Flashback Thursday

Notice how the newest craze on FB is to post flashback photos on Thursday?  Today, I'm posting a birthday card that flashes back in using an oooold SU stamp set, Time Well Spent.

Actually, this card uses some old SU card stock colors also.

And the combination gives a retro, bright, 60's-early 70's look.

I'm just rocking the flashbacks today!!

The pink paper is either SU's Pink Passion or Pixie Pink. Who knows? I never labeled my paper colors and I actually had to look at my SU inks to get the possibilities.  The orange is Only Orange.  

I needed a card for a classmate of  Youngest Kiddo.  This particular girl is new to the class this year and I really don't know much about her personality to give me a clue as to what style of card I should go with. 

 This card took life with the determination to figure out how to use ink sprays (in this case, Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist in Tuscan Sun and S.W.A.K.) besides just spritzing for general overall glimmer.  I taped down the honeycomb stencil from Heidi Swapp and tried to keep from being too heavy handed or too close with the spraying.  Then I dug through my paper stash and tried to find papers that matched the Glimmer Mists.  

Just a side note.  I am beyond curious as to why I even own a pink colored Glimmer Mist.  It is a well known fact that I am not a "pink" type of gal.  I cannot recall why I would have purchased such a color.  I must have needed it for a specific project. Who knows?!!

I then stamped the flower image from Time Well Spent three times using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I colored with Copics and cut each layer out and adhered with dimensional tape.  A epoxy dome was place over the center and bling added for extra pop.  The sentiment is also from an old retired SU set; It's Your Birthday.  I used the same Glimmer Mists on the sentiment flags to tone down the intensity of the colors just a bit.  A bit of a clear mist was then spritzed over the flower to tie it all together.

A bit brighter and much more "girly" than I usually make for my boys to give to their female friends, but, in this case, the Youngest Kiddo didn't flinch (much) when he saw it.  

Now to see what I can come up with for yet another female classmate's birthday this weekend!!

Just call me Pig Pen

Hey Peoples!! I've been working on a card that combines 6 of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges!! I'm tellin' ya~~I'm getting so Dirty that you are going to start calling me Pig Pen!  (rolling in the dirt on that one!!) Today's card combines Bev's, Kim's, Julie's, Amber's, Betty's and Suzanne's  challenges (again~for those of you just joining, details on the challenges will be very vague as these are special challenges for Fan Club Members on SCS.) 

Enough jibber jabber, let's move on to the goodies!!

(eeeeaaakkk!! in this photo the background to the horse and star look a much brighter blue than they are in real life....I SWEAR that in my preview it looked the dark dusty blue that it really is!!)

AnyHoos!! The beginning inspiration was any of the western TV shows that I watched growing up (Bonanza, Wild, Wild West, Lone Ranger, old western movies).  I started with a 5x5 base of SU's River Rock and stamped over it with SU's background Sanded in Blue Bayou ink.  The edges were then sponged with the same ink.  The "design" paper is faux.  I stamped another piece of River Rock with SU's Wanted set medallion in craft ink and embossed using white embossing powder.  The star is from the same set and was stamped between the medallion images with blue bayou ink.  The edges were also sponged with the blue bayou.  The "design" paper was then matted on a piece of Blue Bayou that was distressed and sponged with the same ink. 

The main image (again, from the Wanted set) was stamped with white craft ink and embossed with white embossing powder.  The generation stamping with done with (guess!! come on!!) blue bayou.  The oval was cut  and embossed with my  classic oval Nesties from Spellbinders. 

Now the fun part!! I used a piece of my much hoarded Brrrr Blue Metal from TenSecond Studios and cut it with a slightly larger classic oval die.  I then ran a tiny dot wheel around the edges and sanded off the color to make the dots "pop".  I made the star from the star  5 nesties and traced a small circle in the middle which was then puffed out.  The "squiggles" were added using a fine tip refiner.  I used the same small dot wheel around the embossed edge of the star (all metal products from TenSecond Studios).  The embossed edges were lightly sanded to remove the color. Metal backing paste was used behind the star to keep it from being smooshed flat. 

The suede ribbon strip is also faux.  I took a scrap strip of Blue Bayou paper and ran it through my crimper several times to start the process of breaking down the fibers in the paper.  I then see-sawed it several times over the edge of my desk until I was able to pull apart the layers.  I then sponged lightly with blue bayou ink to darken the roughened fibers. 

The "Wanted" sentiment was the most frustrating!!  There is a "WANTED" stamp in the set, but it was too large for my layout.  I tried to download a western font but could not for the life of me figure out how to open it into a document (have I ever mentioned that I am VERY computer challenge?!).  I finally gave up and found a so-so replacement on my Word program.  THEN my printer jammed several times while trying to spit out the River Rock card stock.  FINALLY I got the sentiment printed , torn and sponged.  Both the sentiment and star embellishment are on dimensionals. 

I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out!  It will make for a great card to give to my father in law for his birthday (HEY!! That isn't until October!! For ONCE I'll be ahead of the game!! LOL!!).

I wish I could say that I'm almost caught up with all the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges, but I'm still behind 11!  With my messy house and having to get ready to leave for Flagstaff, AZ at the end of the week for a continuing education class, I don't think that I'll ever catch up!! Oh well!!

