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7/29/2016

A Simple Thank You

Good morning, and Happy Friday...another hot day in our neighborhood. Recently read a post by Princess Judy wherein she was going through her stash of precolored images, and either using or tossing. Thought "What a super idea". One night when  not feeling in the mood to do aught else, dug out a box of images, either stamped up to take on a trip or else colored but never used and found some of the samples of early copic practice coloring. Decided to see if it was possible to use some of this stash; and if not, take PJ's excellent advice and toss it. Here's a first effort - and this little floral image was stamped years ago, but never colored. I could also tell it was Neenah cardstock, which I used early in my copic efforts.


The stamp was probably a borrowed one. Die cut with S/B classic circle, matted with S/B classic scalloped circle, then a 3rd mat with the larger S/B circle.

- cut strips of snippets papers (some were created backgrounds), glued to another snippet of white c/s.
Die cut with an MFT stitched fishtail die, which had to be elongated a bit to fit the space. Once it was put on the card, the top was just a smidge too extended, but I decided to leave it as is.

- White card base was embossed with a basketweave pattern EF, (perhaps Darice?). A die sentiment was cut from the same yellow paper in the fishtail. This was an ombre paper, so colored it with some copic yellows to make it stand out more on the border. Used 2 layers of package cardboard behind the paper die cut, so that it has some nice dimension. Don't usually decorate the inside of a card. However there were 2 tiny strips from die cutting the border that fit perfectly as a top & bottom trim  on the inside of the card. Called it done. This will be going to some very sweet gardening neighbors who are kindly keeping us in homegrown tomatoes.

Thanks Judy for this good idea to shop the stash -- use or lose it! It was interesting to see some of the very early copic pieces that were hanging around. Some of them are salvageable I think, with adding some much needed contrast. Now just need to make some cards with these pieces.

Ya'll have a great day, and hope your weekend is going to be just grand. Come again when you have time. Hugs.

7/25/2016

No Reply Blogger Message on Comments

      No Reply Blogger Notice

{I've copied and pasted a post from my friend Loll . This is info that I thought would be helpful to lots of us, so with Loll's permission, I'm simply re-sharing her words here. I hope this will help someone, as sometimes it's difficult to return a visit if you don't have a way to get back to their blog).
Hi everyone.  A few of my blogging friends have recently done posts on a common problem faced by many bloggers.  I thought I'd join them to pass along info on how we can be better connected.

Do you get comments on your blog without a return email address??  Lots of times I get comments from people and it has their name, but the email address is "No Reply Blogger", or it comes in as "via blogger.bounces.google.com".  There is no way to return those comments directly.

I like to followup up with people who send me comments.  Mostly because I really appreciate them taking the time to send me a message, but it also gives me the opportunity to get to know people a little better.  Sometimes it's just to share a mutual appreciation for each other's work, and sometimes it is the start of a good friendship.

Many people who leave comments don't even realize that they come up as "No Reply Blogger".  They assume their their email is being included, but a lot of the time it is not.

If you want to find out how your comments come through to others, leave yourself a comment on one of your blog posts (you can delete it afterwards).  It will send you an email and you can see for yourself if your email address is included.

If your email isn't included you can EASILY change this.  It's in your Blogger Profile.  Open your blogger dashboard (the place where you start posts, etc.) and you will see your profile picture at the top right.  Click on your picture and a drop-down menu will appear, click on "Blogger Profile".  It opens with your profile picture, list of blogs you follow, etc.  At the top right is an "Edit Profile" button ... click on it. It has a list of items with check boxes. Make sure the line "Show my email address" is checked and then hit the "Save" button at the very bottom to save your changes.

A simple fix to keep us all better connected.
 
Hugs and thanks for coming by. Just too bloomin' hot to sit on the porch swing, even with a glass of cold iced tea!
 

 

A Rudy Day Stocking

Good morning - and Happy Monday. July 2016 Rudy Day Challenge is open today until the month's end. What is Rudolph Day (or as I call it - Rudy Day) you may ask? It's a fun challenge, wherein the only rule is to make a Christmas themed card. Easy peasy...our sweet hostess is Maureen of Scraps of Life by Scrappymoi. Mo always has some nifty prizes, but the best thing is seeing all the fab Christmas cards made by the guest designers and people who join in...a very friendly group - to be sure! So c'mon.

The card today was made from a Papercut kit bought who knows how many years ago, at a stamp show. Found it when rooting around for something else - which I never found. The kit had all the supplies EXCEPT the stamp.

