Well it’s bloggin’ time again………..

Isn’t there a country western song that starts out like that…..not bloggin but what was it, Well it’s somethin time again, was it cheating? Leaving? Those good old country western songs. When I was little(thanks to MOM) I had a steady diet of the stuff. I knew every Tennesee Ernie Ford song there was by heart. Glenn Campbell, Johnnie Cash…..today I cannot STAND country music, but back then, I could belt out any song you wanted to hear word for word. Okay, I’m already off to a bad start here, let me sort of explain this card on your left. This is made from one of my favorite brandy new stamp sets from the brandy new catalog….it’s called Inspired by Nature…..and even though I think it’s really coneflowers I pretend it’s black eyed susans which are one of my favorites up there with sunflowers. That’s what I like about stamps, they can be whatever you WANT them to be. 🙂 Then that little butterfly, he’s from a different new set called Flight of the Butterfly. Also a very cute set. That card has vellum over the top of the new Pink Pirouette paper, (I promise I’ll learn how to spell that p word before the end of the year) Anyway, at Convention they gave us 3 new sets and these were two of them and I love them both. Convention – it was so great to see friends I had not seen in such a long time – upline, downline, sideline, the Arizona girls some of which I didn’t see at the last two Leaderships I went to because they weren’t there and I missed 2 conventions in a row so it was just awesome to catch up and to meet new downline – My niece Clairey has really been busy as a bee building herself a healthy downline, and I mean healthy – these girls are excited and committed and on fire!! They are all planning how they can do SU full time, and I have no doubts that they will reach their goals. KRISTEN FULLER, who was one of Claire’s first recruits went to Convention and all week I knew I would meet her at the INKredibles meeting, and I was jabbering away and there was this quiet presence off to my right…..and then she said “Hi Aunt Karen” and I was like K-R-I-S-T-E-N!!!
Just too cool to meet someone I have listened to in their Yahoo group and to feel so connected to this young lady who is building her own business with a level of enthusiasm second to none!! Speaking of my niece Clairey, I told her to check out this card to your left now because it is my most favoritist card I ever made, I put it right next to me so I can study it all the time and think wow, I made that…and when I showed her which one she goes you mean the one with the mustard flowers? REALLY? Popped my balloon there Clairey, and then she said, “It’s nice, but of all the cards you made it’s your favorite, REALLY??” But I still think it is. 🙂 It just sings really loud to me. 🙂 First off, its’ one of my most favorite flowers in the whole wide world……we have been planting them around our house, you know they spread – they like multiply like rabbits -no kidding……anyway, you can all leave a comment and say, “Is that REALLY your most favorite card????” Uh, yah, it is. :):):) BTW for those of you who actually like it- AND then the next one down, here’s my “TUTORIAL” HAHA, I get asked to do tutorials all the time……here’s my version, short and sweet – don’t blink NOW or you’ll miss it – On the back of your solid stamp color with markers -shading the flowers with two different colors. I used Summer Sun and Pumpkin Pie. (and of course the other colors for the flower tip and green stuff) Stamp it on whisper white. Now color to the edges with a VERSAMARKER. Try NOT to go outside the image with the Versamarker cuz that will create a white halo which in some places will look even a bit artistic but if you get too much of it outside the image you will end up saying your 5 year old made it….. to save face…..okay, after you have colored with versamarker emboss with clear powder. Now smear ink over the top, I used BAJA BLUE, (one of my new favs) and Not Quite Navy right around the flowers. Blend. I use sponge daubers. Now use the great and wonderful highly loved grass stamp that also comes with this set – and I think I used kiwi kiss, (old olive really but if I say kiwi kiss you’ll buy another stamp pad…..hahaha……I love kiwi kiss but I couldn’t find it under the stamping debris when I made this card – no I know – I had to use old olive so I would have a marker in it for the leaves on the flower….that’s what it was, but regardless – kiwi kiss is a great new color) AHEM……..okay……..use OLD OLIVE and stamp the grass off once so it’s not so bold and then stamp it on, also known as the “fade technique” or second generation stamping…… And then wipe the “grass” off your flowers which will resist it because remember they are embossed and there you have it – embellish it as you desire and that’s it – and you can make my most favoritist card in the whole world TOO!! This one here is kinda cute too, huh? I just only inked up the smaller flower on that big stamp and stamped it over and over. I embossed three after versamarkering, (my own word, kind of like favoritist) and that way I could use those three as a mask when I stamped two more and then I used my coluzzle to cut out the image and THAT GREAT SCALLOPED BORDER??? Wanna know how I did that? I just punched a bunch a’ circles with my 1/2″ circle punch and put snail adhesive around the inside of my circle, and then attached the punched circles and voila!! A scalloped edge!! 