I've stamped.... a little....

but I can't post it here. I am in a monthly ATC (artist trading card) swap over on Splitcoast. I signed up for 5 months. The next one I am in is October since I am not insane enough to sign up for swaps during "Convention Swap Prep Season" which now can officially start! The ATC I did for April is the same design I am using for the focal image on one of my Convention Swaps (top secret stuff, ya know!), plus it is the same design I used for a card that I sent my Secret Sis. Don't know if she reads my blog, but why chance it?

It has been a computer-challenging time lately. I had to recondition a laptop and get it shipped out at the beginning of the week and then help the recipient get it set up when she got it. Now Russ is having computer issues. The same sort of things that my old machine was doing when it started its death spiral, so yesterday we backed up his files and looked at new computers on the Dell website. Now he has to decide if he wants to upgrade to Vista (then we can buy a computer anywhere) or if he really wants to stay on XP for a while, in which case Dell is our only option. Either way, I see "tech-support-duties" in my future....

As Spring has sprung here in Northern California, I have also been spending time getting the yard up to par. I still have some plants that need re-potting, but I've got everything pruned and pulled out most of the dead stuff and got the 2 foot tall weeds pulled from the side fence area. Got the lawn fertilized and have applied the first spraying of Roundup to the fence lines and driveway. Got the patio furniture back out of the garage. After all that I decided to enjoy it one evening.

Yes, that's me and my VERY WHITE LEGS on Russ' patio chair enjoying a little fire and a glass of Shiraz. We've been BBQ-ing a lot more lately too. Mmmmm.... Yesterday I got a new table to replace the one you see in the photo. That one is just too tall for our chairs (mine matches Russ' except for the cushions). The new one is a cute little Adirondak table from Cost Plus Imports and it's a darker brown and about half the height of the old one.

So, that's been my excitement the past couple of weeks. A dear friend of mine is having surgery today in Idaho, so if you are the spiritual type, a quick prayer for successful surgery today and a speedy recovery would be greatly appreciated!

GOT to LOVE it!

So, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you've heard me mention my friends from Splitcoast that I call the "Spammies" or my "Spamily". Heck, I think that makes up half my blog readers right there....



Well, knowing my soft spot for all things SPAM, look what I got from a friend of mine, sent straight from the SPAMALOT GIFT SHOP on Broadway in New York City:

Yes, it is an ACTUAL CAN OF GOLDEN HONEY SPAM! Is this label not TO DIE FOR????!

Of course, Russ was excited about it because he thought I was going to open it up and cook it for him.... Uh, NOT! I have until May of 2009 to decide if I want to eat it and then keep the can as a pencil holder on my stamp table or something. I suppose I could remove the label and scrapbook it. Hmmmm....

Thanks a million, Judy, I just LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!

I've been bad....

I've been stamping, really. I just forget to post it. Heck, half the time I forget to scan the cards before I put them in the mail.... something to do with stamping them at the LAST FREAKIN MINUTE, I guess....

So, here's a card I made for my friend, Kristi. Funny story - I had mailed Kristi a stamp set a bit before her birthday and decided to put a birthday card in with it to save postage and all. And then I forgot that I had sent her a birthday card. So it got to a couple days before her birthday and I freaked out, thinking I had forgotten to send a card, and I did this one. This is one of those cards I forgot to take a picture of before I mailed it, so thanks to Kristi for scanning and posting in our Spam Ma'ams group album!

I had received an order in the mail from PennyWiseArts, and they always include a little freebie project and this one was a beaded slide mount, so I decided to use it for K's card! I love the sticky tape from Penny Wise and they have a great selection of sizes! And the best pricing around on both the sticky tape and the micro beads!

The yellow patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Two Scoops collection and the stamps are from the Hero Arts Cupcake set. The little rhinestones are from my stash of Swarovski Flat Back Crystals (no cheap imitations for my cards! LOL!) - the small ones are 3mm and the larger center ones are 4 or 5mm. The card is Pretty In Pink with either Purely Pomegranate or Rose Red (I forget now!) for the mats and the front of the card was embossed using the new Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing folder. LOVE. THAT. FOLDER. One of the nicest things about it is that (if you have these folders you know that the design isn't big enough to actually cover a card front) this one is easy to line up and add a row of dots to finish the design. You can also just emboss a single line of dots, which is really cool. My friend, Julee did that on one of her blog cards this week..... neat, huh?

I need to do some stamping and start using up my stash of In Color stuff since it all retires at the beginning of August with the NEW CATALOG! Oh man, I can not WAIT for Convention!!!! Twenty weeks from Wednesday, for anyone counting.... That was the one thing I missed coming over to SU! from CTMH, was that they didn't release their new catalog at Convention. It was always SO EXCITING to get the catalog with a convention center full of excited women all seeing it for the first time TOGETHER! Now, the last time that happened with CTMH was when I went to Convention in Dallas which I think was the year they went to the clear stamps.... I think we had about 1400 consultants at Convention that year. I just remember running out into the hallway and calling Judy on the phone and going thru it page by page with her! LOL!

Stampin' Up is celebrating their 20th Anniversary this year and they are doing just ONE session of Convention in the NEWLY EXPANDED Salt Palace which says it can accommodate Conventions of up to TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE..... I just can't even get my brain wrapped around the idea of TEN THOUSAND demonstrators all getting the NEW CATALOG at the SAME TIME! (Note to self - bring extra earplugs!)

Well, this entry got a lot longer than I had planned! Off to read my Sunday paper! Have a great day!

Quick post to share a card!

Did a card today for a 17 year old Birthday Boy. I don't do many masculine cards, so I always have to think about them for a couple minutes.

Colors Are Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue and Brilliant Blue with Real Red Designer Paper and ribbon. The stamps are from Wonderful Words (Stampin Up) and Starlight Starbright (Verve Visual). The squares are done with a 1" punch and the ribbon is threaded thru a Hodge Podge Spiral Clip and the star is punched from the Red Designer paper and attached with a foam dimensional. (all Stampin Up) . I accented the layer strips with Diamond Stickles (Ranger). Nice and gender neutral!