 
 
- Impression Obsession Stocking (K10006) which had a sentiment as part of the stamp set. I chose to leave off a front sentiment. Also colored the image according to the sample shown on the kit packaging, and it did NOT photo well at all. Actually the sample colors are rather pretty,but the picture doesn't show that. (Photography challenged operator is at fault). Colored on Copic Xpress white paper; the kit had cream paper, but decided not to use that. Image die cut with an MFT Xstitch die sized to fit the green mat.
 
- Forest Green, Gold mats included in kit-- cut out the center portions with a rectangle die, to be used for another project.
 
- Card base is a deep burgundy, and the insert liner is cream colored. A Christmas verse will be stamped inside. There just didn't seem to be a good place for a front sentiment and surely, everyone will know it's a Christmas stocking- LOL!
 
If you can, join the fun over at July's Rudolph Days and be inspired to add yet another card to your Christmas stash. Not many months remain to get a jump on this holiday, but ...hard to believe how fast 2016 is whizzing past, isn't it????
 
The kitchen tile is in progress today, and the 2 bathroom floors have been grouted. Progress is being made! Gosh, what will I have to 'talk about' once this mess is finished?
 
Thanks for joining me today, and Big Sunny Hugs!
 
 
 
 
 
- 

7/23/2016

Christmas Card Club - Traditional Colors - Tutti Wreath

Hi, and once again it's time for our Christmas Card Club to share cards. This week our sweet Christine selected our theme to be Traditional Colors. Hope you'll enjoy my take on the theme, and if time allows, be sure to check out my team members inspirations on the Traditional Colors theme. Their blog links are in the right side bar.




 
 
Tutti Wreath die cut in gold mirror paper. Added some Red berries using VOS glitter stickon. Tried to cut this die using Shimmer Sheetz and the nifty metal plate. It's so intricate, some places didn't cut well, so after a bit of scissor work, decided to just use the gold c/stock instead. This cut very nicely, with a couple of passes. I think the shimmer sheetz will be best left to non-intricate dies!
 
placed the gold wreath on Christmas red paper which had been dry embossed with a Sizzix Jolly Holly EF(658751). Added a scant border of the same gold paper, burnished it down (looks like the top piece could use a bit more burnishing in this photo). This gold c/stock does not photo well.The embossed piece has a fun foam behind it for some dimension and is adhered to a textured red card base.
 
Die-Versions sentiment die cut from the same gold c/s. That's it. I think red & gold are very traditional Christmas colors!
 
Also have a beautiful new card posted on the Cards by Friends to enjoy with us.
 
Ya'll enjoy a wonderful Sunday, and thanks for stopping in to visit. Big hugs.
 
 

7/21/2016

Distress Paint Background Overstamped with Silhouette

Good Morning! YAY...the tile guys are here!!!! Lots of activity going on, so maybe our master bathroom might be tiled at day's end.

Had a play with Distress Paints a while back (remember this card?). The background on today's card was from that session, and this piece still had more ink on it than I wanted. The backgrounds have been in the Crapalanche, waiting to see if anything was usable. Found an old Hero Arts silhouette stamp (?Wildflowers?), inked in Memento Paris Dusk, and here's what resulted:

 
 
- Spritzed some pearlized & gold sprays over the stamped background, let it dry.

- Dark blue mat cut to fit the background.
 
- S/B EF, Overlapping Circles, (one of the newer ones, so you have to watch the 'sandwich'..just used a top plate and the Sizzix multi platform.) After embossing a white card front, used DI blues, reds & greens to sponge over the white.
 
- MB Painted Happy die, which was cut from a piece of cardboard that backed an MFT die. Mixed some Reflections white and Reflections pink, added in a bit of WOW Red Glitter EP, and this color is the result. A trio of sequins and it's called Done!  Mixing these powders is sort of fun, you just never know what will result. Again, a dark color would have worked better perhaps, but this is ok. Another one for the stash...could be used for happy Anything!!
 
Thanks for coming by, and have a good day. Big hugs
 
 
 

7/18/2016

Spectrum Noir Acqua Pens with WPlus9 Dahlia

Happy Monday evening Peeps. Hope you had a marvelous day to start the week. Let's start with adding a blog link for one of my new followers:

 
DeeDee was the owner of DeeDee's Digis - and when her shop closed, her old blog disappeared. I thought when I saw the name it was she, but emailed to ask since I couldn't get to the old link I had for her blog. So if you have time, pop over to say hello and enjoy DeeDee's work. You'll enjoy it!!!
 
