my furniture smells like a locker-room full of freshly showered 5th grade girls... circa 1974*...

before we get rolling, i should mention that enjoyment of this post most likely depends on your being around my age, (late 40's) female and american. or at least... you need to remember "love's baby soft" perfume.  which probably puts you into at least one of the categories i mentioned. if you can't (or, quite understandably, would prefer not to) recall that half powdery, half musky, utterly cloying scent without which no self-respecting, teen-magazine-reading, granny-square-vest-wearing ten year old would have considered herself well groomed in the mid 1970's, you should probably just chuckle at the lol directly below this paragraph and get on with your day. ciao, darlings! ♥

ok, so to those of you still here, who DO remember love's baby soft, i pose this question: do ALL febreze products smell like that? and if so, how in the world can they be soooooo flippin' popular??! here's why i ask: i recently purchased a packet of swiffer duster refills, failing to notice the small purple "febreze" logo on the front. the second i opened them, i knew i had not bought the correct product. the box says they are imbued with... and i quote... "lavender vanilla comfort". now, i *like* lavender. i have no quibble with vanilla, either. but these do not smell like either of those worthy scents. they smell like a david cassidy fan club reunion!!! don't get me wrong, i realize there are certainly FAR WORSE aromas in the world. for that matter, it's quite possible that absolutely everyone apart from me loves these things; in which case they are welcome to my share. i, for one, shall be scrutinizing duster-packets much more thoroughly in future. in the meantime, on the plus-side, it makes me want to dust my house a lot more often, just to get rid of them!!!  :) :) :)

*one of my favorite things about my darling gina's blog is that she often uses just a random thought or observation as her blog post title.  sometimes it will, in fact, lead into the topic of her post, but often there is no further reference to it whatever.  i love that.  not only does it completely draw me *IN*, but it solves--very creatively-- what is often my biggest challenge in blogging: thinking up a cool title. of course, this is only one of the many, many, reasons you should be reading tyggereye art love on a regular basis... i'm just sayin'... it's a perk!  :)

whole lotta "LOVE NOTES"

the january pixie dust paperie kit, ♥LOVE NOTES♥ is certainly not JUST for making valentines. on the other hand, if vaentines happen to be what you'd like to make... you absolutely cannot put a foot wrong using these gorgeous goodies! see?!

there are more detailed photos of these six fun mini-cards on the pixie blog today.  with a few more details as to products and method.  and lots more about the kit, too; which, as i mentioned is completely awesome!!! ♥♥♥

SOS33: challenge rewind!

hello & welcome to the first shopping our stash challenge of 2012! i am especially excited because this one has a sort of "DIY" component to it, in that YOU get to choose your own theme! can't get much easier that that, eh?  here is the exact wording, from the lovely miss carla:

Challenge 33: Challenge Rewind or Meljens Image  

pick any SOS challenge from last year and do it again 

or 

feature an image by our fabulous sponsor Meljens

i went with Challenge 25- Stickers or Rubons or Chipboard because not only do i have plenty of all of those, i didn't get to play along with this one in november since we were in hawaii!

i was also pretty thrilled to be able to use the last sketchy thursday of the year as my "road map" since it is sooooooo very awesome:

being that this was the very last card i made in 2011, i'm rather pleased that it looks forward and backward at the same time:

(patterned paper: cosmo cricket, k&co + vintage ledger; "adventure" card & plane image: october afternoon vintage elements packet; stickers: k&co; chipboard cloud: sassafras; fabric tape: studio calico; rub-ons: 7 gypsies; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape)

i'm proud to say that my card has all three of the challenge elements, and is also composed entirely of stash that's at least couple of years old! believe it or not, only the ledger paper is a genuine vintage item; the postage stamps & mini postcard are stickers, every bit of black printing except "adventure" is a rub-on, and the cloud is sass chipboard!

