Collage

This is a technique I have been wanting to try. Bought these stamps specifically to try it. They are from I Brake for Stamps- The Time to Stamp Line. Not my usual thing but I like them. Plan to try it again with Butterflies and flowers. It was quite easy to do and quick.




My Grand daughter leaves tomorrow morning so we spent the day at St. Pete's Beach. We had a great day and the girls spent a lot of time picking up shells. But all they picked up were broken ones. I couldn't believe it. Robin and Jessica are 16 not 5. But they thought the pieces were pretty and they were happy. That is all that counts. They kept bringing me these pieces of shell and were so excited about them. It was like they had never been to the beach before. They are something else. Well June is over. Can you believe it?? I have to take advantage of July or it will be over and I will be back at work. That's a sad thought. Oh to be retired or at least independently wealthy. Wouldn't that be grand. So I need to get serious now. Have so much I want to do. Sewing a few skirts. Flower punches to play with. Techniques to try. Weeding ( I might forget this project. ) Cards I want to send into a few magazines. Wonder how much I will really get done.

Our trip to Mt. Dora and the vellum tape

Well here are the stamps I bought on our trip. Look at that window. I just love it. Need to get a few flower punches. Luckily I had a bunch of punchies from a swap to put together enough flowers. Punches are on my list for next Saturday at Stampfest. The stamp is from Make an Impression.

Well I tried that $9.00 Scotch Vellum tape. Don't waste your money. As you can see from the picture it did not work. It says it's invisible on most vellum. I guess I don't have most vellum. Love the stamp though. It is from Inkadinkado.

Here that stamp is on card stock. I just love it. It was the first thing I saw as we walked through the door. Could not resist it.

Graduation 09

Robin asked me to make her Graduation announcements so I have surfed the net day and night looking for the right stamps. Nothing serious for us. We needed a cutsie animal. Well this is the rough draft I made while she was at work. It got a big smile so I think she liked it. I am going to be using Glossy Black card stock instead of the regular card stock. Not sure what to do about the 2009 yet but will come up with something. We have plenty of time. I'm sure a Nestabiliitie will play a part. The background stamp is from Inkadinkado and the little chick is from Whipper Snappers. This is a new company for me. Their stamps are so cute. I had to have a couple more. Love their faces. How could we resist the cow. If we had a pig it would be perfect. Guess we'd better get one. I don't have any real birthday stamps so the elephant was just what I needed.

Tried a technique and made some cards

Today I had 2 goals. One was to try a Technique Junkie Technique called Varnished Floating pearls. And this morning in looking at a couple of blogs I came across a card shaped like a glass of lemonade so I wanted to try that out. The first card is the technique. It uses a brown lunch bag. The ATC I just received in a swap today. It was made by Sue Benner of The SSSD yahoo group. I thought the colors matched my background perfectly so I put it to use. Now the glasses of lemonade I am not at all sure about. The one on the right I used an adhesive sheet to attach the vellum. What a mess. The adhesive sheet stuck to me, the table and to the card. It was way too sticky. The other one I used Tombow Aqua Liquid glue. You can't see it except where it touched the yellow card stock. But it made the vellum and card stock curl up. You can at least tell I am using vellum though. It's not noticeable with the adhesive sheet. I think the one on the blog looks much better and she used SU glue stick to attach her vellum. You can find the directions at http://igotstamps.com and look under tutorials. It is a really cute card. Now tomorrow there will be no stamping. We have a morning and afternoon planned shopping in Mount Dora and then in the evening it is to the Florida Mall. Where the girls will be happily shopping.

Another sketch challenge finished

My grandaughter is visiting from Ohio and her and my daughter Robin have been playing in my things for several evenings. Anybody that knows me well knows this is a real problem on my insides. I'm smiling on the outside but my organization has been turned upside down and I just don't know how to react to that without having a stroke. But I'm smiling and telling them what great jobs they are doing. Then I caught Robin getting ready to spray my PearlX with water. She had them confused with H2O's. So after a quick lesson in how to use them correctly without the spraying water I had this image to deal with on my desk. The girls had gone swimming and I took this time to clean my space and put everything back where it belongs. All is now well with the world once again. But here was still this image. I hadn't worked on the Techno Stampers challenge yet
http://technostamper.blogspot.com/ and it was the right size and that's that story and here's my card. Image is from I Brake for Stamps and paper is SU.

