Tuesday, February 26, 2008

die frau - a challenge two-fer: WSC 36 & AFSS6

I really wanted to get something posted for Beate's latest sketch challenge. I thought it was a fun design, but I felt like I had too many choices for a stamp. I didn't know where I wanted to go with the design.

Then I read Allison's "girl" challenge and I knew that I could make a card for both challenges.

The stamped image is the ONLY girl image that I own. (Probably means I need more stamps?!?)

I black embossed her on ivory cardstock, layered her to red cardstock, which was then pop-dotted to the background. The background paper is from a thrift store purchase; a German health book. I still can read some of the german words and found a page about (I think) family health. Die frau was cut with Phoebe from Quickutz.

Supplies: She Knows rubber stamp (Rubber Stampede); black, ivory cardstock (unknown); red cardstock (The Paper Company); bookpage (Herders Gesundheits Buch); embossing ink (Tim Holtz distress ink); black embossing powder (Ranger, Superfine detail); adhesives: Xyron & pop-dots; die cuts: Phoebe (Quickutz).

Thanks again for looking.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Thanks poster

I've not had a lot of time to do my personal crafts in the last couple of days. On Saturday AM we had the March of Dimes garage sale and in the afternoon I had all of the usual weekend stuff: grocery shopping, etc.

So I thought I'd show the BIG card that I've been working on for work.

Our case management agency is affiliated with the local hospital. Each Christmas the different floors at the hospital sponsor some of our families, who might not otherwise have a Merry Christmas.

My supervisor asked me a couple of weeks ago to make a poster which we could display at the hospital to say thanks. This is my creation.

Looking at the photo, objectively, my own first impression is: wow!!! Busy!!! I don't think it looks that overwhelming in real life. I included ALL the thank you cards (more so than pictures), because the words are very moving. When I read them for the first time, I had tears in my eyes. And I wanted to display them in such a way, that hospital staff could actually read what these grateful people had said.

All of the letters and tree decorations were cut with the Cricut. The letter font is Base Camp; the Merry Christmas is from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge; the Christmas tree and presents are from Christmas Cheer. The white paper is Georgia Pacific; the red and green are from Michael's; the yellow is Bazzill. I used Tombo Multi adhesive and I plan to add some kind of Christmas sticker (or something) to cover up the extra adhesive that leaked out from under the K in thanks. (Boy, does that look SHINY in the photo!!!)

Thanks for looking.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

AFSS5 - Trees

I've been reading Allison's blog, Stampin' When I Can, for awhile now and decided to try my hand at her challenge this week.


Additionally it's been interesting reading the posts at the Yahoo RangerInkLink group this week. Lots of posts by group members about their favorite Ranger products. Alcohol inks have been getting lots of cheers, so I decided to play with the set that I already had on hand.




I had first used alcohol ink last summer, when I took the class 52-card Pick-Up at BigPictureScrapbooking's online site. I have another image that I've enjoyed using alcohol inks with, but it's not ready to be posted today. But I do have these tree cards.


So, the story on these cards is this: I stamped the main tree image with Brown StazOn ink on glossy cardstock (just the generic stuff you can purchase at Michaels). After the main image was dry, I watercolored the top card with Weathered Wood distress ink (blue sky) and used the Ink Blending Tool from Ranger with Latte alcohol ink for the ground. On the second posted card (which I actually did first) I used the Latte alcohol ink for the ground with the Blending tool, then diluted some of the Latte ink with water in a Mini Mister and sprayed the whole card. Unfortunately I don't have the color adjusting function in PhotoShop Elements quite down and the card background in this picture looks very white. In RL it's actually a light warm brown.


We're having a garage sale this weekend for my agency to raise money for the March of Dimes Walk-a-Thon that's happening here in our district in April. I plan to take some of my cards to the garage sale and see if they'll sell. One way to make a donation, no?


Materials: blue card: white cardstock (Georgia Pacific); blue cardstock (Bazzill); white glossy cardstock (Michaels); tree stamp (Rubber Stampede); background wind swirl (Hero Arts); weathered wood (Ranger distress ink); Latte (Ranger alcohol ink); Versamark; ribbon (Michaels).

Materials: rust card: rust & blue cardstocks (Bazzill); glossy white cardstock (Michaels); tree stamp (Rubber Stampede); ribbon (Michaels); buttons (Dress It Up).


Thanks so much for looking.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Anniversary card


At Caardvarks, the card challenge blog there's been a new challenge each week in February related to the theme of Love. This week's challenge is anniversary love.

I made this card for my son and daughter-in-law for their, uh, you guessed it..... their 2nd anniversary.

I'm not a real bright color person, but my dear daughter-in-law is. So when I chose the papers/colors for this card, I wanted bright happy colors for Emilie. I've enjoyed making cards for her, because they get me out of my comfort zone.

Supplies: cardstock: Bazzill Basics; designer paper: Basic Grey; die cut: Cricut; chipboard (2nd): Basic Grey; flower: unknown; brad: Imaginesce; ink: Tim Holtz distress ink.

Thanks for looking.

WSC #35

Since we're now past Valentine's Day, it's time to remember my Irish heritage! While I no longer imbibe green beer (truth be told, I NEVER did), I am proud of my Irish bloodlines. And celebrating St. Patrick's Day is an important part of that heritage.

