Shake It!

Ack! I'm trying to write this post and I have an ultra chaotic '80's mixed tape playing Styx {Mr. Roboto}, the Star Wars theme song....complete with happy little R2-D2 noises, and a good ol' fashioned "Happy Birthday" song playing in my head! Send help quick!

Good thing I've got something super simple to share with you! I honestly do not think I could handle complicated with this track playing rather loudly in my head (oh yea, add in a Star Wars Leapster cartridge sound effect, the Colts @ Dolphins game playing loudly in front of me.....go Reggie Wayne {he just might save our Fantasy Football game tonight!}, and a little girl arguing football with her Daddy).

A month or so ago, I dug through the Michael's clearance bins outside the front of the store and came across a little pack of three dimensional embellishments (Michael's Recollections brand), complete with shaker robot, shaker dinosaur, and little red car, marked down to .79 and I quickly snagged it. I needed a card, and fast, for a super seven year old boy, who loves robots. Clean, crisp and a little simple "Happy Birthday" courtesy of PTI's Borders & Corners Monogram Edition completes this.

To paper crafters, I understand that this could be seen as too simple and without enough paper crafting love. But, let me assure you, this little seven year old boy loved it and immediately started shaking it for a moment.....maybe even two....before he made a beeline for the brightly wrapped present that it was sitting on top of! lol

Hope you all are having a marvelous Monday night, enjoying the game (if you watch/follow NFL), and awake to a terrific Tuesday! As we are in a heat wave here, I would love to know how your part of the world is treating you. I am anxiously awaiting fall and since we are not going to have fall weather to get excited about on the first day of fall tomorrow, might you tease, tempt, and delight me with news of your crisp air, changing colors, and crunchy leaves?

Gypsy Giveaway!

I'm not giving one away, but I know who is!

When I opened my email this morning and saw one from Linda, I followed her link and learned about a new blog, Cutting Above, for which she is on the Design Team. And they are giving away a Gyspy....actually two!! If you want to learn more about the Gyspsy, you can do so by visiting Cutting Above and by watching HSN on September 24th at midnight. So, hurry up and go visit them and find out how you can get your chance to win our favorite bug's (aka Cricut) latest gadget (that looks like tons of fun to play with!!!

Stop the presses.......

........I stamped a card! Waaahooooooo! I know its been a bit and I'm so sorry for that. Life has just been a wee bit busy and the first thing a lack of energy seems to zap, is my creativity. Grrr... Now, even though, I still feel as if I am a cat chasing her tail some days, I decided to craft some time for myself to ink up a stamp that I've had sitting out for awhile now. I absolutely love the detailed images of Mostly Animals stamps and this sunflower is from my stash from back in my early stamping days......about fifteen years ago.

Did you know that you can emboss with your Distress Inks?? Remembering hearing (okay, so I didn't hear it...I read it!) on the 2Peas stamping board (a couple of years ago) that you can emboss with Distress Inks, I thought it was about time I finally try it out for myself! Even though they are dye inks, they do stay wet long enough to pour on embossing powder and heat. Sooooooo....add another dozen ink colors for me to emboss with....yay! (There are way more than a dozen colors....but that's about the number that I own.) Does this add to your collection of colors to emboss with? Or are you an uber cool stamping encyclopedia and already have this knowledge incorporated into all those fun files in your brain?

Even though I had much more elaborate plans for this beautiful stamp, once I stamped and embossed her, I found that I liked the detailed line image so much that I chose to leave it as is. Wanting a bit of color on the card, I punched a trio of butterflies to flit up the card from some Stampin' Up! DSP left overs I had on my table, inked the edges with the same Distress Ink, folded them up, glued them on, and added a touch of bling for some sparkle. Actually, while the pic doesn't show it, there already is a bit of sparkle embossed into the image. Do you remember that orange glitter I had covering my old stash of embossing powder, glitter, and flocks? Well, there was a touch of it left on the rubber of my sunflower stamp that I absolutely could not get off.......until I stamped it on my card and then it was embossed in for a permanent home. Now, I'm really glad its there as for some reason, it just works!


Here's one more trip down memory lane..............back in May, I shared with you some wonderful Strawberry Charm of and from my sweet boy. Well, here is strawberry number four....kind of. That plant has flowered and fruited many times now. But, the noisy blue jays that visit us in our backyard every afternoon this year have been eating them all summer long!! My sweet boy got so excited every time he saw a "pretty white flower" because he knew that a strawberry that he planted, watered, and nurtured would follow that he could eat. We kept encouraging him to keep taking care of it and more would come. Well, either the blue jays found something more interesting to eat or the tomato cage with the reflective strips tied on is working or my sweet boy's timing has improved because he has been able to reap the benefits of his care taking as he harvests and eats the last four ripened strawberries from his charming strawberry plant. Now he wants to grow tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce, zucchinis, and a whole host of other fruits and vegetables!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bashful Blue - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: Stampin' Up!
Stamp: Sunflower - Mostly Animals
Ink: Tea Dye - Distress Ink
Punch: Butterflies - Martha Stewart
Other: clear embossing powder - Stash; Hemp Twine - Stampin' Up!; Bling - Me & My Big Ideas

Creative Kidlet Fun

A year ago, I was so unsure of the whole Facebook thing......I just didn't "get it." But, it was kind of cool to see updated pics of peeps I knew long ago. So, I signed up........just to see those pics! A month later, my cousin found me on there and "friended" me (I had even forgotten that I signed up by then!) and so I thought that maybe I should check it out.

I am So glad I did! Reconnecting with some close friends that I had lost contact with and probably would have never found (or even known where to look).........and suddenly I "got it"! I began to understand what a great tool social networking sites can be. Anyhow, I certainly did not intend this post to be about the wonders of Facebook.

One of those fab friends that I had lost contact with, oh about twenty years ago, I have reconnected with via Facebook and this morning, I was delighted to see an email from her with a link to a fun creative and crafty site, The Crafty Crow, that encourages kidlet creativity today. I went and checked it out and see some fun prospects to share with my own little budding artists!

Hope you enjoy the site! Just as an FYI, I have absolutely no connection to the site. I am simply excited to see this blog full of crafty ideas for kidlets and did I mention that I noticed they do give aways too? ;-)

Does anyone have a fun weekend planned? We are looking forward to having Hubby/Daddy home for three days! Have a Fantastic Friday and Happy Labor Day weekend to those in the United States!