Free Ink Refills April 2 Only

Get your free ink refill coupon by clicking this link for Walgreen's. It was also in the Sunday Walgreen's ad and in Parade Magazine inserts.

And Hawaii-you have a day all to yourself! So check the above link for details.

PB Posie

Did you ever do something you were so excited about before you did it and have a flat feeling after? I did. While I had some fun and learned a bit, I felt sorta cheated, too. I will explain more later when I finish my projects which might be Monday or April or whenever. Just flat right now. I need some sun and yellow.

Here is another in the Penny Black sticker streak. I have not been stamping at all. Well, I stamp but not on anything worth shouting about (my fingers do get inky tho). Maybe that will come later. But for now, PB is some happy time.

I used a plain white base card with a red scrap layered. Then the top and bottom stickers are layered on plain black and applied-this was one long border sticker I cut to fit. The middle sticker is on a scrap of Bling and pop dotted. The whole card is not huge-maybe a little larger than a gift tag. I used black Stickles around the outside of some of the hearts and a bit of dimensional in the middle of the center flower. Five minutes tops.

Remember That Crazy Tom Cruise Video?

Well here is a clip of the spoof of it from Super Hero Movie!

Kinda creepy how much this actor (Miles Fisher) looks like Cruise!

ETA-this guy is a newbie. A tiny bit of tv and he was in Gods and Generals with Jeff Daniels

A Big Time Freebie!

Are you ready for this? Adobe is offering a free online version of Photoshop!!

Read this and then go here !

HB-For a Special Person

I done made this quick-so tired and I am covered in acrylic paint and glitter from class. I have to get the recycling done and then I hope to crash fast. No directions for this. Too easy and you know the drill-scraps and remnants.

Hubby Bags The Groceries

In case I never see this again! Maybe this will be his next career. I don't think Sofa Slug pays much.

Enjoy The Moment

So cold and damp today even with the sun peaking out. Another two inches are coming and we will set an official seasonal record for snow. And I will set a record for most times staying inside. I will venture out on Wednesday to take a class from Lynell Harlow of Dreamweavers Stencils. I am thrilled as I love the company. Whatever I make, I will post as soon as possible.

This fairly quick card used a sticker for the middle and more scraps of paper. But those pretty seams between the white card stock are stickers-border stickers! I used a white base card and covered it with this bamboo textured vellum. Taking a smaller piece of the peachy textured card stock, I layered that on after edging the paper with greenish ink. The white pieces-two are the same size and one a bit larger in the middle-and these are edged in green also. I covered the inside edges with the border stickers-taping them behind to keep flat.

Punch out a couple of flowers and add a tiny flower brad to the center and then mini pop dot them to the outside white blocks (I trim my brad backs to not show). Add a flower sticker to a scrap to make sturdier and then pop dot it to the center of the white square. Add a phrase stamped to the top and bottom in green. I also added Dimensional Acrylic to the flower sticker to make it pop a bit. This is about as close to spring as I am gonna be this week.

An extra thing I did was make an envelope from some patterned paper. I guess when someone gets this in the mail, they won't think it's junk mail!

Cupcake Flowers

I know most people have some of these plain-why not stamp or color them and make flowers?

Egg Dying Contest

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your families-I will be watching the game!

Look What I Finally Found!

A few weeks back I was all over tarnation looking for this stuff-and the closest store to me-the buyer said he had never heard of it and he didn't have it. Hmmmm-they need a better informed buyer. I was walking about looking for black mustard seed-and I looked up instead of down-there the Marmite was! I got brown mustard seed instead of black (for a curry) but I am so excited-now I can make my spicy sausages for sure.

Religious Maxine

Maxine was driving down the street in a sweat because she had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place.

Looking up toward heaven, she said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life and give up sex and tequila.

Miraculously, a parking place appeared.

She looked up again and said, "Never mind. I found one."

Love Blossom

I got home late-it's snowing and we are two days into spring. Hopefully, I will have a video up tomorrow of driving thru Lansing going for pizza and the crunch of tires on snow will fill your ears. Honestly, I think I should have stayed home. My back hurts, my teeth hurt and I didn't get a whole lot done today. My daughter moved again. She has moved more times in three years than I have my entire adult life. I just want to move once more-to somewhere hot with no snow. And hopefully alone.

