Let's Get CRRRAAACCKKIN'!



Hey People!!  The E-Team has another fabulous blog hop for you today!!  Daisy challenged us to pull out some of those goodies that we all have stashed away and GET CRACKIN' for the New Year.

Of course, Daisy also has some wonderful goodies for two lucky blog hoppers!! How's this:

TWO winners will receive a BOX FULL of Paper, a sampling of Distress Stickles & Rock Candy Crackle Paint!

It's easy peasy to get your name in the drawing!  Just visit each of the gals listed below for some wonderful eye candy and leave a comment!! Daisy will visit each blog and winners will be chosen from all the comments. 

 

Latrice Murphy

Linda Duke

Linda Ledbetter

Micki Harper

Sherry Cheever

Starla Nelson  *me!

 

You will have all weekend, though Sunday, to visit and leave your comments on each team member's blog and Daisy will chose the winners and announce them on the eP blog on Monday, January 10th.  

 

Today I'm sharing a an oldie, but goodie technique.  Cracked glass.  BUT!! With a little different spin on it!!

 

You can find a wonderfully written tutorial on Cracked Glass on my favorite resource site, SCS.  But, I thought I'd share my twist on today.  Disclaimer (you knew that was coming, right?  The author (aka ME) takes no responsibility for the blurry pictures of the following abbreviated tutorial. It would seem that SOMEONE was more interested in doing the actual project than worrying about how the photos might look!!)

 

I began with a piece of transparency (I used Office Depot's Write On Transparency) and covered it with Versamark ink.  You could also use embossing ink....this is just what I had on hand.  Cover with Ultra Thick Embossing Powder. 

 

Carefully melt the UTEE with your heat gun.  I kept my heat gun close enough to melt the powder, but not too close as to melt the transparency.  Repeat the above steps 3-5 times (I believe I actually repeated 4 times).  Your transparency now has a thick coating on it.  ETA:  I had a comment stating that the transparency would curl when heating.  Yes, it does a bit, especially the first layer.  But, for me, the added layers of UTEE provided a coating and made the transparency thicker and decreased the curling. 



Then stick the coated transparency in your freezer for 3-5 minutes.  Don't panic if the transparency "curls".  Trust me that it WILL flatten out again!! 

 

Immediately after removing the transparency from the freezer, carefully place it in Tim Holtz's Cracked embossing folder and run it through your Big Shot or Cuttlebug or what ever die cutting machine you use.  Don't worry about any cracking that happens to the frozen transparency while trying to put it in the folder.  It will just add to the cracked look.  The result is a clear cracked window!! 

 

How about a close up of that cracked "window"?!

Just ignore that glare off that "glass", haha

 

You would not have to run the transparency through the embossing folder if you didn't have it.  You could carefully crack the frozen UTEE with your hands.  But those "cracks" will tend to be finer cracks and I was wanting a more dramatic look......as if the winged heart had broken the glass. 

*****

 

Now for the details on the rest of the project.  I started with Wendy Vecchi's Art Parts rectangle frames and randomly applied acrylic paint in black and "maple syrup" brown.  I did this in a more haphazard fashion, not smooth lines.  After a couple of minutes of letting the paint dry, I stamped the smaller of Tim's Fabulous Flourishes with Versamark ink onto the frame and sprinkled Ranger's clear embossing powder over it and heated with my heat gun.   Hindsight:  I should have stamped in black and embossed in black so that the flourishes would show up more!

 

I then used my rinsed out paint brush (bristles still wet) to apply a light wash randomly over the embossed frame with "butter pecan" (tan) acrylic paint.  I immediately wiped off areas with a wet paper towel, so it wasn't so bold. 

The heart and wings were a discarded element for another project. I do know that they were cut using Tim's Winged Heart Alterations die.  The required (haha) metal piece is TenSecond Studios Spiced Rum that was die cut then embossed with Tim's Patchwork embossing folder and lightly sanded.  The heart was attached to the frame with a double layer of dimensionals under the wings. 

