i owe nicola an apology, too...

...because even though the sketches at my paper world get posted for two entire weeks each...and even though said sketches make it just about impossible NOT to make a fabulous card in minutes...i managed to totally not make ANYTHING AT ALL for sketch number five!

however, to atone for my slothful ways, i managed to already finish my card for sketch number six...which was only posted yesterday--GO, ME!!! (sorry to be braggy, but if you know anything about me you know that to have something done on time...much less early...is such a massive rarity that i may never have another chance to be smug about it!) here is a card for lovely husband jeff's lovely father's birthday. (if you can say that 3 times fast and it is after 3pm in your locale, you may have a margarita, wahey!) (although my lovely friend ruby's will need to be tequila-free...sorry, rubes!) i realized midway through that it also qualifies for the current CAARDVARKS challenge, which is to make a card with a transportational theme:

(ship picture and map cut from old books; patterned paper: dcwv, my mind's eye, textured glossy origami paper; cardstock border sticker: wild asparagus; ribbon: we-r-memory keepers; compass sticker: k&co; flourish diecut: dcwv; photo corners: heidi swapp; other: colorbox inks, foam tape)

a word about cutting stuff out of books: the first time jeff saw me do so, he literally *GASPED*...and truthfully, i felt a pang as well. i love, revere, and collect books. i have hundreds of them that i would never, ever consider doing anything but read! the book from which this beautiful painted image came was a 1920's anthology of poetry and short stories for children, purchased at a garage sale for 25 cents. its cover and spine were not just falling apart, they were so imbued with mold that i had to take a benadryl before i could even touch it...and then i sat in my driveway (b/c trust me you would not have wanted this object in YOUR house, either!) and gently removed and dusted off the undamaged pages towards the center of the book. granted, this is an extreme case, but the books i buy and take apart are all damaged in some way: they've been written or crayoned in, they've been torn, they've gotten wet, they are missing pages or covers or spines...they've pretty much already ceased to be books in any meaningful way. the "tipping point" for me on this issue came when i happened to be at a used book sale just as they were closing down. i noticed a number of boy scouts and their leader waiting around, and asked why. they'd come to take away the leftover books, i was told. "oh isn't that nice," i thought, "they will donate them to needy children and hospitals and old folks' homes!" ummmmmmm...no. turns out, they take 'em to a special recycling place where said leftover books are pulped. the boy scouts get paid by the pound for the paper. suddenly the old books i had seen, with those neat maps in them, the children's books with the beautiful illustrations, the travel guides with their funky 1970's tourist photos...the ones i didn't want to read, i just liked "bits" of...were all DEAD BOOKS WALKING. suddenly, the idea of buying a few of them, and (after checking that they were not marvelously rare and worth millions) perhaps just using the "bits" seemed not so much like destruction, but actually a way of saving and honoring them! now, i'm not suggesting that everyone should go out and buy books to cut them up. what i am saying is...depending on the exact books and the exact circumstances...it might not actually be a cardinal sin to do so. having said that, i kind of hope the librarians at my local branch are not reading this...just in case! :)

i owe lori an apology

do you know my lovely friend lori? in addition to being an amazing artist, sparkling wit, and engaging blogger, it is my belief that she has the best avatar on t'internet!

lori's blog is called faerie window...and it's full of beauty, charm and inspiration! she has an etsy shop, too, (also called faerie window--what are the odds?!) which is full of lucious, handmade, totally original, vintage-inspired goodies. i ordered a few items late last week and they had already arrived on tuesday...and this is the first i am mentioning it! lori, i apologize! your lovely creations deserved better attention than i gave them, but i promise it was only due to a seriously overloaded week!

so what did i get? well, i fell in love with this little bunny box:

...how could i NOT??! lori made these as easter favors, but i plan to use mine to hold nephew matthew's christening gift. (which, like all my christening gifts, will be a savings bond; yes i know it's dull, but it's *so* practical. babies become teens REALLY quickly you know...and teens tend to want things like snowboards & i-pods & cars...and savings bonds painlessly double their value before that happens. i rest my case!)

then i saw this little darling:

..and i decided matthew's auntie (yeah, that'd be me!) needed a little something as well. this is called a "faerie-go-round" and believe it or not is at least twice as cute in real life as it looks here. (yes, i know that seems impossible, but you're going to have to trust me!)

needless to say everything arrived beautifully packaged and tied with fancy ribbons. there was a sweet note from lori, and some very appealing handmade tags as a little bonus. so if you're needing a little pick-me-up, i can highly recommend the view through the faerie window!

say hello to my leetle friend

delivered: march 7, 2008

at: 11:45 a.m.
to: lauren (& jeff)
weighing: 3,064 pounds

measuring: 173.8 inches

it's a bouncing baby subaru!!!

yes folks, after several weeks of researching, comparing, test-driving, haggling, and chasing various pieces of paper around two states, i have a new car!!!!! (and by new i mean--for the first time in my life--not just "new-to-me" but actually brand new!) i am still waiting on one more piece of paper before i can sally forth to the dmv and do battle, but in the meantime it is lovable, drivable, and alllllll mine!

i apologize for the totally crap photos...BUT...seeing as i took them with my phone...AND...managed to figure out how to send them to the picture-hosting site...PLUS...learned how to download/edit them, i am feeling quite obnoxiously proud and geek-girrrrrly. also, by the time i got the car home this evening it was pouring with rain!

