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.

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

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.