A Teeny, Tiny Little Mouse

One of the new sets from The Alley Way Stamps includes this cute little mouse.  I really wanted to use him but I just wasn't having any brainstorms.  So, as usual, I started flipping through the current challenges.  First I saw Freshly Made Sketches - and it was a great fit because the cute little mouse comes with a tag and the sketch includes a shape in the corner!!  But I was still stuck.  Then I got to Inkspirational and saw the colors were "slate" (a mouse color), "pink" (a nose color) and "banana" (a perfect accent).  I so love challenges!!

I am guessing that the good people at Inkspirational had thought they would see a little more pink on the cards.  But I have to tell you that originally I only had a pink nose.  Then because it just didn't seem like enough for the challenge, I came up with the idea of dots so one could be pink - and I LOVE them!!

My plan for this is a baby card - but my husband just snorted when I said I was adding something like "Welcome, Little One" - he didn't think anybody would want to welcome a mouse!!  Then I suggested a cute sentiment from a different TAWS set.  The set is All About You and the sentiment says "Everything little thing is going to be alright."  My husband snorted twice at that and said that no one with a mouse wanted it be alright.

So I have absolutely no idea what this card will be used for!? 

But that little mouse is still pretty darn cute!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Tag-Alongs
• Paper: Stampin' Up Bordering Blue (long retired) and a long-ago pattern in So Saffron
• Ink: Memento black and Copics, Stampin' Up So Saffron
• Accessories: Timeless Twine Cape Cod, white Candi Dots colored with Copics

It's FUSION time!!

If you are a bloglovin' user - be sure to read to the bottom of this post.

There's an amazing new challenge hosted by the amazing duo of Jackie Rockwell and Lesley Croghan who between them have started so many top challenge blogs, it's hard to list them all - CAS(E) this Sketch, Dynamic Duos, Muse, Freshly Made Sketches - and more!!

This challenge is called Fusion and you can use the sketch, the inspiration or both!  If this week's combo is a good sample of what's to come - this is going to be FUN!

I absolutely had to make a card for my son before he got up this morning and headed out to take a big test that he is very nervous about.  So I was tied into a masculine card and couldn't use the flowers in Lesley's photo - but I did use two of the bright colors!

I thought the graphic squares gave a video game impression, thus the sentiment.  Hopefully my son is not so literal that he things I'm actually talking about a "game"!?
The interest in this card does not show up well in the photo.  Here's a close-up of the dimension.

I am definitely looking forward to being a regular player in this challenge.

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Square Prints, Boy Basics Game On
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow, Poppy and Orange
• Accessories: misc square punches and various heights of pop dots

Now a totally different subject.  As I have been posting about Google Reader, etc., a number of people have come to me for help and advice.  I love that because I am total geek and I love trying to track things down.  
First - I have written so many words, that I think I have not effectively communicated something very important.
If you didn't use Google Reader to read your blogs,  you are absolutely NOT affected by its loss. You will NOT lose followers. You do NOT need to add anything to your blog. Your blog will go on as usual!!!
But one of the recent problems shared with me is concerning - hopefully just a little concerning, but I really don't know....
A WARNING FOR BLOGLOVIN' USERS:
A fellow blogger was getting reports that bloglovin' users were not getting her blog updates and she came to me wondering what she had to sign up for at bloglovin' so that people who read her blog could keep reading her.  The answer is "nothing".  
Bloglovin' is used by readers of blogs to collect a list of their favorite blogs and then bloglovin' nicely tells them when those blogs have a new post.  It absolutely doesn't matter whether their favorite blogs are signed up for bloglovin' or not.  That's a definite fact and proof is that I signed up for bloglovin' to test this lady's problem and the day I signed up, I already had 69 people following me there - I did NOT need to be in bloglovin' to collect those followers.
But there appears to be something broken in bloglovin'.  When people try to add this lady's blog, it says NOT FOUND.  I am very concerned about people who simply moved everything all at once from Google Reader - I don't know if they even got a warning.  All I know is that her blog didn't make it over.  There is nothing unique about her blog - she uses blogger, and Google Reader and Feedly find her - I don't believe the problem is at her end.
Even more concerning is the fact that they have a problem form specifically for this issue - so it is NOT a one-time thing.  And what really annoys me, is that I submitted her blog as a problem days ago and I still haven't heard back.
I'll let you know when I finally hear - but in the meantime, if you have moved to bloglovin' - you really might want to check that all of your favorites are still there.
ON OTHER HAND:
Keep in mind that Google Reader users are moving by the millions to other blog readers.  Feedly reports 3 million new users in 2 weeks.  These blog reader companies are scrambling.  Not to mention the minor little detail that none of them will actually work when Google Reader dies as they were developed as a pretty front-end to Google Reader, using Reader's functionality - they have just a few months to program it all.  We have to have a little patience.  Feedly is pumping out updates as fast as they can.  They aren't all good - I'm definitely having some visual hiccups on my iPad Feedly after the last update. 
But knowing this doesn't help my friend with her bloglovin' problem.  We have to figure out how to get her in and then the bigger task is how to let people know that bloglovin' lost her!! I'm hoping it is all working for you!!
{There's a label on my sidebar near the top of the list - Feedly/bloglovin/Google Reader - that yu can click on if you want detailed information}