(btw, i haven't purchased the automotive equivalent of two-toned saddle shoes...the pic was taken at the dealership before the white protective plastic covering was removed from the car...which for the record is a 2008 impreza hatch-back.)

transported!

you know, in the course of february's massive LOVEFEST activities, with a cool new challenge every friday, it was easy to forget that the "normal" caardvarks challenges take place on the 5th and 20th of the month. and i think you'll find that today's the 5th. uh-huh. yep, i'm pretty sure. soooooooo...that makes it challenge time, then...doesn't it?!

this time we embark upon the exciting world of transportation: cars, boats, planes, trains, bikes, rocketships, motorcycles, cablecars, hot air balloons, horse-n-buggies, james-bond-style personal jetpacks...your choice...your theme...your ideas...just make it transportational, and submit your link by midnight, march 18th, to have your creation added to the CAARD TRIP gallery.

and now...without further ado...here is MY card:

(picture cut from a children's book; patterned paper: basic grey, making memories, ctmh; cupcake: paper bliss; rub-on letters: scrapworks, american crafts; decorative pins: joann essentials; ribbon: michaels; other: colorbox ink, foam tape)

this is for one of our nephews on LHJ's side of the family. andrew will be twelve in april and he has loved cars, trucks, and all other motorized vehicles his entire life. so when i saw this cool illustration in a children's book from my "garage sale cut up" pile...i knew immediately that it would be perfect for this challenge...AND for our young racing fan!

operation 09: TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

this week's paper adventure assignment is about advice. here's the brief, as described by the lovely paper adventuress elise blaha:

"This week, document a piece of advice.

Advice you took. Advice you did not take. Advice you should have taken. Advice you gave. Advice you wish you could have given. Think big, think little. Think wardrobe, think new career."

so i thought...and i thought...and here's what i did:

(purple textured cardstock: unknown; rub-ons: rusty pickle; eyelets: making memories; fonts: di, ck typewriter, 3 hour tour; dear abby photo downloaded from the internet)

(a note to the non-american and/or non-my-age reader: abigail van buren was a newspaper advice lady--the brits would call her an "agony aunt"--for years and years, starting in the 1950's or 60's. "Dear Abby", as she was known, became the standard and almost a kind of brand name, not only for that sort of newspaper column, but almost for advice-giving, generally. if someone had a moral or social dilemma, or just something about which they could not make a decision, their friends might well tell them (either seriously or in sarcasm) they had better "write to dear abby". conversely, someone butting in with unwanted opinions or instructions might well be asked with some outrage, "whodoooya think you ARE, dear abby??!" bascially, she was a nice, middle-class, middle-aged, sensible woman who provided a voice of reason and friendly helpfulness to millions. certainly she would *never* say, "FUGGEDDABOUTIT" in a kind of pauly-walnuts-from-the-sopranos voice as i have made her do above, in a way which lovely husband jeff does not find AT ALL funny, even though it has cracked me up for the entire weekend! and yes, that is really her photo, circa 1970.)

this is in the nature of a "note to self". it's intended to remind me not to give in to the frequent temptation i feel to give people advice. because in my experience...it never works...unless by "works" you mean, "effectively ends the situation with everyone involved being angry at me"! (and i sooooo don't need any help with THAT, thanks!) :)

'amember these??!

yes, of course you do; how could you forget the princess castle books from last month? especially since i went on...and on...and on...about them at the time. ;) well, it turns out you're gonna have to listen to one more post about 'em. and it's a rather braggy one, at that, i fear.

see, here's what happened: the very lovely and talented cheryl mezzetti, who leads creative imaginations' design team (CI being the makers of the reyna castle books which formed the base of this project) stopped by m'blog last week, left a very nice comment about the princess castle books, and invited me to post them on CI's gallery. which was very cool, especially since i didn't know there was such a site, and now i am thrilled to have found it, and seen all of the AMAZING projects that people have posted there! ...but i digress...

a few days later, cheryl emailed me to say that the folks at creative imaginations really liked the castles, as well, and would i let them be featured on the CI blog? well, as you can imagine, i had to agonize about that for nearly a nanosecond before replying, hesitantly:

YES, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

and the next thing i know, THIS POST was featured on their blog. how cool is THAT??! well, needless to say, i am very excited and honored and grateful to have a project featured there...and not just any project... but one of the most fun (c'mon, they're princess castles!!!) and most special (they feature my three favorite girls in the universe!) projects i've ever made. i'd pretty much have to say it doesn't get all that much better than this, folks!

thank you cheryl mezzetti, thank you creative imaginations, and most of all, thank you, small princesses!!!

(a super-challenging) MICRO CHALLENGE!!!

super-challenging to *MOI*, that is!

but first, the details caardvarks is doing one of their fast-n-furious, 24-hour mini-challenges--yes, the MICRO CHALLENGE is back! this one is called JUST SAY NO and you have until midnight tomorrow (sunday, 3-2) to complete a card for this challenge and post your link in the comments of the micro post.

what's the assignment? you can do any theme, color, occasion, size or shape; you can use any embelishments, accessories, stamps or trims...BUT...you must JUST SAY NO to patterned paper!!!!!!!!!! (GASP! ok, so now you can see why i had just a bit o'trouble with this one, right?!) :)

you can see the DT's cards here, including mine, which looks like this:

(glossy white cardstock: ranger industries; flowers: prima; brads: making memories; rub-ons: making memories, mambi; acryllic frame: heidi swapp; glitterglue: stickles)

i'm not 100% happy with this. and not just because it's got a plain background. weirdly enough, i'm ok with that. nope, it's mostly the flowers that are bugging me, and i believe it's because i decided to be clever and anchor them to the frame *before* the frame was on the card, so that i wouldn't have all kinds of brad ends inside the card. so the flowers are attached un-naturally close together and stiff-looking. plus...and i cannot believe it is ME saying this...there are too many of 'em!!! so the moral of this story is: serve the DESIGN FIRST and let the mechanics take care of themselves! but hey, it's a sad project indeed from which one learns nothing! and i definitely learned an important lesson! cool.

soooooo...anybody know a blind flower-loving minimalist with a birthday coming up??! :)