Whirlpool of Imagination

Brown, Brown, Brown

The kids go back to school in just over 12 hours. I can feel my mojo creeping back in. As much as I love my kids, it is time for all of us to get a little space from each other. I have penciled in studio time on my schedule tomorrow - cannot wait to get my hands dirty again.

I did sneak away for a quick stamping session yesterday. I have to send a get well card so I used the Splitcoast design team challenge as a jumping off point. I don't plan on submitting the card - just used the challenge for inspiration. We were to make a monochromatic card using browns with just a teensy touch of red.

This is one of those cases where the card looks oodles better in person. The browns are looking so washed out. I think it was the yucky rainy weather that I had to use for my backdrop when I took the picture. The large medallion stamp is from the new Stampin Up catalog. I have loved all the samples I am seeing at Splitcoast and finally decided to get this one inked up. I used Momento Cocoa Bean ink for the image and sentiment. The sentiment is from Papertrey. I used one jewel for my touch of red.

I hope to visit all my blog buddies tomorrow - I've missed all your wonderful creations. Have a great night!

Explosion of Cucumbers

This week I have given up. On trying to do any stamping with the kids home, that is. It's their last week before school starts and we are either running around or, if we are at home, the exuberance factor shall we say has completely messed with my mojo. They start back on Monday and I am going to just sit in my studio and reacquaint myself with all my toys that day!

So today I thought I'd offer up a recipe instead. Right now gardens are spitting out squash, zucchini and cucumbers faster than they can be eaten. Well, not my garden. My thumb is the polar opposite to green. I once killed a cactus. Yep, a cactus. But I know enough people who can actually grow things to receive all sorts of goodies this time of year. The problem is what to do with them all. Here's a quick and easy cucumber recipe that we make quite often. It can be found in the Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites cookbook by the Moosewood Collective.

Cucumbers Vinaigrette

2 med. cucumbers, peeled

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground dried mustard

ground black pepper to taste

Slice the cucumbers crosswise into 1/8 - 1/4 inch rounds. Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and mustard in a serving bowl. Toss the sliced cucumbers and add pepper to taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.

*Note: I very often will double this recipe when we have a lot of cucumbers.

Witch Sighting

I am officially back from a little trip to Maine. We had gorgeous weather and I'm having serious withdrawal from the fresh picked Maine blueberries (there was a bush right outside our house). Now it's back to the heat and humidity!

I'm also just getting back into the SCS challenges and I noticed that last week they put out some challenges for the Fall Design Team. I didn't plan on submitting anything for the DT. I mean, I like my work and all but have gotten pretty cynical about the whole Design Team thing (and really, I'm okay with rejection - people spend money on my cards all the time so even if the powers that be don't want my work, there are plenty that do!) but these challenges seemed like so much fun that I figured why not stamp for the fun of it. After all, that's what makes me happy. I've only done one but I'm thinking about ideas for the other two challenges. The kids are home this week so those cards may not get made before the deadline but it gives me fun things to think about.

This card was made for the Autumn/Autumn Holiday/Christmas card theme.

I was inspired to do a Halloween card after getting that little Papertrey box from UPS today. Ironically, this witch is from an old Papertrey set although the sentiment is a new Papertrey stamp. The moon was first sponged with Nik Bantok chrome yellow ink. I then stamped the witch and sentiment in Momento tuxedo black ink. The patterned paper is from Black Market Paper Society (Ebony & Alabaster - Singing in the Rain).

This layout is a favorite of mine and always looks so nice and clean to me. Hope you like it too. I'm off to enjoy about 15 minutes of quiet in the house - Mo took the kids for a short bike ride to give a a tiny bit of a break. Have a great night!

Simple Birthday Flowers

I took a quick break from baby announcements to make a birthday card. Since I had rose red on my mind, that is the predominant color in this card.

The flowers and grass are both from Stampin' Up. The flowers are stamped in rose red and the grass in stamped 3rd generation in artichoke. Basically, that means after inking the stamp, I stamped it off twice before stamping onto my cardstock so it would be significantly lighter.

The sentiment is from Verve Visual and is stamped in rose red. This is my all time favorite circle shaped birthday sentiment. That set is awesome although I think I need to write Verve and tell them a few more sentiments I would LOVE to see in that font and shape!

Instead of going with a black layer under the image layer, I decided to pull out my charcoal grey cardstock from Papertrey. As with a million other colors, it goes nicely with the rose red. Have a great day!

Announcing a New Baby Girl

I am knee deep in baby announcements this week (and probably next week too). I know, Michelle is shuddering right now at the idea of mass production but I find it kind of relaxing. The mom wanted pink but not the traditional bright pink so we went with my personal favorite, rose red.

Pair that rose with chocolate chip and my fingers are doing the happy dance as they work. This is a simple pocket card. I started with a 9 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch piece of cardstock and score it at 3 3/4 inches so my final dimensions are a traditional A2 card size.