The sentiment, from Tim's Just Thoughts stamp set, was stamped with SU's white craft ink and embossed with Ranger's Clear embossing powder.  I added the Locket and Key with Claudine's Multi Matte Medium.

Have I mentioned that the Multi Matte Medium is becoming my favorite go to glue?  OH MY.  It takes a bit to dry, but when it does, NOTHING is going to move.  Just sayin'. 

I used my cropadile to punch a hole for the hitch fastener and wrapped some craft wire around it to hold the key.

The two panels were connected to each other with strips of grunge paper that have some Distress Vintage embossing powder and Distress Vintage ink and Black Soot ink rubbed onto it.  I used a stapler to attached them to the back of the panels.  

And the final project once again

I love the sentiment on this project!! I think I'll clear a space off my work area so that it can be a visual reminder to me to LEAP.

I hope you pull out some of those forgotten supplies and get CRACKIN' on some of these techniques the

E-Team has shared today!! 

'Till then....................remember to LEAP into some creativity!!

The Journey

Happy Monday Peoples!!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!  Today I'm sharing a project that I actually made LAST weekend but never had the chance to upload.

While posting these  pictures of the Grand Canyon, I remembered an idea that I have had stored in the recesses of my noggin for over a year and decided to try and finally see if I could put it to paper.  Now, my original idea was  do a mix media project on canvas.   That may still happen, but for this project, I went a different route with results that I just love!!

Let me just say that I am just tickled at how this turned out!!  I started with the melted crayon background technique on glossy card stock. The cool thing about this technique is that you can keep remelting the crayon until you get a look or texture that you like.  Wellll.....within reason!  LOL!! You can muddy up your colors if you drag over them too much!  I used mostly white with a touch of light blue for the sky and some brown, red, apricot, green (and who knows what else I grabbed!) for the "canyon". 

I wanted this to have more dimension so I stamped the Indian from Rubbernecker Stamps  on a folded piece of transparency with Archival Jet Black ink using my stampamajig so that I could place him where I wanted on my edge of the "canyon".    Sorry, I could not find the image on the site.  I don't know if it is no longer sold.  I colored the back side of the image with copics, letting the layers of color dry between so that I could add some slight shading.  Using the alcohol based copics on the transparency is not like coloring on paper.  You will start to pull off color if you try to "work" it too much while it is wet.  I added just a tad bit more shading beneath the horse than the image has to give it a more realistic look. 

I thought I had been clever stamping the Indian on the folded piece of transparency.  My thought was that I would adhere the transparency layer between the main image panel and the card base.  Welllll, the "front" flap did just that~~FLAP.  It did NOT lie flat, which totally ruined my scene of the Indian on the Canyon edge.  I tried to use a bit of clear drying glue just barely along the edges.  NOPE.  I finally used some spray adhesive that I had and lucky for me, it did NOT smear the alcohol inks and worked to adhere the transparency to the background.

I then stamped the pine tree from SU's Lovely as a Tree with Archival Jet Black ink on the front of the transparency to create more of a balanced look to the scene.  I will admit I was TERRIFIED that I would ruin my scene with this last step, but I think it was just what was needed! Supplies:  Paper:  Glossy card stock, SU's Close to Cocoa.  Stamps:  Rubbernecker (Indian) and SU's Lovely as a Tree.  Inks:  Archival Jet Black, Copic Ciaos.  Accessories:  transparency, spray adhesive, crayons, craft iron, stampamajig. 

Thanks for dropping by again today!!  I hope that you will run with the lesson that I learned from this project:  Inspiration is EVERYWHERE around us.  But if you just lock away the inspiration instead of beginning the journey of exploring the possibilities of creativity  that the inspiration can bring, then the "view" becomes just a forgotten picture in the mind.