I don't like this card. It's blah. But I am too lazy to do it over. Basic plain card layered with two pieces-one a burgundy textured piece and the other a printed scrap. Where it meets in the middle, I used a border sticker to cover the seam. Add an eyelet to the center of the flower. Pop dot near the seam. Stamp a word slightly above it. Using a scrap of bling, add a sticker to the top and pop dot on the lower right. And move on from this snore inducer.

Distressed Love

I had someone email tonight that thought because I had a chicken recipe on my other blog here-that I must have messed up or something. Rule of thumb-scroll all the way to the end of each post! It was a joke-with a photo of a rubber chicken to boot. Go read it-hopefully you will see it as a funny. My daughter-the Detroit cop (would that mess up your head or what)-sent it to me. Would anyone really want a chicken butt to explode in their oven? Good grief.

So the card below got a tiny make over. As you can see, the original is so flat that it looks like a place mat. So I took it apart and distressed a few pieces. I started with a cream card and punched the corners. I also ran the edges over a teal ink pad. Using a striped piece of card stock, I popped it into the corner slots.

I stamped a love note on pink texture and layered it to teal texture. This was then taped to the lower card. I added a sparkly brad to a flower and pop dotted it to the upper corner. The sticker was added to teal and layered to pink----snore.

Basically, I took both layered peices off and roughed up the edges of both and ran a little color along them, too. Both layers were than pop dotted back on.

Then for a little extra shimmer on the sticker, I added some Stickles to the hearts. When the sun catches it, it looks so much better. Happy spring-peeps. Can't wait for the snow tonight.

The Love We Give Away

I have an ivy growing in my kitchen-most people would not even notice it actually. But this particular ivy has had many cutting off it over the years. It's almost 13 years old and a couple of times I thought it was a goner because it got cold and almost froze. This was part of a plant off my dad's casket. If I am lucky, it will grow until I die and maybe my kids will keep it going, too. A couple of cuttings I gave away, the new owners did not nourish it. You have to love your plants-with food, water and yes, you have to talk to them and tell them you love them. Or even scold them for having brown dried up leaves!

This is a pretty simple card that uses a Penny Black sticker. A shimmery base card layered with a shimmer black piece. I then used a thin creamy white shimmer paper and punched the corners before layering it. Then I took another small piece of the shimmery black and put the sticker on it. Before pop dotting to the center of the card, I edged the black with a gold metallic ink pen. Then I finished it off with a small piece of black organza ribbon that has a touch of gold in it-just tie a knot and snot dot it below the sticker piece.

This would be a nice wedding card actually. Or an anniversary one.

Another Spam Warning-This One Could Be Nasty!

I got an attempt today to make me click a link. It was from a group called Question It! I was asked to click a link saying some person had sent me a question and I could view it and answer it.

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS!

It is linked to spammers and bots who tell you you can link to other computers and use the programs they have on their hard drives. It will spam you to no end. The links can also come from these addresses---

fans@fanboxmail.com

member@fanbox.com

question_it@smsacfriends.com

If you get anything from any of these, block them in your emails clients and delete them without clicking!!! You will hate yourself if you don't. This particular ploy to get live addresses and computers is a newer one. But the bot traffic is picking up lately. Be careful out there!

They are making these spams to get thru filters better and better. Update your virus scans and definitions for worms and spam.

A Must Have Magazine

I normally would not rave about an ordinary magazine publication. But I have to on this one! Even tho it says "101", it is not just for beginners. There were actually ideas I had never seen much before. Of course, the samples are wonderful (I like that they actually pose them instead of just scanning them flat like many magazines do).

This would be a great magazine to include with a mini kit for someone just starting out either as a stamper, paper crafter or a demo. But even seasoned crafters would like it. It is $14.99 which may seem like a lot-but use your coupon at either Joann's or Micheal's (or get an online one from Hobby Lobby on Sunday's) and it takes 40-50% off. Sound better? So go find one and have fun reading!

Beannachtai Na Feile Padraig

May those who love us,

Love us.

And those who do not love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn't turn their hearts,

May He turn their ankles,

So we'll know them by their limping.

Go bhfana í ngrá linn,

Iad siúd atá í ngrá linn.

Iad siúd nach bhfuil,

Go gcasa Dia a gcroíthe.

Agus muna gcasann Sé a gcroíthe

Go gcasa Sé caol na coise acu

Go n-aithneoimid iad as a mbacadaíl.

PS-for those of you who do not speak Gaelic-click here!

