Inkyheart

A couple of mini-projects suitable for holiday Make n Takes

I've been posting these to the Prima blog over the last couple of weeks and you'll have to go there for details (and a prize drawing!).  But I thought I would share them here, just in case you didn't see them.  You know how my mind works.  I sometimes see things in craft products that others don't even after I've made them.  LOL!  But that's artistic license for you.  :)  Sometimes things just need to come to life...

Frosty Christmas Tree - made with 'lollipop' flowers.  Ask your local store about this project as a make n take.  Now available from Prima as a little kit!

 
Winter Fairy

 

And now I'm working on a Make n Take for the Prima booth at CHA and finalizing details for January classes and such.

Tomorrow night I'm hitting the theatres at 12:01am for the midnight premiere of "New Moon" with Brianna.  A little Mommy & Me time before I jet out in the early morning to South Carolina.

See you on the road!

Winner Winner! And some fun wax art too...

Did you have a great weekend?  I really did.  We celebrated the 'twinkies' 9th birthdays and today I got to take a 'sanity day' and spent the day down at Suze Weinberg's Design Studio.  I'll tell more about that in a minute. 

Because I know what you are looking for!

Who gets their pick of the big prize for the 2010 Copic Team Celebration?  Well first I want to say 'Thank You!' for the amazing response and making the newest members of the team feel welcome. 

There were 404 comments on this blog alone, and I did my best to go through them all.  I really enjoyed reading them and forwarded several to the company for their consideration for 'phase 2'. :)

But for the moment we have a winner to announce.  So without any further delay:

 
And that comment belongs to:

Sue said...

Copic markers are great as they are so versatile and can be used in many different projects. The certification classes are great and all the tips from the blogs are extremely helpful.

Thanks, Sue!  I've sent an e-mail to the e-mail address logged by Typepad and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Today, I took a class with Margot Potter, making a necklace and then the fabulous Suze herself - who got me to explore wax in new ways.  while I'd played with the wax stylus before, I hadn't really done the melt it on, brush it on, blow it around with a TORCH.  Yes, a Torch! version of encaustic wax art.

I've got a couple of those pieces to show you. 

First, we did an image transfer - and good golly, I am NOT good at image transfer.  Whether it's too much water, too much rubbing the paper, whatever - I always lose parts of my image.  But the nice thing about the wax medium is just how forgiving it is.  Don't like it?  Do it again!

 
This board is covered with a white beeswax base, followed by Pan Pastels and Perfect Pearls.  A Prima butterfly and pearl swirl adorn the transfered photo of Marilyn Monroe - although I hear diamonds are a girls' best friends...  Marilyn is the epitome of metamorphosis and the beauty and fragility of the butterfly.

I used a script stamp (thanks, Randa!) to simulate an autograph in the lower left also.  I like how it turned it in the end.

Our second piece was an exploration of the colored waxes.  The ladies dribbled, dabbed, painted, stamped into.. you name it.  And the torches were going wild...  my creme brulee torch is never going to see a creme brulee after today.  The torch is taking up residence in the craft area.  (as it should be)  LOL!

 
I LOVE how this one turned out, although it is impossible to capture the Plum Perfect Pearls in all its glory.

I came home from Suze's Studio after making a Christmas Present run; while Neil took the kidoodles to the Rain Forest cafe for dinner. 

And even though I'd been gone the day, Neil took care of everything while I puttered about putting the finishing touches on my projects and getting a little somethin' somethin' ready for the Prima blog this week.  (no peeking!)  Shhhh!  but I will see you there on Wednesday.

And then oh my goodness, I'm out the door on Friday for SOUTH CAROLINA!  I'm looking forward to the workshps at Scrappin' Creations and The Stamping Place and Scrapbook Station this coming weekend as well as the big Copic certfication class on Sunday.

Could life be any sweeter?  Don't ask me, after these three birthday weekends and four birthdays later, I'm all caked out!  But I want to wish each of you a great week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Sweet Baby - Single-layer card

The inbox overflows with e-mails since yesterday's blog post.  Wow!!!  Thanks for the great response!  With the massive influx of new readers, there are a few questions that I thought could be quickly answered with this card as well as the one I posted yesterday.

'What is a single-layer card?' 