Have a CREATIVE day! Till next time~~

On Your Mark, Get Set.....

..........GOOOO!!!!

Howdy Strangers! Been forever since I've been here!  Yes, yes.  I know that you are use to my flakiness, but that does not mean that each week I don't strive to do better!! I will only offer this explanation (versus an excuse)~~It would seem that when one is the on-call therapist, that same therapist might THINK she is only scheduled for ONE day of work in a week, but will actually end up working ALL week.

Ok...enough blabber.  On with the goods!!

I'm going to show you two different versions of this card.  The first one is the original.  The second I added a folded piece of Wild Wasabi under the transparecny (it is not attached as I like the fact that I can change the look of the card easily)  Personally, I like both of them. 

Today's card is actually very simple, but I like it.  It was inspired by one of my mother-in-laws trees (yes, she has two).  She has one tree that is her "rustic" tree and is covered with bronze and gold(ish) ornaments that are all in the theme of the outdoors (pinecones, birds, leaves....).  I used my new Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendent and cut out two pendent frames using brushed copper cardstock.  I then stamped the Small Pinecone Ornament from Just for Fun Stamps  twice on a scap piece of the copper cardstock with SU's craft chocolate chip ink and embossed using iridescent ice.  I then taped down the pendents on a piece of 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of transparency (I use Office Depot's write on transparencies).  Then carefully, I held my breath as I used my stampamajig to stamp the Merry Christmas using Timber Brown stazon directly onto the transparency (the seniment was masked off so that I could "split" it on either side of the bottom angle of the pendent).  I used some more iridescent ice to CAREFULLY emboss the words to give them a little sparkle.  The transparency did warp a tad, but nothing to stress about.  I then colored a couple of self adhesive rinestones with my copics and DONE!!

This card was actually inspired by another project that I'm woking on.  Got almost done and realized that I don't have the perfect embellishments for it.  I'm hoping that I can  run to JoAnn's soon (I'm dreading the thought of doing it on Black Friday, but I just might brave the horror of shopping on that day just for you, my dear and faithful readers!!).

Until then~Thanks for stopping by again!! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING and please remember~~we are FREE to celebrate THANKS to all the men and woman who are serving in our armed forces to ensure that!!

?Sinking?

Are you all sitting down? Because I'm about to share a CARD!!! I actually finished this card on TUESDAY. Since I am just now finding the time to sit down and post it, that will give you a little hint as to how my week has been!!

Wednesday was the last work day for one of the office girls. She is expecting her second child and is going to become a full time mom. So, the office took her out to lunch for a kind of baby shower/good bye.



This is the card that was made:



I had bought this stamp ages ago from Rubbernecker with the idea floating (haha....) in my head to use it with a stair step fold. Now~~~in my ever creative head, the idea was that this little boat would be in the ocean looking just as cute as could be. But once again, the idea in my head and the reality that came to be were vastly different. Somehow, I had this image as being somewhat smaller (or perhaps, the ocean larger?!!). I don't know. This card lacks the "WOW" that I had hoped for. I'm sure the struggles I've been experiencing getting the wonderful ideas that are in my head to creation have NOTHING to do with the fact that my stamping/creating time is so rare of late.

ANYWHOOS!! It is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it now!
So~~The creative deets: I stamped the image using Black Stazon on some unknown white paper (the stuff one finds when one cleans!!). I pulled out my favorite coloring medium of late (COPICS!!) and spent an evening debating which browns to use, hehe. After cutting out the centers of the front shapes and deciding that I didn't like that look, I backed them with some textured creamy caramel cs. I then searched for something to put in that area. AHHA!! Lightening struck and I pulled out my trajan monogram alphabet set and the mixed messages set from Papertrey Ink. Perfect fit! (wellllll....almost. The middle initial for the baby to be was to large for the center heart space. So that is where the mixed messages set came in to rescue!)