Some more UFO-s are getting on a card. Photo'd today's card, then when I saw the picture, the camera caught some things my eyes missed.
 
 
 
 
- WPlus9 Beautiful Bouquet Dahlia heat embossed with Queen's Gold. Decided to hunt up the Spectrum Noir Acqua pens I've had for a while, and do a little watercoloring. The pens did not feel 'good' in my hands (remember I'm used to the softer brush nib of a copic), but I was not able to blend the w/c of the Acquas as easily as with the Zig. (again, this is a lot of operator difficulty, probably not the pens per se. Just sayin'). I was ok with the vivid colors & fussy cut to place the leaves and buds where I wanted on the oval. Oval was left over cut out layer from another project. Think the piece had been colored using some brusho-s and Golden Sands Infusion - which is a product similar to brusho, just more in the earth tones than the brushos.
 
- S/B Shapeability Lace Doily Motif  (an oldie die) cut the mat from a 6x6 dp pack...cut the sentiment from a smaller motif in the S/B set. Cut a top layer from white, trimmed it to fit so that the sentiment could be stamped. Distressed with DI Tea Dye to soften the white.
 
- card front from a 6x6 pack of textured paper - this is a rough paper, that has threads in it. Thought  the edge had trimmed nicely, but the photo showed some 'fuzz' in places along the edge. (my eye didn't catch it..but the camera certainly did). In the bottom right corner, there was a white mark (as from a white pencil,...so not sure if this was an imperfection in the paper). Anyway, this glared in the photo. Took the very sharp Cutter Bee scissors to do a little hair cut, and then used Tea Die to sponge around the corners, and cover up the white mark.
 
One more UFO done!! One in the 'any occasion' stash too. Nothing fancy, but I do like this image. Have another one colored with copics that I like much better. I've seen lots of beautiful work done with the Spectrum Noirs - both the alcohol markers and the acquas. The nib just does not feel comfortable to my hand, and I don't blend well with either of these types of markers. Anybody else want to share their thoughts on these markers? I'm pretty sure it is _just me_!!!
 
Oh yeah, the carpenter is s'posed to show tomorrow to remove the doors in the to-be tiled areas. Because of the different depth of a ceramic tile versus the vinyl we had in the rooms being retiled, the doors, shoe molding have to be removed, probably adjust the door bottoms. DH has promised to repaint the doors while off the hinges. The contractor came by late this evening. We had not turned on any of the new plumbing, but he did. Found a slight problem, so I'm happy he discovered it!!! Slowly, slowly. He apologized again for our long wait and thanked us for our patience. (I hope his fee will reflect that patience thanks!!!)
 
Thanks for popping by this evening. Will try to share some more UFO's. I'm trying hard to keep up with my visitor comments, so when I don't attend to that promptly, I'll wait to post a card.
 
Hugs. Stay Cool.
 
 
 


7/16/2016

DieVersions Summer Flowers

Hiya--happy Saturday, with wishes that your weekend has started off well. Still very hot in our area, but we did get a lovely, gentle rain yesterday evening. It was pleasant enough as the storm was ending that we could sit out on the porch and enjoy the cool air, listening to the rain. Our plumbers had just left, so the plumbing fixtures have been installed. (ah, no - we can't use the shower yet! Silicone has to dry, plus we're still waiting on the tile fella to show..hopefully next week!) So perhaps by the end of July we _might possibly_ be able to use that shower. YAY! After all this bother, we're almost afraid to...for fear of what else might go wrong. We're the original Murphy's Law people.

Now, please help me welcome 2 new followers:

 
DeeDee Anderson
(can't find a blog for DeeDee, so please if you have a blog, do let me know so that I can share a link)
 
Thanks so much for becoming my newest followers, and I hope that my friends will surf over to say hi & enjoy a visit with you too. It's great to make new friends, and enjoy the wonderful projects that everyone posts. 

Today's card:



Have just been trying to work on some UFO's while still not feeling tiptop (I'm getting there though, just a bit slowly!). Recently Dies R Us has been having some moving sales, so when I see dies at good prices - especially those background dies which can be a bit pricey - I've been succumbing. This is one from a recent sale:

Die-Versions Summer Flowers Background(Whispers DVW-364)...die cut from a previously created background, probably Dylusions sprays, from the Snippets Box. Very easy to cut this intricate die with the metal plate (not the Precision Plate though). A forward/backward pass, 2 times just to be certain all the bits cut from the thicker mixed media c/s - and Voila...easy-peasy.

