Coming soon...

I recently found out that one of my best friends from high school is pregnant! So super exciting since he's a honeymoon baby. This is the card I made for them...


I don't know what the onesie is but the duck is from River City Rubberworks. I used snippets from the Willamette Week to do the lettering.

Challenge #8

This challenge is to make a card for an odd day of celebration. I am representing Turkey Lover's Month... that's June. The turkey is obviously happy because it's not being eaten... I love turkey because they're good to eat so I will celebrate Turkey Lover's Month for sure!

A super quick card made with A Muse stamps from clear holiday set.

Paperdoll's Stamping Extravaganza!

Paperdoll, my absolute favorite stamping/craft shop will be hosting A-Muse-A-Palooza! It's the second annual event put on by the stamp company A Muse, and Paperdoll was selected as the only host in the Portland Metro area! They'll have *all* A Muse stamps plus the newest stamps for 2008! I hear the Halloween and Christmas stamps are particularly adorable.

So, mark your calendars for July 10-14 and head on over to Paperdoll at 7909 SE Stark St. here in P-town to have some super-duper stamping craziness! They're having card-making classes all week and a couple free ones too! You can call to see when these events are happening... 503.408.6867 or click on the schedule below! Cheers!

Babies being born!!!

I found two articles on Yahoo News that announced the births of two rare animals.

A female giant manta ray was born at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium on Saturday. This is the first manta birth in captivity. According to the Japanese sources, "the baby manta, rolled up like a tube, came sliding out of the mother manta, then quickly spread its fins and began swimming around." Her wing-span was recorded to be 6 feet wide. The baby manta's mother was pregnant for 374 days! Yay for adult and baby rays! See the article here.

The aquarium was featured on a Discovery Channel program and is the second largest in the world. They are probably most popular for their tank with surviving whale sharks. Sounds cool and hopefully I can go someday! I love aquariums... I've been to quite a few around the world.

My favorite is the Maui Ocean Center, not because I'm from there; they have scalloped hammer head sharks, green turtles, and a great array of aquatic life, including amazing corals. They also have a tiger shark! When I saw it coming straight at me through the glass I had a 'sense of impending doom' as they call it in EMS. It wasn't like the others and instilled fear in me immediately. It turned and I recognized it right away. I like sharks so it was an exhilarating scary experience. I also like the Seattle aquarium. The aquarium in Melbourne, VIC, Australia was cool... they have the leafy sea dragon seahorse thing because they're only found off the of western and southern coasts of Oz! Oregon's in Newport is okay, but I usually go when the weather's not the nicest. Honestly though, not my fav. The one in Boston was neat; it was one of the first in it's style. I think the aquarium on Oahu (Waikiki) was designed after Boston. I'm sure I've been to more but I can't think of them...

An endangered turtle, Sacalia bealei, was born at the Tennessee Aquarium. This adorable little reptile is called a "Beal's four-eyed turtle, named for two white spots on the back of its head that look like a pair of eyes, hatched from a clutch of three eggs. The turtle weighed 0.21 ounces and was 1.52 inches long when it hatched June 9." There are only 18 of these turtles in the world. Their population was decimated in their native lands in Asia because they're apparently tasty and have medicinal properties. Read about this little dude here. Look at his little claws and adorable tail! I want one!

Seaglass and Lilac

Hey! I made some cards a couple of nights ago. I got four new Color Box cat eye inkpads. Seaglass, lilac, orange and fresh green. I found that seaglass and lilac look pretty good together so I made a few cards with that color scheme. I also got new clear stamps from Craft Warehouse because they were on sale. They're the wavy, curly, viney ones from Technique Tuesday. It's cool because you can bend the clear stamps so some of the curlies have more of a curve than others. The bird is one of two of my first stamps that I ever bought; it's from Cats Life Press, another one of my fav stamp companies.




This last one I made last and although it didn't turn out as I had imagined, I think it's okay. I used Martha Stewart clear letter stamps. It sucks getting them off the backing and they're not all cut properly so I had to take an exacto knife to them. Oh well, it was MUCH less expensive than other brands and I like the small size of the font. Hope you like my cards!

