Prayer Request

I visited my ailing aunt this weekend for her 79th birthday and she is not doing
well. As she finishes up her radiation today she is scheduling biopsies on the multiple
exterior tumors she has, there are at least 12 and some are weeping wounds. Most the size of golf
balls but some as big as tennis balls. God only knows how many internal tumors she has.

Because the tumors are on her back she is in constant pain, and she is weak and
frail, all of which is hard to see. She doesn't want to eat and many foods cause pain and
discomfort.

I pray that she is comfortable, that her pain should be gone, whether that means
joining her parents in heaven or finding the right combination of treatments so that she can
live longer. Please join me in praying for my aunt.
Thank you,
Katie

My son the stamper

papas day
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

This is the card my son made for my dad for father's day. We were unable to see him that day so we are going to visit this weekend and we'll be delivering it then.

The black marks on the pumpkin pie base is from the wheels of a Hummer happy meal toy. Works great because it's a rubberish tire with a pattern on it. So many toys have smooth wheels and/or they are too hard to get a good impression.

The car is from a vacation stamp set available in the Target $1 spot. It was marked down 75% -- yes it was 25¢! The punch and sentiment are from Stampin' Up!

I have to get my card finished...er...posted soon.

happy stamping.

Color!

The magazine Graphic Design USA does an annual color forecast issue in May.  This year's forecasters were Pantone, "the world-renowned authority on colour", and Sherwin Williams, the paint people. And here are their predictions: 

............

I really like some of the fashion colors and I need clothes so we'll see what I find.


I can't see any of my walls being the colors the Sherwin Williams people predicted but hey... to each his own.

Stampin' Up! preview
Well Stampin' Up! has made their own color predictions in the form of In Colors. Patty Bennett first uploaded the 2009 In Colors on her blog at cruise time but SU just announced them to demonstrators who didn't earn cruise in their magazine Stampin' Success. So I'm sharing them with you, a bit of a peek at what's to come in the new catalog. This is the closest I could come on screen.


Yesterday Shelli Gardner, the head of Stampin' Up!, announced a new product line that SU! is going to offer. I thought it was going to be a digital scrapbooking line. (I have a strong feeling this is still to come.) I was wrong it was Décor Elements, a line of home décor items. They aren't wallpaper, they are self-adhesive vinyl elements (which are easy to apply and remove). Discover how easy and cost effective it can be to do your own decorating! Looking through catalog I see stuff that isn't in the current catalog, and some that are. I bet those unfamiliar items will be in the new catalog, items like Manhattan Flower or Lollipop Flower. Can't wait for you all to see the new catalog - heck I can't wait to see the new catalog.

THANK YOU NOTES

The Simple Dollar Blog has a good article today on the hows and whys of writing thank you notes. It's linked above on the title.

My challenge inspired by the Pink Panther

You'd think that something inspired by the Pink Panther would be pink but NOoooo. This is the card I made for my own garden inspiration challenge. Use a picture of my garden for color inspiration and use NO flowers. It was harder than I thought. Then one night my son and I were watching a Pink Panther cartoon and there was a bird who wanted to fly but didn't know how. The Pink Panther was trying to teach him. There was one lesson where the bird was floating from a parachute.

Then it came to me. What to do for this challenge. The going gray base was inspired by the patio cement. The texture is from the SU! Canvas background stamp (retired). I sponged the going grey on the stamp randomly and spritzed the stamp with water before putting it to paper.

The parachute was made with the scraps from a scalloped edge and a circle punch. The bird is from A Little Birdie Told Me stamp set. The parachute and bird are both on dimensionals. The ropes were hand drawn with the help of a ruler, of course. The clouds are the popcorn stamp from Treat Yourself (retired), this was inspired by the Whimsical Stamper, Happy Emilia blog. Emilia makes wonderful things and uses images in a really unique way. The blog is from Taiwan so I can't read the words but I can admire the work.

The bottom needed something so I dug out my "let your dreams take flight" stamp. I used the stamp-a-majig to get the stacked words sorta straight and used the Cuttlebug to cut out the letters for the word flight. I save the cardboard from the back of notepads and occasionally cereal boxes for this kind of thing. I spritzed a page torn from an old Reader's Digest with Pearlex mixed with hairspray. I love the look and will be doing a lot more like this.

So what do you think. Did I meet the challenge?

Ralph Rocks!

This card is for my friend Missy. She couldn't go to the recent Ralph's World concert at Ravinia because of a family graduation so she gave the tickets to the boy and me. We sat with her husband and their 2 girls. The kids danced and played and we all sang and it was all good. 