The feet are from Stampin' Up and stamped with rose red. The other layer of rose cardstock is stamped with a textured harlequin background from TAC in rose red. The mom will give me wallet sized pictures for the inside card which fit just perfectly on this 3 x 5 inch tag. I will also print all the baby info on the back side of the photo tag.

Alrighty, enough of a break. I have 60 of these to make, you know.

On With the Thank You's

After the presents comes the thank you's. Mo and I try hard to get Meg and Conor into the habit of writing thank you notes when they receive gifts. I try to make it a bit more fun by creating unique cards for them to use. Last week was Meghan's birthday and now she has some thank you notes to write. As is my habit lately, I've been creating flat notecards for all of our thank you needs.

Here is what I came up for Meghan this year. The little girl is from Pink Cat Studio and stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink. She is colored with copic markers (E00, B12, B16, E35). The sentiment is from an adorable little set from Elzybell and also stamped in tuxedo black.

These are your traditional A2 size, just flat instead of foldover. And see, like a good mom I went with the blue again.

8 Year Olds Like Sparkle

I forgot to take a picture of Meghan's birthday card before we gave it to her so I rescued it for a photo shoot. This was created with last week's CAS challenge from Splitcoast in mind (remember - it was to add bling).

For ages, Meg's favorite color was pink, everything had to be pink. This year that has changed. Meg is now asking that I no longer buy things in pink, her new favorite color is blue. I told her that her lunch bag was already bought in the obligatory pink so she was stuck with that but I'd keep her color preferences in mind for the future. And see, I kept my word and went with a blue birthday card.

The image from TAC is stamped with Momento tuxedo black ink and colored with copic markers.

Copics: G09, B00, B12, B16

I have no idea where the sentiment is from but it too is stamped with tuxedo black ink. For the bling I added the rhinestones for the cherry and in the pink liner. Pretty simple all in all. Have a great day!

Stampin' Up Mail Call

I do not have any creations from me for you today but never fear, I still have pretty cards for you to look at. As you know, I recently became a Stampin' Up demo. I have yet to meet her but I have found a super nice upline who has already sent me pretty mail. So today is Stampin' Up mail day. All these cards are from Terri, my wonderful new upline.

 

 

Aren't these all so pretty? Have a great day!

Let's Party!

Overripe bananas means......banana bread! I've been busy busy mixing up ingredients and have two breads in the oven as we speak - makes the house smell yummy!

We had a wonderful time for Meg's dinner last night (and there's leftovers so more yumminess tonight as well). And now it's time for me to think birthday party. I have finally learned that with a summer birthday it's easier to wait before Meg has her party (yes, it took me eight years, I'm a slower learner). Nobody is in town and trying to make sure what friends are around when just plain drives me nuts. So we will have the party after school goes and so this week I've been making her birthday invites which HAVE to go out by tomorrow. I'm not surprised with the rush - I am the queen of procrastination, after all.

Meg picked out the stamp she wanted for the image. So we may not be having a pool party (tough when you don't have a pool) but she loved this image from Elzybell's so much that we are going with the flow. Everything is stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with copic markers.

Copics: E00, R14, G02, YG07, E33, E35

The sentiment is from Papertrey and the patterned paper is from Doodlebug. I had the hardest time coming up with a final design but this one was okayed by the boss (MEG) so this is what we are going with. I have to print up the inside info and get that all done. Of course I have no clue what we are doing for the party but I'm saving that for another day (probably the week of the party knowing me!)

Hope you are having a fantastic day!

Pretty Tag Cards

First off I have to say a big happy birthday to my little Meghan. She is turning 8 years old today and becoming such a big girl! I can't believe that it's already 8 years - the time goes by so quickly!

Today I have some cute and quick little what I like to call, Tag Cards. Instead of the traditional one layer tag, these were made to open up like a card but in the smaller gift tag size.

These cards were created for shower gifts - wedding colors pink and brown.

The gift cards are made by using my Wizard and nestibilities. I place a folded over piece of cardstock over my scallop circle nestie, leaving a bit of the die not cutting into the cardstock. Send it through the machine and when done, I have a bit of cardstock that did not cute and therefore I end up with a card, albeit a mini one. The tag was stamped with the bride from Stamping Bella  in Tuxedo Black ink and colored with copic markers (E00, E33, G09), a red spica pen and a prismacolor cool grey 10% marker for the outlining.

This tag card was made the same way although this image is from Stampin' Up (still stamped with Tuxedo Black). The flowers were colored with a pink sakura gelly roll glitter pen and the bodice and parts of the dress between the flowers was "colored" with clear stickles.

Add a bit of cording and/or ribbon and now you have a nice gift tag that can still be personalized on the inside and treated as a card.

Rain, rain and more rain has kept up inside today although I did manage a trip to Michael's and the library. (needed to get us all out for a little while). Tonight it's out to dinner to celebrate little Miss Meg. The kids are allowed to choose the restaurant for their birthday dinner and Meg chose one of the local Thai restuarants. Wooohoooo - we'll be eating well tonight! Have a great one!