Warm Hearts!

I just love these dog stamp sets from There She Goes.  I actually got this set as an incentive after another TSG dog card was published in PaperCrafts last year.  It's like the circle of life.  Or the circle of dog stamps.  This is (if I remember correctly) 4bar size, which is 3½ by 4⅞ (<-- look at me all HTML fractiony!) I made a mask of the snowman and doggie so I could use my Hero Art envelope background stamp.  I usually do ok at masking small things, but when every I try to use a background stamp over masking I always end up with a white border around my masking--any hints on what I'm doing wrong?  I'm using a post-it, so I don't think it's a thickness issue.  Should I be trimming on the inside of my shape more?

Anyway, I still liked it even with the aura, so I did some quick Copic coloring and added some Stickles, then I totally copied Angela's first published card by highlighting "warm hearts" with a copic since (a) it was a thank you note and (b) that was better than crossing out "frosty nights" since I'm not really a big fan of those. 

Speaking of warming hearts, I have some fun Christmas RAKs to share! 

Look at those mathy hexagons!  And that cute striped bow!  Thanks, Angela!

Seriously, can you believe that coloring?!?  No wonder Maria is now a part of the Eat Cake Graphics design team!

Clean.  Simple.  With a touch of glitter.  Must be another great card from Lindsey!

Oooh, it's a card AND a gift all in one!  Emily sure knows how to pack a lot of punch into one envelope; she even included this thank you, too:

Oh, I see how Jessi's going to be.  Not only does she make the perfect pup card with fun snowy accents, but she also paper pieced the same doggy on the envelope! 

This last card is not a stamped card, but a store-bought one we received from Mr Corgi's cool Seattle aunt.  After opening this one, I decided I should just give up cardmaking because this is cardmaking perfection:

PEOPLE IT IS PRINTED ON WOOD AND IT INVOLVES A RED BUG, PINK PIG, AND A FOX THAT HAS CORGI EARS.    The most random part?  It is made by Night Owl Paper Goods, which, as I read the back of the card, is based in Birmingham, Owlabama.   Which means not only are they based in my CITY, but they even made a PUN FOR MY STATE.  I wonder if they need an intern.... 

Hope your hearts are staying warm wherever you are!

Belated Thanks!

Eek!  So I had a whole thankful-for-blog-friends post planned for Thanksgiving Day, but then somehow time got away from me before we left to spent the holiday with my parentals (which was loads of fun by the way.  Also, if you are ever having a small Thanksgiving and don't want to do a lot of prep work, I would highly recommend La Madeleine's take-home dinner.  It was SOOO yummy!) and then I've been a bit crazy here the past couple of days since I've been back.

BUT it's never too late to be thankful, right?  I'm thankful for all of my loyal readers who stick around even if I don't post every day (or week).  And I'm thankful for the following blog friends who sent such nice happy mail!

Angela of The Paper Cupboard is a wiz at putting together all sorts of fun elements, like these labels and flower and patterned paper!  The flower is so pretty in real life, I almost want to wear it!

Lindsey of Bashful Blogging sent me this awesome Hallowe'en card (the apostrophe is for her benefit).  I love that swirly purple paper that looks handmade and the glowing vellum moon!

Emily of Art from the Heart sent me this OTTER MATH card to thank me for sending her some silhouette die cuts.  Did you see she even paper pieced that fish!??  Plus did I mentioned it has an OTTER and MATH on it? 

Maria of Crafty Cre8tions sent me the most gorgeous Thanksgiving card. She has magical distress ink powers that I wish I possessed--this card almost looks lit from within!  And I got it right as we were pulling out of the driveway to drive to Houston, so perfect timing!

And speaking of Maria, she recently celebrated a milestone birthday, so I made this birthday card for her:

Ha.  I totally crack myself up.  I used a little print-and-cut magic for the label, with patterned paper adhered behind the 39 and the "th" cut out and glued.  How much do I like Maria?  Well, I cut into my red metallic paper for the "happy birthday."  I think that says it all, doesn't it? 

And speaking of saying it all, I think I'm all done with my thank yous!  I hope to be back later this week (or weekend) with some new Market Street goodies as well as a big project I've been working on for my parents.  Stay tuned and stay thankful! 

50th Birthday + RAKs!

A fellow math teacher celebrated his 50th birthday this week, so of course I had to break out the number background from the Silhouette store:

(I'm still playing with the depth-of-field on my new lens.)

In the Silhouette Studio, I cut out the center circle, then welded a circular ring to make the window opening.  The dotted paper is from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist "Out of the Blue" paper pack (more on my love for the Lime Twist line a wee bit later), adhered to the back of the number background, then pop-dotted onto the lime green base.  The "5" and "0" just didn't seem right by themselves, so I went back and made an offset shadow for them from black paper, then super-pop-dotted them so they would be above the number background.

