I judge you and your plastic bags.

I admit it.  I'm a plastic bag judger.  A couple years ago we went on a sailboat ride with the Monterey Aquarium where they showed us all sorts of nasty plastic bits that momma birds feed their baby birds thinking that it is food and then the baby birds aren't hungry because their tummies are filled with plastic, and, well, you can see where this going, can't you?  So I use my reusable bags all the time and yes I judge those with a cart full of bird- and otter-killing plastic bags.  Anyway, every time I pick up these four out of the back of the car, I always think to myself, "this would make a great color combo!"

 

So when I sat down to make a set of notecards for my great-aunt's birthday (she's also getting yesterday's birthday card), I decided to finally use that color scheme, with an added touch of orange.

 This is a Stampabilities stamp, one of the first that I bought when I started stamping.  It always bothered me that it wasn't full-card size, but it turned out to be perfect for this.  I embossed it on PTI Ripe Avocado, Hibiscus Burst, Aqua Mist, Hawaiian Shores, and Summer Sunrise.  Then I cut each panel into thirds.  They're not actually equal thirds because the middle portion is a wee bit bigger, since there happened to be two little dots at the bottom that made it easy to cut each panel so they would all match up, plus it kept the center flourish mostly intact.  Then I wrote out a random pattern on a scratch sheet:

BOG

PBO

GPB

OGP

because otherwise I would have sat there for days trying each of the 24 different color schemes.  It turned out that the blue/green bordered a pink/orange and vice versa, which I think ended up looking really good for not being planned that way.  Matted with black, then added the sentiments from PTI's Vintage Picnic and Vintage Picnic Sentiments (special thanks to the Picnik photo editor for ruining my spelling of "picnic" forever).  Now I just need to (postage) stamp the envelopes, wrap a cute belly band around them, and send them off to my great-aunt!

Would you like to know who else I judge?  Water-bottle drinkers.  Oh, I know, I used to be one of you, too (and still am when there's no other choice, like behind airport security), until the aforementioned "Here baby bird, Momma caught you a nice colorful piece of fish, swallow it down!  I'll take care of you! Wait, why are you not hungry...?" heart-string tugging.  Now, instead of taking a plastic bottle to school every day, I fill up one of these:

Click the pic for the amazon link.

That price is the cheapest I've seen it--I paid about $20 for mine.  But it is AWESOME.  Let me give you my spiel about it:

1) No condensation!  I can stick it straight in my bag with all my papers with no worries.

2) Screw-off top makes it easy to fill with ice cubes.  

3) But don't fill it too much because this baby stays cold!  We use them when we drive to Houston (12 hours) and there is usually still ice in it, even if we only filled it halfway.  (note: this is not recommended for hot drinks, just cold ones)

4) You don't have to screw off the top to drink.  Instead you just unlock it and press the button and you have the perfect sized drink spout.  This is my favorite thing about it, since most bottles have either the sports-cap or a huge top that gets water everywhere.

5) You save baby birds and otters!  Hooray!

Before I go, one last shameless plug for a Gallery Idol vote!  Voting ends Thursday at noon with the reveal of the top 15 on Friday.  Thanks again for all the well-wishes and votes!  So many warm fuzzies! :)