Market Street Geek Love

Who's ready for some geek love?

I've been wanting to make a graph with the Pretty Perfect Grid ever since I got it in my hot little hands.  I started by stamping the grid in gray onto gray cardstock, leaving a bit of a border. Of course, we all know that you should always label your axes, and the two sentiments from Simple Joys were perfect to show my love for the hubby growing over time (to really geek out on you, I wanted it to be an exponential graph, but I think I would have gotten to x = 4 before it went off the card, so I went with the linear equation y = 2/3x + 1).  I thought about just adding some bling for the points, but then remembered this small little heart from Gone Campin' that was the perfect size!

Then, being the good stamper that I am, I clean off the sentiment stamps and start putting them back on the sheet, when what do I spy?   Yes, there is an actual equation in Simple Joys.  It was like Angelica knew there were geeks out there wanting to make a love graph.

One more note: If you enjoyed this post, thank your math teacher.  Or any teacher.  Maybe get your kids in the spirit of Thanksgiving and have them write thank you letters to their teachers.  Maybe write one yourself to that teacher that inspired you to _____.  Believe me, it will make his or her heart grow-and this time it definitely will be exponentially!

Market Street/Twinery Fishhook

As my dad always says when we pull in the driveway..."Fishhook!  End of the line!"  If you've just come from Monique's blog, then congratulations on making it all the way through the blog hop!  If you're just stumbled upon this fishhook (ow!), then you'll want to start back at The Twinery and leave a comment on each blog in the hop for both today and Friday in order to be entered in the big drawing.  You have until Friday, November 25th to comment.  The Twinery is giving away a free ultimate sampler pack and Market Street Stamps is giving away a $25 gift certificate!

I must give props to both Mr Corgi and my pal Emily for this card.  Emily always has the most creative, out-of-the-box inspiring ideas for using twine, but it was Mr Corgi who came up with the idea of cross-stitching with it using the cane background.

After I worked out the letters on a scrap sheet, I pierced the holes, then just backstitched the letters.  Doesn't the Computer Cutie look so happy to be blogging?

Here's a close-up of the stitching:

Hope you enjoyed the Twinery blog hop, and if you looking for some more nerdy cards, make sure you tune back in here tomorrow!

More Retroness!

Last chance to vote!  Closes at 1:00 Central Thursday.

Before I get to my card, I've spent some time working on some new pages on my blog, so check them out.  My favorite one is the "Inspiration" one because I got all geeky and turned the blogger blog list sidebar widget into a page (if you're interested, I just followed these instructions which were really easy once I realized the "edit HTML" for your template is way down at the bottom in the new blogger), so now you can go see snippets of my favorite blog peeps (and you may be on there!  If not, remember these are still in work.).  I also added a blog list of challenges (which is really sparse, so hook me up with some good ones in the comments) and where I like to shop (which again is also sparse, but that's probably a good thing for my wallet).

Onto the retro card!  If you enjoyed the pink radio from Monday, you're probably the right age to enjoy this card.  I actually made it for the Gallery Idol die cut challenge, but somebody thought it was a bit too obscure-pop-culture-y.

If you get this joke, you're a nerd just like me! And I have to interject this fact: TWO HUNDRED AND TWELVE LINES, B%)(*&!  (speaking of being a nerd....)

Again I did this with my Silhouette, but yes, every single square was cut out and placed individually. I made multiples of the seven different tetris shapes in Silhouette Studio, then played around with them in the software until I got them to fit.  I took a screenshot of it and printed it out so I could use it as a reference for gluing down the squares.

After that, the rest came together easily...some more rectangles, circles, and rounded rectangles for the buttons, Neuropol font (cut out of self-adhesive cardstock for "you complete me", printed directly on the green paper for the score [which is also our anniversary]), plus a pixelated heart.  I made three copies of the buttons and stacked them for a 3-D look and also added some acetate for the screen.
 
I've also added all the Market Street Stamps design team gals to my sidebar, which reminds to me, if you didn't see it yesterday, there is a Super Sale going on until Friday!

Do you know what's really cool?  Angelica went back and gave everyone who bought during the reveals yesterday the 20% off because isn't it the worst when you buy something only to have it go on sale the next day?  That just really impressed me and I know a lot of unnamed stamp companies that would never dream of doing that.

Also you have until Thursday night to leave a comment on each Market Street Stamps DT Reveal post from yesterday for a chance to win a MSS set and there is also a new Color Cue Challenge today.

