Card Collections and Corgi + Camera

Last weekend I spent some time making a set of cards for my mom's birthday gift.  I started by CASEing two cards I listed in my 2010 favorites post on Splitcoast that both used the Stampin' Up Manhattan Flower embossing folder: this one by hskelly and this one by jovialjudy. I made a couple more with the same embossing folder to round out the set, but I admittedly do not like them as much as the CASE'd ones.  Here's the whole set:

(Ha, sorry for the random background.  Were you wondering what my pantry door looks like?  Mystery solved!).  Here are some single shots of the two cased cards:

(watercolored with SU markers and aquapainter, PTI Fillable Frames sentiment)

(Embossed and sanded pre-patterned Core'dinations cardstock, Waltzingmouse sentiment, white pearls colored black with copic)

I also made her the OH-EM-GEE-CUTEST mini composition notebook.

I mean, check out that one bird reading her name!  This is some Cosmo Cricket paper, Sage Shadow modern label punch, and PTI bitty dot ribbon.

Now, I hate to brag, but I know many, many of you will be very jealous of my next statement: we hit seventy degrees yesterday!  So after taking Addison to the v-e-t (all clear!), I had a photo session with her in the backyard.  Here a few favorites:

Happy Sun-dog, everyone!

Three Things You Need To Know Right Now

1. Will Ferrell is going to be on The Office this season!

2. ZooBorns is the most ridiculous website ever.  I want to send out every post to every person in my address book.  So I thought it would just be easier to send y'all over the website so you can add it to your own blog reader.

3. My close, warm personal friend, Emily, aka Artsy_Em, is the Featured Stamper for this week's Splitcoast Challenge! Her gallery and blog are both amazing--so much awesomeness to pick from!  I chose this card to case since it involves two Emily trademarks: stamped background and kraft!  Here's my re-imagining of it:

I used most of her color scheme (I couldn't bring myself to break out the yellow, and used Antique Linen distress ink instead), cut the flowers out of PTI's Distressed Dots using the Peony Nestabilities die (instead of stamping), and used the Happy Birthday sentiment from PTI's Enjoy the Ride.  It's so easy to make a card when you have such great inspiration!

I hope everyone is ready for the weekend--I sure am!  More good news: we're supposed to hit 60+ degrees on Saturday!  Woot woot!  Stay warm wherever you are, my friends!

AmberInk's InKredible 21 Day Challenge!

Woohoo!  A new InKredible 21 Day Challenge is up from AmberInk.  The challenge this time is "Birthday Bash," since it was Amber's birthday last week.  Join in the fun, and YOU could be designing a set with Amber next!

Here's my inspiration for you:

It's retro-licious!  This oven is from Amber's new Mod Kitch Kitsch set, which was designed by winner of challenge #3!  I enlarged it (using Word) to about 5 x 5 1/2, then added the "Happy Birthday" and "I made..." using text boxes.  I'm sure many of you know this hint, but it was a "A-ha" moment for me when I first read it: print your image or sentiment on a sheet of cardstock (thinner works better for this), then use removable tape to tape down a scrap of patterned (or colored) paper to the cardstock where the image printed, then send it through the printer again.  Like magic, you now have perfectly printed patterned paper images!  I did that twice, once with the diamond paper and once with the blue paper (both of these are some old American Crafts sheets).  I used a silver marker to fill in the knobs, handle, and thingy-on-the-bottom (yes that is the technical term), and a silver prismacolor pencil for the burners.  Before attaching the blue door, I cut the top and the sides and scored the bottom of the original door to have it open (which I totally stole from Sue--go check out her adorable original!) so I could reveal my specialty...

Cue the wah-wahnnnnnn "cheesy joke" sound effect!  I printed "reservations" on another scrap of paper, making a blue outside-original card-blue inside sandwich.  I lined the back of the entire oven with some more American Crafts paper and since I didn't have a gift card handy, slipped in my Warrior card.

****We interrupt this card to bring you this special public service announcement: Go over to P.F. Chang's website and sign up for a free Warrior card. It's good for 10% off your total every visit.  Seriously, no catches!  Now back to our regularly scheduled card.****

To finish up my card, I added a kickstand to the back by cutting a strip of cardstock, scoring it, and folding it into a triangle:

So I now give you permission to make reservations for dinner!  What to do with all that free time you now have by not cooking?  Play in AmberInk's challenge, of course!!

The Answer to the Question that Should Never be Asked

Hooray!  It's my first Team Orange Torchbearer project, as well as my first ever Amber Ink project!  To start things off on the right foot (and to help you define exactly what being "snarky" is all about), I went with this fabulous Jumping Julian Rex image, which should be coming soon to a digi store near you.  Without further ado, here is the answer to the question that should never, ever, EVER be asked:

because, really,

I'm sure you can fill in the blank, there, right? :)   This cracked my husband up before he even opened it up to read the punchline.  Because I am never like this.  Ever.  Especially not if I'm hungry as well.

