Blech

I am sick today. :( Grr. I am never sick so it's annoying. I didn't feel well enough to prepare for my class I have tomorrow. So I will update you on what I'm doing right now. Tomorrow I have a class for my friend Lulu's moms group. That should be a lot of fun. Then, later in the week, I have a charity event that I was invited to by Lulu's Arbonne rep. It benefits a family with young children that lost their mom recently. They will be raffling off prizes, so I donated two prizes - a box of eight cards - two blank, two birthday, two baby cards and two get well soon cards. I also donated a two hour class for 8 people. I hope someone likes the prize!! For the blank cards I used the tree cards. I can't get over these - they're so pretty and easy. The colors I used are Bashful Blue - brayered on. Then I sponged on Taken with Teal and then Ballet Blue at the top. The bottom was brayered with Creamy Caramel, then sponged with Chocolate Chip and Really Rust. The center was sponged with Green Galore. I stamped the tree in Always Artichoke, then sponged on Green Galore and True Thyme. I colored the trunk with Close to Cocoa and outlined with a drafting pen. The swirl was stamped in Chocolate Chip.

The Get Well cards are made with A Little Birdie Told Me. I paper pieced him with my Prints Pack.

I punched three holes in the Almost Amethyst strip and I did this after acting on a tip from another blogger. Take a pair of pliers and pop off the little door that holds the punched out pieces. Voila! You can SEE what you're punching! Simple & revolutionary. The guards pop off without breaking, but just a warning - empty yours first! I did not and shot little confetti everywhere, including directly into my eye! Seriously - right in the old ojo!

Okay, on the inside of the card I stamped the little umbrella and "you're under the weather." It's cute. The card base and the other print piece are Certainly Celery.

The next card is just a direct theft from Kristina Werner's baby card on her blog. I have always loved this card (actually bought the stamp set after seeing her make it) but the second I bought it everyone stopped having babies!!! So I'm really glad to have somewhere to use it! I had to cut a teeny scrap of a dimensional to mount that little pennant with. Labor of love!

I hope whoever wins these cards knows a pregnant lady!

The colors are certainly celery, Bashful Blue and So Saffron. The set is Nursery Necessities. I really do like this set, with the exception of that strange little duck - have you looked at him? He's odd. Not gonna lie. I've seen some cute cards made with him, but he looks like he got smooshed. I tied on some Bliss Blue gingham ribbon. I was copying KW's and I was wishing for some yellow or celery gingham ribbon. God knows I don't have enough STUFF, right?

I went back to Felicia's Scrapbooks and got a piece of the Nestabilities mat to try embossing with. When I'm feeling better I'll give that a shot. Her store is really great and she's so sweet. My Austin readers really need to check her out.

The birthday cards are courtesy of Beate's latest design. I changed very little of what she did - it's gorgeous.

The stamp sets are Baroque Motifs, Simply Circles and Circle of Friendship. The cardstock is Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, and white in the center (sponged with Soft Sky)

I don't have a Scor Pal, so I scored the center piece with my paper trimmer. The trick to scoring on a diagonal in your paper trimmer is the following. Start by scoring the center of the piece - meaning corner to corner. Position the corners in the scoring track and score. Then move that out to the left and line it up on the edge of the trimmer (that's an inch) and score, and repeat! Rotate it and repeat on the other angle. Very easy and requires no extra spending on your part! :) I suppose some day I will have to get

a Scor-Pal, but right now I don't have a burning scoring project that can't be done with a paper trimmer or a bone folder. Anyway, just be sure you stamp before you score unless you are deliberately looking for little voids in your design. (which can be very cool when done on purpose)

What I loved about Beate's design, aside from the obvious stunning color choices, was all the layers of detail - the piercing, the white gel pen dots (a la Markie's Mom) and the scoring, the ribbon, the punches - it's a very tactile card. When I looked at her photo, it looked like the center piece was soft sky, but that is just a testament to how well the Stampin' Up! ink colors are coordinated with the cardstock. Every time I reach for another company's ink pad I remember that too.. Like "darn, I have nothing that precisely matches that". I am falling in love with the Adirondack pitch black though. Thanks for your comments about that product. Is it my imagination, or does it coat the stamps more evenly than the SU basic black? I'm getting great clean impressions with it, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Now, since we're on the blue section of the post, a few notes on the color. Jenn gave me the heads up that Starbucks was putting their new merchandise out today and that it was BLUE! And oh my, IS IT!! There are beautiful blue mugs that you just HAVE to see. I don't know how they keep coming up with the most beautiful ceramics!! They also have at one store here (our only 24 hour one up by work) something called a "splash stick) which is an ingenious cross between a coffee stirrer and a plug for your cup lid so you don't spill in the car. I love it! Wish my stores that I frequent had them!

Okay a few more updates and then I'll leave you be. First, the TV show is on the schedule!! It will be on starting June 1st, every Tuesday at 1 PM, on channel 11 on Time Warner!! How exciting is that?? It's called Understand Blue Paper Arts for those of you in Austin - set your Tivo! I don't get Time Warner so I need someone to record it for me!!

Second update - if that goes well, I'd like to enter it in Martha's Dreamers contest! Wouldn't that be fun?

Third, I saw on Martha today the Wild Charge - have you seen this thing? What a freaking brilliant idea!!! I can't tell if the Blackberry Curve is compatible yet, but Ipods are! WOW. Thank you Wild Charge!!

Hope you're having a good Tuesday!