- Colorbox 8x8 watercolor-marble paper (from Walmart for $5!) cut to fit the background die for the card front.

- McGill flower punch (old one-can't find a link) to cut some tiny flowers from snippets of previously created backgrounds & c/stock bits, add a center of Nuvo Crystal drops...

- Julie Ebersole sentiment Hello diecut from some rather glossy backing (a die was attached to this backing) - so it didn't need extra layers. Tried out an EP combination created from a very bright vivid green (can't think why I bought such a bold color), mixed with a Reflections white that looks more creamy than white. Probably should have done a black or dark blue for more contrast, but I did rather like the look of the combination powders. Just perhaps not so great on this card!

Recently took the Jennifer McGuire Heat Wave class, and one of the techniques was combining EP's to create different looks. So thought I'd try it with some colors I don't use very much. Good thing I had some empty containers from dumping frequently used EP's into Tupperware. I did wipe out the container very well, first though. Now just need to label that container so I know what color combo it is.

Added a beautiful new card to the Cards by Friends, so hope you'll have time to give a look-in. We feel so blessed receiving cards from the talented and thoughtful bloggers who send them to us.

Have a wonderful afternoon. Big Hugs & thanks for coming by. See ya.

7/11/2016

Distress Paints

Good afternoon, Happy Monday and welcome to a scheduled post.

Have a bunch of Distress Paints* but had never tried using them until recently. (first effort on this card). Dab the paint over a stamp, stamp, and my mistake was using new bottles, and not creating a palette, but just dabbing right onto a stamp, which was not crisply etched. Used part of that effort where the color was too heavy, as the background behind the flowers on the Wild Hibiscus card.

*last year when Ranger was coming out with the color of the month, I bought these in sets, which included the stains - which I seldom remember to use - and the paints.

Since there was so much color still left on the flower stamp, spritzed it with more water, and pulled some more prints - until most of the color was gone from the stamp surface. The background on this card is from one of those prints, and actually looked quite nice (although the photo does not show it as well as I'd have liked- the ink had become quite pastel rather than bold)

Another try was to ink up the stamp surface with Versamark, emboss with SnS Belgian Crème EP. Not the best stamp to do this with, as it resulted in a totally embossed surface, which then got spattered with some of the spritzing ink because I didn't move it. (accidental spatters seem to work better for me, than if I deliberately try to spatter and get blobs). Cut some strips from this result to use as borders on this print. (yes I _know_ it's only paper! I like to think and see if mistakes can be used for something else!)

 
- Flower stamp from Just Rite's Let Your Soul Sing Clear set inked with WOW watermark pad, then used WOW Fool's Gold EP. The container looks like pink glitter, but embosses to a rather pinkish shade of gold. Quite pretty.
 
- Julie Ebersole Hello die cut from a white snippet, 2 layers from some packaging cardboard (not thick, but thicker than cardstock). Adhered the layers, then WOW embossing ink, sprinkled the Fool's Gold, heat embossed.
 
- blue DP from a Color box watercolor 8x8 paper pack (inexpensive - from Walmart, but thought the papers were pretty). Embossed with a folder that has a border on each side (sorry - don't remember the brand or EF name).
 
A fairly quick card, just took a while to do all the elements and thinking :-).  Once the bits & pieces started to come together, it took about 10 minutes. At least it's a 'generic' card for the stash to have handy, and I learned some things (mostly about what NOT to do!).
 
Ya'll have a good evening, and come again. Big Hugs
 
 


7/10/2016

Christmas Card Club - Snowmen

Hi - today is Christmas Card Club Sunday, and I'm a bit late with this post. Our group of cardmakers share a Christmas Card Challenge every other Sunday, and this week Lorraine of Rainey's Craft Room wanted to see Snowmen. So after apologies for being late, here is my Snowman.


- sky background airbrushed using a plastic cloud template, & various shades of Blue Violet, Blue, Bluegreen, in the 0000 & 000 shades. Finally sponged some DI blues in the corners to create a bit more depth.

- Sue Wilson tree dies cute from a snippet of dark green, added brushable glue once these were in place. Over the wet glue, sprinkled polar white flower soft (much of which has fallen off! I have the WORST luck with that stuff!  I did press gently into place and let it dry too). Added some star dust stickles because the flower soft was such a disappointment as snow.

- Inkadinkadoo Snowman - stamped with Memento London Fog, colored with copics. Paper pieced his scarf, applied glossy accents on his vest, and some star dust stickles rubbed around his snowy tummy and hat.

- torn strips of American Crafts glitter paper for the snowy ground, then added star dust for ice.