I started off by printing Julian onto some PTI distressed dot paper.  I colored in his teeth and mouth using some prismacolor pencils and cut him out.  The paper is from SU's newsprint pack.  I used a Cuttlebug city skyline embossing folder (one of those really small ones that you can never do anything with) twice on the "dictionary" paper and swiped some Peeled Paint distress ink on it to make the embossing pop.  I printed the sentiment, cut the end with a border punch, and attached with two brads.  Added Julian with some pop dots and lickety-split, it's OUTTA MY WAY, CITY!  NEED CHOCOLATE!

Stay tuned for some more Amber Ink Awesomeness and check out the other torchbearers here.

Doot-do-do-dooooo!

That was my rendition of the bugles signaling the start of a chariot race.  Why did I choose that as my sound effect of the day?
Because the Lovely Lindsey (of Bashful Blogging) chose me to be the next Team Orange Torchbearer for the amazing Amber Ink stamp company!!  There's going to be lots of fun cards coming up in the next month (starting tomorrow) from all the fabulous torchbearers:
Laurie Wilson of Soapbox Creations
JOEY McKelvey of Joey's World of Stuff
Brenda Rose of Rose Blossom Legacies
Sue Kment of Sue's Stamping Stuff

Addison was SO excited to hear the news, she ran to put on the perfect outfit for the occasion.

 
Let the races begin!

More Cake!

Because the only thing better than cake is, of course, more cake.

Eat Cake Graphics's Fargo Fradey can hear a crumb drop from a mile away, and that certainly gets him up and running!  I hope you can tell in the picture, but this is a REALLY 3-D card-Fargo is attached to a wire spring:

I mean, 3-D running dog, my favorite paper pack of all time (SU's Washington Apple), and someone talking about cake?  Until they develop edible cake paper, what more could you want in a card?

Fargo was stamped three times onto PTI's Harvest Gold.  I added some shading with Copic Y21, and used prismacolor pencils on his eyes, nose, and tongue.  Then I cut him out in layers (his back legs and tail; his body and front legs; and his head) and attached using foam tape.  I got the idea for the spring from my Scrapbook Embellishment Handbook.  I wrapped a piece of wire around a pencil about eight times, then used 3-D glue dots to embed each end of the wire and attach to the card and to Fargo:

Now, I'm not really sure what happens when you go to mail this--would the glue dots just stick to each other or would the spring be wide enough to keep them apart--so maybe it's an in-person type of card.  Although right now it's a keep-on-my-desk-there-is-no-one-worthy-of-this-card type of card.

Anyway, to finish it up, I added a row of the square paper to the bottom and added the Eat Cake Graphics sentiment, stamped in SU Bashful Blue.

And to finish my "Someone Say Cake" series, a quick fun CAS card:

Feathers MacGee wants to get in on some cake action, too!  For this card, I used PTI's Sunshine Impression plate on Harvest Gold cardstock (although this plate always makes my card wonky--does anyone know any tricks to help it stay flat?).  Then I cut out another piece of Harvest Gold using Nestabilities Labels 4 and stamped Mr MacGee onto it, and did some quick Copic coloring.  The sentiment was stamped with Memento Danube Blue.  I added a Labels 4 frame from some old SU patterned paper, popped up on pop-dots.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday, and maybe even enjoying some cake!

Did Someone say..... CAKE?!?!!?

Making this card definitely got me craving some cake, so I finally caved and split a Great Wall of Chocolate at Chang's last night...yummy!

Cake is definitely a banner-worthy event, isn't it?  All the papers and stickers are from (where else?) Echo Park (I think from the Life is Good pack, but don't quote me on that).  I cut the banner using PTI's banner dies.  Little Miss Abigail is from Eat Cake Graphics, and I colored her with copics and also paper-pieced her bow, dress, and shoes.  The sentiment is also from ECG, stamped with Colorbox Rouge chalk ink.  The buttons are from Stampin' Up.

What is your favorite cake?  I LOVE the Hershey's Torte cake my mom makes for me every time I visit.  I can't even mess up this recipe; the hardest part is buying all the ingredients and chopping the Hershey bars.  Here it is:

Cake:
1 box german chocolate cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 c oil

Mix well.  Bake 30 minutes at 325 in 3 layers (make sure you grease the pans!).   Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Cream together:
8 oz cream cheese
1 c confectioner's sugar
1/2 c sugar
Add:
8 oz cool whip
1/2 c pecans (optional)
6 Hershey's plain chocolate bars, chopped fine, or 1 bag Hershey's chips (I like the chopped candy bars better)

Frost between layers and on top.  Refrigerate.  Be prepared-after you serve this once, you will have a whole line of Abigails waiting for the next piece!