Duh duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh...News Update: From the Coast

Okay, the above photos are actually from Myrtle Beach, not Topsail, but it would be awfully strange for me to be scrapbooking photos from the same trip I'm on, anyway. This layout is one of several I have been working on for the "Use Your Stash" class I'm taking. Thus far, it's been pretty effective and encouraging. It's hard to break some of the habits that cause people like me to avoid actually using the cool stuff we pick up to use, then feel intimidated by. Mind you, I still haven't broken into the High Holy Hoarde box, still sitting where it was carried in from the car, unopened this trip. It contains my absolute favorite, often pricey, generally sought after like pirates' treasure then hidden away in said box, items that I adore yet rarely allow myself to actually use. Even when I do use it, I am usually making a gift I really want to wow the recipient with, so I spend hours paralyzed with fear, staring at the object to be altered as if it were an oncoming vehicle. Will I crack this box before heading home? Before the end of the class? Stay tuned.

Now, onto this week's challenges. Unfortunately, I am doing this upload at the last minute, thanks to the irresistable power of The Vacation Nap Fairy. So I'll make this quick. This card is my entry into this week's polka-dot themed challenge at Shirley's 2 Girls. Wish me luck!

And, here's one for the challenge at Mo's Digital Challenge. In case you haven't guessed...special folds is the challenge theme, and I think this one is pretty special.

That's it for this post. I'll be announcing the winner of the ribbon giveaway in the next post, so if you haven't yet entered, now's the time. Good luck! :)

A Winner, an Entry, a Giveaway, and Two Kitties

Toulouse (aka Goosey Goo) decided to give me a hand taking photos of my cards for my etsy site. Check out the nose lick! Cat tongues are so funny. They look like weird little strips of deli ham. He looks a bit like he's thinking about how tasty those guinea pigs on the cards might be. Naughty kitty! Don't eat the pets, please!

I've been working hard on card orders, both for clients and (mostly) for rescue groups who request items for their fund raisers. Ferrets and greyhounds have dominated my workboard, pit bulls are up next, then shelties, then more ferrets, followed by opossums and other wildlife--rescues are quick to find my shop, it seems. :) It's cool to be able to contribute this way, though, since I can't do as much hands-on rescue work due to my physical limitations. It's hard to clean cages, train rescue dogs, or keep up with the administrative needs of a rescue when you're hurting and easily fatigued. Hence: adaptation.

Anyway, this card with the cute Airedale Terrier is one I made just for fun, for a challenge at the Shirley's 2 Girls blog. I'm a fan of her adorable animal stamps, so when I saw that she was looking for Flocked or Feathered cards, a-flocking I did go! It's a bit hard to tell in the photo, but I used black flocking on this little guy's black spots, from tail to that one black ear. Wish me luck!

Continuing on the subject of fun, Saturday was my Stampin' Up party! It's been ages since I've been well enough to have any sort of get together, let alone a party for 12. Teresa, one of my best friends and my Stampin' Up demonstrator, totally made it happen. She was an amazing showman, entertaining the masses with her mad crafting skills, while I hung out with the group upstairs, awaiting their turn in the craft room. She even helped me put my scrap room back together before the party...as you may recall, it was a complete disaster since everything had been pushed to the center of the room so Scott could build cabinets and counters along the walls. I'll post pics in my next blog installment. Scott still has to finish the cabinets at the back of the room and put in the glass fronts in all of the doors, but it's still a kajillion times better than it was and if the amount of time he's spending working in the shed is any indication, he's either going to be done soon, or he's got a second wife living in there.

I forgot to take many pics at the party, but in the one, above, patiently waiting their turns and being adorable are my friends Kitty, Laura, Revco (he's the short one), and Eileen.

If you're looking for a Stampin' Up demo, Teresa is freaking amazing. She hooked me up with loads of free stuff for hostessing and she's a FABULOUS person in general. :) I can't *wait* for the UPS man to come to my door, and not just because he's kinda cute in that little brown uniform.

