well thank goodness for *THAT* anyway!

actually, as mondays go, mine was pretty cool...i got an exploding house in the mail!!! (not a sentence i have ever typed before!) :) the very lovely and very sweet sandy ang, who won my 163 giveaway, made me this as a thank you gift and i ♥LOVE♥ it!

i love the front...

...i love the back...

...i love the inside, which is full of gorgeous paper roses...

...and once i realized i actually had not broken it... (having never seen such a marvellously whimsical papercraft before) ...i love the "explosion" part most of all!

♥ thank you sandy, you made my monday!!! ♥

HAPPY TUESDAY,

DARLINGS!

♥♥♥

heart the art: week 35 (death!)

in a week which did not feature a fabulous reaper swap, i might have had to think for quite a while about what i'd say for this week's HEART the ART prompt, which is... (cue creepy vincent price style organ music) ...DEATH! luckily, this was a week that did feature a fabulous reaper swap, and my brand new tyggereye art stamp was burnin' a hole in my creative pocket, so it was easy peasy to make my page! :)

(hand-carved rrubber stamps: tyggereye art; patterned paper: basic grey, cosmo cricket, crafty secrets, daisy d's + notebook paper + wild faux bois digi-paper by andrea victoria, designer digitals; glossy black cardstock: ranger; label die: nestabilities; inks: stewart superior, ranger, colorbox; pen: uniball; tiny black pearls: kaiser; adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape; other: sewing machine, manual typewriter)

speaking of fabulous reapers, inspired by said swap, my lovely blogging friend susan culotti sent me this awesome digi-stamp that she created specially!

how awesome is that??!?! i ♥LOVE♥ him! i especially love his little smile! thank you so much, sue! btw, if you sort of recognize that name, it may be because in addition to her own very cool personal blog, random on purpose, susan hosts a weekly inspiration/challenge blog called 52 card pickup, where the prompts are always cool and thought-provoking and sue's art is constantly fabulous!

happy day!

if it's saturday, it must be time for me to sneeeeeeeeeeeak in under the wire with my 2S4Y card! here is laura's lovely sketch #59:

and here is my card:

(digital bird stamps: tiffany doodles; patterned paper: american crafts, my mind's eye, sei, basic grey; glossy white cardstock & black glitter glue: ranger; glitter letters: american crafts; emboidery floss: dmc; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape; other: sewing machine)

having been lucky enough to win card of the week at 2S4Y a couple of weeks ago, my prize was an almost insanely generous *10* digital stamps from tiffany doodles! i had a fabulous--if quite difficult--time choosing my 10...because there are just SO MANY good ones over there!!! one of my very first selections was a set called "birdies and housework" because as soon as i saw those sweet tweets i imagined how cute they'd look flying along carrying a festive banner...and i think you'll agree i was right about that! :)

of course, i still have 9 more awesome doodles to show off...including an adorable fawn, some gorgeous indian style doodleblooms, and this BEAUTIFUL peacock, but in the meantime i say a very large ♥THANK YOU♥ to the 2sketches gang and also to the very kind and very talented miss tiffany!!!

i ♥ dina wakley!

i also ♥ spray ink! and i especially ♥ what dina wakley can do with spray ink! (& watercolors...and paints...and...well, everything!) like many before me, whilst in the grips of great passion, i *may* have gotten very slightly carried away. or a really really LOT carried away. like this:

this week's theme at the city crafter challenge blog is seeing stars...so i managed to work one or two (or 27!) of those into my design; i was also MASSIVELY inspired by the gorgeously clean and simple look of this card amy tsuruta made using last week's sketch from skipping stone designs. (clearly my card is not clean or simple...but we cannot blame amy for that, eh?!)

just in case 90,000 volts of PURE COLOR were not enough, i decided to amp up the texture, as well: i've got machine stitching, fabric paper, layers of foam tape, and hand stitching...done with both ordinary smooth floss and some awesome metallic thread, too!

ok, so the result is a bit intense, but i think i kind of love it. i just have to remember to send it to someone with an excellent pair of sunglasses!!! :)

(~materials~ patterned paper: christina cole, love elsie, sei, dcwv +vintage sheet music; spray ink: glimmer mist, maya mist & ranger distress used in a sprayer + a little bit of watercolor paint; star dies: nestabilities; banner from printshop's clip art; rub-ons: basic grey, maya road, american crafts; glitter letters: american crafts; embroidery floss (regular & metallic): dmc; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, xyron, sewing machine)

this week's torso, courtesy of stendhal*

or to put it another way: this week at SCD the theme is color-based...we're using red and black!