A single-layer card is simply your cardstock folded in half to form the card.  No additional layering.  Traditionally, if you tried to color this type of card with Copic Markers, your coloring work would bleed through to the inside front of the card.  So many stampers who like this style have resorted to layering the inside of their card with copy-weight paper. 

'Where can I get the paper?  Is it available at wholesale?' 

I have had soooooo many retailers asking me where they could purchase a cardstock that allowed this type of coloring.  So I worked closely with Couture Cardstock, testing several paper samples that they sent me - and we finally found one that was just right.  And so voila!  One Sheet Wonder came into being.  

I do want it clearly understood that while I proudly endorse this product in addition to the new Detail Blending Paper, I have no financial relationship with the company.  CarrieAnn and Chip are a delight to work with and I look forward to demoing with them at the CHA show in Anaheim this Winter.  This paper fills a need. It was very important to me, since I meet so many lovely store owners in my travels, to find a paper that would suit this purpose AND be available at your local store for purchase.

'What can you do with an airbrush?". 

One of my favorite things to do with an airbrush is to color over stencils to create a soft, monochromatic tone-on-tone look.  But sometimes it is fun to just get colorful too.  So for today's card, I grabbed my Spellbinders die and airbrushed around and inside to create this bright, happy card.

On Halloween night I was introduced to a little guy named Henri.  What a cute little bundle!!!  His Mom and Dad got the squirming little Henri into his costume for some picture taking.  It was delightful to watch.  He was the inspiration for this single-layer card.

I used the following Copic Sketch Markers:

Along with the ABS-1 and a Spellbinders die, placed over the image and masking off the stamped "Baby Pumpkin' and interior with paper while airbrushing.

 
So even a single-layer card can have a layered effect, with an airbrushed background and a little masking to create depth.

Remember to be sure and leave a comment on yesterday's post.  My drawing is open until midnight (Eastern) on Saturday.  The perfect cap to a day full of birthday party celebrations for the 'twinkies'.  I cannot believe they are going to be 9!

And because there are so many new readers I'll share a little bit about the fam too. 

Here is a scrapbook layout from ages ago.  Cameron had a thing about copying Courtney.  The Bear in the Big Blue House t-shirts were easy, but the hat and 'gwoves' (aka socks on his hands) will never be forgotten.

 
Why do you call them 'twinkies'?

Nine years ago I had these two babies on Thanksgiving.  When folks asked me what I did for Thanksgiving, I replied, "I had fifteen pounds of Twinkies!".  Yep seven and eight pounds.  Good lord, but we were thankful for healthy happy (and loud!) babies that day.  A little boy and a girl to join my then 2-year old Brianna.  Amazing how time flies... And to this day people ask me if they are identical.  I reply they are a boy and a girl.  'Yes, but are they identical?'  What can you do but smile and nod slowly?  LOL!

Have a great day!

 

 

Copic Team Announcement!

In response to the high demand for Copic Certification Classes and instruction throughout the United States and Canada, it is with great excitement that I announce the addition of some fabulous new designers and instructors in 2010 to the Copic Team.

 

 
Debbie Olson

Michelle Wooderson

Sharon Harnist

Sherrie Siemens

Sally Lynn MacDonald*

 

 
United States:

Northwest: Sherrie Siemens / Marianne Walker

Southwest:  Marianne Walker

Northern Midwest / Chicago:  Kathy Sanders

Central  Midwest:  Lori Craig

Southern Midwest:  Sharon Harnist

South:  Colleen Schaan

Northeast*:  Sally Lynn MacDonald

*My region includes pre-approved locations for 2010 throughout the U.S. and Canada.  You can see these locations on my Google Map.

Canada:

Western Canada:  Sherrie Siemens

Eastern Canada:  Sally Lynn MacDonald*

 

Floaters:

Debbie Olson & Marianne Walker

And in celebration, we are going to have a PRIZE drawing! 

 

Winner gets their choice of either an ABS-1 or any 12 Sketch Colors!

Please leave me a comment letting us know either how you use Copics / which Copic products you use/why you love them or Why you wish you had Copics.

 

There will be 2 ways to win:

1. One winner from each blog will be randomly chosen.

 

2. We will be reading through comments as well. If we find a testimonial that we really like then we will contact that person to use their story for our CHA booth and they would then be given an equal prize to the random winners. Make your comments good! There will probably be 2 or 3 winners chosen total. These will not be announced right away.