Back to my sketch challenges

Well it was my goal to get back to doing the sketch challenges I so enjoyed doing. So today I sat down with the sketch from Poeticartistry.blogspot.com

So here is my Mojo Monday card. When I first saw the sketch I right away thought about using the Scor-Pal. I'm trying to make a real effort to use it more. After scoring I chalked the lines with green. Added a rectangle cut with my Nestabilities. Stamped it with a strawberry from SU which I colored with markers before stamping. The sentiment is from I Brake for Stamps. It was cut to be a 4" square card. Very simple, easy and cute. We don't always have to spend hours making a card now do we?

I'm also figuring out how to put the pictures where I want them finally in my blogs. Before you know it I may even know what I'm doing.

Decorative Tiles

Today I tried something different. I had bought the tiles at Home Depot a few weeks ago. The small ones were like .33 and the larger one I believe was .88. No gloss finish on them. Don't know if I did it right but they turned out pretty good. The sunflower was stamped with Black Stazon. I then colored it in with my Tombows, Sprayed with Krylon Fixatif, Touched up the colors, sprayed again and then put several coats of Modge Podge on top. The larger tile I printed the picture of myself and my youngest son dancing at his wedding on tissue paper and then Modge Podged it with several layers. I'm going to put felt on the bottom of the tiles and put them out for use. We shall see if they hold up.

Something I very very seldom do

Todays cards all used decorative paper. I have an assortment of paper but never pull it out because I normally use my backgrounds. This morning I decided to be different. Told myself it's OK. You can use paper. So I pulled out a few images I wanted to work with and then went to matching papers. Have a few more sitting here to finish up tomorrow. We headed for the airport at 3. Got there by 4 with no problems. Jessie's plane landed 10 minutes early so the trip is looking real good. Then we leave the airport. The first bad thing was being charged $1.00 for 2 lousy minutes. It's a 1.00 for every 20 minutes parking. We were there 62 minutes. $4.00!! That's a little ridiculous. Then we get on the road and I hate fast moving traffic and can not get over to get off at the Turnpike exit for fear of being killed. So get off at the next one and head back towards what I'm hoping is the turnpike. Come across 441. I know that street so I'm going OK we've got it but no I'm driving North. We need to go South my husband tells me when I call to tell him we're OK because I found 441. So we turn around once again and finally find the turnpike and with .50 to spare we make it home 5 hours later. Those Toll roads just kill you going into Orlando. But we're home now in one piece. Stopped for sandwiches at A & W and now are ready for bed. What a day. We are going to get to go to Busch Gardens. I am so excited. Husband is going to take a days vacation the week before Grandaughter goes back, so we can go. Looking forward to that. We have wanted to go for years. Tomorrow I think I will work on the tiles I bought to make coasters. Hope they turn out

a little play time

Here are a few cards I made yesterday. All images I received from image swaps. I enjoy these kind of swaps because it challenges you to use something you wouldn't normally buy yourself. Those little Hedgehogs are so cute. Love receiving them but own none. I always think I wouldn't use them but then I get one and enjoy coloring him in and putting him on a card. Go figure. I tried the dotting thing on 2 of the cards. Not sure how I feel about them. Need practice for sure. Think I'll stick to my autumn leaves. Now those I can color in by the 100s, spend hours cutting them out and I never get tired of using them. Before I head for the airport I have lots more colored images to add to cards so I guess I'd better get busy.

Merry Christmas !!!

