Trying to Rock Kraft

Are you sitting down?  Yes, I'm actually posting a new project today!!  I'm still fighting the lack of mojo, but seeing as I had yet to make the youngest kiddo's thank you cards for his b-day, it was time to grit my teeth and try to buckle down. I used the sketch challenge on SCS to launch myself off the cliff. 



I always admire those who can use Kraft card stock.  I have a really hard time getting it to "work" for me.  So, of course, just to add to the frustration of not having any mojo, I pulled out my pack of Kraft card stock.  HEY!  I figure if I'm going to go down in flames, I may as well do a good job of it! LOL!!

I started by smooshing Distress Inks Vintage Photo, Shabby Shutters and Tumbled Glass in a random way on my craft sheet.  I misted heavily with Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist Pearl.  Then I layed a piece of Very Vanilla card stock in the beaded ink to make my Wrinkle Free Distress Background.  The "glare" on the last guitar panel is actually the glimmer mist!  I then stamped the guitar from Tami Mayberry's Live Life Loud set using the new Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.

Allow me to interrupt here:  Let me just say that this now my most favorite brown ink in the Distress Ink line!  It is the ink that was missing between Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain.  I am already panicking that there are no reinkers for the new seasonal Distress Inks. What am I going to do when this ink pad has reached it's saturation limit?!!  Hello, Ranger?  We NEED the reinkers.  This is the ink that MUST be added to the Distress Line.  Just sayin'.  Thank you for listening to little' ol' me.

Back to our previously scheduled post.

After stamping the guitars (I did mention that I LOVE the Gathered Twigs ink, right?!), I distressed the edges of the panels with my distressing tool and then inked the edges with Gathered Twigs ink.  The sentiment, from the same set, was stamped and two score lines added with my Scor-Buddy. 

This is a bit more involved than what I usually like to make for mass produced cards.  But, seeing as I only had to make 6 cards, it wasn't too bad on the time.  As far as the Kraft card stock~~not bad, not great, LOL!

That's it for me today!  Have a couple of other projects that I need to get crackalacin' on!  Till then..........

Golden....

It has been forever and a day since I've done one of the weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  So today I decided to combine the sketch challenge with the CAS (clean and simple) challenge which was a color challenge using white and ONE other color.  This is the idea I came up with while walking the pooch (hmmm....maybe I should try walking him more often! lol)

Did you notice the RIBBON?!!  I actually got this tied on the VERY FIRST TRY!! (yeah, I just about passed out!! I'm not getting my hopes up yet that ribbon and I can work out our differences...but I'm giving points to the ribbon for at least working with me on this!!) 

I stamped the Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps with Encore gold metallic ink and embossed using SU's gold embossing powder.  I filled in the stem using my new Krylon gold leafing pen.  Scored an edge around a piece of Whisper White using my Scor Pal and used the gold leafing pen to add an edge.  I then ran this piece  it thru my Cuttlebug with the embossing folder (ok, I'll admit...have NO idea what folder this is!!).  I cut out my squares (2 1/2 x  1/2 inches) and embossed an edge again using my Scor Pal.  Added gold leafing to these edges as well (gotta luv the look of lots of layers without the bulk!!).  I then cut out my main image using my Spellbinders rectangle nestabilitie and did the edge as the previous ones. 

Quick and easy!! LOL!! I will admit that the ribbon is a little more fru-fru than I consider my style (grunge to fru-fru...how's that for an ecletic collection?) Supplies:  Paper:  SU's Whisper White.  Stamps:  D2762 Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps.  Ink:  Encore metallic gold.  Accessories:  Cuttlebug and cb embossing folder.  Spellbinders rectangle nestabilities, Krylon gold leafing pen.  SU's gold embossing powder.  And the beautiful ribbon came from my friend Melody!!

******
On an unrelated subject.  It would seem as if my outdated computer is wanting to die.  It is still (kinda) working, but I'm having major issues with pop ups, virus warnings and my every day applications not working like they should.  I think that a new computer is in the works.  But! Just wanted to let you kow  what was going on if I disappear for a while (oh yeah!! I've prepared you all for that possibility with my flaky postings already!!  Well, good.  At least this time I have an excuse other than my over scheduling of life!! hehe)


Thanks for stopping by again!  I really appreciate all your comments.  It helps the creative juices to keep flowing!
'Till next time!

