How much do I love you?

Is it this much:

or this much:

This was Mr Corgi's Christmas card, although I think it would work as a Valentine as well by changing the papers.  It starts off as a 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 card, then expands to be 11 1/2 inches long (hence the difficulty of getting a good picture). I designed it in the Silhouette Studio using the Print and Cut feature, which made it easy to make sure everything would line up and to get nice straight cut lines.  Then I used steps 6 & 7 from the Splitcoast Slider Tutorial to make the slider portion.  I used small glue dots cut into thirds to hold down the loops of the twine, making sure I had a loop at the slider cut since I thought that would give me a bit more wiggle room for matching up the twine on the slider portion (and it worked!). 

I know there is someone out there who'd like to win a Silhouette vinyl hook just for trying out one of my Silhouette files, so I'm going to extend the giveaway on this post until next Sunday, January 8th.

And now it's time for my final book reviews of 2011:

Book #50:  The Buddha in the Attic is a book Amazon kept recommending for me, so I finally downloaded it from the library.  It is a short book about Japanese women who come to America as mail order brides for Japanese-American men.  It is beautifully written in the first person plural, which I'm not sure would work for a longer book, but is wonderful here. 

Book #51: Next to Love was another Amazon recommendation, but they didn't hit it out of the park with this one.  The story of three friends from WWII to 1965 and how the war affected their lives throughout that time.  I started off being intrigued by the three separate stories, but at the end it had the effect of making me not care about any of them very much at all.  It does have quite a lot of good reviews on Amazon, so maybe I'm just an outlier.

Book #52: Daring Young Men was loaned to us by my dad for the drive home from Thanksgiving.  It is the story of the Berlin Airlift, of which I knew absolutely zero.  The first half was a thrilling tale of these daring young men joining together to keep West Berlin alive, the second half was a not-so-thrilling tale of the politics of keeping it afloat.  If you know a history buff (or are one yourself), I would recommend it.

Book #53: I'd been struggling to find a really, really good book to read over vacation and when the local librarian declared The Language of Flowers as her favorite book of the year, I thought I should give it a try, and it was exactly the book I was looking for.  About a foster child named Victoria, it tells the story of her transition out of foster care at 18, with alternating chapters of her life with her foster mother at 10.  Oh, and also throws in using flowers to communicate.  Recommended!

There you have it, a book for each week of the year, plus one to grow on.  Here's another year of good reads and fun crafts!

Find a theme and stick with it

In making Christmas cards this year, I started getting a little bit carried away with the theme of "put a Santa hat on it!"  Then I went a little crazy during Silhouette's latest online sale and bought all sorts of Christmas images, but it turns out this one was the best deal of all, just for the Merry Christmas circle, which I then paired with my Santa hat obsession.

Exhibit A:  Angry Bird with a Santa hat

Exhibit B: Panda with a Santa hat

Exhibit C: Mickey with a Santa hat

We still have three more days to go, so who knows where Santa's hat will end up next!  (Also, as much as I'm loving this Amuse candy cane paper, it is impossible to take a photo of it without it looking all wonky, so I hope you didn't get any vertigo from today's photos.)

I'm also waaaaay behind on my books read list, aren't I?  Can I reach my goal of 52 for the year?

Book #45: Boomerang by Michael Lewis was the most recent book I've been reading to Ian in the car.  I love most all of Lewis's books and this one was no exception.  I just love his humor and I always feel smarter after I finish.  I'm not saying I'm an expert on the European financial crisis, but I can certainly follow the news better now.  Cheapie alert: after I bought this, I found out that it is a collection of articles Lewis wrote for Vanity Fair.  You can find the links here.

"Book" #45.5: Speaking of longform.org, I just found this site and am loving it.  It has links to some of the more interesting articles and essays on the web, with a super easy "read it later" button to send to your kindle or other electronic reading device.

Book #46: The Passage was recommended by quite a few people, so even though I was a bit put off by the page length (785?  Seriously?), I'm glad I read it and am looking forward to the next book in the series.  It's a vampire apocalypse book, but it's definitely more apocalypse than vampire.  I think he could have edited out about 200 pages in the middle where he introduced about 50 gabillion characters (I certainly hope he doesn't expect me to remember all 50 gabillion when I read the next one), but that's just my opinion.  It also reminded me a lot of the Coen brothers' movie True Grit, if that give you any indication of whether you would like it or not.

