vous? (I dunno--I never took French!)

Merlin casts his magic.

The kids were thrilled to ride in the driver's compartment of the monorail on the way back to the parking lot. They were even given junior conductor certificates!

Such logic: Trees make air. Homework kills trees. Homework causes global warming.

Dinner at Joe's Crabshack was a treat. Jon polished off his entire cheese pizza and fruit side. Greg worked patiently and diligently on his crab feast and enjoyed each and every hard-earned morsel.

The servers at Joe's Crabshack take regular disco breaks. It's very fun to watch these young folks do things I never got to learn such as The Electric Slide. Is there a DVD or something now? They also took a T.O. to sing "Happy Birthday" to Gregory backwards! That's with their backs to him vs. "you to birthday happy"!

We ended the day with a quick tour of Downtown Disney. The spots of rain helped cool things down as did Stitch who spat water at the crowd. The boys each selected a stuffed animal to adopt: Gregory chose Thumper (for his cuddly cuteness) and Jonathon chose Stitch for his kolohe-ness (check out the welcome post if you'd like to know what that means).

Wednesday's Little Excursion

2007-08-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

After spending the morning at EPCOT, speeding up to a thrilling 65+ m.p.h. on Test Track and eating our way through the French end of the World Showcase (I think I can say "pithivier" half as well as I can gobble one up), we freshened up in our suite then hopped in the car for a 50-mile jaunt to Titusville on the Space Coast. Oh, my! We weren't the only ones with that idea. Since we couldn't get tickets to view the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, the next best thing was to view it from the coast.

I think we travelled much faster during our Disney Test Track voyage. I had time to get on the phone and call my brother as I spotted an identical personalized Florida license plate to his California one--IOOOIOO (binary code for "D" or is it "Dean"?). Same car too--only Dean's is not a convertible! These toll roads sort of bottleneck the traffic flow towards the toll booths, so our trip took a bit more time than we anticipated. Not quite knowing where we needed to be, we had to double back, park in a tire shop parking lot then cross a busy thoroughfare to join others in an empty lot with just minutes to spare.

I had just gotten a hold of my dad who was over at my brother's watching the launch. He said there was another minute to go and I had to hang up on him because as soon as he said that, the radios amongst the crowd were already at 3-2-1! Here are a few of the pictures that I took that turned out. Jonathon took a few as well which I will add if I can figure out if my camera cable will work with his. It was quite an exciting part of the trip!

Bright flare silently shooting upwards with incredible speed...the sound didn't get to us till about a minute after this shot was taken! What a thrill!

I think this was one of the better shots that I took as you can see the two jets of ignited rocket fuel. Oh, I sound so un-technical. Later, after we do our Kennedy Space Center tour, I'll correct my jargon. Shortly after this shot was taken, I took another and all you can see in the photo is vapor trail...what we saw was an upwardly mobile tiny, bright white "star" which was the shuttle after separation. Cool!

This is a picture of the vapor trail as it travelled inland. This was taken from our car after we headed back to where we left it, got ourselves situated with frozen waters from the cooler, and pulled out of the parking lot. What a memorable event to witness!

We enjoyed the scenery during the drive. We saw swamp-y wetlands adjacent to groves shared by pines and palms. Quite interesting! I kept thinking of those movies we used to watch in elementary school about the underground railroad and how folks used to cross swamps by foot under the cover of nightfall. I don't think I could dip my toes in there during the day, and definitely not during the night. On this morning's news, they issued a warning about infections to swimmers by fresh water amoeba. There are many, many little bodies of water here that appear quite full of life. We've seen lots of water fowl and concentric rings on the water's surface that make me think there are minnows or some other small fish snacking on gnats.

The 50-mile drive back to Kissimmee took a bladder-burstin' three hours. Lots of traffic! There are not many (any?) official pitstops on the turnpikes here at all! However, we saw many a minivan pulled off on the grassy shoulders on our way. Several little potty chairs parked right there on the grass with little, tiny bottoms parking on them. Ya do what ya gotta do. (No pun intended.)

Blog Candy Report

2007-08-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

Since most folks get an accurate preview of the goods when they enter blog candy contests and players of my 11,111 Hit Blog Candy did not, I thought I'd record what I ended up making to post once I think everyone's gotten their goodies of a dozen MMMs. Here are additional ideas for Monochromatically Monogrammed Missives. Happy Show 'n Tell Thursday!

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For Cheryl...

Certainly Celery + Garden Green; special touches are folded Word Window tabs with an Old Olive Bradded Celery Trio Flower Punchies that've been sponged with Garden Green. Hint: be sure to wipe ink off the brads.

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For Donna (Allison's mother)...

Almost Amethyst + Lavender Lace; special touches are lavender silk blossoms snipped from sprays I used for my 1989 wedding favors. I just used a couple of Glue Dots near the flower bases to secrue them onto the appliques.

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For Pam...

Blush Blossom + Cameo Coral; special touches are my two-toned hand-dyed white flowers (very bottom of that post) from those same wedding favors secured to the appliques with--gosh, were they Barely Banana or So Saffron Brads? The 1/16 hand-held punch made it easy to place those blossoms.

Magazine Management

2007-08-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

I adore these ingenious magazine holders that fit into binders. To me, I'd rather look at a bookcase full of the same binders of different things than a gazillion magazines and leaflets. Besides, when I want to look through my punch art booklets, I tend to pull them all off the shelf at the same time. Much quicker to pull out one binder full of punch art booklets.

Magazine binder spines

Shelves full of magazines and leaflets on the left; shelves of waiting binders on the right.

From stack of booklets to...

an all-in-one binder!

Same went for lettering books, Asian paper crafts, tea bag folding, clip art books, etc..

At least one shelf of magazines and booklets emptied into the bottom row of binders on the right! Ta dah!

DIY Aquapainter Blotter

2007-08-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

I just love working with our Aquapainter Brushes. I like that the need for two cups of water(one for clean, one for dirty) is eliminated. All one needs to do is refill the fluid chamber. A little squeeze drips enough water over the brush bristles to rinse it. I developed my own way to make handy little blotters that do the best job of picking up excess wetness and color. They are made of quarter sheets of paper towels and binder clips. So simple!

Start with 1/4 of a sheet of paper towel. I start with mine in landscape format like this.

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Fold ends towards center so the blotter is now folded in thirds.

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Fold that third into half again.

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Then fold it in half the other way and pinch the raw edges together with a binder clip. I make tons of these at a time as they come in handy when I do my workshops and classes.

Studio Tour: SU FunAddicts HQ--Another Closer Look At Those Shelves

2007-08-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick tour and look at how I've organized my ribbons and things (embellishments/hardware) on the shelves behind my seat at the stampin' table.

12 x 12 drawer units by Sterlite hold my fibers and ribbons.

This is the only drawer of currents...the rest is surplus (just a bit) and retireds.

I rearranged my two accessory caddies (sorry forgot the name and the caty's back in the suite) to hold only current hardware. I used the Stampin' Store (that's it!) containers to house my Hodgepodge hardware pieces as well. Love those spinning dealies! To the right of those spinners are my S'U! ribbon caddies, two deep. I pulled out all of the retireds and now have space for all the new taffeta's and wider grosgrains that I need to order. To the right of the ribbon caddies are my mini tabletop trash containers that I use during workshops. They come in very handy; they're just pencil cups by Rubbermaid.

What I love about my shelving units from IKEA (PAX, narrow, shallow) is that I can add as many shelves as I like, wherever I like. Here I have our retired Stampin' Store caddies two deep on three shelves to hold all sorts of retired and contraband and even homemade embellishments. It's so handy!!!

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That's it for this installment...more tours to follow...

A Closer Look at the Studio Shelves: Tools & Punches

2007-08-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said that instead of packing for our trip that I spent the day reassigning all of my frequently used items from drawer units under my table to units on the shelves right behind my seat? That was a smooth move! It works so much better because I have easier access for both pulling things out and putting things away! Love it! Welcome to this week's Mission Organization!

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I didn't take a pic of the top drawer which holds miscellaneous office supply stuff right now: bins with pens, post it notes, business cards, etc..

Next drawer down: Crimpers, Card Stock swatch key ring, compliments of Pam Tsuzaki, assorted contraband tools such as scalpels and folders.

Next drawer: assorted scissors, packing tape for laminating my wood blocks, my SU Crafters Took Kit, and other tools such as my snap setter which I ought to move to my sewing area...after I compare it to my Crop-o-Dile for setting snaps.
Punch Drawer: assorted current SU punches. My best storage hint: use our jumbo (the biggest?) stamp storage case to store the smallest punches. My drawer holds them two containers deep! I also have multiples so that my make and takes go quickly with minimal waiting around for tools.
More current punches!
Yet more current punches!
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The adjacent set of drawers is all for retired and contraband punches that I've collected for years. I have one of those punch buddies that helps give oomph on the buttons for the punches without the thumb levers. It's stashed with the die cut equipment.

Note how my S'U! Table Top Paper Cutter fits so neatly in what would be otherwise unused shelf space next to the Sterlite 12 x 12 drawer unit! That's only one of the best things about it--that it takes so little space--the other things I like is that the blade won't need sharpening and that it'll cut multiple sheets of our sturdy card stock at one time!

My favorite ways to cut corners!

More Vacation Notes

2007-08-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was lovely and pretty cool since we spent the better part of the day at Typhoon Lagoon. We entered the water park in the nick of time as the parking spaces were mostly occupied. Immediately after our initial round in the lazy river surrounding an island, floating on inner tubes, I overhead that the park was at capacity. Yep, it was wall-to-wall inner tubes. The pool with the big waves was also pretty crowded. But, we had no complaints as wait times were pretty manageable and the water was so refreshing. We also appreciated the fact that Typhoon Lagoon had lots of shade.

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Today, we braved the heat and spent the morning and early afternoon at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I am 110% positive that I'm not the adventurous sort and I would never hack expeditions in Africa or Asia as I had a hard time handling the sauna we call the Sunshine State. Dewey said it was 96 or so but that with the humidity it was the equivalent of 113. Uh huh! I kept drenching my head, re-wetting my neck cooler, seeking the shade of my SPF 50 fabric wide-brimmed hat, and ducking into air conditioned stores. The best part of lunch was the big cup of ice water!!!

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Da Woo Boys at the entrance to the park. Isn't it cute how they arranged themselves by height (and age)? I loved how the sign border was all green with brown details to form all sorts of animal images. Hard to see in this picture, I know.

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A short walk, and we were at the base of Everest. I got such as kick out of all of the neat props. A quick trip for Everest Fast Passes then we did the river expedition twice and got soaked--happily so! It was like a wetter but shorter, less bouncy Grizzly River Run (our favorite ride in California Adventure). I am such a good mommy! I went on Everest twice with The Gregster. I'd rate it as a better Matterhorn, but even though it's a shorter ride, I think twice is my limit. There's a part where we climb up the steep slope then there's no more track. The car then falls, going backwards fast in the dark. The Yetis were cute! We'll see if Jonathon would like to try it the next time we go. I think I'll sit in the air conditioned gift shop with Dewey.

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Tee hee... another shot of The Woo Boys headed to the Primevil Whirl. The kids *loved* that ride as it's a stepped up Mulholland Madness with spins. Dewey and I were good sports and tried it once. We'll park in the store while the kids ride it next time.

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Trying On Hats for Size

Jon posing with Stitch, his favorite.

Greg as Pirate Mickey--Arrrrgh!

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Gorgeous flora & fauna like this can only come from a tropical environment.

Very interesting and pretty plant that has both Pretty in Pink and Rose Red blossoms on the same plant!

The coloration on this lily was phenomenal. So Saffron, Apricot Appeal, Regal Rose, Rose Red. That might be something to try with that Diaper Wipe Tie Dye Pad technique.

Jonathon gets a hug from a dinosaur.
Macaw

Jonathon poses with the prettiest Blue Macaw. There were so many beautiful blues in those feathers...and the yellow accents on his cheeks and eyes (opposites on the color wheel) really popped.

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After a hot trek back to the car (my ankles felt like they were burning from the heat radiating off the asphault), drinking frozen waters that we stored in the cooler in the car, and blasting the A/C, we reflected upon our day. Despite the heat, it was a very good one!

Laurie Ann's Peek-A-Boo Halloween Box

2007-08-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

I loaded several Halloween projects into the camera before we left on vacation. Being that it's Stash-Bustin' Saturday, I thought you might enjoy a different sort of open the box party. I designed this project last year as a stash-buster for a fun Halloween trick *&* treat. Why not get started early and enjoy the time to prepare these boxes ahead of time. I am delighted to share it with you, especially since the set I used, "Bitty Boos Too" made it to the Fall-Winter 2007 Collection! It's such a good one, that' I'm going to do a re-run of it this year. So, join me, if you wish for this stash-bustin' bash! Enjoy!

Here's a picture of my template done on the flimsy type of chipboard that backs packets of Designer Papers...or at least it used to. I think the new stuff is white. You can substitute Kraft Card Stock for the chipboard. The idea is to make it look like a shipping box from our favorite stamp company. Width = 8-1/2", height = 3-1/4", score top and bottom in 1", score right to left at 1" intervals. Trim top and bottom 1/2" pieces. Cut 1" sections along score lines on top and bottom, leaving the score lines on the middle of the strip intact. Use a piece of Sticky Strip on the flap. Then get ready to stamp with black ink and "Bitty Boos Too".

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Top View

Simply follow the direction of the stamps in the template pictured above to the the box flaps to look like this. After I stuffed the box, I folded the flaps in for this cute closure.

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Bottom View

For the box bottom, I wrote "packaging made with glee by Laurie Ann". I put it together just like a Stampin' Up! box, even using packing tape to seal the box flaps together!

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Side 1

Stamp a pair of witchies' feet then hand write "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet!"

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Side 2

Stamp three black cats then hand write typical stamp company shipping carton sayings such as "this side up", "keep out of heat and direct sunlight", "contents' fragile"

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Side 3

I stamped a pair of pumpkins then hand wrote "a boo from The Woo"

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Side 4

Stamp three bats then write" Box 1 of 2"

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What's inside???

A gummy eyeball nested in some shredded paper!!! Gross, huh? Toldjya it was a good one!

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Happy Early Halloween! Now, go dig out or order that "Bitty Boos Too" set, and keep your eyeballs peeled for those gummy eyeballs! You'll be all set for some silly fun!

Woos Half-Baked

2007-08-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

We had another good day yesterday...albeit extremely warm. We saw the local weather channel which cited the weather as 92 degrees, and with the humidity, it was the equivalent of 103 degrees. My brother reported that it was foggy at home. Where's that rain when we need it?

