Let's do the citrus twist

Hubby loves lemons. In fact, he loves just about anything sour. So, when you start telling him "When life gives you lemons" you don't have to finish the saying since he does it for you with a "when are we expecting delivery already?". He also delights is sucking all the juice from lemon or lime slices used to adorn drinks or lemon wedges accompanying fish and chips - straight. Yeah...it makes me screw up my face just thinking about it.

So, when I saw the new Tart & Tangy stamp set in the upcoming Stampin' Up! Spring Mini catalogue, I immediately thought of Hubby. And what makes me think of Hubby, I have to buy. And hey! I'm not saying that I need constant reminders of him...or that I don't need constant reminders either. Gee, that was surprisingly tricky to manoeuvre. Hmmmm...let's just say that things reminding me of Hubby make me smile.

The following card uses the Rock 'n Roll technique to imbue the limes with a darker coloured rind. The limes in the background have been embossed for added interest. Unfortunately, the embossing is not that obvious in the first photo so I've posted a second picture from a different angle.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Basic Black
Gable Green
Glorious Green
VersaMark

Stamps:
Tart & Tangy set
Short & Sweet set

Cardstock:
Gable Green
Glorious Green
Whisper White
Accessories:
1 1/4" Circle Punch
Clear Embossing Powder
Corner Rounder
Heat and Stick Powder
Heat Tool
Mat Pack
Scallop Punch
Stampin' Dimensionals
Stampin' Glitter

I'll have seconds

Our recent trip to China was awesome. But, now that I think about it, I realise that it was very food-centric. Sure we did lots of sight-seeing but that was just to whet our appetites for the main events - lunch and dinner! I suppose it is an indication of where my family's priorities lie, in general.

If you could overhear our descriptions of our trip, it would probably sound like this...
Friend: So, how was your trip to China?
Family: It was great! It started off badly, though, since we got a little ripped off by the tourist guide who recommended a Peking Duck that cost 10 times more that what we could get in Wangfujing.
Friend: Uh huh. And what did you see there?
Family: We went on some private tours to see the Forbidden City ...
Another family member: Don't bore them with the details - who cares what we saw? Just talk about the most important bits! The food was awful on those tours ... touristy all-you-can-choke-on buffets ... Yeah! DON'T go on tours - do it yourself, you'll eat much better.
Friend: Ok... did you climb the Great Wall?
Family: Sure did! The best part was when we got to the bottom and relaxed with a cold bottle of Coca Cola and went back to the hutong for a great dinner...This place was fantastic. Authentic food, and did we say it was sooooo cheap?!

This scrapbook page, the second to be posted on this blog, has the first picture that we took in China ... which was of our first meal in Beijing. See? I wasn't joking about our priorities. I've used a few items from the, as yet, unlaunched Stampin' Up! Spring Mini. The little polka-dot ribbon is attached to some hidden journalling which details what we ate (rivetting and top-secret¹ stuff!). Quickutz Chopsticks font was used for the title.

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Groovy Guava
Real Red
VersaMark

Stamps:
Canvas Background
One of a Kind set

Paper:
Groovy Guava CS
Only Orange Textured CS
Real Red CS
River Rock CS
Summer Picnic DSP
Whisper White CS

Accessories:
Basic Eyelets
Boho Blossoms Punch
Crop-A-Dile
Fire Circle Rhinestones
Glue Dots
Mat Pack
Pretties Kit
Stampin' Dimensionals
Stampin' Write Journaler

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1. This is sooooo top-secret that only people with access to the internet can read it!

Memories, like the photo corners of my mind

It's about time that I posted a scrapbook page on this blog! Actually, it's about time I completed a scrapbook page full stop. It is kinda funny but I resumed papercrafting in the last few years because of scrapbooking. I accumulated lots and lots of scrapbooking stuff because the variety and loveliness of embellishments and pretty paper were mind boggling and the concept of journalling, meaningful. It also helped that this is one papercraft where you keep the results without any guilt!

Of course, there's always a catch. For me, it was the lack of photographs. I had many digital pictures of loved ones and special events but no printer. I could have gotten the pictures printed but I suppose inertia got the better of me and I used the stash to make cards instead.

Well, I don't have any excuses now (except, perhaps, the Stampertitis and a lack of talent). I recently purchased a colour printer and received some free photo paper just yesterday! It's a sign and it says "Make a heap of scrap!" So, here is the bottom of my pile:

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Chocolate Chip
Real Red
So Saffron
VersaMark

Stamps:
Artfully Asian set
Defining Alphabet set
In the Spotlight set
Symbols of Solicitude set
Totally Tabs set

Cardstock:
Close to Cocoa
Naturals Ivory
Old Olive Textured
River Rock
Whisper White

Accessories:
Corner Rounder Punch
Fire Circle Rhinestone
Five Petal Flower Punch
Glue Dots
Pretties Kit
Rounded Tab Punch
SNAIL
Sponge Daubers
Stampin' Write Journaler

The picture was taken by Hubby while we were in the Old Town of Lijiang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in China. The town is a marvellous place to wander around in - so much colour and character in the people and the distinctive buildings. One of the highlights is to see the red lanterns lit up at night. Ah! Memories...