The ocean was done with t!m Holtz's/Ranger alcohol inks in denim, stream and bottle with a touch of pearl on a transparency sheet. I went over the 8 1/2" x 11 sheet two or three times until I got the look I was wanting. My first thought was to have the colored transparency be the ocean by itself. But it just lacked the pop that I was searching for. So I pulled out some SU Cool Caribbean paper and found my old Wave borderline template from Creative Memories and started cutting the waves to fit over the stair step fold base (which was also made using cool Caribbean). I deliberately made the solid wave a tad larger than the transparency so that the wave had a bit of of "blue (vs a white) cap". The main image was then cut out and adhered over some more textured creamy caramel. The paper that the image was stamped on was thicker than SU's whisper white but still bled when colored with the copics (NEED to place an order for some more pure luxury from Gina K....the BEST paper for coloring with copics, IMO!!) and then cut out again and attached using Stampin' dimensionals.

Now the portion that I find lacking in the creation of this card. The embellishments. By the time this card was done late Tuesday night, I just could not come up with a proper embellishment. Ribbon in the ocean? Didn't seem to work in my mind. Some type of welcome baby tag, when I'd had already stated "welcome" and "little one"? Kind of redundant. So I left it alone for the evening hoping that lightening would strike twice. In the morning, my youngest DS suggested that I draw dolphins jumping out of the waves (which might have been adorable, but not happening with my schedule that morning!!). So. Three eyelets placed. And they might be the holes that sank the ship. I don't know. Just didn't float my boat (wondering how many bad puns I can insert at this point!!).

Again~~it is what it is. Personal rating: Not going there. I personally don't care for the card. It was given away and I'm trying not to cringe. It's not that it was a baaad card....just not what I would have liked it to be.

*************
More organization rambling if you care. If not....Thanks for dropping by!!

Spent a wasted morning going to Lowes, another Home Depot and in desperation~a Kmart looking for solid shelves for my organizer that I'm recycling. It would appear that this particular brand now only makes the wire shelving (unless I want to buy a whole new base. Which I don't) for these organizers now. I would use the wire shelving (have some already) but I have found that they tend to bend easier under weight. And some of the smaller stuff falls through. So, DH has volunteered to make me shelves. Sigh. Sooooo. Don't know when THAT will get done.
I DID get my stack n store and more paper organizers from SU. Now to transfer that stuff over.

I am now hoping that by Christmas this mess is cleaned up. And I'm also not holding my breath!!

THANKS for stopping by again!! I'm off to find the desk top (only cleared a 4x 5" space to make the above card, hehe!). I have a bigger project that I need to work on this week and NEED all the desk space cleared!

SCORE!!

*Disclaimer: I tried to see if my technology challenged brain can figure out how to do an auto post. Guess what?! It couldn't. I think I know what I did wrong...but of course, I could be wrong in that! Soooo, over my little lunch break, I'm going to see if I can get this out of "draft" and into "post".


Mid Friday morning, I decided to call the office manager of the clinic where I do some per diem work to verify if I was going to work Mon (or today, if this auto post works correctly!) or Wed of this week. As we are chatting, he asks if we had gotten the birthday invite to his son's party (who is a classmate of my youngest) THAT IS AT 4PM. ON FRIDAY. Uhhhhh, that would be a negative. Seems that the creative mom made this cool postcard with a sports stopwatch on the front that might have been easily confused with a junk advertisement (or if it got in with the junk flyers, may have never been seen period). The mom is all stressed because no one was RSVPing (including family members). Sooooo. Being the good mom that I am, I said that the family would be there.


AAACCCCKKKK!!! First: Load up kids and haul them down to Target to buy school supplies needed by the 20th and pick up a gift card for the b-day boy. Haul home close to $200 dollars worth of supplies (ok, ok...pencils, papers, calculators and rulers do not cost that much. But my newly Junior High student decided that his previous backpack and lunch box were a bit on the "youngish" side. Soooo, new backpack (this thing was not only expensive, but it is basically a full on hiking backpack, and will be used as such also!) for the older one, which of course led to a new backpack (much cheaper one) and lunchbox for the younger one.


