As Merry as a Cricket

Wow. I'm experiencing really bad "medicine head" today. I took some cough syrup with codeine in it last night and I don't think that it has worked its way out of my system yet. The world seems to be moving in slow motion and I am moving even slower. I apologize if my post today is scattered and disconnected. It's the medicine head's fault.

I made this card of Helen last week and it was incredibly fun to work on. You can see the recipe for this card in my SCS Gallery. I'm feeling so merry inside about making this card that I decided to put Helen and her accessory sentiments on sale for 30% off this month. No coupon code needed. Just shop until you drop.

Speaking of crickets on Vespas . . . I really do enjoy seeing people riding Vespas. Oblivianna and I see a woman on a pink Vespa zip by us most mornings while we are waiting for the bus to arrive. Also, when we were in St. Augustine, we saw one of the female park rangers from the fort there wearing a skort and riding a Vespa. Just the thought of a National Park Service employee scooting around on a Vespa made me giggle. I wanted to take a picture, but I couldn't get my camera out quickly enough.

TTYL and Happy Stamping in the meantime.

-Molly

The teacher strike is over!!!

I'm breathing a big sigh of relief here. I didn't know how much longer we could last. Miss Moo starts preschool today and it would have been very disappointing if Oblivianna couldn't go to school as well; but last night the teachers' union voted to accept the school district's latest proposal and we're starting school today . . . nine days late. At this point, I'm just grateful we're starting, but I'm sure later on in the school year when we're missing scheduled vacation days and adding on days to the end of the year to make up the time, I'll be more disgruntled.

So here I am at 6:30 a.m. uploading cards and waiting for Oblivianna to get dressed so I can take her upstairs and help her get some breakfast. This is one of my most favorite cards that I have made in a while. I used the "Stinking of You!" sentiment on the inside, so this is a good card for just about any time you feel like giving a card (except for when you need a sorry for your loss card). Also, the Rain Drop bubbles are irresistible. When I was editing the card I zoomed in and I could see myself taking the picture of the card in the reflection on the bubbles. For this card's full recipe, visit my SCS Gallery.

Well, Oblivianna is all dressed. She's wearing an ensemble of grey tiger-stripes from Gymboree's Classroom Kitty Collection and when I say ensemble, I mean an ensemble of tiger-striped everything . . . shoes, socks, pants, and shirt. I tried to talk her into toning it down a little, maybe wearing a pink shirt or something, but she's made up her mind. That's my girl. Enjoy your day. I'm going to enjoy my 3 1/2 hours alone while Miss Moo is at preschool. Happy stamping.

School Strike Day 7

Well, it's day 7 of the teacher strike here in Bellevue. The school board is holding a special meeting that parents can attend and express their views about the strike and any legal action that the district may be able to take. The PTSA sent out an e-mail recommending that all parents wear black shirts to identify themselves. Black shirts! Why not black arm bands and black veils! I feel as though I should show some sign of being in mourning for the loss of freedom I'm experiencing due to Oblivianna not being able to go to school. Seriously though . . . seven days of no school that we're going to have to make up at the end of the school year . . . with no resolution in sight. At this rate, Oblivianna will still be going to school on the Fourth of July! One funny thing is that Oblivianna keeps telling people that she is on strike, instead of the teacher's being on strike. It's pretty hilarious.

Okay, that's enough of my rant completely unrelated to card making and stamping except that trying to keep Oblivianna from getting too bored and fighting with Miss Moo too much has taken up stamping time. Here's my card for the day. The color scheme for this card was inspired by Miss Moo's snuggly blanket from Target. For the full recipe for this card, look in my SCS Gallery. The two main ingredients that "tickle my fancy" on this one are the Twinkling h2os that I used to paint the wings and the crown and the Hero Arts gem that I placed on her crown. Who doesn't love a little shimmer and bling on their cards? I'll admit that I got a little carried away with the scoring and polka dot placement, but I think that it gives the card some texture.

That's all for today, folks. Happy stamping.