Stampertitis

Did you think it was possible?

Remember how I said that I was really busy crafting? Just to prove that I wasn't resorting to hyperbole, it turns out that I was too busy crafting and I'm now suffering from tendonitis in my right wrist, a condition known as DeQuervain's tenosynovitis! I much prefer to use the terms "Stamper's Wrist" or "Stampertitis". Wouldn't it be cool if stampers everywhere had a medical condition named after us? It'd be the closest that I'd come to being an athlete. Anyway, I suspect that my case has been caused by being too crafty too soon. *sigh* Not enough wrist training before launching into a career of stamping...

The following card has been made with a minimum of stamping but lots of Stampin' Up! supplies and love [Hey Robert! I hope that you had a great birthday!]. I used the Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet die for Robert's name and a "make a wish" rub-on from me & my big ideas.
Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Brilliant Blue
Wild Wasabi

Stamps:
Cheers and Wishes set

Paper:
Brilliant Blue Prints DSP
Jersey Shore DSP
Pumpkin Pie Cardstock

Accessories:
Anywhere Glue
Bold Brights Buttons
Glue Dots
Light Blue Gingham Ribbon

As for my Stampertitis, I'm supposed to give my wrist a rest for three weeks. Three weeks without crafts?! No way! I'll just have to come up with creative ways to continue stamping without using my right hand ...like using my left hand! My physiotherapist looked at Hubby when she suggested trying other options. Hmmmmm...think of stamping as your creative hobby hubby. I like that.

It's the thaw that counts

Hasn't it been chilly in Sydney recently? The last couple of days have brought some relief in the form of warmer afternoons. I can tell this because when I sit at my keyboard, I'm not completely distracted by my frozen unresponsive fingers. The cold does nothing for the creative process since the more I compose, the more I'd have to type - and that means the painful cajoling of my fingers.

Mind: 'T'.
Left forefinger: Huh?
Mind: Type the letter 'T'.
Left forefinger: Are you kidding me? Do you realise how cold it is? *shiver*
Mind: Never you mind. Just hit that 'T' key.
Left forefinger: Nevermind?! Just...?! *splutter* Let me re-mind you...you're encased in a cosy temperature controlled environment. I, on the other hand, er..I mean this one, am freezing my joints off! Go away and let me huddle in the warmth of this pocket.
Mind: Come on! Just this teeny weeny exertion. No pain, no gain and all that.
Left forefinger: Hmmph! I'm warning you...if you don't leave me alone...
Mind: For goodness' sake! Move, I say, move!
Left forefinger: That's it! I'm rolling out the big guns. Wake up, bro! Time to rumble! Do your thing!
Left middle finger: Huh?
Left forefinger: You know! Stand up...Give mind the bird!
Left middle finger: Are you kidding me? Do you realise how cold it is? *shiver*

The following card represents very well what my mind and fingers have on cold days like those (hint: check out the sentiment on the card). The colours: Ballet Blue, Not Quite Navy, Pink Passion, Really Rust and Soft Sky, were chosen by Kari as her second challenge to us for the INKlings cyberstamp. It was a tough one! No pain, no gain...now, where did I hear this recently?

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Ballet Blue
Not Quite Navy
Pink Passion
Really Rust
Soft Sky

Stamps:
Boho Backgrounds set
Cheers and Wishes set
En Français background

Cardstock:
Naturals Ivory
Soft Sky

Accessories:
1" and 1 1/4" Circle Punches
Glue Dots
Pretties Kit
Scallop Punch
Soft Sky Double-Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon
Sponge Daubers
Stampin' Dimensionals

And the winner is...

I guess these awards are a little inverted. Instead of an academy voting for one winner, it is an acad-a ME¹ voting for multiple winners! That, plus the fact that the winners don't get to take home a golden statue and shmooze with glamorous people at the after-party...or increase their income potential by ten-fold.

However, all those provisos do not diminish the inspiration that the following bloggers provide to me and, I imagine, to lots of you out there in the blogosphere.

The category, Arte y Pico is granted to "Wow. The Best Art. Over the top" blogs. The rules for this award:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) To show these rules.