BE Re-Inspired with TAWS

Last week was the start of a new BE Inspired challenge by The Alley Way Stamps, with this sweet collage of images.

It's my job this week to RE-Inspire you so that you play along.  If you don't have any images by The Alley Way Stamps, they have made digi freebies for you here.

In general, I am a fairly rigid challenge player.  This photo has pink and yellow and it has polka dots - so that's what I use.  But not today.  I'm not even sure that I can tell you what happened - I was looking for pink and yellow papers; I stumbled on this piece of floral; and it was utterly perfect for my image of the card.  So I truly was inspired, I'm just not sure you can tell!  (It does have the natural look of the spring scenes and the wood table!!!)

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Life is Short
• Paper: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Pebbles Walnut Grove (floral), Simple Stories Snap Color Vibe (stripe)
• Ink: Stampin' Up Early Espresso
• Accessories: Taylored Expressions Silhouette Stems 3 die, Stampin' Up Early Espresso Taffeta, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

CAS(E) this Sketch! Get Well

This is my second post today.  

"Something wonderful"is just a post away.

First...I just have to say that I have a problem with the sentiment "get well".  It just seems so demanding..."get well - now!"  As if the recipient has a choice??!!   So I was cringing the entire time I was finishing this card, but I painted myself in a corner with that tag.  I needed a get well card but I didn't have teeny-tiny, less demanding sentiment.

OK...now that I got that off of my shoulders...it's time for a new sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch!

So many options!!  If you check out the design team, you will find that some used the tag - but you'll also see butterflies, vases and a few streaks and blobs of paint.  It really is quite amazing to see how a group of people use a sketch.  That's why I also love when you play along because I get to see them all!!

Here's my card.  The tag became a fence, but I did also add a little tag on my fence!


Hope to see you play along!

iPad Users: The iPad/iPod tab at the top of my page has been updated.  Mostly just removing a lot fo clutter so it's much easier to use now!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Little Bitty Bird and Little Bitty Bird Additions, Tiny Tags II
• Paper: Papertrey Simply Chartreuse, Summer Sunrise, Berry Sorbet, Simon Says Stamp Woodgrain Cardstock
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Simply Chartreuse, Smokey Shadow
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink dies: Little Bitty Bird and Little Bitty Bird Additions, Tiny Tags, misc leaf punch, Doodlebug Designs twine, white embossing powder

Something Wonderful with twine

The current challenge at Catered Crop is "Twine Love" and I do love twine!  It's so versatile - for my card today, I let it take center stage to highlight this "wonderful" sentiment!  But it works just as easily to tie a button - or to add a simple strip across a card for that little accent that makes it perfect.

If you have not played along, Catered Crop is a great challenge.  It runs for two weeks.  On the first week, Linda has a Pinterest inspiration board for the theme, so you can get lots of ideas just by seeing what she has pinned.  (This week's twine board includes bacon out of twine!!?)  But if the inspiration board isn't quite enough to get you started, on the second week, the design team posts their take on the challenge.  So you get LOTS of inspiration out of a single challenge!

Pinterest: Twine Love

And something wonderful has happened for me - I get to start designing for them!! You'll be seeing lots more from me - and I hope I inspire you to check it out and play along!
The sentiment is from a new set by The Alley Way Stamps - I love what it says.  This set is full of unique sayings that are different from anything that I already own.
And, yes, this is two days in a row that I jumped on the sequin trend!!

iPad Users: The iPad/iPod tab at the top of my page has been updated.  Mostly just removing a lot of clutter so it's much easier to use now!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Life Is Short
• Paper: white
• Ink: Memento black
• Accessories: The Twinery Tangerine and Caribbean, Timeless Twine Lemonade Yellow, Sequins are a mixed package from the Etsy Shop Endless Inkabilities, Stampin' Up diagonal score board

Cheer UP with Casology

There is nothing new about this card - you've definitely seen it all before because I jumped on every trend out there.   Die cut letters on a shelf, baker's twine, scallops and even sequins!  The only thing that I didn't use, that I would have used had I owned what I thought I owned(!), is a wood veneer arrow for the up part.