Book #47: The Gap Year was a novel told by a mother and daughter about the daughter's last year of high school.  It kept me turning the pages, and I like how Sarah Bird writes, but the end just seemed a little too wrapped up with a bow, if you know what I mean.  I certainly didn't think "oh I have to recommend this one," but I didn't think it should go in the burn bin, either.

Book #48: What Alice Forgot is a breezy novel about a woman who has a concussion and has forgotten the last ten years of her life.  She finds out she's one of those women who goes to the gym for hours a day and is the head of every committee at her children's school, and she's not sure if she likes being that woman.  If you're looking for a quick book to read on the plane, you'd probably enjoy this.

Book #49: The Worst Hard Time I've had this about the Dust Bowl on my "to read" list for about 3 years, so when it was offered a free book in the Amazon Kindle Lending Library, I thought I should probably get around to reading it.  I'm so glad I did--it was absolutely fascinating.  I knew the basics that everyone knows about the Dust Bowl, but I didn't realize just how many times they got knocked down and got back up again.  The writing was superb as well, it felt like your grandfather was telling you the story after dinner one night.

Well, I think I better get to working on some last minute Christmas gifts!  Is everything ready and wrapped at your household?  Or are you just going to give up and go read a good book?

HYCCT Faves

Edited to add: I am a bit behind in my email, and I just read the update that Katie Renz (of the "Swimming for Katie" blog hop) passed away yesterday morning.  Such horrible news.  When will cancer stop stealing people away when they are needed here? 

The donation link on my sidebar and the fundraising items at i {heart} papers are still live-all the information is here. 

Sympathy cards can be sent to:
The Renz Family
PO Box 5913
Bellingham, WA 98227-5913
For the extra cruel twist that cancer likes to throw in, all of Katie's boys will be having birthdays soon: the twins, Nate and Will, will be turning 6 on Nov. 19th and Hunter will be 12 on Dec. 1.  Her husband Kevin's birthday is November 17.  It has been suggested that we try to shower them with cards, just like Katie would do, so if you are so inclined, maybe you have an extra birtday card you could drop in the mail. Now that y'all have piles of kleenex in front of your monitor, I'll return to my original post: 
 
As promised, here are a few of my HYCCT favorites.  The theme for today is "friends are fabulous."

 

Angela of The Paper Cupboard sent me this fantastic stamp for my birthday. For some reason she thinks I have some sort of "keep calm" obsession.  Ok, so maybe I do have a wee bit of an obsession, and that was before I stamped it in pink.  Love!  The background paper is from the old Amuse website.  The new paper is reversed (pink on white) and I must admit I don't like it as much as the solid color.  A little bit of twine from my pal Emily of Art from the Heart was the perfect touch!

Ang was also kind enough to share one her recent prize packages that included some Anna Griffin stickers and papers.  I have three words for you: FUZZY.  PINK.  HOUNDSTOOTH.  (except blogger is telling me it should be hounds tooth so I guess that would be four words, but I don't think I agree with blogger.  SO THERE!)

Book Report Time!

Book #42: The best thing I can say about this book is that it was the first book I borrowed from my local library on my Kindle!  I really thought it might go somewhere, but it didn't.  Or maybe it did go somewhere and I didn't follow it. Either way, I'm not getting anywhere.  Amazon Link

Book #43: First of all, this book is about Stiltsville (a town in Florida made up of houses on stilts surround by water) in only the most tangential way.  I was really intrigued in how one would live on a house on the water (even if it was fiction).  Second of all, not only was there minimal talk of water houses, instead it turned out to be a (spoiler warning!)  HIP!!!  (Husband in Peril, not to be confused with PIP [pet/pregnancy/parent in peril]).  I can understand how someone would like this book, but it wasn't a subject matter I needed to be reading about at this time.   Amazon Link

Book #44: FINALLY!  I think it's been at least five books since I've had one that I would actually recommend, and recommend this one I will (says yoda).  I like Bill Bryson (loved A Short History of Nearly Everything) and this book was such a treat to read!  Every page had some interesting nugget of information I was sharing with Mr Corgi.  Plus a book that you can pick up any page at any time (although I recommend them in sequential order in the evening during a hot bath) with many discussions about word origins and the British!  What more could a gal ask for?  Amazon Link

Right now I'm on page 400 of The Passage, which means I'm....halfway through.  I've gotten two good reviews of it and enjoyed most of the first half, but it's slowed down quite a bit and I'm still not sure I want to dedicate another week of my life to second half.  Decisions, decisions....

