Oh no, they got me!

I have cards to post, but until then, you get this.

From the mouths of babes

I keep thinking about what a child said to me last weekend. I was at the jj boutique, showing people how to do the make and take. This little girl, about 9 or 10 y.o., sat down next to me wanting to make the little candy purse project. I explained how to do it and then sat there helping her. As she was stamping, she asked me if I drew the images. I said, no, that Johanna drew them, and pointed to Johanna (who was talking to Diane). I said I am a terrible drawer, that's why I stamp. She said, "If you think you are terrible, then you will be." I was taken aback for a second, and then said to her, "You know, you're right. I need to change the way I think." I find that I limit myself in so many ways because I can't draw, or I'm too fat, or I'm too tired or whatever. If I think I am, then I am. The power of positive thinking. I was hoping to see that little girls' mother so I could thank her for being a positive force in her daughter's life, but the little girl left alone. Do you remember the train story? It's about how your life is a train and people get on and off your train all the time. Sometimes they're on your train a long time and sometimes only for a stop or two. Sometimes they are influential passengers and sometimes quite the opposite, but each person on your train means something to you. This little girl was only a one-stop passenger, but she will be in my memory forever. You never know when you are a passenger on someone else's train and how much you will mean to them when you get on and off. Be a good passenger. Make someone's day.

Mother's Day Fun

I had a great Mother's Day. My son, Tony, and his friend, Damon, came over and spent about 3 hours with me in my craft room. We stamped and colored and listened to the new Madonna album, "Hard Candy", not once, but twice!

These boys know exactly how to make mama happy - they love to color! I was so thrilled to sit there and chat and color up a storm. I worked on my design team assignments while they played. Damon was experimenting, and Tony was making this gorgeous work of art. Isn't his coloring great?

Tony chose one of the stamps from Red Eowyn's "Freaks" sheet of rubber. He likes this backpack guy. Didn't he do a great job coloring it? The sun is by Terry Medaris and the clouds are by justjohanna. The sentiment is by Red Eowyn. I love the colors he chose. The background paper was bought at Michael's. Tony ran the rust cardstock through the crimper and then used punches to cut out the stepping stones. He used pop dots to raise a few of the stepping stones, the big cloud and the backpack guy. He mounted the whole thing on a 5x7 canvas. After many failed attempts at finding a tool that would punch through the canvas, we settled on my little sticker thing on a stick. Don't ask. Oh,and the Cropadile wouldn't do it because the canvas was too thick. Tony ran some wire through the holes in the top, added a few beads and was done.

Tony presented his piece of art to Damon, who was thrilled to receive it. My present was having the boys sit with me in the craft room. I love you, Tony. Thank you for my Mother's Day present. xoxoxo

Special Deal for May

Here it is! The Special Deal for May. How fun are these stamps?? Check out these cards to see how versatile the stamps can be. What can you come up with with these images? How about using the heart stamp as wings for your critters? It can be a butterfly or a fancy border around your card. The perch can be a snowglobe - imagine your images inside with glitter as the snow. Cute!! How about it being a fishbowl? You could use the clear lacquer for the water. It can be a space ship flying by with your critters inside or draw some legs on it and it can be a landing spaceship. Oh, the possiblities! You get a heck of a deal, too. The regular price for these three stamps is $24, but you get 25% off and pay only $18! Yowza! Here's how you get it: Click HERE to get yours now. Hurry, you won't want to miss out!

BLOG CANDY!!!

OK, I promised blog candy and here it is! Click to see it bigger and to see all the loot you're gonna get. Since I LOVE Halloween, I thought I'd make this a Halloween treat. You get:

• Six pieces of Halloween paper. Some sheets are two-sided.
• Two justjohanna stamps
• A nice bundle of ribbons and rick-rack
• Big buttons
• Brads
• Paper clips
• Four pieces of assorted Stampbord
• A "Happy Halloween" sign

Ok, so I know what you're thinking: "What do I have to do to get this fantastic prize? I'll tell you. You have to answer a quiz and be the winner. This quiz will test your knowledge of the justjohanna stamp line. You should leave a response to this post with your answers. If you want your answers confidential, then leave a message on this post and then EMAIL ME your answers. Ok, so enough blabbering. You may not know the answers right off, so you can use the justjohanna forum, the justjohanna blog , or the online catalog as resources. You can also ask someone. Anyone. ANYone. OK, let's get on with it!!