And that was not the only birthday celebration this week...mine was on Monday (not 50th, though!) and I got lots of happy mail!  Here they are, in order of arrival:

Samswindle was certainly on top of things as a member of the BRAK group on Splitcoast! I got to enjoy this card all month.  I love that happy pool-ready moose and of course the pink bow just makes me happy.  Definitely put me in the "relax" mode when start-of-school stress started to take over. Make sure to check out her gallery--she has many fabulous cards there.  Thanks, Sam!

Speaking of school, Lindsey picked the perfect apple for the teacher!  The background paper she made herself by using the acrylic block technique, doesn't it look awesome?  You can read all about all the trials she had while making this card on her blog, Bashful Blogging.  She also included a cute little Christmas stamp--thanks, Linds!

Two things I love: pink and long dogs.  Emily must really know me well since she put both of them together to make this fabulous card.  Look at all those happy borders!  You can read her post about it on her blog, Art from the Heart.  Thanks to Emily, I'm also the owner of an entire spool of honeydew twine from the Twinery! Thanks, Em!

Ang broke out the corgi for this card, and a *blinged* corgi at that!  Could that speech bubble be any cuter?  It's like she knew how much Addison loves to bark.  Angela likes to keep her cards a surprise, so this one isn't on her Paper Cupboard blog yet, but you can go over and see the absolutely stunning set of CAS cards that were part of her amazing stampy gift she gave me.  Thanks, Ang!

I also thought you might be interested in seeing my Gallery Idol loot!

I haven't even had a chance to use any of it yet, but I have big stampy plans for this weekend.  Also remember if you promoted me on your blog to use the "contact me" form at the top of my blog to send me your name and address so you can share in the goodies!

Remember when I said I'd talk more about Lime Twist later?  Well, now is later!  I ordered 8(!) paper pads from Two Peas (thanks to my sister's birthday gift certificate) and they accidentally sent My Mind's Eye "Life of the Party" instead of "Fly a Kite."  They are going to send the correct one out, but told me not to worry about returning the incorrect one-how's that for awesome customer service?  Their mistake is your gain!  Since I already have this pad (and love it), I'll give it away to a random commenter on this post.  Let's say Sunday night, midnight central time?

Whew!  When it rains, it pours around this blog doesn't it?  Now I'm going to go get stampy so I can share some more things with you this week!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Robots Have Feelings, Too!

Our principal is leaving our school, so I took on the task of making a thank you card to give from my department.  I'm not really good at making a masculine thank you, unless I know that the recipient likes dogs (or planes), so I went with a math department photo:

Tee-hee!  Doesn't that Eat Cake Graphics "The Boys" stamp go great with the retro vibe of Crate Paper's School Spirit paper pad?  The card is 5x7, with 7 one-inch strips in the background. I printed the math department sentiment using Chowderhead font (perfect match to the grade card font--thanks, whatthefont.com), then stamped the boys on there, and paper pieced 'em.  The A+ is from (old) A Muse School Time set and the "thank you" is PTI Vintage Picnic.

There is a little dog robot on the stamp that I couldn't fit on the front, but I couldn't not use him, so here he is as a little extra bonus on the inside:

I also got some happy mail recently.  Actually, this first one I got a couple weeks ago, but I had to take it to school to show it off and kept forgetting to bring it back home to photograph.  Angela of Paper Cupboard is the sweetest gal ever.  She sent this notebook to me, with a portion of the cost donated to the Red Cross Alabama Tornado Fund.

Then I won a prize from Emily's month-long blogoversary of Art from the Heart, and the happy mail arrived today:

I also got some happy email yesterday regarding the A Card A Day submission call.  It was only for one card, which means I now have quite a few to share with you this week.

Also, I took the time-suck plunge and joined Pinterest.  If you search for corgicreations (one word) I should be the only person that shows up--Meg C (with a pic of Miss Addie).  Follow me so I can follow you, or let me know in the comments if you're on it. 

I've also been doing a lot of reading, but I'll save that list for tomorrow.  Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is enjoying Easter Sunday.  I have one more Easter card to share.

Tee-hee!  I love putting the Eat Cake Graphics bunny ears on all sorts of stamps, and Callie (also from ECG) was the lucky recipient this year.  The peep paper and the polka dot paper are from Echo Park, and the pink paper is from the A Muse clearance (I think I ended up with ten stamp sets from that sale!).  The sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas.

And yes, I DO know where my peeps are!  

