I've been to Hell

to be exact, Cania, the icy eighth of the nine hells of Baator..and back! To be really exact, I've just finished playing Hordes of the Underdark, a computer role-playing game. Here's a Wikipedia definition for CRPG that'd put you through at least two levels of the nine should you choose to read the whole entry. After a near total immersion in the game as an epic² monk, travelling through tortuous freezing climes (fairly approximated by sitting at my computer during these cold days and nights), helping the wretched and battling evil with my bare fists³, on completion of those adventures, I am now suffering decompression.

I am sure many of you would have gone through this condition - it comes upon you lightly when you have watched a wonderfully absorbing movie or hits you like a freight train (or, for RPGers, a Heavy Flail + 10 wielded by a weapons master wearing a Belt of Storm Giant Strength) when you've finished reading the final instalment of a much loved fantasy series. It is particularly heart-wrenching if you've fallen in love with one of the characters. Twilight readers - you know what I'm talking about! Real life suddenly seems like just an opportunity to seek out ways to prolong the experience ... Google the characters, discuss the story to the nth degree with other passionate fans, relive moments in the adventure and, quite possibly, dream about the one that you are most attached too. In other words, do anything to defer the sadness that comes from the end of something that strangely felt special even though it existed only in our imaginations.

I guess it will take a little time for me to mentally pack away by my magical bags of holding and say farewell to my preferred One True Love after I ended up with two from alternate scenarios. Luckily, I had Hubby asking me to leave the computer to keep him company last night - an important reminder of the reality that was worth surfacing for.

Speaking of Hell, I designed the following card for a INKlings Card in a Box training session. A few of the team found making this card rather hellish since a standard wheel can be tough to control at times⁴. The card is deceptively difficult since there are no OFFERs (Opportunities-For-Further-Embellishment Recovery) - there are no layers or embellishments with which to hide a mistake! As the card featured my Marker Over technique, I made copies of it for Convention swaps *wave to Megan*

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Certainly Celery
Chocolate Chip

Stamp sets:
Funky Forest wheel
Occasional Greetings

Cardstock:
Whisper White

Accessories:
Earth Elements Markers
Mat Pack

---

1. Hordes of the Underdark^TM is an expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights.
2. Epic - a character that has reached the 21st level for those of you with some RPG interest.
3. Supplemented by the odd pair of magical gloves ... who am I kidding? Make it supplemented continually as soon as I got hold of the first pair...
4. Just like Valen suppressing his demonic taint while in Cania - I couldn't help slipping that in for anyone who has played Hordes of the Underdark.

More than a tea bag bag

The second challenge set by Fiona during last month's cyberchallenge was to make a super adorable bag from a template available through the Stampin' Up! Australia demonstrators' website. Have a squizz at her very fresh and pretty version. I think the bag is awesome but it really needed some space to be more versatile. As it was, I could only imagine it being a bag to put tea bags in. I mean how much tea can a tea bag bag bag if a tea bag bag could bag tea??! In short, not much!

So, I adjusted the template a little to add some depth to the top flap and now it fits more tea to a 'T' ... or should that be fits to a 'T' more tea ... anyway ...

The top flap now also accommodates a teensy (possibly tea-nsy handle). I've found grosgrain ribbons work well but in this prototype I splurged on some pretteas ... um ... pretties! Isn't it a cu-tea? More like a cue for me to tee-off!

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Tangerine Tango

Stamp sets:
Trendy Trees

Paper:
Haiku DSP
Tangerine Tango CS
Very Vanilla CS

Accessories:
Earth Elements Brads
Felt Fusion
Linen Thread
Paper Snips
Pretties Kit
Word Window Punch

Ain't nothing gonna break-a my str...uh, will do

Here I was hoping that June would be the month to get on top of things. I had Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride" playing in my head:

What song would anyone want more to get the blood pumping and the body moving and to bolster's one's will? OK...The "Rocky" anthem "Eye of the Tiger" would be an exception but I reckon that this song is boppier and doesn't make me feel guilty for skipping the sprints up stairs.

And yet, this blog has been woefully neglected and my newsletter is still fighting with "Break My Stride" - ie for my attention, inside my head, constantly drowned out by synthesisers and a litany of "never met a girl like you...Have to say - Oh!"

Currently, I'm placing the blame on the fact that our TV went poof! and left me with nothing to ignore whilst trying to do some crafting. This coupled with the really cold weather that has me in Michelin-man attire, constantly running to warm myself in front of the fridge...and interruptions to do other things.

Anyway, there's nothing quite like a cyberstamp to give me a shove in the right direction. This month's INKlings set of challenges was hosted by the very lovely Fiona Brown. Her first was based on the sketch clean & simple stamping FTL 44. Not much stamping but lots of cramping cutting for my attempt. It also features one of my favourite things at the moment which is making glittery brads from Supernova glitter, mini glue dots and plain ol' brads. The wide grograin ribbon knot finally found its home on this card after sitting neglected (and in the way, at times!) since December last year when I first tied it into existence.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Tangerine Tango

Stamp sets:
More Thoughts Simply Sent Kit

Paper:
Haiku DSP
Old Olive CS
So Saffron CS
Tangerine Tango CS
Very Vanilla CS

Accessories:
Mini Glue Dots
Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon
Paper Snips
Stampin' Dimensionals
Stampin' Write Marker in Old Olive
Supernova Fine Glitter
Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon

Two Step Stamp-A-Ma-Jigging

I'm sure many of you will already use vellum sheets in place of the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig's reusable imaging sheet. Another advantage of using vellum sheets is that you can create composite images on them ... which is the answer to my Tricksy Trendy Trees troubles.