Second: Come up with a "totally creative" idea for a card and get it made in a couple of hours (I am NOT known for making speedy cards. Seems that my mind jumps from "basic idea" to "wouldn't it be cool if I did this? OR even better~~that!! With the end result being waaaay too much time spent making basic cards!!)


Anyhoo!! This kiddo just happens to play basketball with my youngest. I know that he has his jersey and participant trophy framed and hung in the main hallway of their house. Just so happens that I have a rather large Quikutz die of a basketball. Start thinking along the lines of my football card and of course that is when I came up with this idea:

The basketball bouncing off the backboard!! (and before anyone asks (because, yes, the males in this household DID ask) : I DID come up with a way to make the "hoop" on the lower part of the card. But I had to have it "fold" up in order to fit inside the envie...and it just started looking crowded and ugly. So the hoop stayed off).

The backboard base is just slightly smaller than a regular sized card~~4 1/4" x 5. I made the "frame" out of textured cardstock and adhered with red sticky liner. The smaller square was made using my rectangle nesties from Spellbinders. I picked out two that nested inside each other and then cut, creating my open frame. This was adhered using rolled up glue dots (that edge is TINY!!).

The basketball is acutally the "card". After die cutting the basketball from Dusty Durango, I did DTP (direct to paper) with my creamy caramel ink pad to "scuff" up the basketball. The black is part 2 of the die cut and was adhered with a glue pen. I then used my old Creative memories circle cutter to figure out the size of my basketball and made a "card" for the inside by keeping one edge of the circle slightly off the fold of the card. The gift card was attached to the inside of the basketball. The basketball was adhered with glue dots along the edge of the white frames so that they would not show on the inside of the clear base. The total size of the card is 5x5.

I think this is a pretty clever idea myself!! hehe. So I give this a personal rating of **** out of *****!! Supplies: Paper: Clear transparency, textured SU whisper white, dusty durango, basic black. Inks: Creamy caramel. Accessories: Quikutz basketball die, rectangle nesties, Big Shot, Creative memories circle cutter, glue dots, 1/4" red liner tape, glue pen.

Thanks for stopping by while I'm at work (hehe). Tonight the boys are presenting a play that they and the other kids, (who are watched by a wonderful lady while parents work), wrote the script for, made the backdrops and costumes based on a book that they all read together. Hoping to have some photos to share!!

Taking Dares

This Thursday started the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS. Each day thru Saturday, eight challenges will be hosted by previous/current Dirty Gals. Welllllll......................I will admit that there is a teeny tiny person inside me who would love to be a Dirty Girl on SCS (ok...she is probably bigger than I'd like to admit, but I'm all for denial of my weight!! hehe). So, I had to pull out that inner dirty girl and play!

I wish I had time to do each challenge separately, but reality is: that is just soooo not happening!!


So I straining my brain I came up with a project that includes 7 of the 16 challenges already posted (if I really s...t....r...e...t...c...h....e...d I could get two more in on the list, but I really consider that cheating in my case as I know the challenge was meant a little differently!!)



Here's the list (condensed) that I completed so far: Tag art (using tags in the creation), Making it clear (as in transparency sheets/windows etc), Creative Packaging using premade or invented boxes/bags, Using Wings (butterflies, angels, birds, etc), Food related creation (packaging, displaying recipes, etc) and Use of Texture (embossing folders, embossing, beads, glitter, etc) and last but not least~make your own designer paper.


