A Week of Challenges, day two

Back again with another challenge card -- this time for the Play Date Cafe. Here's the inspiration image:

While this set of colors would indeed make for a cool Halloween card, I went birthday instead:

This tag is for my mom, who has a birthday coming up later this week. She always gets tags, because she like to hang them all up in one of their kitchen windows. Cute!  Another special fact about this card: it uses all stamps that she and my dad (who are we kidding -- she does the shopping in their house!) got me for my birthday a few weeks ago. She picked well!! The stamps are from a couple of the Studio Calico by Hero Arts sets that I've been drooling over at Scrappy Chic. My eyeballs see the challenge colors as lime (A.Muse studio ink), Purely Pomegranate (old SU), and Dusty Concord (Distress), paired with black and some Honeydew twine (the Twinery)

Ooh, how about a bonus tag! This one is also for my mom, who is a huge Detroit Red Wings fan (Huge, people. It's scary):

I stuck it in her mailbox as a surprise last week, when the official hockey season kicked off. The stickers are from my stash, the octopus is from Paperworks and gets pulled out once a year just for this purpose ;). The back of the tag reads "Go Wings!" Yep, she liked it.

I have a bit of bad news, too -- my dad, who might not do the shopping but instead is self-employed as an awesome all-around fixer/painter/renovator/Bill-of-all-trades, just got his work truck stolen. With all his tools and equipment inside. From the street in front of their house. And insurance won't cover the loss. Boo!! That really stinks. I'd like to help him out somehow, but I think he won't take assistance from his own child, y'know? Any tips for sneaking Home Depot gift cards into his pocket or paintbrushes into his mailbox are welcome!

Anywho, if you'd like to play along with these colors, the challenge closes at the end of the day today. Happy creating, and have a lovely day!

A Week of Challenges, day one

Hi all!

It's been awhile since I've played along with any of the fabulous challenges out there in blogland, so I decided to try to hit up a bunch of them, especially since I had a ton (a TON) of cards to make (mostly thank you cards) and very little mojo to make them with.

I think challenges are a great way to spark creativity...so away we go!

This first card is actually for a ColourQ challenge that expired, but I thought the colors were intriguing and way outside of my usual palette, so I gave it a whirl anyway:

Lavender-ish colors aren't usually my bag, but I thought this was actually really pretty! I find that when one part of a design (here, the colors) is tricky for me to work with, I compensate by relying on an oldie-but-goodie layout. Here's what I came up with:

Well, when a color is "pear pizazz," why not start with a pear? This one is from Unity's September Kit of the Month, All Seasons. I stamped it on watercolor paper and then used a water pen to blend the leaves a bit. Yes, I actually fussy-cut something! I replaced Wisteria Wonder with the now-retired Almost Amethyst and stamped my houndstooth bg, and added hits of chocolate and black in the sentiment, bling, ribbon, and mat. Layout-wise, I heavily leaned on the rule of thirds, a long-time go-to for me.

This particular card will go to my aunt, who sent me a birthday gift and has always loved purple. Score!

This is but one of a whole bunch of cards I have for you this week -- I may even {gasp!} blog daily! Wish me luck. ;)

Have a lovely day!

ETA: Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! May you eat well!

mini me.

Hi there!
Time to share that mini I've mentioned a couple of times. It's my first "real" mini, the first one I've made just for us. I love it. Making it made me happy -- I loved the challenge of working on a smaller canvas, making choices about products and trying to find a sense of flow from page to page. Fun times. Wanna see it? Ok:

It's the front cover! Woohoo! I used a Maya Rd. chipboard album -- it's shaped like a picket fence, but since I didn't use the die-cut-to-more-obviously-represent-a-picket-fence page, it just looks like an arched rectangle-y thing, which is just fine with me. The tags on the ring are mostly from We R's travel line from a couple months ago, as are most of the photo mats and about half the background papers. The front tag is an actual Amtrak luggage tag I grabbed from the station. Other elements that run through the album: Basic Grey basics papers and mini alphas. A Martha Stewart skyline border punch. Distress Stain splats. Stamps from Teresa Collins's travel line. On we go:

click-a-roo to enlarge any of the photos.

