Rocking Dinosaur

Lately it's all about Rock and Roll. I took a break from working on the Rock Star Rosie website and made a few cards with a rock theme. Most were pink, black and silver like Rosie's new website. After of few of those I went a different direction and made this one. It is by far my favorite.

The particulars

Paper: Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake, Long Retired patterned paper

Stamps: Studio Calico Thank You, Stampendous "Rock Out", My Favorite Things "Little Loveosaurus" Ink:  Stampin' Up! Wild Wasabi and Bashful Blue for the lettering,  Copic Markers to color the image.

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Happy Crafting,

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Sneak Peek of my first website

I've been super busy lately with my son out of school for the summer and trying to keep him away from television, computer and video game screens and out of mischief is hard when trying to work on school work, etc. So this week I have sent him packing. He is enjoying 2 weeks with his grandfather in Michigan — 2 states away.

I have accomplished more this week without him here than I had in the last 2 months. I have nearly completed my first website and thought I'd share a sneak peek with you.

I am working on the Rock Star Rosie Benefit for Rosie Colucci, a little girl with brain cancer who was in my son's first communion class. The Benefit is October 1st and we are looking for raffle and silent auction items. The web site is designed to get those donations, sell tickets to the event and inform the public about this special little girl.

I am so excited to be so close to getting it done. When the site goes live I will share the link so you can learn all about Rosie and make a donation.

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Happy Crafting,

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Lawn Fawn Delivers Added Value

I love freebies, don't you? Sometimes getting something for nothing makes us feel smart because we "beat the system". I rarely get these kind of freebies. I am not good with the discount day + coupon + rebate way of getting stuff for free. 

Sometimes getting something for free makes us feel good. Someone gives you something just because they are nice. In my Etsy shop I always add something to someone's order. Buy a stamp set get an inspiration pack of papers or tags or even die cuts that go with the set. Buy a card set get a couple of tags. 

I call it being generous, my former employer called it added value. I was part of the advertising creative department. I set ads for small companies that didn't have an ad agency or a creative person on staff. Companies were not charged for my services but they were always happy when they saw what I had created for them. I had added value to their ad space purchase.

I recently purchased my first set of Lawn Fawn stamps, Quinn's ABCs. I love outlined letters. I've wanted an outline font for years, ever since I saw a card by Kristina Werner where she overlapped the edges and colored just the overlapped areas. It was beautiful, like all her work, and I wanted to try it myself so I when I saw this set by Lawn Fawn and saw the price I ordered them.

When I opened the package I was pleasantly surprised at the added value, niceness, generosity of these lovely people. I got an extra stamp and a HANDWRITTEN note, that included my name. That impressed the HECK out of me (yes I am now heck-less).  

The particulars

Paper: Stampin' Up! (SU) blush blossom, Perfect Plum, patterned paper DCWV Rock Star Stack

Stamps: My Favorite things, Lawn Fawn

Embellishments: Buttons by SU, Small flower punch SU, Large flower cut with Silhouette.

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Happy Crafting,

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Wheel O' Fun for Bored Kids

This morning I went out to put up the umbrella over my patio table and found that it wouldn't stay up. It would stay open but not up. The knob that tightens the rod in the holder was broken.
< See. I left it open and low to the table because we could sit under it, we just couldn't stand under it. I bumped the umbrella getting out from under it and it moved — a lot.

Light bulb.

I've been trying to find a way to get my son and his friends away from the electronic games that seem to grow out of their hands.  So I went in the house and found a big magic marker. It didn't write well because it was old but it worked well enough. I wrote active works on the sections of the umbrella and invited them to take a spin.

They loved it. There is a line in the patio that separates one slab of concrete from another and we used that as our pointer. They took turns spinning and doing the activity that landed before them. They walked, ran, skipped, danced, crawled, played tag around the house until they were tired. Then it was snack time in the cool little fort that my patio table has become.

My first thought was to go to the Silhouette and cut out the words in cool fonts and make it all "pretty" but the umbrella is a sight, not going to be keeping it, and I didn't want to waste the vinyl. If you want to try this trick but are interested in saving the umbrella try taping words to the sections instead.

Have fun. Keep Cool.
Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Circusy Seal

A quick card today made with the seal from my the Recollections set Fun Fish.

I stamped Sammy, that's what I'm calling him today, on Stampin' Up (SU) Going Grey card stock and then colored him with Copics. I had no intentions of making a card when I stamped him but couldn't help myself.

The pedestal and balls were all made using SU punches. The large oval and the wide oval punches made the pedestal, I trimmed off the edges of the wide oval for the base then shaded the sides with Copics. The balls are punched out using the 3/4" circle punch and are also shaded with Copics.

The cast shadow was an afterthought which explains why the shadows on Sammy don't match the light source that cast that shadow. If I make another card like this, and the possibility is high because I think it's cute, I will be more mindful of where the light is coming from.