And my creation:

I made a clear box from a transparency sheet (that I get from Office Depot). The box is 4 1/4" high by 2 1/2" wide. It was made with the idea to hold snowballs (those little white cookies) or fudge. But all I had to show was chocolate chips (FYI: this little box will hold a 11.5oz bag of chocolate chips). I would have LOVED to have baked some real goodies to showcase this clever little gift box. But it is like 95+ degrees here. My oven is SOOOO not getting turned on. And the fact that baking would have required me to go to the store (with two boys) And then bake. And this project is already on day two in trying to get completed!! ANYWHOOOS!! The base and lid are SU's Ballet Blue. I tried Cool Caribbean at first but I felt that it looked like a Tiffany box and I was going for a richer/Christmas blue look. I love DP that has texture on it. So I made my own DP by stamping with SU's white craft and embossing with Iridecsent Ice (this is of course after I first tried stamping with my glue pad and using Dazzling Diamonds. Which looked ok, except a little lighter than I wanted and of course, someone didn't center her images and it looked all off). Then I made the scalloped edge with SU's scalloped edge punch. I used white Stazon to stamp the bird from Inkadinkadoo's Winter Birds on the front. BTW: stamping on transparency is HARD. Very easy to smear. Obviously, I could have tried again to stamp a better image...but in reality this is the third time this was stamped. The first time I had added some more snowflakes/swirls to the entire box. Put it together to decide that it was just too busy. Re-stamped. Messed up. Re-stamped again. Good enough (now you know one of the many reasons why I will never make the Dirt Pile. It takes me six times to get something half way right and then I just get lazy and say forgetaboutit!!!). Where was I?

The tag. This (of course) is not the first tag that I had in mind. I actually have a lovely oval tag stamped with the new Christmas Punch set. Problem? I don't actually have the punch that goes with the image I chose. No biggie~~I have Spellbinders nestabilities with the oval in plain and scalloped. Great. Except that the tag ended up too big for my little box. I couldn't get it to look right on the box (of course). This whole project is just starting to wear on me at this point!! So, I pulled out my tag punches (WHICH if I really stretched, I could claim I did another of the challenges which was to use dies/punches in the project. But my brain says it should be more of a punch/die creation vs just a small punch accent). Made the bow from a silver fiber ornament hanger (AGAIN!! I could claim another challenge here which was to use ribbon/fibers in the project, but!! I know the hostess was hoping for something more creative than a little bow!!). Using my Cropadile, I punched a hole at each corner of the lid, threaded some silver cord through the holes and the tag and then added some TEXTURE with the beads.

FINALLY!! It is done. Of course, I will be able to whip out more of these cute boxes much faster now that I've made all my mistakes (and now have my templates in hand). I think these might make cute teacher gifts or for the neighbors. (HOLY COW!! I just made something that is Christmasy in July....geesh!!! I might get ahead of the game at this rate!! BWHHAAAAA)

Thanks for stopping by!! I'm going to see if I can find 2" of clean space on this desk so that I can maybe do a few more of the challenges.

ESCAPE!!

Yesterday was DH's (aka the "Toad") 41st birthday. He would have rathered it was his 21st or 31st, hehe. This is is the card that I finally finished today (yeah, I'm a day late, but I'll have my excuse later on in this post for those of you who would like a peek into our weekend!)

This is actually a transparency card. It measures 3 1/2 x 8 1/2. I stamped the "Toad" from Rubbernecker on Gina K's 120# pure luxury paper (I LOVE that paper for coloring!!) and colored it with my Copics. I then put to use my fine motor skills and cut it out (SU's paper snips are WONDERFUL for tight detail cutting). Using my favorite LARGE stencil brush, I used Soft Sky and then Brocade Blue with a freehand template to create my "clouds". *Hint: When using a template, flip the template using both sides so that your clouds do NOT look uniform. Also, begin with your lightest ink then add a darker ink. I attached the Toad (trying to escape his birthday) to the front of the acetate using glue dots. I then opened the card and placed glue dots behind the image and then placed my cloud sheet over that. Inside has the snarky sentiment of "There's no escape!!" hehe Supplies: Stamps: Rubbernecker frog. Paper: Gina K's 120# Pure Luxury, transparency sheet (office depot). Ink: Copic Ciao's, SU's soft sky and brocade blue. Accessories: glue dots