In the interest of upload sanity, I collaged the interior-page photos and then numbered them for your convenience ;) Ephemera on the travel/lodging pages: our train tickets, hotel key, and CTA card (people in cities with good public transit, thank your lucky stars [and your bus drivers]). On the food pages: business card from the home of the most delicious waffle I've ever had...on three consecutive mornings; a chopstick wrapper, another business card [old-skool Italian this time]. I could've done the whole album on food, but that's been done before. I'd link you to my food album post, but the photos seem to have disappeared. Hmm....curious. Anyway, let's move on!

We went to Chicago in the first place for a concert -- a guy named Mark Kozelek (who is really good, and whom Andrew loves). We also had a day full of record store hopping. Ephemera on these pages: receipts and/or business cards from all the record stores we hit; the much-loved scrap of map I used to cross-reference where my phone map-app was telling us to go. If you can't read the text on the sign photos, feel free to click, enlarge, and chuckle a bit (if you're a nerd like me).  Up next:

Sorry the upper photos are kinda tiny. We went to the Museum of Contemporary Art since Andrew hadn't been there yet, and we've been to the big art museum several times. Ephemera about art: bits from the museum brochure. The exhibits were nifty! The back cover has my favorite photo from the trip (shh, don't tell Andrew).  Throughout, I typed my journaling on some Pink Paislee tickets from my stash, and added a few more notes on tiny-tags-in-envelopes from Melissa Frances. If you want any other specifics on products or places, just give me a holler.

Ah, what a great trip! This little album now lives on our bookshelf. I think I might be addicted -- I have another in the works right now!  Stay tuned...

...and have a lovely day!

Baby got BAK.

Well, if that Justin Bieber song didn't get stuck in your head after my last post, I sure bet you've got a song in your head now!!

I've always wondered why we crafty folk refer to the cards and other goodies we get in the mail as "RAKs" (Random Acts of Kindness) even when they aren't random at all! Recently I got some lovely cards for my birthday, which I shall hereafter refer to as "BAKs," or "Birthday Acts of Kindness." Sound good? Ok, on we go!

First, from Lindsey over at Bashful Blogging, comes this cheery Bird-day card:

Linds is a whiz with color, and I really love the pops of yellow all over the place. Plus, Linds knows I love a pun!! I haven't spied this one on her blog yet, but keep an eye out for it! (She also knows I love a good surprise!).

Next, a card from my birthday-sharing buddy Emily that makes me look way nicer than I actually am ;) :

Gorgeous! It uses my favorite shades of orange, pink, and green, along with those glorious wings, which I bet Em knows I'd never in a million years have the patience to fussy-cut at all, much less as perfectly as she did here. You can read more about it in her blog post here.

And finally, from my uber-creative-with-her-Silhouette pal, Meg, comes a card she knows I LOVE:

Ack! If you recognize this one, it's because it's kinda famous -- it was part of her amazing final round submission for Gallery Idol a couple months ago. You can see the whole rad suite here. And yep, the tape pops out:

Since my bday often falls on the first day of fall (as it did this year), this adds an air of poignance...or something ;)

Thanks for the BAKs, crafty pals! You made my birthday brighter. And a little more full of loot, too -- there were some fun stampy gifties that came along with each card! I'll be sure to let y'all know when I use them. Woohoo!

Have a lovely day!

Baby, baby, baby....

Is there an insidious Justin Bieber song stuck in your head now? Good.  Be lucky I don't believe in having music on my blog!

(Sidenote: one of my students {college students here, people} was wearing a Justin Bieber shirt today! One of her classmates pointed out: "Hey, aren't you older than he is?" Her response? "So? Hotness knows no age." It was funny, and only moderately creepy.)

