Oh, The Irony

No cat story today for the Cat Lovers Hop, but one that will have you reaching for the nip.

Today I learned that my employer is doing one of those really stupid things that would make any sane person face palm themselves so hard they break their nose.

So I broke the shackles to my desk and wandered off to a trusted coworker to complain about situation. He laughed and asked me, "Are you saying you're not 'Team OurEmployer'???!"

I answered, "Of course I'm not 'Team OurEmployer' they only pick the fat, out-of-shape kids because they feel bad for them. That's no way to run a business!"

Then I went back to my office and answered the phone. They wanted to schedule a professional development workshop in my conference room.  Professional development means it is for the employees, not our customers.  The name of the workshop: Suicide Prevention.

Yep.

And here's today's cat card. It is a waterfall card so lots of different pictures to show off the different sections of it.

The Fine Print: Cat face stamps by Hero Arts, cat accessory stamps by either SU or CTMH. 

Old Parts Make New

I stamped up this panel several years ago and then it languished in my drawer of fall goodies. I bought the fern green gingham ribbon a couple years ago and never broke the seal for it. I stamped the leaf last year and didn't use it.

Finally this year I put all those old pars together and said, "Oh look, it's a card!" and it was. I added some dabs of glitter glue for a current touch.

The Fine Print: Small stamps by Rubber Stamp Tapestry, greeting by Hero Arts, leaf by Creative Impressions.

One Sheet What the Heck

So once upon a time I was poking around the Internet and found a pattern for a 6x6 One Sheet Wonder set of cards.  One sheet wonders are when you take one sheet of designer patterned paper and cut it up in such a fashion that you get a whole bunch of cool cards out of it.

I'm more familiar with the ones made from 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper but I could see a 6" x 6" pattern being useful as well so I printed it out. The other day I finally decided to try it out, so I chopped up my patterned paper and then...

Well then... I wondered what the heck I was doing. The template calls for chopping your 6x6 paper into little bits that you layer and then put a focal point on top. I had to sponge each little piece otherwise they got lost once I layered them up over each other. Plus the pieces were so small they didn't really do much for the card. I added another larger layer of DP into the mix as a background and changed out some of my small bits of designer paper into solid paper.

The cards came out fine once I made my substitutions and added in a greeting. However, I was pretty much not impressed with this one sheet wonder pattern. If it has any merit at all it shows a good way to use up little tiny scraps of DP, which doesn't interest me much (I know what a trash can is and how to use it).  So there you have it. Feel free to share your favorite OSW pattern or website with me.

The Fine Print: Flower stamps by Hero Arts, Hey There greeting by Stampin' Up, designer papers from my stash. 

Flower Vase

I saw THIS card over on Maxine's blog and just knew I had to give this technique a try. Cutting out a panel to save it from embossing is much easier than a way I tried years ago which involved creating some mask out of cardboard and wasn't very effective. This is way effective and rather cool to boot.

So a big shout out to Maxine for sharing it with us. Truly if you haven't followed that link you really should to see what it looks like white on white.

The Fine Print: Stamp by Hero Arts, embossing folder by Stampin' Up, and Stitched Rectangles by L'il Inkers.

Tucson

An on-line friend of mine once went on rampage once and sent all sorts of people personalized cards. Here is the ultra cool one she sent me.

She obviously thinks I'm far more vogue than I really am.

The Fine Print: Background and lady stamps by Hero Arts.

Beaded Inspiration

This week over at Inspiration Destination the theme is Anything Goes! Oh wait! That's what the theme is every week. However, the design team is featuring lots of young lady stamps this time which inspired me to pull out this stamp and have a go at it.

It wasn't just the design team who helped me to dream up the card, it was these pesky beads:

These were passed out at my stamp club last month to challenge folks to make something with them. You could do with them whatever you liked. I ended up unstringing the beads and making jewelry for my little lady stamp. I also fancied her up with a piece of eyelash twine.

The Fine Print: Lady stamp by Hero Arts, fancy printed vellum by Hot Off the Press, photo corners by Recollections, and twine from my stash. 