Thanks for dropping by again today!!  Remember to make time for some type of creativity in your day today!!  I'm off to get creative with hiding my messy house!! hehe

Bronc Bustin'

Hey Peoples!! Happy Thursday! Quick post today.  I'm trying to get some much needed laundry and house work done as I have to work tomorrow and have an all day continuing education class this weekend.
 Believe it or not, I've been stamping up a storm the last couple of days.  Remember the Grandparent's Day festivities that I painted the backdrop for?  Well, belately, we decided that we really should have some thank you notes for those who donated their time to make the day a success.  So, I've been mass producing cards!

 I started out by stamping the main image on glossy paper with Distress Black Soot ink and embossing with black embossing powder. Now, my idea was to make the cards look like the background so I pulled out Distress inks in Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door and Fired Brick and did my sponging in layers.  Funny thing.  The inks blended more than the paints did and I got more of a orangish background versus the redish background I was going for (IRL the main image IS more orange....camera (not the photographer!) changed the tone!!)  I layered the image on some Basic Black cardstock and some Spiced Curry that was distressed using my SU distressing tool.  The card base is Tangerine Tango with SU's Sanded background stamped using Distress Rusty Hinge. 

Decided against embellishments as I had to make 15 of these and didn't want the cost of mailing them to go up!  Pretty simple, but I think it will get the job done!!  Supplies:  Paper:  SU's Tangerine Tango, Crushed Curry, Basic Black and Glossy.  Ink:  Distress inks in Black Soot, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Barn Door. Stamps:  SU's Bronc Buster.  Accessories:  Black Embossing Powder, heat gun, 1 1/4" circle punch, distressing tool.

I'll have another card tomorrow for the Just for Fun® Friday Color Challenge!!

Thanks for dropping by!! I hope you have an enjoyable evening!!

Flying and Creeping out of the Crypt

Are you all sitting down? Because I'm about to share ANOTHER project that I did yesterday!! (I know, I know! I spoil you all with sooo many goodies!! BWHHAAAAA)

I believe I mentioned yesterday that my kids were not going to go trick or treating (sob, sob). But I wanted to make them a little goodie bag of some type. When I saw this tutorial for the pillow box bucket on SCS, I had a WONDERFUL idea pop into my head!

Now, this will require some setting of the scene. Close your eyes. Imagine a night with the moon full. Just a few wispy clouds to add to the feeling of mystery. In a old Victorian style house, a middle age woman, dressed in flowing dark robes stands over the stove top, over a large black cauldron, with an intricate design on the side, stirring. Wisps of steam bubble up and over the sides. In the steam it seems as if shapes are appearing.

And from this vision, something TOTALLY different appeared!



I actually started with the grey bucket. I had wanted to stamp the skull image from SU's From the Crypt with a glue pad onto black paper and use fine black glitter on it, just giving a hint of the image along the sides of the bucket. All those wonderful details got lost so I then stamped the image in versamark and used black embossing powder. Cool!! Except you could barely see the black on black (yes, I know that is what I actually wanted, but this is for a 12 y/o and a 9 y/o boy. Do you think that they would actually NOTICE this subtle detail?!! No. I didn't either). I then pulled out some of the dp from SU's Cast a Spell pack and cut the pillow box again and adhered to the black layers to give the dp some strength. I then stamped the images using versamark and embossed using black embossing powders. The string for the spider's web was done using my versmarker and was embossed with the same black ep. Then, I had the idea to have the bats flying out of the bucket with some billowing foam below them. Stamped the bats 6 times (they actually line up pretty good with the image facing out on each side) and took a thin strip of transparency to hold them up in the air. Then I had floppy bats leaning off over the sides vs flying high over the bucket. I then filled the bucket with all the goodies (gummy eyeballs, gummy spiders and worms and some wonderful chocolates!) hoping that they would help hold the transparency picks upright. Nope. So I then cut another 4" circle to make a lid over the goodies, cut down the strips to a shorter length and used torn black tissue paper to help hold the bats in place (tried using a bit of liquid applique. There was not enough in that little tube to get the effect I wanted. The white tissue paper didn't look good either. It looked like white tissue paper vs. foam).

For the second bucket, I decided to just use SU's Old Olive cardstock and stamped/embossed the images as above. I then took my Old Olive stamp pad and rubbed it over the images/paper to give it some texture. I filled the bucket again with the goodies and made another lid. This time I took some thin 26 gauge wire and poked a small hole in the lid. Bent over the wire and adhered a stamped/embossed spider with a glue dot. Added that tissue paper again and called 'er done!

The boys claimed the buckets were cool (which is all that should matter vs what my idea was!). DH wanted to know where his was (told him I saved him some candy and that next year I would make him a treat bucket also!)

Supplies: Paper: SU's basic black, old olive, Eggplant envy (for the bats and spider), Cast a Spell dp. Stamps: SU's from the Crypt. Inks: Versamark and versamarker, old olive. Accessories: Sizzix Pillow box die, Big Shot, Black embossing powder, heat gun, thin wire, transparency, tissue paper, glue dots

Thanks for stopping by again today. I'm back in my office working on another project(shocking, I know!! If I'm not careful, you all just might come to expect goodies each day!! BWHAHAAA!!)