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~~

Peaceful Thoughts

Here is the last tag that I plan on completing for the 12 Tags of Christmas on T!m Holtz's blog.  I've been having a BLAST with all the different techniques but I've got to get some other things done around here!! LOL! I usually have Christmas Eve dinner at my house and let's just say that I am NO where ready for that to happen and I have to work all this next week!! YIKES!!

Enough of my blabber (not to be confused with my blubber....that is another topic entirely!! hehe).  This tag was inspired by Day 11 on T!m's blog. 

I just realized that the way I place the reindeer near the flourish,  it looks like he is sticking out his tongue at the snowflakes!! BWHHAAAA!!! Maybe he is trying to catch the flakes on his tongue!!

The background was created by smearing Distress Inks in Peeled Paint and Pine Needles onto my craft sheet and misting with water then laying the tag into the droplets.  I repeated this several times and could not get  a look I liked, so I misted with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Old Olive (I'm tellin' ya....I just love the soft shimmer this gives to projects!!).  After heat setting, I stamped the Classic Accents flourish from Tattered Angels with Aged Mahagony.  The snowflakes came from SU's Christmas Punch set and were stamped with Distress Pine Needles.  I then stamped the reindeer from Rubbernecker onto grunge paper using versamark and then embossed with black ep.  I cut out the image and inked it with Distress Fired Brick (since I'm all about disclosure, let me say that this is the SECOND reindeer.  The first reindeer had a serious mishap with too much Pearl glimmer mist, then Apple red glimmer mist.  Let's just say that it IS possible to have to much shimmer!! snort).  I found some glitter snowflake that I believe I picked up at Michael's after last Christmas season and attached using glue dots.  The reindeer is on dimensionals. 

I REALLY wanted to use a rub on that said "peaceful wishes" to fill in that blank spot by the reindeers chest.  I had cut it out the other day for consideration to use on a previous tag.  For the life of me, I CAN'T FIND THE STINKIN' LITTLE BUGGER anywhere now!!  So, the spot remains blank.  I'm hoping that the rub on will turn up.  But if not, oh well!!! That is just how it is going to have to be!!

I have most of my Christmas shopping done, but need to bake some goodies for my oldest DS's extra teachers (he has his main teacher, but has a different teacher for computer, math and of course, band and handbells).  And probably I should attempt to start cleaning my house for Christmas Eve!! 

Thanks for dropping by again!!  I'll be back later this week!! (seriously!! hehe....I have a CUTE idea for name cards for my table setting!! I don't usually use them (as everyone knows each other in the family, hehe) but I got this idea brewin' and I think I need to try it!!)

Don't Mess With Dad

Today's Wacky Wednesday challenge on the Rubbernecker Blog was to create a Father's Day card. Of course, being more like Erma Bombeck vs Martha Stewart, I have not even started on ANY of the cards that I need to make for this upcoming holiday. I decided to combine this with the sketch challenge on SCS and get a double bang for my buck.

This is a funky card. Originally, I had the 5x5 piece of creamy caramel as my base. Got everything laid out and something just didn't mesh. By chance, I plopped down the base on a scrap piece of Really Rust! AHHHHH!!! It needed that extra pop. Sooooo, since the DP was already adhered to the base, I just cut a piece of Really Rust 1/4" larger than my base and adhered THAT to the creamy caramel. Makes taking decent photos rather challenging...but IRL it's ok! hehe...(that would be Erma being too cheap to cut another piece of DP to do the card "correctly").

The center panel (the brown with the silver brads) is actually grunge paper that I painted with Vintage Photo crackle paint. I then sponged some chocolate chip ink and vintage photo ink over it to highlight the cracks more. In real life, it looks like old, cracked leather (and smells like it too!! The grunge paper has a "leather" scent!! PERFECT!! hehe). It is adhered with dimensionals so that the brads lie flat.

The image is from Stamp Oasis and is stamped with chocolate chip craft ink and clear embossed. Thank goodness for SU paper snips to cut around it. I did direct to paper with my ink pad in really rust on the rust panels. Added the brads from the SU silver hardware kit.

This is going to be my FIL's card for father's day. He loves things western (do you think that has anything to do with being born/raised in Nebraska? Running a feed lot?!! LOL!).

Thanks for stopping by again today!!