PIckled Tink for HYCCT!

I was so honored when Lisa Lara, the newest member of the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen, asked me to make a sample for her Hope You Can Cling To Pickled Tink challenge, that of course I would have said "yes" no matter what the challenge.  The fact that the challenge was to make a punny CAS card (with a touch of pink) just sweetened the deal!  I started going through my stamp index, thinking maybe a bra card or a "hang in there" pun, when I came to Eat Cake Graphics's Marmie Decides to Leave, which led to the perfect card to sum up my feelings about cancer:

I printed the sentiment onto Soft Stone cardstock, stamped and colored Miss Marmie, then added a strip of Echo Park Dots & Stripes paper.  I do hope you'll play along in the challenge, or any of the HYCCT challenges!  

I've been falling behind on my book reports (and blog posts), so here's some more catch up....

Book #39: Just my Type was another birthday gift.  It is a book about fonts, which sort of made me giddy.  A review blurb on the Omnivoracious blog said it made him change the way he looks at words...ok, I think that's taking it a bit too far.  I will say it made me appreciate Comic Sans just a wee, little, tiny bit (I still don't think it should be on high school i.d. badges, but no one asked me for graphic design input on those).  I'd say this would be a library loan: fun and entertaining to read, but no need to keep it on your bookshelf.  Amazon Link.

Book #40: I had recently read The First Husband and enjoyed it, so I tried The Divorce Party by the same author, which didn't really have the same punch as Husband.  Probably another library loan book.  Amazon Link.

Book #41: This was the most recent book I've been reading to Mr Corgi as he drives.  Although a short book, I must admit it was extremely fascinating and we both have a hankering to go see the H1, H2, H3, and H4 in England.  Well written and researched, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a bit of science or history.

What are you reading?  I have some of your recent suggestions on my wish list at the library...someone else must have read your comments and scooped them up first!  I must be quicker this time. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see some of your cards in the HYCCT gallery!

Sometimes there's nothing else to say

This is for Bev's HYCCT "Looking in on You" challenge to make a window card. Sometimes there's nothing else to say except life isn't fair and sometimes it just sucks, and usually dealing with cancer is one of those times. The inside of the card has one of my husband's quotes: "Sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug."  (Alternate version: "Sometimes you get the elevator, sometimes you get the shaft.")

If this card seems familiar, I made a red version a while back for the Market Street blog.   This is some new Aspire Petallics shimmery paper I got--thanks for everyone's suggestions on where to find some metallic paper.  I will definitely be checking out Hobby Lobby and discount stores soon.  This Aspire stuff is pretty, but also pretty thin (almost copy weight).  So the good news is the Silhouette cuts through it like butter, bad news is you couldn't make a card base out of it.  This set uses Market Street's Gone Campin' set and if you've been eyeing up some Market Street, this week is definitely the time to do so!  Be sure to check out the blog for the newest anniversary deal AND sign up for the new "neighborhood" ning forum for an added bonus. 

This second card is for Wanda's "Hang in There" challenge. I colored and paper pieced this sweet little Sugar Nellie stamp, who now looks a bit tipsy when she didn't before.  I took advantage of the two sided Amuse paper so she'd have a night sky background color.  Although now I'm thinking I should have stamped some stars back there.  But I didn't and I can't because (YES!) I mailed off 12 cards to MD Anderson yesterday.  The postal worker only looked at me a little askance when she saw I had written "LOVE ENCLOSED PLEASE DO NOT BEND" on the envelope.  They should add that to their "anything potentially fragile, perishable, liquid, or hazardous" question.  I can't tell you how much mailing that package helped lift my mood during a difficult month and I would highly recommend playing along!

Only one book today since it's almost dinner time, and don't mock me for liking it!