by the way, that is a bona-fido, cookie-derived fortune which lovely husband jeff received in the (excellent) chinese takeaway we ordered last week!  it says, "no one every grew old by living, only by losing interest in living" which,  it has to be said, does violate one of my strongest precepts regarding fortune cookies:  that they should either contain A PROPER FORTUNE... (something about which i wrote a post a very long time ago) ...or be called "aphorism cookies"; however, in this case i am willing to overlook the issue, since it turned out to be the perfect finishing touch for my brother-in-law's birthday card.

do c'mon over to SOS this week and join us! not only can i promise you'll be inspired by the fabulous DT cards, it'll be a big help if--like me-- one of your resolutions this year is to USE UP some of your stash in cool & creative ways!!! :)

first card of 2012!

truthfully, i didn't think this was going to *BE* a card, i thought i was making a free-form collage. here's what happened: my darling stef sent me a link to this awesome blog, called green paper, on which ms. mary green hosts a collage challenge at the first of every month. she posts three vintage images, and participants must use at least a portion of each in their creations; but other than that, anything goes!  this time, the images were a photo of that sweet--if quite serious looking--young lady; the stationer's label (tucked under, to the left on my card) and a little greeting with a poem and some pansies. i had almost everything together and it was just a collage, honest... until i spied that super-fun ippity "hey girlfriend" stamp which was sitting on my table with the rest of the delicious and inspiring goodies my very lovely--and UBER-talented--friend mari sent me for xmas (thanks, missus!!!) and then i just thought how cool and funny it would be with the rest of the collage and the next thing i know i was attaching the whole thing to folder cardstock and planning to whom i'd send it in january.  :) 

(vintage images: green paper; patterned paper: glitz, tim holtz; vintage-inspired stickers: k&co, tim holtz; tissue tape: tim holtz; stamp: ippity; inks: ranger, colorbox; print media: kodak ultra photo paper, staple cardstock, 3m inkjet transparency; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape)

my favorite thing about scanned/digital vintage images is that, in making "real life" compositions one can play with scale, and also, use a variety of materials on which to print, in order to get a lot of different looks from the same images. so i made my label about the same size as the original... but printed it on a transparency; i made the cabinet card a little bit smaller and printed on photo paper; and i made the pansies HUGE (& also tiny) and printed those on matte cardstock. then i did a bit of cutting, a bit of layering, and added in some stash... et voila!

but next time: i'm making A COLLAGE that isn't a card!!! just to make sure i STILL CAN!!!!!  :) :) :)

Мы долго смеялись!

no, you have not had a small stroke, and no, i have not become fluent in russian. recently one of my lovely blogging friends left that phrase as a comment for me on a "loldog" post, and using the awesome "google translate" app on my iphone i was able to instantly discover that it means "we laughed for a long time!" without even leaving my bed! :)

all of which-- plus the fact that we're starting another brand new year-- made me think, for about the gazillionth time, not only how happy i am to be living now, with all of this wonderful technology; (yes, i'm overly dependent on it; and yes, i whine as loudly as anyone when it's not working!) but also... i'm glad to be in what i cannot help but feel is the most privileged age group of all: those of us currently in our forties are young enough to feel pretty comfortable keeping up with the new stuff, but are simultaneously old enough to have experienced childhood and teenage years without it. because i'm just not sure it's humanly possible for anyone who did not grow up with five television channels, expensive "birthdays & holidays only" long-distance phone service (on a rotary dial telephone!), or having to *TYPE* their term papers, to be excited in the same way about cable, cellphones, and computers.

then, add to all that, the fact that it's possible to use this technology to meet people from all over the world who share our hobbies, interests, and sense of humor??!?! geez, we're LUCKY! and now, let's celebrate with a few computery lolcats, k?! :)

Мы долго смеялись
and 
HAPPY NEW YEAR
darlings!