Anyway, one line I got to work with this month is the adorably useful baby line from Simple Stories, Baby Steps. Their lines are amazingly well-coordinated and perfect for people who want pretty scrapbook pages in very little time -- their paper lines all include cut-apart elements that fit those handy divided page protectors...so I gave it a shot and made {gasp!} a two-page layout! Whoa.

click for a bigger view. Yes, that's my school desk calendar behind it ;) We take our photos when and where we can!

Aside from finding enough photos of my cutie-pie baby friend Sahana, this whole double layout took maybe 15 minutes. Score! The rose trim is adhered on top of the page protector, while the other accents are adhered to the panels inside. I used some smaller elements matted onto that pretty plaid pattern, along with some ribbon, brads, and letter stickers. Imagine how rewarding this kind of scrapping would be for beginners, or busy folks, or for gift books, for that matter.

Speaking of which, I discovered a whole extra page that I'd gotten but totally forgot to use, so I got to make a couple more projects -- these for a friend who is expecting. First, a quick card:

I paper-pieced a quick Papertrey cupcake with some scraps, plopped it on an extra cut-apart panel, added a button and a mat (perfect match for PTI's spring moss), and away we go! Here's the little memory book that accompanied it (yep, another mini-book!):

The cover features some faux stitching, twine from the Twinery, and a flat bow made from some scrap ribbon (flat=easy to mail). The inside is all made from just one 12x12 sheet of 4x6 elements, quickly stitched into the cover:

Plenty of room for photos and/or journaling, yet small enough to keep in a purse -- the mommy-to-be is not a scrapper but is a great photographer, so I bet it gets filled up pretty quickly! Speaking of quickly: another 15-minute project! Score. Here's my question for any mommas out there: would you actually fill this up, or would it sit in drawer somewhere until your kid turned 18 or something? Just curious ;)

So, there you have it: three quick and cute baby projects. One Bieber song stuck in your head.

Happy World Card Making Day, y'all -- I'll be doing all my making (card and otherwise) tomorrow at Scrappy Chic instead :)

Have a lovely, crafty kind of day.

A mini-book goes back to school.

Oh boy, there's so much fun paper stuff to play with right now! This month, my kit from Scrappy Chic had paper from eight (!) different lines -- about twice as much as a normal month. So I better get sharing, eh? First up, let's start with one of my new favorite projects: a mini book! This one happens to be blank, just waiting for some fun school-related photos and goodies. I'm not really partial to back to school lines usually, mostly because the only folks going back to school in the fall are my husband and I, and we call it "work"! But this line (from Fancy Pants), is just awesome....

See? Cute, right? This little guy measures about 6x3, and I made it following this tutorial from October Afternoon -- it was so easy! I altered the directions a little, making the cover wider than the inside pages and leaving the inside-cover flaps open, like a dust jacket. Here are some of the inside pages:

The bottoms of each pocket are stitched shut, and the pages are bound in by stitching as well, so this is pretty sturdy. I used some of the cut-apart cards to embellish the inside, along with a few circle-punched scraps and some stickers from Cosmo Cricket and Jillibean. I love those little pockets -- you could stuff them full of tickets or notes or other school ephemera. I wish I'd had one of these back in the day when everyone exchanged those little school pictures -- do kids still do that?  They'd look great here instead of stuffed in a desk drawer, which is where mine always ended up!

The sneaker print is probably my favorite :) Now, I used a different sheet of double-sided paper for each set of pages, but it would be just as easy to get two sets of pages from each 12x12 sheet, making this an extremely economical project! If sewing isn't your thing, a good strong adhesive or some staples would do the trick for binding as well. I'm thinking fun little holiday or baby or birthday gifts -- what a way to make a dent in my paper stash!

Let me know if you give it a whirl. In the meantime, you can see this in person at Scrappy Chic -- last time I checked, it was hanging out by the registers.

I have lots more for you, so expect some fairly regular blog posts until I'm all caught up. Also, I'm looking forward to making even more projects this weekend when I crop at Scrappy Chic with the lovely Liz -- if you're at the store on Sunday, stop by and say hi!