Whack a Leprechaun Day

Click Here for a fun Irish Game

Glittered Heart

Are you an Ephemera collector? Save ticket stubs, menus, fortunes from cookies-that sort of thing? I am. I have every ticket stub from every concert, movie, sports event I have ever been to. I have my first utility bill that I paid for back in 1972. The paper cigar ring hubby gave me the night we got engaged, the beer top ring that replaced it (he isn't cheap, I just gave him a cheap way out as he was way too drunk on tequila). I have hundreds of menus-when the diners change them, I keep the old one in the page protector and put the new one over the top. If they go out of business, they are moved to the back of the binders. It's my way of keeping a visual diary, I guess. I have matchbooks, playing cards (anyone remember Braniff Airlines?) and I feel sorry for whoever will clean out my estate someday. They will go looking for forgotten stocks and bonds and find what to them is junk.

I am entering this in another contest. Marlene is looking for something green (her favorite color) and with ribbon. Does this qualify as green? Depends on the light-I think it may be trending toward teal. I will let her decide. I started with a base white folded card on the side. Edge in green chalky ink. Take a piece of pink slightly smaller than the card front and stamp a scripted stamp in green on the front. It's textured, which makes it look older. Using a small sponge, edge and rub the sides all around. Smoosh it out good. Use another piece of complementary printed card stock and do the same idea with the ink-then tape the two on the back at the top and bottom-the print is about 1/3rd the front and the pink about 2/3rds.

Lay a piece of shimmery ribbon across the seam and tape behind the back. Take another piece of skinny ribbon and knot it off center and lay it down mid way of the ribbon and tape behind. Tape runner this whole piece on the front of the white card. Find a hank of card stock (textured) in your scrap bin and apply the sticker to the front of it. Distress the edges of the card stock and pop dot it to the top left area. Using a glitter pen or Stickles, highlight areas of the sticker to give it some shimmer. It was hard to catch it with a photograph, so you will see it a bit if you click the photo to enlarge.

Someday when I am old, maybe this will be part of an ephemera collection for some future nutcase like me. I hope that I become the old lady with long braids, with 30 cats and red velvet drapes in some stuffy old brownstone. I will make myself useful by supplying the next generations with lots of odd junk.

Look What Hubby Did

I75 by the rest area north of the Clarkston/Dixie Highway ramp(exit 93) earlier this week on a day I warned him ice was hitting the windows all night. He is tooling along in the left lane at 5 am, goes round a curve at 70 mph-way too fast for conditions-and ends up fishtailing and into a ditch. Luckily there was an embankment to keep him from going into the lake/swampy area. He was facing north on a south bound freeway. He has a little whiplash, too. I debate whether to feel sorry for him as he always drives over the speed limit and scares me half to death when we are on the freeway.

Glad he isn't on my insurance-it was the company car!

A Serious Epidemic!

Deep Sympathy

The rudeness of the world wears on me sometimes. People in too much of a hurry to see doors slamming on another coming behind? Sweaty half naked guys at the gym who reek of what? No shower, no deodorant, their bad diets? Inconsiderate drivers cutting me off at 55 MPH and my donation to Goodwill (some of it glass) goes flying thru my car? Having the game on, walking into the kitchen and coming back to war games?

I decided to post this card to the death of kindness in America. Maybe it can be resurrected by the next generation but only if the current ones let them know it even existed.

White base card. Multiple layers-print on blue texture on brown texture. Wrap a ribbon around and tie in the front with a bow. Layer on white card. Print phrase on white and edge in brown. Layer on a scrap of brown texture. Pop dot in center.

Free Quilt? Check It Out!!

A Handmade Quilt Giveaway!

Little Ol' Wino

I was cleaning out the junk drawer-again. I think I do this once a paycheck. The biggest reason why is that when "someone" digs in it for anything, it's all rumble messy. I came across items I have no idea what they are-so those go into a bucket until I can match them up to whatever they belong to. If I threw anything away, that is when I would hear-"do you have that thingamajig?" So I have a huge plastic bucket of crap. Just for that one day.

I have a wine cork with nothing on it. I still wonder what I am keeping it for. But I stick pins in it to keep from poking myself. I remembered I had made this wine bottle holder at Christmas and then forgot to use it. I like to give wine if I go to someone's house. Especially Michigan wines-very good and isn't it nice to buy American and have it be tasty too?