♥♥♥

JB12:01: no time like the present(s)!

can you believe it's time to start making holiday cards again already? i mean, sheesh, it seems like christmas was only like... what?! A WEEK AGO or something, lol!!!  :)

ok, yeah, when i see it in print, i have to admit that the whole JINGLE BELLES concept sounds a bit nuts!  but if you jingled along with us last year, you'll know that we made just *one* stress-free card per week, using a different "creative prompt" each time; had an absolute BLAST hanging out with some of the coolest papercrafters in the world; and that on december 1, 2011, we had each completed FORTY-EIGHT unique, beautiful, ready-to-mail holiday cards, and were able to spend december goofing off, big time!!! believe me when i tell you this is by far the best holiday gift i've ever given myself, and thus, this year, i am even MORE EXCITED to get the ball rolling again!

ok, so what are we starting out with?  have you guessed, from the name of my post-- NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT(S)?!  we're asking you to make a card which incorporates GIFT WRAP, and if you're like me, you just could not resist saving some of the pretty papers in which your holiday prezzies were wrapped, so this will be easy, indeed!  however, if that doesn't sound fun, you can, if you prefer, include the image of a present, or presents, on your card. needless to say, i went with the first idea and have bits of TWO gift wraps (the gold flourish background and the poinsettia) PLUS a bit of holly-leaf tissue paper (ruffled and sewn behind the flower) AND even a little "bonus" ribbon which was tied around one of my christmas gifts!

i used the utterly fab "square" sketch option of mojo monday 221; the ribbon qualifies me to join my dearest darlings for shopping our stash #32: tie it up; and the fussy-cut poinsettia allows me to link up with the lovely ladies at city crafter who are inviting us to make the cut this week!  woohoo!

(miscellaneous: giftwrap, tissue paper & ribbon; patterned paper: creative imaginations & echo park; rhinestones: making memories; gold foil sticker: best creation; adhesives: xyron, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

this year, instead of posting a new prompt EVERY week, we're going to be posting EVERY OTHER friday. we hope that having extra time to create and post will allow more lovely crafters to participate; and those--like myself--who still want to end the year with 48 cards need only make two (or more!) cards to each prompt... which is still only one card per week! 

to sum up, all of that means you have until 6pm (EST) on wednesday, january 11th, to link up as many newly made holiday cards which fit the brief as you can complete within the time-frame!  i cannot wait to see what you will do, and i'm hoping you'll be equally excited to see what stef and our lovely guest stars have come up with, so do pop over to JINGLE BELLES and say hi!!! ♥

pink parisienne pixie card

ETA wednesday morning:  sorry folks, i goofed!  this card will actually be featured on the pixie blog tomorrow, not today!!!  on the plus side, it gives you an *EXTRA* day to check out miss kirsty's gorgeous christmas photograph album that's over there today... and you've still got plenty of time to enter this month's pixie challenge, which is to make a project that incorporates or interprets the word "NEW" in any way you'd like.  oh and did i mention that one of the NEW things the pixie blog will be adding next year is a special design team just for the awesome monthly challenges?  yep, we are looking for a few talented papercrafters, and an entry into the "NEW" challenge is your application!  read all about it HERE and be sure to link up those projects by january 5th!


it just so happens that by coincidence, my very dear pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe saved my favorite card* i made from the december kit, CHRISTMAS IN PARIS, for last. it's this one, and i think you  can probably GUESS how i came up with the catchy name** of "pink parisienne pixie card" can't you?!   

it uses a couple of papers from the kit, plus three of the embellishments AND a bit of the packaging, too!!!  full details on the pixie blog, not to mention the stellar work of my fellow pixies miss kirsty, sandy taloumis, and our very special guest this month the awesome lynn millers!  g'wan over and say hi, it's worth the trip, i promise! ♥

*possibly it's a tie with the chocolat-et-bleu paris collage card, which i also loved; as i believe i so modestly mentioned at the time!!!  :)


**titles are the HARDEST PART of blogging.  FACT!


ps: i kind of hated how blogger abruptly MADE US change over to their "new interface" last week, but i have to confess that doing so fixed a couple of "issues" i'd been having for MONTHS... such as, i can now once again use the text-enhancing tools that allow me to do my footnotes in this tiny print or make it a different color, which is lovely!  :) :)