look what followed me home, can we keep him??!

the other day while i was out walking i saw this little puppy

he was on his own and seemed a bit lonely, so i called to him

and asked if he wanted a new home

he said yes, so he's going to go and live with our eldest niece, jessica!

(i'm sending this book along too, so she can make him some little friends!)

yet another sketch-based xmas card

my motto is, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and since the method of making holiday cards based on sketches is currently working REALLY well for me, i see no reason to mess with that. this time i've used kazan's sketch 40:


2S4Y's sponsor for this week's challenge is JustRite Stampers and the design team made wonderful use of the large round element in kazan's sketch to show off some of JustRite's mix-n-match sets. getting in the spirit, i decided to break out my 3.25" Christmas Stamp Ensemble...which seems to have been discontinued since the last time i posted about it. ah well, there are plenty of other JustRite Christmas Sets from which to choose, and at the moment they are 20% off!

i had a bit of trouble photographing this baby, for one thing, the handstitching doesn't seem to show up very well. for another, in real life, the pink circle element DOES NOT CLASH with the rest of the card. but i'm out of photo-fussing time for today, so you're just going to have to trust me rather than the pics on those two points, ok?!

(patterned paper: we-r-memory keepers, basic grey, prima, plus some papersource red glitter giftwrap & some dcwv white glitter cardstock; glossy white cardstock: ranger; christmas stamp ensemble: justrite; ink: staz-on & psx; embossing powder: psx; swirly rub-on with gems: k&co; embroidery floss: dmc; seedbeads: mill hill; adhesives: tombow monorunner, scotch tape, 3m foam tape; hint for getting stuff to stick to glittery paper: it WON'T, you have to cheat! cut your mat to the right size, use a craft knife or punch to remove the center portion of the mat, and adhere with tape!)

i discovered these chrismas papers from we-r-memory keepers last year, and i love 'em. not only are they BEAUTIFUL, they're also super-clever: they have one 12x12" pattern on the entire front, but on the back they've got four different, coordinating 6x6" squares! how brilliant is that for card-making??!

you can see that i've used the red square for my background; rather awesomely it ALREADY HAD the corner element from kazan's sketch built right into the design! i stamped the snowflake from my JustRite Christmas Ensemble onto some subtle patterned prima paper, and embellished the inner snowflake with stitching and clear beads, and the outer ring of snowflakes with white beads.

the "happy holidays" sentiment looked pretty good in the original red ink, but it didn't quite stand out as much as i wanted, so i went back and stamped it again and embossed using white powder; then i neatly cut out just that bit and mounted it on foam tape over the original section of the stamp. i finished off the card with a pretty, swirly jewel-bedecked rub-on, and again...it looked good...but i thought it needed one more little touch, so i poked a few holes and added some complementary hand-stitched swirls to the design. et voila!

MORE awesome happy mail!!!

you may remember that my lovely blogging friend leah the orange won my favorite things blog candy giveaway a couple of weeks ago. well she sent me an unbelievably cool thank you card, so of course i have to show you:

isn't it AWESOME?! it's got loads of hot pink and bling and possibly the best sentiment EVER! but that wasn't the only thing she sent! noper...leah decided to send me some of HER favorite scrappy things--wouldja LOOK at this loot??!


there are postcards... (which i didn't even know leah knew i collected!) ...and cool kraft labels, the most awesome newsprint ribbon, a variety of FAB stickers, grungeboard hardware, tickets, and some gorgeous patterned paper...including one with a background of CLOUDS!!! that leah, she's a goooooood picker, i tell ya! :)

thank you thank you thank you

oh smashing orangey one!!!

(ok now clear off, you lot...i gots NEW STUFFS to play with!!!) :)

happy thanksgiving!

personally, i am not a fan of pumpkin pie*, so in my opinion, "nawt pie yet" is indeed the perfect state to which pumpkins ought aspire. i realize i am in the minority on this issue, so i do hope your pumpkin IS pie already, if you like it that way; and that whether or not you are celebrating thanksgiving today, your day is a particularly lovely one...

...preferably involving the pie of your choosing!

~♥~

*i don't like carrot cake, either...or any sweet made from rhubarb. imo, vegetables should play to their strength and remain sidedishes, leaving the dessert realm to those better qualified to pull it off successfully: fruits, nuts, chocolate and so forth. but that's just me. :)

head's up

or in this case, HEADER'S up. the new blog header, i mean. when i looked back through last year's posts for 52Q-question #43, i realized that the paper-pieced one with the deer was made in october of 2008...and much as i still loooooove that thing, an entire year is a bit long on one artwork, imo! since i've been having so much fun choosing and playing with digi-elements, i decided to make something a little different.

so whaddaya think?

(materials: my real-life notebookpaper collage, scanned, cropped & resized; digi elements: chandelier image & shadow: scrap-n-fonts; hipster plumes korners & edges no.4: anna aspnes, designer digitals; damask brush & inked edges tool kit: house of 3; fonts: bleeding cowboys & broken 15)

i think it's kind of fun and dramatic and a bit wintery. i used my notebook paper collage as the base... (however this is not THE thing i told you about that i had in mind; that's still coming, after the person whose birthday card it is receives it, probably next week) ...some assorted digi-stuffs, and a couple of my favorite fonts. i'm pretty pleased with it, actually.

i have a new avatar pic, as well. which i didn't need to post here...but somehow i can never figure out how to get it to load on the sidebar without linking to it online. so it's here.*

i'm definitely going back to changing my header out every 3 or 4 months, though. i think it's more fun to have lots of different ones which rotate; some created digitally and others made the old fashioned way. maybe the *next* one will have monstas??! ;)

