Card Cupids Challenge: Something Silly This Week

*If you're looking for the Alpha Stamps Blog Hop post and/or the giveaway post, it's the one just before this one, so scroll down. :)

Card Cupids  collects handmade cards for kids in hospital. They also host fun weekly challenges to keep making the cards interesting. Here's mine for this week's silly card challenge. My cats never boogie. Heck, if they could get as close together as these two without having a swat fight, I'd be shocked.

And while we're on the topic of silliness, here's Usagi looking very guilty as she takes a taste of the couch for some reason. I caught her on film, right in the act. What is wrong with our couch that dogs want to lick it?!

Happy World Rat Day, Everyone! How about a giveaway drawing?

 Happy World Rat Day! Okay, I'm a little early, but in my house, we celebrate rats everyday! This (above) is one of the cards I created for this year's celebration. It's not easy to find stamps with globes and rodents (hint hint all you digi stamp artists who regularly get paypaled by me. :)) 

Recognize this picture? Some of you might...it's Vincent, one of my boys, and it's also the photo on my business cards for my Etsy.com shop. Love that twitchy nose and those magnificent wiskers.

While you continue to marvel at his cuteness, let me tell you about my little giveaway. I accidentally put two of the same item in my "cart" and paid without noticing until the box arrived at my door. Oops! Well, my dorky mistake is YOUR gain...someone who leaves me some world rat day wishes in my comment box will be chosen at random to win this book and cd of Wild and Domestic Animals clip art. Lots of possibilites await inside...use them as digi stamps, to collage stuff, to make your own embellishments and stickers, or for whatever sort of project you think needs more animals on it. Don't thank me, thank the ratties of the world, for without them, we wouldn't be celebrating their holiday!

Here's one taken with my old pal, Paxil, who I miss very much. She and her best pal, Ether, pictured below, were the rats who got me started in rodent rescue. I'm assaulting her with a tiny pair of antlers in the above photo. She refused to wear them, but managed to make me look plenty silly in the photos, so all's well that ends well. :)

 Ether uses her glowing eyes to contact the mothership. "Come," they say, "we have infiltrated the oatmeal!"

 A very special girl of mine, these two pics are of Drucilla, a special needs rat with a heart 10 times her body size. She had a facial deformity that caused most of her teeth to fall out, while the remaining few would grow rapidly into tusks her vet dremmelled down regularly. She was cuddly and playful and quite the shoulder surfer. She loved to play in the bathroom sinks, so if she looks a little damp, that's why.

 The winky girl trying to squirm out of Scott's hand, below, is Twinkle, who arrived at our rescue pregnant along with her sister, Kitty. I ended up adopting most of their female offspring and enjoyed their company till they all passed on over the years. They were a wonderful mischief (for those who aren't rat folk, that's indeed the term for a group of rats. Could anything be more appropriate?)

And this last photo was taken at an adoption event at Ed McKay Books and More. I'm sorry to say I can't remember who is in the photo. I'm thinking it's Glitter, one of my own girls, just there to greet people who were new to rats, but I may be wrong and that could possibly be a foster rat. No matter who it is, I love this photo. I love that inquisitve look as she checks out a new hand. :)

Celebrate the rats you know this week!

If a picture's worth a thousand words, this post is an entire master's thesis.

It's PSL time at Club Scrap, which means hardcore cardmaking. Teams compete to see who can produce the most cards over a week, fulfilling various requirements along the way. Between that, and my animals being particularly cute this week, this is a looooong post. Be not afraid, it's almost all photos, though, so you can fly through the whole thing in just a few minutes. So don't give up on me. We can survive this long and grueling journey together. Let's begin.

 I adore this bunny image! It not only has a wonderful, realistic rabbit, it has violets, my very favorite flower. For some reason, images of violets are harder to find than most. Anyway, this is my design team card for For Fun Challenges this week. Check us out over there and play along with our color challenge this week--the colors of Mardi Gras--purple, gold, and green. I'm also entering this in the critter challenge at Gingerloft Challenges.

Kleenex on my cat! Seriously, he looks proud, doesn't he? I think he's imagining that he's the flying nun. If the flying nun chased birds.

Such a tolerant kitty. You know why you don't see Weezee with a Kleenex on her head? Because she would slaughter me in my sleep if I dared try.

Usagi is still showing off her winter wear: any blanket she can find.

 This little bunny is blowing sweet little heart shaped bubbles for the Sparkles Forum Challenge which calls for Pink, Blue, and Brown.

 Paper Players gets this feisty little chihuahua for this week's challenge. I got that nifty lace from a vintage lot on Ebay and have been going nuts with the stuff. I love the aged look it has from being stored god knows where for so many years.

 Craft Your Passions challenge this week is Girly Cards, and this one is about as girly as it comes. I love those antennae on the bear. Too cute. It's an image from Just Some Lines. This one's also representin' in the 2 Sisters teddy bear challenge this week.

 I Did It challenge is to use punches...so many hearts!

Well, that's all for now. It's time to give my sad little spine a break. It's angry about the vast weather changes lately and, of course, it's taking it out on me. Ergh. On the upside, I'm busy with orders from my etsy shop and several writing projects, which are good things. Happy Wednesday!