An Unwanted Extended Vacation

Who wouldn't want an extended vacation, you ask? Well, if the extended vacation is your child's summer vacation from school, I can think of thousands of parents here in Bellevue who could do without having their kids at home. Still. The school teachers in our fair city are on strike and school didn't start on Tuesday the 2nd as it was supposed to. It didn't start on Wednesday the 3rd either. As it is now, the school district website says that schools are closed until further notice! Ack! That's all I can say. I really do love Oblivianna and Miss Moo, but I was very much looking forward to having the days to myself beginning in September. I'm concerned. How long can this go on?

So, how are these days at home with my children any different from what we've been doing the entire summer? There is quite a difference actually. For one, the part time nanny that helps keep me sane during the summer months went back to college. I'm flying solo now. Second, we are traveled out. We have no where else exciting to go and nothing that we're dying to see. If my daughters have to take a car ride that is over twenty minutes, they start to worry that this is going to be another one of those long car rides and they start checking around for their portable DVD players and books to read. Third, the girls have spent way too much time together. They easily get on one another's nerves. They get bored with each other but then they need each other to keep entertained.

So, to keep myself entertained, I've been making cards. I try to ignore the high pitched banter between Polly Pocket and Barbie. I don't worry about what a giant mess the play room is. I just try to stay in my card making world and when that doesn't work, I lock myself in my office and play Spider Solitaire. Anyway, here's a card that I made with Barry. I wanted the card to have a sort of heavy English pub look to it, so that is why I used the dark greens, reds, and blues. I'm pleased with how the card came out. I had to make the tag twice, because my husband pointed out that bar fly should be two words and what I had looked like a newly created adverb, "barfly." Try using that in a sentence. It doesn't work well. As always, you can see the list of ingredients that went into making this card in my gallery on SplitCoastStampers.

Feeling Floridian

I'm sure that this blog is suffering from abandonment issues by now. I can only say that I'll try to do better, but I know better than to make any promises beyond that.

We recently returned from a trip to Florida . . . I know . . . hurricane season isn't the best time of year to be visiting that part of the United States, but you do get cheaper lodgings at Disney World. We didn't spend our entire trip at Disney World, dividing our time between the St. Francis Inn in St. Augustine and my father-in-law's house in the middle of nowhere thirty minutes outside of Gainesville. While we were in St. Augustine my sister-in-law and I couldn't resist checking out the local stamping store, Claire's Collectibles. Holy Moly! I've never seen so many stamps crammed into such a small space. SIL and I had a great time combing through the store's inventory and one of the stamps I came home with is this palm tree border stamp made by Custer's Last Stamp. On the plane ride home, I decided I needed to make a card using these palm trees and our ladybug, Edna. After all, Edna is one road tripping ladybug and she probably loves spending time drinking margaritas in Key West. You can see the "recipe" for this card in my gallery on SplitCoastStampers.

So here's another hot topic at my house right now . . . Christmas. Now that Target has prematurely moved out the school supplies to make room for Halloween costumes, many American children are fantasizing about how they're going to dress up. Not my girls though . . . No, Oblivianna and Miss Moo have decided that it's time to get ready for Christmas. I told them that I wouldn't be pulling out the Christmas decorations for at least another three months, but my lack of participation hasn't cooled their enthusiasm in the least. There is a quote in one of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary that says something along the lines that "Ramona believed that if she just had some paper, scissors, and tape, she could create anything in the world." This quote describes Oblivianna perfectly and she is putting her scissor and taping skills to work making Christmas decorations for the play room. She's made garlands, trees, signs, red scarves for her stuffed animals . . . the list goes on . . . all while playing the Wee Sing for Christmas album on repeat for hours at a time. I'm trying to grin and bear it for just a few more days until school starts on Tuesday while praying that the teachers in our district don't strike as they are threatening to do. The teachers need to work, not only for the sake of our children's education, but for the sake of parents' sanity.

We have a rather "boring" Labor Day weekend planned. DH will be finishing up the installation of baseboards and crown moulding upstairs and I will be doing laundry, and hopefully making cards. I've spent this week cleaning out my office and I feel as though I can move on to something else. Even though I may not have an exciting weekend planned, I hope that some of you out there do.