Sorrow in Fall

Earlier this week I found out that a friend's brother decided that he could no longer face this life. I'm telling you this because I had a long discussion with *K and her feelings about this. She is a high school teacher and was wondering what she should tell her students (since they know that she lost her brother). We discussed talking about his mental outlook and how he could not see an alternative outcome when there were sooo many other options that he could have chosen (obviously, she would omit any "details"). I told her that I felt she should discuss this, his feelings, her feelings (including the anger) and the repercussions of his decision. That deep of a depression is something that most of us cannot fathom. But it exists. And so often young people (especially teens) face this, but are "brushed off" as being "moody" or are labeled as "just going through a rough time". I feel that if ONE person facing this type of mental battle, even 10~ 15 years down the road, can remember that a teacher shared her feelings and wishes that her brother had reached out for help just ONE (more) time, then maybe it will save THEIR life.

Sorry to have such heavy thoughts starting out the week! But, obviously, sorrow exists in this life and sometimes requires a special thought from us. So, here is the card that I made yesterday (on rather short notice as I decided to hand deliver vs. send it in the mail).

(Once again, I will apologize for the EXCELLENT photography of this card. Since the "creator" procrastinated until the last minute in making the card, the "photographer" was not able to re-take shots once the "proofs" were viewed on a larger scale on the computer screen)

I FINALLY broke down and bought a "sympathy" set. I have been wanting to make one of these tri shutter fold cards since it was a challenge on SCS. I went to the resources page and found the directions here. I have had this retired vellum from SU for about 3-4 years!! I wanted to use it as I LOVE the paper and I felt the leaves repeated the main image theme. I pulled out some wonderful dark metallic brown/copper paper, also retired from SU and managed to ruin one 12x 12 sheet by first making my slit wrong (I probably could have made it work, but that time crunch thing!!) and then scoring incorrectly (the Scor-Pal is wonderful...but if someone is rushing and scores incorrectly, it won't fix it! hehe) I then proceeded to stamp and emboss the main image using Encore copper metallic ink and copper embossing powder. I used my Spellbinders nestie ovals to cut out and emboss the main image (mind you, the above process was NOT a one shot deal. This took me at least 5 times to get right... I managed to rock the stamp a couple of times, ruined my embossing and cut/embossed the image crooked. Why is it what when you have a timer ticking, EVERYTHING goes wrong?!!). The vellum DP was layered over a small whisper white mat using vellum tape. The little scalloped edges on the two long panels have some piercing. The sentiment was also stamped and embossed using the copper ink and embossing powder and cut/embossed using one of my square nesties. I'm really bummed that the little details like the sparkle of the main background paper and the embossing details didn't show up in the photos. Oh well. Maybe someday I'll learn to get these things done in a timely manner so that I can take the proper time to photograph! (bwhhaaaa!! I crack myself up! That is SOOO likely to never happen!)

All in all I'd give this a personal rating of **** out of ***** stars. I like the clean and simple look, and IRL, the sparkle, and little details. And I gave myself an extra star for just getting it done! (wink!!)

This is one project of the three that are being worked on. Off to finish project number 2!!

Thanks for dropping by. And remember~~listen to your loved ones and friends. Take seriously the troubles they share as they may be reaching for help. And give them a hug. Each day is precious!!

What a WEEK!!

HOLY MOLY!! Pull up a comfy chair cause this could be a L-O-N-G one!! And yes, there are cards involved!!

Last Saturday we headed to Legoland to celebrate youngest DS's b-day (both my kiddos were "blessed" with holiday b-days.....oldest is Memorial weekend (hit/miss) and youngest is Labor Day weekend (hit/miss again, and yes, I know the irony of that one!!). ANYWHOOOS! So we load up both boys, youngest's best friend and his older brother and the grandparents and head out. We were at the park shortly after opening (about 10:30ish). Did you know that it takes approximately 7 hours and 15 min for boys between the ages of 9 and 12 to decide that they've had enough of Legoland? But the close to 2 hour drive home was QUIET!! LOL

The "Birthday" boy, Chace~soon to be 9, *G, oldest DS Grant and best friend *J

Soooo, Sunday, I'm TIRED. I know that I have to think about making DS and his great grandfather b-day cards by Wed and Thurs. No big deal. I'll just take my time and kinda putz around with it. Until I get a phone call. "Oh good! You're home!! Did you know that Oak Glen is on fire?!" Uhhhhh.........Here is what I saw from my driveway:

Great!! Some mental yahoo decided to see how challenging it would be to start a fire when we are surrounded by drought conditions. Now where this is burning in on a icky steep hill called Pisgah Peak. We have a "loop" that we will ride our mountain bikes on this miserable hill when we feel we need some type of punishment. Round trip from our house is about 10 miles. This is somewhere between 3-5 miles away. Within 2 hours 300 acres had burned. Moving fast. Decide that I need to get all my pictures in one place JUST IN CASE since I have heard that there are mandatory evacuations happening less than 2 miles from our neighborhood. The state pulled in the big guns early on this fire:

Along with numerous helicopters and crop dusters, we got the DC 10. This shot does not begin to tell you how LOW this was (imagine: small p&s camera, zoomed in but not all the way!! That's how low this was!).

