Here's to Jury Duty, Paula Deen and New Friends!

I know we have a bit of time before we NEED Halloween cards, but for those of you who make and sell your creations, you know it's never too early to start.
I had fun with all the rhinestones on this project. The tree is from Penny Black Rubber Stamps and the greeting is Inkadinkado. Bo-Bunny's Mango Luau Dude provides the backdrop for this 'not-so-very-scary card. You'll find this one available in my Etsy store.



So I made it through my day 'on-call' for jury duty. They were able to choose the jury from the first 35 names called, so the other 65 or so of us did not have to be interviewed, but we did have to stay until the day was complete. I know for most, we realize jury duty is a right and a privilege. I believe that the hardest part is knowing that you may have to spend hours on end in one room and never get the call. Oh, and did I mention that you have to do it with approximately 100 total strangers?! Well I must say that today ended up being a pretty good time for 7 or 8 of us. We got our 'party' started at 9am sharp and continued until we were dismissed at 3pm. This group of women entered the room not knowing a thing about one another, but after getting acquainted in the morning, having a fabulous lunch together(our waitress was the spitting image of Paula Deen) and waiting out the rest of the afternoon for our name to be called (and that only happened for one of us), we were scheduling our 'jury duty reunion' for one year from today.

None of these girls were stampers....but that may change. One asked about my workshops, and then they passed around my stamping magazines. The next thing I know, I have all of their email addresses for my next round of classes. In fact, they said they would stop by The Open Window and take a look in, so if you're there girls A BIG HELLO FROM ME! I had a great day getting to know a little bit about all of you and I hope you will stop by often!

Better Late Than Never

For more great ideas using Martha's punches,
click here...here... 
and here...

 I am so excited about the new punches for the holidays by Martha Stewart that I am posting this after just finishing the project. My card uses the Punch Around the Page 'Loop' punches. I started with the corner loop, punched all four corners, then used the matching border and filled in the sides. Isn't it fun?! I am actually working on another square card that I hope to share with you tomorrow. I also used some Basic Grey papers, Martha Stewart Pink Topaz Rhinestones and the greeting is from Scrappy Cat (which by the way, all of the SC stamp sets are on clearance at Michael's right now for $2.49....half price!)

So guess who has jury duty tomorrow? I called ahead tonight to make sure that I still had to go....and I do. Believe me, I'm all about doing my civic duty, but when I could be at home playing with my stamps, well need I say more. The last time I was called up, my stamp store was in full operation and could not do without me, so I had to be excused. I have a completed project ready to share with you tomorrow night, just in case I have to spend the entire day at the court house.

I have been chatting back and forth with the new Design Team for Artful Inkables today and I can tell you that Kristen and the senior DT have some fabulous things for all of us to look forward to. Excitement is brewing over a new bi-weekly challenge that you will be able to participate in for 'free stuff' as well as our first blog hop that will feature the new releases from AI. The new sets should be in my mailbox any day and I am ready to go! So I hope you will stay tuned and I do look forward to you playing along with us!

One more thing....I had a terrific response to my hosting a color challenge here at The Open Window, so I am working on the details and hope to have that for you within the next couple of weeks.

Hope you had a great weekend....here's to a good first week of August! I will see you tomorrow.