Society of Stampaholics

July 2010 Card Chain Challenge Results

 

July's Card Chain Challenge yielded a nice haul of card art, I must say! 

The countries represented this time were: Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Mauritius, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland, and the United States! Past participants have hailed from Australia, Belgium, Croatia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, and Slovenia. (We only need to get some countries that begin with K, L, O, Q, R, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z to keep up with our alphabet list!) We only have 174 countries to go before we have total global participation!!! (Anybody figured out what we're going to do about Vatican City yet?)

(If you're new to the Card Chain Challenge ("CCC") this is an event where everybody wins. Basically, you make a card for the person above you on the chain and you receive a card from the person below you on the chain. It's a personalized swap, sort of, and it's a ton of fun! Go here for past Chains and here to read the Guidelines.)

June had the following challenge options (you could use as many of the following options as you wanted, but you were only required to use one of them):

3 Challenge Options

You can use as many of the following options as you like, but you're only required to use one of them.

Color Palette:

Template:

Theme:

July 4th  OR  Beach/Aquatic  OR  Friendship

And here they are... the July CCC's!!!

Trinh in Texas sent Arlene in California:

Arlene in California sent Cassi in Virginia:

Cassi in Virginia sent Isabelle in France:

and

Isabelle in France sent Agniezska in England:

Agnieszka in Great Britain sent Deborah (me) in Indiana:

Deborah (I, again) in Indiana sent Judy in Alabama:

Judy in Alabama sent Corey in Illinois: 

Corey in Illinois sent Monika in Germany:

Monika in Germany sent Janet in Mauritius:

Janet in Mauritius sent Angela in California:

Angela in California sent Karen in Canada:

Karen in Canada sent Marcy in Massachusetts:

Marcy in Massachusetts sent Sally in England:

NO IMAGE AVAILABLE.

Sally in Great Britain sent Marian in the Philippines:

Marian in the Philippines sent Heather in Ireland:

Heather in Ireland sent Donna in New Jersey:

Donna in New Jersey sent Agata in Switzerland:

 

Agata in Switzerland sent Sue in Illinois:

Sue in Illinois sent Nancy in California:

Nancy in California sent Rikke in Denmark:

Rikke in Denmark sent Anette in Norway:

Anette in Norway sent Jenny in California:

Jenny in Ireland sent Isha in Switzerland:

 

Isha in Switzerland sent Janet in Texas:

Janet in Texas sent Betty in Nebraska:

Betty in Nebraska sent Dawn in New Zealand:

Dawn in New Zealand sent Barb in :

and

Barb in Minnesota sent Joy in Indiana:

Joy in Indiana sent Norma in Colorado:

Norma in Colorado sent Linda in Minnesota:

 

Linda in Minnesota sent Lin in Ohio:

Lin in Ohio sent Jan in California:

and

  Jan in California sent Trinh in Texas:

And that brings us full circle! 

Thank you, everyone, for sharing your artistic talent and doing your part for global relations!

If you want to participate, you can sign up for the August Card Chain Challenge until tonight, August 4, 2010, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Hope to see you there!

Copic Certification Here I Come!!! & Cards

Oh, crud!  This was all written ready to be posted yesterday morning and then I forgot to hit the schedule button! One of these days I'll get it right....

Oh, well, there is one good thing about this being posted after the fact: I can show you a picture! Here is Sally Lynn MacDonald signing Copic Certification certificates:

Yes, I am now certified! (Read on for the original post.)

By 4:30 p.m. EST I will be Copic Certified!

Hurrah!!! So excited about finally getting this opportunity! I will see if I can bring back lots of information to share!

In the meantime, here's a card I made two weeks ago - and I want you to pay special attention to the ribbon because it's been altered. It was originally a white silk ribbon, and then colored it with a Copic marker. It doesn't get any easier than this, people! I will never buy colored silk ribbon again! It covered perfectly and quickly. And the drying time was practically immediate. I am soooooo loving my Copic markers - even more than before (something I thought not possible).

Supplies: STAMPS: Hero Arts K5313, CL351; INK: Ranger Distress, VersaFine; MARKER: Copic YR07; OTHER: Prima flowers, silk ribbon.

I'm always amazed at how the same design can evoke such different moods with the slightest changes in color and/or embellishments. To illustrate, here are some additional variations - same design but different colors and embellishments. I also added a Hero Arts cling stamp in the background. (Used Copics to color the ribbons again, though!)