Cute Halloween

When I was going through my stash recently I found these pre-cut and layered cards that I had picked up from The Paper Cut at a convention a while ago.  I decided the colors were perfect for Halloween so I made five similar cards.

I used some of my little used stash like the spider web embossing folder, the pumpkin embossing and cutting dies, tiny googlie eyes, and a spider eyelet.  They were fun cards to make and since they were all similar they went together very quickly.  To jazz them up a bit I decorated the insides with designer paper, two different kinds.

The Fine Print:Witchy Bird by Hero Arts, greeting by A Muse Artstamps, embossing/cutting folders by Cuttlebug, and spider eyelet and designer paper from my stash.

Who Are These Old People?!

Since I have vast experience ignoring annoying things I don't usually notice those ads they put on the side of many websites.  However, my computer had gotten bogged down so I was forced to stare at the ads for an extended period of time while checking my Yahoo mail.

It took awhile before it sunk in and once it did I realized that this ad showed up frequently in my sidebar, so I had no choice but to ask, "Who are these old people and why do they want me to date them?"

Hubby, ever helpful, asked, "What are you talking about?"

So I read the ad off to him, "'Meet single men in your area, 50+.'  This stupid ad shows up all the time!  Why would I want to date these old farts?!"

"Ummm.....," Hubby answered tentatively, "Because that would be age appropriate for you, being as you are in your late 40's."

D'oh!

The Fine Print:  Hubby is younger than me because if you get them young enough you can train them right as they grow up.  Bouquet stamps by Hero Arts.

Frilly Scrollwork Heart

I pulled out my drawer of hearts and Valentine's stamps today.  I decided it was time to get serious about making Valentine's cards.  Right after that I realized that it was a beautiful day so I ran outside to play.

Afterwards I came in and made this card.  I've always thought bright green and pink looked fun together so this card made me very happy.  The stamp is an oldie and I admire it every year, but do I actually use it?  Honestly I'm not sure if I've used it before now, but here it is.

I've commented to several people lately that I discovered a huge stash of vellum in the closet and that vellum needs to make a comeback so I can use it up. I guess it is up to me to start the trend, so look!  Vellum!  Now run to your stash and gets yours out so you can be on the cutting edge of this return trend.

The Fine Print: Rosebud Heart stamp by Hero Arts, Liquid Pearl dots by Ranger, designer paper, vellum, and ribbon from my stash.  I was worried about the scrollwork ribbon over the patterned paper but embraced my inner Janeen and went with it. She combines patterns and elements so well!

Falling Leaves

I made this card for a falling leaves swap, but really my leaves are securely held in place with a brad so they best not be falling anywhere.

They refused to stick with liquid glue, double stick tape or even red line tape so they had to be tacked down with a brad.  The leaves are made from a kind of a strange plastic like stuff.  They were part of an autumn centerpiece on twisty wire.  I got to take some with me so I could play with the leaves.  That was a million zillion years ago so it is a good thing I finally used them, eh?

The Fine Print: Background stamping down with Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps, Autumn greeting by Hero Arts, deckle edged scissors by Fiskars, and all that wonderful fall colored cardstock from my overly excessive fall cardstock stash.

Back to School Time

Today is the first day of Fall Semester.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!

The Fine Print: Snoopy stamp by Stampabilities, number line by Hero Arts/Studio Calico, scallop border by A Muse Studio, fabulous back to school paper from The Paper Cut.  It's a huge pack, so apparently there is a lot of back to schoolness in my future (because after working at a school for 26 years I haven't had enough.)

Get Well Peacock

Isn't there some wacky saying about an elephant stepping on your toes and the bird of paradise flying up your nose?  Or I am just hallucinating wildly again?  Anyway, if the bird of paradise does fly up your nose...

...you just may get a visit from the Get Well Peacock of Health.  Or you may just get a sinus infection.

