LMac's Catered Crops

Thank Heaven for Little Girls

Thank heaven for little girls
thank heaven for them all,
no matter where no matter who
for without them, what would little boys do?

              Maurice Chavelier (Gigi, 1958)

A friend is having her first baby, and I just couldn't resist trying this card template. I sure hope the doctor is right in telling her it's a girl because this is the most pink card I've ever made.

   

I was inspired by Jami's card at Splitcoast Stampers, and the tutorial for making this onesie card is at Lauren Meader's fabulous blog, My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence. (If you make a card like this, let me clarify Lauren's first step in her tutorial. She says to cut the cardstock to 4 1/4" by 5 1/2" and fold it at the top. Your paper should be 4 1/4" by 11", folded at the top to make the card front 5 1/2" long and 4 1/4" wide.) The rest of the recipe is pretty simple: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White and a pinch of So Saffron card stock; Stampin' Up! designer series hostess paper; some flat-back pearls; taffeta ribbon; and the 1 1/3" circle punch and scallop punch. The stamp set is from the Sale-a-bration set, So Many Scallops. Oh, and I used some Fiskers (non Stampin' Up!) scallop scissors for the sleeves.

You know it's just not possible for me to celebrate little girls without celebrating my little girl. And, it is our God given right to keep those embarrassing black mail pictures handy. So, here's my adorable Caitlin doing her Elvis impression some twenty plus years ago.

That was "Heartbreak Hotel" alright, but she could do "Love Me Tender," too. 

Yep, it is our God given right to embarrass our babies - but thank heaven for my little girl!   

Health Care Prescriptions

As long as we're web browsing (see yesterday's post), I was reading an article in one of my nursing magazines that pointed me to this site, health08.org. Our Texas primaries are less than a week away. I try not to vote for a candidate based on a single issue, but as a nurse, health care is definitely one of my primary concerns. If you want to quickly compare how each of the candidates proposes to address health care, you can go to this website, select the candidates you want to look at and get a side-by-side table to compare their proposals. It's way cool. Here's the link to generate your own comparison table:

2008 Presidential Candidate Health Care Proposals

It will spare you hours of deciphering through heated candidate debates . . . so you can spend more time stamping! - Hey, I'm here to serve.

Oh, this reminds me of one of my Dad's jokes - we're so overdue for one of his funnies. I hope I can do Dad justice.

A man went to the doctor complaining of an ear ache. The doctor looked in his ear and with amazement proclaimed . . . no wonder your ear hurts, you have a suppository in there. Oh, the man was so relieved . . . now I know where my hearing aid is!

Thank You

A friend sent me this link, The Gratitude Campaign. For those times when you have just a brief encounter with one of our brave servicemen or women and want to show your appreciation, but don't quite know how, the Gratitude Campaign proposes a simple but heartfelt gesture.

I hope you'll watch the small movie. To all our service men and women and their families . . .

A Collision of Colorful Clusters

My hostess club members asked me to help them use the Iris folding technique to make an Easter card - they're such a demanding group. Actually, they're terrific . . . but it sounded like a fun challenge. What I came up with is so bright and colorful though(usually not my style), that I hope they don't keel over with sensory overload.

I used the Cricut "Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More" font to get the negative flower image in the Certainly Celery cardstock. The rest of the recipe is . . . Whisper White cardstock as the card base. Flowers for You and Designer Series papers in the colors Lovely Lilac, Pretty in Pink and Tempting Turquoise (Pretty in Pink is only available in the Prints Pack Level 1 Hostess set). Ticket corner and a retired flower punches. Flower Fusion felt flower and flat-back pearl from the Pretties kit. And, from the new Occasions mini collection available March 1, the Hodgepodge Styled Silver Hardware and Poly-Twill Ribbon.

Have you heard the tip for choosing colors in your design? It's a good idea to choose a gallon of one color, quart of another and pint of a third. I'm still not certain that this card isn't a little too busy, but I thought by emphasizing one color over the others it might add some balance - so I made all my accents in Certainly Celery to make it my gallon color.

Well . . . what do you think? Is it a collision of color - or a beauteous bountiful bouquet? I never feel completely confident with my own designs, so I'll be anxious to hear what you all think.

In the Right Direction with Jane and Melissa

Can you tell I'm having a lot of fun sharing these guests with you? Melissa Smith and Jane Schenck keep me on the right road to making beautiful cards (sorry, couldn't resist).

Jane and Melissa's intersection brings us to the Sale-a-bration set, So Many Scallops. Our first stop - Melissa's suspension card. She has the flower scallop suspended with floss or fishing wire so that with a flick, it spins. I've never made one of these, but they look like a lot of fun. You can fine directions here: Suspension Card.

