Swan Song

How about all that new Verve that was released last night?? What an awesome batch of new photopolymer! Today, I have another card that I made with the elegant Swan Song set. I love that there are two swans, one facing left and one facing right. Use them individually, or put them together to make sweet lovebirds. Another great thing is that there are the cutest little legs, too (separate stamps), so you can even turn them into peacocks! Check out Julee's peacock HERE - how cool is that?!?

The layout is Jen's Sketch For You To Try for the week. Visit i{heart}2stamp to see the sketch, Jen's sample, and guest designer Gretchen Belknap's sample, then head over to the rest of the sample-making crew for more inspiration: Amy Rohl, Kelly Lunceford, and Susan Liles (who, in case you haven't seen or heard yet, is one of Splitcoast's newest Dirty Dozen designers. Woot!!). Carole, who is taking an short break right now, celebrated her birthday yesterday, so if you get a chance, stop by her blog to leave her some birthday love!

I stamped the swan onto ivory card stock, added some very light blue shadowing to the feathers using a BG0000 Copic marker, then painted on some Angel Wings Shimmerz for some extra zing. The crystal flourish is by Zva Creations. The designer papers I used are from the Ooh La La "For Him" collection by My Mind's Eye. I love the colors in these! The little ruled circle with the dotted perimeter that's behind the swan is one of the die-cuts from the MME paper kit.

Before I go, I wanted to answer a comment that I got today (Saturday) about blog feeds and subscriptions by email. The concern raised was a very valid one involving timing. Here's an example, if I post on Friday about Verve's release party that is happening that same night, most subscribers will not get that day's blog feed in their email until the early morning hours of the next day (or Saturday). Guess what? The release party is already over :( Same thing with challenges and giveaways - by the time you get my feed by email, the deadline may have passed already. Very frustrating, I know! I do try hard to promote and announce time-sensitive things a day or more in advance to give email subscribers plenty of notice.

But here are two options for how YOU can help make sure you get more timely updates:

1.) Change your Feedblitz delivery settings from "Nightly" to "Hourly." Here's how:
- go to http://www.feedblitz.com/ and log in
- click the "subscriptions" tab
- you'll see a drop-down box in the right corner. It says "Pick One of Your Subscriptions." Choose Pickled Paper Designs.
- In the main portion of the page, you'll have a list of options, such as "New," "Your Subscriptions," "Restore," etc. Choose "Scheduling."
- Where it says "How often do you want FeedBlitz to check for new articles?" I expect you'll see "Nightly (using the configured time zone)" If so, use the drop-down box to change to "Hourly."
- Be sure to click the "Update Schedule" button for your change to take effect.

Now Feedblitz will check for new feeds every hour, so as soon as it finds one, your email will be generated, and hopefully the timeliness problem will be a thing of the past!

The only possible downside is that you will likely increase the number of emails you get from Feedblitz. If, for example, you changed all your subscriptions to hourly, then instead of one email with a bunch of posts from different blogs, you might get a bunch of emails, each with only one post from that one blog.

Which is why you may want to ....

2.) Consider using Google Reader for blog updates. New blog posts generally show up in my Reader within about 30 minutes. Since Google Reader is not email-based, you are also not impacted by any third-party email problems (downtimes, delays, crashes, etc.), which neither of us will have any control over. I love Google Reader and have moved the vast majority of my blog roll to it. (I'll try NOT to take it personally if my Feedblitz subscription numbers drop off drastically {grin}).

I hope the above info helps out, and if you ever have any other questions or problems with feeds and subscriptions, I'll do my best to help!

Have a great weekend!



Stamps: Swan Song (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey Vintage Cream and Aqua Mist, My Mind's Eye Ooh La La For Him dp collection
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Always Artichoke
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 1, Classic Circle, and Blossom Nestabilities, Fiskars lace border punch, Zva Creations and Swarovski crystals, Angel Wings Shimmerz paint, Michael's paper flowers, Stampin' Up taffeta ribbon, foam adhesive