Manly card and major abdominal workout...

My daughter requested a get well card for one of her teachers who was going to have surgery.  I literally made this at the last minute...using the scallop punches and the super cute whale stamp.  No bling...it was for a man hahaha.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Pun Fun, Dot Dot Dot, Solid Stripes, Checkerboard background stamp (retired)

Ink: Stampin' Up! Brilliant Blue (retired), Pacific Point, Baja Breeze

Paper: SU! Crumb Cake, Temping Turquoise, Brilliant Blue, Baja Breeze

Accessories: XL Scallop Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, XL Circle Punch

My brother, Skip, spent the week with us for Spring Break....and I encouraged Lydia to break away from her day job to come meet us at The Salt Lick for some amazing BBQ and laughs. Good times!

Two of the funniest people I know.  My abs got a good workout!!

This weekend is the San Antonio Highland Games....all things Scottish! SQUEEE!! I just realized I don't have a proper celtic or Scottish stamp...I'll have to remedy that promptly!

A personal challenge

I have spent the last several weeknights going to bed at an INSANELY early hour--before 9 pm. I don't even know what happened to last week. Not sure if it was allergies, my body fighting a virus or what...but my body revolted and decided I needed REST.  I hate that. When I'm so busy/tired I can't even enjoy my evenings. I didn't even STAMP. Quelle Horreur!! I am SO. READY. for Spring Break! 5 more days...

For a few weeks now I've been following the umpteen million Stamper Challenges out in the bloggersphere thinking I would combine a few challenges and submit them....but it's overwhelming how many I enjoy and would like to do....so I don't do any of them! HAHAHAAAA!! (It didn't help I also slept during such time as I would stamp! GAH!) I have decided I would do my own personal challenge this week--to use a stamp set that is on my shelf I haven't used yet AND an accessory that I haven't played with. Maybe I'll make this a regular thing....
I discovered today I have a plethora of buttons....but I mention this and didn't even use buttons on my card!! Yeah, so I have a LOT of accessories. Tons. Loads.  I used some ribbon I've been hoarding. Hadn't even opened it since they're my FAVORITE colors EVAH--Stampin' Up's Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango. These colors, combined with Baja Breeze, make me seriously happy.

(One of the hospitals I worked at in Labor and Delivery had surgical scrubs that were Baja Breeze with a Tangerine Tango drawstring tie--I loved those scrubs. You couldn't really see the pretty tangerine tie...but I knew it was there! When Stampin' Up came out with Tangerine Tango and Baja Breeze colors (In Colors) I SQUEEEEE'd so loudly!!! Ahhh...I digress...)

I also realized after I made this card that my last blogged card included the same colors! (Have I mentioned how tired I was this week?)

I used Build A Blossom stamp set with the Blossom Petals XL Punch ...this Peach Parfait and Tangerine Tango flower makes me so happy! The sentiment is from Perfect Punches stamp set and colored with a Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango Marker. The Baja Breeze layer is stamped with the palms from Tropical Party Stamp Set (which is now only available as a My Digital Studio Download) but I have the stamp set which was not used prior to today.  The ribbon I finally opened and used for this card is the Pacific Point striped grosgrain and Tangerine Tango polka dot ribbon which is no longer available (GAH!).

Next week for Spring Break my brother, Skip, is flying out from San Diego to spend the week with us---SO. EXCITED!!! My girls are almost as excited as I am. He is one of the funniest people I know so I'll be getting an excellent abdominal workout all week! Can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by! What will you be doing for Spring Break?  Leave a comment and share what your favorite colors are to work with...

Have a great day!

XOXO

Lots to share!!!

I cannot even begin to tell you how busy I've been.  Flyin' by the seat of my pants kinda busy...I'm tired of being busy...but enough whining. Lemme show you a couple of things I've been able to eek out the last 2 weeks!

First--my brother graduated from college 2 weeks ago! SQUEEE! So excited for him--and I got to go spend the weekend with him! Fantastic weekend.  Here's a picture of him at his graduation in San Diego.

(He looks happy there, right? He is the funniest guy on the planet, just so you know. I got the best ab workout that weekend from laughing!!)

Ok, so I needed a card for his graduation.  A couple of weeks ago my friend Libby Hickson made THIS super cute card. I obsessed over that stamp set from The Greeting Farm, but it's currently discontinued! I was able to find a brand new set in Australia thanks to eBay, though!!! SQUEEE

So...using some inspiration from Libby...here's what I did:

Stamps: The Greeting Farm--Fly Away

Papers and ribbon: Stampin' Up

Ink: Memento and Copic Markers

Tools: Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors , Big Shot and Swirls Embossing Folder

Isn't Piggy super cute? My 10 year old saw me coloring him and she HAD to have a Piggy to color too! He makes me smile!! He made my brother laugh when he saw him.  A very non-traditional Graduation card!!