Well I guess I'm a bit early but I started my cards today for the relatives who think we lost our minds moving here from the great north. Of course my mind is just fine. It's their minds!! Who wouldn't want to live in Summertime all the time Florida!! So I found the perfect stamps at Sparkle and Sprinkle for a little Florida humor. No techniques and nothing fancy just simple and cute. My Cuttlebug came in handy. Got to love that Cuttlebug. Need to make a few more of all of them and then I can start on the more serious fancy Christmas cards for my stamping buddies. The last card I really love but I think it's the bird. Love her!! I received her as an image in a swap and loved it so much I just had to have the stamp. Dawn found it for me. Don't know how but she's good at locating things. She's from Art Impressions and her name is Robin. How appropriate is that? My Robin is just as cute. Well maybe she's a little cuter. I sat in front of the TV last night watching movies with hubby coloring and glittering all kinds of images. Plan on doing the same thing tonight. Makes putting cards together so much easier. Well I'm off to play some more. Hope you all are enjoying your afternoon as much as I am. Hubby is grilling steaks so I'm eating good real soon.

more vacation fun

Well I have gotten all my June swaps done and ready to mail out Monday. That was a huge task but is finished. Touched up my daughters ceiling. She painted her room and sort of slipped a few times with Maroon paint on the white ceiling. Didn't bother her but bugged me to death. So there is another job done. This heat is unbelievable. I've never been hot before. Guess I've finally acclimated myself to Florida. It's a good thing stamping and card making are done sitting quietly. Getting lots of things put together. Please don't let me run out of tape. LOL Tried out a new Technique from TJ's call Faux handmade paper. A very cool technique and has a homemade paper look to it. My friend Lis though who really does make some gorgeous paper probably will not agree. The stamp is a retired SU. The other card uses another TJ technique called Mesh direct. I really like this look. Kind of reminds me of snake skin. The birdhouse stamp is one I just got from Art Impressions. Used my Distressed inks and a water brush to color it. Ran a scalloped round Nestabilitie through the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder and chalked it. Husband just got home and for some reason he thinks he needs supper. Doesn't he understand I am on vacation. Oh well.

Fun fun fun

Well I've been working on some of my June swaps but had to take a break and get started on this star card. I ran across the project the other day on another blog. Don't know how I found it. Hope I can find it again. Can you believe this is made using the 2 SU tag punches??!! How do they come up with these wonderful ideas. The star went together quite easily. It also gave me a chance to play with my glitter. Glitter glitter everywhere. The background is a TJ technique called Webbed Acetate. So I'm off to play some more. I have so much to fit in during this tiime. Great first official day of my vacation. On a sadder note our other cow had her calf yesterday. It was dead. This has not been a good calf season for us. My poor husband cried. He was so upset. The vet just says you're not the first and you won't be the last to lose a calf. The other calf we could understand because it was oversized and got stuck in the birth canal and suffocated. This one was perfect size. I have a feeling last years calf caused this. He kept trying to nurse. We did finally get them separated when we figured out she was pregnant but I think it was just too late. He was getting the nourishment the new baby should have gotten. Don't really know but that makes sense to me. So our hopes are for a good birthing time next spring. Super chicken however laid another super deduper egg. Wasn't quite as long but this one was way big around. And I have thoughts on who is doing this. There is one Rhode Island Red hen who is always the last to leave the coop. I call her Pokey. She lags behind and takes her good time walking anywhere unless food is involved. LOL Well I'm off to play some more but I wanted to share this card with you.

1 more day and I am on vacation!!!

and looking forward to it. I haven't had a vacation in 3 years. So the plan is to make some go to church skirts if I can sit in front of my sewing machine long enough to make a few. I have a ton of fabric I had bought for that intention when I was working in the school in Ohio. So I have had that fabric for a while. Haven't cranked that baby up except to mend something since I moved here. It's hard to believe back in Ohio I sewed about 10 hours a day. Florida has broken me. Oh well!! Then I plan to keep up with the sketch challenges and make at least 5 cards a day. Need Christmas cards for this Dec. and Robin asked me to make her Graduation announcements. She said 300. Hope that was a very large estimation. What does she need with 300?? Oh well. She's such a good kid. Whatever she wants. So I will be posting with all my creations on a regular basis. Lot's of fun to be had and then summer will be over way to soon and school will be starting again. Unless I'm not rehired. Cross your fingers and toes for me. I don't want to go back to Wendys full time. So before I make myself sad before I even have the time to enjoy this time off here's my card that was published in the July issue of Scrap and Stamp.