This is a bottle case I picked up at Hobby Lobby. From Creative Imaginations , I think normal price is 7.99 but of course, I used my coupon! I covered the outside using Bling from Bazzill-you will need two pieces to meet at the seam in the back. The glue I used was not supposed to wrinkle but it did. Scrappy Glue is pretty good on regular scrap papers and card stock but I guess with the naked outside of the container (maybe I should have sealed it) and the composition of the Bling, it wrinkled. I then layered a piece of print Vellum around the outside. At the top and the bottom, I cut pieces of shiny gold card stock and attached it. Then to cover the seams, I used Velvet ribbon, wrapping it round the corners.
I also used another piece of the vellum to cover the inside lower container and used the gold paper and vellum ribbon too. If I had to do it all over again, I would paint with acrylics the inside or possibly paper it. Since the naked container came with black ribbon to tie, I used that but some other fancier black ribbon would have worked, too. So you see how the bottle of wine would look inside here above.
Last thing to do, is the top which when open is a curvy top-I traced the curves and used the Bling there too. It butts up pretty nice but if you need to, just sand the edges. Here is the case closed. I tied a velvet bow and attached to the outside. I did find a tag or two and layered them with a brad (write your greeting on this before attaching) and tied them to the bow with gold filament thread. Tuck in a bottle of vino, and you can have a nice gift for under 15 smackers if you use scraps and coupons. Maybe even tuck a gift certificate inside to a cheese shop or tickets to the art fair?

Remember, a good bottle of wine does not have to cost a lot. 6-10 dollars will buy a good sip. Try World Market or even your local chain grocery (Meijer's has a pretty decent wine shop). Divertirsi!

Odd Email Today-So Be Careful

Yesterday I posted about a spam virus comment going around and warned anyone seeing it to delete it. Early this morning someone dug around on my blog and found my special email for my blogs and sent me an odd communique. He or she wanted me to go check out some slide shows that I could embed in my blog.

I am not stupid. I think should anyone want to leave a comment, they just leave it on a posting-not send it privately. So I DID NOT click the link but took the guy's name and went googling. Seems kinda odd that the guy had a memorial page (he's dead!) and a very very unusual name (and this spam is coming from USC.edu). So now we have identity theft via spammers. I think this email may have been in retaliation for my warning others about the bad comments yesterday.

So be careful out there in cyberspace. If you don't know the people who comments, especially if they say anonymous-don't open it. I have always had my comments set to moderation, so I can screen them. I think everyone may want to do that now as the spammers have to find a new way to retaliate or get to you. An un-moderated blog is just the ticket. Never post your legit email anywhere-use a substitute one that's free from Yahoo or Gmail etc that you have set up just for the chance of winning a candy or entering contests or using for contact for your blog.

And don't click links!

Dad's Been Tagged

I went to Joann's tonight. Haven't been there in quite a while. All the new goodies! Their normal spring line of paper pads, stickers and rub ons were 40% off, so I got some of the small pads of paper. I wanted the 12 x 12 but they will be 50% next week (I don't need instant gratification), so I can wait. Since everything I picked up was already on sale and I knew I would not be back for a week or more, I gave away my soon-to-expire coupon. Also, they have all new stamps! Inkadinkado, Hero Arts and Cloud 9 and all 40% off! I had to pick myself up by the scruff and pull myself away!

Somehow I always get it the wrong checkout. The girl ahead of me had no coupon, her debit card was dead, her credit card wasn't working and she could not find her Driver's Licence to write a check. So she put everything back except the thread (which was 9 bucks?) and she was short of cash for that, so I gave her my coupon and she was good to go.

I really don't know why I made this card. I have no one to give it to. Probably a good guess is I just liked the colors. Pretty easy to see I used all scraps of print and card stock papers. Just layer it on. And staple the tag. One thing I messed up-those brad colors. See, it was dark and I was working by the stove light and thought I picked grey, not green. And I wrinkled it up putting them in after my oh so precise measuring with my Cropidile. I think I need more sleep. And more light! Snow coming (again) so I am gonna go snuggle with the cats and read. Nitey night.

Virus Going Around

If you come across anyone leaving a comment on your blog that says "click here and here" and is posted by tygogal, do not click on the links and just delete the comment. It's a nasty virus. If you Google that commenter name, you will see that they have just been visiting blogs randomly leaving the click here and here comment. Bad stuff! Be forewarned.