Supplies: STAMPS: Hero Arts K5313, CL351, CG154; INK: Hero Arts Hues/Memories, Ranger Distress, VersaFine; MARKER: Copic; OTHER: Prima flowers, Hero Arts gems, silk ribbon.

And here it is again, just a little changed. I made this card several times because I kept needing sympathy cards, I am saddened to say.

Supplies: STAMPS: Hero Arts K5313, CL351, CG154; INK: Hero Arts Hues/Memories, Ranger Distress, VersaFine; MARKER: Copic; OTHER: Prima flowers, Recollections pearls, silk ribbon.

Blog Award

My friend Donna is uber-talented. Really. Check out her blog at Three Umbrellas.

And I mention her today because she has presented me with a Blog Award:

So I'm here to thank the giver, spread the love, and share five things about myself before passing this award on to five others. So here's five things about me:

1. My favorite candy always has been and always will be Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I would burn down Hershey's factory for turning me into little better than an addict, except then I wouldn't be able to get my fix. What a brutal world we live in.
2. I prefer to be called "Deborah." Unless, of course, you have a special childhood dispensation because it's fundamentally wrong to expect someone to start calling you Deborah if they first knew you as a Debbie - which I was until officially putting my foot down in 1987. That said, there are a lot of people out there who didn't know me until 2005, and they all keep calling me "Debbie." (Unfortunately, they're all little old ladies at my church, and I lack the sufficient courage to correct them.)
3. If we ever have insurance again, I am immediately going to have my deviated septum un-deviated. And my adenoids removed (why they didn't yank them along with my tonsils is a mystery). And if I still can't breath out of both nostrils at once - something I haven't been able to do in over ten years - I'm going to have my head chopped off.
4. I am undergoing a tremendous mind shift and intend to convince Spouse that we give ourselves three years to adjust to relying solely on those foods that are locally grown and/or raised and to disdain all meat that is produced through a CAFO. 
5. I am desperate to move to the country - three acres will satisfy me, I think. 

Okay! There you have it! And I am now passing this award on to five people who will inspire you: Arlene, Kathy, Tomoh, Pia, and Susanne.

The Me-Me Award

I've had a few people give me some awards in the last few months. I very studiously copied them into a folder to pass on when I had the chance. Now I'm getting some time, and I find that I no longer remember who sent me what.

What a chowderhead.

So if you sent me an award and I didn't post and pass it along, it's because I was too stupid to actually attach some sort of note identifying the rules, etc. If you have been miffed at my lax behavior, please feel free to send me an email taking me to task as I so richly deserve!

My lovely Hero Arts buddy and fellow former Hostess, Donna Mikasa, has sent me the MeMe Award, and I am determined to not blow it this time!!! The rules to this one are that you have to reveal seven secrets about yourself and pass the award on to seven other bloggers. Now somebody sent me something like this on Facebook, and I went ahead and posted it on my page there. So this information is technically NOT a secret anymore, but the majority of the world doesn't know it, so I'm thinking it counts as a secret.

Seven "Secret" Things About Me

1. My maternal grandfather was 70 years old when my mother was born... and she is an only child. I’m the only person of my generation that I know who can claim a grandparent born in 1875.

2. I flunked Algebra in high school because I was so intimidated by everything that I’d heard about it, I didn’t do the homework. When I took the class again, I did the homework and felt like a total idiot for ever being afraid of it.

3. I was a goodie-two-shoes who never did drugs or drank or anything even remotely racy until my freshman year in college when I decided to see what was the big deal about mind expansion via pharmaceuticals by dropping a hit of acid. I found the whole experience to be overrated and kind of annoying.

4. In 1987, I was on my way to Washington, DC, with no job and no prospects, so I figured I might as well have no money, too. I gave my last $3 to a woman begging in the Port Authority bus station in NYC. And thus I entered into the most successful period of personal growth that I have ever experienced.

5. Watching Survivor is my Guilty Pleasure.

6. I am a logic puzzle junkie.

7. As a child, I loved The Little Colonel series by Evansville, Indiana, native Annie Fellows Johnston, and I have managed to collect all but one of them as an adult. Written in the early 1900's, these books were last published in the 1940's - which is why it's been difficult to collect them.

I would lie to share the Me-Me Award with the following seven people:

1. Pia
2. Jacqueline
3. Beverley
4. Diana
5. Alana
6. Susanne
7. Andi

Thank you, Donna, for sharing this award with me!