I was too hurried with the incoming crowd (and hot) to have Dewey and the boys step right to get his head positioned under Mickey's sorcerer's hat. Maybe next time. It's funny that I only took three pictures today. Whereas yesterday it was too wet for the camera, today it was too hot for me.

The environs suurounding the Star Tours attraction in Disney's MGM is far superior to that of Tomorrowland in Disneyland (Anaheim). Check out this forest that looks just like the movie scene!!!

I had to take a photo of this tee shirt. Cracked me up since we sometimes try to speak Yodaese.

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We made many deliberate pitstops during our MGM adventure to get into the restrooms to wet our heads. I had no shame! Better than me whining. The neck coolers and hats helped a bit, but the best help was drenching my hair and letting it drip all over. Aaah!

The kids enjoyed Star Tours. I recall times when the boys just made the height requirements. One Disneyland trip (over 5 days), I rode it with Gregory 19 times as he recited the entire dialog during the ride. There was the trip (over 5 days) that I rode it with Jonathon 21 times...same deal with the script. Jonathon knew which way to lean and when to do so! I guess that'll always be a family fav. We rode it only once today, not that they didn't try to get in an encore ride.

Sometime after lunch during the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, the heat really got to us. Dewey led us ISO popsicles which sustained us somewhat during our trek over the super-heated pavement to the car which we had in AAA preferred parking. We couldn't believe that it was actually cooler in the car without the engine and A/C on than it was outside at 1:46 pm.

Dewey was a doll and took the kids to the pool while I fell onto the bed for a nap. We all slept well. Dinner was per Jonathon's request: rotelli pasta with white sauce. Leftover salad, corn, and shish kabobs and fruit rounded out the meal. We decided not to push ourselves and try to return to the park. Instead, we let the kids nap and then lounge and we enjoyed a leisurely dinner. They enjoyed screen time (TV and GameBoys) in the evening.

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An observation: this morning we saw a convertible (rental, I hope) of girls driving on the freeway in front of us when they chucked a paper cup out of the vehicle. Florida may be hot, but it is beautiful with all these little bodies of water, neatly manicured slightly hilly grassy areas, shrubs and tress. So far, we haven't seen roadside or sidewalk litter (except for that one flying cup which must be picked up by now) and we haven't seen grafitti. That's very nice!

We're Having a Ball!

2007-08-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

We're enjoying ourselves here in Florida. Yesterday was lovely--really--it rained most of the day and the showers surely kept things cool and relatively comfortable for us hot weather wimps. 89-cent rain ponchos from Target saved the day so we could keep our clothes dry and not freeze indoors with the A/C.

obligatory photo of 3/4 of the family under the famous Epcot landmark

Greg & Jon pose, in ponchos, with Figments (of your Imagination)

Gregory appeased the hunger of his soon-to-be teenager's tummy with a huge, yummy, moist, tender and may I be redundant, delicious smoked turkey leg from America in the World Showcase. We hoofed it in the evening--the rain had subsided--around the lake just to find the vendor that sold them. We must have walked at least 10 miles yesterday, because that's a walk from the parking lot to the lake and all the way around it--which we did twice!

Jonathon took his turn with the turkey club. That one leg was a high protein snack that fed our family of four. We gnawed upon it while we were waiting for the spectacular fireworks show.

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Highlights of Day 1:

the rain that kept us cool and comfy
that GM Test Track ride with a short wait
the Mission to Mars ride with a short wait
the World Showcase with short waits for rides
refreshing Oolong Tea-Strawberry slush from "China"
incredible French pastries in "France" (you were right, Lil!)
the nap in our suite...well, the kids napped; Dewey and I made dinner
dinner in our suite: the best corn-on-the-cob ever, shish kabobs grilled by the pool, rice, veggies & dip, chilled fruit
return trip to Epcot for fireworks show along with that turkey leg snack
showers and a good night's sleep

Blossoms Abound

2007-08-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

I was absolutely thrilled when Blossoms Abound made it into the Fall-Winter Collection book! I love this set!!! Here, is a make and take sample that I taught at my workshops when the set debuted for a past mini catalog. Now, the Square Steps Punch for the corner treatments is no longer available. (Pouting) But, there are many equally beautiful treatment corners we can do. We made three separate diaper wipe tie dye style pads by dropping re-inkers in random spots all over the damp wipes. I cannot rave enough about how well it turned out to mix greens for the foliage, mix blues for the more solid blossom cluster, and mix purples for the blossom cluster details. This is a more complex look than simply stampin' with three colors. Try it in honor of Show 'n Tell Thursday!!!

The tie-dye/batik coloration is especially noticeable on the leaves. You need to drip the re-inkers on the pad then stamp immediately as when the ink is given a chance to sit a bit, the colors meld into one.

Whereas the first photo could be wisteria, the same stamp set can make lilacs! We discovered this versatility when a workshop guest accidentally stamped her greeting upside down. It ended up looking just as pretty--just a different variety of flower!

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Too bad I'm on the road, or I'd snap some pictures of how to prep diaper wipe pads.

Don't Even Try To Count My Stamp Sets!

2007-08-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

Happy August Already! Here's a sneak peek at my stamp set "wall". I do not know how many stamp sets I have, but the vast majority of these are S'U! I have them in sections and consider this a WIP as I set about color coding them with strips of colored card stock. The Apricot Appeal ones are Alphabets. The Gable Green ones are Greetings. The Pixie Pink ones are Hearts. The Almost Amethyst ones are Definitely Decorative Florals and Botanicals. I have a ways to go and someday soon, hope to be done...mounting all sets, current and retired.

This collection is by no means a requirement to be a S'U! demonstrator, but it does depict the habit that my business supports. I also hang onto all my retired sets because I do a fair amount of angel work with them.

I thought it was pretty funny that nearly 13 year old Gregory very tactfully suggested that I ditch the Z Bar box which is hold spare strips of color-coding card stocks. "It just doesn't look so professional, Mom." Correct. But at least I know which shelf I put those strips of card stock!

The white baskets are great for organizing my smallest set cases. Much easier way to file them.

Here's the little Stampin' Around wheel corner. I need more of the specialty stamp cases as some of my new wheels are without homes. I need to refine my sorting job on these and designate which wheels are current vs. those that are retired.

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So, that's the WIP for this Wednesday...that I cannot work on other than to do some planning on paper. Oh, why not just plan it here? On the clipboard re: stamp set organization:

check section sorting then alphabetize sets by shelf and case size
flag all sets that need to be mounted
re-label any sets that are now filed upright where the original labels are hidden
designate which sets are retired
mount sets!!!
enter sets in collection on a database

Last Call for 22,222 Hits Blog Candy!

2007-08-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Checking in from Kissimmee, FL. It's not that hot because it's raining right now! Just looked at my counter and I've already surpassed that 22,222 mark, so it's time to give out the blog candy posted here. You all are fabulous blog readers!!! Now, I brought 22 of these templates and envelopes with me and have these cute slipper templates all ready to mail out! So far, only 9 takers have registered comments, so all who posted so far are winners! Congratulations! Please e-me at S.U.Fun.Addict@sbcglobal.net with your snail mail address and I'll pop yours into the mail for you. I will take the first 13 entries in comments to this post as winners. However, since I need to moderate comments before they're posted and you won't be able to tell if you made it in time, if there are more than 13 entries by the end of the day tomorrow, I'll also send you a template, but it'll have to wait until we're back in San Francisco. Thanks for playing!

Delicious Daffodil (Beautified Brownie)

2007-07-31T00:42:00.000-07:00

Check out this too-too cute project! When my friend Phyllis and I were planning her workshop for this past Sunday, she relayed a request by one of her guests (Hi Gail!<--she reads this blog!) who wanted to see an idea for using our cello bags. Phyllis planned to bake brownies, enough for everyone to eat and to use for this edible make and take. Well, the brownies were de-lish and I think everyone liked this simple presentation for them! You can't see the brownie perhaps, but it is heart-shaped...we were saying that a flower shaped brownie would be cute too! Of course, regular rectangular brownies would fill out the cello bag nicely, but then there wouldn't be the scraps to have to (get to?) test...you know, for quality assurance. ;o)

Phyllis' Brownie Recipe: Betty Crocker boxed mix + heart shaped cookie cutter in a kitchen in the process of being remodeled. We were all impressed and appreciative!

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Laurie Ann's Daffodil Cello Recipe: Medium Flat Cello + Scallop Circle Punchie in Yoyo Yellow + 5-Petal Flower Punchie in Summer Sun + Snow Blossom Punchie in Only Orange + Certainly Celery 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon. Form open-faced flower sandwich, using a bit of SNAIL Adhesive to tack the layers in place, draw a dot for the center, then use the new Crop-o-Dile to punch a hole--either 1/8 or 3/16 will work, wrap ribbon around filled cello bag, pull the ends through the hole, then tie a knot. That's it! Well, trim the ends, then that's it!

My Big Project

2007-07-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

Whew! I did it! I finally overhauled the studio...well, not overhaul, but I did spend all day re-organizing contents of shelves and drawers so that my most frequently used current accessories all have easily accessible homes. When I say all day, I mean *all day*! So worth it! I still need to pack for the trip but will tackle that project in the morning.

True confessions: here's how my table looked 12 hours prior to my workshop on Sunday. It looked great as guests arrived, then looked somewhat similar to this picture (again) when the workshop was over. It dawned on me that I ought to move the frequently used items that were under the table to the shelves right behind my chair so that I can put things away more easily. I also needed to clear junk out of my make and take drawers. I like to have one drawer for each of my three workshop make and takes. However, at some point I must have done the Company's-Coming-Hide the Mess Maneuver. Anyhow, by dinnertime this is how I left my room...

floor cleared... table cleared... chairs cleared and in place...

shelves tidy and organized... 12 x 12 drawers organized. All ready for me to do more when we get back. This is just Bliss Blue! (I took lots of pictures, so I'll be posting mini tours from the road.)

If I Make It Pretty Will I Use It?

2007-07-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

I snatched just a little bit of time to decorate a new mileage log for my new car. I'm hoping that by pretty-ing it up, I'll actually make a habit of using it. We shall see!

Here's the book! I like the scrapbook element collage style. The more I added, the better it looked!

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This photo depicts the book's humble origin. I picked it up at our recent and thorough visit to the office supply store.

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I ripped out a non-essential page to use as a template for the spiral binding, then I cut a matching dimensions piece of patterned card stock from the Sell-A-Bration Simply Scrappin' kit. Love the colors! Love the coordinating self-adhesive card stock die cuts with the artwork already done for me!

