Hi all! Just a quick Color Inspiration Challenge for ya'll to work on this weekend. :)

This CI Challenge comes to us from Pottery Barn. These colors are so yummy and make me think of summer... swimming, backyard barbecues, etc. :)

My card will be comin' at ya on Monday. :)

...uninspired.
Tired.

Taking a break.
Be back tomorrow.

:)

Hi everyone! I'm back from New York. It was a whirlwind trip and I loved every minute. :)

90% of the trip was for work so I won't go into that, but I did get to do some additional fun things. I went to The Phantom of the Opera with Amy (of YouTube and Glamour magazine fame--check out her awesome makeup tutorials) Really, I totally geeked out when I realized we would be in NYC at the same time--Amy for The Makeup Show and me for The National Stationary Show. We're totally YouTube BFFs now, right Amy? We bonded over mutual love for shoes and New York. :)

I also did a little inspiration shopping and wandered around Brooklyn with the girls from work. We found an awesome antique shop where I accidentally looked at a 1950s magazine of questionable nature (AHH! My EYES!). Then we boarded a VERY crowded bus where we obviously annoyed people around us by talking because one guy in particular stuffed earphones in his ears the minute we sat down and started talking around him.* But we were lost! I consulted my iPhone for a map of the city as we tried to quietly debate whether or not we were anywhere near a subway stop. BTW, yes we were near a subway stop. The Jay Street stop.

We stayed the Marriott Marquis at Times Square which has the most awesome elevators--glass tubes that allow you to see out of the elevator to the atrium below. Go ahead. Gaze down and imagine yourself plummeting to the bottom. Weeeee!

A few of us ate at Pongsri Thai Restaurant (great food, mediocre service) before going to see Spamalot. As we were walking to the theater I had my first real celebrity sighting--TIMES TWO! We saw the actors that play Amanda and Marc in Ugly Betty! Okay, so she really is as pretty as she is on television and possible even more skinny looking. Seriously, Christy--who you'll all remember from the origami star video--commented on her legs: "Like two little sticks... She could barely stand up!" I'm of the opinion that possibly she may have been drunk. Marc was partially holding her up. But who knows!

We also possibly might have seen one of the guys from The Dukes of Hazzard on our way into the city after we arrived, but I can't be positive since I didn't get a good look at him from inside our van.

Anyhow, it was a fun trip! Hopefully I'll get all rested up over Memorial Day weekend. :)

*EDITED: Apparently, the description of the scene I had earlier came across in a negative way. I sincerely apologize. A couple readers caught it and it's been corrected. Thanks, guys! :)

Hi all! I'm actually prepping this entry on Friday night since I won't be home on Monday to upload a new MACM. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this one.

I wanted to try using the same circle punches technique to create a scallop border on a circle. I've seen these a little bit and wanted to create a card using it.

This card is also my card for last week's Color Inspiration Challenge #9. Some of you mentioned that this was one of the harder challenges and I had to agree.

Such strong colors! And five of them, as well! It was definitely a bit more difficult to work with these colors compared to some of the combinations of the past few weeks. :)

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this one! Watch in high quality here (click on "watch in high quality" below the video).

Wow! What a turn out for this week's challenge! I loved all your entries and it was particularly hard to narrow it down to just ten favorites! :)

As for my card, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Monday to see it. ;) I'm multitasking and using my CI Challenge card as my MACM for next week. I'll be in New York for the National Stationary Show so I needed to film it before I go.

Anyhow, here's the Round-up for Challenge #9:

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

Yes, those masks feature my face with different hair! And each one has a little talk bubble that says, "It's my birthday." LOL!

The girls at work used the hair makeover thingy over at InStyle.com to make all the different heads. And, yes, the other faces on my cubicle are their faces!

