this might be the weirdest card i've ever made!

(so obviously i am VERRRRRRRY proud indeed!!!)

first a bit of backstory: this is the third in a series of "legendary crooners" cards i've made for my chiropractor's birthday* the last couple of years. he loves the rat pack, loves vintage vinyl, (of course, he doesn't refer to it as "vintage" since he bought most of it new!) and he has a similar sense of humor to mine--by which i mean weird, obviously! :)

i made him an elvis card last year and a frank sinatra one the year before. this year it was either dean martin or tony bennett. i couldn't think of a good tony bennett joke, so dean it is! (just in case you don't happen to be a fan, one of dean martin's biggest hits was "that's amore". for comedic greeting card purposes i've changed the lyrics to "that's a birthday".)

my first idea was just to make a regular card with dean martin on it and the custom lyrics. this quickly morphed to making a round black card that looked like a 45 record. then i remembered this beauty made by my lovely friend & fellow caardvark stephanie ...it's from a while ago but i still absolutely looooooooooooooove it!

you'll have noticed that my card is nothing like stef's...but thinking of it reminded me that i still *have* a few old 45's**. "wouldn't it be cool," i asked lovely husband jeff, "if i actually used the record as a card??!" and of course he agreed. :)

i used the real disc label as a guide to make my own custom label for the center. it includes faux publishing information which works in the altered song title and a pretend album title, as well as mine & jeff's & our chiro's names. then i decorated the disc with a picture of dean martin and used rub-ons to make my own lyrics to "THAT'S A BIRTHDAY". finally i decorated the paper sleeve to serve as an envelope, et voila!

i think it's *hilarious* (she said modestly!) and i CANNOT WAIT to give it to him. so it's lucky my back is COMPLETELY OUT right now, eh? so we get to see him tomorrow!!!***

...now i just have to think of a tony bennett joke for NEXT year... :)




*what?! you don't celebrate YOUR chiropractor's birthday??! how very odd... :)

**god alone knows WHY...i have not owned a record player in AT LEAST a decade...

***unfortunately i am serious about this part. back-wise it's been a lousy couple of weeks; which is a big part of the reason i've been even worse than usual as far as email & comments go. i do apologize sincerely, but honestly it's about all i can do right now to get in and out of work, complete my dt duties, and do a bit of housework and general life maintenance. please forgive me, full service shall resume ASAP!

52Q: 30 (thank)

wouldja believe...i am on to THIS WEEK'S 52Q question??! ok, yeah, i know, i've been doing them out of order, but seriously...i really am finally CAUGHT UP...and also...onto this week's question!!! (go, me!) :)

and so, without further ado, i present:

question 30: whom do i need to thank?

(materials: notebook paper; scraps of basic grey & doodlebug patterned paper; making memories magnetic stamps; heidi swapp mixed-up fancy alphabet stamps (my absolute new FAVORITE!!!); pink paislee winged heart stamp; purple onion designs music definition stamp; stampin' up distressed edge stamp; staz-on & colorbox inks; tombow markers; zig pen; manual typewriter; photo from last year's vacation made super-high-contrast in photoshop and then printed on avery matte label paper)

and can i just say not only am i pleased to be "on schedule" again... (it won't last, of course, it never does; but that's ok!) ...i also absolutely loved this question and had a blast making my card! i used all my current favorite things: a really REALLY photoshopped pic of LHJ & myself... (printed on plain matte paper instead of glossy photo stock for a super-funky "school newspaper" sorta look!) ...my new half-price-with-coupon heidi swapp alphabet stamps...a scrap of inked & distressed notebook paper...my SU distressed edge stamp which i use on pretty much EVERYTHING lately... (thank you, leslie!!!) ...a bit of typing...some wonky outlining...et voila! a small tribute to one of the nicest humans to ever walk the earth!

♥♥♥♥♥

52Q: 29 (dream)

and now, may i present a much, MUCH less serious 52Q?

question 29: do you have a recurrent dream?

(index page from a vintage atlas; ek success cloud stickers; fish stickers from a cooking magazine; heidi swapp ghost star; rub-ons in various fonts by making memories & autumn leaves; daniel craig pic downloaded from t'internet; broken 15 font)

and the answer is:

nope.

:)

52Q: 24 (understand)

it's sort of a deep 52Q this time, which is why it's taken me longer. first i had to think what i wanted to say...then i had to figure out how to say it...then it needed to be visual, as well.

question 24: "name something you don't understand, but want to"

(digital card created in broderbund printshop; background paper: gabriella by laura skathi; flourishes: hipster plume korners-n-edges #4 by anna aspnes, designer digitals; business form overlay: "bits of history" scrapartist; arty frame & little magic fairy sparkles: vera lim; fonts: diesel, broken 15 & ck typewriter)

text reads, "this probably sounds crazy, but...i wish understood prejudice. not to validate it--au contraire!--but because it still seems to play such a dismayingly large part in our world, and it feels like the divides between religions, races and nations are becoming ever more deeply entrenched. maybe if we *knew* why so many people seem to hate each other ON PRINCIPLE, without even knowing each other, there would be something we could do on a "grass roots" level to try and stop it?"