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Flip both pieces over so they're wrong sides down then superimpose the torn out template over the back of the new card stock cover. Use a pencil to trace the holes.

~~~ Use the 1/8" Hand-Held Circle Punch to punch the traced circles.

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Use the Paper Snips at about a 45 degree angle to cut slits from the inner edge of the cover to the holes.

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Use a Stylus Tool to nudge the slit edge fringe onto the spiral ring. Once the new cover is placed on the spiral, go ahead and SNAIL it to the original cover.

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Now the fun part: decorating it! Sorry, no pictures. Three of the above photos were taken with my left hand while my right hand held the tools. When placing die cuts, I need both hands and have not yet mastered aiming the camera and snapping shots between my shoulder and chin!

These Are Some Sweet Feet + Laurie Ann's Blog Candy

2007-07-28T23:39:00.000-07:00

Today I played hurry up and catch up. I finally found enough small boxes to mail off my last, well first, round of blog candy as well as a couple of other little surprises for friends. Those will go to the PO tomorrow. I also did a little bit of designing for my workshop tomorrow and will post the projects in the near future. Something that I'm very happy about is the Saturday Stash Bustin' I accomplished tonight. I took food boxes that I've been saving and cut a bunch of my fun Hawaiian flip flop slipper card templates, first shown here, out of them! Yay!

I don't know how many of these I traced and cut--at least 50 of them. They are fun to have around for summertime stampin' fun.

Here's what the card looks like. Pretty darn cute, if you ask me! The top of the slipper could be stamped any way you wish. Here, I used "Little Pieces" with a VersaMark pad on Glossy White Card Stock. I allowed the images to dry then went over them with an inked up Brayer. If you're saying to yourself that to toe part could use a little dyed-to-match Pretties Kit posy piece, you read my mind!

Here, I pulled the card apart to show you the backside of the top layer. All I did was punch three 1/8" holes using the Hand-Held Punch then fed two lengths of Grosgrain Ribbon for the thongs, taping them down with adhesive tape. Be sure to leave enough slack in the ribbon for feet! SNAIL the slipper layer up--or better yet, use Sticky Strip and slap it onto a sole.

Here's my very realistic sole using the "Canvas" background stamp. I punched out three 1/2" circles out of the same background stamped card stock and sponged them a bit more to make them look like the undersides of real slippers. This is the surface on which to write your note. The finished slipper fits into our Small Open-End Envelopes beautifully!

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OK, now for the blog candy part. My last contest was to celebrate 11,111 hits. Thanks to your support, I've already reached 20K and am nearing 22,222 hits! When that happens, I will draw 22 names from comments left here. (Comments to this blog are moderated, so don't be alarmed if yours doesn't appear instantly--I have to approve them before they are published.) Those 22 winners will each receive a genuine recycled food box flip flop slipper template, hand traced and cut by moi! If you're game, go ahead and leave a comment with your full name or e-mail address. Don't be shy! One of my last winners won on her very first blog comment ever!!! Good luck!

Tag Punch Pretty Petal Wall Art

2007-07-27T00:12:00.000-07:00

Here's another work of heart I made using my pretty petals made from our Tag Punches. These are also made with our Palette 'o Prints Designer Series Papers. The So Saffron pieces are made from the larger Tag Punch while the Almost Amethyst petals are made from the Smaller Tag Punch. I lined the Saffron petals up next to each other then used Mini Glue Dots to layer the Amethyst Petals in between the Saffron ones. The mid lines on the Saffron petals serve as the guidelines for the outer edges of the Amethyst ones. I think I have another new set of best friends: my flower punches. The Pretty in Pink Card Stock flowers are from the 5-Petal Punch. Snow Blossom Punch is in Lavender Lace. A single Trio Flower is in Barely Banana. Certainly Celery piece is 1/4" Circle. All center layers were cupped then hot glued to the piece. This keeps the dimension intact. Added mats of Certainly Celery (torn edges) and Perfect Plum atop our Brushed Silver Card Stock cut to fit a shadow box type frame from IKEA.

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out of the box

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inside the box, with glass and camera flash

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The look of a quilt block in a fraction of the time!

~Addendum~

I'm going to clean the glass on this then wrap it up give it to my quilt-loving neighbor, Sandy, for her upcoming birthday. She's re-decorated her entire bedroom in pink, and I think this piece with its Soft Subtles will look great against a pink wall. (Note to self: head back to IKEA and scoop up more of these frames in different colors if they have them!)

Pointy Poinsettia Self-Standing Card

2007-07-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

This is an example of what you can make with my Tag Punch Pretty Petals. It's so beautiful that I turned it into a free-standing card that could decorate a fireplace mantel, desk top, bookshelf, windowsill...you get the idea! Because of the labor involved, reserve these for people that cherish your work. They're really gorgeous, and I think they're totally worth the time and effort! This work of heart appeases my craving for Asian art. We may no longer have the Asian sets as currently available, but we can create Asian art from the neat, new punches! Woo Hoo!

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Base is 3" square of Certainly Celery Designer Paper. You'll need 9 small tag petals. The center base which I use as a placement guide is a 3/4" circle punchie from a scrap piece of card stock.

Begin by opening the flaps on the tag corner (angled corner). Place a Mini Glue Dot right on the fold. It may be hard to see it in this photo, but it's right between to only two whole polka dots showing on the wrong side of the petal.

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Fold the loose flaps down and press them into the Glue Dot. Place another Mini Glue Dot over the two flaps, right on the mid line, close to the flat end of the petal base.

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9 petals fit nicely right around a 3/4" circle.

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Here, I used additional Designer Papers from the Palette o' Prints stack and punch out two 5-Petal Flowers from a So Saffron pattern, placing them over the flower center with glue dots to get the cherry blossom shape. Next, is a punch out from Snow Blossom in the same color as the petals, but I flipped the piece over so the polka dots show. Barely Banana single from the Trio Flower Punch is the next layer. Then a 1/4" Circle from a scrap of Certainly Celery Designer Paper. Drew some shimmer with the Gold-Silver Painty Pen. I used Glue Dots for each flower center layer. Those things are handy-dandy!

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Now, an oldie but goodie bonus...

To convert any card into a free-standing one, create a "W" for Woo-Hoo! out of a scrap of card stock. I can't think too hard, so I score the strip down the middle then choose a measurement further out, score again, then flip and repeat that same score measurement of the other end of the strip.

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SNAIL the easel in...and look...

It'll fold flat then pop open and keep the card standing upright without collapsing! Pretty cool! Oh, don't bother being impressed--I got the idea from some other scathingly brilliant demonstrator a long, long time ago.

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Actually, I think this is so pretty that it could stay out all year long!!! It's not that kind of red and green! Hmmm, maybe I need to punch a bunch of tags and bring those on my trip for vacation crafting!

Laurie Ann's Tag Punch Pretty Petals

2007-07-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

We're giving the stamps a day off today. Having recently collected some books on tea bag folding, I was determined to find a way to use my Tag Punches to do a similar art. Success! Our Tag Punches along with our Designer Papers are a match made in Heaven. Go grab yours then join me for a very fun Punch-A-Long Friday! I'll show you how I taught myself to make pretty petal pieces with our tag punches! This is like making teeny weeny paper airplanes. You can make a bunch, then I'll do another couple of posts to show you what you can make with these petals!

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Step 1: Punch petals parts from Tag Punch

You can fit 5 of the smaller Tag Punch across 6" of Designer Paper. I'm using my Palette 'o Prints stack for these projects. You can also do the same process with the larger Tag Punch.

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Step 2: Make a Mid Line Fold

Simply fold the tag pieces in half, good side inside.

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Step 3: Make a Point

Wrong side up...fold the bottom edge of the tag to the mid line fold to form a point.

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Step 4: Sharpen the Point

Fold the folds you just made to the mid line to sharpen the point.

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Step 6: Form the Petal Base Point

You will fold the angled edges that form the tag corners to the mid line. I started the crease here. That 45 degree angle edge will meet the mid line above.

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Step 7: Check Your Formation

Your petals will look like this one.

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Step 8: Deepen Creases

Fold the petal in half and press the creases further.

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Step 9: Prepare to Flatten the Petals

Here's what the petal will look like from the top before you flatten it.

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Step 10: Flatten the Petal

There ya go! Good job! Now, take a breather and meet us back for a couple of projects you can make with these pretty petals: here and here.

Perfectly "Purseonal" Splenda & Tea Bag Stashettes

2007-07-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

I keep missing my beloved Splenda sweetener when we travel. Not all coffee and tea vendors carry it. Same goes for my plain green tea. Well, hello? Why didn't I think of this sooner? I should make my own little "purseonal" pockets to stash my Splenda and tea bags!

This is the tea bag pocket I made today using some cute printed card stock in a Simply Scrappin' Kit that I acquired as a Sell-A-Bration gift. I "cheated" the 5 in 1 Card Cover template to get this smaller shape and size. That template is pretty versatile!

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Tucked into the back of the tea pocket is my Splenda pocket...it's not stuck on there, just tucked under the ribbon. This smaller pocket is just the mini card cover template used as is. I added an eyelet to the curved flap of the envelope and fed the ribbon around the envelope to tie a bow that can be undone and redone over and over again.

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Here's a close up of the front of the tea bag pocket flap. I did a double punch using our slot punch.

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Here's a view with the flap up. The ribbon is attached but out of the way so that again, it can be tied and untied over and over again. Not the flap liner from the template that looks so cute--it's from the Palette 'o Prints tablet. I love those self-adhesive die cuts that come in the kit. Just added a few circle punchies in colors to match.

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What's hiding inside? Tea! Check out that perfect fit! (Unplanned.) Now how is it that the tea bag matches? (Also unplanned.) (Sometimes it's good to fly by the seat of your pants!)

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A couple of packets of Splenda fit nicely in the mini card cover. They fit perfectly!

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Here's a photo of this marvelous template for those of you who don't know what it is. There are many ways to cut, score, and fold these nifty envelopes! Because I will be manipulating these envelopes, I made sure to use Sticky Strip to seal the seams. Hint: put your liner in *after* you assemble the envelope so it covers the side seam flaps!

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This is going to be a poorly visible diagram. Not sure you'll see the colors. In a nutshell, I move the template so that two perpendicular sides are right at the edges of the paper--therefore, the bulk of two cuts are eliminated. The horizontal line on the left and the curve are the red lines that you'd trace first with the template right side up. You'd also score the lines accordingly. Then to "cheat" the template, flip it over, face down. Trace another short seam flap to the right shown as the short horizontal line on the right and the vertical line on the right. Score lines as indicated. Next, fold the bottom line up to the flap line. Punch out half an oval for a little finger grasp reveal. Cut away the bottom halves of the seam flaps.

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That's it for now...I'm itching to get back downstairs and make more little "purseonal" accessories!

What is that Woo Up To?

2007-07-25T23:40:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy! This is the week that the kids are home just about all day long every day. Yesterday, we made a run to the office supply store where I found these goodies destined for stampin' stuff. Now, you ask, "What is that Woo up to?" Well, I have definite plans for these items. You'll see! It's kinda fun to shop each and every aisle with stampin' and orgainizing in mind!

New Day Runner briefcase style binder and inserts for 2008--that's all to get my life and business all organized. The rest?

3x5 index cards
brushed stainless wall-safe steel hooks
ladybug push pins
mileage log
special composition notebooks

Stay tuned for the results!

Glitter Tricks

2007-07-24T23:41:00.000-07:00

It must've been all those darling cards that my grandmother used to select just for me. She would read all the inside verses to pick just the right one. Her card fronts usually had that breathtakingly pretty-pretty extra-fine glitter sparkle on them. I loved receiving those cards from her! Stampers who know me know that I love-love-love to glitter-ize my stampin' projects. I usually incorporate Dazzling Diamonds Glitter--the bling that goes with everything--on at least one make and take at every workshop. Guests usually leave with a speck or two of glitter on their faces; it serves as proof positive that a fun time has been had. Either that, or that guests did real "work" at the workshop! Here are a couple of simple tricks that I love to share that simplify getting glitter out of the small jar and depositing it on the freshly drawn 2-Way Glue and then returning the excess to the jar.

Punch a jumbo circle card stock shape (this one is Pink Passion) and fold it in half. Keep it in the glitter vat and use it as a scoop. It's perfectly fine to go for it and dump lots of glitter onto the wet glue because if you work over a "glitter gutter" system of two folded sheets of scratch paper, all excess glitter can be safely returned to its home. Shake the loose glitter off your project over the "glitter gutter". Next, "syringe flick" your project like you're a nurse getting rid of air bubbles out of a syringe. (See, I like to keep up my nursing skills.) If it looks like you overdid it with the blue eyeshadow, don't worry. Leave it alone and let the glue set. Meanwhile, lift up the top sheet of the glitter gutter, fold it in half and use the fold line as a spout. You may have to tap the paper to get the glitter down the chute. If there is any spillage on the bottom sheet of the glitter gutter system, repeat the process, working over the first sheet. When the glue is dry, you can gently buff off any excess glitter with the flat pads of your fingertips. Re-flick. Re-glitter gutter drain back into the jar.

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GlitterBugHugs!

Factory Grand Opening!

2007-07-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

Confession: I'm near desperately seeking a portable, compact craft (or crafts) to bring on vacation with me. Three weeks of idle hands, away from the studio is too, too long! Enter my stash of paper raffia and wraphia. I'm talking two 20-yard cards, seven 10-yard cards, and 25 5-yard cards. I bought them to make knots to use on cards, but the idea no longer sends my heart aflutter. What can be done instead? What can send my heart aflutter?

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I came across the idea for chopping up my 235 yards of raffia in this fantastic embellishments book...

to make...

Wraphia butterflies and...

these cute paper raffia butterflies too! Now, these send my heart aflutter! In the photo above, to five of them I've attached tiny fresh water pearl bodies. You can see a better view in this photo directly above. I suppose my mobile butterfly factory is now opened for business!

Sweet S.A.K. Tags

2007-07-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent S.A.K. tag that I created with a personalized stamp that was custom-made Stampin' Up! I'm not sure how large the picture will be on your monitor or how legible it'll be. There's a bumble bee next to four lines of text that say "Bzzz! This genuine S.A.K. contains art from the heart handcrafted just for you by Laurie Ann~GlitterBugHugs!" A S.A.K. is a stamped (or stitched) act of kindness. My intent is to package this sort of gift in a sack with this tag attached. I think they turned out pretty sweet!

I began with a 1-1/2" x 8-1/2" strip. I used the slit punch, inserting it all the way on one end of the strip. As with all of our punches, you'll want to punch upside down so you can see where you're punching. After you punch the slit, do not pull the paper out of the punch until you've pushed that smile shape back down just till you hear a little click when the paper is back in line with the sheet. Otherwise, that smile shape will get hung up in the punch and can jam it.

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Next, I gently folded the unpunched end so that it would fit into that smile shaped slit. I used my Bone Folder to crease the fold. Then I used our new 3/16" Corner Rounder Punch to soften the punched end of the tag. That smile shape is the perfect place for a 1/2" circle (the Basic Black piece). I made the sunflower shape by taking 90 degree snips into the petals on our new Trio Flower punchies. Those started with Barely Banana Card Stock. I sponged them with Yoyo Yellow using our Sponge Daubers. Popped Barely Banana Brads right through the middle of the sunflower and black circle "open-faced sandwich" where I poked a hole with a push pin on my Mat Pack set up. This way I didn't have to struggle with the 1/16" hole punch on such teeny tiny pieces.

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You cannot see the Black Eyelet that I set using the Crop-o-dile because it's hidden with our Black Grosgrain Ribbon. That tool is heavy, but it's powerful! I sponged the edges of the tag with Yoyo Yellow Ink and the Sponge Dauber. Then I had to get out the 2-Way Glue Pen and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter to put a little bling on the bee that I colored with Barely Banana and Yoyo Yellow Markers. I love that the Jet Black StazOn will not smear when I watercolor over it! Oh yes, I nearly forgot that I took a fine point permanent ink pen to that little brad in the center of the sunflower and added a bunch of sunflower seeds to it.

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There's space inside the tag to jot down a quick wish. I think the tag is very cute, and I cannot wait to S.A.K. some folks very soon!

Cute Scone (or Gift) Bag

2007-07-22T20:29:00.001-07:00

I bought these cute cub sized handled gift bags to hold craft fair customer's card purchases. They also make a great presentation for home-baked goods. The tutorial follows.

I go for speed! The bag and the decorative bib panels are all wheeled all the way around! (The pattern on the body of the bag doesn't show up too well in this photo.)

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Take a flat gift bag...

open it up...

then expose and flatten the entire bag by reversing the gusset folds. Get Stampin' Around! It gets bumpy where the handles are but if you wheel slowly and press hard you'll be okay. To get the very bottom of the bag, place a piece of scratch paper under the folded flap so that the stamping on the bag underneath remains intact. Flip the bottom of the bag to the other side to expose the last side of the bag and wheel away!

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Here's a view of the bag...the gusset is stamped too!

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Next, we make the bib. This bag is about a 5" width. So, I used a regular sized top fold card template of 4-1/4" x 11", scored at 5-1/2". Place the fold near the handles and center the card over the bag. Make pencil marks outside of the handles.

Use the Word Window Punch to punch a slot along the top fold of the bib. Only punch half of the height of the Word Window--twice or however many times you need to make the slot wide enough.

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To finish, decorate the card with panels cut to fit. I cut mine 4" x 5-1/4" and ripped the bottom edge with my fingers. Stamp & color credits: bag body "Whimsy", panel "Autumn Dots", Close to Cocoa and Creamy Caramel Card Stocks, Stampin' Around Cartridges loaded with Close to Cocoa Classic Ink Refill, Headline Alphabet stamped with Close to Cocoa Craft Ink to spell out "EATS", letters dotted with Uniball Signo-Glo White Gel Pen.

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After I bake my scones, I'll pack them along with some tea bags in this adorable gift bag then slip the bib on then add a ribbon and a tag. Thoughtful little gift, eh?

Great Recipe: C&H's Lemon Cream Scones

2007-07-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have to share this fabulous recipe for scones that I got off the back of a bag of sugar with you! It's so quick and easy and tasty! Traditionally, we have to cut cold butter into scone recipes. Now, do you remember ever taking cream and shaking it in a jar to "churn" butter? Well, this recipe uses whipping cream instead of butter. I've made my own variations as far as types of dried fruit and flavorings. It always turns out yummy!

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Ingredients

2 c. all-purpose flour

1/3 c. C&H Pure Cane Granulated Sugar

