Pun or No Pun?

As many people have noticed, The Play Date Cafe and CAS-ual Friday both had "black, white and red" challenges, but CAS-ual Friday went with the pun of "read."  I made a different card for each challenge because I was in a card-making mood yesterday.  First up, no pun:

My BIL's birthday was last week (actually a day after mine yet I am always late with his card).  He's been restoring an old car for forever, so when I saw this cut file in the Silhouette store, I popped it right into my cart.  I cut it out of black vinyl so I wouldn't have to worry about gluing those small pieces and to give it a shiny look.  (You can see all my supplies at the end of the post--yes, I'm now using the inlinkz link manager tool so I can be part of the cool blogger crowd.)

My pun cards I based on my most recent favorite book(s), Isabelle Gillies Happens Every Day and A Year and Six Seconds: A Love Story.  Since both books involve her trying to keep her act together during and after her divorce, I thought this sentiment would be appropriate (and also appropriate for the Wee Memories Simply Sentiments challenge)

I made a wee little card (2 1/4 by 3) and like potato chips, I couldn't stop at just one:

I thought these would be perfect to stash at work in case someone needs a little extra happy. This fun stamp set was part of my stampy awesomeness from my friend Angela of Paper Cupboard.  She is fully aware of my Keep Calm and... addiction, and this fun stamp set has lots of phrases from which to choose.

Finally, I also have the winner of My Mind's Eye Lime Twist "Life of the Party" paper pad from Saturday's post:

Lindsey, use the "contact me" button at the top of my blog to give me your mailing details!

Hope everyone is enjoying a nice Monday---even nicer if you're off for Labor Day!

"You're a Classic" supplies:

Silhouette Antique Car	Echo Park Happy Days	Clear Dollar Stamps Cruisin' Classic	Memento Tuxedo Black	Black Vinyl
Papertrey Ink White Cardstock	Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy

InLinkz.com

"Keep Calm and..." supplies:

Maya Road Keep Calm	Stampin' Up A to Z	Papertrey Ink White Cardstock	Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy	Memento Tuxedo Black
VersaMark	Filigree White Embossing Powder

InLinkz.com

50th Birthday + RAKs!

A fellow math teacher celebrated his 50th birthday this week, so of course I had to break out the number background from the Silhouette store:

(I'm still playing with the depth-of-field on my new lens.)

In the Silhouette Studio, I cut out the center circle, then welded a circular ring to make the window opening.  The dotted paper is from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist "Out of the Blue" paper pack (more on my love for the Lime Twist line a wee bit later), adhered to the back of the number background, then pop-dotted onto the lime green base.  The "5" and "0" just didn't seem right by themselves, so I went back and made an offset shadow for them from black paper, then super-pop-dotted them so they would be above the number background.

And that was not the only birthday celebration this week...mine was on Monday (not 50th, though!) and I got lots of happy mail!  Here they are, in order of arrival:

Samswindle was certainly on top of things as a member of the BRAK group on Splitcoast! I got to enjoy this card all month.  I love that happy pool-ready moose and of course the pink bow just makes me happy.  Definitely put me in the "relax" mode when start-of-school stress started to take over. Make sure to check out her gallery--she has many fabulous cards there.  Thanks, Sam!

Speaking of school, Lindsey picked the perfect apple for the teacher!  The background paper she made herself by using the acrylic block technique, doesn't it look awesome?  You can read all about all the trials she had while making this card on her blog, Bashful Blogging.  She also included a cute little Christmas stamp--thanks, Linds!

Two things I love: pink and long dogs.  Emily must really know me well since she put both of them together to make this fabulous card.  Look at all those happy borders!  You can read her post about it on her blog, Art from the Heart.  Thanks to Emily, I'm also the owner of an entire spool of honeydew twine from the Twinery! Thanks, Em!

Ang broke out the corgi for this card, and a *blinged* corgi at that!  Could that speech bubble be any cuter?  It's like she knew how much Addison loves to bark.  Angela likes to keep her cards a surprise, so this one isn't on her Paper Cupboard blog yet, but you can go over and see the absolutely stunning set of CAS cards that were part of her amazing stampy gift she gave me.  Thanks, Ang!

I also thought you might be interested in seeing my Gallery Idol loot!

I haven't even had a chance to use any of it yet, but I have big stampy plans for this weekend.  Also remember if you promoted me on your blog to use the "contact me" form at the top of my blog to send me your name and address so you can share in the goodies!

Remember when I said I'd talk more about Lime Twist later?  Well, now is later!  I ordered 8(!) paper pads from Two Peas (thanks to my sister's birthday gift certificate) and they accidentally sent My Mind's Eye "Life of the Party" instead of "Fly a Kite."  They are going to send the correct one out, but told me not to worry about returning the incorrect one-how's that for awesome customer service?  Their mistake is your gain!  Since I already have this pad (and love it), I'll give it away to a random commenter on this post.  Let's say Sunday night, midnight central time?

Whew!  When it rains, it pours around this blog doesn't it?  Now I'm going to go get stampy so I can share some more things with you this week!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Sometimes You're the Windshield...

Oooh!  It's my first official Design Team post (ever!) over on the Market Street blog today!  I hope you go check it out!

"Play" Time with Market Street Stamps!