This weeked I'm traveling to Houston to visit my BFF of many, many years and the sister I never had...this woman and I have laughed so much over the years I'm sure it's extended our lives by at least a decade.  Since I knew I was seeing her this weekend I neglected to mail her a card for her birthday last month...I wanted to give it to her in person.

This is a stencil!! I love this idea! I saw THIS card from my friend Dreena, and modified it just a bit.

Stencil: Stampin' Up

Paper & Ink: all Stampin' Up

Accessories: ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware-Stampin' Up, Shimmer Spritz

This weekend we're going to Pinot's Palette--a studio where you learn to paint a masterpiece, and you bring your own wine! We'll be painting Van Gogh's Cafe at Night and I'll be VERRRRY interested to see how well my replica is after a couple of glasses of wine!!! I'll keep you posted!!

Big Changes!

Stampin' Up has had 48 colors of ink and paper for as long as long as I can remember. While the color "families" they've had seemed to work, there were MANY colors I never EVAH used.  Well...Stampin' Up has spent the last 3 years doing some research and focus groups and decided to mix it all up and do a complete COLOR RENOVATION. Literally--a complete renovation! Of the current 48 colors, 25 of them will be retired the end of June 2010.  The new catalog, which debuts July 1, will have 40 colors....some of the original 48, some returning In Colors and 5 brand new colors added.  Stampin' Up will still have In Colors each year, but each collection will now linger for 2 years instead of only one!! SQUEEEEE!!!  There are 25 current colors that are retiring...but Stampin' Up did a lot of research and determined these are the least popular of the current 48 colors.  Obviously this was a general concensus, because there are a few colors I thought "WHA???!! They're retiring THAT?!" But overall I am excited about the Renovation and looking forward to reorganzing my stamp studio with the new colors!
So...wanna see what all the excitement is about?!!?

I plan to offer the retired cardstock and ink as goodies to my current club members--I'll be putting together packets of paper and ink and will offer packets of paper for sale as well.  I'll post here on my blog to let you know when I'll have my big sale before the new catalog comes out, too!!

I'm off to San Diego this weekend...my brother is graduating from college with his Bachelor's of Science in Business and Marketing! I'm so excited for him! I'm really looking forward to celebrating with him all weekend....now to make him a card...!!!

Confused yet?

So if you came from my OTHER blog www.fanstampulous.blogspot.com you know I'm trying to streamline my "branding". Most artists I know use their name as their brand--well I started a few years ago with Darth Sunshine--the nickname my brother gave me that has ultimately stuck because I'm such the Star Wars fan and I LAUGH AT EVERYTHING. (I'll explain the history in a moment).  Anyway--in looking at the big picture of "branding" myself--Darth Sunshine fits me better than Fanstampulous. Fanastampblahblah is a great "name"--but labels me only as a stamper, methinks.  My artistic realm extends beyond the stamping borders--so I didn't like the idea of being put in a box. Actually...I put myself in that box. HAHA!

SO--I already "owned" the darthsunshine.blogspot.com and decided I was going to use it.  Now my Twitter ( @darthsunshine ) and gaming nickname and basically every username I have everywhere is darthsunshine. That's who I am. (Well...that and "Wonder Woman" if I'm on a wait list at a restaurant! Bwahaha)
So how did I get this name? My brother has the BEST sense of humor EVAH.  He makes me laugh continuously--I'm not kidding. Here is me and my brother, Skip, at our favorite roller coaster ride EVAH--Space Mountain at Disneyland in California!

(Yes, that is me and hubby in the front making our "signature" roller coaster ride face. Skip is right behind me MOCKING US! BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! I laugh SO HARD when I see the picture!)

We are both Star Wars fans. HUGE fans. Not kidding you there. A few years ago he was telling me that anyone that ticked him off he was calling them Sith Lords (for those of you in the dark...a Sith Lord is Darth Vader, or Darth Maul, Darth Sidious, Darth Grievous, etc.) Later that day I was teasing him about something (neither of us remember) and he looked at me and said "That's it...you're a Sith Lord!" and I retorted with "WhatEVAH, I'm the Epitome of Love and Kindness!!!" and his reponse was "That makes you Darth SUNSHINE!".  OMG I laughed SO HARD...we were both gasping for air at the time.  So stinking funny.  The best nickname EVAH.

So...now that the history is blogged....I'm working on transferring all my links from my old blog to this one. Most of my links are up. I'm going to persuade my BWAHAHA-sista Lydia to maybe do a new Blog Header for me...with cash of course :D

I've got some stamping classes coming up--I'll be posting again soon!
Thanks for sticking around!