Have a lovely day....

Happy Birthday, times 2!

Well, happy Friday to all of you, and Happy Birthday to my crafty pal, Emily Leiphart!  Em, I hope you get to party down today!

Often, when I make a card that's going to be mailed right away, I jump the gun and get it all sealed up in an envelope before realizing I haven't taken any photos. Doh!  This isn't one of those times, luckily. 

other supplies: Unity and PTI stamps, SU inks, My Mind's Eye pp.

Can you tell I tried to channel my inner Emily on this one? Twinery twine, a mix of patterns, and I even {gasp!} colored that little party birdie! Ok, so I watercolored him, whereas Em is a Copic genius, but still.

[Speaking of that little bird, he's from a company new to me -- pictureshow stamps -- and he's actually their logo. Ain't he cute? I picked him up at a local stamp show, where they were selling tons and tons of images in mounted and unmounted versions. Their etsy shop only seems to sell mounted stamps, and a smaller variety, so if you are lucky enough to see their booth at a show, be sure to stop and browse.]

Ok then, back to business: Emily, I hope you have a fabulously crafty birthday!! I'm happy to be your stampy pal, and it's extra-special because we happen to be birthday buddies! That's right, it's my birthday too, and I'm already overwhelmed by all the birthday kindness that's come my way. I'll be sure to post some of my craftiest gifts from my craftiest pals soon.

Before I go, how about a cute cat photo for the first day of fall? It just so happens that our cats are perfectly coordinated for the season!

...dinner time is the only time they get this close to one another without any pouncing or growling, by the way ;). Don't they look like they're holding hands? Ha. Simon and Dex wish you a happy autumn, and so do I. Have a lovely day!!

I swear these pages are cute!

So, a few weeks ago I met up with some folks at Scrappy Chic to do a little cropping. I made a whole mini-book (more on that later), and then whipped up a couple of quick layouts near the end of the day. Since I used my design team goodies for those layouts, it seemed silly to take them home, photograph them, and then bring them all the way back to the store for display. I just snapped some photos right there on the table and then left the layouts behind. Turns out, that might not be the best idea -- fluorescent lighting plus iphone does not exactly equal stellar photography. Try to see beyond it, ok?

It might help that the photos feature the cutest kids I know, though!

click to enlarge...if you think it'll help!

Here's our godson, in the middle of asking one of about a million and a half questions, mostly about the bowling tournament that was on TV. After awhile, we (who know little about bowling to begin with) started giving silly and nonsensical answers, but he didn't mind :)

paper from imaginisce and my mind's eye; other goodies from ac, basic grey, and my stash.

The clickety-clack of a manual typewriter at a crop is always sure to spark everyone's "remember when" stories. Fun times.

The second one features photos from the same day, same kid, plus his little brother and some very messy ice cream!

ruby rock-it paper, fabulous stamp from suzanne carillo/art gone wild

I made a little journaling flag with a toothpick. I have a feeling I'll try that one again soon. Also, isn't that hanging-clouds stamp amazing? I love it. These days, a wood-mount stamp has to be pretty awesome for me to buy it (storage space issues and such), and this one definitely qualifies! (Got mine at Scrappy Chic, of course, but you can see it here if you scroll down a bit.)

By the way, if you happen to be local, Treat Dreams in Ferndale has amazing and well-made ice cream for the whole family! Blue whatever-that-is makes kids happy, but the salty caramel ice cream made me very happy. There's also a cute train table for kids to play at, which distracted these kiddos soon after the photos were snapped ;)

Friends with (cake) Flair Friday

Two posts in the same week? I must be getting my act together!

Today is Friends with Flair day over on the Unity blog -- be sure to head over there to see the great deal they have in store for you. I made the card below a couple weeks ago for the same gnome-loving friend from this post. I used a couple of KOMs (shouldn't that be KsOM?), along with the sketch for the September Kit of the Month Sketch Challenge, and came up with this:

(sorry about the slightly blurry photo -- getting used to nighttime project photography is taking some time!)