Bandanna Bouquet

While my newest soup experiment is slowly simmering (I think I made too much and it's a 6-8 hour simmer) I made hubby some Sofa Slug Mac and Cheese. I won't be here for supper tomorrow night, so hopefully he can figure out the reheat button on the microwave, altho it would be much better if he baked it. I don't think he can be trusted with the oven, tho. When the soup is done and sampled, I will put the recipe with photos on my other blog. It's got Michigan navy beans in it-just needs a funny name.

Here are two photos of the same card. The first is how I originally did the card. I used a textured medium sky blue card card stock and folded in half. This is a top folder, by the way. Using some scraps of printed card stock (this was two sided, too) I cut three the same size and placed them on the card front leaving even spaces all around.

Taking a similar matching blue piece, I added a Penny Black sticker to the front. Then using some tiny crystals, I colored them with blue from my Copic Marker set. Adding a tiny bit of glue, I placed them in the center of each flower on the sticker (see the one I messed up?) This piece was then pop dotted to the center of the card. It was okay but sorta snore.
So I took the sticker piece off and distressed the edges of the blue backing and I think it made it pop a bit more. So not so snore. This reminded me of a cowgirl's bandanna-those one's you can get for 99 cents at some fabric stores or less than a dollar places. Somehow the blue and the red just seemed so Annette on the ranch. A bit of Stickles finished it off.

Heart Tied

An odd Sunday. Went to Lansing to pick up my daughter's inks and pens. She is moving and needs to store them so they won't freeze or get over heated. So I am holding on to them for her. Schlepped around Menard's looking for 3 way flourescent bulbs. NO luck. So got the dog a new pillow. He isn't interested in it. Watched the Pistons on ESPN and listened to the Wings on XM. Also the MSU/Ohio game was on the Big 10 network. Too much TV today-I have a headache.

This was made with some Penny Black stickers. I used a textured black card that was folded and then I rounded the corners. Using some striped paper, I also rounded the corners after cutting the piece a tad smaller than the base card. Layer it on the base. Taking a black scrap, I made a center piece and rounded the corners on it too.

The center creamy oval was punched and embossed and layered on a shimmery red scalloped scrap that was punched. I added three Penny Black hearts and several tiny ones too. Tying a knot in each length of black ribbon, I added one to each heart top with a tiny snot dot. Then I stickled up the hearts on the swirls.

I am tired-and cold-and I hate Mondays.

Cool Beans!

Check this out!
All made with beans! And go poke around this website to see what he has done with other legumes and household trash.

Luv Ya!

Just got home from a movie. I don't usually like so-called "action films", but this one was quirky and no one had American accents ( a major plus). We went to see The Bank Job . This was based on a true story from a heist back in the early 70's in London. Crisply paced and very authentic in the sets and clothing, it brought to mind the ongoing corruption that has plagued many large (and small) cities including police, politicians (ya reading this Kwame?) and even those often considered above the law (Royals and a wanna be Washington bush king). Interesting flick-not my usual style but would look at this one again. B+. And to top it off, Eggplant pizza from Uno's! Yum-o!!

So take your plain old white card and ink the edges with a pink chalk color. Cut a textured brown piece and set aside. Take a striped piece of card stock (a tad smaller than the brown piece) and cut it on the diagonal. Do the same for a textured creamy piece or similar to match a light color in your striped piece. Save those extra diagonals to make another card or for later punching.

I used a stamp from Great Impressions on the cream and stamped a few times using the pink chalk color. Here it looks like it frames the punched circle. The punched circle was part of a full sheet of circles that my punch fit perfectly. I also punched a scalloped circle a bit larger and layered them. Before attaching the two diagonals, tape together to butt on the back and then use the Trio runner along the seam front, run a piece of print word ribbon leaving a bit over the ends for tucking. Place the completed piece on the brown and then tuck the ribbon ends and tape on the back. Or you can cut to be even. Layer this all and add the circles with pop dots.

To finish up, stamp your phrase on the lower right in brown or sepia dye ink. Pink and brown seems so 60's to me. My favorite outfit was a one piece jumpsuit with huge pockets on the front. My best friend had the same outfit and we always were mistaken for twins with long straight hair and gap teeth. So Peggy, this is for you. Hard to believe I haven't seen you in 30 years. Hope your Irish is still showing on the 17th. Luv ya!