i have to confess that several times in the course of working on this, i considered changing my answer and just saying, "spanish"!* but the more i thought about it, the more i realized that this is my real answer, so i just kept plugging away until i had something that vaguely expressed how i have felt from the first time i heard a racial slur, in about third grade... (which i had ask the speaker to explain to me; which must've rather taken the wind out of his sails, to have a gangly and earnest 9-year-old interrupting to ask,"but wait...that doesn't make sense...what does that MEAN??!") ...to the present day. i mean, i am very GLAD i do not have those feelings...but on the other hand, i cannot help but think that this is sort of a vital thing. i know it's gotta be based on fear, but fear of WHAT, exactly? and is there anything anyone can *DO* about it??!

ok, see, i told you it got a bit deep. sorry about that. why don't we all take a little break now and enjoy a hilariously captioned cat photo or perhaps some baby zoo animals before we get on with our day? hope you are having a wonderful week, but if not...

hey! tomorrow's FRIDAY, darlings!!!

~♥♥♥♥♥~

*because certainly my spanish--which dates from high school--could use improvement; consisting, as it does of many nouns, some imperfectly conjugated verbs, a lot of friendly smiling, and what i'm sure is a hilarious tendency to break into MIME when i run out of words. lo siento, senor nissly! :)

52Q: 27 (found)

moving onwards with the 52Q project!

you'll have noticed these are completely out of order. when i fall behind, i tend to do the easiest ones first... (by "easy" i mean the ones for which i can immediately think of my answer and/or how i'd convey it on a card) ...and use the time that takes to ponder the other questions. this is how they taught us to take standardized tests when i was in grade school. it is one of the few things from grade school which really stuck with me... (certainly fractions did not stay long; and don't even get me started on the metric system!!!) ...and i find it constantly helpful in all sorts of situations!

question 27: what have you found lately?

(patterned paper: adrienne looman for prima, imagination project; ant stickers*: frances meyer; alphabet rub-ons: k&co, jenni bowlin; alphabet roller stamp: provocraft; other: ranger ink, uniball pen, tombow monoadhesive runner)

text reads, " i FOUND a whole lot of tiny ants swarming an open bottle of robitussin in my cupboard. i FOUND them hard to get rid of, despite a great deal of scrubbing & disinfectant & ant traps. i FOUND the whole experience very upsetting."

unfortunately, the above is based on a real-life true adventure. (bleck!) all i can say is, from now on, i shall rinse the bottle of robitussin quite thoroughly under the tap after each use. on the plus side, that teeny tiny coughing sound i thought i heard some nights has now stopped completely. :)

*i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "what kind of a weirdo would buy ANT STICKERS??!"** well, they were part of a picnic-themed set that i think i got for 25 cents on clearance somewhere. however, i did buy them specifically for the ants. it may have been around the time i saw the dali exhibit in philadelphia. what can i say, i'm a complicated kind of gal.

**except leslie. leslie understands this. which should worry leslie very slightly, but let's not mention that to her, ok? :)

52Q: 26 (walls)

52Q just gets better and better! the questions, i mean. although secretly...i have been kind of pleased with my last few cards. partly because of how they've come out, partly just because it's SOOOOOOOO VERY FUN to be working on a free-form, no-pressure, art-play basis again! thank you very much, emily falconbridge, i needed that! ♥

question 26: "on my walls i would write..."

(prima patterned paper overstamped with a cherry arte crackle stamp; alphabet stamps of unknown origin; dmc embroidery floss, prima flowers, kaiser pearls, ranger ink, tombow green marker, tombow monoadhesive runner, diamond glaze)

"do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

(not to get all metaphorical on ya, but i kind of hope i *AM* writing this on the walls of my life!)

this is one of my favorite cards so far. (though sadly i just could not get a good pic!) making it was sort of like a zen meditation. not that i have ANY IDEA what a zen meditation is like...helllllllllllo, hyperactive girl here!...but i did find it both soothing and satisfying to play with alphabet stamps...and then pierce holes...and then hand stitch around each side...and at the end have it be prettttttttttty darned close to the picture in my head.

if i was gonna be PICKY... (who, me??!) ...i would say that in retrospect i wish i had done evenly spaced stitching around the edges. (though i will definitely use the wonky/uneven style again on something else!)

but hey...we live and learn, right?!

live and learn. ♥

happy caturday, darlings!!!

actually, i am quite a happy cat today!

...but...

occasionally i am a bit moody,

(i'm sure you'll have trouble believing that, but yeah...it's true!)

and i do feel that lhj would appreciate

a "grumpage meter" he could consult...

...preferably before entering the house! :)

mine would read...in ascending order:

meh

hmph!

arrrrrrrrrrrgh!!

and

LOOK OUT!

i do hope YOUR meter is at sub-meh...

...for the entire weekend!!!

♥