My gnome-loving friend is also a talented cake-baker-and-decorator, so I also whipped up some recipe cards to send along as well. The recipe card stamps and the arrow on the card are from August's kit, while the cake is from May.

I'm a lazy-butt colorer, so I went with some simple outlining and accenting, and added some rhinestones to the spots on the cake. Maybe my pal will be inspired for her next cake design! The fun, fun papers are from Echo Park's Happy Days 6x6 pad (from Scrappy Chic, of course). Love the retro-cheery feel and the gender/age versatility of this collection!

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back with some layouts and my newest scrappy venture: mini-books. Oh goody!

Have a lovely day.

got the no-bloggin' blues!

Well hey there, old pals!
I haven't blogged in, let's see here...two and a half weeks! That's just crazy.

I must say, while I have been making some things. I've also got the autumnal nesting bug -- cleaning the house, canning, baking, even (gasp!) weeding! Pair that with getting back into the swing of the school year (oh, and an adolescent kitten -- sheesh, Simon can be a pain in the cat-butt these days!), and the blog has been sadly neglected.

Anyone else with me? I've noticed some of my other regular reads have been a little quiet too....Of course, that hasn't kept me from getting behind on blog comments, too!

Anywho, how about a couple of quick cards to get back into the groove?

Here's one:

This is a quick Halloween card I made, currently on display at Scrappy Chic. I'm always drawn to fun Halloween products, which is silly since I don't really have much Halloween stuff to make or scrap. However, I couldn't resist the stuff you see here: Authentique's Halloween line (the 6x6 pad and die-cuts, specifically), and an uber-cute Hero Arts stamp set. I love that cat! Solid stamps like these are great for lazy stampers like me -- and they're already distressed-looking, making them a fine match for the paper line. There's a bit of May Arts ribbon there as well -- at about 40 cents a yard, how could I resist that one?

So, in short, I'm a sucker. But it's a cute card, no?

How about one more?

This is a dual-purpose card: it's a housewarming card for a pal of mine who moved from my town to one about an hour north of here -- sad to see them leave the 'hood, but I'm happy for her -- she used to drive almost two hours each way for work, and now she's way, way closer. Plus, we share a love of the film Amelie, so the gnome is especially appropriate.

The second purpose: it fits right in with my good stampy friend Emily's Moving Challenge -- she also just experienced a big move! In fact, I made her a card using the same house stamp from Unity -- you can see it in her post here.  The adorrrrable little gnome and sentiment are also from Unity -- I got the set at Scrappy Chic, in case you're local and want to indulge ;)

Ok, enough from me for now! I'll try to blog a bit more regularly -- there's a lot of scrappy goodness coming up soon! Have a lovely day.

Scrappy scraps and a sweet cat

Hello all!

Well, it's back-to-work time for me -- classes start tomorrow (I teach English at a community college). I can't believe summer's over, but I must say that it was a good one! Eventful enough to be memorable, but not so eventful that I felt busy all the time. Good stuff.

One thing I definitely got was plenty of quality cat time. One day, I was hanging out with Dex, and when I went to take a few self-portraits of the two of us, I ended up with this awesome lens flare...so I had to scrap it, of course!

I know you can edit photos to add an "artsy" lens flare, but it makes me happy that this one just occurred all on its own. I used some bits and bobs left over from another project here -- randomly-cut scraps of papers from Pretty Little Studio, a company that's new to Scrappy Chic. Their paper lines are 8x8, which is pretty unique, and they also make lots of cute tags and other paper accents -- like that train ticket on the layout.

To enhance the sunny photo, I used a canvas bloomer from Basic Grey, misted with the same yellow that's on the cardstock background, and enhanced with some little dewdrop/page pebble thingies. The nice long title is Amy Tangerine (sigh...love), and I stitched a bunch, both across the title stickers and around the photo.

Simple, easy, bright and fun. I sure hope my semester goes that way, too!  Have a lovely day.