I hope y'all had a chance to check out all the new releases from Market Street.  If you haven't, make sure you check them out here- and if you order before 11:59pm CDT on September 1st, you can 15% off each set, or 25% off the whole bundle.  But what if you already ordered them and are patiently awaiting your happy mail?  Don't fear, because Angelica cooked up a new linky party called the Market Street Block Party, where you can link up a new creation made with MSS stamps you already have for a chance to win a prize pack or even a guest DT spot!  Wowzers! And if that's not enough, Market Street is sponsoring this week's Play Date Cafe challenge:

The challenge colors are mint, ivory and coral.  I combined three new MSS sets to play along:

I started by stamping the cane background onto PTI's Melon Berry using Vintage Cream ink (and it inked up like a dream!).  Then I stamped and embossed the milk bottle from For All It's Worth onto Echo Park Springtime paper and cut it out.  I stamped the sunflowers from Autumn Greetings onto Vintage Cream paper, colored the centers with RV42 Copic, and added just a touch of shading to the petals with E00.  I adhered the stems to the back of the milk bottle, then popped the whole thing up with foam tape, and then decided to cut out another middle flower and pop it up.   I cut the little sentiment banner and stamped "thankful," also from Autumn Greetings, using A Muse Bermuda ink and attached a coral button.  I even remembered to cut a 1/4 inch off of my card so it will fit in an envelope with the tag hanging off the end!   Score one for Meg!

So I know I have been very remiss in blogging and commenting.  School just wipes me out!  Plus I spent all of last weekend reading two very good books (#34 and 35):

Happens Every Day and A Year and Six Seconds: A Love Story, both by Isabel Gillies.  I like her style of writing, which was much like reading an email from your best friend.   The first one made me really thankful that I have never had to deal with divorce, and the second one made me really thankful about my first six seconds with Mr Corgi.

Plus Mr Corgi is so nice to me: he made me an early birthday dinner on Friday so I could open my present early.  He got me the pancake lens I've been eyeing for our camera!  I haven't had a chance to take it outside yet, but Addison was a willing model last night to test out the low-light capabilites:

I know what you're thinking, and yes, her eye liner does cost us a fortune every month.  ;)

Market Street Sneak Peek: Autumn Greetings

Hooray!  It's Market Street release week sneak peek time!  This is my first time to be participating as a Design Team member, and I must admit it's so exciting to be the first to see what fabulous stamps Angelica designed.  Now it's time for y'all to see some of them in action!  I hope you joined in the fun yesterday to see Comforting Florals (if not, make sure you head over to this post on the MSS blog to check that set out).   You can see all of today's sneaks of Autumn Greetings in this post.  There is one more set to sneak peek tomorrow on the MSS blog, then all the sets are revealed and released Thursday at 7:00 Central.  There is also a special release sale!  You get 15% off each individual set, or 25% off if you purchase all of them  (Promo Pricing valid 8/25 7:00pm CDT - 9/1 11:59pm CDT).

For my sample from the Autumn Greetings set, I went a wee bit crazy with the paper piecing:

Do you like to paper piece?  Recently I have been preferring paper piecing over coloring; I find I get much less frustrated with paper than with Copics.  Here are my secret tools of the trade:

Yes, the $0.88 bowl is important if you have a messy desk like mine: that's where I put all those little pieces until I'm ready to start gluing.  And speaking of gluing, here's a little collage showing each step.  If you notice in the first picture, I colored the straw using a light yellow marker, since I was going to ruffle up the straw.

To finish the card, I cut out windows using Nesties Label 4 in red cardstock and brown woodgrain cardstock, then layered them.  I tied some twine around them and added the sentiment.  Then I put foam tape on the back and popped it up on the card base.

Hope you enjoyed your peek today!

Market Street Sketch Challenge

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  And not just any Wednesday, but the third Wednesday, which means it's Market Street Sketch Challenge Day!  Please come play with us on the Market Street blog!
Here's the sketch:

and here's my card:

Like everyone else in the entire world, I love Market Street's Gone Campin set, so I stamped the camper and colored it in using copics and prismacolor pencils, using the tiny heart stamps from the same set in the doorway.  The background paper is, appropriately, from October Afternoon Campfire paper pad.  For the orange strip, I cut a rectangle from a post-it to use as a mask, then stamped Bit of Burlap background stamp.  The sentiment is from the jam-packed Simple Joys sentiment set (which is definitely unlike any other sentiment set I've seen before).  I hope you can see the words on the heart which say, "if this van's a-rockin', don't come a-knockin."  I typed the phrase and copied it repeatedly in MS Word, printed it out, then cut out the heart.

And make sure you don't come a-knockin', because the van really is a-rockin!

I used the tilt card tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers to make the van rock back and forth because, well, it just had to be done.

I hope you all are having a rocking week (wink, wink) and I can't wait to see your sketch creations!

Angel Dog

Last week, Maria of Crafty Creations had to say goodbye to one of her four-legged family members, Layla.  I wanted to send her a special sympathy card, and as soon as I saw on the photos she posted on her blog, I knew exactly what I wanted to do:

I just had to make an angel dog, which I did by printing out Layla's photo and using the trace feature in Silhouette Studio to cut it out, although it probably would have been easier and quicker to just cut it out myself.  The wings were a Silhouette file, and then I embossed the smaller wing using SU's Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder.  The background paper is a pretty shimmery one from a DCWV pack, matted with Smokey Shadow on a Soft Stone base (a pretty big one, too- 5.5 x 8.5 because I just could force myself to make it any smaller).  The sentiment is from Verve.  Maria did say she got a little teary-eyed when she opened it, but I hope it was in a remember-the-good-times way.

I don't even want to discuss how far behind I am in my blog comments; I had good intentions this weekend and then Every Word: Crossings on the Kindle sucked me into the couch for most of the day.  I also saw The Help, which I would definitely recommend (although the book is, as always, better).  I also saw Crazy. Stupid. Love. before school started and would definitely recommend that one, too, if only for the New Balance shoe joke (although the rest of it is pretty darn good, too).  I hope all of y'all are having a great week!