Owl Week- Pirate Owl

As Stampin Up demonstrator you get to preview and preorder items from upcoming brochures- the new holiday mini has a set called Season of Hugs for the build a bear that was just perfect for the idea I had for the owl pirate. The proportion for the sword was just perfect don't you think? I also realized after making the graduate card that the sock monkey accessories has a cap that would have perfect. It can all be mixed and matched like Mr Potato head! You gotta Love It!

I embossed crumbcake basecard using the Tim Holtz woodgrain EF from sizzix (I thought it looked like waves and foam ) and punched the lower border with the scallop border. I used Matey map - retired jumbo wheel from SU- onto bliss blue CS using marina mist. The palm trees are from Tropical Party set- inked with chocolate chip, olive and wasabi on white and cut out. The sentiment and the skull and crossbones was from Pirate Billy from Pink Cat Studi*s onto a white CS that I free cut and distressed.

The Owl was punched in pumpkin pie - lopped off the feet, then again in black then lopped off the top to create the pants. I made the peg leg by cutting off the toes to the left and right and keeping just the center to create the peg. The belly was punched in red and Crushed concord stripe added with the marker. I added the twine rope and knotted it 3 times and ran it through to the back and opened up the fibers to tack it down without adding so much bulk (this was for the SCS challenge F4A23 Sideswiped) and I though it added a fun nautical touch.

I have a few more owl creations for you all to see- one that is now my new favorite so stop by and check it out.

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Owl Week- the graduate

When I was playing around with the owl punch, I realized that the larger eye circle looked like glasses when I made it in black so I had to make a graduate out of him/her. The color challenge on Splitcoast this week was Pear Pizazz, Daffodil and crushed concord CC281 and the sketch challenge was http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/card-sketches-f41/sketch-challenge-291-07-28-10-a-t500336.html The base is Crushed concord, with pear pizazz and old DSP from Stampin Up Saleabration years ago ( I am really trying to use up my DSP's that I have been hoarding for SO LONG!) but it was more saffron than daffodil, so I punched some flowers in daffodil- using non SU punch from long ago as well- with purple stickles in the center for some sparkle. The hat and the glasses handle were free hand cut. The A+ is from First Day set from the mini adn the congratulations from Perfect Punches from the new catalogue stamped in crushed concord on pear and daffodil CS and cut out or punched out.

I spent what seemed like a long time making that graduation cap, strung a purple waxed linen thread with a black brad and stuck a dimensional on it and in the middle of making my owl, it disappeared. Now I had an occasion when I was making some punch animals, a crucial piece I had cut out disappear, had to make a new piece, to find out later that it was stuck to my bottom of my pants! So I danced around like a dog chasing its tail, dropped on the floor to see if it fell, dragged through my garbage to see if I threw it out-




only to find it stuck on my mono adhesive handle when I flipped it over to glue something- ever have this happen to you?

I made me cackle at my own stupidity. Hope your day goes better than mine...... if this is any indication as to how it is going to go.


Lynda

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Hello Kitty Birthday

My life is filled with boys and all boy paraphenalia- legos, cars, building blocks. Still, when I went on line and saw that Hello Kitty Sizzix dies were on sale, I bought them. Why? I don't know... I just WANTED them. I thought maybe some day I will have granddaughters- when? well, considering my kids are still under 10 I think I got a long time to wait. But I found out that one of my friends' little girls is celebrating her birthday this week so I revelled in the chance to make a card with this die. The base card is pirouette pink, the blue DSP is retired SU from Sale-a bration a while back, the clouds are die cut from MFT cloud trio die with whisper white, the largest is stamped with sentiment from On your Birthday set in basic black. The DSP for the dress is Sending Love- retired with melon mambo, celery and so saffron DSPballoons.

If your birthday is close, hope you have a good one!

Lynda

Owl Week- Christmas in July- the Santa

This wraps up my owl week of cards. I was dreaming of the owl santa- I tried to use the sock monkey santa hat but it was a tad big so had to cut it down a bit and used the white CS with 2 way glue pen to add dazzling diamond to add a bit a sparkle which really enhance the santa. The eyes are soft suede, the buckle, brushed silver. The sack is the owl punched in whisper white turned upside down and trimmed down to make the sack look more round.

The chimney is real red, scored with empressor to create brick lines. The roof is chocolate chip with circles cut in half to add as tiles. The DSP is retired SU Christmas Cocoa with Four the Holidays sentiment in Grey for a subtle look. The owl is mounted with dimensionals to make it pop a bit.

I had so many sketches I played with this week using the owl punch but these were all I had time to finish- hope you enjoyed it!


Lynda

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Owl Week- Witch with a broom

I put away all my halloween stamps and can't seem to be able to find them in my mountain of a mess room but was able to dig this one out. It's an old Stampin up set called Web Wishes. Stamped the spiderweb and sentiment on a retired SU DSP Cast a Spell in black. I used little black crystals and used black marker pen to create little spiders.

The owls was punched in concord grape with black shoes and hat free cut. Belly and hat band from same DSP. Eyes in pumpkin pie and broom is a piece of owl belly in pumpkin pie shred cut abd wrapped around a piece of suede CS.
The whole thing is mounted onto the concord grape cardstock - although it looks more blue here, oh well.