This little mousie is adorning a project I made for a Fiskateer challenge Angela announced during her tutorial video. Below, you can see the complete project, an envelope for toting around my mail that's in need of answering. My attempt at making the sides expand didn't go so well. I was a couple folds short of making it work, but so it goes. It was a prototype...the next one, hopefully, will actually have expanding capabilities. As for this one, it still does its job and I love that old Pizzazill cardstock I made it out of. Sadly, that line seems to have disappeared so I'm super careful about using up my precious stash. I think we all have something hidden away like that, that we like too much to use.

Relevant to that, I am taking May Flaum's class at Big Picture Scrapbooking, Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash. I'm working on homework tonight, which includes picking out a box of stuff you've had on hand for a while and want to use during the class. Among the items are: rub ons galore, a box of ribbons I got free at an Archivers' event, a big tin of buttons in all sorts of shapes, a set of the old Stampin' Up copper Hodgepodge Hardware, and plenty more. Wish me luck!

In celebration of this class theme, I'm going to get some of my ribbon stash moving by sending one lucky reader 10 yards of ribbons from my private stash! These aren't ribbons I don't like or want to get rid of, but gorgeous ribbons I really like that I want to share with someone who is kind enough to read my yapping here.

Here's what you have to do...leave me a comment telling me about something you have in your stash that you've been holding onto for too long, just because you love it too much to use it. Don't forget to include some way for me to reach you, either via a Fiskateer number, an email address, or a link to your blog or whatever. I never received a response from my Martha Stewart winner despite my efforts to reach them, and if I don't hear from them by my next post, I'm going to have to pick someone else to win those supercool stamps.

Speaking of winners, Donna (comment #7), you are the winner of the book giveaway in my previous post! Contact me with your mailing address so I can send it your way!

Whew! Long post! Thanks for reading all the way to the end. :)

Cute Rats, Rescue Cats, and a Craftsy Giveaway!

I began this post last week and somehow got distracted, so I may need to update things a little. Bear with me.

The photo, below is of the gift box I made for Second Chance Pet Adoptions' silent auction. When I got their call for auction items, I knew I wanted to make them something special because they are the rescue that adopted Toulouse to us. Note the many orange kitties representing in this box. Had to give mad props to the ginger cats! :)

Speaking of cats, here's a pic of Weezee, our other kitty. She hates Toulouse, and pretty much any of her fellow felines, but she loves humans. She's the welcoming committee at our house, rushing to the door whenever anyone arrives. She's hard to get a decent picture of because a) black furred animals are more challenging to photograph since their features often disappear in a two dimentional image and b) she is very persnickety about when she will and will not tolerate being photographed.

While I'm showing off my babies, here are my most recent acquisitions, Vince and Howard. Or actually, I should say Howard and Vince, since that's Howard on the left. I adopted them from Carolina Pet Rescue and now that they are neutered, they can be introduced to Wendy. Well...they can as soon as her persistent mites are gone--a leftover from her life as a stray.

Where have I been? San Francisco! This visit we went to Top of the Mark, made a dent in their 100 Martini menu and watched the city disappear.

Here we are! That's Sandy, Carolyn, Darcy and me! Oh yeah, and the fog creeping in behind us.

I've got another giveaway! It's a copy of Crafty Superstar for those of you with Etsy dreams and craft sale intentions. It's not brand spanking new since I read it once, but it's darn close. Besides, it's FREE if you leave a comment and you're picked randomly from all the other commenters.

Some stuff for one of my pen pals and the Mousey Punch Winner.

I'm actually in San Francisco at the moment, but I felt bad about being late with announcing the winner of the Martha Stewart Mouse Border Punch, so I thought I'd better take a moment to make the announcement. And the winner is...

Laura! (Rosegarden) Fiskateer 5939!

Hooray! Please send me your mailing address, Laura, so I can send your punch as soon as I'm home again. :)

I didn't want to post without a photo, so here's a pic of some goodies I'm sending one of my pen pals. I'm a letter writing maniac who loves swapping ATC's, cards, inchies and whatnot, because I love making all of those kinds of little treasures. The thing on the left is a bookmark based on one I saw in an old issue of the Stampin' Up demonstrator magazine my lovely friend Teresa passed on to me because she rules.