Happy Crafting,

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Show off your Vespa form

I purchased The Echo Park Sidewalk Chalk Element Pack #1 that was on sale for $1 today at Jessica Sprague.com. This 61 piece set of digital images includes a lovely tree, funky birds, cassette tapes and a scooter. There are several other images but these were the deal makers for me.
My friend Camille has a stamp set that includes a scooter so when I saw the Echo Park (EP) scooter I thought of her. I thought I'd play a bit and figure out the best way to cut the image out with the Silhouette. I LOVE that I can print and cut. It's makes life so much easier.
What to say though? What is the perfect sentiment? This image also reminds me of a week I spent in Italy where there were Vespas everywhere. Then it hit me.
Camille is a HUGE Dr. Who fan. If you are a Dr. Who fan you know about the Vespiform. So this is where the sentiment came from.
The scooter color came from EP and I used the eyedropper tool in the Silhouette Studio software to color the text the same color. The card base and patterned paper strip colors were chosen based on the other colors in the Sidewalk Chalk Elements Set.

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Happy Crafting,

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Cloud Computing from the Cartoon Brain

I have what I call a Cartoon Brain. Sometimes I hear phrases that set off funny little animations or cartoons in my head. I can't help it. I can't control it, and honestly I don't want to. It's fun.

The most recent phrase that has been setting the mental animator loose is Cloud Computing. If you ask the folks in flood stricken areas of the country or those affected by recent tornadoes I would guess that a few of them would say 'nothing good can come from a cloud'.

I just watched a video on the new Lion operating system from Apple (Miss the Apple keynote? Behold, "WWDC 2011: The musical") so I think the timing is right for this cartoon.

My Cartoon Brain wants to know - If all our data is stored in "the Cloud", and storms come from clouds, what happens when it rains from this cloud? Will we be flooded with enough information to drown a person? Just a thought.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Overexposed happy accident

Overexposed happy accident
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

This is my favorite picture from Family Camp and this young man's mom has given me permission to share it.

It's way over exposed but I like it.

Yesterday was my birthday and my Facebook wall was a busy place. Thanks to all who sent a birthday nod.

Today is the last day of school for my son and my day to volunteer with the elderly. I get to take him with me today as school is only 2 hours long today. I'm looking forward to introducing my son to volunteering on a regular basis. Wish me luck.

It looks like a tree from Avatar

I went to Family Camp this weekend with my son's Cub Scout pack. It was a lot of fun; fishing, swimming, s'mores and a really nice cross over ceremony. My son even made up a song about the trip: "I came a wolf and I'm going home a bear."

More images of these trees can be seen in my Flickr stream.

When the kids were fishing, or learning to fish, I wandered up and down the lake shore taking pictures of the kids and a bit of the foliage. When I looked up I was surprised to see tea cups. At least that's what they looked like to me. One of the scout dad's said it looked like a tree from the movie Avatar. I took a lot of pictures of the tree so I could show my son's den leader who happens to be an arborist. Turns out it's a tulip tree.

Family camp is, as the name implies, open to all family members so we had a lot of younger brothers and sisters at the cross over ceremony. These 3, 4, and 5 year old kids are regularly asked to sit through programs that recognize their older brothers. At the end of the cross over ceremony when the scouts had new neckerchiefs and everyone was itching for s'mores I called the siblings to the front and presented them with their own patches. Medallions really. They walked across the same bridge as their brothers and the Cub Scout leader put a ribbon around their necks and sent them back to their parents.

One mom told me that the kids were just beaming as they received their own awards, something just for them. The next morning at breakfast a couple of the kids were wearing their medallions. I'm so glad I laminated them.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

What's my name?

When you are in job search you are supposed to network. You are encouraged to get out there and meet the people who could lead to your next job. At a lot of events you are given a name tag.

When you go to the unemployment office you are given a name tag to identify where you should be sent for classes or seminars or appointments with a counselor. This tag doesn't have your actual name on it - you might say it's "for office use only."

You even pick up a name tag of sorts when you go to the deli counter at the grocery store. If you are not a super regular customer or are not the kind that will chat up the deli guy you may only be known as 92.

At a recent networking event I added the brand "graphic designer" to my name tag and a lot more people talked to me or asked me questions then would have if I had just added my name and I got the thinking about the number of names/brands I have in the world. That thought process is what lead to this page.

I used the work sister and daughter twice because I have 2 sisters and 2 parents If I had a bigger family the word sister would have been used more often. This page may be a work in progress, when I get more name tags I may add them.

Even the silly nickname one of my sisters call me is on the page. See the little flag?

Well I have to go get another name tag.

The particulars

Paper: Patterned Paper retired SU, Brilliant Blue cardstock from SU

Stamps: Wonderful favorites, and Amazing to Zany and Priceless from SU

Embellishments: flotsam and jetsam of life

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.