Wait, does Halloween come before Thanksgiving? Oh well....

Stay tuned for tomorrow's owl reveal!

Lynda

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Owl Week- the pilgrims

This is my favorite from this week. The owls are punched in chocolate chip. I cut off the ears on one of them, layered the bellys punched in soft suede, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip to make the feathers. The eyelids and the belly is pumpkin. The little gobble thing is half a heart from the owl punch in red. The pilgrim hat was a flower pot upside down with a strip of white and suede piece with an 1/8 inch circle punched in center and cut off into a little square to make a buckle. The firearm was free hand cut with the trigger punched with an 1/8 inch hole punch with soft suede handle. As the holiday mini for this year has not started yet I used the SU retired DSP Autumn Meadows from this past year and the Sentiment is from Grateful Greetings stamped in versamark and embossed using white EP. Mount the whole thing onto pumpkin pie CS, wrap 1/8 expresso ribbon and mount the whole thing on chocolate chip basecard.

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Owl Week- the Newlyweds

I have had so much fun this weekend playing with my owl punch- I have a really fun week planned for you with a different holiday owl every day.

We're starting with the Newlywed owls. The base card is whisper white with pirouette pink CS embossed with vintage wallpaper embossing folder using the selective embossing technique I described before using the oval frame to create the center clearing. The owls are punched in black and melon mambo with white center and Sending Love DSP (retired) belly for the vbride and pattern repeated in her eyelids, his lapel flower and bowtie (freehand cut). Instead of punching out a large spectacle like eyes, I just punched another circle same as the white (the smaller circle) and layered it to peek out a little - red on the groom and sending love DSP on the bride. The bridal veil is a piece of organza ribbon, gathered at the head using sticky strip and accented with pearls from the new bling set from SU. The top hat is free hand cut using little strips of black and used the glue pen to add a little line of dazzling diamond glitter. The leaves are from the large bird punch. The sentiment is from Teeny tiny wishes set on a 1/2 strip of whisper white folded into a banner. So sweet.... Tune in tomorrow for the next surprise owl card.


Lynda

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Gavin's Birthday Card

Tyler was invited to a birthday party for another 9 year old- As I was leaving for work, I left several boy birthday cards for him to pick to sign- an ice cream cone card, a sock monkey and one of my Hoppy Birthday card showing Frog Billie. I thought they were really cute but I was told that these were "like preschool" and that I needed to up the cool factor.

As I had only 20 minutes until they were actually leaving for the party, I did a quick variation on another card that I made earlier since I had some of the pieces already cut for a class. Using motorcycle stamp in basic black, colored in with red marker and creamy caramel for the shadow, mounted on basic grey then I used an old screw brads that I got somewhere. Embossed heavy duty aluminum food containers with the texture plate using big shot, stamped the sentiment from Crazy for cupcakes, alphabet from a retired SU set and mounted gears punched out in burshed silver CS using dimensionals. Tyler said it was- "okay". That is probably as much excitement I can conjure up from a 9 year old boy about a birthday card he was going to give away to another boy in a few minutes. Oh well- maybe some day he will appreciate this.

Lynda

Redoing the clingmount instructions for Stampin' up

You all know I love clingmounted stamps and have been converting my woodmounted to cling YEARS before Stampin Up finally came around to the idea. I am super glad that they did keep the rubber because the images from rubber is so much nicer than the clear stamps that are also quite popular now days and vary in quality quite a bit.

But I myself and others have complained that the stamps with the clingmount, once the image is put on the back with that clear image seems to not cling as well as the gray clingmount foam without the image.

But I really like having the image in the back so I can see what I am stamping- hence the popularity of the "clear" stamps.

So, although this is a little extra work, I want to show you my semi-solution to this. It is a bit more work but I think worth the effort in the long run.

I first trim the extra rubber around the edge with the scissors at an angle so I will not cut into the foam surface side- you will trim a little of the foam but try not to cut off the base because you want to keep as much of the cling base surface area as possible.

I also had trouble with mounting the clear sticker on the back and getting it centered just right- you know what happens to your eyes after 40?

So this part is the extra work- I trim the sticker sheet as tightly to the image as possible as shown- you can see the diecut margins so it gives you about 1/8-1/4 inch clearance all around. I did this while watching TV and it went really fast.

Then I pull off one side of the sticky side cover- it is always scored like this which makes it easy. It gives you the other side to hold onto and makes centering it on the foam much easier.

I put the sticky on the back of the stamp as it should be- watching the orientation. So half will be stuck and the other half can be lifted as shown.

Now that you have the sticky exactly where you want it, you can just peel of the other half of the sticky and stick it on the grey foam.

This is what it looks after after you place the sticky on completely.


I think this is much easier and exact than trying to put the stamp onto the sticker with the sticky side up as they instructed because the sticker always seem to pull up from the cling for me and I just had a lot of trouble with it.

Now just peel off the backing and you have a perfectly placed image with clearance around the edge of the stamp of the just grey foam cling and it seems to just cling better.