Blog Awards

I awoke at 3:00 a.m. to a terrifically loud thunderstorm that was sending my dog into fits of anxiety. Poor, poor Bisquit! Storms never used to bother him until the last year or so, and now he's just a Wreck whenever they roll in. I decided to get up and try to ease his anxiety and thought maybe I could attend to other matters while doing so.

(This is kind of funny, actually, because he is largish - being an Airedale Terrier - but is apparently under the impression that he is the size of a squirrel as he is convinced he can hide his entire self under the bottom of my nightgown.)

What he's looking for is a way to hide from the storm.

Despite the fact that there is a roof between him and the storm.

What's bizarre is that, while the roof fails to convince him he is safe, wrapping a sweater around his head makes him feel like he's ensconced in a bomb shelter.

Dog Logic.

That, or his ostrich heritage is ducking it's ugly head.

At any rate, it's 3:00 a.m., and I am so far behind on so many things that I might as well get up and take care of some long overdue tasks. And now that Bisquit's head is protected by his sweater helmet, I should be able to concentrate, right?

Okay, first off, I have an award that I received over a month ago from a very nice lady AND talented rubber stamper named Dawn Turley. Dawn hails from Australia, and she has a blog, Dawn's World, that you should check out.

The award is called The Lemonade Stand Award, and it's given to a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude.

I am very honored to be chosen for this award, and I thank you for presenting it to me, Dawn!

I hope you'll give the following artists a visit - it's time well spent, I promise!

My first nominees are "unusual" as I have never really "spoken" to them, and I'm nominating them as a group. At least two of the ladies from this group have visited my blog and left nice comments. Now here's the "unusual" thing about them - they are part of a confederacy of European artists! They all are united at one blog called Europe Artfire Guild. And what a cool blog it is! They have a variety of skills and artistic talents, so you get a fabulous, ecclectic experience, PLUS they sell their wares, so you can gratify your eye-candy lust with actual ownership of the object that inspired it!

I'm nominating Laura at Laura's Stamp Art Journal because she does amazing work and is really nice!

I'm also nominating Cat (another European) at Cat's Wire because I've lurked at her blog a bit, and I like her style. She makes terrific jewelry, too!

Then there's our Hannah at Jorgaunna's Place of Fascination. Hannah is a 17-year-old with a work ethic I would love to see Gigi have at that age. She's also a real sweetie!

Lastly, I nominate Annie at Stamping with Annie B. I don't know her, but I like her work and think y'all would like it, too!

Ladies, to pick up your Lemonade Stand Award:

1. Comment on this blog.


2. Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog.


3. Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.


4. Link to your nominees within your blog post.


5. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.


6. Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

I'm a Member of the Hero Arts Hosti!

Actually, to be more accurate and formal, I should say that I have been invited to join the Hero Arts Blog as a Hero Arts Hostess. But Hero Arts Hostess is a real mouthful, so I'm thinking "Hosti" is easier and faster to type.

Plus it's cuter.

And you know me. Why be correct when one can be cute?

It was a very thrilling occurrence, I must say! If I had known that my name was in the hat for such an honor, I probably would have been totally bonkers with anticipation. As it is, I just opened up my email and there was this lovely little invitation from Lisa Spangler.

My mouth just dropped open I was so shocked. As I wrote Lisa, "Chop off my legs and call me, 'Shorty'!"

I accepted immediately, of course.

What does a HA Hosti do, you ask?

I haven't a clue. All I know is that they're going to give me free stuff to play with in exchange for activity that will help maintain the fun and happy atmosphere currently enjoyed by those who visit the blog. (I suspect there may be some moderating duties, card making, maybe a little creation of blog content. Maybe, if I get good enough at the video demonstration thing, they'll ask me to make one! However, this is ALL SPECULATION! I really have no idea what my duties will entail. I'm just tossing out some educated guesses.)

You can read about it here.

There are seven of us altogether, and I can't wait to work with them. I know all of them with the exception to Lisa Carroll, but I'm fixin' to correct that in the near future! You can click on the links below to see their creations on Flickr - enjoy the eye candy!

• Jenn Biederman
• Kelly Booth
• Lisa Carroll
• Judy Jung
• Donna Mikasa
• Deborah Nolan
• Karen Piskor

The Proximity Award

My good friend Julie has given me an award:

This is called the Proximity Award, and is is thus described: "These blogs invest and believe in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

These eight bloggers have not yet received this award (I hope):

Andi, Elana, Kelly, Lysa, Ashley, Suzanne, Kiara, and Kryssi.

Enjoy, ladies! You are all inspirational to me!!!