So remember you need to fill me in on: Do you like the new pages? I'm always open to suggestions of how to blog better.  Can I make an open suggestion to everyone out there? Please no music (even if you're a really popular stamp company) It always scares the bejeezus out of me when it starts playing. What are some challenges you like to play in?  Can you beat my highest line total? What other retro thing would you like to see turned into a card?

Market Street Stamps Design Team

(psst...you can see my Gallery Idol post here and vote here.)

Unnamed Koala Joey was right when he said I had some big news to share today...I am now officially a

I just found them a little while ago (I know, what rock have I been living under?) and I fell in love with all the cuteness of their stamps.  And then I saw their backgrounds--gorgeous AND big enough for a card front.  What more could a girl ask for?

Well, maybe to be on their design team.  So I asked and they said yes!  Then I saw the rest of the crew and HOLY MOLY are you going to be excited when you see all the fabulous gals that are on the team with me!  I feel stampier just by being on the same team as them!  The senior design team was announced last month, and today they are revealing one new member every hour on the hour starting with me (eek!) and ending at 5:00 Central with an awesome super-secret announcement.  Even awesomer, with every DT member reveal comes a chance for you to win that DT member's favorite stamp set!  To enter, just leave a comment on each post on the Market Street Stamps blog! (Just to be clear, comments on my blog will not enter you to win the stamp set, but they will win you my love and affection and really, what could be better than that?  Although I admit it's difficult to make cute cards with just my love and affection.  Maybe if you rub an eraser over my love and affection and then use pigment ink, that might help.  Long aside short, go to the MSS blog to enter!)

I'm sure by now you're wondering, "Meg, what is your favorite stamp set (so far)?"  Well, you may have noticed I'm a wee bit of a nerd.  Who is married to a geek.  And has a corgi who is a dorg^[1].  Have you guessed my stamp set yet?  Here's a hint:

Yes, it's Computer Cutie!  I made this card as a shout-out to all of my far-flung interweb friends, so for the background I tried to recreate those pin maps that show where your blog visitors are.  I traced a (simplified) world map in Silhouette Studio and then did some massive continental drift to get as much as possible onto a square card.  After adhering the continents, I colored some small white pearls with a red copic to act as the pins--again playing a bit fast and loose with my geography as well as followers (although if anyone is following me from Ghana, I'd love to know!).  For the computer, I stamped it both in grey and red, then cut out the red screen and added glossy effects. 

Quite the cutie, right?  Just like all of my computer friends (that means YOU!)

I'm looking forward to getting y'all hooked on Market Street, so I hope you're ready!  Don't forget to check the MSS blog for a DT member reveals and chances to win all day today!

^[1] dorg/dôrg/  noun.  Combination of "dork" and "dog" used to describe canines who exhibit such behaviors as: trying (and succeeding) of getting out of their travel crate while on vacation by unzipping the zipper from the inside; barking at the wind blowing the trees, but ignoring a cat sitting on the patio furniture; falling up the stairs.  Coined by Mr Corgi in 2008.

For all you crafty nerds out there...

 Check it:

Why, whatever could be inside? 

A Kindle! 

Ok, I have to interrupt here and do a shout-out for Delivereads.  Started by a guy that sent a lot of articles to his Kindle to read later, it's a free service that sends about 5 of the most interesting articles a week to your Kindle, in one easy newsletter.  Did I mention it was free?  And awesome? And free?

Back to my new case, what nerd wouldn't love her own polka dotted and wavy striped padded case?  I used this pattern and it was really quite easy. As someone who hasn't done "real" sewing since the tenth grade, I was amazed at how professional looking it turned out.  Also, since the pattern included directions on how to adjust it to fit all sorts of electronics, I made one for my school-issued netbook (I say school-issued because I would never want to endorse a netbook after using this one):

But at least it'll look good, right? It's a bit lumpy due to the cords, but I wanted to show how much you really can fit in there.  I'm sure the "i" is a bit intriguing.  I did some silhouette vinyl work and personalized my netbook:

Aw yeah, math jokes! 

Subway art update: If you recall, I was on step 5 of 16, which was "how much paint does it take to cover a 2x2 foot piece of board?"  Today I completed:
Step 6: Buy 2 more cans of paint ("because I can always return the one I don't use")
Step 7: Use up the entire two cans of paint (bringing the total to one can of primer and THREE cans of spray paint).
Step 8: Call customer service for refund.
Step 9: Decide to paint it black, but must wait until the next day for the spray paint to dry.
Seriously, this is getting a bit ridiculous now.  Maybe someday soon I can finally show you the finished product!

Until then, read on or craft on or math on, my friends.