Like Melissa, Jane has this incredible talent for making cards that are simple but "wow". Next stop, Jane's window card. Hopefully you can see how well the stamp set works with the scallop punch. Can you tell that the happy birthday sentiment and candles are actually inside the card?

I love lavender (I even made a florist dye roses so I could have lavender in my wedding). So, yeah, I really like this card not only for the lavender but also for how Jane made such a simple monochromatic card look so elegant. Lavender has such a royal feel to me. So, our motor brocade takes us next to Jane's Thank You card.

   

Our final stop on the intersection is Jane's adorable baby congratulations card. Okay, I love rick-rack ribbon, so you know I'm going to love this card. The rick-rack ribbon coordinates so beautifully with the scallop shapes, and to help her focal point stand out, Jane punched the scallop shape in brown and just rotated it so it would show below.

Well . . . that concludes our road trip. Thanks Jane and Melissa for giving us such a great road map for our creations.

Well . . . does your monitor still need cleaning? Here's our handy cleaning tool again if you need it: monitor cleaner. Make sure you're getting the best seat for our next artists.

Featuring Pam Downs

I am so honored to present the beautiful stylings of . . . drum roll . . .  trumpet fan fare . . . spot light . . . Pam Downs. Yeah, I get excited when I get to share her creations, maybe because I think we share a lot of the same style. I love her colors and the fantastic way she uses brads, scallops and shapes in her cards.

For her encore, you can visit Pam's Splitcoast Gallery (here). Pam's also been featured on one of the top stamping blogs in the country - well, probably world - Fresh & Fun (here).

So, without further delay . . . here are Pam's creations featuring the Lots Of Thought Sale-a-bration stamp set.

I love how Pam enhanced the scallops with paper piercing - making it look a little like lace. Stamping on patterned paper is a really fun way to add color to outline stamps. This elephant image is from a valentine stamp set, Happy Heart Day, but Pam found a way to make it just a sweet year-round greeting.

Pam used an incredible trick to get the round circle behind the scalloped circle. She used our tab punch twice and just rotated it. You can see below another creative use of the tab punch, under the sentiment, "many thanks."This card also shows how Pam uses the brads to create balance in her designs. She pulled the colors from the Ginger Blossom designer paper and the butterfly image and swirls are from the stamp set, Priceless.

This third card is just another reason I love Pam's work. With three cards she used three completely different color themes - pastels, rich tones, and now, cheerful bright colors. She really got creative with our two star punches. The ribbon is the new striped grosgrain, which just works so beautifully with the mini dots and stars. Check out, too, how she used the brads again to frame the card.

Thanks, Pam, for being my star today.

I know you don't want to miss any details of these guests artist creations, with still more to come. You'll want to make sure your monitors are sparkly clean, so here's a tool to help you prepare for the next artists: Monitor Cleaner.

Featured Artist Katherine

If you've followed this little blog for very long you know I'm the very fortunate member of the Lonestar Stampers group of swappers. They include the fantastic artists Melissa Smith, Pam Downs, Yolanda Vasquez, Cyndi Rust, Jane Schenck, and Katherine Lapierre. I'm so honored to be part of this group because these ladies have been Stampin' Up! demonstrators for much longer than I have and I look up to them in so many ways . . . for their success but also for the way they so beautifully execute their craft and their creativity. Yep . . . I'm blessed.

Our last swapping bonanza was using the Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration stamp sets. So . . . today, I'm sharing the talents of Katherine Lapierre with you using the Friendship Blooms stamp set. I'm always excited to see what Katherine will bring. It's like she's got some creative brain cells I wasn't born with because she can take a stamp set and use it in so many wonderful ways. Her details are gorgeous.

I love the details Kat added in the center of the bloom using the build-a-brad. Hopefully you can see how she stamped the swirls brown-on-brown for a gentle watermark on the top background and distressed the edges of her horizontal strip. I love, too, how gender-neutral the colors are and what a nice all-occasion card this is.

 

Not to type-cast the stamp set even a little bit, Kat made an eye-popping birthday card with the same Friendship Blooms set.

I mean, girls, look at that color. Who would have thought to match such bright red, oranges and greens together, and the white embossing really makes the colors pop. She put so many layers into this card, and popped nearly all of them up with dimensionals. It's so cheerful, no one could be blue on their birthday who received this card.

More? Well, okay. This is just one element in a beautiful birthday card - see what I mean by all the details she puts in her cards? Kat stamped the leaf images and cut them out, died the flowers from the Pretties kit, added a flower from the three-for-you punch, and then topped it with an olive brad.  I think I counted at least four other punches she used to create this card. Hopefully you can see how she subtly spelled out Happy Birthday throughout the grids.

Yes . . . I'm blessed. Thank you Katherine Lapierre for being my featured artists. Stay tuned for more.