They also decorated my cubicle with hair ties and bobby pins... and shampoo and conditioner... and curling irons and straightening irons! I've always thought it'd be awesome to be a hairstylist and I told them that a while back. :) Hilarious!! I love these people. Seriously, I work with the best people EVER! :)

Hi all! Before I forget, remember to check out the final part of my Questions & Answers video... I posted it right before I posted this entry. :)

This week's CI Challenge comes to us from marthastewart.com. I was looking through the home decorating section and came upon this photo. :)

As usual, I'll share my card with you all when I post the Round-Up on Friday night.

Questions answered in this video:

How do you tie a perfect bow?
How many Stampin' Dimensionals should you use on card stock?
Tell me about the blue ruler you use.
How do I post a photo at splitcoaststampers.com?
How do you design cards for MACM?
Do you have any tips for mass card making?
How do you choose your top 10 for the Color Inspiration Round-up?
Will you ever travel to other countries for Stampin' Up! training?
Have you ever had any problems with your Flip Ultra camcorder?

Note: the audio gets out-of-sync near the end and I couldn't figure out why... After exporting it from iMovie multiple times, I gave up and decided to upload it as is. :)

Questions answered in this video:

How do you organize digital photos?
Do you have any Photoshop tips?
How do you record video from above your workspace?
How do you match the length of the video with the length of the song?
Do you have tips for those who want to work on a design team?
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Tell me about Perfect Layers.
Do you make your own envelopes?
How do you fold scored card stock?
Which do you use most: pigment or dye inks?
Are you going to the Stampin' Up! Convention?
How do you measure ribbon for tying a bow/knot?
How do you add a watermark to photos?
What do you do with paper you don't like anymore?
Do you have a tip for using small $1 stamps?
How do you organize your paper?

Hi everyone! I hope your weekends were lovely and all you Mother's out there were loved with lots of chocolate and yummy goodies for Mother's Day. :)

This week's Make a Card Monday was prompted by the fact that there are a couple birthday's this week at my office. First, there's Andrea whose birthday is today (Holla!), and then on Thursday... well, just watch the video to find out. ;)

(Note: For all you gift-givers out there (you know who you are--hey, Mom!) I'd like to point you in the direction of my Amazon.com wish list ;) ... Click here)

Anyway, this Happy card can be used for many different occasions and I think that's why I like it. :)

Enjoy! And everyone have a wonderful Monday!

(I'll be posting the other 2 parts throughout this week).

Questions answered in this video:

Do you ever have stamper's block?
What exactly do you do for your job?
Which stamp sets have you designed?
When you use watercolor pencils, do you use a particular type of paper?
How did you get started with video blogging?
Which version of iMovie do you use?
How did you come up with the idea to make your videos fast?
Tell me about your Flip Ultra camcorder.
What is a standard-sized card? Envelope?
What do you do with non-standard size cards?
What about postage for thicker envelopes?
Do you have tips for cutting circle cards with a Coluzzle?
Do you realize you have a following in Australia?
How much card stock and paper do you own?
How often do you scrap or stamp?
How do you get nice photos of your cards/pages?
Any photo tips?

Hi all! I'm a proud owner of a new desk! Lauren and Ben were my lifesavers tonight and helped me haul a bit of furniture from my local Target to my house in their truck. So grateful to them! :)

Anyhow, I put together the desk and the side table (for my printer) in about an hour. I rock! Actually, Target rocks. ;) I'm going to put together the bookcase tomorrow. Thanks you, economic stimulus check!

So, I'm typing this entry while I sit at my new desk... It's so nice! I love it already!

Enough about furniture! You're here for the round-up!

Something to note about the bow on my card... I have no idea how I got it to tie so perfectly. The perfect bow technique still eludes me, so when I get a perfect bow, it's completely random and lucky.

And so here are some of the card submitted this week...

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

Hello - Brilliant Blue card stock and Jersey Shore Designer Series Paper: Stampin' Up!; ribbon: Kate's Paperie; felt alpha stickers: American Crafts; journal tag: Heidi Swapp.

One of the girls at work (Jodi) just had a baby! These are just a few snapshots from the baby shower that her team threw for her.

