Notes from the Locker Room

Hey Peoples!  Have a quick post to share today (if I can keep from chatting too much!).  The Toad has been after me to make some thank you cards for all the coaches who helped with the our little school's participation in the city basketball league this past season.  As usual, I'm a couple of miles/months/years behind, but finally came up with a design. 

I got the idea to make a "locker room" with a hanging plaque.  The layout is fairly clean and simple as I have 8 of these to make.  And since I got the wild hair to cut out each and every one of the elements!! (I'm tellin' ya....sometimes I have to wonder at the twisted turns my brain takes in creating!).  The card base is 120# Pure Luxury cardstock from Gina K, with a top fold.  I LOOOVE this paper!! It is WONDERFUL for coloring with copics (smooth, no bleeding, so single layer cards can be made with it), but it is STURDY for building scenes like this without warping.  The images are from Melanie Muenchinger's "Sporty Accessories".  I stamped the tennis shoes using Archival Jet Black ink and colored with various copic ciaos.  The basketball was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and also colored with copics.  The lockers were stamped with Adirondack Slate ink and shaded with copics.  I tried to stamp the lockers lined up next to each other using my stampamajig, but somehow I managed to still stamp them "off" so EVERYTHING got cut out!!  The "plaque"  sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Faux Ribbon.  I masked off the "with appreciation" under the "THANKS" as I felt it was kind of redundant and stamped it using SU's Real Red.    The "floor" is scored (with the debossed lines on the front) every 1/4" using my Scor Pal, but they are difficult to see in the picture.  All the images (except the plaque) are popped up on dimensionals.  Supplies:  Stamps:  Melanie Muenchinger's Sporty Accessories, Papertrey's Faux Ribbon.  Inks:  Archival Jet Black, Memento Rich Cocoa, Adirondack Slate, SU's Real Red.  Paper:  Pure Luxury 120# from Gina K, basic black

I still need to put the rest of these together, but since I've been really lame about posting lately, I wanted to take a moment and share something new with you!!  I'm off to take a little break and do some yard work before the predicted rain hits!!  Thanks for dropping by again today!! And remember~take time for some creativity!!

Blog Guest

Today is your lucky day!! In addition to my own card (yeah....surprise! I finally got another one made!), I have a card designed by my Blog guest~~my youngest DS, *C (8).

Some artistic background history on *C. My youngest can spend hours just drawing/doodling. Usually his pictures are of some type of battle (Star Wars, dragons vs ???, you know~~dark, lots of blood, swords, light sabers, those types of things that boys love and make mother's cringe when it is done for school projects). But he is very specific in how he wants his creations. When he stamps, he is no different. He gets an idea and that is how he wants it. I will pull out several stamp sets (or he will ask if I have something that is like "such and such") from which he will chose what he wants to work with. He will then pick out his papers and then the color of inks he wants to use. He is also very specific as to where he wants his images and if he "rocks" the stamp or it does not stamp correctly, he ALWAYS wants to re stamp.

*C needed to make a thank you card for his swim teacher. At first he wanted me to make it, but was giving me specific things to include. I asked again and sure enough, he wanted to do it (the first time I asked, it was going to interfere with something else he wanted to do. Mom just had to figure that out and tell him we could make the card at a different time). The stamps had to be something to do with "swimming" (duh). Soo, I pulled out SU's retired Silly Sealife. Then he was telling me how he wanted to use this stamp and that stamp, and make it look like this one was jumping and this one was swimming....etc, etc. Now, all these stamps were not going to fit on a regular sized card. I just happened to have a business envie on my desk and we decided that we would make this card 4x9. Perfect for all the stamps he wanted to use!!

*C does his own stamping (yes, this is the second one, since the first time he rocked one of the dolphins). I only help make sure the stamp is inked well, and give "overpressure" to make a good image (because I finally learned that my help in a good image is sooo worth not having to cut 4 more card bases due to poorly inked images!!) and to make sure he has the image where he wants it (occasionally, I'll make a suggestion as to image placement, but he has the final say. It goes where he wants it). *C then got out his pencils and markers and colored the image (I did make the suggestion that he not use the markers on the main part of the image, as they would cover up the "details"). He borrowed my watercolor pencils so that he could have a different choice in "blues" for his water.
I think it turned out really cute!! He was telling me what the different strokes the creatures were swimming (the turtle is doing breast stroke, the ray is doing the butterfly and the whale is doing freestyle. The dolphins are having fun!)
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My card is a HUGE step for me. Not in the style but in its purpose. I decided to try out for the CAS (clean and simple) Autumn Design Team on SCS. Now DH is dreading this. Not because he feels that I shouldn't try out, but because he is afraid of what he will have to deal with if I don't make it (it would seem that I have had "issues" in the past when I have created what I thought was a WONDERFUL creation and it got no love (or no comments/looks) in the galleries. All I can say in my defense, is sometimes creative egos who are lacking in self appreciation~~need HUGE acknowledgement and must learn to deal with reality. I'm learning to deal with reality), heehee.

This card is for the sketch part of the DT challenge. It's pretty simple. I colored my large Pretties flower with my copic ciao marker (because I really didn't feel like dealing with red reinker!!). I played around with different centers before settling on SEWING a button over a punched 1" black circle. Seriously. You should be impressed that a) I even have a needle and thread kit, b) I knew where it was in order to use it and c) actually sewed. Without someone begging me. Sewing is just something that I personally try to avoid at all costs (let's just say that the 12 weeks of "sewing" in high school home ec were very traumatic and that to this day I wish I had had the guts to take shop instead!!).
I then used the swirl from the Season of Joy set with Wild Wasabi (my favorite green that SU has made!!) and stamped randomly along the edges. The sentiment is a rub on from the Cherished Memories Rub Ons . There are score lines that the ribbon sits between, but you really can't see them even in real life as the ribbon is the exact same size! hehe. HEY!! It only took two tries to get the ribbon to look this nice. I'm improving on that bow tying thing!! Supplies: Paper: SU's whisper white, basic black. Stamps: Season of Joy. Accessories: Clear button (SU), Cherished Memories Rub On, red thread, needle, copic ciao, ribbon (Target)
Thanks for stopping by again today. I'm off to make another card for the DT challenge. (eeeaaakkkkk!!!)

Rolling Thanks

Do you ever get it in your head that you can't do a challenge days after it is posted because no one will look at it or comment? I find myself in that position quite often and it is just PLAIN AND SIMPLY DUMB on my part!! HELLLOO!!! The goal of the challenges is to get you (me!!)creating!!

One of my current favorite challenges is the Clean and Simple challenge on Mondays on SCS. This week was a sketch and I really liked it, but never had a chance to do it on Monday.

My DH is the liaison for our little private church school and the city basketball league. He requested that I make some SIMPLE thank you cards for all of the parents who helped coach the different levels of basketball this season, this sketch just popped into my head! With 13 to make, this was an easy sketch to mass produce:

EASY PEASY!! I stamped the "thanks" in Chocolate chip then did the generation stamping of the basketball from right to left. I used the stampamajig (my FAVORITE tool!) to line up the rolling basketballs. I then stamped another basketball image and punched it out and put it on dimensionals right by the "thanks". Can't get much more simple than this!! Supplies: Paper: SU's Whisper white. Inks: Chocolate chip and pumpkin pie. Stamps: SU's Just Basketball and Much Appreciated. Accessories: stampamajig, dimensionals.

My challenge to you today is to create SOMETHING!! Whether it be for a challenge (current or past) or just for yourself~~keep those creative juices flowing!! I'd love to see what you did, so link back here and I will take a peek over the weekend!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Later gators!!

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!!