Birthday Time!

Yes indeed, it was Mr. Cupboard's birthday this week! Now, normally I'd bake a cake for him (I do love to bake), but I happened to have a Groupon to a tasty local bakery...and this cake was tasty indeed! Cute, too -- cake decorating is a bit beyond me, mostly because my handwriting is so terrible! Anyway, birthdays mean cards, right? Here:

Yeah, that's a talking mixtape. Don't your mixtapes talk to you? ;)  Aside from the speech bubble, this is a one-layer card -- all those lovely straight lines made for some simple masking. The fabulous tape is a new addition to my collection -- I bought it locally here, but you can also order it directly from Yellow Owl Workshop (there's other cute stuff there!). The background stamps and sentiment are all PTI, and the bubble and the grosgrain embossing on it are fun My Favorite Things goodies. I also broke out a very old $1 Studio G alpha set for the names. Knew I was hanging on to it for something!

If you were wondering about the odd angle of the card in the first photo, well, let's just say Dex really wanted to be in the picture, so I let her hold the card open for me here ;)  I used some older We R Memory Keepers stamps on the inside, with another alpha and a heartfelt sentiment.

As for the birthday celebration, we spent some time with family, some time eating, some time shopping for music, and some time with a beer. Nice day!

Ah, well...school starts later this week, so that probably means I'll be a little cranky soon. I do love my job, but who doesn't love summers more, after all? Thank goodness for craftiness -- an excellent antidote to the back-to-school blues!

Enjoy your weekend! I have a roller derby bout to officiate tonight -- should be fun!

Who says summer is relaxing?

The past couple of weeks have been super-busy around here! Luckily, they've been fun-busy, not work-busy: a fun couple of days hanging out in my favorite city (that's Detroit, y'all) with my hubby to celebrate our anniversary earlier this month, followed by prepping my stuff for the yard sale at Scrappy Chic (where I did quite well, thank you very much), followed by canning a big batch of cherries (oh, the pitting!), followed by spending the past four days or so Up North with the fam, camping it up. Whew!

I have made some stuff in between, but I haven't taken the time to get photos up and ready for the ol' blog...so I guess it's time to catch up, eh? Today, I have a couple projects using my kit from Scrappy Chic.

Oh, look at that sweet little face! (And he's so much bigger than this now -- they grow so fast!) I think he deserves a layout, don't you? Ok!

Oh, Simon is just so cute. And photogenic. That husband of mine is pretty adorable, too, don't you think? ;)

This fabulous paper (reminds me of a modern version of an old quilt) and banner (which is self-adhesive, conveniently) are from possibly the cutest little-boy-but-also-good-for-lots-more line -- Paper Boy from Ruby Rock-it, a smallish Australian company. I love the colors, especially the bright pops of yellow, and I love that the line is just so versatile...of course, I went and made a little-boy-cat page anyway ;) (Just so you know, there's also a Paper Doll line that includes a fabulous lime green. Yum.)

Grounded my title with a little collage of October Afternoon label stickers (I will NOT hoard my stickers. I will NOT hoard my stickers...). I'd say that red "g" was an intentional design decision...but I was just out of orange. Looks jaunty, no?

This month, one of my crafting goals is to whip up a card whenever I make a layout -- I do always have leftovers, after all. So here's a super-quick one:

Same stickers, paper, border as above, with a bit of faux stitching for added flair. Done in five! Any other quick tips for stash-busting out there? I'd love to hear them!

Well then, there's probably plenty more news to share, but for now, I'll get back to being un-busy. Besides the laundry, of course...;P

Amy Tangerine: part two!

Like I said in my last post, I am finding this whole line pretty dang irresistible! Today I've got two projects made from the same piece of (really cool) paper. First, another simple layout: the second night of CHA there was this banquet dinner thing with a couple of bands (including a pretty dang good Abba cover band!), and in the corner was a photographer, a backdrop, and a table full of props. You'll get to see all three (!) of the photos we took together someday, but this one, the third, is definitely the best. Ain't we cute??