Didn't the girls did such a great job decorating the atrium at work? And HELLO! Look at those cupcakes! :) And the butterflies? SO cute! I think one of the girls cut out the butterflies at home and then attached them to the balloons. So cute!

NOTE: I haven't forgotten the CI Round-Up. I'll post that tonight after the deadline. :)

Hi all!

So here we are at the 8th Color Inspiration Challenge. Can you believe it?!

This week's CI Challenge comes to us from Pier1. I found this particular picture in their room inspiration gallery. :)

I'll share my card with you all when I post the Round-Up on Friday night.

So, this morning I braided my hair a la Reese Witherspoon:



Which prompted a braiding session this afternoon that resulted in:



That's Amy and Jen. I braided their hair. It was a totally flashback to third grade when I braided Cammie Rowley's hair during recess. :)

Sorry, no photo of me... My arm doesn't stretch out far enouch to get a pic of the back of head. Go figure!

Hi all!

For this week's card, I wanted to create an easy Mother's Day card. Can you believe it's nearly Mother's Day? Whoa. This year is just flying by! I swear it was Christmas yesterday!

Anyway, I used many of the same supplies for this card that I used a couple weeks ago. I wanted to show that you can use the same products but get a different look. :)

Okay, so I'm super tired, but I should go get ready for work... I really need to get to bed at a decent time tonight, especially after staying up late last night to watch my TiVo'd episode of Brothers and Sisters. Anyone else watch it? Hello. I love this show. :)

For all you French manicure fans out there, I found the best colors for a natural manicure. I painted my nails a couple days before I filmed this video, so you can see it in this video. I used Essie Marshmallow and Mademoiselle. LOVE this combination. :)

Hi all!

I hope all you scrapbookers out there had a great National Scrapbooking Day. Me, I hung out at home and did more organizing. :)

But I also covered this album! Over the next few days, I'm going to be sharing this album with you. Well, just the cover and a few pages from it, actually. My cousin Mandy of Secret Scrapper Products sent it to me to decorate.

Isn't that paper delicious!? It's from the Fancy Pants About a Boy line. The little graphic designer in me loves paper like that. And the fact that it's so boy-ish? It's perfect for an album about my nephews (who are adorable, btw).

Anyway, this album is as sturdy as can be. Man, it's made out of some strong materials, which would be good for my nephews and their little hands. Mandy gave me some ideas on how to paint it or decorate it, but I liked the raw look of the MDF (I think that's what it is?) so I didn't paint the letters. I also wanted the edges to look more finished, so I wrapped the corners carefully.

Here's a look at a corner and the inside. I have another album that she sent me, so when I cover that one, I'll make a video so that ya'll can see how I did it.

Hi all!

My fingertips and hands hurt and I'm developing bruises on my feet. Why, you ask? Because I put together my bed all by myself tonight. I was growing impatient waiting for my super-busy brother to come help me, so I dug in and did it myself.

Sigh. My legs hurt.

Do any of you know how hard it is to put together a four-poster bed all by yourself? Well, I do. And let me tell ya, it takes 2 hours. Yes, TWO HOURS! But I'll be sleepin' pretty tonight. And if the bed falls apart--forget it! I'm sleeping on the floor.

Long story short, after two trips to Lowes (Worker: "You again? The screws didn't work?" Me: "Nope! I need the longer ones") and crawling around on my bedroom floor while I listen to audio from the ENTIRE Center Stage movie, I didn't have a chance to make a card for the CI Challenge this week.

But that's okay because there are SO many awesome ones this week to pick from, right?! Behold, my top ten picks and the randomly selected:

TOP TEN
TEN RANDOMLY SELECTED

I'm going to need an extra day to go through all these Color Inspiration #7 submissions! Ya'll have seriously outdone yourselves. :)

Back on schedule tomorrow night. I'll post my card, my picks, and the randomly selected tomorrow evening after I get home from work. :)

P.S. Can you believe how many people at YouTube are still debating over my use of the word "your"? Really, now.

Oh my gosh! OH my gosh! OH MY GOSH!!!!

I'm the featured video on YouTube today!!!!