*eta half an hour later: my photo is HERE...where it's not is on my sidebar...and in the course of trying to PUT IT on my sidebar, i have managed to make my profile inaccessible! (even though when i access it through dashboard, the "make profile accessible" box *IS* checked. and i saved it. abuncha times.) and i am completely out of time for this now until the weekend. arrrrgh. blogger...some days it's WORTH EVERY PENNY, eh?! (arrrrgggggh!)**

**eta--AGAIN--an additional hour after THAT: i managed to nip back online for 15 min and i *think* i've fixed everything now. my profile's re-linked, and my photo is (finally) on there. it's HUUUUUUUUGE, but i'll worry about that at a later date. surely someplace in the world it's an acceptable hour at which to have a margarita. i'm off to find that place! :)

can you tell i was feverish when i made this??!

maybe just a smidge, right?! ;)

well, i was feverish...and achey...and grumpy...and possessed of a runny nose & hacking cough. which is why i was home on a day that lovely husband jeff was at work. which is how i could make a card for him that would actually be a surprise! (99% of my cardmaking takes place in the living room whilst sat next to the man in front of the tv!)

(monstas cut from paperchase giftwrap; page from an old book; ranger glossy cardstock; dcwv glitter cardstock; (which... HOORAY!... i've finally found a way to really PERMANENTLY attach stuff to it: helllllllllo, sewing machine!!!) sei & wordsworth letter stickers (each practically old enough to be considered "vintage", lol!) plus a few vinyl letters from staples; tombow mono runner & 3m foam tape adhesives)

LHJ and i don't generally "do" gifts to each other on our birthdays, christmas, etc. which other people tend to think is a bit sad, but here's our thought process: we are so amazingly, wonderfully, hugely FORTUNATE as to not really *need* anything. we have lovely and amazing friends and families who show up on our big occasions wth presents and cards and treats-a-plenty. when we were first married, we bowed to the pressure of "it's-a-holiday-GO-BUY-A-GIFT!" and, i mean, you've BEEN THERE, right?! yeah. it ain't pretty.

so we resolved: SKIP the big occasions...but...when either of us happens upon something we think the other will love, we buy it & give it, right then, for no particular reason. or...when either of us happens upon something we *personally* want (but can't realllllly justify buying) we get it anyway... and then go home and thank the other for the thoughtful gift! :)

of course, we don't *IGNORE* birthdays or anniversaries! instead of presents, we hide little notes, or candies, in each other's lunches, or cars. there are phone calls at work, or appallingly-sung messages left on the home machine as a surprise. post-it-note banners have been known to appear on the bathroom mirror just before dawn. excursions are made to favorite restaurants, or to the beach, or a museum. i draw monstas with funny greetings. jeff stops at wegman's and gets all the ingredients for my favorite dinner. it's completely different than what everyone else does...but it works for US!

having said all that, it just so happened that i stumbled upon two things in the last two weeks that i KNOW jeff would really like AND i had excellent coupons in my hand both times. so it seemed silly NOT to grab up the newest nigella cookbook and a tony bourdain dvd!

and now, before i sign off for the day, i'am going to shock you by showing a use for my beloved paperchase MONSTA giftwrap that i've never attempted before:

i have actually

WRAPPED GIFTS WITH IT!!!

(& it worked really well, actually!) :)

i went a little kerrrrrr-AAAAAY-zee!

(i know, i know--*SO* unlike me!)

you know what those physic dudes say: "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." yesterday i showed you a card that was calm, restrained, and full of restful white space. this one isn't ANY of those things, which is quite hilarious when you consider that i made it using scraps from the other one.

but i've got ahead of myself. first the sketch:

it's this past week's super sketchy sunday (day 260) from 365 cards, and i LOVE IT. i'll be using this again for sure. though perhaps not quite as...ahem..."exuberantly" as this:

(patterned paper: paper co, dcwv, vintage sheet music; cardstock: core'dinations & staples; frosted acrylic: shortcuts; rub-ons & gem flourishes: prima; diecut snowflake & brad: making memories; ink: colorbox & bazzill; adhesives: tombow mono runner, gluedots, 3m foam tape; other: sewing machine, edge distresser, basic grey chipboard snowflake used as a template)

i have to say this was one of the most fun cards in the world to make! i'd pre-cut the snowflakes earlier in the week (more on that in a minute) and i had the scraps from the layered tree card sitting next to me. the prima rub-ons were brand new... (someday SOMETHING made by prima will stay intact for more than a day in my house!) ...and i knew immediately i wanted the outflung flourishy bits from the sketch to be crystals.

it took me a few minutes to figure out how i could *support* the crystals if they were going to flourish themselves right off the card base, but as soon as i found a leftover sheet of shortcuts' frosted acrylic, i was good to go. i affixed the gems to the snowflake, starting in the center, and then when i got out to the edge i placed a larger-than-necessary bit of acrylic under the snowflake to catch the "overhanging" ones. i anchored the acrylic securely to the back of the flakewith gluedots, and then trimmed carefully around each flourish. et voila!

finally, two words about said gorgeous snowflake: NEVER AGAIN. i traced a basic grey chipboard ornament that i absolutely adore, and i LOVE the result, but cutting this baby out was a B*TCH and a half. you know me, my middle name is "fussycutting" but yeeeeeeowza! all those little curls and curves and reverses which make it look so lovely and so intricate were waaaay too much on the old carpals. i cut three layers of this at once...and two of 'em are on this card. the third will show up at some point and then i will...regretfully...go back to ordinary store-bought flakes!