Happy Stamping

-Molly

Seeing Spots

Okay, so I promised Oblivianna and Miss Moo that we could redecorate their rooms this summer and they finally hounded me into actually doing it. Miss Moo wanted a 101 Dalmatian themed room, or a "spotty-dog room," as she calls it. This is about the only paper-crafting I've done the entire summer due to travels, home improvement projects, and my #1MIL's death. (This really hasn't been the best summer.) Anyway, I found good use for the myriad of circle punches I own. (I think I've got everything from 1/8" up to 2" in 1/8" increments.) Luckily, Miss Moo already had white furniture, so we punched out tons of black circles in various sizes and glued them to the furniture. I made the blanket on her bed out of a white duvet that I had, some stencils, and some fabric paint. Miss Moo's room used to be purple, so the butter yellow on the walls is a refreshing, and brightening change. The great thing about this "spotty-dog" room is that I accomplished the dalmatian theme without actually using any dalmatians at all! For someone like me who doesn't like her house and children to be Disney's own personal billboard, this was an ideal way to decorate the room. Also, the spots are completely removable so that when Miss Moo tires of spotty dogs (probably somewhere around the age eight), we can pull the spots off, clean up the glue and have nice white furniture again.

In spite of all my personal issues getting in the way of my hobby and business, I have made one card, a Queens Rock card that I'll post later when I can find a flat surface on which to set up my light box and camera.

Positive Review!

Zip on over to the nearest newstand and pick up a copy of the July/August issue of RubberStampMadness. We're featured in the In the Spotlight section of page 41. I hope to have new cards to post soon. Thanks for checking in.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Broken Bones

And they're not mine this time!
In honor of my friend Bonnie who broke her wrist while trying out her new bicycle with toe clips for the first time, our new special features Helen-on-Wheels and her companion sentiment, Hell On Wheels, for 30% off.

My Time Eating Device

So, I thought I'd share a picture of this contraption I have to sit and wear 30 minutes, 3 times a day. I believe that the technical name of the device is a Pronation/Supination Sustained Stretch Device. My physical therapist just calls it, "The Device." The reason I'm sharing this picture is because The Device is eating a large chunk of what would otherwise be card making and Eccentric Images working time. The Device is helping me to regain mobility in my left arm, so I really can't complain about it too much because it is helping me out. (I was actually able to hold my eye open with my left hand so that I could put in my contacts this week for the first time since my elbow got ruined--sad when you measure progress by whether or not you can touch your face.)

I did experiment around a few weeks ago with a Mother's Day card. Here is what I came up with. The sentiment is computer generated. You can find all of the other technical details about this card in my SCS Gallery. I really wanted to write more on this blog entry, but DD#2 Miss Moo is tearing apart my already messy office as I sit here typing.

So I'm a bit slow . . .

at posting the card that I said I'd post last week. Here it is now though. I stamped Vivian on the back of a printable transparency with Staz-On and then colored her in with my souffle markers. After she dried, I trimmed her and flipped her over and what you see in the picture is what you get. I used my clear My Sentiments Exactly Multi-Retro alphabet to make the word on the tag and stamped it with Colorbox Frost White pigment ink. I hand drew the web with a Signo gel pen. I'm pretty pleased with how this card turned out. Yes, it is out of season, but I'm thinking ahead.

MIA

Yes, I've been missing for the last month or so. I injured my arm last month--dislocated my elbow and shattered the head of my raidius. A week after the injury, I had to have surgery to piece the radial head back together. Lucky me. Now I have two metal plates and a bunch of pins in my elbow. Going through security at the airport will be a blast now. For about the last month, I've been in a cast and sling. However, last week, I got my cast removed and now I'm doing physical therapy so that I can gain back the mobility in my arm.
Anyhow, card making has been impossible. Typing one-handed was slow and ineffecient. I'm back now. I haven't made a card yet. It will probably take some more PT before I can manage that. However, I do have one card to post that I made prior to all of this arm drama. I'll post it later today (I have a PT appointment soon). I just wanted to make a quick note that in "honor" of my elbow injury, we're giving 15% off all sentiment stamps at our webstore. Be sure to check it out.