(vintage: tickets, postage stamps; patterned paper: mustard moon; transparencies: making memories; heart rub-on: marah johnson; bling heart: mambi; ink: stewart superior; adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, sewing machine)

something you'll have noticed almost immediately: there is only *ONE* torso this week!!! most non-triumphant!!!** but we had company, and chiropractor, and other time-consuming scenarios (senari? scenariae?? what's the plural? anyone??!) so i sorta ran out of time. not to worry, there are still 4 or 5 torsos hangin' out from the last few weeks, so she is not lonely! :)

the other rather un-laurney thing about this one is--and i know this will SHOCK YOU as it does me-- despite the 17 layers of paper & transparencies on this thing, it is almost entirely FLAT!!! unheard of!!! (but i still think it's pretty cool!!!) ♥

*this is a really reallllllllllly obscure english major joke, for which i apologize. it's just that the 19th century novelist stendhal was the author of "the red and the black" and i just COULD NOT RESIST showing off, because let's face it, in the fast-paced world of papercraft blogging there are not very many ways to work something like that into casual conversation!!! :) :) :)

**bonus ninja points to anyone who can tell me...WITHOUT GOOGLING...the movie from which this exclamation hails! :)

heart the art: week 34 (dreams)

this week's HEART the ART prompt is dreams. one of my fondest dreams would be to become a serious traveler. unless we hit the lottery in a biiiiiiiiiiiiiig way that is completely unlikely to happen, but that's why they're called "DREAMS" right?! :) for this page i thought i'd make a list of my top 4 or 5 destinations...but as i started to write them down i sort of realized that there are not many places in the world that i would not like to visit! while i was thinking of a way to convey that visually i remembered that gina's newest digikit has an absolutely fabulous image of a panda bear hugging the globe; i printed him on a transparency to layer over some cool vintage maps and he became the center of my page:

(panda and tiny globe "buttons" from the green day digi kit by gina cunningham, tyggereye art; lots and lots of vintage maps and travel icons from various old books and pamphlets; love elsie "travel dreams" rub-on; oriental trading co minibrads; ranger distress ink; adhesives: tombow monorunner, uhu gluestick, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

ok yeah, it's a little crowded on there--once again i am metaphorically bumping my head on the low ceilings of a 4x6" page format! but then whenever i think about the places i would go if time and money were no object, i do feel almost overwhelmed by how many amazing sights there are out in the big wide world; so maybe a slightly smooshed and crowded page *WORKS*, eh??! :)

speaking of the kit in question, it's called GREEN DAY and it looks a bit like this:

it's one of gina's new "mini-kits" that she's listed in her etsy shop for only .99 cents! i'd call that a pretty fab value since it's got six 12x12 papers and a bunch of rather fab eco-themed elements... (wouldja LOOK at that gorgeous tree??!) ...and of course digi-crafting is the ultimate earth-friendly option, since you only need to print whatever elements you're actually going to use at any given time! check it out HERE! ♥

don't fear the reapers!

yes.

REAPERS.

plural!!!

it was gina's idea, obviously. most really great swap ideas are. afterall, it was she who thought up the monsta swap, and the art-o-mat one.

when she saw the wistful reaper i made for stef a couple of weeks ago she said, "i'll carve a grim reaper stamp and then LET'S SWAP!"

of course i said yes. i always say yes. if gina ever asks you to swap with her, you should say yes. you will ♥LOVE♥ what you get, i promise!!!

so by the next day she had carved the most amazing and adorable reaper that has ever been seen on this or any other planet!

it took me slightly longer to crochet mine. (though seriously...the patterns in the creepy cute book are *quick* and you really only need beginner-level crochet skills!)

the last time i looked, there was an extra reaper stamp in gina's etsy shop...

...i'm just sayin'...

(thanks, g!!!!!!!!!!)

♥♥♥♥♥