It drew blood

Now you know this cute little coon didn't bite me - nope, he's safe. It was all Magick's fault. For those of you who don't know, I adopted a cute little siamese - my mascot, pictured over here on the right, Wasabi. She fit just right on my desk. Well, then we inherited her much larger and not quite as graceful (yeah, I'm being nice, he's a big ol' oaf) brother, Magick. He is my self-proclaimed new and improved mascot, because, you see, he doesn't just sleep on the desk beside me and purr. No, he likes to get right in the thick of things and help out. This only becomes a problem when he jumps right in the middle of whatever I'm working on (3 or 4 times). Well, this time I was trying to poke my brad through two layers of that pretty ribbon and a layer of paper. I couldn't find my paper piercer, so I used a straight pin, which helped not a bit. So, when Magick crash landed on my desk, the brad went right through all those layers and into my finger. Oh, well, at least I got the brad through, right? So, if you've made it through the story and you're still reading, here's the card recipe. That cute little (not rabid) racoon is from Clear Dollar Stamps. Go check them out - they have amazing stuff. I colored him with copics and made him a little hairy with a fine line SU marker in creamy caramel. The card base is elegant eggplant, layered with basic grey (of course, is there any other kind of paper? I really need to get out more), chocolate chip and more BG. When I was little (like kindergarten) I loved green and purple together, so I really liked that this DP let me go back to that color combo. Anyway, The "frame" for the coon is made with curvy rectangle nesties, I hand cute the closer layers (the chocolate chip and the elegant eggplant) because I really don't like all the space that the curvy rectangles leave - are you listening spellbinders - make more sizes, I'll buy them! I added a cocoa-y ribbon layered with a limey ribbon and used my label punch with the flowered BG behind the hardware. I punched a lime oval stamped with the sentiment and layered it with a chocolate chip oval. I popped the ovals up for dimension. This is for the lady I work with who will be leaving us at the end of the month. She is so sweet, I will really miss her. I hope she likes the card, thank goodness I didn't get any blood on it!
OH - BTW, thank you to those of you who've wished me a happy birthday. We've had some sickies in the family and I've been finding it difficult to find time to stamp. I've missed it and I'm glad I finally got to make something! I spent my birthday at the bowling alley chasing a group of 5 year olds. My son's turning 5 tomorrow, so we had his party on Saturday. However, my mom has promised me a belated celbration at Olive Garden this weekend! :)

Back again

OK - I haven't been doing too well keeping up with the blog this year so far. I do have an excuse. I had the stomach flu - I haven't been that sick for a long time and hopefully won't again for another long time. Anyway, here's my last thank you note (at least until my birthday in 9 days):

My mom and dad got me Stampin' Up's Under the Stars for Christmas. I paired the bear with this great camping paper from Cloud 9 Designs (it's from Fiskars, who knew?). The base of the card is cranberry crisp, layered with plaid dp, black and camping dp. I stamped the bear with jet black ink and colored him with copics. He is standing on a nestie-cut circle made with the camping dp, layered with black and nestie-cut ovals in plaid and cranberry crisp (wow, just seeing that makes me want to make fruit crisp for dessert tonight, but I think I'll hold off a while longer before trying food like that). The ribbon is twill and I stamped the sentiment on cranberry crisp layered with black and punched with SU ovals.

Grateful puppy

This is my first time using this cute little puppy even though I've had him for a long time. I stamped the pup on a diamond shape and colored him with copics. Then I matted it with red and black. The card base is wild wasabi (my personal fave of all time) layered with black, red and K&Co dp. The ribbon is SU pumpkin pie. The little cactus and the sentiment are part of the pup set.

Frenchy's Friday Inspiration Face-Off

OK - it's a brand-spankin' new year. What are your resolutions? Got 'em? Now - that's your inspiration for the day. Make a card inspired by your New Year's Resolutions. Here are a couple of mine that I was inspired by: Remember to be grateful (this is a thank you note), try to use more of my old stamps in a new way rather than buying new ones (ok, you know there will be exceptions in cases of emergency when there are great new stamps released, but for this card I used a retired SU set), simplify (although I'm planning to apply this to my life rather than my projects, this is a very simple card).

I started out with Big Celebrations, which I bought when it was retiring a couple of years ago, but I've only used it a few times. Rather than using my old stand by copics, I used SU markers with a watercolor pen to color it. I sponged a little baha breeze on the edge to compliment the blue color (You can't see it well in the picture) in the basic grey DP. I cute the image and it's black mat with nesties as well as the layers of the card. I placed them all on a real red card base, added dots ala markie's mom and tied on a ribbon. So, show me what you've got: make a card inspired by your resolutions and post a link here. If you post to SCS use the keyword FFIF12.

Happy New Year!

OK - I finally got a chance to use my new flourishes sweet treats set. I love the cake stand! I stamped it on white Georgia Pacific Cardstock with Jet Black Archival Ink, colored the scallops and feet with copics, then stamped it on Basic Grey Two Scoops and paper pieced the "flat areas". I stamped each cupcake with walnut stain, colored the "icing" with glue pen and glittered it. Then I cut each one out and placed it on the cake stand. I used glaze pen for the cherry on top. The card base is from my brand new package of that lucious pink pirouette, layered with chocolate chip and basic grey two scoops dp. I stamped the sentiment in walnut stain on pink pirouette layered with chocolate chip. This is one of those "simple cards" that takes forever. The layout is simple, but the paper piecing, glittering and cutting out of each cupcake took a long time. I am happy with it, though. After all, who could resist glittery cupcakes?