The Fine Print: Peacock stamp by Hero Arts "Beautiful Peacocks" set, paper by DCWV, flowers by Prima, ribbon and brad from my stash.  Better the Get Well Peacock of Health than the Chicken of Despair. Always.  By the way, there is a get well greeting inside this card but of course you are psychic and knew that.  Or psychotic.  I can't keep those straight.

Super Spiffy Flower

I didn't have it in me to put up a post last night.  Now today I'm rather fagged out after calling several dozen or so random phone numbers and delivering the same message.  You should try it some time.  After awhile the words all sound stupid and you have no idea what you're saying.

Here is a card that isn't stupid and has a direct easy-to-understand message.  Um... depending on where you live that message my be a lie, but you know, spring is here where I am.  That's why I'm wearing long sleeves and have a heater blowing on my feet.  Because where I'm at spring = air conditioning and lots of it, rather you need it or not.

The Fine Print: Seriously, if you haven't confirmed your spot on the nursing program wait list would you please do so right now because I don't want to hear your whiny lame excuses about why you ignored a requirement for something as important as your future career. Stamp by Hero Arts, border punch and small butterfly by Martha, dies by Spellbinders,and  ribbon and papers from my stash. Lookie! I put one lone bling on a butterfly and it didn't make me twitch!

A Merry Aqua, Silver and White Christmas to You!

I guess today is all about Christmas cards since I have two posts on the subject.  The other one is for the Rudolph Day challenge (two Christmas cards, that's all she wrote) and this one is for Merry Monday, which is a color combo challenge this time.

The colors in question are aqua, silver, and white which are surprisingly festive and surprisingly hard to determine... ...that is, for the aqua.  Some aqua is more blue and some is more green and really it all came down to what I had in my stash.  We had also been given permission to substitute a light gray for silver.

I was tickled to find these pre-printed card bases in my stash and paper in the right colors--both kinds of aqua, gray for silver, and white.  It's like they knew this challenge was coming!  I had a hard time deciding between two stamps so I ended up using them both. I even found some silver glitter, silver glitter paper and shiny silver embellishments to get actual silver onto my cards.

The Fine Print: Card bases, dotted paper, plain aqua, and silver glitter cardstocks by DCWV, stick Christmas tree by Hero Arts, star colored with Sakura silver glitter pen, embellishments by Candi, Hippy Snow Chick by A Muse Artstamps, flower by Prima, and colored in Copics.

CASE this Sketch and Merry Monday

I decided to jump in and join some card challenges today because they do all the thinking for you and I cannot brain today.  I started off by trying out a new challenge called CAS(E) this Sketch.  They give you a Clean and Simple (CAS) sketch and see what you can make with it.  You are allowed to turn it this way and that.

I admire the Clean and Simple look but I don't necessarily think I excel at it so I really wanted to give this a go.  I have feathers and could have easily completely copied this sketch but I wanted to not do feathers just to make things more difficult (and besides if I used feathers I'd have to decide what feathers and that involves thought).

Here's my card.  I'm not really sure what I think of it. I like how the background mimics the flowers in a way but I feel the flower placement is a bit awkward.  Well, live and learn I say. I'm going to lick this CAS thing yet, just maybe not today.

The second challenge I joined is the Merry Monday one in the name of getting my Christmas cards done earlier this year.  This week they ask us to use a snow dude in our creation.  Okay, I think they said snowperson but you know what I mean. 

Since I used a new-to-me snow dude last week I knew who I wanted break out again this week.  And here he is done up in blues this time. Oh yes, he was definitely a good purchase!

The Fine Print: I'm learning these challenge better like did you know you should add their nifty challenge logo into your blog post?  Yeah, that's considered polite. Top card stamps by Hero Arts (flower), A Muse Studio (love), and unknown peg (heart), papers and bling from my stash.  Bottom card stamp by Stamps Happen, papers and silver brads from my stash, glitter glue from Stickles.

Circular Reasoning

The problem with being off for winter recess and then getting sick is you lose track of what day it is.  Actually that whole month and year thing have gone kind of slippery on me too now that I think of it. I have the curtains open today so I at least know that it *is* day, although it is a pretty dreary gray one. 