 Here's the thing about paper with premade stitching accents: usually, they suck for 8.5x11 scrappers...because they usually go around the border and I have to chop them off, making it awfully silly to pay extra for the stitching, don't you think? The cross-stitching here is cleverly placed in comparison :). I broke out my handy circle cutter for (surprise!) the circles, and added the black faux stitching with a pen. Take a closer look for a sec:

The bit between the rows of stitching is stamped with my new favorite camera stamp, and I colored in the hearts using quick 'n dirty gradient coloring -- I inked up a blender pen with some dye ink once, then colored my way down the line. The alphas are some older Basic Grey that happened to match perfectly. Sweet! So, if you're wondering why I scrap 8.5x11 rather than the more common 12x12, the answer is simple:

Leftovers! Trimming paper down for a layout always leaves me with a handy 3.5x12-inch strip, perfect for quick cards made with whatever supplies are already out. Here, it's the same stamp set, a bit of trim that was just sittin' there, givin' me the hairy eyeball, saying "use me already."I also used a fun little trick I learned in my Jen Starr ink class: if you just kinda pound the business end of a Distress Stain onto paper, it makes a near-perfect splat mark! To finish off the inside, I used more stamps from the same set:

(And another splat, too.) The paper on the inside is left over from my layout's journaling strips above. I'm so frugal!

You can see another layout made with the same stitched paper in this post -- you'll just have to scroll down a bit (below all the product pics). I think people sometimes balk at the stitching, but I'm really starting to dig having someone else do all that work for me ;)

Before I go, don't forget to go vote in the last round of Gallery Idol before Thursday at 2 Eastern -- I'd suggest you vote for Meg, of course!  (Congrats [again] on making top 5, lady!!) If you read this post, you'll appreciate just how much awesomeness went into her designs.

Thanks for stopping by -- have a lovely day!

Amy Tangerine: part one...

...of several, probably. I just can't keep my mitts off of this line! I was lucky enough to score just a little taste of what is sure to be a full-blown addiction at the American Crafts booth at CHA. You can see American Crafts' intro to the line on this blog post, and Amy's intro here, among other places.

I decided to start simply, and with the most logical photo possible: one from the Amy Tangerine booth. Here's what I came up with:

Psst: if you're reading, Amy, thanks for being so utterly gracious (and talented, too)! 

Aside from the alpha stickers (ok, and the staples and date stamp), the only materials I used were one sheet of paper, a photo mat and the tear strip from a second sheet of paper, and the Amy Tangerine stamp set (which I loooove...even though it's a bit squishy). No fancy embellishments, no paint/mist/ink (aside from the stamps, duh), nary a punch or die-cut to be found. The narrow blue strips were cut from my leftovers after trimming down to 8.5x11 -- the b-side is a lovely vibrant blue. I trimmed a few of the sun rays to weave the left-hand strip under. Easy!

Now, about that title...

It's a bit of a grad-school lit-nerd joke. I was in this class once where we were discussing a work of metafiction -- aka a work of fiction that is ABOUT a work of fiction. Someone's parting shot in that particular discussion was, "Well, I guess it's good, but it's a little too meta for me." For some reason, it just cracked us all up...because we were lit nerds, I guess. So: this page is about meeting Amy Tan, featuring a photo of the Amy Tangerine booth, made with Amy Tangerine product. Hope it isn't "too meta" for you!

Sidenote: That stamped camera there looks way better in real life, but I think I should've embossed it instead. The ink was way more vibrant white when I stamped it, but it looks like its faded. I may yet fix it!

I hear this line is shipping to stores now -- the minute it shows up at Scrappy Chic, I'll be sure to tell you! Well...I'll tell you right AFTER I go raid the shelves myself!! In the meantime, I have another layout and a card all ready to share, plus a bunch more ideas in the works :)

Have a delightful day -- and stay cool! Whew, it is crazy-hot out there (or out here, anyway)!