Wacky Wednesday on Monday

YIKES!! Talk about cutting a deadline close!! I had wanted to do the Wacky Wednesday Challenge from Rubbernecker last week, but never got the time. Decided to try and "whip" out a card for the challenge (hoping that it will still be accepted......if not, oh well!! I still made a card, right?!). This week's challenge was to use Prism papers in Spring Willow, Intense Orange and Intense Yellow. Guess what?! I don't have any Prism papers!! But!! Luckily, the wonderful hostess Broni gave SU color substitutions in Old Olive, Summer Sun and Pumpkin Pie. SU I have!! Yippee!! I get to play! Here is what I came up with:

These colors seemed like sunset colors. And with a sunset, you need silhouettes. And probably my favorite set from Rubbernecker is Floral Silhouette. I first took a piece of Gina K's 120# pure luxury paper and using my favorite LARGE stencil brush, layed down a layer of Summer Sun. I then went over some of the area using Pumpkin Pie. Then, because I wanted the bottom corner still darker, I added some Ruby Red to the mix. I cut out the 1/2 circle using my old Creative Memories circle cutter. I then layered that over a small piece of black. The old olive piece is textured and the scallops made with my SU scallop punch. The Summer Sun layer has the new Flourish background stamped in summer yellow. The sentiment is also from the Floral Silhouette set and I masked it and used my stampamajig to stamp on the different layers. The layout was inspired by the FTL45A that can be found on the Clean and Simple Blog. My card measures 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches instead of the 3x3 that the sketch called for. But inspiration is inspiration!! Supplies: Paper: SU's Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Old Olive (textured), Basic Black and Gina K's 120# pure luxury. Inks: Summer Sun and Ranger Archival Jet Black. Stamps: Floral Silhouette, Floral Background from Rubbernecker. Accessories: Black ribbon from Target, Circle Cutter from Creative Memories, scallop edge punch and stampamajig.

Thanks for stopping by again today!! I'm off to do some more cleaning that has been put off for waaaaay too long!

Framed on Mother's Day

DH requested a card for his mother that was CAS (clean and simple). He also wanted a card that mimicked some framed photos that my mother-in-law has on her wall behind her couch. There are nine b/w (actually, they kind of lean towards sepia) photos of leaves, flowers, tree branches artsy type photos framed in black. My MIL changes the matting with the seasons. For spring/summer she uses a sage green color.

I had a general idea of what I wanted to do. Then, while cruising blogs, I came upon this wonderful creation by Tracy. Which led me to this wonderful creation by Linda. Using the recessed window was just what I needed for my take on this technique.

I think that my inside framing corners are pulled apart some because I taped down my frame to make it look as though it was on the "sage" wall. This card has a 5x 5 sage base that uses the DTP (direct to paper) technique with the sage ink pad to give it some "texture". I made my frame using the directions from SCS TLC206. The outside frame corners were scored so that I could fold them up in order to tape the edges to the base. I used the leaf stamp from Rubbernecker's Floral Silhouette and stamped it first in the middle, masked the top portion and stamped it again further down in the corner to extend my leaf (yes, I misjudged a hair and have my "new" leaves a tad too far apart from the original). Using my stampamajig, I figured out my placement for the other "stamped" off leaves. Supplies: Stamps: Rubbernecker Floral Silhouette, Inside stamp: SU's All Holiday's Happy Mother's Day. Paper: SU's sage shadow, basic black, whisper white. Ink: Ranger archival jet black. Accessories: Stampamajig, craft knife.

Best part of this card? DH said "It's perfect. I REALLY like it!"

Thanks for stopping by!! I hope all of you have a wonderful Mother's day!

Mojo Maybe?

Ok....I'm not convinced that my mojo has found it's way home. But I did manage to squeak out a card this evening (please excuse the less than great picture...it is now 8pm and I have HORRIBLE lighting in my office (maybe I should request a photo box for mother's day!! hehe). I sat and stared at this stamp set, the sketch on SCS, the color challenge and the ways to use it challenge also on SCS for quite a long time before I came up with this idea:

This card is a 5x 5 square. I used Rubbernecker's new Floral Silhouette set and masked off the second flower with scotch tape while I inked the rest using Archival Jet Black. I then removed the tape and colored the flower using SU's Real Red and Old Olive Marker. I placed this panel over the leaf from the same set that was stamped randomly over the long panel. The sentiment was stamped in Real Red and then cut out and embossed using Spellbinders circle nestibilities and adhered using dimensionals.

Supplies: Stamps: Rubbernecker Floral Silhouette Set. Paper: SU's whisper white and basic black. Ink: Archival Jet Black, Real Red (pad and marker) Old olive and summer sun marker. Accessories: Big Shot, Spellbinders nestibilities, stampamajig, dimensionals.

Overall, not too bad. It is a bit out of my comfort zone as it seems a little more "busy" than what I tend to make, but I kind of like it (exploring something new, I guess!)

Did you notice that I uploaded the picture of the card in a larger format? What do you think? Do you like that format better? Let me know!

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow I start work at the new clinic. Cross your fingers that I don't lock up the computer while trying to chart!! (I'm soooo computer challenged, and this is a complete different charting program than what I am used to at my other job!!). Crossing my fingers that I will get some more stamping done this weekend.

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

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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!

Double Whammy!!