I was ready to come play in the snippets playground but I'm a day late and a buck fifty short for that, so I'll show off this card I made that very well could have been made with snippets but wasn't. 

I wanted to make sure all my pinks and shimmery browns all matched so I dragged out large sheets to make this one but you could use up pieces of this and that was well.  I CASEd a card I made at a workshop a long time ago.

Card swaps involving the use of circles crop up from time to time and I always sign up for them. Then I promptly regret it because I never know what to do with circles.  I'm more of a triangle girl myself.  Once I made this card I made sure to keep it around for inspiration.  I thought about doing it with a circle embossed background but got worried that might make for too many circles in one card.

The Fine Print: Smile by Hero Arts, circle punches by Stampin' Up and EK Success, brown ribbon from stash, embossing folder from Stampin' Up.

Mean Nasty Old Lady

The other day I was hanging out in my craft room which also doubles as our living room and the cats' dormitory.  I was trying to do my thing but I kept getting interrupted by cats.

"Pet me, mom!"
"No! Pet me!"
"I was here first, pet me!"
"Lookit me! I can dance on top of the bookcase!"
"Pet me!"
"Hey! I need to sit right here on your desk"
"Well I  need to sit on your lap"
"Lookit me! I can fly!  Whoops! I meant to do that."
"Mom, can I have a treat?"
"A treat!"
"Treat!"
"Meeeee!  I want!"
"Pet me and then treats!"
"Wait, I didn't get treats!"

So I stood up and announced loudly, "Who wants to go to the veterinarian?!" and suddenly there were no more cats in my living room.  I'm such a mean, nasty, old lady.

The Fine Print: Nose by Charles.  Owls by Hero Arts. 

The Coming of Autumn...

Here's a fall card I made quite awhile ago, back in the days of old when men were men and fair maidens frolicked with dragons.  Or something like that.

I was supposed to be learning a new watercolor style technique, wherein you misted the paper you were going to stamp on liberally with water so when you stamped the image would take on a water colored look.  I forgot to mist the paper with water first, so this turned out to be just plain old stamping.

I colored the image with a variety of markers which I think looks mildly odd.  I'll bet it would look much better with the slightly smudged and blended water color look.  I still like this card though as I'm partial to autumn and its colors.

The Fine Print: Leaf stamp by Hero Arts and I forgot to check to see who made the greeting.  Whoever it is has several very nice nature-themed greetings.  Maybe one of these days I'll remember to try this technique again, the correct way!

Mystery Unveiled

Every month at my stamp club meeting those who are feeling adventurous agree to participate in a mystery item challenge.  The mystery is that you are going to be given something that you won't know what it is in advance. The challenge is then you have to make a card with it.  All those who make a card with the mystery item then put it on a display board at the next meeting and we swap the cards out amongst each other. We have a lot of fun with this swap.

Here is the card I brought to our March meeting.  The mystery item is the green bauble.  Luckily it had a flat back.  I really wanted to make a turtle with it, but as my husband pointed out that it would only work if it looked like you were looking down on the turtle and did I have a stamp like that?  The answer was no, but I will say that someone else had one and made that card!

Above is the card I received in return.  I like the oriental flare to this card and how the decorative edged scissors look like bamboo.  I also like the different and random layers and patterns.  I think it is neat when people do that.  When I do it, it tends to look like a hot mess.

The Fine Print: Top card stamp by Hero Arts.  Bottom card by Judy M.  The mystery item we have for next month is a lock of curly doll hair.  I so hope someone has a topless man stamp and they turn it into chest hair.  I may have to find such a stamp myself just to be sure someone does it.

Aiy Crarumba!

After much duress and threats of bodily harm I started making Christmas cards last night.  And let me tell you... It was just as every bit as painful as I thought it would be. 

No, really, I had a hard time coming up with things.  I'm sure I'll get into the swing of it in no time.  I hope!  As you can see, I have this interesting red and green ribbon that is reversed on one side.  Expect to see more that in future!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Hero Arts, DeNami Designs, and Stampendous (in that order).