Boioioinnnng...

Just a very quick post with a happy frog card for the Really Reasonable Ribbons challenge. Boing!

Colds and Cards

Sooo...they put me on a temporary round of steroids for my spine, which seems to have worked nicely, except that the immune suppressing nature of steroids made me super-prone to cold/flu things one of which, I seem to be hosting now. Don't get too close to this post. You might catch it too.

I've been using my convalescence to goof off and make cards, so I have a number of them to show off today. :) First, one I made for my nephew Drew.

Hooray for bunnies! I pulled out some of my dresden, too for that shiny border at the bottom. I adore these vintage-style foil scraps. They're part of what makes those crumbling victorian period cards so charming. Though mass produced, they weren't flat printed plain things that seem to be in style now. Almost all commercial cards then had at least some sort of extra on it...embossed foil, layered scrap, a little lace, etc. One of my biggest pet peeves is people perpetuating the notion that "things were better in the old days" (after all, while they had nice cards then, they also had four year old chimney sweeps and lead-based makeup) but the cards back then deserve some sort of props. :)
I'm entering this card in the Cute Card Thursday Challenge, since I feel it is sufficiently adorable. :)

I had a request for black and tan doxies in my etsy shop, so I made this card to practice my canine marking skills. I think he turned out to be pretty cute. :) The image is by a digi artist called Sandy, and the challenge at Totally Paper Crafts was to use a digi stamp. So, this should do nicely.

You've seen this stamp in previous posts, but tis time I used Liquid Pearls and some floral paper from Club Scrap's My Funny Valentine line. I'm entering this one in one of my favorite challenges, the Digi Doodle Challenge.

Here's one from a set that I'm uploading to my Etsy shop today. Edcob? Jakward? You needn't choose werewolf or vampire with this guy. He's going into the Pattie's Creations pet challenge.

And here's my card for my design team at For Fun Challenges this week:

Isn't she cute? We used Michelle Perkett's images to say happy birthday to For Fun Challenges, so I'm entering my card in her challenge this week.
That's all for today...more to come!

A Little Love, A Little Late

So...my Valentines this year will be mailed out *on* Valentine's Day. Sorry, recipients, I've had a dreadful cold for the last week that's rendered me behind on just about everything life can hand a person. So, do forgive me for my belated tokens of love.

Here's a cute scottie card I made using Club Scrap papers, inks, ribbon and stencils. I inked the heart through a harelquin patterned stencil to get that cool diamond look. The gem dogs were a lucky find at a clearance sale. I immediately thought of the Stampin' Up set with the Westie dogs (white version of a Scottie for all practical purposes), hence the little guy stamped on the heart. This card is one I'm entering in the Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge. Check them out! Their ribbon selection rules!

But that's not all...I have a lot of Valentines to send cards to this year, so here is another card I made several of to send on their merry (late) way.

I'm in love with this stamp set by There She Goes, so you may recognize it from a card I made a week or so ago. Don't you just adore the little motion lines by his waggy tail? Anyway, this one is for another of my addictions, the Do You Stack Up challenge.  

So, don't dispair if your Valentine doesn't show up with any goodies today...they may just be really late, like me. :)

Happy Lunar New Year!

Losar, or Lunar New Year is colloquially called Chinese New Year though it's celebrated by Buddhists worldwide. It's one of my favorite holidays, especially since it's actually a whole week long. My cards today are a little behind, still celebrating Groundhog Day. Really, all rodents should have their own appreciation day, shouldn't they? While we're at it, why not all species...we could be celebrating every single day and then some. We'd have to have a new holiday every few hours, which I think is a darn fine idea! Anyway, don't worry, I plan to stuff you full of holiday goodness over the next week, but for now, here are some adorable little groundhogs from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs, who generously sponsored this week's challenge at my design team's home: For Fun Challenges. The prize? A $25 gift certificate, so get over there and submit your card!
 
I love a good challenge, too, so I created my groundhog card with the Really Reasonable Ribbons Challenge in mind. I used some of my favorite ribbon (love the layers!) from Club Scrap, and added a little silver heart to counterbalance the nifty butterfly paperclip adorning the springtime scene.

 Next, a little something I made for the Clean and Simple Sunday Challenge using their sketch and these freaking adorable stamps I got for Xmas from my ubercool friend, Jen K, who seems to always be on top of the coolest and newest crafting toys. It's like she has Scrap-dar. Amazing!

And finally, here's one I made for the Tip Top Tuesday this week, requiring "something girly". I was psyched to find this Hero Arts stamp on sale recently, since I've had my eye on it for about a year. And what good timing because it features violets which besides being my favorite flowers, are also February's flower (and, of course, my birth flower!) I added some sparkle with Doodlebug gems and offset those with some faux grey pearls. I'm very pleased with this card and will likely be sending it to someone else who also enjoys having a birthday this month.

That's all for today. I've got to get ready for the accupuncturist. The last month has been really dreadful for my spine. I've got to get it back in order or I'm going to go insane from being cooped up for so long.