- Impression Obsession deer cut from a velvet texture brown dp. His hooves have some stickles around his hooves.

Left off a sentiment --will decide as needed whether this will be a 'for winter' or 'for Christmas' card.

Hope that other folks have better luck with Flower Soft than I do. The flower soft glue is in a container that I fight with to try to squeeze the glue out. (store it upside down in a jar as directed in a class I took on Flower Soft. Have tried other glues - thick ones, thin ones. This time was a SnS Brushable glue, sprinkled the F/Soft the wet glue, pressed & let it dry. The stuff still fell off. I get very discouraged when trying to use this product. Be interested in hearing about your experiences with it or suggestions to make it less frustrating. It's so pretty if it works properly).

Please do see what my team mates have shared on our Snowman theme (blog links on the right side bar). Realized I've still got a couple wonderful birthday cards to post on the Cards by Friends Page too.

Have a great day, and hope it's cool where you are this afternoon. Thanks for joining me, and big hugs.

7/07/2016

Penny Black Hedgie

Good afternoon and welcome to a scheduled post.



- a UFO that's been hanging around for a while. Of course you'll recognize the PB Hedgie that is one of my fav PB images. He's always such fun to color..Matted Hedgie with the same S/B label die (?Label 4?) that cut the image out originally. Traced around the outer edges of the same size die, then hand cut to get a scant mat. I always cut out the inside with one of the smaller dies in the set. This saves on layering weight when mailing, plus a little snippet for future use.

- White card base, added some striped washi on the side and some butterfly washi at the bottom.

- a Zig watercolored butterfly from the Altenew Wild Hibiscus metallic embossing images sent to me by a sweet friend. A very easy card to put together...dunno why it took me so long!

Hugs & thanks for popping in.

7/06/2016

Anniversary - Wild Hibiscus - CAS Mix Up

Good afternoon...and welcome. Been MIA for a bit, but did manage to finish up a couple cards to share. Received some absolutely lovely birthday cards from wonderful blog friends, and have posted a few. Still have a couple to photo and share, but if you have time, do please check the Cards by Friends Page and enjoy some of the blessings that came my way. All these are displayed on the mantle and provide such uplift to my mood each time I pass. Thank you to those who were so generous and kind to remember me- either with a snail card or an email card. Wasn't feeling all that great on the day, so these cards were just the cheer I needed then.

One lovely friend sent some embossed images which I've used on today's card. We have an anniversary coming soon, and for some reason, I felt the urge to do something a bit 'tropical'. I'd seen Julie Ebersole Hello Monday and was inspired to attempt the look.


- Wild Hibiscus flowers & leaves had been embossed with a metallic ink, so colored with Zig Brush Markers, fussy cut.

- Background behind the flowers (in the cut out section) was an experiment with DI Paints and an old background stamp (think the stamp is Hero Art, but no markings). Had seen a video that showed dabbing the paints over a stamp, spritzing, then stamping. The first mistake was these were new paints, so had to get the 'flow' started. Dabbed on the stamp instead of on the craft sheet, and of course the paint was much too thick in places. Second mistake: this background stamp is not etched as deeply in some places, so wasn't the best choice for trying this technique. My first effort had too much ink in places, looked ok in other sections. Decided to cut a piece of the boo-boo to back these flowers in the cut-out. (kept spritzing the stamp, and pulling more prints. Successive prints looked better). These prints will be used in later cards.

- S/B Flowers & Leaves EF (SES-008). Had to fiddle with the B/Shot to get the sandwich to roll without stress. On the normal sandwich that would be used with an embossing folder, it seemed too 'thick'. so kept adjusting. Final effort was just the multi-purpose platform, all tabs in place, and did not use the bottom cutting plate-just the top plate. It rolled through ok, and did a nice embossing. I've broken a Cuttlebug with an Mbossibility EF in the past (think S/B must use a thicker grade of plastic in their newer EF's as well...seems much thicker than the Darice ones).

Cut this embossed piece, laid the background in place on the card base, added the portions of the embossed piece, then applied the flowers over that. Decided to add some Nuvo crystal pearl centers.

- SU sentiment, stamped with SU Real Red, punched with an SU punch. That's it!

Thank you to so many of you who emailed with good wishes while I was dealing with the respiratory troubles. I'm feeling much improved, but still need to regain my energy. It's been very hot in our area, so just staying in the air conditioning, and resting a lot. Thanks for joining me today. Big Cyber Hugs.
Linking to July CAS Mix Up Card Challenge.