Glitter Challenge

Here's my entry for A Muse's glitter challenge. Not too much glitter, but I like it that way... (it's on the steam). A Muse wavy background stamp, big block, and sentiment. Yum, coffee...

Opposites Attract

Here's a picture of my fridge. I like magnets... so I made two yesterday as I was procrastinating (got my homework done tonight).

FYI the GWB card says on the outside: "I have three little words for you" inside: "Thank You"... I have a Mr. T 1-800-COLLECT magnet from college that says "Call yo' mama". A couple of plaster of paris Care Bears from my childhood, a "your anger makes me happy" bunny magnet (Eddie's absolute favorite), New England Aquarium: Boston penguin, Oregon Humane Society, "Mr. Brewski says 'beer is good'" sticker, magnet that Martha made for me in college, a Hawaii gecko, a "don't hurry me, I'm on Hawaiian time" turtle, Nebraska chicken on a farm, five japanese alien thingies, an echidna crossing, an "all biggots will be reincarnated as gay, homeless people of color" pin and an encouragement magnet from a staff person at Pacific University for my graduation.


Here are the two... The crab is embossed in silver and says "shake a stick at it for your protection". I love that one but don't know how to use it on a card. The second is my favorite bird stamp. It's embossed in queen's gold and standing of a 'branch'. The bird says "chirp". Not too fancy but I am enjoying them.


You can also see a bit of my favorite post card sent to me by Oxfam Unwrapped (International) telling me that they have great new gifts that I can give to people that will really go to someone else in the world. Check out their site, it's great (there's also a link on my sidebar). I got my dad manure for the most recent Christmas and my parents got a cow the prior Christmas. When I'm working, I might buy a teacher or bathrooms... They also started to send magnets (fancy that) with pictures of the item to the recipient. So my parents have a magnet of manure on their fridge. There's also a new American Oxfam site so you don't have to convert pounds to US dollars and pay the extra international credit card fee. They're selling a crocodile for only $50!

Oh! You can also see my echidna crossing magnet! Yay for echidnas! Don't run over them...

Happiness is a cup of coffee...

Hey! Here's my entry for the A Muse-A-Palooza challenge #6... embossing. You can't really see it but the Cafe and sentiment (both A Muse) are embossed. I stamped in black and embossed in clear since I don't yet have black embossing powder (on my to-purchase list).

I started off with the idea of a mellow cafe but went crazy with color! I love the colors now because it reminds me of Pambiche, a Cuban restaurant in Portland. Mmmmm... I want a nice cappuccino and maduros.

Bird x3

Hey all! I have a few more cards to post. I made these last weekend. This first one, I made during my card-making day with Martha. We went to Paperdoll for some inspiration before starting and she bought the bike. I got the dog (Patch), fence, and bird (masked from bird line, see Father's day card) that day too. Paperdoll got a bunch of new A Muse stamps recently and they were being sold quick! All stamps including the sentiment are A Muse stamps. I colored with Prismacolor pens, a Gellyroll Glaze pen, and Faber-Castell PITT artist pen.


The next card was a test. I stamped with a new Martha Stewart bird stamp and colored in with Kol-I-Noor pencils. I suck at blending colors. The sentiment is a masked Savvy stamp on a regular tag attached with a hemp cord.


Basically the same thing as above; a Martha Stewart bird colored in with pencils. Sentiment (happy birdie to you) is from A Muse. Flower brads and organza ribbon make this card a little more fun. I found out here that cutting a scalloped circular-like object is quite difficult. I think it looks pretty okay though. Let me know what you think. Cheers!

Response to Crystal

So, Crystal asked "If you were a manakin, what would you be wearing and doing after store hours?"

This is my response:

I would be wearing...



and



with



...the bling, not the dude or his hairy chest...

Echidnas! I love them!

Being sneaky...


Crossing the river...


Rolled up for protection!


Eating food with it's long sticky tongue. Echidnas are insectivores.

Father's Day Card

Here's a card I made for Eddie's dad. They used to have chickens and live in the country. I colored with my Koh-I-Noor pencils. The chickens are actually the A Muse bird line; I just added the little head and neck thingy to them. I think the pig is Cavalini and the sentiment is Anna Griffin. Don't know about the barn... Cheers!