MONDAY: FOUR mental teenager yahoos decide that there isn't enough going on and decide to start another fire in our drought conditions. But this time....they started it basically in someone's back yard (which just happened to be a friends house....melted her windows, but the house was saved). This is what we saw from our front driveway:

As the crow flies, this is less than a mile away from our neighborhood. I had many friends who were evacuated (in addition to the ones who had been evacuated the previous day~~yep...we got two fires within mere miles of each other!). We were under voluntary evacuations. By now, my truck is loaded with all our pictures and have bags packed with some clothes. NOT FUN. But!! No mandatory evacuations ever came about.

TUESDAY: SU makes an announcement that has everyone up in arms (more about that later). So now I am spending WAAAY too much time reading all the hoopla about that.

After a couple of days of going the L-O-N-G way home due to road closures, everything was fine. Everyone was allowed back home Wed and roads were totally open by Thurs.

MEANWHILE: It is now Thurs and in addition to everything else, I've not made my birthday cards. Yeah....what a great mommy I am!!! We celebrated DS's b-day and I came home and FINALLY finished his card

I had in my head that I wanted the extreme skateboarding to look like he was grinding a rail down the stairs. Spent too much time trying to make a rail. Finally just moved on and just had him "jumping" the stairs. I used the Stair Step Fold Tutorial found on SCS and modified it by cutting off the "top" stair. I didn't realize how TINY this stamp was! This guy looked like he was in the land of giants with that top stair. I stamped the image once on chocolate chip paper with craft chocolate ink and clear embossed. I stamped him again (just regular ink) on a scrap piece of chocolate chip paper and cut both of the images out (did I mention that this image is TINY?!!!). I then took a thin strip of transparency and using glue dots sandwiched the strip between the two images. I cut off some of the extra transparency so that the strip was just noticeable along his leg.

Originally, I had wanted to do the wrinkle free distress look for my stairs. Just could NOT get the mojo to flow with that one (I think the grunge look requires you to be in a "hey dude~~whatever~~ mood". Too many bad vibes with everything else. You can't force grunge. It has to flooooow). I then pulled out some designer paper from my pack from Me and My Big Ideas. The designer paper was stamped with the Extreme Elements to add a more "grungy" look. I had thought to use the collage alphabet and make the "X"treme look more like the "X" games. Uhhhhh, yeah. The "x" in that set is TEENY TINY. So not happening. So "Extreme IX!" was stamped with chocolate craft ink and clear embossed. Supplies: Paper: Baja Breeze, DP from Me and My Big Ideas. Inks: Chocolate chip, chocolate chip craft, baja breeze. Stamps: Extreme skakeboard, extreme elements, collage alphabet (all SU). Accessories: clear ep, heat gun, Scor-Pal, glue dots, glue glider pro.

Overall rating: *** 1/2 to **** stars.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I will share the rest of my week and another card tomorrow. I need to s-p-r-e-a-d out all the fun! LOL

Be safe this weekend!!

Pop of Red

Today's color challenge on SCS was to use white as our main color. The catch? Make it a one layer card!!

Now, I personally love this look and definitely wanted to play along. Got a light bulb idea and went to whip out my card. Easy peasy, right? NOPE! Go figure that I'd slip and totally mess up the sentiment when I stamped!! But, mistakes are just a another chance! So I ended up changing the sentiment and the color and rather like the outcome:

I used my Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder along the top and my Scor-Pal for the other embossed lines. The flowers are from SU's Pretties kit and colored with my copic markers. I think that this would be a great card to mass produce and leave the sentiment blank for those last minute "need now" cards. Supplies: Paper: Gina K's 120# pure luxury. Stamps: SU's Warmest Regards. Ink: SU Real Red, copic ciaos. Accessories: Pretties Kit, decorative brad (unknown), Scor-Pal, Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots embossing folder

Thanks for dropping by today!! I'm off to continue my quest to get my house CLEAN!

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