It's the newest Chet and Bernie mystery!  As told by Chet the dog (aka "Chet the Jet")!  How could I not love this entire series?  Oh, except for the end of the one book where Chet has a suspicious lump which is TOTALLY NOT COOL!  Why would Spencer Quinn do that?  I think he got told to wise up, though, because within the first couple pages of the next one the vets calls and everything is ok. WHICH IS HOW IT SHOULD BE.  I would definitely recommend this series if you like (a) mysteries (b) dogs or (c) dogs and mysteries.  Amazon Link.

Hello. Is it me you're looking for?

So sometimes I get something stuck in my head (like that Lionel Richie song that's in your head now--you're welcome!). The only problem is when it gets stuck in my head wrong. Like when I read the comments from this post, I had it in my head that my pal Lindsey asked for a phone instead of my pal Jessi.  So when Lindsey won some blog candy from me, I though I should make a phone card and sent it along.  DOH!  Maybe I'll make an Angry Birds card and send to Jessi, then Jessi and Lindsey can switch.  ANYWAY, here is the card!

Get it?!?!  Red phone!?!  You da BOMB!?!?  Hahahaha.  I laughed myself silly over that one. This was a Silhouette Studio file that I modified a bit to make it into a card.  I l.o.v.e. that DCWV metallic paper--does anyone know where I can buy something similar by the sheet?  Or at least in a pack with all metallic paper?

I also have been hard at work on some more Hope You Can Cling to Challenges.  Here's one based on Jimmi's sketch challenge.

I just love Eat Cake Graphic's A Scarf for Ferguson.  The holiday paper is from My Mind's Eye, and Ferguson's scarf was fussy cut from Amuse gingham paper.  I also used Amuse's "cardstock" vellum to stamp the sentiment onto. This vellum isn't really all that vellum-y, but you can at still see a hint of the gingham behind it.  The sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas.

Ok, so now it's time for some book reports. I think I may spread them out over the next few days so this doesn't turn into a massive post! (click on the book to go to its Amazon page)

Book #36: This one was on my birthday wishlist because it was supposed to be THE book for any child of the 80's.  My mom gifted the Kindle book to me, which we both thought was so cool for her to do.  As for the book, it was definitely entertaining for a sci-fi book, but a little bit too action-adventure for me.  Plus I really didn't get a lot of the references.  I think what they meant to say was it was for any super geeky video-game loving child of the 80's.  I'm pretty sure the only video games I played in the 80's were Pong and Oregon Trail.  Oh, yeah, and Number Crunchers when our teachers were trying to be "educational" during our one hour of computer time every two weeks. I won't tell you not to read, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it.

Book #37: Have you noticed that there's a bit of a fad going on with books about women with some sort of amnesia or dementia? This book falls into that category.  I would recommend Before I go to Sleep before I would recommend this one.  Actually, that statement isn't true, because I would not recommend this one.  At all.  This is a re-enactment of me when I saw this title in my Amazon account:

Ann who? from Steven Castellano on Vimeo.

 And, yes, I am peeing my pants about Arrested Development coming back...in 2013!!

"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.  ;)

Bookmarks and books

My mother-in-law likes books.  A lot.  As in, she works at the Library of Congress.  So for her birthday I knew I had to send her this card, but I also wanted to make a gift set of cards for her using Papertrey Ink's All Booked Up set.  I never know quite what to do with that Mat Stack 1 die, so I went looking for some inspiration and found this lovely card by Stephanie.  After trying about 25 different sheets of patterned paper, this is my version:

 I used mostly October Afternoon Campfire, along with PTI's Distressed Dots and OA Thrift Shop (I think?) for the damask paper.  Hint: place the bookmark in the soon-to-be pocket (not too far down, though), and use some removable tape to hold everything in place.  Then when you sew up the edges, it won't be too tight to fit the bookmark into the pocket. Here are some pairs with their bookmarks:

And here they are all wrapped up (I also made four extra bookmarks for her to use):

Seems like this post is just calling for some book reports, doesn't it?  (Click on the book to be taken to its amazon page)

Book #28: Okay, technically this was probably book #25, but I had completely forgotten about reading it.  I think that says it all about how good it was.

Book #29: The Disappearing Spoon is a collection of stories about the elements of the periodic table.  I definitely enjoyed reading it and feel a little bit smarter, but I would recommend reading it in small doses--he packs a lot of information into this book! 