Colorado

Carol and I are visiting family this week. We'll be back next week with another FreeBee Friday and more new cards.
-Molly

FreeBee Friday!

"Today," Friday 15 February 2008, is once again FreeBee Friday. Just as last week, we'll send you a free bee stamp in your choice of unmounted or wood-mounted rubber with a minimum purchase of only $10. This offer is only valid on Friday and will expire at midnight. Instead of giving away a free Queen Prudence II of Cloverfield stamp as we did last week, this week you'll receive a free Beatrice stamp (the full-size Beatrice, not the Baby Beatrice). In order to receive your FreeBee, first place the Beatrice stamp of your choice (mounted or unmounted) in your shopping cart along with a minimum of $10 in other merchandise. At checkout, enter the coupon code FREEBEE2-15 in the appropriate box and we'll include your stamp in your order. Our 25% off space bugs promotion is still running through the end of the month, so if you buy space bugs, you can get a deal and a free stamp.
In honor of FreeBee Friday, I made a new Beatrice card. This card also uses the Good to Bee Home sentiment. I wanted the card to have a homey feel so I used some striped DP (Berry Bliss from SU) that reminded me of wallpaper. As you can see in the stink bugs post below, I'm on a wallpaper kick this week. For some reason I find the idea of wallpaper inspiring at the moment. That is only in theory though. My house has no wallpaper and if it did, I would tear it down. I really mean take it off the wall by whatever means necessary-not paint over it. I have very strongly negative opinions about painting over wallpaper. (They're just as strong as my opinions about painting over wood-paneling.) Back to card talk . . . I thought it would be neat to make Beatrice look like she was framed in with one of those twig frames that you see on Home Sweet Home plaques. Of course, I don't have any twigs in my stamping cabinet and since we do live in the Seattle area and it is rather wet outside at the moment I decided not to go foraging for some twigs in the backyard (which would probably ruin my paper anyway). Instead, I decided to use hemp twine and achieve the same sort of look. For the entire recipe for this card, you can look in my SCS Gallery or the Eccentric Images VIP Gallery at rubberstampchat.net
Carol and I are taking Oblivianna and Miss Moo home to Colorado next week for a little visit with the parents and a our two sisters. I'll take this card with me and give it to my mom. The Good to Bee Home sentiment is perfect for this occasion. So, Mom, if you're reading this blog, try to forget that you've seen the picture of the card.

Stink Bugs!

I made this card yesterday evening and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Let me start by saying that I love claw-footed bathtubs. You know how some people have little decorating motifs throughout their houses, such as roosters, pigs, or a certain kind of flower. Well, one of my motifs is claw-footed bathtubs. (The other one is piggy banks.) I have art prints of claw-footed bathtubs in my office. I have a mini replica of one on my desk that I use as a candy dish. Maybe someday I will have an actual claw-footed bathtub somewhere in my house. I'd need a much bigger bathroom than the one I currently have for that to happen though. It only follows that this stamp of two stink bugs taking a bath is has a special place in my heart. It is also one of the original images from the table the Carol and I decorated for my daughter Oblivianna. Anyway, I chose to use the polka dot SEI dp as my background because it sort of reminded me of wallpaper you might find in a bathroom and I tried making my sentiment tag have the look of a framed sentiment that someone might have in their house. Not "Home Sweet Home," but maybe "Stinkin' Sweet Stink." Of course, the little flourishes I added are crooked. It seems that my stamping aim is bad even when I'm using clear stamps on a clear block. Unless I use a Stamp-a-ma-Jig, things are always a little off. I used some liquid applique to make some 3D bubbles floating in the water. My 3.75 year-old daughter, Miss Moo, was especially excited about the fluffy bubbles in the water when she saw this card on my desk this morning. Since I am not the scrapbooking type, I generally don't think of uses for our stamps in that sense, but I think that this stamp would be great on one of those pages with a picture of a young child in the bathtub. You know you've got those pictures. I even have them of Oblivianna and Miss Moo. . . I just haven't scrapped them. If you've got a slightly off center sense of humor like I do, and don't mind referring to your children as stink bugs, you can even use the companion sentiment on the page as well.
That's it for the blog today. I only got to make one Helen card this weekend so I'll probably try making more. The stink bug card and the Helen card that I did manage to make are both posted in our Eccentric Images Rubberstamp Chat Gallery, where you can see a bigger picture of the card and all of the "ingredients" I used in making the card.