1. What year did justjohanna rubber stamps make its debut?
2. How many stamps are currently in the catalog? The closest guesser gets this one.
3. Before the current bestselling stamp in the catalog, flora hugabundus was the #1 bestseller. What is the #1 best selling stamp right now?
4. How many people are on the justjohanna design team?
5. On the justjohanna forum, in what category would you find a post entitled, "I grabbed Mabel..."?
6. I bet you didn't know that many of the rubber stamp critters are named after people Johanna knows. For whom was Candace the bird named?

Ok, on to the bonus question.

I love math. All kinds of math except geometry, so this question is all about using math. Don't worry, you won't need a slide rule or a protractor (no geometry!), maybe just a calculator. You will have to go to the catalog to get the answer to this question. You will need to get the catalog numbers for each of these items in the equation and then do the math to get the final answer. Let's go!

Bonus Question:

three trees - harley left -c'est la vie + (yum x2) -strawberry coach + haunted tree = ___D.

Everyone who gets the bonus question correct will get something fun from me.

DEADLINE: Friday, May 16th at 9pm PST. I will determine the winner by the most correct answers and announce the winner here on my blog. I'll also announce all winners of the bonus question. Tell a friend - the more the merrier!

Blog Candy

How much do you know about justjohanna rubber stamps? I have a cool quiz for some awesome blog candy coming up. The quiz will be posted in the next few days. You won't want to miss it!

Gogol Bordello

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, April 25-27. This is one of my new favorite bands. They remind me of gypsies. I think they are from Hungary or somewhere over there. You can Google them if you are interested. They've been around quite awhile. Isn't that crowd amazing? I was in that crowd dancing along with them. I had so much fun.

Random Cards

In between my long weekend up in Indio at the Coachella music festival and working, I've been working on some cards. I've made lots of cards for my card box at work. These are a few of the ones I'll be putting in the box. Hard as I try, it's hard for me NOT to use justjohanna stamps. They are just so fun to use and so versatile that I find any reason at all to use them when I stamp. I did use a few non-jj stamps on the following cards, so you see I do own something other than justjohanna stamps. This first one is made with the papers from the Special Edition vintage kit and the Ladies Dancing stamps from justjohanna. Some of the embellishments are from the kit, too. It took a lot for me not to color this image. I seem to think all images need coloring no matter what, but not this one. I thought about making the image look vintage, but I didn't want to muck up the card. I get carried away with my non-knowledge of all things vintage thinking I can do it, but all I do is make a mess. My sister gave me a bunch of Cuttlebug embossing folders and I went crazy embossing paper today. It's like magic! This yellow card is very simple, something I rarely do. I had the justjohanna sentiment left over from one of the other cards in this post and so I thought I'd use it. I can't believe I actually tied a bow that doesn't look like a preschooler tied it. Ok, so this card is another very simple one. I used one of my Cuttlebug embossed backgrounds for this card. It's writing, but you can't read it. The intertwined kitties and the Crazy in Love sentiment are from justjohanna. The black paper around the image/sentiment is a very sparkly paper I got at the Scrapping Cottage. The frame diecut is a QuicKutz cut from the same black glittery paper. The orange/brown card is one of my favorites of the week. The three little squares are 1" Stampbord stamped with a Magenta stamp image after I inked the Stampbord with a few colors of Versamagic ink. After the black ink dried, I used the scratch knife to add some details. I adhered the Stampbord to the Bazzill cardstock with double-stick tape. It holds really well. The sentiment is by justjohanna. I used lots of layers of Bazzill paper on this card. The last card was fun, too. I had this stamped image of the tall house on recycled security envelopes left over from the Earth Day challenges. I love how the images look on the recycled envelopes. I wanted this card to be all black and white, but decided it needed a little punch of color, so I stamped the flower (jj image) onto sparkly pink paper and cut out the flower part and attached it with a small brad. The sentiment is from Stampabilities. I think it looks fun cut out like that. I love this time of year. It always makes me feel creative. It makes me want to write poetry and short stories. Turn on loud music and dance. My mind goes a mile a minute wanting to paint one minute and draw the next. My craft room looks like a tornado hit it. All my crafts are out all over the tables and on the floor. I just want to do everything all at once! By the time this feeling passes, I will have either a masterpiece or a horrible mess.