They are at Bashful Blogging mixing twine colors;

 at Art from the Heart making funky scallop borders;

at Paper Cupboard cutting into fancy paper;

and at the Post Office, sending mis-shipments back to me.

I hope you know where your peeps are today!

Why I Haven't Been Posting

I think Kitty Noodles from Eat Cake Graphics has had the same type of day (or week, or month) that I've had recently.  :)  It's been so crazy, I made this card for last week's Splitcoast's sketch challenge and a new one is already up.  I thought Kitty's whirlwind day would coordinate great with the Journal Blotch Circle.  I printed the sentiment on my computer, after doing a few test prints and using my stamp-a-mag-jig to make sure everything would fit.  Kitty Noodles is stamped and heat-embossed, then painted with an aqua painter and Wild Honey Distress Ink.  The patterned paper is Studio Calico's Anthology collection, and the kraft paper was stamped with Skipping Stones Design's Grunge stamp set.  Core'dinations paper sanding, sewing, distressing, and tim holtz tiny attacher attaching finished it all off!

I also have some happies to share:

I won this fabulous blog candy from Angela of Paper Cupboard.  Look at that fantastic card she included--she has magical powers when it comes to mixing patterns.  Maybe some of her powers will rub off on me when I use those great flowers!  Thanks, Ang!

Emily of Art from the Heart sent this wonderfully glittery St Patrick's Day card--doesn't it just radiate happiness?  Thanks, Em!

I was also featured last week on The Facebook for PTI's Make It Monday challenge and I won Embellish Magazine's Music Challenge.  Yippee!!

Even more exciting, I've been awash in comments and followers.  Each time one of y'all takes the time to leave a happy or even, gasp, choose to follow me, it warms my heart!

But the best happy of all?  DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME, BABY!!!!

Share your recent happies in the comments!

Bad News/Good Friends!

Good news: We had downright gorgeous weather this weekend!  Even my mini-crocuses got the memo:

 

Bad News: Stamping inside could not compete with a good book and that gorgeous weather!

Good News: I still have some great creations to show you--they are just not mine!  I've gotten some wonderful RAKs in the past couple of weeks:

What a surprise this package was!!  Maria of Crafty Creations had some extra paper and doodads, so she packaged them up and sent some fabulous RAKs out!  I was fortunate to be one of the lucky recipients because there were some fabulous goodies in there!  It's hard to see, but there is a whole stack of paper there under the doodads and thread.

This little beauty came from Lindsey of Bashful Blogging.  What a fabulous Valentine!  I love her great heart balloons, and I hope the shimmeriness of the ink shows in the picture--it looks so shiny and happy in real life!

Another fabulous scrappy/shabby chic card from Angela of Paper Cupboard.  How can she figure out how to put on fifteen different elements and it looks so freakin' fantastic?!?  Plus it came in a totally cute polka-dotted envelope, which I did not get to take a picture of before someone in this household threw it away.

 Finally, these cards and book were from Emily of Art from the Heart. The one on the left is a cute little Valentine (aren't those hearts adorable?) you can see here and the thank you on the right (aren't those apples adorable, too?) can be found here.  The thank you was for sending her some Unity stamps that were gathering dust, and in return she surprised me with Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which I just told her was on my wishlist.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some absolutely stunning creations today, even if I can't take the credit for them.  Well, ok, I guess I can at least take the credit for making good choices in stamping friends!

PS-I've fallen a bit behind in both my reading and reading reports, so here's the latest:

Books #2 & 3: Best American Magazine Writing 2010 and Best American Crime Reporting 2010 I've gotten these books for past few years and there's usually at least 3 or 4 stories that really stick with me, a few that are entertaining, and a few that are meh.  About the same for this year, with maybe a little more meh than usual, which may be why I abandoned reading for a couple weeks.

Book #4: To Fetch A Thief by Spencer Quinn.  Yes, a mystery as told by the private detective's dog.  Yes, I love the whole series.  Yes, I'm a total dog dork.  Yes, I'm OK with that. 

Confession: I lied.

I told Angela of Paper Cupboard that this layout was one of my all-time favorites of hers.  I completely lied when I typed that.  Mostly because I had no idea what COMPLETELY AMAZING layout was on its way to me this week...

O.  M.   G.  (Make sure you click on the pic to make it bigger!)  I mean, can you believe this awesomeness?!?!?  First of all, one of my favorite pics of Addie.  Second of all, heck yeah, Addie is #1!  (#1 in what you ask?  Why, #1 in everything!).  Third of all, corduroy thickers.  Fourth of all, GLITTER STRIPS!!  Fifth of all, cork.