🙂 oKAY, now below, (and when I actually post this it sends everything everywhere it wasnt’ when you were actually typing….so anyway- switching gears here, these are the cards below, (the last two in this post) that were my general swapping cards at Convention……I always totally exhaust myself making tons of cards to swap and then I have a terrible time making sure I swap them all……this is a pattern in my life. I have the sweetest coworkers, Cyndi(who I have told you guys about before – Cyndi is rail thin and survives on cheese-it’s and coke) and Tangie, who is not rail thin but watching her weight like me. Every Friday, (down day, we get to dress down and there are no patients on Fridays) I treat these guys to a coffee smoothie, (Cyndi usually says, “No thank you, I’m okay….” cuz eating is not an obsession with her where TANGIE, ticks the minutes away till it’s time to go get smoothies on Fridays……..(a girl after my own heart)and every Friday we look forward to this – they are wonderful coffee drinks with little pieces of coffee bean covered in dark chocolate chopped up in there, (the best part) and then Tangie’s favorite part – a big ole cherry – oh my gosh I can taste it now and it’s not Friday for another whole WEEK…..so Tangie usually runs to get the mail and brings them back with her…..and then her and I sit there and suffer with BRAIN FREEZE cuz we drink them too fast and they also give us this HACKING COUGH, ?? (but they are so worth a little piercing headache and a little annoying cough which can last up to an hour after you drink it) but HEY, it does not stop Tangie and I from looking forward to the next week when we can go pay for somemore great brain freeze with an annoying cough on the side………what’s up with that? Sometime I’ll really tell you about “TANGIE” and “FOOD” because I could blog a whole blog with funny stories about this adorable co-worker who just LOVES to EAT. :):):) ANYWAY general swapping is kinda like that for me, I get so exhausted making cards I go into Convention or Leadership in a zombie state and then I worry about getting them all swapped but I sorta hate to actually swap cuz I’m usually running late to wherever I am going and then you have to stop and then it seems like you have too many people standing around and you don’t want to walk away from anyone, and then you get home and anymore, not doing the number of workshops I used to do in NY, and not NEEDING ALL THESE SAMPLES…..what do you DO with them, but it doesn’t keep me from starting the whole process all over again the next event……making 100 cards, leaving in a zombie state, etc etc etc – okay – I thought I already went by the first card and here it is now, this is gonna be one long blabbing blog here…..see why I take so long between posts? It takes me a day to do one!! Gosh I thought I was coming up on the LAST card and here it is, only the next to the last……gee whiz. Hey- did I tell you I HAD MY NAME DRAWN AT CONVENTION TO BE IN THEIR GAME SHOW, STAMPING PICTIONARY?????? can you believe of 6000 people my name got drawn? I was TERRIFIED at first, (I am not the best example of an SU WOO HOO cheerleader type…….as everyone who knows me knows, I don’t do woo hoos……….)I felt like what if I win, I won’t be excited enough, maybe I should pray that I lose…… but in the end I really wanted the free stuff cuz there was so much stuff in the new catalog I love……..okay so anyway we were the runnerups – I GOT A HUNDRED DOLLAR GIFT CERTIFICATE TO THE NEW CATALOG!! And when it was all over, Shelly Gardner got up and said, “Wow, I don’t know if I have ever seen Karen Barber get that excited” – Ask my kids, it has happened in the past. I remember a track meet when Jen was running a race and Bethany(who also ran but was not in that particular race) said one of her friends poked her and said “Who is that nut who is scaling the fence and screaming over there?” and Bethany turned and much to her chagrin it was none other then me…..and she said, “Ah, that would be my mother” -but hey….if we talked sports events where my kids were ALL stars at one time or another….that used to get me VERY excited. :):):) Anyway – in the end I was really glad they drew my name as I got to pick out four
big and brand new stamp sets which should be arriving any day now along with my mega order I placed besides,,,,I will be stalking the UPS man THIS week for SURE!! Okay, well, here we are at the end of this post….. when I made this card I thought, “This card makes me think of Tracy Altemose, (one of the wonderful friends I have made over the years thru SU) and when I swapped with Tracy – honestly her card was a variation of this one – it was weird….and our second cards were similar too!! 🙂 Too funny!! 🙂 Okay- it’s the end here, I am finally done blabbing and showing off for another time…..until next time – I wish you all your favoritist things – even if you DO get brain freeze and hacking coughs!! Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?????OKAY, I KNOW – YOU’RE ALL THINKING SHE SAID 5 CARDS AND THERE ARE ONLY FOUR…..I WIPED ONE OUT – WHEN I WAS EDITING – JUST LIKE THAT, POOF, IT’S GONE……..DOGGONE IT – IT’S PRETTY TOO!! OH WELL, IF YOU WANT TO SEE IT GO TO MY SU GALLERY……DARN IT, DARN IT, DARN IT……….GONE – WITH – THE – WIND……..SHUCKS.