1 T. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1/2 c. golden raisins

1 t. finely grated lemon peel

1 c. whipping cream

2 to 4 T. water

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Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Stir in raisins and lemon peel.
With a fork, stir in cream and water as needed until it all comes together into a rough mass.
On a lightly floured surface knead dough 5 to 6 times.
Place on a greased cookie sheet and pat into an 8-inch circle.
With a sharp knife cut halfway through dough to mark into 12 pie-shaped wedges.
Bake 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove to wire rach to cool.
Cut into wedges while still warm, or cool completely before cutting.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Makes about 12 scones.

More Lilybugs Hats

2007-07-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

Just a little early Show 'n Tell Thursday before I send off the last of my batch of Lilybugs hats for the summer season before we head off to Florida. Thanks to SUFunAddict and Lilybugger Ros for delivering them for me!

I love-love-love the way this dotless "Dotty" turned out. I like it crocheted, but I really love the way this "Jiffy" (faux mohair) yarn by Lion knits up. Yay! I'm finally getting around to using my knit and crochet flower and foliage pieces. I ought to make this hat in adult proportions for myself--it's so me! Yeah, this soccer mom could use a cute hat like this one!

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This is a Boy "Dotty"--as in large 3-D dots that ended up looking like M. Mouse ears! I'm hoping that when it's placed on some baby boy's head it'll stretch a bit to show off my ribbing that is hiding, here on the mantle, next to my "pet" frogs.

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Crocheted preemie hat in a cute yarn. When I locate the pattern, I'll post it here. This one is tiny and it does indeed fit an orange!

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This is a WIP. I made these 6-petal crocheted flowers off a www.LionBrand.com website pattern and am trying to find a way to link them together to make hats. I got close this morning but frogged it because I know I can do better.

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Off to tidy up my Hook Nook. Time to give the yarn a needles a vacation too!

Rose-Scented Pretties, A Tutorial

2007-07-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for a good time, I suggest you park yourself with a brand-new Pretties Kit and some Classic Ink Refills. I didn't want to stop at this one lovely rose-scented pin that I made. Cannot wait to make lots more!!! Shouldn't we all make time to smell the posies?

Isn't she lovely?

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I put some dots of Pale Plum Classic Ink Refill on a large plastic lid.

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Then I watered them down with our rose-scented Stampin' Mist.

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Using the tweezers from the Crafter's Tool Kit, I base-dyed my Pretties flowers.

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These are a superior quality silk-style flower! I made sure to get the flowers saturated on both sides. Even though they were wet, they held their shape very well.

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I love to shade things whenever possible to give them more of a realistic depth. I took a contrasting color, in this case, Blush Blossom Re-inker and my S'U! Watercolor Brush to paint some additional color from the flower center towards the tips of the petals.

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Then, I wanted deeper color along the edges and tips of the petals. So, I painted those spots with the watercolor brush and Perfect Plum Re-inker.

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Another spritz of Mist gives more rose scent and disperses the colors beautifully! If the colors are pooling, simply place the flowers on some scratch paper (or coffee filters!) to soak up the excess dye. You can also blot the wet flowers with tissues.

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The flowers above are wet; below, dry. The colors lighten as they dry.

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After they dried, I then decided that the layers needed more contrast so I over dyed the two smallest sizes with additional re-inker. The very center is Really Rust. The next layer was more Perfect Plum. You can blot and dab to get the color just right.

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I was very impatient to let the petals dry, but had no choice. To avoid the dye from running in case someone wearing this pin gets caught in the sprinklers, I sprayed both sides with a workable fixative. Stinky! However, once the fixative dried, the rose-scent resurfaced!

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I used a small Clear Rhinestone Brad from the Pretties Kit along with a Hat Pin blank. I found that if I push the prongs on the rhinestone brads in towards the stone, it'll lay flatter when the prongs are splayed.

I punched out five 5-Petal Flower punchies in Perfect Plum Card Stock to make a backing for my pin. I layered three of them with SNAIL then marked the very center. The Crop-o-dile made quick work of punching through all those layers. Over the brad prongs, I fed the four layers of flowers, then the hat pin loop, then the stack of 5-Petal Flowers. Splayed the prongs. Followed that with two additional layers of SNAILed 5-Petal Flower punchies.

Here's the back of my pin. I think this is a very professional finish. Plus, the petals are given some support.

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Want to make lots more. Note to self: buy more Pretties Kits!!! I'm addicted to dyeing flowers...yet another hobby added to my arsenal!

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And, since this is Stash-Bustin' Saturday, I played with some of the silk flowers (inferior quality) left over from my wedding. I used silk flower sprays on my potpourri and tulle favors. Bought way more than necessary. Anyhow, here are the results. I have a long way to go as I have a gallon sized Ziploc bag full of these things! I have some Hawaiian-themed plans for these...they remind me of the silk flower lei that I wore with a muumuu for Halloween one year...when I was in Kindergarten.

Cameo Coral + Summer Sun

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Have fun!

I'm A Rockin' Girl Blogger?!

2007-07-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

Oh, my goodness! Many thanks to Stampin_Melissa of Melissa's Moments for tagging me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger which is a cool movement initiated by Blogger Roberta Ferguson here. As I understand it, I am to proudly post this badge on my sidebar as well as pass it onto five new Rockin' Girl Bloggers of my choosing. How fun!

In no particular order, these are blogs that I don't think have yet been branded with the RGB badge, so here goes:

Heather the Mooselover ~ Stampin' the Details

Rebecca Grohall ~ Bella Carta

Myra ~ My Little Mochi

Jennifer Einold ~ Art of the Possible

Marisa ~ Quilt Otaku

Congratulations and kudos for so generously sharing your heart work with the rest of us in Blogland! Now, please go and sew your badges onto your sidebar arms and pass the baton onto other bloggers who I wish I could have also included... and so on... and so on...

Basic Gate Fold with Focal Piece Card Template

2007-07-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's another classic template that I enjoy. I seem to employ it frequently these days. I like that it's a departure from the standard spine-left or spine-up book style card. It's really not any more difficult than a traditional fold card. Not at all. {Special note for Nan: this is same the template we're using for Lillian's Bat Mitzvah invitations! I will not post the sample here until you've sent them out.}

These are gate fold cards I fashioned for a craft fair, and a prime example of this template. They were very popular. I used {gasp} contraband flower parts. So happy that we now have the Pretties Kit so I can dye my own flowers to match vs. the more difficult pulling papers to match the flowers. Must make more! I rolled the Lavender Lace Card Stock with Lavendar Lace Ink; the Mellow Moss Strips with Mellow Moss Ink; both used texture wheels. Currently, I'd suggest 'Rough Textures" and "Rough Around the Edges". Stampin' tone-on-tone yields nicely "textured" paper with a little more interest than plain paper. The Almost Amethyst panels sit on Moss mats. I did the whole sheet of Amethyst with "Watercolor Garden" (retired) with Soft Subtles Craft Ink Spots. I like the way the Craft pigment ink is more opaque and sits on top of the paper so that it looks painted. Any set with small images that you can One Sheet Wonder then chop up would work. To avoid excess scraps, I made the mats 2-1/8" x 2-3/4" with the One Sheet Wonder pieces cut at 2" x 2-1/2". This dimension yields 16 focal pieces per sheet of card stock.

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A usual card base measures 4-1/4" x 5-1/2". All I'm doing is maintaining that dimension for the card base but then dividing the remaining panel in half to create the gate or French doors. Keeping the 4-1/4" measurement, remember that 1/2 of 5-1/2" = 2-3/4". (I memorized that figure because I use it all the time. However, can I remember where I parked my car?) On a half sheet of card stock measuring 4-1/4" x 11", score each end in at 2-3/4". Score and flip then score again. That is it! Well, just about. You can do any sort of medallion in the middle for your focal point. Just adhere half of it to one flap of the gate only. I often use leftover card stock strips mounted to the card horizontally to ground that medallion. OK, now that's it! That is, unless you're using this template to do invitations. If that's the case, you can cut inner panels and mats. The mats would be 4" x 5-1/4" for the main panel then quantity two of 4" x 2-1/2" for the side panels. The layers to fit onto those mats would be 3-3/4" x 5" for the main panel and quantity two of 3-3/4" x 4-3/4" for the side panels. Now are we done?

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I'm eyeing my Bold Snowflakes Stampin' Around wheel to go with "Snowfall" medallions with "Happy Holidays" divided on the grounding strips as a possible holiday card. p. 45 of The Book. Don't worry, if and when I get around to it, I'll be sure to post it on the blog!

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A set such as "Heart Flutters", p. 51 of the Fall-Winter 2007 Collection book would make a cute portrait format gate fold card. Guess I just sold myself of the set!

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Another cute combo for this layout would be p. 55's "Fast Flowers" Stampin' Around wheel with "Fun & Fast Notes"--many occasions can be covered right there! Yes, I'll post that one too!

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Better just hit publish here before I get myself into any more trouble! Hope you're having a Stampy or Crafty Friday!

Classic Card Template

2007-07-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

Have you ever needed to crank out a bunch of cards in a hurry? I have, but this isn't about my tendencies towards procrastination--it's about how a good template I created ages ago saves another day. Today is the last day of Summer in the City Camp at SHCP where the boys are attending summer session. It's been a fantastic experience for them both. So last night after dinner, we parked in the studio to come up with these thank you cards for their teachers, student volunteers, and the principal .

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This template uses a BIG stamp (coverage or design happens faster this way), in this case Definitely Decorative Ferns (long retired but such a good set). The boys liked the ferns that could work for both males and females. Plus, the ferns reminded them of the lei that they wore for the hula number that they did for the Winter Program at school. Any similarly sized, bold stamp or set of stamps to fit the applique would work. The blocks of this particular set measure 2-1/4" x 4-1/2", so those are the dimensions I cut the Mellow Moss panels. I used Garden Green Classic Ink to stamp the bold images once at full strength then faded out without re-inking. If touch up or filling in with faded images are needed, ink up the stamp then stamp it onto Grid Paper to weaken it first, then stamp, stamp, stamp on the real deal.

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The Garden Green mats are 1/4" bigger on two perpendicular sides: 2-1/2" x 4-3/4". The gold cord (the slightly thicker original style that is also long-long retired--I'm stash-bustin') is 18" and wrapped twice. Start by looping the cord on the good side, bring the ends around to the good side, and tie a knot then a bow. The finished appliques were then SNAILed onto the spine-left landscape card fronts. The left, right, and top borders are even.

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The greeting which says "thank you for your kindness" (SU but retired) is a wide one and fits nicely stamped directly on the card front below the applique. Any greeting of similar dimensions will work for this template. One last stamping is a personalized stamp (made by SU) that we stamped on the back of each card. It says "A WeeWoos Work of Heart! San Francisco, California". We're getting lots of use from that stamp!

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When working with kids, especially tired kids, it pays to cut expendable panels to fit inside cards. This practice eliminates the risk of messing up perfectly good cards with messages with non-redeemable mistakes. I cut ours at 4" x 5-1/4" then let the kids write their messages. I think anyone would love a thank you card hand written and perhaps even illustrated by a child.

This note was my favorite one. Master Jonathon, wrote this message to the summer school (run on a high school campus) principal: "Thank you for running such a great camp. It was fun and educational. Now for high school I will be looking at SHCP. The campus was very organized. Thank you very much. From, Jonathon Woo!!! I am 9!"

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For faculty members who both boys wanted to thank, we did dual message panels in one card.

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Yay, all cards have been assembled, written, and sealed into envelopes. They're ready for cheerful hand-delivery today. Thus, the conclusion of 2007 summer days with the kids occupied for a good part of the day. Hello, one week of down time before we head to Florida for three weeks of family fun. By the way, when I checked a weather Website for Orlando yesterday it said, "91 degrees--feels like 100". Oh my...good thing I've gotten this blog entry completed a little after midnight. I think I need to sew some neck coolers tomorrow...I mean later today!

You're Neat: A Self-Issued Challenge

2007-07-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

Since I finished mounting the too-too cute "You're Neat" set for Jenn's card-making party and came up with two on-the-spot creations, I am going to follow through on a self-issued challenge before I put the set away. I am going to pop the "Bend it Like Beckham" into the DVD player (yes, again, since I wasn't really watching it...again), park myself at my stampin' table, and see how many different cards I can make using the paper kit we put together at the party. It was Confetti Cream card bases and envelopes with sheets of Soft Subtles Assorted Card Stock.

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The results are in! I spent part of my stampin' time chatting on the phone with a friend as she stamped teacher appreciation photo cards. It was funny how we were stampin' together but in our own homes! I needed to get this stuff done and put away so that I can do some teacher thank you cards along with blog candy cards, plan next weekend's workshop projects, etc.. It was really weird again that just as I finished these 22 cards, 11 designs which when added to the two posted under the card party equals a baker's dozen, that the movie ended. I'm starting to really wonder about myself and these repeating numbers and timely movie endings. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this week's Show & Tell Thursday!

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I'm really excited at how cute my Pure Color Pencil grass looks. I also like the Gold Painty dot in the pinwheel center. This card is Pale Plum with the retired Mint Melody...the color is off on my screen, so probably is on yours too. Sorry!

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Gate card fold with score lines 2-3/4" in from either 11" side. Note the cheated longer Key Tag Punch out...thanks for the idea, soon to be SU Demo, Sharon!

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Vertical gate fold!

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5-Petal Flower Punch with 1" Circle Punched out monkey. Cropped kite string became a flower stem! Does that little cupped punchie flower look familiar?

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Free decorative scissor edging...hand-torn edges on border strip!

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I actually drew the grassy hill. I may add some dots of color for wildflowers like in the card at the very top of this post.

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The sun is setting Little Monkey...look, the grass is purple and blue in the shadows. Time to go home and eat dinner!

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OK, the Close to Cocoa snuck in there but they were strip scraps that I only stamped and cropped. Wheeled it with Pale Plum--kinda neat!

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Bordering Blue sheet was in there, but it does go with Soft Subtles! Silver Painty pinwheel center is cute...that Gold-Silver Painty sure is swell for adding shimmery touches!

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Apricot Appeal...got the balloon to match by layering Pure Color Pencils orange and yellow.

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Another 5-Petal Flower Punch out...I'm in love!

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The End!

More WIPs Turned FOs

2007-07-18T15:11:00.001-07:00

How time flies! A month ago, I posted about a handful of scarves that I finished (just that last itty bitty bit of weaving in the ends) for Dulaan. Well, today, I finally finished (that same last itty bitty bit of weaving in ends) for the rest of the items I have to send for Dulaan. I'm ashamed to admit that I totally missed the 2007 deadline, so these pieces will be taken to Mongolia in 2008. Does that mean I'm behind or that I'm finally ahead? No matter, I'm glad to have these boxed up and ready to mail!

a trio of "potato chip" style scarves

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a Laurie Ann Elaine Designs original (so original that I didn't use a pattern)

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another trellis pattern original (no pattern)

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double strands knit together

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a couple more originals

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ditto!

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to top it all off, a trio of too-big-for-babies hats

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And, that folks, is the no-need-to-weave-in end!

Quick Cards: A Baker's Dozen

2007-07-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

My exposure to this concept was by my "grandma" upline, Tami Waddell. Tami developed her idea to use plain pre-packaged cards, manipulate them, and end up with something a little more interesting than your basic folded rectangle. A baker's dozen more interesting somethings to be exact! I recently went through the entire Quick Cards, sometimes called 13 Quick Cards with guests at a card-making party. We didn't even bother to stamp them as we all wanted plain prototypes to keep for future reference. I tried to photograph those plain cards, but I think they're too difficult to see on a computer screen. Soooo... I popped "Bend It Like Beckham" (112 minutes) into the DVD, took the cards then pulled out two new Stampin' Around Wheels ("Whimsy" and "Little Bits"), Pale Plum Classic Ink Pad & Cartridges, "Seeing Spots" & "Tagger's Dozen", and a trusty quarter Stampin' Sponge...and went for it. The eery thing is that just as I SNAILed the final bit into place, the movie ended. Am I in a Twilight Zone? As promised, here's the tutorial. I think I can now cross this WIP off as a FO!

Here's my quickie set of 13 Quick Cards prototypes. Be very impressed that I resisted all and frequent urges to add layers of card stock, glitter, ribbon, flower punchies, etc.. I stayed very basic with what I had at my immediate disposal.

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Card #1: Tear & Flip

Envision lines dividing the card front in vertical thirds. Take a breath; don't be scared. Tear 2/3 of the front of the card off. Flip it so that the torn edges match. Reattach it to that remaining 1/3 so that your card front flap is 2/3 the size of its base.

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Card #2: Panel

Trim a 1" strip off the right edge of the card front then relocate it to the now narrower front panel.

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Card #3: Triangle Turn

Using the cutting track on your Paper Cutter as a guide, trim the card front at a diagonal from point of the spine fold to the outer corner. Flip the triangle and adhere it to the now triangular front flap. The concentric circle panel that's peeking out from the card front vee is really the inside of the back flap of the card.

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Card #4: Peek-A-Boo

This one was a little tricky, but the Paper Cutter made it easier. Using the same line up for the Triangle Turn card, cut an "x" into the middle of the card then fold the flaps back. Run the card from the 4" to the 11" mark on that diagonal point-to-point mark. Pop the cutting blade down into the middle then run it up and stop at 6". Run it down and stop at 9". Diagonally, the window is 3" and the corner of the window to the corner of the card is 2".

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Card #5: Bookmark Postcard

Cut card back off. Cut it in half at 2-1/8". Turn it into a bookmark. Place it onto the post card (what used to be the card front). Make pencil marks where you'll be making parallel cuts. Make cuts with the Paper Cutter. Insert bookmark into the slits.

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Card #6: Pocket Postcard

Couple of ways to do this: cut 1/2 of the card front off or cut the whole card front off. Attach the sides and bottom of the pocket to the postcard. Tuck the leftover 1/2 postcard into the pocket.

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Card #7: Card on a Card