Beate's weekend sketch challenge provided my first opportunity to stock up on cards for St. Patty's day.

I had gotten this stamp a couple of years ago and previously had only used it inside my holiday greeting cards. But I decided to try using it on the outside of the card this time.

Supplies: cardstock: (white) Georgia Pacific, (green) Bazzill; ink: Versacolor (evergreen); stamp: My Sentiments Exactly! (irish joke); designer paper: Reminisce (shamrock burst, shamrock stripe); buttons: Dress It Up; adhesives: Xyron, Tombo Mono-Multi.

Thanks for looking.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Grunge Kitty

Each month the RangerInkLink group at Yahoogroups has a challenge. This month's challenge revolved around Furry Friends.

I've been a "cat" person most of my life; and even though I currently own a feathered biped (as my DH refers to the cockatiel), my first thought for a "furry" challenge was a kitty project.
I really liked all the techniques that Tim Holtz posted in December, 2007 at his blog. I used the technique for weathered wood from Day 8 to create the background on this tag. I hand drew (if you want to use that word) the kitty paws, 'cause I just couldn't justify purchasing the stamp that I wanted at Michaels (even with the 40% coupon hole in my pocket). The triangle stamp is an old Judikins stamp; since I unmounted several of my old stamps years ago, I don't know the name on the stamp. The kitty face is Rubber Stampede; likewise nameless. The kitty paws and the triangle stamp were all embossed with black opaque embossing powder. The word CAT is grungeboard, inked with black soot.
Supplies: Lake Mist paint dabber, weathered wood distress ink, frayed burlap distress ink, black soot distress ink, distress ink embossing ink, ZIG emboss writer embossing pen, Stamp-n Stuff midnight black opaque embossing powder, brown fiber (maybe EK Success).
Thanks for looking.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

More Valentine's Fun

Last night I posted the mailboxes that I decorated for Valentine's for my grandchildren, using the tutorial found at Emily Giovanni's blog, Stamping and Stuff.

Tonight I want to post the blocks that I made for Valentine's for my son and his wife.

These were made using most of the same papers that I used for the mailboxes from Basic Grey's Two Scoops line. I printed 5 photos of the kids in black & white on matte paper. If this were a scrapbooking project, I wouldn't have printed the photos on my cheap-y HP printer. But for this project, I didn't feel like being super-archival-minded.

I purchased the 2-inch wooden blocks from Crafts 'n' Stuff (a small local Florida craft store chain) and painted them with Making Memories white (Spotlight) paint. The papers and photos were punched out using my 1 3/4-inch Marvy Uchida square punch. Papers and photos were attached to blocks using Mod-Podge.



The blocks were sanded only around the edges of the papers; I didn't want to distress the photos. After the sanding was completed Cloud 9 Designs Love rub-ons were applied (the letters, the hearts you can see on the photo of my grand-birdie on the O block, as well as some larger heart rub-ons, which aren't visible in any of the photos). Finally I sealed the blocks with Delta Ceramcoat Matte Varnish.

This was super easy and super fun to do. I'm already working on a set of blocks for my daughter's family. Again, many thanks to Emily Giovanni for her fun tutorials. And thanks to all who come and take a look here.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Valentine's fun

I love the blogosphere. There is so much fun stuff out there (or is it here?) to be learned.

One of my favorite places to learn stuff is at Emily Giovanni's blog, Stamping and Stuff.

I've got two projects to post, both of which came from tutorials at her blog.

Tonight's project posted: the Target mailboxes.
These were made with Basic Grey papers from the Two Scoops line. Have I said before that I just love Basic Grey paper? Yes, I think I've said that once or twice or thirty-seven times.
Supplies: Basic Grey paper; Pioneer Photo Memory Double-Sided Mounting Tape
Now, I just need to get these into the mail tomorrow to get to the grandchildren before Easter!!!
Thanks for looking.

Monday, February 4, 2008

More Valentine's inspiration

So, I was in Michaels last week. With a 40% off coupon burning a whole in my pocket. You know how that is, yes? And I saw this.......

And I could just SEE all the possibilities that this stamped image could give me: tone on tone, embossed, etc. I don't think that I've had that sense of INSPIRATION at first glance before. So I came up with this.....


Supplies: red, white, pink cardstock (source unknown); Open Swirl Heart from Rubber Stampede; Distress Ink clear embossing ink; Colorbox red ink; both embossed with Ranger clear embossing powder; Love ribbon (Michaels from a year or 2 ago).

Thanks again for looking.

Weekend Sketch Challenge #33

Beate's sketch challenge was posted on Friday as per usual. A more challenging sketch for me.

I used some of the new Two Scoops paper from Basic Grey along with Rhonna Farrer's Flowers stamps. The images were stamped with Colorbox black ink and mounted to black cardstock (source unknown). The heart bradlets and script Love bradlet on the tag are from ProvoCraft. The polkadot ribbon is from Michaels $1 bin. The tag was attached to the polkadot ribbon with a thin piece of pink ribbon (again from Michaels).

Once I figured out what stamped images I wanted to use, the rest of the card came together pretty easily.

Thanks for looking.