world cardmaking day

Oh how I do love holidays. This Saturday is a biggie on my calendar. It's a whole day set aside just to make cards. Right up my alley. I am busy clearing the decks and checking out challenges to get ready. Lots of sites will be hosting challenges on Saturday. My new gig, Scrapbook News and Review, is hosting a winter wonderland card crop. There are some fun prizes from sponsors along with lots of challenges. Stop by Saturday morning for a fun kick start the holiday season.


2peas in a bucket stamping board is hosting stamptoberfest that will begin on friday and go on all week. There are always lots of fun challenges there with prizes, too. I'm not hosting one this time around, but I'm already making a list of challenges I'd like to try. The group on the stamping board is so much fun and so welcoming.

Join in on all the fun even if you haven't ever joined these groups before. It's free to register on both sites and you'll need a scanner or digi camera to get photos uploaded of your creations. Even if you don't want to enter anything stop by for the inspiration and fun.

Do you know about any other wonderful events happening for this most important day? Please share them if you do, I don't want to miss anything.

while the cat's away...

What's a girl to do when the guys leave on a quick fishing trip? Well, for starters I had cookies for breakfast and surfed the web in my jammies. I filled up my etsy shop with lots of goodies and hopped in the shower about noon. Then I rolled out to my favorite junk shop for some treasure hunting. Oh I do love to dig through all the junk they have there. I scored a really old bingo game and a bunch of rusty stuff. So far I just collect rusty stuff, but I have dreams of taking a class with Michael deMeng and actually assembling it into amazing shrines. Some old sheet music and a single baby shoe hopped in my basket, too. Then I journeyed over to the library to pick up the 4th twilight series book that I've been on the waiting list for. How convenient that it arrived just in time. The sushi and sorbet are what I picked up for lunch. A lazy afternoon of reading rounded out the day. Of course you know there were a few house chores in there, but we don't need to talk about that. The guys came home happy and sunburned and stocked up the freezer again. They limited out on bonita this time around. They said it was the best fishing trip, yet. I agree.

black and white

I shipped off a whole package of these ATC's to England today. I don't do many swaps these days, but this one really caught my eye. The host of the swap, Lisa, is a member of the Stamp Shack and has really been blowing me away with her ATC artwork. When she decided to host her first swap with a black and white theme, I just had to join. I love the way a whole page of color coordinated ATC's looks. I also love to hold artwork in my hands. ATC's are such a nice way to do that.

Things around here have been a little nuts, so I haven't been posting much. After Mabel got kennel cough, then Shelly got it. As soon as they started getting better my hubby got sick. He's recovering from a pretty good case of bronchitis. It takes alot to keep him home from work and he's been home for about a week and a half. I think Kyle and I dodged the bullet and are still well.

My alcohol inks class was an absolute joy to teach. Some of the ladies are already signed up for another class with me. I have two more scheduled this year including a second installment of alcohol inks since they enjoyed it so much. We will be working on transparencies and metal next time. I need to get my samples finished up soon.

My anniversary sale was a great success. Thanks so much to all who stopped by. Be on the lookout for lots of additions in my etsy shop this weekend. I've been busy treasure hunting and have lots of ephemera and vintage patterns to list. A couple of other vintage surprises, too.

friday funny

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.

The old rancher said, ' Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.

The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.'

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain.

'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'

cards for heroes

Have you heard about Cards for Heroes, yet? It's a wonderful group of cardmakers who got together to make cards for our troops to send home to their loved ones. I just sent my third package of cards out today with over 30 Halloween cards. My son loves Halloween so much that I know if his dad was away he'd love to get a card from him. I'm so glad that a few kids will get some joy when they open these cards from their mom or dad. Mostly I used papers and cardstock stickers that FiskarsCrafts donated from their Heidi Grace and Little Davis lines. They were so much fun to put together. I almost never make cards without stamping, but with all of these pretty papers and embellishments I didn't need any stamping.

etsy paper anniversary sale

It's my one year anniversary on Etsy this weekend. I'm having a paper sale, since one year is the paper anniversary. All items made of paper in my shop are now marked down 25%. This includes lots of patterns, books, and ephemera. Stop by if you have a minute.

Thank you so much for making my first year on etsy such a great success.

exploring alcohol inks

These are the samples for the class I'm teaching next weekend. I have some students who have already signed up. Yipee! It will be on Sunday, September 14th 1:00 to 3:30 if you can join us. The class fee is $25 and includes everything you need to make all these fun goodies. I can't wait to see what my students teach me this time. I'm hoping they use different color combos for whole different looks. I love that part of teaching. The link to the shop is over there on the sidebar if anyone local is interested.

In other news things are rolling along here. Mabel has a pretty good case of kennel cough that she caught from the neighbor dog Kyle was watching last weekend. Would have been nice to know the dog was sick. It cost me $100 for Kyle to make $30. Whatever. I got lots and lots of fun goodies at all the sales last weekend and I made a nice little profit from the scrapbook store yard sale. I should be able to buy everything I need on my credit for a while. Love that. My cousin won a 1 minute shopping spree at her local stamp shop and was able to rake in $400 worth of goodies into her bag in 1 minute. How awesome is that. She's coming to visit and stamp with me in November so we can use all those fun goodies. Hi Terry :)

Oh, and I just finished reading the first book in the Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. I'm thinking that the weekend hubby is away cycling in Mammoth isn't the best time to read a vampire book. LOL...it was a good read though.