Cut off card back then score it in half at 2-3/4". Fold the card then attach it to the postcard card front.

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Card #8: Diamond Layer

Cut off 1/2 of the card front at 2-1/8". Cut that strip into a 2-1/8" square. Turn that square on its point and attach it to the now narrower card front flap. Be sure to line the points up with the right edge of the flap.

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Card #9: Rectangle Layer

Cut off 1/2 of the card front at 2-1/8". Cut that strip in half at 2-3/4". Place it wherever you'd like onto the narrower card front flap.

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Card #10: Triple Panel Layer

Trim 1" off the right edge of the card front then cut these into 3 pieces. I think we did 1-7/8" x 2 and the longer piece went into the middle.

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Card #11: Corner Fold

Fold any corner up or down. Right angle or any angle works.

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Card #12: Side Fold

Score the edge of the card front 1" from the edge then fold it back.

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Card # 13: Pocket Fold

Fold bottom corners up so they meet at the middle. You could do some math and figure out where to start the folds. Just bend gently and coax the points together then use your Bone Folder to make the final creases. I used my Mat Pack template to place marks for the ribbon holes. 5" of ribbon fed through the holes and knotted. Leftover card stock trimmings made into a pocket insert.

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Many thanks to Tami Waddell for sharing her templates!!!

Have fun playing with these and adding your own special touches!

Quick Tip: Consolidate Cases

2007-07-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

It's sometimes hard enough to track down a stamp set. Pile on having to find a stamp set's companion set can make it even harder, especially if you store your stamp sets by case size. Often, the case sizes are not alike. Here's an example for you. I have the newly acquired "All in the Family" set as well as the "Family Accessories" set. In all likelihood, I will be using these two sets together. Brainflash! Why not just combine the two into one stamp case...and do it before I peel my index stickers and label my cases with them? Two labels will fit on one case! Here, I abandoned the two cases on the right and went for the extra, undivided case on the left. I have two sets stored in the space of one. Both sets have moved in together and all are one big happy family!

A Case of Waste Not, Want Not?

2007-07-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

I admit there are times when I take getting all the use I can out of something to an extreme. I do believe this little thing I like to do with my punch out scraps qualifies. However, follow along with this Tuesday Tutorial to see if you think your punch out scraps are worth using!

Would Laurie Ann throw these scraps away? No, no, no! What on earth would she do?

She would grab her Mat Pack, Stylus Tool, and a couple of her S'U! 1/4" punches.

She'd use those punches upside down to punch out as many little shapes as possible. If a wee bit of a shape is missing, it won't matter.

Then she'd recycle the scraps in the big blue bin.

She'd throw all those 1/4" punch outs on the foam layer of the Mat Pack and use the small end of the Stylus to cup each little shape. Poke, poke, poke!

She'd get 130 little cup shapes from those three seemingly useless punched out scraps!

She'd use them on all sorts of things such as pinwheel middles, flower centers, miniature flowers, etc.. This flower uses the new 5-Petal Flower Punch, the new Star Punch, and the 1/4" Circle Punch, all cupped and layered. Pretty, isn't it?

LilyBugHug (A Hat Pattern by Laurie Ann)

2007-07-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

I have reached a major milestone in my life! I have created my own knitting pattern, an adorable (if I say so myself) hat that's fairly quick and easy to knit. It's a 10-incher that I'm naming "LilyBugHug" in honor of Lily Belle Green, the child who inspired Lilybugs.

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Directions:

Using a light worsted weight yarn, such as Lion's Pound of Love and a set of five size 6 dpns, CO 15 st per needle (4 needles for a total of 60 stitches). If you can wrangle this on circular needles, more power to you--I still cannot do it!

Avoid twisting CO row then using the 5th needle, join doing a seed stitch for 6-8 rows. I use the CO tail as my landmark so I don't need a stitch marker. Seed stitch is K1-P1-repeat; when working on next rows, K into a P & P into a K.

Continue with stockinette (K all) for till the hat measures 4" from the CO row to the needles.

Decrease rows: Round 1: *K1, K2tog* repeat between ** to end of round; if there's a leftover stitch, just K it; Round 2: K all

Keep repeat Rounds 1 & 2 until there are 4 stitches left on one needle. You will be eliminating dpns as fewer stitches remain.

With those 4 stitches, do 4" of i-cord. Knit across then move row from left side of R needle to the right side of the needle and knit across again, pulling the yarn from the end of the last row to the beginning of the next row. After each row is knit, gently tug on the cord to close up any gaps.

Once you can comfortably do an overhand knot with the i-cord, cast off then break yarn with a tail. Sew tail into the first cast off stitch of the i-cord and right down the tube to close it up.

Tie an overhand knot with that tail in there and then trim it.

Weave in cast on tail.

Add embellishments as desired such as a knit or crocheted flower. Alternatively, you can feed a crocheted flower onto the base of the i-cord before knotting it or attach a flower to the tail end of the knotted i-cord.

If you discover any errors or confusing directions in this pattern, please leave me a comment so I can be sure to fix them. GlitterBugHugs, Laurie Ann

top knot view

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Quick Measuring Trick

Too lazy to get up from my knitting to find a ruler, I devised an easy cheater card for measuring 1-2-3-4-5-inch increments. Get a 3" x 5" card. Fold a triangle to form a 3" square. Fold along the edge of the triangle = 3" square. The remaining section is 2"; fold that in half. Instant 1-2-3-4-5 inch ruler!

Jenn's Good-Bye Card-Making Party

2007-07-16T05:29:00.001-07:00

Can you imagine moving to Singapore for a whole year with a little stint in France and having to leave most of your stamps and stuff behind??? One of my customers, Jenn, is having to do just that. As a special send off and a nice way to spend some quality social stampin' time together, a couple of my hostesses arranged for me to do a good-bye card-making party for Jenn. We had a total of eight folks stampin' cards using stuff that Jenn is planning on packing and bringing with her. It was a challenge, I'm sure, to whittle it down. We all quickly agreed that stamps and stuff ought to take precedence over clothing--it's an intensely tropical climate in Singapore so Jenn shouldn't need that much clothing, besides, she can buy clothes there. But, will she be able to buy stamp stuff there? Jenn even called S'U! to see if there were any demonstrators there. Not a one! She'll just have to come back and visit, or we can stamp stuff for her to play with and mail it to her. She can punch out a bunch of "stuff" and stuff it into her shoes! We wish Jenn and her husband well!!!

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Jenn favors Soft Subtles, so to start, guests helped me put together their paper kits for card making: a pack of our ready-made cards (all conveniently cut and scored) and envies along with a generous stack of assorted Soft Subtles Card Stocks.

So far, Jenn is thinking about taking:

Seeing Spots

Sweet Spots

You're Neat

Very Punny

Fancy Flexible Phrases

Tagger's Dozen

Trees Three

Gifts from the Orient

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I gave Jenn just a little something: three little stamps and three little Stampin' Spots that she should be able to sneak into her luggage.

To get the party started, I demonstrated my method for trimming and mounting our stamps, including laminating the blocks with 2" packing tape. Guests then got to choose, trim, and mount their own party favors!

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Cards 1&2: Kite-Flyin' Monkey

To start up off, we made two of the cad above with my very simple template:

Just because a pack of cards is plain neutral doesn't mean you have to go with plain neutral for the card bases. We chopped a card as a neutral to stamp on and colorize.

Chop an applique the same size as the stamp block for the selected image. I believe this one was 1-1/4" x 2-1/4". Here, we used Confetti Cream (now available as card stock and envies separately).

We used Jet Black StazOn, hover the inked stamp over the piece of applique card stock to line it up--block to paper cut the same size--then stamp it down.

Mat the applique with a piece of card stock cut 1/4" larger on two perpendicular sides; in this case, I believe we did 1-1/2" x 2-1/2". Here, we used Sage Shadow.

Cut & score, well, score and then cut (1 score, 1 cut vs 1 cut, 2 scores) a pair of card bases; score along (parallel to) the 11" side at 4-1/4" (that's half of the 8-1/2" width); slice at 5-1/2" (half of the 11" side). Here, we used Pale Plum.

I chose the multiple dots stamp from Seeing Spots to stamp all over the card front, Pale Plum Classic Ink on Pale Plum Card Stock.

We then cut a landing strip (to ground the applique) from Perfect Plum, 1" x 4-1/4". Stamped with a big dotted spot with Perfect Plum ink.

SNAILed everything together.

I first tried markering the monkey--ick! Much better to pass out the plastic lids and markers. "Squeak, squeak, squeak," said the monkey as we scribbled matching Marker colors on the plastic lids. Great for picking up just a touch of color with the water-filled Aqua Painters. Teeny images to colorize...but, oh, so cute!

I added a little hill for Monkey to stand upon, otherwise he'd look like the kite pulled him up into the air. Entirely possible, just sponge on some clouds.

Two cards in a snap!!! One to keep, one to use!

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Cards 3&4: Tigie & Pinwheels

I was excited and inspired by fellow demonstrator and SUper-talented stamper, Paula Goff's 6/10/07 post to show Jenn & her friends how to do a little origami to tag punchies to make pinwheels. I'm going to play with different folds, but the photo above shows what we did.

Card base is Mellow Moss, scored once at 4-1/4", cut once at 5-1/2". Left the Moss plain.
Mat is Barely Banana cut into a 3-1/2" square then stamped with the flower from Seeing Spots in Barely Banana Ink to give it texture.
Used Designer Papers from my Palette o' Prints in Certainly with the smaller Tag Punch. I think Jenn's bringing just one. I love this double-sided paper--it's got nice body and the prints are so lovely!
Folded lower right corner and bottom edge over to the left edge, folded that same edge back over to the fold line on the right.
Arranged four pieces to mimic the pinwheel that Tigie is holding.
Same cuts for the Tigie applique and mat as the monkey card above, but used Banana as a neutral for the applique and Perfect Plum for the mat.
Used Pure Color Pencils to colorize Tigie and the pinwheel he's holding.
Punched out some flowers from the new punch box then cupped them by pressing with the big end of the Stylus Tool into our palms. I had also pre-punched and cupped some 1/4" circles. Glued these in place with tacky adhesive. Added white dots using the SignoGlo White Gel Pen. (Next time, I'd leave off the center punchie of Tigie's pinwheel and do a plain white dot instead, just like Joyce did!)
Finished off the card with the "you're neat" proclamation in Perfect Plum--this time markered onto the stamp.

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The next part of the party was going through with our stacks of Confetti Cream cards and doing a hands on along with a Quick Cards hand out (by my "grandma" upline, Tami Waddell), a.k.a. 13 Quick Cards. I had enough Paper Cutters with Scoring Blade attachments that it went like a whirlwind tour. Whoosh! Everyone could follow along, help one another, see the samples, then take them home to make more later. We did nothing more than manipulate the plain cards as folks could stamp them at home later or just keep them as prototypes. That was so much fun, I'll have to blog about it so I can share it with you! Somewhere, I also have more Quick Cards that I designed. I promise to blog about them when I re-discover their location and excavate them!

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The rest of the time was supposed to be free play (as in stamp) time, but for some strange reason guests were not stampin'! Instead, they were flipping the pages of a Not Quite Navy book filled with pictures of stamp sets and accessories and sample artwork. Everyone got to take a Fall-Winter Collection 2007 book home. I even provided an empty Fall-Winter Collection 2007 case/box for each guest to pack her loot and cart it home.

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I served coffee and tea and Terri's & Janis' hula halau (hula school) friend's (copy that?) Red Bean Paste Jello. Pretty yummy! Ruby brought her signature fruit salad and the most amazingly delicious scones from Arizmendi Bakery. I'm having the other huge half of my cherry corn one for breakfast as I blog. Mmmmm!

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I hope Joyce, Lisa, Jane, Jenn, Tiffany, Ruby, and Ros all had a good time. I surely did! We must stamp together again!

Red Bean Paste Jell-o

2007-07-16T05:25:00.000-07:00

This refreshing dessert seems to be a hit whenever it's presented. Many thanks to my hostess, Terri Chiu who shared this recipe from her sister-in law and my customer, Janis Gomes' hula halau friend. The slight tanginess of the Jell-o mellows the sweetness of the bean paste. This delicious, easy-to-make treat features smooth tsubushi-an (red bean paste) mixed into Jell-o. Isn't it pretty?

Ingredients:

Wel-Pac brand red bean paste, sometimes referred to as red bean jam available in Asian markets (I can vouch that this one is good and very pleasant and doesn't have that off red bean "dirt" taste that sometimes occurs and can ruin any recipe)
big box of Jell-o; the original recipe calls for raspberry, but orange is good too
2 cups boiling water

Directions:

I dispense hot water from my In-sink-erator into a Pampered Chef batter bowl up to 2 cups.

Dump in the Jell-o & whisk.

Nuke for 30 seconds at a time if there are still visible gelatin granules.

Open can of red bean paste using a can opener that doesn't leave sharp edges--later, wash can and add it to your craft supply stash

Spatula bean paste into a Pampered Chef wet-dry measuring cup...in the dry/solids section then plunge the cup over the batter bowl to dump the bean paste in the Jell-o.

Whisk the mixture to loosen and incorporate the bean paste into the Jell-o.

Take paper-lined foil cupcake liners and put just the foil parts into a cupcake pan.

Pour the red bean paste-Jell-o mixture into the foil cups, cover, and chill.

Chill a can of Mandarin orange segments while you're at it.

To serve, place Jell-o-filled cups into paper liners and place them on a roomy platter.

Garnish with orange segments.

Enjoy!

Yields 12 servings in standard cupcake liners. Alternatively, this recipe fits into an 8x8 pan but then that requires you to cut and extricate the servings. Why do that? Wouldn't you rather have time to craft? Well, maybe you'd like to have to sample the mishaps? That'd be fine too.

Mahalo (thanks) to Terri's & Janis' hula halau friend for sharing the recipe!

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~7/20/07 Addendum~

Borrowing a page from the canned cranberry sauce book--no smirking, some of us had no access to fresh cranberries and grew to look forward to canned--I wondered what would happen if I made another recipe of this Jell-o dessert with the second half of the can of bean paste and chilled it in the can as a mold. Hey, it's handy! Handy candy!

I had a little bit of trouble unmolding the gelatin. Maybe I should have slightly oiled the mold first. There was lots of melted dessert flowing all over the chopping board. Maybe if I weren't such a Save-the-Cans fanatic, I could have opened the bottom of the can and pushed the Jello-out? But, no...couldn't do it. I then sliced the Jell-o, this time Peach flavored. It turned out pretty, don't you think? I topped the pieces with fresh apricots slices. I tested the fifth slice, and peach is good too! This dessert, in fact, turns out like a more mellow, less tangy, more tender canned jellied cranberry sauce in terms of taste and texture. Definitely more work, but it works. You could also do this with a finger jello recipe, hold the beans, and it would look great!

Special Report: Saturday's Solo Stash-Bustin' Bash

2007-07-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

Some of you will recall that I re-re-organized my card samples about a month ago--all dozen Forget-Me-Not Keepers of samples. Then last week, I read a few e-mails by fellow demo, Jen Eberle, and was deeply touched at how much Cards From Home mean to soldiers stationed in Kuwait. I wanted to help, so I remembered those 12 big boxes of cards, pulled them onto my workshop table, and started culling the collection. I had samples dating back to my S'U! customer days ('97...I remember that because I showed up to Most Senior Hostess Lillian's workshop pregnant out to there with Jonathon) and then as a new demonstrator ('98 on) when I was a "swap slut", joining swaps left and right to build my sample collection. That's a lot of samples, folks! My favorite part of visiting with the sample collection was oohing and aahing then flipping the card front over to check out the demonstrator labels. I also came across long-forgotten sticky notes and personal notes from demonstrator friends. I had wonderful card fronts and some full cards suggesting great color combos, cool templates, fun techniques, neat croppings, interesting folds, built-in gifts, thoughtful sentiments. Most used retired sets and accessories. I saved the one box of Asian Art samples to go through and CASE later, and there ended up being one more box of cards to CASE or blog that I kept. I took pictures (now that I know how!) of any special ones that I want to CASE and could do so off a picture. Allllll the rest--alllll 1,111+ samples (what's with that number?), I bagged and put into a big all-too-familiar Stampin' Up! logo'd box. It's sealed and addressed and I hope Dewey will help me take it to the PO today, Sunday, so Jen and her crew can doctor them up and pass them along. I am so thankful to all of our military and their families and what they do for us. When I realized how Cards From Home would be a better use of my samples stash as opposed to the occasional customer who rifles through them for ideas, I knew it would be a good way for me to express that gratitude.

I decided to include a bunch of origami pinwheels that I had made ages ago but never put onto cards. A thin strip of card stock and something in the middle ought to do it!

This is just the top layer of card fronts and cards that I gathered. This has to be the happiest, speediest, and easiest 21 pounds ever lost!

5-Petal Flower Punch Matches, Centers & Canvases

2007-07-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

I am increasingly impressed with Stampin' Up! as I discover the many ways in which they design their products with versatility in mind. The new 5-Petal Flower Punch is a case in point. I punched out a template and took it to my Fall-Winter Collection book. Because the images are all 100% size, I know that the following sets have images which match this punch, serve as flower centers, or would make good background patterns for this punch.

In the Spotlight (hostess set), p. 20
Vases in Vogue (5-petal flower would be flower detail), p. 22
All About Occasions (5-petal flower would be flower center), p. 24
Dotted Autumn (simple single pointed leaf fits in 1 petal!), p. 31
Be Happy (worded flower, will crop off some in pointy petal shape!), p. 51
Polka Dots & Petals (almost all make nice flower centers), p. 69
So Much (scribble flower, punch changes shape of flower), p.72
Sweet Thing (dotted pokla dot is perfect flower center), p. 79
Perfect Princess (daisy is a nice flower center), p. 82
Wanted (flowery medallion fits), p. 88
Starstruck (any make cute flower center), p. 89
Elementary Essentails (lined paper fits for striped flowers), p. 91
Bud Basics (not the 6-petaled, but the snaller flower fits the center), p. 94
Doodle This and Doodle Wheel, p. 99
Looks Like Spring (big daisy as overall pattern to crop, any of the other flowers as center ), p. 100
Fabulous Flowers (the five-petaled could be a flower center), p. 102
Ginormous Flowers (leaf fits one petal on punch), p. 103
Blossoms Abound (punch fits in wisteria-lilac cluster), p. 104
Office Accoutrement (punch fits big flower with a bit of white shading in between the petals, smaller flower works as flower center), p. 114
Leaves a la Carte (as background pattern to punch out), p. 129
Background Sampler & Letter Patterns (as background to punch out), p. 132
Pick a Petal (several work as flower centers), p. 133

Sorry to packpedal with the page number order...I had two lists going but I gave up because I was getting confused. Blogger won't let me cut & paste, or if they do, I don't know how.

Wondrous Gift (tree as background pattern), p. 34
Christmas Chatter (center on any word), p.35
Polka Dots & Paisley (polka dotted background), p. 68
Petals (wheel, center on a motif), p. 69
Spotted (wheel background), p. 73
Little Bits (wheel, if done side by side would be cute background!), p. 95
Whimsy (wheel background), p. 101

Didn't get a chance to look at the sets on the Dormant List.

Almond Gelatine

2007-07-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

Here's another oldie but goodie for a smooth, lightly milky Chinese almond-extract flavored gelatin dessert. I've been wanting to make this recipe because the texture given by the gelatin far surpasses that of the variety made with agar-agar that's commonly served in restaurants. Why haven't I (made this), since all the ingredients are staples in my pantry? Maybe because I just now found the recipe card. Gotta love the archiving capabilities of blogs! For me, this dessert is a comfort food that reminds me of huge family get togethers when we'd visit the relatives in Hawaii during the holidays. We'd arrive at someone's house and enter after depositing our slippers by the back door. A mountain of slippers at the back door in Hawaii means a party is going on! The tables and counters would be laden with an incredible array of ono (delicious) foods representing the many cultures in Hawaii. There'd be a pile of Chinette plates and a bunch of disposable chopsticks. Guests would help themselves, park anywhere, enjoy the food, and catch up with one another. The kids usually had their own "kids' tables". Some mom, grandmother, aunt, or cousin would have made this treat for dessert. Mmmmmm!

