National Book Lovers Day

Yesterday (August 9th) was National Book Lovers Day (side question, shouldn't that be Book Lovers' Day with the apostrophe?) and I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED IT! It's supposed to be a day to set aside for reading. Luckily, I did get in some reading, but I would've made it a party if I'd known it was a special day...like taken my book outside with an iced tea on the swing. Luckily, I can still do that today. 

 

Here are some book facts I found. 
• The first lending library in the U.S. is The Franklin Public Library in Franklin, Massachusetts. In 1778 when the town was incorporated, they changed the name to Franklin to honor Benjamin Franklin. When the asked him to donate a bell, he said he'd donate books for the town's residents because "sense" was preferable to "sound." The original books are still there!
• The Harry Potter books are allegedly the most banned books in the world due to religious complaints.
• Icelandic people read more books than anyone in the world.
• The longest sentence in a printed book is 823 words long and belongs to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
• My daughter and I are both published in different books! (Mine is on the sidebar and hers is here.) 

Here are some cute Oz book charms I think I need to get.

And you know I've got to share a great cupcake featuring books!

This is what I'm reading right now—A Case for Solomon—and it's kinda fascinating. I'd never heard of this historical kidnapping before, and it's so complicated for a lot of reasons. Most interesting to me is that two different mothers claim a 4-year-old boy as theirs, but aren't 100% sure at first. I'd know my kids anywhere, especially at this age. The mothers hadn't seen their sons for 8 months and for 18 months but come on! This isn't an infant to one-year-old...that I would understand. Kids change so much in their first year. But by age 4-5? I don't think so. I'm hoping the book actually wraps up with the answer as to whose child it is, but I'm afraid it won't!

Lastly, to celebrate Book Lovers Day, I'll share a pic of my daughter and her library. She's the librarian at an elementary school and she wrote a grant proposal to get these colorful tables. So proud! Doesn't this look inviting? And she was excited to show off her workplace...considering she taught herself to read at age 3 (yes, that's a mommy brag, lol), this seems to be a perfect job fit!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Best Buds with Doodlebug

I used the cut files I got from Lori Whitlock that are Doodlebug Design. I don't have a cutting machine (just a Big Shot) but I printed these cuties out and added some colored pencils and then trimmed with scissors to add to my card. So happy to know the SVG files can just be printed and used without a Silhouette machine. Doodlebug Design makes me happy!

I'm entering it into the Coffee Loving Spring/Summer Blog Hop. I love this hop--so many prizes, so much inspiration and new companies to explore!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Wanna Color?

I'm part of the Kit and Clowder facebook group and they offer coloring classes. I've only taken the free classes at this point, but I think I'll be taking the skin tones class soon. It's tricky for me and I could use a little instruction. If you're in the FB group, you can often pick up some freebie stamps too.

I watched the free cupcake coloring class video (and picked up the freebie digital) here and it was really helpful! I used what I learned to work on the hair of this little cutie stamp that was free through the FB group.

Then I decided to shake things up and go with blue hair. I used some of this shadow technique and some of the hair coloring techniques I had already picked up. I think the key is in getting the really dark shades and then contrasting with the white/light shades. I added in some white prismacolor pencil on top of the colors too.

You can tell if you look closely that I was coloring in a recliner at night while watching tv...how? I sometimes got a little wild with the pencils and went outside the lines :) But I can always trim these if I want to use them anywhere. And if I end up using this cupcake, you know it'll have Stickles somewhere!

Have you taken online classes? I love them, though I have had a couple that felt less than great, though I did manage to learn something in each one. My favorite so far have been the Kit and Clowder coloring and the Online Watercoloring Card class with Jennifer McGuire. I feel like you get a lot of content for the price with the Jennifer McGuire classes. And if you don't want to spend money, just watch her blog/youtube videos. She's a Master's Degree level instructor...if they had a Master's Degree in Cardmaking!

Happy Friday!

Chark

I Can't Believe I Missed It

You guys! Yesterday was Cupcake Day! Ack! Not only did I miss blogging about it, I missed buying some fancy cupcakes from my favorite bakery, Cake, Hope and Love. I can see that I'll have to make up for that later this week. :)

Here are some of my favorite pins of cupcakes. Easy holiday cupcakes, featuring a mound of icing, which is the whole point of a cupcake.

My absolute favorite cupcake at pretty much any bakery is salted caramel with chocolate cake. I've never made these and I was afraid to try them at first, but oh, my...they are delicious.

And I have made cream-filled cupcakes and they are tasty good, just like this photo suggests.

I occasionally eat white cupcakes with white frosting, but for me, chocolate cupcakes are the first choice. How about you?

Here are some crafy cupcake goodies to celebrate Cupcake Day too! The best part of this Penny Black stamp for me is the Cupcakes Make Me Happy sentiment...cuz, yeah, they do.

I have this Paper Smooches set, along with the dies and it's so fun to add the faces and color these.

I think I need this larger cupcake die from My Favorite Things.

And here's the cutest clay cupcake charm you've ever seen over on Etsy.

Okay, that's all the cupcake goodness for today. Don't forget to check this post to comment to enter for blog candy during the Coffee Loving Blog Hop.

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

CSI Investigation And Inspiration

The folks over at CSI: Color...Stories...Inspiration have a fun challenge up. And you'll have to put on your deerstalker or pick up a magnifying glass to get started. If you enter the challenge, you can win gift certificates!

I get to be a Guest Detective this month at the site, since a2z Scrapbooking Supplies is sponsoring their giveaway and I'm on their DT. It was the first time I played along at CSI, but it was really fun. You pick from the evidence and testimony to create the page, include the (color) scheme and the let the sketch inspire you. Then you get to work cracking the case.

For my page, I used the colors as instructed and then added triangles, cupcake, sprinkles and doodles form the evidence. I added testimony in the form of handwritten journaling with the word grumpy in there and made the title of the page like a Grumpy Cat meme. Fun!

The title is No Really...thanks for the stupid cupcake. My daughter wouldn't pose for me with the cupcake unless she was making a weird face, so it looks to me like she hates the cupcake she's eating. Actually, she enjoyed it, especially since her friends got it for her and it had an octopus ring on it. I used triangle pieces from my favorite triangle die and sequins to make sprinkles, I drew a grumpy cupcake at the top and tried to make my sprinkles fall down the page. I also tried to make the word cupcake look like the fun Thickers stickers (Amy Tangerine Plus One) so I didn't use up all my stickers :)

I used some Hero Arts stamps for the background papers (Talk Bubble stamped on the pink paper and Thanks from Be Happy on the ivory). You can get both of these stamps for $10 over at a2z Scrapbooking right now! 

And, if you use CHARK15 for your coupon code, you'll get 15% any orders of $25 or more! So, you could add in a stencil, some ink and maybe even some flowers and you're practically making money! Ok, you're not, but it does feel good to save money and you'll be doing that...I love a good sale.

Happy Monday! and Happy 79th Birthday to my mom, Mary!! Best. Mom. Ever.
Chark