Three Hearts

So we got no snow (I think John should retire) but it's very very cold. I had to go to Target to get a new tray for my silverware drawer (the old green one we bought at St. Vinnie's about 35 years ago for a dime-so got my money's worth. It cracked across the bottom). I Nearly blew over withthe 30MPH wind. I got a new tray from Rubbermaid but it won't snap together (it's expandable) so it goes back tomorrow. I saw a Micheal Graves metal one I really like but I would need two and they are 16 bucks a piece. So not gonna happen. This Rubbermaid one was 20 and I almost put it back-well, I guess I am putting it back, 'cause it's sucky and cheaply made. I need to go to Costco, so maybe there will be something nice-or I can console myself with a ton of other junk. I have my Costco rebate of 76.00 (gives you an idea of how much I spend at the warehouse).

I am still uploading Valentine's-just am not in the mood for Easter so early. Usually, the week after Easter (or about Boston Marathon time) I go hunting for plants and plan my summer garden, but I have a lot to repair this spring, like moving the brick wall so the dumb dog can't trash it anymore. So a ton of Hostas to rescue, too. (I don't want to think about it right now, it will make me cry all the work I have ahead).

So this card started out with a regular white folded A2 size that I distressed the edges . I then added a piece of pattered embossed paper from Best Creations. This company has some of the prettiest, glitteriest papers out there-takes all the work out of it and makes cards come together fast. Nicer is that the paper is so much less than most charge for similar styles and it's thick, too. So I edged the ends in some chalky ink and attached to the front. On a scrap of white shimmer paper, I stamped three hearts with a stamp with some inside designs on it, the middle one is a different color. I used chalk inks for this. Heat set and then using the pattern inside the heart stamp to figure out where you want to use a glitter pen or a Spica pen to highlight. Very shimmery all around.

Add this finished piece to another scrap of textured card stock that compliments the colors in your background paper and inks. Pop dot this piece on the right front and then tuck a scrap of pretty ribbon on the left side underneath. Please ignore where I drooled on the bottom of the stamped heart piece. I tend to get weirded out late at night and didn't see it was wet until the next day after I photographed the piece. Add character, ya think?

PJ Party

More snow on the way for the weekend. Anyone interested in bunking for the weekend? I am so over winter and snow and sunlessness. Please wake me when it's over.

Google Reader is Acting Up

Several of the feeds I get are not updating correctly. Instead I am getting similarly named ones in their place. Instead of rubber stamping, I am getting bike racing. I un-subbed, and re-subbed over and over to no avail. So I have no idea if I will ever get back the good ones. I really don't care about bike fenders or quality of the dirt track. I care about ink.

ETA-I contacted Typepad because it was all their feeds that were affected and here is their response.

Hi Jan,Thank you for contacting us. This was related to a temporary issue on our end that has since been fixed. We apologize for the problem.Thanks,Colleen TypePad Technical ServicesSix Apart, Ltd.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Thank You

I gotta tell ya-I am disappointed. No takers for a free cookbook. Either ya'll don't like cookbooks :( or ya'll are vegetarians :). Ya like my best Britney speak there? Hasn't the world calmed down a bit since her mom and dad stepped in (finally)? I wonder if the newest rumor is true tho-and if it is, may her former "manager" rot in hell. I wish her well, and if only it would give a few others a clue (Lohan, Hilton etc-parents who throw their kids to the wolves for a bite of a paycheck) that with the rewards often comes a lot of pain. If you still want a cookbook, let me know by reading the previous post.

So I am on a curve kick. I made this card a few days ago using the same curvy template across the front. This card started with a textured base to which I attached a printed piece I distressed in brown ink. I found a large circle flower die cut on clearance a while back and used it here. It was pre-fuzzed, so I didn't have to make a mess doing it myself. I then cut the curvy piece, and centered a rub on. Before attaching, I added a small brad at each side and placed the pop dots under them on the backside.

A Question-

So I am getting ready to send out some surprise packages again and I got to wondering--would any of you who signed up for my list in January like a small pocket size cookbook? You see, I did what I didn't think I would ever do. I thinned my cookbook collection (gulp!). Anything that had recipes for the non-human creatures that I love, I set them aside. Some of them may go on EBay as they are collectibles, but I had about 20 or so of these hard cover ones, many of them ethnic that are small and would easily tuck into a small package. Now you all know who signed up a while back here and I am happy to take more names too, but I have two packages to send this week, so let me know what you think. Otherwise, they go to Goodwill for their annual book sale. Now if you are vegetarian or vegan, I won't send one to you if you let me know-check my other blog for yummy recipes once in a while. But the cookbooks I have are for omnivores at this time.