 

Blogs to visit:

 

Marianne Walker  http://www.ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/

Debbie Olson  http://debbiedesigns.typepad.com/muse_and_amuse/

Sherrie Siemens  http://sherrie-cardcreme.blogspot.com/

Sally Lynn MacDonald  http://www.inkyheart.typepad.com/

Sharon Harnist  http://paperfections.typepad.com/paperfections/

Lori Craig  http://loricraig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/

Colleen Schaan  http://www.distinctivetouches.com/

Michelle Wooderson  http://michellewooderson.blogspot.com/

 

You have until midnight (Eastern), Saturday, November 14th to comment.

 

And while you are checking out some blogs take a look at Couture Cardstock.  I've been working in close cooperation with the company to develop a product that would work well for use with Copic Markers.  Today I'm happy to annouce that they are releasing the first two products in the Pure Silk Collection: Detail Blending Paper and One Sheet Wonder.

http://www.couturecardstock.com/detail-blending-paper-m.html

 

http://www.couturecardstock.com/one-sheet-wonder-m.html

I love working with these papers!  They are available for purchase at retail and wholesale and shipping next week.

 

Here is a single-layer card using One Sheet Wonder.  Even with repeated coloring over and over an area I experienced no bleed through.  I'm very excited about this product.

 

I look forward to reading your comments.  Have a great day.

 

SL

The Real {Glimmer} Thing...

What you see is what you get.  Programmers and techies call this WYSIWYG (pronouned wizzywig).  As if we needed an acronym like that.  But the concept applies to so many things and is an important feature of any product. 

• If what you see on the viewscreen of your camera doesn't represent the photo you've taken - that's troublesome.
• If what you type on the screen didn't look like that when you printed it out - troublesome.
• If what you see in a bottle of colored spray isn't what it looks like when you spray it onto something - troublesome.

Well I encountered the last scenario in a couple of ways over the last few weeks.  On Halloween night I was NOT happy to have to spray hair color I purchased which was CLEARLY advertised on the lid and labeling as a bright cherry red, to come out in in a wimpy and dismal attempt at giving me any color to my hair at all.  Let's just call it cherry fizz-led.

And more applicable to you, my dear readers, last weekend I was up in Indiana teaching workshops and came across a competitor Glimmer Spray product.  I'm not going to name it, but suffice it to say that it looked like *BAM* in the bottle but went ~FIZZLE~ on the project.  Definitely NOT WYSIWYG. 

So I went on a mission to find out the why Glimmer Mist DOES work as well as it does as compared to some of the newcomers I've seen on the shelves recently.

In the interest of full disclosure I do not work for Tattered Angels.  I am not paid by Tattered Angels and I am not currently on their design team, although I was until my term ended at the end of October.  I do teach classes with their products; which is why I intend to know as much about the product as possible.  I'm all about quality and working with the best product possible in my classroom.

So let's talk about what makes Glimmer Mist a better product in my opinion:

Behind the Scenes

First - take a look at the bottle.  The top of the bottle, where there is no liquid does not look crystal clear.  There is a reason for this - and it is because there is so much gorgeous dye in this product that the bottle itself gets stained.  It isn't watered down so that the packaging looks clear - it's chock full of color. 

If you want a good representation of what the mist in the Glimmer Mist looks like, there is a sprayed label on the back of the bottle that will give you a great idea of what color you get.  WYSIWYG!  So take a look 'behind the scenes' and don't let other product's first impressions fool you.

What Lies Beneath

The second thing you should look for is the glimmer.  Take a look at the bottom of this bottle.

 
Unlike the competition, Glimmer Mist is much more than just white pearlized powder in there.  These colors are mixed to give you beautiful combinations of the glimmer and the mist.  They don't just give you a colored spray over a white pearl glimmer.  Sure, they have a Pearl color of Glimmer Mist -- and it is one of the products I use when I don't want to change the color of my project but just add glimmer.  The rest of the colors are more specialized and customized to give you an amazing combination on your finished project.  This picture is of the bottom of the bottle of Pashmina Glimmer Mist.  This is the glimmer. 

And that is why I tell my students to look at both the color of the mist and to look at what lies beneath to see the color of the glimmer.  Blended together, they create the subtle glimmer and punch of color that makes Glimmer Mist such a great product.

The Jack-O-Lantern Glimmer Mist, for example, has a terracotta mist and a green/gold glimmer.  How much more WYSIWYG could you get?