~~~

(photo coming)

~~~

Dissolve 1 packet of gelatin in 1/4 c. cold water.
Heat 1/2 c. evaporated milk, 1 c. water, 1/4 c. sugar until hot.
Add gelatin mixture to hot milk mixture, stirring to dissolve the gelatin.
Cool.
Add 1 t. almond extract.
Chill in an 8-inch square pan.
Cut into diamonds (lines parallel to the pan then at about 45 degree angles to those lines).
Serve with chilled lichees, longans, pineapple-stuffed rambutan, or mandarin oranges...or the traditional fruit cocktail. Let the kids negotiate for the cherries.

Laurie Ann's Dill Bread

2007-07-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm going through my messy recipe box right now, sharing some of my recipes that I think other stamper-crafters may enjoy. I'm all for maximizing studio time and still managing to feed the family. I forgot all about this recipe that I perfected for my bread machine years ago. What happened? I know--I kind of stopped all that when we remodeled the kitchen. Must make this moist, fragrant bread again!

~~~

In bread machine, place ingredients in this order:

1-1/3 c. cottage cheese
2-1/2 eggs
2-2/3 T. sugar
1-1/3 T. dried dill
1-1/3 t. salt
1/3 t. baking soda
3-1/3 c. bread four
2-1/2 t. yeast

Run the machine. As the bread bakes, you'll be so relaxed for all the deep breathing you'll be doing! Allow to cool a bit before cutting into the loaf. Enjoy!

Cabbage Patch Salad

2007-07-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to my grad school friend, Molly Galvin Harrington, now of Billings, Montana for sharing this wonderful, colorful, healthy, and nutritious salad. It's a guaranteed hit at potlucks, stamp camps, picnics, and so easy to keep in the frig for family consumption, provided all of its components are stored separately. I'm sure there are similar versions out there. On this one, I've added my own little touches to it. Folks love the light Asian dressings with the satisfying crunch of the noodle and veggies and the great balance of sweet-sour-salty flavors!

~~~

Crunch mixture (it's supposed to be on the salty side):

Saute 1/4 cup slivered almonds in 1/4 cup butter till they begin to brown slightly.
Add 1 package of smashed-in-the-bag ramen noodles and saute till becoming golden.
Add 1/2 cup sesame seeds and saute this mixture till it's golden brown...you need to stay by the stove and stir it often!
When the mixture is golden brown, immediately remove from pan to cool in a large plate or bowl.
Toss with the seasoning packet from the ramen.
Kids love this topping, so consider making a double recipe of it. It stores well in a jar.

~~~

Dressing (it's supposed to be on the sweet side):

I used to whisk these ingredients together then trasfer them into a jar. However dumping it all into a canning jar is equally effective and save a bit of dishwashing!
Combine 1/2 c. oil, 1/4 c. rice wine vinegar, 1/3 c. sugar, 1 T. soy sauce, black pepper to taste, and 1 t. roasted sesame seed oil.
Shake or stir to dissolve sugar in between prepping the veggies.

~~~

Veggies (go for colorful):

Chop or thinly slice 1 head of cabbage (purple is prettiest but green tastes just as good).
Grate 2-3 carrots.
Thinly slice 2 zucchinis into half moons.
Thinly slice 1 red bell pepper that's been quartered.
Toss in a bag of broccoli slaw (optional).
Thinly slice 1 whole bunch of green onions--green and all. (If you don't mind raw green onions, toss them with the other veggies. If the onions are very sharp or you prefer them not as strong, mix them into the dressing.
Mince 1 bunch of Chinese parsley (cilantro).

~~~

To serve (only toss what will be consumed at the time so the cruchies stay crunchie):

Toss veggies together till well-mixed.
Toss crunch mixture into veggies till well distributed.
Toss enough dressing into salad to wet everything a bit...let it sit a little bit then taste. Add more dressing it it's needed.
All of the flavors come together and the result is a yummy, flavorful, colorful salad. Devour it then come back for seconds, thrids, fourths...
Add a protein source such as tofu, cold grilled chicken ,or cold steak strips and a little bread or riceballs, and you have an easy meal. Just add some fresh fruit for dessert!
Gregory loves taking this salad for lunch and will toss it at school right before he eats it.

Winners of 11,111 Hits Blog Candy!!!

2007-07-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

We have results for the 11,111 Hits Blog Candy contest! Drum roll, please...

The Bros. Woo pick the winning tickets...

which may not mean much without Mom's coded print out:

Congratulations to:

Cheryl KVD aka CAKVD (1st comment) <--sent e-mail
PamT (2nd to the last comment) <--no e-mail included, so you must contact me!

Special honorary winner for referrer extraordinaire:

Allison of Stampin' When I Can <--sent e-mail when contest announced

Please e-mail me at S.U.Fun.Addict@sbcglobal.net at your soonest convenience to let me know what color combo and initial you'd like for your set of Monochromatically Monogrammed Missives! I'll also need your mailing addresses.

Thanks to all who participated!