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS NO STAMPING. CREATIVITY IS PRESENT IN THEATRICAL FORM ONLY. (HEHE)

Each year our church goes to the church camp for a weekend retreat. The children's program is just awesome. Every year there is a "theme" and the weekend activities emphasize that theme. This year it was Walking with Jesus. Friday night begins the program with the kids learning new songs and getting their "bag" for the weekend and have the introduction to the "theme". Saturday am is "sabbath school" with many different stations for the kids to do crafts or activities and get goodies for their bags. On Saturday afternoon, there is a "hike" (about 2 miles total) to different "stations" that the older kids present a skit then hand out the goodies for the kid's bags. 6th grade is the first year that you are allowed to present a skit. This is my oldest DS's group presenting the Feeding of the 5000. (my son is the one in the blue)

Now, you will notice that there is a "different Jesus in these pictures. The younger kids are divided by age group and this year there were 6 different groups. "Jesus" led his "followers" to each of the skit areas and then had a part in that particular skit. These kids did a great job as the script that "Jesus" had didn't match with their script and they had to do some serious ad libbing!! By the 6th time, they were pros (some of the ad libs: "Jesus" asks if there is a restaurant near by that they can get some take-out. One of the disciples states that there are no pizza places within MILES of where the crowd is! hehe) *side note: the "crowd" was given homemade bread and fishy crackers to snack on and then given a small bag of fishy crackers and a "fish" key chain for their bags.

Here is a group shot. Notice the "disciple" who is in jeans?! Yup...that would be my youngest who is totally bummed that he is not his brother's twin. He hung out with this group all afternoon vs taking the hike to the other stations.

Saturday evening ends with the kids having games and watching a video made of them during the weekend.
Just a small peek into our weekend. I was really proud of the kids for learning their lines and not panicking when things did not as they had thought it would.

Thanks for stopping by!

Me and My Mojo

Me and my Mojo just can't seem to get it together lately. Take this card. I had this idea to make the main card shape to look like a basketball. So, I cut out my circle card, draw my basketball lines, and then start layering my other elements. I don't know if it was the "orangish" basketball color under the red/black jersey, the lines on the basketball or what~but I did not like the look of it. It was too busy/distracting/icky (mind you, I did NOT figure this out on the first try. Nooooo!!!! I had to try different colors of "orange", some with sponging, some with embossing texture, you name it, I probably tried it). Now, you say, why didn't I just change the colors of the jerseys? Two reasons: 1) The team is the Cardinals. Our colors are red/black. 2) I had already colored four jerseys for all the coaches/assistant coaches for the four cards that I need to make!! (yeah, no original cards for everyone....we are in a time crunch here!) hehe

Ok....so now my Mojo is in a funk because my "cute" idea in my head is not working. And I needed to finish these card like YESTERDAY (and since I had to work yesterday, I'm REALLY running out of time here!!). Stepped back, kinda regrouped with my mojo and came up with this:

(don't know why this picture looks out of focus here. It's fine in my photo preview!)

I stamped the jersey from Melanie Muenchinger's Just So Sporty on Gina K's 120# Luxury white paper (have I ever mentioned how much I LOOOVE this paper?!! It's just WONDERFUL for coloring with copics!). Colored with my copics, cut out the jersey's and adhered them with dimensionals, to give it that extra "pop". Stamped the basket from SU's Just basketball with Brilliance Graphite black on to acetate and CAREFULLY heat set (I would have used my stazon, but have loaned it to a friend!). Cut out the basket and made a slit along the rim in order to put the basketball into the basket. The acetate is attached with Fiskers thin glue dots just along the top behind the basketball so that the net hangs "free". The sentiment is also from the Just So Sporty set and I carefully colored in the "THANKS" with my 01 micron black pen (the "coach" was also filled in this way). Supplies: Paper: SU real red, basic black, pumpkin pie. Gina K's 120# luxury white, transparency. Stamps: Melanie Munenchinger's Just So Sporty (available at Gina K) and SU's Just Basketball. Inks: Brilliance graphite black, SU's pumpkin pie, close to cocoa marker. Accessories: Copic markers, glue dots, dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm off to create some "basketball" cupcakes!!