rubberstampchat.net

FreeBee Friday is officially over, but we will be back next Friday with another FreeBee promotion.
In other Eccentric Images news, we now have a presence on a super website called Rubber Stamp Chat. By "presence," we mean that we have an official Eccentric Images Gallery in the VIP Gallery and our customers will be able to find posts from us about promotions in the Craft Store section of the forum. My intention is to populate our gallery with exclusive card samples that you won't find on the store website or in my SplitCoast Gallery. Of course, this is going to take a little time for me to accomplish, so please be patient. My first offering up to our gallery is this card called "4 Nigels in a Row." I can't get enough of this Nigel Humphries stamp, but I've been dying to play with Helen-on-Wheels, so I may have to neglect him for a the weekend while I make more cards.
Speaking of the weekend, I intend to enjoy mine. TTFN.

Free Bee Until Friday

Carol and I decided that occasionally we will offer FreeBees to our customers. Get it? FreeBee=Freebie=Free Bee stamp! Cheesy, I know, but no matter how bad the pun is, you'll still get a free bee stamp with a purchase of $10 or more now through Friday, 8 February 2008. The bee that we've chosen to give away this week is Queen Prudence II of Cloverfield (pictured at the right). On the whole I'm not terribly satisfied with how the layout of this card turned out, but I am satisified with how awesome this bee stamp is and that I did a pretty good job of coloring in Her Royal Highness. Doesn't she look regal in her purple fuzz and lavender wings? Back to the FreeBee talk . . . not only do you get a free stamp with a purchase of $10 or more, the best part about this promotion is that you get to choose which style of stamp you prefer! You folks out there who just love the feel of a wood-mounted stamp can receive what you love while you space-saving unmounted stamp conniseurs can receive your preferred product as well . . . all in the same promotion! To receive your copy of Queen Prudence, add at least $10 of merchandise from our website and add the Queen Prudence stamp of your choice to your shopping cart and enter the coupon code FREEQUEEN at checkout. We'll take care of the rest. This promotion is limited to one free stamp per customer and will last through Friday, 8 February 2008 or until we run out of Queen Prudence stamps, whichever comes first.

Above and Beyond

First of all, I want to display this card that AJ made showcasing two of our new stamps. Meet Buck the Space Cowboy. I was soooo excited when I received this image. I'm very impressed that AJ had the imagination and took the time to do the paper-piercing at the bottom of the card. I'm very glad that we've got AJ as our Guest Designer.
All of our new stamps are posted and for sale on the website today. We have a total of 10 new images and 15 new sentiments. Today also marks the debut of our wood mounted rubber stamps.
As much as I want to write more, my brain is fried from all of the updating on the website we did yesterday. I'd better call it quits until later when I can think more clearly.
-Molly