What You See Is What You Get

Glimmer Mist is water-based, archival safe, acid-free, and non-toxic. Glimmer Mist is safe for and adheres to all types of materials including paper, acrylic, metal, and fabric.

If I spray a piece of white paper, a Glimmer Chip (light cream in color to start) and a Prima Flower - I will get three items that coordinate beautifully together.

This Prima Flower is not sprayed with Glimmer Mist yet.  For the purpose of my project I chose a flower that had some light green petals and stamens.  I want to make these Pashmina in color to match my project.

 

And take a look at the same flower with Glimmer Mist in Pashmina applied.

 

The cardstock and "Glimmer Chip' show their contrast against the torn edge of the paper and the unsprayed center of the alphabet frame.  Look at the difference in the flower, with color applied over its original color.  Glimmer Mist is translucent, so it doesn't cover the flowers original hues completely, but the light colors now have a Pashmina overlay to them.

My camera simply cannot capture the beauty of the glimmer.

The Gift that Keeps on Glimmering

My birthday was yesterday, and eleven years ago Brianna was a lovely present...

She is just the Energizer Bunny when it is her turn at goalie.  Non-stop action.  And yet such a girly-girl.

So while she and her sister went with Daddy to a 'Me and My Guy' hayride last night, I wrapped some birthdy presents for her.  And because you can get such lovely results against a white backdrop, I added some Sweet Pea, Patina and Sunflower to her packages from the roll of recycled paper that we use for drawing to make a pretty, glimmery gift wrap for her presents.

 

So when you see this product, take a closer look and know that you are getting a quality product that will give you not only the color you expect but a glimmer that goes beyond the pearl and color that is vibrant and truly as advertised on the label.

 

Happy Birthday, B.!  I look forward to celebrating some more after goalie practice tonight.

:) SL

Tote-ally cool storage

I was teaching classes in Indiana this weekend; and one of my students (Patti-Jo, who had driven 12 hours each way from Ontario!) had the most PERFECT solution for coloring on the go. She had the 24-marker wallets for her entire collection of Copics, and they were placed inside this Creative Memories tote: called the Daisy Tools Caddy. She had two caddies, and this held her entire collection of all the Copic colors, PLUS the top portion of the caddy holds inkpads, stamps, multi-liners, etc.

Needless to say, I got home and found it online.

I love the small overall footprint of the case, and it's functionality. You take out the Velcro-d dividers that make it into four compartments and use just the space inside for your 24-marker wallets. Hers were folded with the marker colors exposed so you could see what was where.

I do have the clear plastic 72-marker clear cases for my markers; and those are lovely for being at home -- but too often, I'm traveling with my markers, whether to friends or to teach. I had stacked them into my rolling tote; but having witnessed what happens to them when I used to ship that way for UPS for my classes - I want something more shatter-resistant! I just demoed in Manhattan a couple weeks ago and between trains, taxis and pedestrian traffic; I'm lucky those plastic cases survived.

 

It's my birthday tomorrow - and this is something I got for myself.  LOL!

Sew Busy...

But not too busy to post a new technique and layout featuring the Stitched Mulberry papers on the Prima Artist-Educator blog.

Check it out, and comment over there for a prize drawing! 

I am back from a lovely weekend in Indiana.  I taught at The Doodlebug on Friday and at Paper Chase on Saturday, in addition to the Copic Certification Class on Sunday.  Truly, these were some really nice and fun ladies.  I was exhausted every night - but each day was well worth it.  :)

I've been doing some work behind the scenes in preparation for CHA as well as finalizing details for teaching trips through the end of January.  I really like to have everything in order before the hurricane otherwise known as CHA hits.  LOL!

Upcoming Classes

South Carolina

All three workshops for Saturday, November 21st at The Stamping Place only have 1 or 2 spots left.

I just added one workshop at the nearby Scrappin' Creations for the evening of Friday, November 20th.

Contact the stores for more information.

The Copic Certification Class has seats left with the waitlist being pulled from in the next week or so.  Hurry up and submit those applications!