Stamp all four foliage images on a vellum sheet.

I mark the corners of the vellum sheet with an "L" to mark the short and long sides of my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. This informs users of the sheet as to how to orient my SAMJ in relation to the sheet.

Stamp the corresponding trunk in the desired position onto the vellum sheet using an imaging sheet and Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I recommend using a lighter ink colour so that you will easily recognise that the vellum guide is for the foliage.

You can now use the vellum guide to stamp some foliage with full knowledge of where their trunks will end up when they are eventually stamped.

So, here are all the trees complete with their trunks evenly spaced and in a straight line. Yay!

Those Tricksy Trendy Trees

I promised my newsletter readers that I would post a tutorial this month...and boy! am I cutting it fine! But here it is.

Stampin' Up! included the very cool Trendy Trees stamp set in our Convention bags this year. Whilst this is a terrific set as it is versatile and sports a couple of great sentiments, it is also really tricky to use. This is especially true if you are a liner-upper even-spacer nut like me.

When I first used Trendy Trees, I had the following experience:
I spaced out my trees using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig based on the foliage. I lined up the tops of the first two trees and left the rightmost one a little lower as I could play with its trunk height.
Then I added the trunks using my SAMJ and...Wha? The trunks are all over the place instead of being lined up. That just won't do! I'll have to line up the trunks instead!
I drew a line so that there'd be no mistake in the trunks being stamped in a row and used a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig for insurance. Admiring the neatly spaced tree trunks, I felt rather chuffed.
I then stamp the foliage and, to my horror, the foliage overlapped. Nooo you Tricksy Trendy Trees! May it be winter forever so that your branches remain bare and I never have to deal with this ever again! *sob*

Hmmmm... so what to do?

Lin Mei's May Maybe Malaise

That about sums up my May. Maybe or maybe not. Mostly maybe not...maybe. If I keep this up, "maybe" is not going to look correctly spelt and this post may just end up on the list of maybes. Yup! That's done it ... "maybe" looks completely wrong now. Maybee it needs an extra "e"... Not! *sigh*

I hosted this month's INKlings Cyberstamp and, being a little stamped out after Convention swaps, nominated as the first challenge to make a card that featured Designer Series Paper mainly. With this month's DSP promotion, I was feeling like I could actually USE my DSP for once as there's still time to buy more on sale if I really messed up...

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
VersaMark

Stamp sets:
More Thoughts

Paper:
Pink Flamingo DSP
Piroutte Pink
White copy

Accessories:
Felt Fusion Too
Heat Tool
Ice Circle RS Brads
Oval Punch
Pink Piroutte Striped Grosgrain Ribbon
Small Oval Punch
White Embossing Powder

Too late for Mother's Day

this year...Maybe I'll keep it for next year!

I made this card using Dani's colour challenge of Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip and Taken with Teal last month. It features my new Marker Over technique - it's new 'cos I've made up a name for it. It involves using a Stampin' Write Marker to accent parts of an image after it has been stamped which is great for jazzing up mono-coloured wheels. You can even add accents of your own ... like dots. I used this terrific (if I may say so myself) technique for my Convention swaps too!

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Certainly Celery

Stamp sets:
Bella's Border
Occasional Greetings

Cardstock:
Baja Breeze
Certainly Celery
Whisper White

Accessories:
Certainly Celery Grosgrain Ribbon
Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon
Filigree Designer Brads
Flower Fusion Too
Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads
Stampin' Write Markers Chocolate Chip, Taken with Teal and Tempting Turquoise

I'm not here, I'm stampin'

ETA: I'm back!

Yes! I'm happily stampin' at the Stampin Up! Australia Convention right now. This scheduled post just makes it look like I busily typed away and hit the submit button today. Amazing, huh?!

So why is this being in two places at once going on? I wanted to let all my wonderful customers know that there is a Stampin' Up! May promotion. Buy any three packs of the following selected Designer Series paper for the RRP of $16.95 each and get one FREE!

Item Number	Page	Description
112042	132	Urban Garden Designer Series paper
112470	132	Haiku Designer Series paper
113976	132	Pink Flamingo Designer Series paper
112468	132	Sweet Always Designer Series paper
113992	133	Tea Party Designer Series paper
113975	133	Raspberry Tart Designer Series paper
113966	134	Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series paper
112469	134	Holiday Treasures Designer Series paper
112041	134	Bella Rose Designer Series paper
113974	134	Bella Bleu Designer Series paper
113978	135	Urban Oasis Designer Series paper
112461	135	Washington Apple Designer Series paper
112039	135	Windsor Knot Designer Series paper
113980	135	Candy Lane Designer Series paper

There is also a terrific Scrapbooking Starter Kit promotion for those who are interested in joining Stampin' Up! without the normal outlay and want to start out with a stash of scrapbooking products. For $150, the kit contains:

Item Number	Description	Retail Value
112231	Schoolbook Serif Alphabet stamp set	$77.95
113059	Simply Scrappin' Petal Party	$36.95
108697	Earth Elements Assorted 12" x 12" Textured CS	$21.95
105216	Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad	$11.95
103179	Craft & Rubber Scissors	$37.95

Each of the products listed above may be substituted for like items.

The Scrapbooking Starter Kit also contains all the business supplies contained in the standard Starter Kit:

• Getting Started DVD


• Getting Started Guide


• Guest Invitation Postcard (100)


• Idea Book & Catalogue (8)


• To My Hostess Envelope (10)


• Project Sample Sheet


• Recruit Brochures (20)


• Hostess Brochure (20)


• Hostess Benefits Form (10)


• Customer Order Form (50)