"Simply Said", It "Looks Like Spring"

2007-07-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

It's finally a gorgeous, bright, warm, sunny day here in San Francisco! The other day, I was on the phone with a S'U! representative who asked if it was warm here. Uh, no...I hadn't seen the sun all day long. She asked, "What's the temp there?" "61," I replied. "What about there?," I inquired. "101," she exclaimed. Ugh! Can we just keep it at about 78-81 degrees and call it summer? Is that being too picky? Anyhow, in honor of the sun showing it's face today, I'd like to share a few of my past workshop make & take projects that were categorized as "real wows". They were more laborious than my usual hands on projects, but well worth it. The stamp sets, "Simple Said" and "Looks Like Spring" complement each other seamlessly. For this week's Friday Stamp-A-Long, I thought I'd show you these oldies but goodies and include specific for the parts you might have questions. These are not items you'd make for folks who merely look at their cards and toss them. They're for people like us who like to keep precious stuff! Have fun!

~~~

Part I: Card Cover Blank

Equipment & Supplies:

5 in 1 Card Cover Template
pencil with a good eraser
Paper Snips
Greeting Glue
Scoring Tool

Procedure:

Select any our of Designer Series Papers--they are all double sided now!
Position the 5 in 1 Card Cover Template so that two of its edges are flush with two edges of your Designer Paper. It means less cutting and wastage.
Use the pencil to lightly trace the template's cutting lines.
Score fold lines in channels.
Trim along pencil lines. Erase remaining pencil marks
If doing this as a group or in multiples, select a contrasting paper for a faux liner for the rounded flap...you will have three patterns showing! Outside, inside, and "liner". Trace & cut.
Use the Greeting Glue as a wet adhesive for making the envelope. Leave the rounded flap unglued but glue all the rest of the envelope pocket together. Install the fake liner. Actually, for other projects, note the many ways that the flaps can go!
If you wish to moisten the envelope flap later, apply the Greeting Glue and let it dry without sticking it to anything.

~~~

Part II: Decorate the Card Cover

It's fun to get fancy every now and then! Fancy this is!! We glued a crimped strip of coordinating card stock around the circumference of the envelope then added some coordinating Grosgrain Ribbon, knotted and left the tails long. We also passed around the leftover scraps of Designer Papers and the Flower Punches (we have even more now!) and some coordinating green card stock. Everyone punched out a bunch of flower parts. We then cupped them by pressing the big end of the Stylus Tool into the middle of each flower on a Mat Pack foam board or our palms. The flower centers were 1/4" circles and squares using our Punches and cupping. The beads are retired, but most people have a few of those. Items from the Pretties Kit or our new Rhinestone Brads will be nice substitutes. Dot tacky adhesive where you want the flowers to go and start building the layers. So much fun!!! They all used the same pack of paper and all were absolutely gorgeous!

~~~

Part III: Fancy Tag

Equipment & Supplies:

Paper Cutter with a fresh Cutting Blade and Scoring Blade attachment
piece of coordinating Card Stock
Corner Rounder Punch
Double Circle Punch
Slit Punch
1/2" Circle Punch
1/16th" Circle Punch
Brad
coordinating Classic Ink
1/4 Stampin' Sponge

Procedure:

Cut Card Stock @ 4-1/4" x 2-1/8".
Score 1-3/4" from one end.
One larger end, insert Slit Punch all the way it will go and centered; be sure to gently manually pop the smile back down till you hear a slight click...that way the card stock will all be in line and will come out of the punch...otherwise, it could get stuck in the punch.
Stamp a scrap of card stock with a pattern then punch it out with the 1/2" Circle Punch.
Put a touch of SNAIL in the middle of the 1/2" circle then place it centered over the semi circle made by the Slit Punch.
Punch a 1/16" pilot hole in the middle of the circle. Insert the brad and splay the prongs. Firmly press the brad with the pad of your thumb onto the tabletop.
Stamp the inside and outside of the tag anyway you'd like.
Insert the flap upwards into the slit.
Feed the ribbon tails into the "snake eye" holes and tie a bow.

~~~

Part IV: The Card!

Follow the measurement guides on the 5 in 1 Card Cover Template to make your card bases. We really stamped this one up! The card base front flap was sponged along the edges. The mat was edge torn with our favorite free decorative scissors: our fingers...we always have them with us! The argyle was stamped. Only the big daisy and the friend piece were stamped and cut out with Paper Snips. The rest were stamped and get this: punched out as the stamps go with the Spring Flower Bouquet punch!!! Do lots--the more the merrier! The big flower was Rock 'n Rolled (see my Card Candy Party tutorial for the how-tos).

It was lots of work to make these, but all participants had such a great time and left with a true work of heart!

~~~

Bonus Show & Tell: Slider Card using the same sets!

Pull on the ribbon bow...not pull it out...and

up slides more prettiness!

Open the Box Party, The Continuation and Finale

2007-07-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's saga continues...

Dah-duh. Dah-duh. Dah-duh-duh!!! <--That's DIY theme music from "Jaws" under a sound layer of the distinctive gear-shifting hum of our favorite delivery trucks. I woke when the sun did, which is early these days. Carted the boys to school then headed home to wait. See, I had this party to pick up!

My ears didn't fail me. I heard The Big Brown Truck coming up the hill and snapped this shot with the telephoto thingiemabobber, down the next block. I felt like such an undercover agent on a crucial recon mission. Truth be told, I was too embarrassed to have the driver see me taking a picture of his truck, but I wanted a pic!

Do you think I blew my cover when a) I opened my front door and gate before Mr. UPS even left his truck, and b) Mr. UPS emerged with the above tell-tale logo'd box?

Doesn't matter because before Mr. UPS even made it to his Big Brown Truck and turned the ignition, I blew the cover off that big brown box. Ooh, I spy some pretty-pretty ribbon peeking out from all that brown packing paper!

Woo Hoo! Lots more loot! I was salivatin'!

~~~

Part V: Accessories

Only Orange Craft Pad to replace the only one that I slightly mangled when I did my rash of linen-ectomies. Basic Brown Journaler! Ribbons!!!!!!! Purely Pomegranate and Blue Bayou Stitched Grosgrain--gorgeous! Wider Grosgrain in Certainly Celery and Almost Amethyst. Incredibly luxurious Pink Taffeta...it reminds me of my bridesmaids dresses, minus the moire. Really pretty!!! Picture can't do it justice.

Pick of the Punch! I bit the bullet and just got it over with, getting all the new ones that I didn't have. I got four of the 3/16 Corner Punches since I have one for each side of my workshop table. That way, guests do not have to wait and wait for one little punch to make it's way 'round the table.

Same MO on the Ribbon Originals. They are fab!!!

A sampling of our new gift cards. Can't wait to play with them!

I limited myself to two of the new Simply Scrappin' Kits. I will challenge myself to make as many cards from each kit as possible. Yes, of course, I'll post the results!

Notations No. 2 Designer Series Paper + Little Reminders No. 2 Accents & Elements = True Love!!!

Got a whole bouquet of the new Designer Series Papers. (Not even all of them or half of them!) They are all double-sided, so wow! And, they smell just like washi paper! Love-love-love!

On Board Lots of Letters...cute fonts!

On Board Ginormous Pieces...yep, each board is about 8-1/2" square!

~~~

Part VI: More Stamps!!!

Now, these are my kinds of pets. No need to housebreak. Don't shed. No vet bills. No need to feed. So easy to clean up after! Quiet! Obedient! Cute & Cuddly!

Hostess Sets! "Party Punch" on the left goes with the Designer Label Punch and the Round Tab Punch. How fun is that? "Event Full" is the most charming line & dotted line art. I now have a graduation set for all the 8th graders I know!

One more hostess set: "So Many Sayings" works perfectly with our Word Window Punch!

"Family Accessories" is an adorable add-on for "All in the Family" that I posted yesterday. (Hey, Lil...you WANT this one too, right? And, to clarify publicly: most senior hostess means you have the most seniority with me, having hosted my first workshop, not that you're the oldest. I AM 19 days older than you!)

Assorted Stampin' Around Wheels...to go with sets that I bought this time around. "Little Flowers" is similar to "Little Pieces"--both go with the 1/2" Circle Punch. "Sweet Thing" is perfect for cards and pages. Love its little square frame, cute spotty dot, filled four-square motif!

"Dotted Autumn". Here I go again with that dotted line thing. I love the looks of these fall images. I envision making Thanksgiving place setting stuff for the 8th graders' Thanksgiving Supper (lunch) with these. And, why do I want to draw a little face on that acorn? Have I been exposed to too many cute Japanese amigurumi?

"Haunting Halloween" is the perfect extension of "Booglie Eyes" that we all went gaa-gaas over last year. It's that same caffeinated double fine-line art style!

The lot pictured directly above was all free hostess goodies!!! I'd say that my job offers most excellent benefits! Wouldn't you agree?

Thanks again for partying with me!

Iris' Gift Bag

2007-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

I never got to show you how I finished Monday's Pretty Poppin' + Pullin' Pastels Posies birthday gift bag for my niece and very next door neighbor who just turned six.

Here's a lil' Show 'n Tell for your Thursday!

The finished gift bag.

~~~

What it contained: age-appropriate craft books!

~~~

I pulled sheets of tissue paper to coordinate with the Poppin' Pastels flower for the topping.

~~~

My card gift tag was a smidge wide to fit between the handles, so before adhering it onto the gift bag, I performed a minor elective surgery by cutting small vees into the spine fold. The inner front flap of the gift tag got stuck onto the outside front of the bag and the inner back flap, stuck into the inside front of the bag--it's not moving anywhere. I added a length of Night of Navy organdy ribbon (retired) to coordinate with the Pullin' Pastels flower on the card.

Pretty cute, if you ask me. I wonder if Iris will come over for a craft date and let Auntie Laurie Ann watch her play with her new craft books???

Awww, Why So Shy???

2007-07-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

I love orchids! I have quite a few showy real ones (real fake, that is) but lately, I've had my eye on my real-live orchid plants which I keep on my kitchen counters. One plant has been developing buds since late April-early May, and the other's been blooming since April. Let me introduce you...

This is Minnie Moth. I know, *such* an original name...but to tell you the truth, my pet orchids were nameless mere minutes ago. Why, oh why, is Minnie so shy? She's turned her blossoms to the Mellow Moss wall* instead of seeking the light from the kitchen window. Ahhh, perhaps it's because it's summertime in San Francisco and, true to form, it's pretty icky out. Our free A/C is doing a good job of filtering the summer sunshine.

*When we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago, we could *not* find the right green for the wall. Dewey was having slight fits because he thought I was crazy to want "green" in the kitchen. When I said green, he thought I meant "Glorious Green". He wanted the walls to be white. No, no, no! I finally gave up and sent the contractor to the paint store with a sheet of Mellow Moss card stock. Although it doesn't show accurately in the pictures, it's a perfect, soft green to bring a bit of the outdoors in. We both liked it so much that we used a paler version of it all over the house. Very calming and soothing.

Here: we'll just give Minnie a little turn so she can at least socialize with the rest of us, especially...

Spotty Dotty!!! (You need to have read my crocheting/knitting Lilybugs hat postings to get that inside joke!) Spotty Dotty was a sweet birthday gift from my very thoughtful sister-in-law, Jensa, back in April, and she's (the orchid plant, not my SIL) still in full bloom. {knock on wood}

~~~

These Gerbera daisies are certainly not shy! They kind of have that jovial "ham bone" personality. My hubby saw these, and knowing that I like pink and flowers, brought them home for me...just because! Isn't that sweet? He was fascinated at the variety of colors on the same plant. While he conveyed just generic color terms such as pink and white and green, please allow me the liberty of more specific descriptors...

~S'U! Color Combination Inspiration~

Wild Wasabi + Garden Green with Regal Rose + Pretty in Pink with Very Vanilla + Barely Banana with a hint of Creamy Caramel + a mix of Ruby Red + Close to Cocoa

~~~

Just taking a few moments to appreciate the beauty from nature that's right under my nose. Hope you have a wonderful day!

It's Another Open the Box Party!

2007-07-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

I knew UPS was coming with deliveries today. My well-trained ears perked up when they heard that distinctive big brown truck sound (including parking brakes being set), so I met the driver at the door. I wonder if they wonder why they never have to ring the bell here? All of these boxes were loaded onto a hand truck! Yipee! Grab yourself a nice, tall lemonade and help yourself to some crackers and cheese, and join me for another Open the Box Party. Let's see what's in here...

Nine boxes...all mine!

~~~

Part I: Small Package

Since when does S'U! have these cute little stickers on their small parcels? Since the box is really from Lang...

Look at the Happy St. Swithen's Day (7/15) "small scentiment" (as the company calls it) that stampin'-craftin' friend, Sandra Jensen, sent me! Isn't that the cutest box? Then it hits me like a rock...take away Blue Bayou and Soft Sky, and there you have shades of the rest of this year's In-Colors: Wild Wasabi, River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Purely Pomegranate! (That's the sort of phenomenon one experiences when one has S'U! on the brain!)

{scratch & sniff here} <--just kidding! that technology regrettably is not yet available. This candle is Lang's "Citrus Sorbet" scent and very pleasant and relaxing. It's the exact color of Wild Wasabi! Thanks a big bunch, Sandra!!!

~~~

Part II: Big Boxes

Can you believe that 6 of the 9 boxes alone are responsible for this mess?

16 cases of Fall-Winter Collection 2007 books! That's 128 of those beauties, and I earned them all for free through Great Rewards! I love S'U! These arrived just in time for my catalog unveiling events on SUper Lucky Friday the 13th!!

One of the boxes contained some business supplies...a case of books to get my soon-to-start recruit off to a quick start, some forms, and brochures. Yawn....

~~~

Part III: One Box of Particular Interest

At first glance, it may not look like much, but what do we have in here?

One fierce Crop-o-dile flanked by a couple of Stack & Store Caddies. I ordered one caddy for the stampin'-scrappin' studio to house *current* embellishments & doodads. The second one is for my beading desk to organize a ready supply of jewelry findings.

Now, what scathingly brilliant idea compelled me to order this new triple clipped On Board Clipboard (13" x 7.5")? Oh, yes! It's destined for The Wee Woos' study as a chore chart stand-in for Task Monster Mommy. One for Greg. One for Jon. One for Team Greg & Jon.

I spy one roll of Wild Wasabi Double Stitched Ribbon. Just one roll? Awwwww!

I spy one Priceless Classy Brass template. Only one? Awwwww!

I spy one pretty Pretties Kit. Oh, sweeties, there's really no need to bump your lil' foreheads against your monitor screens...I'll provide a closer look!

Hyperventilating? I know!

~~~

Part IV: The Stamp Sets!

"Holiday Blitz"

Huge set of cute little motifs that cover just about any holiday and occasion. I think these will work well on punch outs with matching mats. Also cute for trading cards and strips. Great for portable projects with Stampin' Write Markers/Many Marvelous Markers or Stampin' Spots!!! 28 of them to mount means 28 of them to use! Would go SUper well with "So Many Sayings", p. 17, Level 1 Hostess Set with a Word Window Punch.