Texas

We are finalizing selection for the workshops that will be offered on Friday - Saturday, Dec. 11 and 12th.  There will be a Copic: What? How? & Wow? on both days for sure.  The other two will likely be finalized by tomorrow.  It will be inky... ;)

Also, if you aren't aware of it, we added a second date for the Copic Certification Class in San Antonio.  There are just so many of you!  The new location is the Doubletree Hotel.  Because of the larger venue (and more supplies added) we are able to take more applicants for both days.  Hurry up and submit those applications!

Florida

Yes, I finally have a location for Florida.  After much surveying and gnashing of teeth, it was determined that the MOST Copic Dealers that were looking to get certified were on the West Coast.  So our location is Sarasota, Florida.  The registration process will begin on November 10th.  Stay tuned!

Workshops will be posted when more information is available.

California

CHA-Winter is held in Anaheim, California each year.  I will be working, working, working (ah, it's just too much fun to call work!); but I've also talked to one store about teaching a Copic: What? How? & Wow? workshop (or two) before the show.  Stay tuned and more information will be posted when it is available.

**

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween.  It's one of my favorite holidays as I officially age at midnight.  Bwah ha ha!!!

Flipping it over and ruffling it up a bit...

Rusty Things

I attended a workshop with the fabulous Keith Lo Bue at the Art Is...You retreat in Connecticut this past weekend.  It was not unlike my prior workshop experience with Michael deMeng; another artist whose style doesn't suit me -- but oh, are the techniques a blast.  Now don't get me wrong - I can appreciate what these fine, fine artists make.  I would run to take another workshop with either of these men.  I will post more on that experience later -- when I actually finish the piece.  It has really good beginnings - but needs more work.

I just look around the room at the varied and sundry rusted items being utilized in the art works and know that I prefer to take new things and make them look old or antiqued rather than start in the rubbish bin or 'found objects' discarded at the town dump.  That in itself is a good discovery.

Ruffled Things

But I do get the discarded fabric sample books from my local upholstery shop.  They give them to me whenever they discontinue carrying a line.  The objects aren't old, per se, but they are 'found'.

Combine that with the thing that Keith got through to me the most was to PLAY with your objects.  Turn them over in your hand and look at them from other perspectives and let them sing to you.

It's amazing how that one idea affected today's card project!

I received inspiration from the Moxie Fab World (Paper Crafts Magazine) blog to work with ruffles today.  http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2009/10/moxie-fab-world-challenge-not-your.html

I took out a gorgeous sheet of stitched mulberry paper with trim from Prima.

And proceed to flip it over and inspect if from other angles.  Lo and behold, the stitching on the reverse really appealed to me too.  It provided great contrast to the stitched elements on the front.  And the trim?  Gotta have it for this card.

So I cut off the trim with about a 1/4" bit of paper on the side.  I trimmed out a piece of the mulberry paper where the stitched design of a single flower and stem would remain intact.  Then I chose another section, flipped it over and trimmed out a layer for my card from the reverse.

The reverse-flipped paper is a gorgeous cream mulberry similar to the color of the stitching.  I took the edges of this piece and dipped them in Glimmer Mist (Old Lace) and ripped the edges to expose that wonderful mulberry edged look.

I took one of my fabric sample books and found a lovely cream eyelet piece.  I ripped this out of the book and proceeded to the sewing machine.  Now folks, I cannot sew.  Or more accurately, I'm simply not taking the time at this point to do more than hit that foot pedal and make a straight(?) line.  But I do know that if I don't knot my ends (which I never do), I can pull on the loose threads at either end to ruffle it up a bit.  This, in combination with FABRITAC (which is known as 'Fabritaculous' in this household) - will give me a ruffled effect for my cardfront and a base for the card.

So I glued down the fabric and layered on my piece of sequined, ruffled trim over the top of my poor-girl's ruffles.  On top of this goes the reverse mulberry (cream) and then the silhouetted stitched flower from the 'right' side of the paper.

To the stitched flower stem I added two Say It In Crystals centers.  Gosh, they are gorgeous.  A chipboard corner, a little wire word (Fabritaculous again) and some bridal floral pieces from Michaels to embellish.  And at last a little Old Lace Glimmer Mist over the top and it's done.

A perfect card for a true friend.

Copic Things

Texas in December

And now I must return to the administrative portion of my day.  A quick shout-out to all who are applying to attend the Copic Certification Class in San Antonio, Texas.  We added a second day AND I moved the event to a larger venue.  So keep on applying...be open to Sunday (12/13) or Monday (12/14) -- and remember that I will be teaching consumer classes at Stamp Antonio Arts on Saturday (12/12) as well, if you would like to take advantage of these.  One or more of these will be Copic: What? How? and Wow! and an airbrushing-centric class -- so make it a weekend with me!  More even funner (I can't get my kids to stop saying that, so I'll just join them!) details to come.