SCS CC150

I made this card for another one of those color challenges on SCS. This was for CC150-Real Soft Bayou. I wanted to make this card on Tuesday but then I got sucked in to working on the website updates for the new stamps. (BTW, the new stamps are here!) I liked the idea of using Real Red along with Bayou Blue and Soft Sky. I also decided to CASE myself and do a different colored version of my Bee Thankful card. I didn't really want to use a lot of red so I tried using a minimal amount hoping that it would pop out of the card, but not overtake it. I think that I succeeded at that. I decided to be a perfectionist tonight, which meant that I had to redo Beatrice. Being the space case that I am, I colored Beatrice's bonnet first and at that point I was going to make the bonnet all red. Of course, when I water-colored in her face, the red ink bled a little bit. At first I was just going to let it go . . . maybe edit it out before I posted it, but then I decided to do it right and try again. The second time around, I water-colored everything first and actually let it dry (gasp!) before coloring in just the bonnet's ribbon with a red marker. I had to walk away from my stamping table while the image was drying because the temptation to continue working on the card (and probably end up smudging it) was too great. Anyway, I'm happy about making this card, because although our Bee in Bonnet? sentiment is my favorite one, I hadn't yet used it on a card. You can see all of the technical details of this card (what stamps, paper, etc. I used) in my SCS post of this card.
So, I mentioned earlier that the stamps are here. They actually arrived yesterday but I was at Miss Moo's gymnastics class (Miss Moo=3yo DD#2) and the mailman couldn't leave them at the door because they required delivery confirmation. I had to wait until this morning to pick up the stamps from the post office. Carol came with me and we opened up the box right there and it was terribly thrilling looking at the new images. I was a bit giddy and had to hop up and down just a tiny bit. Can you tell I spend my day with bouncy daughters who cannot stand still for a microsecond? It rubs off on me even though it drives me crazy when they do it.
I thought ahead, so I had my Kai scissors in my purse and a pre-addressed envelope to AJ, and we cut out some stamps and mailed them to her immediately. With any luck, they'll get there tomorrow. They should. She only lives about 20 miles away.
When we got home, I went to work mounting one of each stamp onto wood blocks while Carol suffered through some laser printer installation trauma. I think that I got the better work load in this case, although I'm sure that we'll have to get it figured out soon. Anyway, the stamps are lovely and I'm going to have a grand time over the next several days making card samples for our website. The new images will be available for purchase as both unmounted and mounted stamps on February 1st. We'll also offer mounted versions of our existing images. If I get some time, I'll try and post a sneak peek or two in the upcoming days. For the most part, mum's the word though.
Hasta luego,
Molly

Hazzah!

Our new stamps are shipping tomorrow!!!! We'll have them by the end of the week, which means that we will start selling them on February 1st. Yay!!! (Okay, enough exclamation points, I know.)

D@mn Ugly Card

Ack! I didn't mean to go an entire week without posting to the blog. I made this card on Monday for the Splitcoaststampers weekly Technique Lover's Challenge. This was TLC #151--make a heart pocket card. (BTW, I always think of the Technique Lover's Challenge as the TNT challenge because it says Try a New Technique on the front page. Doesn't TNT sound more exciting than TLC? I'd much rather play with dynamite than give tender loving care. Okay, I've never played with dynamite, but it still sounds better.) So, about the card . . . it is quite possibly the ugliest card that I have ever made. I debated for four days whether or not I was going to post it, but I finally decided to share it as an example of what NOT to do with our stamps! I think that there are certain elements of the card that are good in theory: the eyelet border, the cute button brads on the heart, the Valentine-y colored Beatrice. However, they just don't work together . . . or separately for that matter.
In other news, we received our wood blocks for our next round of stamps. Yes, we're going to sell mounted stamps, but don't worry, we'll still sell unmounted stamps as well. (Phew, that was a run-on sentence if there ever was one.) We're very committed to selling both kinds of stamps because there are "extremists" in each camp who won't buy a stamp because it is unmounted or mounted, even if they really like it, and we need our customer base to be as broad as possible. Anyway, we received the blocks. They came packaged in two boxes--one weighing 50 pounds and the other weighing 20 pounds. Carol and I both had to carry the 50 pound box and we almost slipped on the ice on my street and then I almost dropped the box on Carol while we were going down the steps to the basement. Of course the block sizes are all mixed up and we need to sort them out. I'm thinking that will be a job that I'll give to Oblivianna (my oldest daughter, and no that really isn't her name . . . we just call her that sometimes because she is a little spacey at times). I'm sure that it will be fun for her for the first ten minutes and then she'll want to quit. Then I'll have to use it as punishment for when she misbehaves. That's good, I guess. We're running low on fresh and effective punishments.
That's all the news in the Eccentric Imaginatrix for right now. Maybe I can make some more ugly cards to share this week! I'll leave the making of the pretty cards to AJ.