Care for the raw grey cling is the same- rinse off if you lose the cling to rid of dirt.

The card at the beginning is a simple take ten card thank you for my customers this month- using vintage wallpaper embossing folder on Poppy cardstock- I can see that it will be my go to color this year. The dotted scallop ribbon border is just perfect! The image is from the Cute by the Inch hostess set stamped in Poppy ink on whisper white and mounted on Crumbcake CS punched with scallop square punch and the whole thing mounted with a dimensional to raise it up a bit. Another easy peasy card. I have a few variation ideas on this I will show you another time.

Lynda

Luce San Francisco

I married well. Not money- but rich. Rich in tradition, rich in love, rich in interest. I also married into a foodie family. Whenever my BIL Rodney from NYC get together with us we try to find a new and fun place to go and have a foodie experience.



On the drive into the city for dinner last night my MIL gave me an article in the NY times about an ice cream store in the Mission district that makes unusual -to say the least with lots of meat and liquor items- ice cream flavors that they wanted to try this weekend. We were discussing how Chris Cosentino was trying to make a foie gras flavored vodka. Obviously not your usual driving conversation

We were emailing each other months before he came out to visit this time as to where we wanted to try. Chef Dominique Crenn's Luce in San Francisco had just earned their first Michelin star and we wanted to try it out. It is on corner of Howard and 4th avenue inside the Intercontinental Hotel. (Just around the corner from the Mission and 5th Avenue garage-hint for parking)

They have a tasting menu which we decided to try and it did not disapppoint. It started with an amuse bouche of corn soup with a whimsical popcorn in the center and basil oil.

The courses are laid out from sun rise to sunset. The "Dawn" course was Kumomoto oysters with beet and passion fruit. It was served on a long bed of salt which was visully stunning and the passion fruit was surprisingly good with the fresh sea flavor of the oyster and lingered nicely on my tongue. This was paired with an australian wine Leng's Cooter Riesling which was really nice. (I am usually the designated driver so only get to taste a teeny sip- but would like to have had a whole glass of this.)

This is followed by "Soil". Summer vegetable garden with parsnip and carrot puree- with baby beets, marinated carrots, squashes, and crunchy bits of "soil" that my kids would have loved.

"Herb's garden" was for me the biggest surprise. Celery leaf sorbet- which was amazing on top of roasted quinoa- did I hear that right? - little bits of crunchy goodness- I had one of those- I have to try to make this at home-moments with this one. Sorrel chips were to die for.

The "Wilderness" course was rare venison, bulgur wheat, kumquat and cranberry salad. It was perfect, tender, flavorful without any gaminess at all- althought the curly toast on the side seemed more showy then necessary.

This was Coconut snow- shaved frozen coconut milk- really clean and refreshing- but alas just one big spoonful.

The "Sea" course was Lobster tail and foie gras on israeli couscous and sea urchin foam. So absolutely delicious- I would not change this dish in any way- although I could have eaten three of these because I have such a great appetite- the portions were quite generous for a tasting menu.

The "Farm " course was Beef cheeks with gigantic beans, chantrelle mushrooms,, citrus salad with rhubarb foam and watercress.

It was really tender and incredibly rich. The ESCA cabernet souvignon paired with it was really well balanced and cut the richness really nicely- the little I had to taste- the designated driver thing does get to you at these delicious moments...

The " Winter sky" that followed was hard to photograph in all its whiteness. Pineapple tapioca, lychee gelee, goat cheese, macaroon and coconut foam in a white dish.

The "Fromage" was Epoisse- a really stinky soft cheese- the kind that this adopted family just loves- served with mojave raisin clusters, kumquats in honey over hazelnut soil served on a long slate "plate".

The last serving was chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. Even the white thing in the center was cocoa nibs ice cream which despite its whiteness had chocolate essence. It was all served with little dollops of passion fruit puree. Not my favorite (because- gasp!- I am not a big chocolate fan) but still a decent end to a spectacular meal.

The tasting menu was $85 per person with wine pairing extra but for what you get and great service not bad at all compared to other places where I had less than stellar service and food for much more.

I think it is unfortunate that this fine restaurant is attached to the Intercontinental hotel. As a destination restaurant for a leisurely meal with good company, I thought it was fantastic. The service was great. When we arrived my MIL mentioned that the seat she had was too well air conditioned and they promptly responded to adjust it. It was somewhat empty for such a great restaurant and I had read widely mixed reviews so had some reservations before I went. If you are traveling and looking for a quick inexpensive meal this would not fit your bill and I can see why some people did not rate it so well. There were many single diners who seemed to be enjoying their meal though and I, myself, certainly would not hesitate going there again- even with my finicky eating friends.

I had a lot of friends ask about other places I have been to and I really enjoy new and sometimes what many would think "odd" tasting and eating experiences. Some of these places I write about may not be a place that suits everyone but I think Luce's menu is fun, perfectly executed, and although some combinations are unusual I think it would still be pleasing to most people- unless you have issues with foie gras but I am sure they can accomodate you. I would give Luce a hearty Lynda thumbs up- WAY UP!