South Carolina in November

Those who are looking to apply to attend the Copic Certification Class in W. Columbia, South Carolina - the consumer workshops have been posted and are already 2/3rds full - so hurry, if you want to take advantage of them as well.

Indiana in October

For next weekend, the Certification Class is full, but there is still limited space in the three workshops I am teaching with Paper Chase Paper Arts, in Princeton, Indiana.

Because my flights in and out are a bit wonky, I've added a Copic Demo and a workshop at The Doodlebug, in Jasper, Indiana also.  This was filling up fast - so contact them both if you wish to attend.

NYC - um NOW!

Ok, actually tomorrow.  I'll be doing Copic demos at Lee's Art Shop in Manhattan at noon and 3pm tomorrow.  Stop on by!

Some Fun News

As of today I have been working full-time for Prima Marketing, Inc. for a month.  I'm the Director of Special Projects, which means I get to dabble in the far-flung and fantastic so you will be seeing a lot of fun things coming forth from now and leading up to CHA-Winter in Anaheim.

I continue to work with Copic, Ranger and Tattered Angels as an endorsed/certified educator - so from the travel-teaching perspective - nothing has changed.  After all their stuff works so nicely with our stuff.

And that's it for today.  See what happens when I don't post for 14 days?  Goodness!

Brought back to life... to haunt our home

Because I teach on the road all the time, I tend to re-use the boxes that my purchases come in to ship out the class kits and supplies.  Some boxes make two or three trips and get colored on and climbed into by all three kids before they finally get delegated to the recycle bin.

Packaging in all forms can have many uses too, way beyond its original display and protect purposes.  Often I have my students using the packaging for a chipboard alphabet as a faux craft sheet or misting mat, for example.  Clear 'backings' can be used for windows and wherever you would want a transparency.  There are lots of ways to use packaging rather than throwing it away.

Prima has so many clever packages.  Who doesn't have 'milk bottles', round tins and other packaging now used to organize miscellaneous supplies?

So today's project is a re-use of the packaging (I think it's called clamshell?) that came with my Juliette Flowers.  Not only is it durable, but it has a tree limb and birdies on the package.  A fun place to start!

The first thing I did was to take the packaging and spray the surface lightly with Glimmer Mist in Cinder.  This dries in 3-5 minutes on a non-porous surface, depending on how heavilly it is applied.

Second, I did the same with a 4" x 4" piece of Artful Cardboard.  This is my base for the inside design. 

I stamped the pumpkin with green ink and colored it with my Copic markers.  I punched a few holes for arms and leg charms, which were colored with Copics and attached with waxed linen thread.  I then attached it to the base with dimensional adhesive.  I punched a couple holes in the packaging to poke the legs through so they would dangle.

I adhered the owl to the outside of the packaging with Fabritac (works so great for non-porous surfaces!), as well as the chipboard letters.  Finally, I was rummaging through my Halloween folder, and came across a foam stamp that I had NEVER liked.  It just doesn't leave a good impression.  I have a thing about foam stamps - and that is, 'they aren't my thing'.  So I decided rather than chuck the unfortunate foam stamp, I peeled it off the clear mount and adhered it to the package as well.  I used Fabritac to adhere, and then dripped and pulled it around, making use of the 'strings' to make a spider web.  It's so cool -- hard to see here!  But it is clear and flexible, just like a web.

I then attached a brown 'devines' self-adhesive felt, placing leaves here and there under the swirls to adhere. 

I topped it off with a bow (also a reuse from a package of Big Box Blooms) a couple of smaller ribbons and a princess-cut Build a Bauble gem in this great amber color.

And so here is the final decoraton.

So please look at all manner of packaging to see if there is something you can do with it besides putting it in the trash bin.  You never know if it could come back to haunt you!

and the winner is...

using Random.Org's generator:

Marianne Squire Maszer!!

Congratulations!!!

Thank you to everyone for sharing your colorful journey with me.  It's the journey - not the destination, right?  And it's definitely been colorful this year.

Marianne's world just got a bit more colorful.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.