I ended up changing the colors, the stamps, the punches, the embellishments, but the basic sketch is the same. It folds over the top of the page you're reading. I'm pleased with how it turned out and might make some more. My favorite part are the little clear buttons lined up down the side. It's neat that the buttons, stamps, and punches all layer on top of each other. The one problem I encountered was deciding which adhesive to use, especially when it came to attaching the clear button. I used a wet glue to attach the punched paper part to the background and a clear mini glue dot to glue the clear button to the punch. If you do it a different way, please leave a comment and let me know about it. I didn't want to use glue dots on both because I was afraid it would be thick and wobbly. I was concerned that clear wet glue would dry with streaks on the clear buttons. Solutions?

The other item pictured is an ATC. I recently picked up this stamp because it was both very inexpected and looked like myself and my cat, Toulouse! Awww! I wanted to use some Flower Soft after poking around the Flower Soft/Stamps of Life blog hop, so I made wee little dandelion puffs. I know dandelion puffs aren't pink, but for the sake of my ATC, let's pretend they are.

Quick! I'm on a deadline!

This will be a quick post because I have a midnight deadline and no glass slippers! I'm rushing over to the Tiffany Doodles website to turn in my card for this month's sketch challenge. She's got a bunch of free sample digi stamps, something I seem to suddenly have a rampant addiction to since I bought a few off of etsy. Then, I found the Free Digi Stamps Website, which then led me to Paper Craft Planet and finally to Tiffany Doodles, where I then found this challenge. It's all very Rube Goldberg, I know.She has a nice selection of sample digis, but this old-timey duck toy was my favorite by far. I love the sort of dingy nostalgia it has.

What are all these other pictures about? Well, I just finished a slew of swaps before today's deadline, including a mail art postcard swap via Club Scrap. Have I ever mentioned how much I adore mail art? If not, I really should have. Anyway, this is my contribution. My main concern is will they hold up in the mail or shred when they hit the mail sorter outer machine.

And finally, here is my contribution to the Fiskateers Ribbon/Cupcake ATC swap. And what do you know? It has one of those first few digi stamps I purchased featured. Funny how things come full circle.

Now it's your turn! Leave me your favorite stamp or digi stamp company's name in your comment and you will be entered to win a Martha Stewart mouse-edge punch! I love mine, and I hope the winner will love this one!

Upside-down Lampshades, Hedgehogs, and Assorted Spaniels

I've been awfully busy over the last week or perhaps a little more, trying to keep up and shake the pain that hangs on like stressed out caiman (one of my favorite reptiles, actually. No offense to any crocodillans intended, of course, but they do have rather tensile jaws.) Accupuncture helps, but sometimes the pain is so deep it takes a lot of things helping before I can compose myself and think straight, much less contribute to society in any type of meaningful way.

So in the time between being struck dumb with pain and just being stranded on Couch Island with the pain, it seemed like a good time to make a set of Get Well cards!
When I saw this stamp at Rubber Hedgehog, I knew I had to make it mine. There's very little more sweetly pitiful than a dog running around with a lampshade on his head. (It's okay to let out a sympathetic giggle provided they're up and about and not too ill, right? :)) Poor little guy! I know, they're not really called lampshades. They're Elizabethan Collars or E-Collars. I don't like to use the latter because it's easy to confuse E-C0llar with Electronic Shock Collars, which I loathe. They will screw up your dog. But I'm wandering off course. I'll try to stay on topic. :)

Speaking of Rubber Hedgehog, if you have a cute pet (and if you have a pet, you of course have a cute one!) Rubber Hedgehog runs a contest every year to pick a new pet to be a model for one of their stamps! Check out the rules and regulations on their website. I'm thinking of sending in pics of a few of my pets, maybe. Whoever wins, it's always really cool to see the stamps they end up making. I've bought several stamps featuring their winners because they always pick adorable ones.