Sixth of all, freakin' banner dies with friendship definitions.  Seventh of all, that gorgeous paper, including the wee bit of polka dot showing around the photo!  Eighth of all, those gorgeous scallops!  Ninth of all, she included a steam card of my very own, since her original steam card was one of my 2010 top favorites.

Tenth of all, it came from one of my bestest stamping buddies and I can tell it was made with lots and lots of love!  It already has a place of honor on my bookshelf in my stamping room. 

Thanks again, Ang, you are absolutely amazing awesome!  And I'm totally sorry about the lying.

Thank you!

Yippee!  Banner dies for Christmas!  Stamped using The Cat's Pajamas Coolvetica alphabet onto Echo Park Paper.  These banners end up being a bit big--this is an 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 card.  I also wish I could have figured out how to make the "you" string sag down instead of going straight across, but when I loosened the string it didn't work well.  Any ideas?  The birdie stamp is from a set I picked up for $1 at Big Lots.

So consider this my big thank you to all my stamping peeps who sent me wonderful handmade cards for Christmas:

Holy guacamole!  Can you believe all the awesomeness Meredith (aka Crafty Math Chick) fit onto this card?  The ribbon wrapped presents, the funny sentiments, and then to top it all off with that fabulously colored Eat Cake Graphics image?!?!  Plus she tucked in some new stamps and a couple Nylabones for Addison, which she certainly appreciated!

This fabulous CAS card came from Lindsey (of Bashful Blogging)  It's hard to see in the picture, but there is some wonderfully festive glitter accents going on.  I'm going to also assume she gave Addie and myself red stockings, and added the green one for DH.

Kraft?  Check.  Stamped background? Check.  Touch of sparkle?  Check.  Snippet of twine? Check.  Great layout? Check!  Yup, looks like Angela (of Paper Cupboard) made sure all of the appropriate Christmas card boxes were checked off with this wonderfully cozy card.

Thanks again, gals!

PS--notice anything about these pictures?  We gave ourselves a new camera (a Panasonic G1) and I'm in love with it!  I'll have some botanical garden pictures to share later in the week.

I'm Awesome!

Teehee, you're allowed to think that on your birthday, right?  Especially when you get cards like these:

That's right, my DH made this for me!!  Isn't it the sweetest?  He did it all himself, including finding the stamps in my crazy stamping room.  He even saved the punched hearts for me to use.  The stamp is from Eat Cake Graphics and the sentiment is from Cloud 9.

Now that's what I call a glamorous card!  Even cooler, Angela letterpressed it all!  And the black pattern continues to the back of the card.  The texture makes it seem so elegant!  Plus, she packed it with all sorts of embossed and letterpressed sheets for me to use, as well as some Martha twine!  Nothing like an envelope full of stamping joy!

This beautiful card was a Birthday RAK from Pam, aka 4everstamping.  It is so beautiful; I love the gold paper and the wonderful coloring.  She inspires me to start sending out more RAKs; I've been a bit remiss!

Speaking of remiss, I've been honored to have received two blogging awards recently.  Melina gave me the Cherry on Top Award a couple weeks ago, but I never had time to properly post it and pass it on since school started.  Then today Emily gave me the Beautiful Blogger Award, so I'm going to go ahead and combine them for my post today.

To accept this award I need to do a few things:
1. Thank the person who gave it...
Thank, Melina!  Sorry it took me so long to post it, but it really brightened my first week of school when you gave this to me! 
2. Copy the award and put it on your blog
Check.
3. List three things which you love about yourself...
I'm smart, funny, and I try to find joy in the little things.

4. Post a picture that you love...

5. Tag 5 people you'd like to give this award to...
I'm going to wait and tag 7 people for the next award, so all seven can pick up both awards. :)

As a recipient of this award, I need to tell you seven facts about myself and then pass the award on to seven other bloggers.

1. I'm a dog lover.
2. I teach high school math.
3. My favorite movie is It's A Wonderful Life.
4. I've been to 23 states and 11 countries.
5. I've been stamping for 2 years.
6. My favorite book is Otherwise Engaged by Suzanne Finnamore.
7. I'm currently addicted to The Office and Tough Sudoku.

Seven bloggers I'd like to pass both awards onto:
1. Melina at Crafty Scrapper
2. Emily at Art from the Heart
3. Angela at Paper Cupboard
4. Maria at Crafty Creations
5. Emily at My Little Slice of Bliss
6. Cheryl at She Stamps
7. Charlene at Paper and Ink Playground
7.5 Karen at Carefree Creations

Whew, thanks for sticking with me through this long post!  I hope y'all know how much every card, comment and visit warms my heart!  Have a great rest of the weekend!