Sweet ...

Every time (OK, so maybe not every time) she gets the urge to "shop," the sensible Kathi starts thinking about some of the things she has laying around that she hasn't gotten around to using yet. In this case, it was a cute little cupcake stamp set and some equally cute patterned cardstock.

My card was inspired by one I saw in Cards magazine. Did you know that you can now subscribe to the digital version of this magazine? To try it out, I purchased the online version of the June issue for $4.95. More at the end of my post ...

Back to my card, the patterned cardstock is from My Mind's Eye, both designs on the same sheet. I cut one 4-1/16th by 5-5/16th inch piece and used a lid from a drawer in the kitchen as a template to cut the curve with an craft knife. Then, I just reversed the pieces and fit them together on the pink background piece. The white background piece was created with a sentiment stamp. Getting the rows of words as straight and well-spaced as they are was nothing more than sheer luck. LOL.

After I stamped and cut out the cupcake pieces, I adhered them to the card before "frosting" my little cake with white Liquid Applique. The itty, bitty pink sprinkles were created with what fell from my EK Success Dotted Wave Edger punch. I just punched right over the wet Liquid Applique, letting the pieces fall wherever - kinda like real sprinkles. Once the Liquid Applique was dry, I puffed it up with my embossing heat tool and added tiny dots of Star Dust Stickles to the sprinkles. I also used Yellow Stickles on the candle flame. I'm hoping you can see the dimension a little better in the closeup photo. I also added a few randomly placed Sparkles to the dotted paper. While the bow wasn't in my original plan, the finished card looked like it still "needed" something. It was a fun card to make.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy and Blush cardstock; My Mind's Eye Penny Lane Tiny Dancer "Jazz" Moving Dots paper; Blush, Citrus Leaf, Sunny Yellow, and Juniper ink pads; Maya Road Singleton Cupcake and Stampendous Flexible Friendship Wishes stamp sets; Ribbon from Wal-Mart; Sparkles; White Liquid Applique; Star Dust and Yellow Stickles; Embossing heat tool.

About the digital magazine again, the online version of Cards is very nice. It loads fast and is easy to manipulate and view compared to other digital magazines and catalogs I've experienced. As for advantages, the digital version is 75 percent less costly than the print version. While I've always considered this beautiful magazine to be worth every penny of its $19.95 newsstand price, it's also a magazine and one that someone who lives in a small space will eventually have to get rid of. Still, I'm one who likes to hold a magazine or book in my hands, and as a writer I hate to see print publications disappear ... even though my rational mind knows someone has to write what appears in digital/online form. Additionally, my Cards magazine will not become a "bathroom reader" unless I get a laptop. LOL. Anyway, these are the pros and cons from my perspective.

How was your day? Mine was OK - busy with (thankfully) no hassles. Every day this week is going to be busy, which is fine with me. On the home front, I need to get back into my organization mode, and I'd like to get my spring cleaning done prior to summer showing up ... if it does. The weather gurus are not predicting temperatures above 68° for the next 10 days. The low predicted for tomorrow night is 34°. That's crazy for June even in the frozen tundra. In closing, I hope your day was a good one and that tomorrow is, too. I'll catch you then!