Gettin' Too Big for My Britches

Yep, I'm gettin' too big for my britches. I'll tell you why, but first, how about a card?

 

There's no stamping on this card, but it uses the beautiful tea-bag-folding technique called Dahlia. There are eight 1-3/8" circles that make this focal point, so the circle punch makes cutting the paper a breeze. If you go to the Splitcoast Stampers gallery and type Dahlia in the search engine, you'll find the most absolutely gorgeous creations using this fold.

To get the folding directions, go to this web site: Handcrafting Greetings. The rest of the recipe uses the gorgeous Ginger Blossom paper; River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Ruby Red card stock; Taffeta ribbon; the flat-back pearls from the Pretties kit; and brads. Oh, and the texture in the cardstock is produced with the Cuttlebug embossing folders, not a Stampin' Up! product, but very easily found at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

Okay, so about them britches. Check this out. I just got this very cool award, but what's even more exciting is how I got it - I was awarded by Laura at Scranextras, whose blog and creations I absolutely adore. I asked her if I could be her stamping clone and then look what she did! Laura uses almost exclusively Stampin' Up! products, so her blog is a great resource for ideas when your mojo isn't working with your new stamp set.

In honor of Laura's generous spirit, I'd like to pass this award on to my adorable twin, Sharon, at Roll Call Ministries. Her blog isn't about crafting, but, she's my sis, and I love giving her a plug anytime I can. Her Christian children's book, Linda the Ladybug Goes to Heaven, is now available through Target. (Sharon said she used me as a character in her book, but, the character dies - hmmm, guess I pulled her hair once too many times growing up.)

It's awfully embarassing to share with you how many stamping blogs I stalk, there are so many great ones out there, and quite a few of them have already received this award. I recommend all the blogs in my blog roll, they're all E for Excellent.

Another thing about those britches - and for those still keeping up with my weight loss - I've lost 41 pounds as of this week. So, even though I'm getting too big for them, I'm having to cinch my britches up with a big ole rope to keep them from dropping to my knees. Woo Hoo!

Stamps for Sale - $1

I've never really spent much time on Craigs List, but I've heard so many sing its praises, I decided to check it out. When I saw this post, I laughed so hard I about wet my pants. I promise, I'm not making this up.

If you can't read it, it says: "I am taking back the garage and have choosen to get rid of my wife's stamp sets. I have quite a bit of stamps sets, ribbon, paper and paper and paper. If you are interesed, I will let you come look through it all and take what you need."

Oh my gracious! Can't you just imagine that some woman's going to come home and find all of your stamping supplies have been sold for $1?! Okay, don't anyone tell my husband about this - I don't want him to get any ideas.

Always My Girl

Okay . . . you have to allow me a little sappy moment . . . my baby turned 21 years old today. While she's basking in her day, I remember the day of her birth. Back then I didn't want to tell anyone how very badly I wanted a little girl because they might think I was a terrible, disappointed mother if it was a boy. So . . . when she was born I just kept saying through my tears of joy . . . it's a girl . . . it's a girl . . . . Oh, and she was such a beautiful girl with her little wisps of red hair. And, now, she's even more beautiful, and so much more talented and smart and fun to be with than I ever thought any of my children could be. She brightens a room when she walks in it with her joy and enthusiasm for life. I am so very proud of the adult she has become.

But, then, there's this 21st birthday. Even though I'm as old as the hills, I still remember what it felt like to turn 21 and finally arrive to adulthood. I don't worry about Caitlin, but it's a little hard to see her step just a little farther away from being my little girl. So, on this special birthday, I wanted to make a card just for her that said, even though you're 21, you will always be my very special girl.

The second I saw the Always stamp in the new catalog, I knew I had to have it. There went my strategy of trying to use some un-inked stamp sets before buying new ones. So, I searched Splitcoast Stampers for more inspiration to use this beautiful set - I really wanted this card to be special - and here's what I put together for my girl.

 

This card is not just inspired, but almost a direct copy from this card by Laura at Scrapnextras. Laura used the baby-wipes technique to ink up the heart and the bird. I've never done that technique before, but she put together an excellent tutorial for it here. With her tutorial the technique is easy as pie and really gives you a chance to be an artist - creating your own paint pallet with the way you mix the inks on the baby wipes. (I had to laugh about how appropriate it was to use a baby-wipes technique for my baby's card.)

The rest of the recipe is just Real Red and Blue Bayou cardstock; Sky Blue Designer Series paper; Real Red, Sky Blue and Blue Bayou ink and re-inker; hodge podge hardware; red small grosgrain ribbon; and non-Stampin' Up! rhinestones.

So . . . to my baby Caitlin . . . from Mom . . . Always my girl!