6 Pack

This is my lazy card. Pretty simple to figure it out. I do wish I had used a larger phrase stamp but I was not in the mood to search thru the bins. I am cleaning out my cupboards, sending items to Goodwill again. How many bowls could I possibly need? And why do I have a hamburger flipper when I don't eat hamburger?

Use a punch for the squares-any size will do and adjust your card size for them. Use up scraps and have fun with this. Another punch for the flower and then a brad before gluing. Hopefully, you won't wrinkle your paper like I did. I am off to bed-kinda disappointed that we got no snow today after scaring the bee-jeebers out of me and I stayed home-for nothing! At least it would have covered up all the ugly grey stuff out there. I really need some sun-some yellow for my days. Anybody got some extra yellow?

Wrapped In Love

So are all you Midwesterners ready for another "snow event"? The county has run out of salt, the schools have used up their "act of god" days. We set a record for February in inches and are close to the season record. The season has almost 3 weeks to go-and up to nine inches are due by Wednesday. But as a life long Michigander, I have seen snow in these parts in June. I am sick of it all.

ETA-nothing so far-and it looks to be tracking south. Hmmm.

I managed not to make a mess of this card considering the disarray my kitchen is in-I am re-arranging the cabinets as a prelude to actually tearing them out. I need to get an idea of what I need or want. So I made this a few days ago. No one gets married anymore. I think I know why, too. It's easier to walk away when you have no strings-you can always buy more pots and towels. It's the stocks, real estate and kids that are hard to divide up.

So scraps again. Plain card base with two pieces (one print, one card stock) overlapped and a strip in the middle with brads attached before you tape it down. Nothing to show thru to mar the interior. Stamp a phrase on white and distress the edges. Layer on a slightly larger piece also distressed. And layer again. Before pop dotting the whole she-bang, take a hank of iridescent ribbon and middle it on the lower left, wind around the back and come out on front-tie into a pretty bow. Very elegant and easy to change colors for theme.

Free Help

For the last few days, so many bloggers have been posting they are getting Forbidden 403 instead of a regular feed. There are several reasons why but instead of crabbing about it, why not fix it? I am here to recommend that anyone with a Blogger account sign up for this group. There are lots of wise helpers here and lots of info about the 403 postings. Use the search box and if you can't find an answer, post a question and they will help you. I had a dickens of a time for two months with my spell check. It was found to be a known issue and is now a-ok. So go check it out. You might learn something.

Invisible-That's Me

Your Superpower Should Be Invisibility

You are stealth, complex, and creative. You never face problems head on. Instead, you rely on your craftiness to get your way. A mystery to others, you thrive on being a little misunderstood. You happily work behind the scenes... because there's nothing better than a sneak attack! Why you would be a good superhero: You're so sly, no one would notice... not even your best friends Your biggest problem as a superhero: Missing out on all of the glory that visible superheroes get

What Should Your Superpower Be?

Thanks So Much!

I went to visit my daughter in Lansing today. I have had a Jones for Bibimbab ( wonderful Korean dish served in a hot stone bowl) for a few weeks, so we hit up Charlie Kang's . This was after checking out a couple of places for my Fenugreek. We tried Dusty's Cellar, which has a small gourmet market. Nothing there other than some coffee barbecue rub from this company and a huge bag of bottle caps in the beer making supplies. Now I don't have to pay the scrap book store prices for them to do this . And I have enough to share!

I finally found the Fenugreek at a place called Foods For Living in Okemos east of the MSU campus. They sell bulk spices and honestly, even with my trusty spice and herb manual, I still don't know what a lot of them are for. But I got almost a whole spice jar full for 95 cents! Woo hoo! I also found some brown rice syrup to use in place of honey (which I never eat) and some french lentils (so different from green or red ones). I am still in search of Marmite and Tamarind paste. I eat weird. But nothing dies either.

So here is a quickie. The tiny tag was all I stamped but I did edge my pieces in distress ink. Again, mostly scraps from the bins, and this would be a cool card to make up with other patterned word-like paper. I have seen quite a few of them recently especially KI and Reminisce. I am going to bed and my hands smell like Fenugreek (kinda curried) and Allison, I have read the different ways herbs and spices work with the body (altho I never knew about the milk stimulation bit). I always have cinnamon here for upset tummies and my gramma swore by ginger for the same thing. I also chew on parsley for bad breath. Maybe we need to go back to basics more instead of always popping a pill for something.