Starry, Starry Night

Do you have any stamps that just make you completely happy? Ok, most of my stamps make me happy - but this one just makes me smile from ear to ear when I look at it!! It's from smARTworks, and it's called "Faux Van Gogh #2". This is my favorite painting, but more on that in a minute - I'll tell you about the card first! I decided to play along with the Featured Stamper challenge over on Splitcoast tonight. This week it was Wendybell, and I chose this card of hers to CASE, because I loved how she did the sentiment, I thought it looked somewhat like a painting hanging on a wall. :-) I already knew I wanted to use this stamp tonight, so I had that in mind as I looked through her wonderful gallery. So I used her layout, and I distressed the edge of the white mat because she seems to like that, but otherwise I pretty much changed everything about my card! I chose the sentiment "So Happy" because this stamp makes me so happy!! I basically stamped purely for fun tonight, even though I really shouldn't have, because I have about a zillion and one OTHER things I should have tried to get done. But... I spent most of the day cleaning my disaster of a house, so I figured I had earned it. Hopefully my DT bosses will see it that way too, LOL! I colored the stamp directly with my markers, then attempted to do cracked glass over the image - it didn't really crack them much, and the few cracks that are there are really difficult to see. Oh well! And of course I had to grab the D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder, just for fun. I love this stamp, I hope to find time to play with it again... especially in the next week or so, to make a birthday card for my Uncle Bruce (keep reading...) :-) Thanks for stopping by!

• Stamps: Faux Van Gogh #2 from smARTworks, Fancy Flexible Phrases from SU
• Paper: Brilliant Blue, Ballet Blue, Neenah Solar White
• Ink: Brilliant Blue, Stampin' Up markers
• Accessories: UTEE, Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder, oval punches, hardware, star brad, grosgrain ribbon, Jody ribbon

So are you hanging on the edge of your seat, wondering why this is my favorite painting?? Well - for those of you who've been with me for a while now, I mentioned some time ago about my Uncle Bruce. Uncle Bruce has been playing guitar & singing for as long as I can remember, my life has been filled with family gatherings sitting in the livingroom listening, humming & smiling as Uncle Bruce played. One of the songs he plays is "Vincent" by Don McLean. Do you know it? "Starry, starry night. Paint your palette blue and grey. Look out on a summer's day, With eyes that know the darkness in my soul..." It's such a beautiful and sad song - just as Vincent's life was beautiful and sad! Well what the heck, here it is, if you're at all curious!

(The sound doesn't work on my laptop, I sure hope that sounds ok - I'll check it on the other desktop tomorrow....!)
And now I can't resist posting this as well!! In November 2000 I got to see my favorite painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City! Yay!! :-)