Quick Post

Our web store grew this week! Our accessories section is greatly improved and has everything our customers need to use our unmounted stamps. Yay! This is something that has been in the works since we decided to sell our stamps unmounted but was delayed for various reasons. We're thrilled that we're finally able to sell products like EZ Mount and acrylic blocks.
Also, we recently took on a "guest designer." Her name is AJ Otto and she's another Pacific Northwester just like we are. She's just a hop, skip, and a jump down I-5 from us (or a slow crawl depending on traffic). You can visit AJ's Blog to find out more about her and see some of the samples she's created with our stamps. AJ will be helping create samples for our webstore using our new stamps. We're happy that she's working with us. Not only does she design lovely cards, she has a much steadier hand for coloring than I do.
In the meantime, Carol and I are hard at work preparing for the new Eccentric Images stamps that we'll be releasing soon (no official release date yet). I'm not going to give any specific spoilers about what we'll be including, but I will share a hint . . . our swarm of bees will be growing.
Thanks for looking.
Molly

Made Time to Stamp Yesterday . . .

and I'm pretty pleased with the results, especially the card with Brutus. (Once again, my coloring on Beatrice isn't that great, but I like the layout and color scheme on that card.) The DP on Brutus' card is by K&Company. I don't know when that particular paper was released or even if it is still available. I am one of those people who buys DP when it goes on clearance and then lets it sit around for months on end before I figure out what to do with it. All of the rest of my paper supplies are from Stampin' Up. When I first started stamping, I told myself that I would only buy stamps from Stampin' Up and that I would get all of my papers and accessories from the big craft giant or from an LSS . . . cheaper that way. It didn't take me long to realize that you just can't beat the SU quality of card stock and have the benefit of it having color coordinated inks . . . not that it isn't possible to find good quality card stock, etc., but it is inconvenient to have to drive from store to store trying to find an ink that closely matches.
I've been meaning to share another bit of information for a few weeks now (since Christmas, actually). Just about every year my MIL picks out a book for me for Christmas. She usually tries to find something by a North Carolina writer since that is where she is from. Now, I don't know if this writer is from North Carolina, but MIL managed to find a "card-making mystery" for me to read. The title of the book is Murder and Salutations by Elizabeth Bright. I checked on Amazon and there are two other books that start off the series, Invitation to Murder and Deadly Greetings. I haven't yet begun reading Murder and Salutations so I cannot give you any kind of book review at this time. I'm just wondering, what kind of cards is the main character of the book making that they bring about murder and intrigue? Are the victims in the stories card makers themselves? Is there death at a shoebox swap? Murder on a Stampin' Up cruise? Design team decapitation?
Now the gears of my imagination are starting to turn . . . there are all sorts of tools at my stamping table that could be turned into a weapon. I'm constantly telling my daughters to stay away from the CutterBee scissors because they are so pointy and dangerous. Ribbons and hemp twine could be used to strangle someone in fit of card envy. Then there's that paper piercer! It already looks like a weapon. What SU set would someone kill for? Snow Globe? Cowboy Christmas? Wild Wild West? Currently, on eBay the bidding on a Wild Wild West set is up to $95.40. Isn't being willing to bid hundreds dollars for a set of six stamps only a hop, skip, and a jump away from being willing to kill for them? I have to finish this post by saying, watch your back. You never know when some sick serial stamp killer will lace your DP with deadly poison so that when you get a paper cut, it will be your last.

Made Time to Stamp Yesterday: Photos

Another space bug . . . and first post of 2008!

Below, meet Neil the first beetle to land on the moon. I love the way Carol drew the space suit with all of the joints in the legs for Neil's skinny limbs and how his antennae stick out of the helmet. I think that this image and any of our other space bug images would be great for "male" cards. As a mother of two girls, my first instinct is to "think pink" when it comes to buying stamps, but there have been plenty of times when I've needed a stamp for a card for a boy (my oldest daughter would rather hang out with boys than with girls--she went to an army tank-themed birthday party just last week). I have one rocket stamp that I've overused on cards for boys, so it is nice to have some new options in my stamping cupboard. Not only could I see using this stamp on a card for a little boy, I probably wouldn't hesitate to use it on a card for one of my teenage nephews as well.