So, many thanks to Sam for the honour and the baton! The envelope please! *drum roll* And the winners for best art (as in Over The Top! Wow!) on their blog:

Carol Dunstan for Inkantations & Incarnations
Jayne Mercer for {Me}...and my thought!
Marcia Pringle for The Stamp Spot
Kylie Swain for Blossom Designs
Teneale Williams even though hers is not a blog and she probably can't play along with the award as a consequence!

The next category is the Brillante Weblog award. This is awarded to blogs on the basis of an excellent theme and/or design. I've reinterpreted the rules that came out of the Google-transmangulator:
1. Upon receiving the award, post a link to the blog awarding it to you.

2. Name and post the links of 7 or more blogs that you believe are noteworthy for their theme and/or design. Notify the blog authors of their award.

3. Optional. You can choose to post the award on your blog.

So, thank you very muchly to Marcia for the honour and this baton! *drum roll* And the winners for best theme/design blogs are:

belle for Ooh, Look...", an Arte y Pico recipient whose blog features the most scrumptious foodie shots and some great crafts too.
Rachel Capps for her pretty and incredibly embellished projects.
Alana Galagher (who has already received an Arte y Pico award but I'm not sure if she knows this...) for her amazing cards and scrapbook pages.
Kari Hughes for her lovely and diverse range of creations including tremendous photos of her little boy.
Sue Madex for Madex Creations whose upbeat blog features great photos of gorgeous children and pulchritudinous works.
Angela Sargeant for her fantastic all-round blog that is informative, entertaining and features fabulous papercrafts too!
Beth Stewart for Bethinking, whose beautiful and heartwarming scrapbook pages capture the joy of family.
The Stamping Gals for Stamping Links to Love which has links to a huge variety of fabulous tutorials.
Vivian Swain for Florida Stampin' with Vivian for her generosity in sharing her Blog Finds of the Day and Featured Stamper of the Week.
Joanna Wassens for Stampin with Joanna, for her terrific range of tips, techniques and lovely cards.

There are quite a few more that I would love to link to but I have to leave some sites for the recipients to link to. Check all the links out and enjoy! I do!

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1. Charges of currying favour or nepotism will be hotly contested, strenuously batted away and...subsequently admitted to since there is no recourse anyway! Ha ha!

Kari Favour

It certainly has been a week of papercrafting for me with hardly any time left for blogging or, even, blog lapping (as Sue Madex funnily punnily puts it). To start it all off: the INKlings monthly cyberstamp on Saturday night - a series of challenges set by the lovely Kari Hughes. First up was a pyramid favour box, to be made in a colour of my choice with the proviso that it be a colour that I rarely use. *sigh* I'd almost rather that it be a colour selected by someone else since there would be chance of it NOT being Really Rust.

I've tried to contemplate why I struggle with Really Rust. Is it because it is reddy-orange? Isn't just being orangey enough to put me off? Is it because I don't like rust or tetanus shots? Let me tell you that I find this rather disappointing since I considered myself an equal opportunity colourist. All colours are created equal. Unfortunately, though, some colours are in harmony with a greater number of colours than others.

Hmmmmmmm...so does that mean that it's not really me, after all.... that it's really Really Rust?! Needless to say, such ruminations get in the way of productivity and this was the only challenge that I finished on the night. I knew I didn't like Really Rust for a reason...
Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Brocade Blue
Groovy Guava
Really Rust

Stamps:
Baroque Border wheel
Baroque Motifs set

Cardstock:
Naturals Ivory

Accessories:
Crop-A-Dile
Earth Elements Eyelets
Bluebird Grosgrain
Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain
Sponge Daubers

Did you notice the generational stamping with a wheel?

If you love Really Rust, please help me to appreciate it too by commenting on the reasons why one should lust Really Rust. Kari, thank you for an excellent challenge!

I'd like to thank the Academy but...

"I'd like to thank the Academy" must be the most used blog title ever! So, I thought I would add in the "but..." for originality *lame grin*

Seriously though, it is not the Academy that I would like to thank but rather:


the very impressive Marcia Pringle (whose amazing range of gorgeous papercrafts is always a sight to behold) for the Brillante Weblog Premio-2008






and the talented Sam of Ryemilan's Stamping and Scrapbooking, whose bold and beautiful creations are always so enjoyable, for the Arte y Pico.







Thank you most kindly, ladies. It is a completely unexpected surprise and I really appreciate the gesture.

With such honour, comes great responsibility...which is to choose others to receive these awards.¹ I will do so soon along with each award's "heritage"².

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1. Of course, bribes in large sums of unmarked bills will be considered.
2. Rules, if you must!

Training day

Yesterday was a training day for Jayne's INKlings. As with all training days (and I do love them), I start with a bleary-eyed stumble for the train and regret immediately the fact that hubby and I stayed up until 2am watching two "just another half-an-hour" episodes of Two-And-A-Half-Men.