I am playing along with this week's CASology Cue Card: Up.  I was a little worried about whether the sentiment was obvious, so I asked my fairly clueless husband and he didn't even hesitate before he said "cheer up...but it has too much bling" (that's his usual analysis of my cards - my clean, simple, basic cards!!)  I also added a little scallop to the "shelf" because I am always inspired by the challenges at Less Is More!



I really wasn't going to jump on the sequin trend.  I had myself totally talked out of it when I realized that the stores/brands carrying the really nice sequins had each color bagged separately.  I would have had to spend $60 and owned about 5,000 sequins to get a complete collection from any of these stores - because, you know, I have to have complete collections!  I do like some of the cards that I have been seeing, so I popped into Etsy and found some collections of iridescent, metallic and satin sequins at Endless Inkabilities - just enough in a bag so that I could play along with the trend!

iPad Users: The iPad/iPod tab at the top of my page has been updated.  Mostly just removing a lot of clutter - but it's MUCH easier to use!

An Amusing Google Reader Update: Just a reminder that I defined the situation here (no, you won't lose your followers) and I gave a tutorial on Feedly here (my choice for a Google Reader replacement).
Feedly is now saying they have 3,000,000 new users.  Wow!  And the other service being used by cardmakers is bloglovin' - you can't read card blogs without seeing the button popping up.
It really makes me wonder what Google was thinking when they canned the Reader.  And I'm not the only one who thinks that.  Last week, Google announced a new note-taking tool called "Keep".  Tech bloggers and news people are warning against it.  One headline said "Google Keep just went live, and watching the media warn people about it is remarkable".  Other techie people have said it might even be better than what's already out there, but they say "fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me" - they won't use it because they had been Google Reader users and no longer trust Google.
The big flaw that Google missed is that they not only annoyed a legion of crafts and cardmakers (!), they killed something that was used loyally by techies and journalists - the same people that they need to promote their products.  One techie blogger said, "It's a public relations nightmare that I'm sure is being discussed in a dimly lit office right now."
(This all has nothing to do with cardmaking and I'm sure none of you care - but I'm currently in a marketing class - and this whole move violates Marketing 101 - so I have been following in fascination!  Thanks for listening!)

• Stamps: none!
• Paper: Papertrey Hibiscus Burst CS, Simple Stories dsp
• Ink: none!
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Headline Alphabet and Get to the Point dies, Trendy Twine Tinkled Pink, Stampin' Up scallop border, sequins from Endless Inkabilities

I Feel So Blessed

It was SUCH a busy week and weekend.  The kids were off on spring break last week, but my college courses didn't take a break.  And as a church musician there are always extra rehearsals, practice and lots and lots of Easter services!!

My youngest drug me to a movie that I didn't think that I had any interest in seeing.  It's already been in the theaters so we went to a secondary theater that also served food.  I am so glad he took me because it has to be the most amazing movie that I have ever seen.  I know that I am late to this one, but if you haven't seen "Life of Pi" find a way to do it - preferably on a big screen.  We did not see 3D - it gives me a headache - but even in 2D the visuals were stunning!

I am planning on a major cardmaking day tomorrow when my kids are all back to school and I've found a way to kick my husband out during the day!  But I couldn't let this morning pass without getting a little inky.  I wanted to play in the Dynamic Duos challenge because I just haven't used Primrose enough!  And I wanted to make a thank you for a special far-away friend that I almost never see, but she never fails to remember a big event nor even the little day-to-day happenings.  So I'll also submit this to CAS on Sunday.

Just last week, I finally broke down and got the Paper Smooches set Reflections.  I love everything that I have seen with it.  I finally went for it when they came out with coordinating dies.  I almost changed my mind when I realized there were THREE sets of dies which made it quite pricey.  But this card came together so quickly and easily that I'm thrilled to own it!



Just a note on the colors - the Dynamic Duos challenge is Primrose plus one other color - I used True Thyme - a long-retired Stampin' Up color.  The other color is River Rock and I double-checked their rules and River Rock is considered a neutral - it doesn't count!  I've always thought River Rock and True Thyme were a perfect pairing!

• Stamps: Paper Smooches Reflections and Spiritual Sampler
• Paper: Stampin' Up Primrose Petals and True Thyme
• Ink: Stampin' Up Primrose Petals, True Thyme, River Rock
• Accessories: Paper Smooches reflections dies