"Garden Whimsy"

Love this set! It's a different style solid that very whimsical. I can see lots of interesting ink + marker techniques such as thumping, rock 'n roll, blended stripes, splats, etc. to add a bit of mystery and intrigue. Great images for memory pages! Will have to play with these and Craft Inks on fabrics!

"Just Like You"

This year's Making a Difference set to benefit the Ronald MacDonald House Charities is so adorable and versatile. The images will support a multitude of techniques. Must have a PMS Night where we play with this set!

"Big Flowers"

You know I collect these flower stamp sets. My Jumbo Circle Punches sang a delightful and convincing chorus, begging me to get this set so that we can make little "Card Cookies" which are a very close relative of "Card Candy". Too bad Little Flowers is stuck on some UPS truck. The sun's finally emerged, so I hope she's not getting cooked in that truck! I want to show you my Silver Guiding technique with these.

"Batty for You"

This set was a ditto. Those Jumbo Circle Punches broke out into a refrain urging me not to refrain from getting these guys. I had to do it. Lots of fun Halloween ideas in store for this comical gang.

"All in the Family"

A good application for the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig stamp positioner. Now, this set is cute-cute-cute! I have lots of silly ideas for this one. Will share the results of my experiments later.

"Fun & Fast Notes"

Finally, this is another whimsical set which is perfect for Color Booking. It covers many occasions! I plan to mount these images with their greetings. However, it's very easy to use either the images or greetings alone just by doing a quick adhesive tape masking on the clean stamp itself. Remove the tape after inking then stamp down the inked die--the part that was tape is uninked and therefore, if clean, won't show! The flower-topped cakes look good enough to eat, I mean watercolor and glitter!

~~~

Impatient Intermission

That's it for today. The foyer was so full of stuff that I had to stand outside of the front door to snap this shot. I need to get all the paper packing and boxes into the recycling bin and garage. The Good Box was 1 of 2...and 2 never made it off the truck today. Please stand by for a hopefully brief intermission. I will post The Good Box #2 as soon as I'm able.

Thanks for partying with me this afternoon! Come again!

Earth-Friendlier Lunchables-Style Bentos

2007-07-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Our family adores Japanese bento-box style lunches. The kids love Lunchables. Although convenient, I don't like the under-representation of fresh produce along with candy or sugared drinks and the excessive packaging of the ready-made variety. Enter my favorite Lock & Lock brand great quality, sturdy, well-priced divided lunch containers found at Target and local Asian grocery stores, and ta-dah! We have make-our-own lunchables-style bentos.

This is what the boys made for their lunches yesterday: cheese & crackers and a cutie mandarin orange. No waste and the kids have a decent lunch with a good serving of protein and calcium, some Vitamin C, and some whole-grain carbs.

Since the dividers in this box are removable, you can imagine the different configurations one can create. No dividers for a whole sandwich. Two dividers for half a sandwich and two sides. Two dividers for goodies to go with rice. All four dividers for veggies with a separate side of dip.

All four dividers for a protein, a carb, and two kinds of fruit.

Completely re-usable with endless possibilities! Gotta love that!

Sneaky S'ghetti Sauce

2007-07-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

I have discovered that if I cook dinner in the morning, I like my late afternoon-early evening dinner prep time much better! I have also discovered that when I cook without sharp-eyed witnesses who don't like to eat their veggies present, I can come up with some veggie-laden sneaky s'ghetti sauce that passes muster. Here's my top-secret recipe...

~~~

Ingredients:

1 # ground beef or turkey or Italian sausage or mixture of meats

garlic & onion, minced (or use dehydrated)

a medley of pureed veggies--don't worry about an "off color" yet: carrots (I steam mine in the rice cooker then process & freeze them), onion, mushrooms, peeled zucchini, yellow squash, canned pumpkin, creamed corn, roasted red peppers N.B. for non-veggie fearing families, these items in visible grated, minced, and sliced forms make a super-delicious sauce.

canned diced tomatoes

tomato paste

white or red wine

nonfat milk solids or milk

Italian seasonings (herbs such as basil, oregano, marjoram, and parsley)

garlic salt & pepper to taste

grated Parmesan cheese to speedily decorate (camouflage minuscule veggie bits) the top of the pasta servings

~~~

Directions:

In a non-stick stock pot, crumble and brown the meats. Drain fat--I use a paper towel to sop up any grease.

Add garlic & onion & Italian seasonings to your liking & saute about 5 minutes.

Throw in a glass of wine and let it cook down. Repeat. Don't worry, the alcohol gets cooked out, and a layer of great flavor with antioxidant benefits are gained.
Throw in a glass of milk or add nonfat milk solids and let it cook down. Repeat.

Add veggie purees & simmer a bit. (I just got a juicer, so I plan to try veggie pulp in my next batch of SS Sauce. I'll also see how veggie juices fare as an additional step after the meat mixture's been cooking in with the wine.)
Add tomato products, adding enough tomato paste to make the sauce plain-spaghetti-sauce-red-enough.

Simmer, tasting periodically and correcting seasonings.

Wash all dishes and containers; take out the garbage, recycling and compost bins to remove any evidence of extraneous vegetable matter.

Refrigerate sauce until mealtime, or toss generous portions of sauce with a batch of pasta that you can then just heat up at mealtime.

This recipe works especially well with the pasta shape of your picky child's choosing, or if you use a pasta palooza (mix of shapes) that your child has made. (Idea: get together with other families, then dump and divide a variety of pasta shapes.)

Immediately sprinkle with Parmesan cheese allowing extra sprinklings at the table.

Even better as leftovers!

Bottoms Up Glue Trick

2007-07-10T11:33:00.000-07:00

I find myself frequently reaching for the tacky glue when I make or add embellishments to my stampin' and paper crafting projects. I like it's quick, sure hold. I especially like the bottles with the smaller nozzles so that I have more control over where the glue will land. However, when the bottle of glue that's been sitting upright doesn't flow immediately when you'd like it to, there's no need to waste precious craftin' time waiting for it to come on down. This process may exceed the amount of time it takes the last of the ketchup or pancake syrup to flow out of the bottle. Same deal: slapping the bottom of the bottle doesn't necessarily hasten the process. My simple, don't-know-why-I-didn't-think-of-it-sooner remedy works like a charm. Get a cute little juice glass or bottle, or in this case, a mole sauce jar (something heavier than lighter) and use it to hold your bottle of glue upside down. Just be sure you have the cap on there securely. The glue will then flow readily whenever you're ready.

Bottoms up!

P.S. You know about the unbent paperclip trick to extract those thick glue boogies from your glue nozzle tips, right? Just get in there and pick 'em out! Sorry to be so graphic, but I'm sure you now get the pic.

Keeping Ribbon Under Wraps

2007-07-10T11:11:00.000-07:00

I seem to be in a tips and tricks mode this Tuesday, so here's another idea I'd love to share with you. Are your ribbon rolls and ribbon cards a tangled mess? If so, you may want to try this ribbon management trick: all you need are short sequin pins from the notions department of your fabric store or craft store. You'll love working with ribbons all the more when you no longer face the chore of un-tangling them or having to re-roll and re-roll the rolls or cards!

A typical ribbon roll with a tiny sequin pin sitting upon it. I'd say the pin is about 1/2" long.

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Simply insert a sequin pin at an angle on a looser than tighter roll of ribbon. Those annoying, tangling tails cannot form unless you leave the pin out. I store my vial of sequin pins with my ribbons so I have them handy. Because these pins are so small, they're easy to misplace. Solve this problem by having a dish, small pin cushion, or magnetic bar to safely hold them while your ribbon rolls are in use.

Tissue Box Turned Card Caddy

2007-07-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Allergies abound in The House of Woo. We're hitting the blue layers at the bottom of the tissue boxes fairly frequently. This box was emptied this morning. It will not go into the recycling bin. Instead, I'm taking this opportunity to share one of my best recycling-to-organize discoveries for corralling card parts or cards as you crank them out.

If you are producing large quantities of cards for gifts or craft fairs or custom orders, regular empty facial tissue boxes are perfect! They usually come already decorated! This particular box is by Kirkland Signature, found in bulk at Costco. Save them as you use them and you too can have an entire matching set!

Simply snip diagonal cuts from the dispensing slot to all four corners.

Securely tape all four flaps down into the box. I use 2" clear packing tape.
Ta dah! You can file card bases and parts in these caddies. It keeps mountains of them from accidentally falling onto your juicy ink pads. (Ask me how I learned that one!) I also park envelopes with prepared card bases as a way to help me count off sets and to save time when it comes to packaging card sets or individual cards for Cards a la Carte. You can sort finished cards in these caddies as well. These are handy if you're making many sets of assorted cards. One design per box, line the boxes up along a wall or hall or even on stair steps, then pull what you need for each assortment.

Side view. These fit nicely on shelves whether you're storing WIPs or FOs. If you'd like, you could cover these caddies with Designer Series Papers and add a bit of embellishments then they'd be even more presentable as displays for your card designs. OK...off to take my Loratadine then I'll head into the studio. It's oomy-doomy-gloomy (foggy) today, so I think I'll pop a Merrie Monarch hula DVD in and think tropical sunshine and warmth.

Pretty Poppin' + Pullin' Pastels Posies

2007-07-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, I thought I'd invite you over for a play date with Stampin' Pastels, showing you two fun pastels techniques: Poppin' Pastels and Pullin' Pastels to make a cute, dimensional gift bag tag for my niece's b-day gift bag. Join me in this impromptu Organizing Monday that rolled itself into a Tutorial Tuesday. Does this mean I'm ahead of the game for the week? Like the Gray Guiding technique, I did not invent Poppin' or Pullin' Pastels, but I am the one who named them!

Finished gift card features the big flower from S'U!'s "Office Accoutrement" set with just the VersaMark Pad and Stampin' Pastels

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Pastels Tool Organizing Tip

The organizing portion of this blog tutorial shows the reader how I manage my Sponge Daubers for my Stampin' Pastels case. I used an Extra Large Stamp & Supply Box with Dividers and four sets of Sponge Daubers. I do not believe in washing out daubers since I think that just washes pastels down the drain. Instead, I like to reserve one dauber per color. I try to store similar dauber colors next to each other. Be careful that the dust from darker colors doesn't contaminate your lighter color daubers. If things get too pastels-dusty, then perhaps it is time to give everyone a lil' shampoo.

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Pullin' Pastels (Darker Flower)

Procedure:

Smear diagonal stripes of bright colors that contrast with your dark base paper color. For example, with a Night of Navy background, I would avoid any teals, blues or purples as they will not show up very well. Here I used Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow/Summer Sun, Real Red, and Pink Passion. Smear the pastels into the paper by loading up a sponge dauber with the pastels then swiping them back and forth on the paper. Think overloading the eyeshadow sponge applicator to get a Mimi from the Drew Carey Show look.

Dust the excess pastels crumbs with a dusting cloth.

Ink up a solid image stamp with a well-inked VersaMark Pad. The ink pad should be sticky enough that it wants to come up off the table when you lift the stamp off of it. Stamp it down solidly onto the pasteled paper.

When you lift the stamp off the paper, it will PULL the pastels off the paper, leaving a neat image.

Allow the VersaMark Ink to dry.

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Poppin' Pastels

1. Ink up a solid image stamp with a well-inked VersaMark Pad on a light or neutral Card Stock. On this Confetti White Card Stock, you will see shiny areas where the ink is still wet.

2. Load up a Sponge Dauber with a Stampin' Pastels color. Here I started with Summer Sun then switched to Only Orange.

3. "Pop" the loaded sponge dauber into the image in an up and down motion, tapping the Pastels into the wet ink. The ink will grab onto the Pastels. I like to blend colors with this technique.

4. Continue "poppin'" Pastels into the image until it's saturated and won't take any more. Avoid smearing by making sure you're using up and down motions, not swiping motions. The image will "pop" as you add the Pastels colors.

5. Clean up with a gentle wipe of a dusting cloth. It's better than blowing Pastels dust all over your stampin' table. You can easily hand wash these disposable dusting cloths and hang them to dry (they dry quickly) so you can reuse them!

6. While the ink dries and sets the Pastels, ooh and aah at your Pastels prowess.

7. Cut out images with Paper Snips, then cup them by putting them in your palm and pressing down in their centers. The petals will magically pop up.

8. I took my 1/16" handheld punch to punch a hole in the center of my two cutout flowers and fastened them with one of our new Rhinestone Brads...Pink from the Fire Collection. Love-love-love these. It helps to push the prongs into the backing before inserting them into the flower center hole; this way the brad sits flush to your project. Then you can splay the prongs.

9. I added Dimensionals to the base of the Night of Navy flower then stick it onto a scrap card of Summer Sun which I stamped with the same flower and the VersaMark Pad. That's yet another use for this versatile pad: Tone-On-Tone Stampin'.

10. To finish, I punched out a scrap of the stripe pastels Navy Card Stock using the Word Window Punch and did a little personalized greeting with our Silver-Gold Zig Painty Pen.

Cute and fun!

More-Time-to-Stamp Lasagna

2007-07-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

I found this easy and quick-prep recipe on a jar of Prego spaghetti sauce, and because the step of boiling the noodles has been eliminated, it's such a time saver. That means this home chef has more time to stamp (...or knit...or crochet...or bead...or quilt...or???)! This really is a Miracle Lasagna!

(LA to post photo the next time she makes this dish which was going to be tonight until she discovered that there's going to be a b-day dinner for her niece. Even more time to craft. The Froggie b-day card has already been made!)

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Prep time : 5 min.

Cook time: 1 hr.

Stand: 5 min.

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Ingredients:

1-28 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce
6 uncooked lasagna noodles
1-15 oz. container ricotta
2 c. shredded mozzarella
1/4 c. grated parmesan

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Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F.
Coat 2 qt. baking dish (11" x 7") with cooking spray.
Layer the ingredients in the dish...(steps 4-11)
1 c. sauce
3 uncooked noodles
ricotta cheese
1 c. mozarella
parmesan
1 c. sauce
rest of noodles
rest of sauce
Cover tightly with foil
Bake at 375 x 1 hr.
Remove foil then top with remaining mozarella
Return to oven to melt cheese till bubbly and slightly golden.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 6. Accompany with a quick salad. Serve fresh fruit for dessert. Dinner is done!

I just learned that lasagne is plural and lasagna is singular. The End. Now, back to stampin'!