Ok, I promised you a card in the next post and boy!! Did I deliver!! First up (yes....that means there is a SECOND, hehe) is the card my 8 y/o DS made for his teacher. He did all the coloring (with my SU markers) and asked me to cut it out. He then chose the base paper and requested we use the "machine" to make the swirls. He istructed me to put the image at the bottom "because that is the water and the blue is the sky". I think he did a great job!! (and yes, he knows that the second "b" in baby is backwards....adds to the charm!! wink)

Supplies: Stamps: Rubbernecker. Inks: SU markers, Archival Jet Black. Paper: SU's bashful blue. Accessories: Cuttlebug, swirls embossing folder.

Now for my card. Are you sitting down? I actually managed to combine TWO challenges from SCS!! The layout is SCS 225 and I did the WT215 (using all white paper). Double points for me!!

I was introduced to Dustin Pike from Dawn's blog and I fell in love with his style of drawing (can I just say it is a coloring fanatic's dream?!!). I downloaded this cute brave knight on Gina K' 120# Pure luxury paper and colored him and his pony with my copics. I then carefully cut the image out. I hand drew the "castle" walls and shaded them with copics also. The "black" layer is actually whisper white outlined with the broad tip of my black copic marker and the castle is layered on top of that. I carefully added a very thin line of black on the cutouts (what are those things called? Where the hot oil was dumped between or the archer's shot from? Where is oldest DS when I need him?!!) I then popped the cute~~~sorry, BRAVE knight and his pony on dimensionals. Supplies: Stamps: Digi image from Dustin Pike. Paper: Gina K's 120# pure luxury, whisper white. Ink: Archival Jet black, Copics ciao's (the 72A pack). Accessories: Dimensionals.

Well, DH and oldest son return home from Astro camp tomorrow afternoon. I will have to scramble to get DH's b-day card done before then (as his birthday is SATURDAY!!......have I ever mentioned that I'm also the QUEEN of Procrastination?!!) No wonder I whine soooo much!! I bring the stress on myself! (wink) I think I need to find some GOOD chocolate (the Famous Amos cookies are not cutting it!!) so that I can focus tonight and get another image colored!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Lattes by the Inch

Guess what I got in the mail yesterday?!!! Yup!! New Rubbah!! (insert happy dance here_____)

I really liked some of the new sets and backgrounds that were released from Rubbernecker last week and had to break my "no shopping" ban and get a few!!

Now, originally, I had planned on doing the Clean and Simple Challenge on SCS, but somehow my Real Red marker decided to jump in the act and messed that idea up!! Oh well!! The challenge inspired this creation, which I like pretty well!

Some small details that are NOT showing up in the photo: The chocolate chip panel was scored with my Scor-Pal and I put the inchies in the middle of the raised borders. The center latte (you know, the "rebel" red one) is popped up with dimensionals. Everything else is pretty self explanatory! Inside I have hand-written "Thanks a Latte".

Another easy-peasy one!! Thanks for taking a peek!! I already have some ideas for the other goodies that came, so come back soon!! Supplies: Stamps: Coffee & Tea inchies from Rubbernecker. Paper: SU's Very Vanilla and Chocolate Chip. Inks: SU's Chocolate Chip and Real Red Marker. Accessories: Stampamajig, dimensionals, Scor-Pal

Can you hear the music?

I have been wanting to do the Wacky Wednesday challenge on the Rubbernecker Blog since they started TWO weeks ago. The third week was a sketch challenge. Here is what I came up with:

Now, some of you who like to be be the challenge police will say that my card does not follow the sketch, But! It does: Here's how: 1) The creator of the sketch took the liberty to change her squares on the side to ribbon. And she moved her circle embellishments. Therefore giving all the rest of us liberty to make a few minor changes as well. 2) My squares just decided to join together and become a rectangle. 3) My three little circle embellishments got shoved to a different location by the larger image panel. While they got shoved over, they each split in two.....resulting in another 3 circles in the bottom corner. 3) My image required the card to be changed to a square (this is a 5x5 card size) and that also resulted in the required alterations to the layout (and trust me, I tried THREE times to make my second bg panel shorter on the one side....the larger image just did NOT work with that so....it got s....t.....r.....e.....t....c....h....e....d to fill in that space!)

See?! I TOLD you that this fit the sketch!! (ROTFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Ok!! I'm really reaching here, but hey!! I wanted to use this image with this sentiment and I got a card done!! PFFFFFLLLLTTTT!!!! hehe

Some other details: Now, I am NOT a pink type of girl. I like my browns, blues, neutrals. The reason I even have this pink paper was for a project for a little girl cousin (which never got done....go figure). I just thought that "Erma" needed to express her different music beat. And so enters the pink. And incredibly BRIGHT GREEN. Of course I did not have embellishments that matched these common colors (snort) so I got out my copics and colored some clear self adhesive gems. The image panel is up on dimensionals. PERFECT!! Supplies: Paper: Gina K's 120# luxury white, SU's green galore, Prima Marketing Baby Girl Collection~Lullaby. Inks: Archival Jet black, SU's pink passion. Stamps: both image and sentiment can be found at Rubbernecker. Accessories: Score Pal, clear gems, Copic Ciao (A) markers, dimensionals

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.