Book #30: GAH!  I remembered Seabiscuit being good, but I forgot about it being this good. After reading Unbroken to Mr Corgi; we decided to read this next and dare I say it is better than Unbroken?  If you haven't read it yet, go read it!  If you have read it, go read it again!  Three cheers for Biscuit!

Book #31: I bought Lost on Treasure Island when it was on sale for $.99 and I think I overpaid.  Okay, I take that back, the first three or four chapters were probably worth $.99.  Then he started  attending AA meetings to pick up girls, but then he started to attend them to really attend them, and then it turned into pages and pages of bad choices and belly button gazing.

Book #32: I thought this might make a good beach read, but it was pretty meh.

Book #33: Now this is a novel, my friend.  I don't know how he packed so much into 352 pages.  It tells the story of a Newfoundland town over the course of many generations.  If you're reading it on the Kindle, go ahead and copy down the family tree at the beginning.  I did notice it got a lot of mixed reviews on amazon, but I would still recommend it if you like sweeping family sagas.

I love hearing what you're reading, so let me know in the comments!

GIU: I got a pocket, got a...

(remember voting closes at 2:00 Eastern for gallery idol!)

I got a pocket, got a...

a pocket full of sunshine!

I couldn't have a Growing in Unity week without breaking out my first (and favorite) Kit of the Month, A Pocket Full of... (July 2009). 

Yes, I was totally inspired by Easy A:



(which, as a side note, I would recommend for anyone that is craving a good ol' eighties-esque teenage romantic comedy [but as a warning, I'm not sure I'd want my hypothetical young teenager watching it].)

So many stamps got to see some ink for this card!  For the Baja Breeze base, I stamped and embossed the clouds in white.  The sentiment was made from the "a pocket full of" and "you are my sunshine" stamps (using tape to mask off the words that I didn't want inked and also breaking out my stamp-a-ma-jig), with the "sunshine" clear embossed.  The pocket was stamped onto textured paper, embossed with tan powder, cut out, and distressed.  The sun was clear embossed onto Echo Park patterned paper.  As a final touch, I embossed "love" from the "sending you love" sentiment from August 2009's KOM in tan onto a strip of red that I folded over to make the Levi's-esque tag, and also added two eyelets for the pocket rivets.

Besides sunshine, I've also had my Kindle in my pocket a lot recently, so it's book report time!  Click on the book to be taken to its amazon page.

Book #24: I admit it, I am powerless against Goldens, so this book has been tempting me at Target for quite some time. Then I figured out that Tuesday is still with us, so it also passed the PIP (pets in peril) test.  The synopsis: dogs are AWESOME and war is not.  The story about how Tuesday and the author both got to where they were was very interesting, but the writing (and the story of them after they met) was not very interesting, if you know what I mean.  It also puzzles me that the author went to Columbia for journalism yet had a co-author for this book.  If you like true dog stories, get it from the library and read the first half.

Book #25: Incendiary was recommended to me by Lindsey of Bashful Blogging, based on the fact that I recommended Little Bee by the same author.  Like Little Bee, this is not a happy story, but a good one:  A mother who has lost her husband and son to a bomb attack write a letter to Osama about her story.  It kept me turning the pages and rooting for her.  Recommended, but if you'd can only read one Chris Cleave novel, I'd make it Little Bee.

Book #26: I really am a happy person even though I seem to be reading some not-happy stories recently.  The Girl Who Fell from the Sky started off very good, with an eleven-year-old girl, the daughter of a black father and Danish mother, being the only survivor of her family.  The girl goes to live with her black grandmother and the story covers most of her teenage years in snippets.  The ending felt a bit too coincindental and abrupt, but I enjoyed most of the book.  Maybe it felt abrupt because I wanted to know more of what happened to the girl, which I guess is a good sign.

Book #27: Even though I love going out to eat at nice restaurants, sometimes I have a craving for some Ruffles potato chips.  This book was my most recent Ruffles book.  Three months after her long-term boyfriend breaks up with her, Annie gets married to a new man.  Of course the old boyfriend decides he wants her back and Annie must choose what type of life she wants.  I felt so silly because I was crying at the end of the book and then when I went to tell Mr Corgi about how silly I felt for crying, I started tearing up again.  When did I become That Girl?

As always, I love to hear what you're reading!  (It also counts as a chance to win a Unity stamp set, too!)