FINALLY......

.....the light bulb went on!!! This card has been sitting on my desk for a WEEK. This is one of those cards that the ideas in my head were SOOOO much better than what was turning out on paper. I had gotten this Toad (ok...frog....but it's for my hubby and his nickname is Toad...so this is a toad) from Rubbernecker a while back and it was needing to see some ink finally. I had stamped the image a couple of times on Gina K's Luxury 120# paper (LOOOOVE that stuff!) and had finished coloring the image with my copic ciao's to discover I had colored the WRONG image (this particular one was stamped on a sheet that had a little mistake that was in a CRITICAL area)....fine. Cut out the image. Got this idea that I would float the toad on a background made using my alcohol inks over an acetate base. Except that the image just didn't look right over the background. Walked away for a day or so. Made my own little river with some hand drawn reeds to the side. Tried using a mixture of copics and sponging. Now, I don't mind mixing my mediums, but this was UGLY!! LOL!! Re-drew the river/reeds and this time just did some sponging. MUCH better! Layered the frog over the river and then cut out my first reeds from my mess up and layered over the drawn reeds (since they are hand drawn, they are not a perfect match which I think gives a more realistic dimension). Tried matting the image over blue. Didn't match the inked background. Over the next couple of days I tried adding different colored cs behind the inked acetate. Nope. Finally settled on just a small white mat. Great. Now I had this HUGE blank river at the bottom of my image. Ribbon~out. Got the idea to use some fishing line with this round embellishment. Just FYI: Fishing line does NOT wrap around a card like ribbon! Anyway~didn't like that. Tried the embellishment by itself. Just didn't feel the love for that. Got out my stickers from the past obsession of scrapbooking and tried "sticking" a sentiment. Nope. Considered handwriting a sentiment in the corner....Nope (for several reasons~didn't like the look of my handwriting being the most prominent one!)

Are you feeling my frustrations at this point?!! Over all, I have this card that I like the coloring, have finally gotten the overall look and it is just missing SOMETHING!! Then "DING!!" The light bulb went on!! WATERLILIES!! Pull some pics up from the good ol' internet and think to myself "I can draw those". Got a couple of leaves done and then looked at the flower and another light bulb. "Pretties kit!!" Uhhhh, WAY TO BIG (but I seriously considered cutting up some of the flowers and trying to trim the petals down to size)....ok, now my brain is STUCK on wanting these flowers to be dimensional but how? I'll just make my own petals and layer them!! ROTFL!! Can you picture me cutting out these ITTY~BITTY little petals and trying to curl them?! Finally~~a light bulb worth keeping went on. Got out my old SU Lily Pad wheel and used my black marker to roll out a couple of the flowers a few times. Colored and then cut out the layers. Added a yellow "middle....(what is that called?!!) to the larger one and layered the top over it with glue dots.

Here's a pic trying to show the layering a bit better.

A week later and OH YAH!! It's finally done. But more importantly~~ I like how it turned out!!

And even better~~~I'm DONE EARLY with DH's anniversary card!! BWHAHAAAAA

Supplies: Paper: Transparency sheet, Gina K's 120# Pure luxury, SU whisper white. Inks: SU's bashful blue, brilliant blue, Ranger Alcohol inks in Stream and Bottle. Stamps: Rubbernecker Frog, SU's Lily Pad wheel. Accessories: Copic Ciao markers,Inkssential opaque white pen, glue dots, sponge daubers.