A Wandering Mind...

I am truly enjoying my snow swirled set.  It's SO versatile!  I made this card after seeing this card.  Now, I came across that card while blog hopping the other night, was suddenly struck with the idea to try it with snow swirled and got right to stamping.  I originally wanted to start with mellow moss...but I was all out.  So, I tried old olive...but wasn't really lovin' it with the kraft, and I was determined to keep the kraft.  I decided to try pacific point and started stamping, lost almost all sight of the original card and came up with this.  All the stamping is in whisper white and I took the pic under a lamp in the living room at about 10 pm, so it's not a great rendition...but I like it.

stamps: snow swirled, everyday flexible phrases; cardstock: pacific point, kraft; ink: whisper white craft; fiber: hemp twine; tools: word window, 1 3/8" circle and ticket corner punches, coluzzle, sponge dauber; other: dimensionals

I'm a giver...

Today started out like any other Friday...doin' my work...makin' my calls...when *BAM* I found myself volunteering to fill a last minute opening for today's Red Cross blood drive at work.  The request was simple "We have a couple openings in this mornings donor schedule."  I didn't even realize what I was doing until after my email was sent...4 seemingly innocent words..."I can take one"...and I was committed.  Now, I'm sure you think I'm being a bit over dramatic, but up until today, aside from a vial here and there for my doctor, I'd never given blood before!  I signed up for a blood mobile in high school once, but got sick before I could make it to my appointment...but I digress...

After answering their questionnaire, which, by the way, is rather involved.  I had a bit of a wait and then up on the table.  Now, I've had bad experiences with nurses who like to go fishing for veins that simply don't want to be caught.  So, when Nurse kept pushing my right arm for a vein, I started getting nervous.  Ok, lets try the left...no?  right? no? hey, Other Nurse, come here...is that a vein?  They ended up using a blood pressure cuff as a tourniquet...but it worked.

When I was done Nurse and Other Nurse said "wow, you did great!" (yeah, they new I was a first-timer, haha)  I was surprised to be done so soon, so I asked how long it usually takes to fill a pint...8-10 minutes...you know how long it took me??  7.5!

So, anyway.  I now have 2 very nice stickers and a picture by cell phone, courtesy of a co-worker, that I'll be adding to my scrapbook journal.  This is me with Tammy, co-worker, stamping friend and blood-donation-moral-support.  Thanks, Tammy!!

I gave...did you?

More Birthdays

Wanted to share a couple birthday cards I made a while back for some of Kristina's color challenges.

This first is very outside my usual style, but I'm really happy with the result.  I think this may be the most layers I've ever used on a card. haha  I used the stamp-a-ma-jig quite a bit.  The cupcake is popped up with a dimensional and there is dazzling diamonds on the icing.  I used stazon ink to 

color the vintage brads black.

I also decorated the inside.  The small cupcake is from short and sweet, which is one of my favorite sets. 

Enjoy birthday: enjoy every moment, everyday flexible phrases, it's your birthday (retired) and short & sweet stamp sets; ruby red, basic gray, river rock (retired) classic and stazon ink pads; ruby red, basic gray, basic black, river rock (retired) and whisper white cardstock; dazzling diamonds; aquapainters; SAMJ; vintage brads

On this second card I used my markers to color in the flower from True Friend before stamping.  When I saw that rose was one of the colors, I knew I'd be using this DSP.  I have such a hard time using sage shadow, so this was a good stretch for me.

Flower birthday: true friend and it's your birthday (retired stamp sets; regal rose, rose red and sage shadow markers; sage shadow and basic black classic ink pads; regal rose, rose red, and sage shadow card stock; rose red prints desiger series paper (retired); 5/8" regal rose grosgrain ribbon; dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Stamping!!

Random Technical and Fun Stuff

Just wanted to share some random stuff from the web:

1. A great big thanks to Amanda, one of my SCS sisters, for pointing me in the direction of this wonderful post teaching me how to add that third column. I've gazed longingly at others' third columns for ages and now I know the secret. What do you think of the new layout?

2. The other day I discovered wordle through another blog...which, for the life of me I can't find...isn't that always the way?? Wordle is a site that takes any text you give it and creates a graphic showing the most used words prominently. You can then change the font, layout, and color scheme. Anyway, I decided to take the feed from my blog and plug it in to see what I got. Well, here's the "I've Been Inking Wordle".

3. Check out Babble...a wonderfully addictive online word game. It's like a cross between scrabble and boggle. And you can chat with other players for tips and hints. So great!!

4. A shameless plug for one of my favorite non-stamping blogs ... written by my best friend. Naomi's writing sytle is highly amusing, and her boys are hilarious. And, yes, it's all true. haha Trust me, I've seen it!! She's been rather quiet lately. She's got a lot on her plate right now launching her gluten-free flour business. Just amazing. Enjoy!!

Now it's your turn. What are some of your recent crazy online finds or favorite haunts?? Please share!

(Edited to add: Here's the Linda Heller's husband's blog where I first heard about wordle...thanks, Carmen!!)