Whirlpool of Imagination

Wiped Out

I thought I had escaped this winter without getting sick. So close to spring but no such luck. I haven't been on the same floor as my studio, much less creating in the last couple of days. I'm giving myself tonight to completely get over this and then its fingers deep into ink. let's hope for some wild weekend creations.

Congratulations to all the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame winners. And congrat's to all who entered. That, in itself, is a fantastic accomplishment. I look forward to seeing more in upcoming issues of the magazine. Now off to find my ginger ale.

Faux Embossing

I've said it before and I know I'll say it again....if you are a stamper, you really need to make regular trips to splitcoast stampers. For techniques, gallery examples and projects, it is a gold mine. Every Monday there is a technique challenge and this week was faux embossing. Since I needed to make a birthday card for my aunt, I thought this would be neat to try. Simply put, faux embossing means using punches and layering the objects onto the same color of background cardstock/paper. Since I like my tools, I have a lot of punches which are currently sitting around collecting dust. This is a wonderful way to put them to use.

Stamps for this card are stampin' up.

Pink Paint Can

I know I'm a little behind the times with the paint can trend but I'm usually slow to warm up to trends anyway. I've been back and forth as to the best adhesive for these and haven't made many because of that. Lately I've been working with the red line sticky tape which is really aggresive but easy to use. I had tried the carpet tape but man, that was too aggressive - I had the hardest time controling it. So anyway, I wanted to give a little something to my friend who had her baby last week so I decided to make a can. It's really simple but I like it. The papers are from DCWV and the flowers are the Prima flowers. I used a drawer knob for the top and painted it pink.

Pretty Sneaky Sis

Can you guess what commercial that line comes from? Last week was a pretty long week so Friday night Mo and I decided to just spend the night with some good VH1 programming. We caught the marathon of I Love Toys halfway through. One of my favorite VH1 series has been I Love the 80s. My teenage years happened during the 80s and it was such a fun time. I have great memories of that time. No, I didn't have the perfect life, I wasn't the coolest kid in school, in fact I was quite shy. But I found some good friends and just had some plain old fun and now I can look back to those times with a definite fondness. What was so great about I Love Toys was that I went back even farther to my childhood days. And my childhood was in many ways, not fun and not pretty but I choose to look back at the times that were special and of course, what you played with and most importantly, the friends you played with stick with me. I recognized every toy. If I didn't have it growing up, my brothers who are ten years younger than me did. Some favorites on the list:

#97 Spirograph - I'm dying to find my old one to use it on my cards and sb pages - I hear the new  ones just don't compare

#65 Jigsaw Puzzles - still love them

#62 - the game of Life - fun, fun, fun

#48 - Little People - and not just the new ones my kids have now - they had the little people village with the movie theater and post office and the traffic light with bridge - spent hours creating stories with that

#40 Big Wheels - only thing I have to say - 360 spins when you pulled the break

#28 - Crayons - still use them - just melted them with the iron recently to create a cool background effect

#2 - Barbie - had the Barbie townhouse - three floors with an elevator - loved it. I also remember my best friend Lisa had the pool - we'd fill that up in the summer on her front driveway

What was number one? Hula hoops - had them, liked them, can't do them anymore but I'm not sure I'd rank that number one.

Did you guess the tag line from the commercial? Connect Four - When the sister got the 4 on a diagonal the brother uttered those immortal words, Pretty Sneaky Sis....

It's A Girl!!

Amy had her baby yesterday - a little girl. No name yet..... The card I'm sending is the pink version of a recent card design I made. Stamps are from Pink Cat Studio and Stampin Up and the paper is Die Cuts With A View. I'm hoping to finish a paint can gift tomorrow and get a pic of it to put up.

Etiquette Experts?

I need your help!  So now that I finished my brothers soon-to-be wife shower invitations, I got roped into addressing all 70 of those puppies. How formal do you address shower invites? As formal as wedding invites? i.e. Mrs. John Smith, Mrs. Jane Smith or Jane Smith???

It's finally done!

I got to Michael's yesterday and got my basket filler and finally have the fundraiser basket all finished. I originally planned to paint the basket a light colored purple and stamp the same flowers on it but as I started, totally changed my mind. I decided I wanted to try my hand at the crackle technique. I've never done it before but figured that I'd give it a try. I painted a lighter purple, did the crackle finish and then painted a darker purple, hoping to match the colors in the flowers. I love the crackle look and its so cool how you start to see the paint actually break apart right away. I was going to wrap a deeper purple ribbon around the lighter one but couldn't get the look I wanted so I added a few Prima flowers to the front center instead. Now we'll see if anyone bids on it!

Work or John Cusack??

I really was planning on working tonight. I've got response cards to assemble and I've got this great idea for baby cards (so Amy hurry up and have this baby already so I can show off my new design!) but I played hooky from work and watched a movie. I am so behind the movie times. I walk the aisles of Blockbuster and in the new releases, there is hardly a movie I have seen (and most frightening of all is that I don't recognize most of the movies on the shelves). But as I scan movie titles, I see a John Cusack movie which I have yet to see - Must Love Dogs. It's a chick flick AND it stars John Cusack. Life cannot get better than that. Mo walks up, looks at my choice, rolls his eyes and decides he's picking his own guy choice because he's not sitting through this with me. I had grand plans to work while watching the movie but nope, lounged on the couch instead. Soooo, baby cards and wedding invites will just have to wait until tomorrow.

Final note: I tried to add a few photo's of John but couldn't get more than that little red x in a box.

A Little Saturday Afternoon Fun

Your Hidden Talent

You are a great communicator. You have a real way with words. You're never at a loss to explain what you mean or how you feel. People find it easy to empathize with you, no matter what your situation. When you're up, you make everyone happy. But when you're down, everyone suffers.

I decided to have a little fun this afternoon. I am knee deep in wedding invitations for my brothers' wedding. Now that's enough to make a girl go crazy because: 1)there are a LOT of details involved in making wedding invitations and 2)my brother is TEN years younger than me. I remember when he was born, changed his diapers and babysat. The concept that he is old enough to get married blows my mind. (And truth be told, makes me feel a little old). So I jumped over to the blog survey site and just had a little fun. I just bet Mo agrees with the last sentence - when I'm not happy, nobody is happy!

I painted the base coat for my basket. I've kind of changed design ideas midstream - hope to have it done and ready by tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Auction Update

I mentioned yesterday my concerns about how to package my auction items. After a trip to the craft store store, I compromised and picked up a paper mache box. I can decorate it as I would the paint can but can display the items as in a basket. I'll keep the theme as with the items inside and decorate it to match - that's the weekend project.

Here's a couple more pics of items for the basket. Stamps: Stampendous, TAC