Each square on the card refers to a Ralph's World song, you can hear a snippet of each song on the web site. The references are: Happy Lemons, The Coffee Song, At the Bottom of the Sea, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

After the concert the boy and I stood in the long line and waited to get our CD covers signed by Ralph. As we got closer we saw that he was signing T-shirts as well — while the kids were wearing them. He'd pick the kids up, set them on a table, have them lay their heads down on a towel and then sign their shirts. Those kids were wearing official Ralph's World Merchandise that had spots to sign. but my boy was wearing a plain orange T-shirt ($2.50 ea this week at Michael's). Didn't phase Ralph. He took the 2 CD covers I was holding and signed them. Then he picked the kid up, laid him down and began to sign. "To E..." then he started to make a big curve and I didn't know what he was doing. Thought it would be a smily face. No it was a guitar. We have an original Ralph Covert drawing. So cool. He was super nice and if the batteries had lasted I would have pics of us all together but no such luck.

My boy wants the drawing to be permanent and he wants to wear the T-shirt - a lot. The drawing was made with a regular Sharpie. Is this really permanent through the wash? E wants me to go over the drawing the fabric marker so it will never come off. Is this necessary? Please advise.

Thanks again Missy.

Single Layer Cards can be Wonderful

Sometimes a one layer card can be beautiful. I know it's not really the Stampin' Up! style but it's where I started and sometimes it's good to go back to your roots. Back to the Basics.

This is another card made using the oval mat I found the other day. I stamped the swirls so that half would be on the card, and half would be on the mat, making a lovely frame for the text in the process. The colors were inspired by Stampin' Up!'s Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper.

I love the font used on the word "Wonderful". I hope SU comes out with other stamps using this font.

Stamps: Priceless, Wonderful Favorites
Paper: Very Vanilla
Ink: River Rock, Rose Red, Cameo Coral

Is this worth keeping?

While going through closets to find things to donate to a charity sale I ran across a piece of glass and a paper mat with 2 ovals in it. There was no frame so I didn't feel it was appropriate for donation.

It was, however, perfect for crafting. I'll be using the glass later to make templates with my hot knife. For now you'll just have to make due with a few cards using the mat.

The back of the card was where I started but the results were abysmal and I decided to start over on the other side.

I used repositionable tape to adhere the mat to a piece of Very Vanilla card stock. Stamped the trees. Made a mask for the grass to sky line, got out my sponges and went to work.

I think I like this side but I don't know what to do with it. Do I trim in and mount it on colored card stock or another piece of vanilla? Do I chalk it up to experience and try again? Or do I just toss is? Any advice is welcome.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Priceless
Ink: Stamped trees in Basic Brown, grass sponged in Always Artichoke, sky sponged in Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, ballet Blue, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy and Elegant Eggplant. Swirls stamped off in Elegant Eggplant, Lovely Lilac, Groovy Guava and Always Artichoke.

Inspired Scrap Card

This card was inspired by a Diane Pappas card and by Simone Collins who invites everyone to Scrap your Crap, as a horder of supplies this is really necessary. When the bank account is empty and the supply drawer is full it's time to get busy.

The colors were inspired by Stampin' Up!'s Summer Picnic Designer Series paper which is available in the Summer Mini Catalog. Actually the colored card stock are left overs from a stamp camp project using that paper. I wheeled Versamark over them all and plopped them on the whisper white. The River Rock is on dimesionals so it pops out a bit. Also made tying the ribbon a bit easier.

I am so proud of this bow. I'm  generally not good with bows and this one turned out so good. I did one loop and then had to wiggle the other end it to make the bow but it worked and I'm very happy with the results. Maybe that's because it's not being tied around anything.

Stamps: See You Around wheel, Sincere Salutations

Ink: Versamark, Old Olive

Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue and River Rock

Embellishments: White Grosgrain Ribbon

Accessories/Tools: Paper Cutter, Horizontal Slot punch

Celebrating a birthday today:

Steve Vai, guitarist, Frank Zappa, Whitesnake
Amanda Pays, actress, Max Headroom, Off Limits
Colin Quinn, American Comedian
Bjorn Borg, tennis champ, Wimbledon 1976-79
Dana Carvey, comedian, SNL, Garth-Wayne's World
Sandra Bernhard, actress
Harvey Fierstein, playwright, Torch Song Trilogy

And ME!

Yet another birthday

My ABC (American Born Chinese) co-worker had a birthday this weekend. Our entire department took her to lunch at the restaurant of her choice -- a very nice Chinese place near the office. I thought I'd continue the theme in her card that we all signed.

This card was a lot of fun to make.
I used a stamped called Chinese Newspaper (manufacturer unknown) with Tim Holtz tea dye Distress Ink on the Die Cuts With a View textured paper to make the background. The leaves from Embrace Life were used to make the bamboo looking bit. I used Always Artichoke for the stamp and then colored with a combination of Always Artichoke and Mellow Moss markers.

The large Chinese characters are from a wooden boxed set, it says Beauty Woman, in real red. I had to fill them in with marker - so glad SU markers and ink pads are exactly the same color. The Happy Birthday is from the SAB set Birthday Whimsy. It was the last thing I did and I'm a bit disappointed that I can't stamp straight.

The flap was made with a combination of decorative paper I've had for an age and an embossed large fan stamp that's also been in the collection forever. The stamp has no design on it so I've made a template of the fan part and use it on patterned paper to make fans like this. I'm rarely disappointed with the results. For an added texture I scored the patterned paper along the fan's lines.