Also keeping me busy is making cards for charity. A Cocker Spaniel rescue group asked for some card sets and samples for their auction and goodiebags. I know this one's a springer spaniel, but hey, they're both spaniels. I'm particularly fond of the Bond-girl Silhouetted Dog style paper. I'm pretty sure I got it out of the take-n-leave basket at Jen K's so someone reading this may have been the one who tossed it out. If so, thanks!


Yeah, and I know this one's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, not a cocker, but I figure I like other dogs who look kind of like mine--Parson Russels, certain Chihuahuas, Toy Fox Terriers, etc. So I'm hoping the people at the Cocker fund raiser are the same way.

This one came out oddly Fourth of July-ish. Those are not colors I tend use much, but sometimes you don't know what you're going to do until it's made.

So, hang in there with me till I'm back upright again. There are pictures and links and other things to share next post.

Giving a Customer the Bird

Warning, this is a very picture-heavy post. Keep scrolling and reading to see all of these gorgeous birds! OMG I love it when one of my customers asks me to use photos of their pet to make them a set of cards. I know people joke about how boring it is when someone pulls out 500 pictures of their kids, but make it 500 pictures of their pets and I'll ask if they have 500 more to show me. Maybe it's all the animal rescue work that's made me soft and gushy this way. Maybe it's spending way too much time at Cute Overload that's oversensitized me and makes me emit "Awwww" noises whenever a photo of an animal is near. I'm addicted to cute pets like some are addicted to crystal meth. Oh, is it 4 a.m.? Just a few more pages of LOL Cats, pleeeeease?

So, I start with the customer's .jpgs and mess around a bit with the color, cropping, and whatever else I can do to enhance the appearance of the subject. It was neat getting to play around with birds for the first time. Their colors are so important, but occasionally, I like to draw the eye to the patterns on their bodies, the expressiveness of their faces and stance, as in the case of this guy below. I love how he's climbing a hiking boot! Such a delicate animal against a rough-and-tumble shoe. There's a trust there.This guy's name is Not Sure, and could there be a more appropriate photo to reflect his name? I think not! He totally looks like he's had just about enough of your shenanigans. You can see the dots fading away just like his patience. I know. I know. He's a bird, he already has wings, but who can't use an extra pair? I love the look in his eye. He's such a proud looking bird, he knows he looks good. His chest looks so soft and smooth. Seeing too many sickly animals in rescue, I love seeing healthy birds! I had to use this pic again, but this time, I had it reduced to 2.5x3.5 inches, then snipped him out paper doll style. His expression looks so different here. It's neat how you can bring out different aspects of an expression. Surrounded by a garden of flowers, I think he looks thoughtful, a little pensive.

Check out how freaking adorable these birds are. I have a few avian friends (Hello Monte, if you somehow broke out of your mondo huge cage and are reading this while pulling the keys off of your mom's computer.) like Monte, for example, who is a blue and gold macaw, and female. Apparently, sexing birds isn't like sexing rats where you can tell if they're boys or girls from all the way across the room. Very often birds names don't reflect their gender, but they don't seem to mind.

I love this little love bird! His expression is beyond adorable and check out those colors. I think photos of animals looking quizzically into the camera are precious anyway, but this guy is so focused, he appears to be looking so deeply into the lens, he may be watching the SLR movement. It's a pose that shows off that magnificent beak so well, too. I just want to reach out and touch it!

The client asked specifically for one card to have all her birds on it together. Not easy with so many birds and plumes all over the place! So, I decided to go with a "family portrait" style. I imagine it's even harder to get a group photo in real life, so I hope she likes this one. This guy is totally my favorite. I love all of these birds, but I swear this guy managed to twist his beak into a smile! Here he is, clearly enjoying his bath, so I surrounded him with button "bubbles". I want to grab this guy and give him a huge hug, but I don't think birds like that much, so it's probably a good thing that it's just a photo. That's all! I hope you enjoyed these birds as much as I did. I like making all sorts of cards, but the ones using clients' pet photos are my favorite. I feel like I get to know the animals in the pictures between working with the jpgs and collaging the images afterward. I hope these get the approval of their subjects.