I think that trains are great! Especially now that Cityrail has improved its track record by significantly reducing its services in September 2005. I much prefer a predictable albeit less frequent train schedule since you can, at least, plan for a connecting train (something I've had to do quite a bit since most of Jayne's team are Northeners). I did benefit at the time, however, from the previous erratic train service since I could always say "the train..." when I got into work late and my manager would look sympathetically at me and wave me in without me having to finish the sentence. Ah! For the good ol' days. I'm sure that nostalgia has fooled me into thinking that I used this excuse successfully more than once.

As for the training, what an amazing day of card-making at Beth's lovely place! We each brought a Card in a Box and I spent an intense four hours assembling eight diverse and fabulous cards designed and provisioned by everyone else. Thank you, INKlings!

Here is my contribution - I had some spare supplies left over from the session and made my card again since the original had misaligned flourishes and was inadvertently signed with a couple of my fingerprints. I also snuck a few non-SU! brads on this one:
Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Blue Bayou
Chocolate Chip
River Rock

Stamps:
En Français background
Frames with a Flourish set
Oh, So Lovely set (Hostess)
Simple Delights kit (Simply Sent)

Cardstock:
Blue Bayou
Naturals Ivory
River Rock

Accessories:
Sponge Daubers
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

Mille grazie

Or a thousand thanks. That's what I would like to say to the kind ladies who have shared my envelope tutorial posts with others and to the new guests who came to have a peek. Given my limited sleuthing, I know that the following list is not definitive but many thanks to (in alphabetical order):
Madex Creations
PaperFriendly
Ryemilan's Stamping & Scrapbooking
Stamping Links to Love
The Stamp Spot
They are all great blogs so please check out the ones that you didn't come from. If you were referred from somewhere else, please let me know so that I can return the favour!

Speaking of a thousand thanks, I've also felt like I've recently made a thousand thank you cards. Sadly, though, when I actually counted them, they only numbered nine. Nine - a number so small that, by convention, should be spelt out rather than be represented in arabic numerals! I really admire those with the discipline and perseverance to make hundreds of the same card. After three, I'm already itching for a new colour...after five, a new design...after seven, another family block of chocolate in a new flavour...after nine, a new existence! Skip the existence bit - life is great *grin* Not looking forward to the impact of the blocks of chocolate on the waistline though.

So, here, is the evolution of my thank you cards - dedicated to those mentioned above:
Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Blue Bayou
Whisper White Craft
Stamp sets:
Spring Solitude bundle
Cardstock:
Blue Bayou
Whisper White
Accessories:
3/16″ Corner Rounder Punch
Blue Bayou Double-Stitched Grosgrain
Sponge Daubers

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Groovy Guava
Whisper White Craft
Stamp sets:
Spring Solitude bundle
Cardstock:
Groovy Guava
Whisper White
Accessories:
3/16″ Corner Rounder Punch
Groovy Guava Double-Stitched Grosgrain
Sponge Daubers

Stampin' Supplies
Ink:
Purely Pomegranate
Whisper White Craft
Stamp sets:
Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Spring Solitude bundle
Cardstock:
Purely Pomegranate
River Rock
Whisper White
Accessories:
3/16″ Corner Rounder Punch
Cutter Kit
Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Grosgrain

Stamp up to the plate

Welcome to July and the opportunity to be a fully kitted out, craft-stuff-toting Stampin' Up!^® demonstrator for $25 less that you would be able to normally. The yada yada is here but look at what you get:

Yeah! It is lots of stuff! And not just any stuff - it's the good stuff ... the Stampin' Up! stuff. Over $560 for only $299, plus 20% off all future Stampin' Up! merchandise.

And the really great thing is that you can customise your kit (see the yada yada for details).

And the really, really great thing is that if you sign up with me, we'll do this Stampin' Up! joyride together. OK ... I admit that that would be really, really great for me.

Normally, the starter kit is already an excellent deal. With the extra $25 saving, you can spend it on another stamp set such Sprinkles, Mostly Flowers or Birthday Best (remember you would save 20% on the RRP) and still have a little to spare. Or you could just save it in your piggy bank - it's totally up to you!

The Stampin' Up! Super Starter Kit Savings promotion ends on August 15, 2008 - paperwork must be postmarked by 15 August to qualify for this offer. Please don't leave it to the last minute just in case there is an issue with getting an ABN and you miss out.

PS. If you act quickly enough, you can combine this offer with the Extra, Extra Hostess promotion for even better value. Place your first workshop order as hostess and demonstrator by July 15 to earn 30% of the workshop total as income and if the workshop exceeds $700, get $50 worth of additional products for free.