Rudolph Day June 2018

Hello, and here it is the 25th of the Month. That means Rudolph Day! That's an Anything Goes as Long as it's Christmas challenge hosted by our Maureen, otherwise known as Scrappymoi. The challenge opens the 25th of each month and ends on the last day of that month. Maureen always has some nice prizes on offer, and lots of lovely people join in.

My card has snippets and left overs from this card.

- S/Binders Candy Cane die. Used the glitter white paper left from the Christmas Card Club one, ditto the red bits from cuttingthe red card stock.

Gine Marie frame die (sorry I can't find a link at the website so perhaps it's been discontinued) that has some holly flourish corners with the frame die. Used the flourish die, for the holly under the ribbon, and the ribbon is also part of this frame set.

- S/Binders Holly Ribbons E/F, and Wplus9 Hand letter Holiday die for the sentiment. There's 4 layers...2 white snippets colored red, a red snippet from the candy cane left overs, then a white glitter snippet. Tried to show the red as a shadow. Used up a lot of the snippets left from cutting the red and then white glitter candy cane shapes. YAY!

The aqua mat was cut with a S/Binder and was also in the snippet box. Just big enough to die cut and use behind the candy canes!

So okay, off to join June's Rudy Day, and  hope to see you there! Thanks for visiting, & I'm still catching up, still trying to find files (where the new files go!) on this Windows 10 computer. I've learned about One Drive, and then learned I don't want to pay for extra storage. So downloaded a bunch of files I put on One Drive to an external hard drive. Windows 10 isn't using the file hierarchy that I've always used, and I'm finding I can't always create new folders when I want to, where I want to. I very much dislike having everything go into the Documents folder!

Since I have a good many snippets on this one, AND since I'm behind in commenting anyway, I think I'll jump to the Snippets Playground for challenge 329 -  and say Hello to my little buddy, Parsnip. Another neat challenge where it's very easy to have something that gets you in the door...Just Have used Snippets (or scraps!). Miz Pixie also has some good prizes on offer too.

Come again, when you have time. Hugs & Blessings.

Christmas Card Club - Challenge - Challenge 13 - Candy Canes

Good evening, and welcome to a late post for our Christmas Card Club Challenge. I'll just skip the excuses and get on with it! Today's challenge theme was chosen by Lorraine who asked the group to do Candy Canes or Gingerbread (and this year we also have the option of an "anything Christmas" if we don't have the images/supplies for the selected challenge). I decided to use a NBUS Spellbinder die and go for Candy Canes.

- S/Binders Candy Cane die and the ribbon was part of the set.  Die cut from red c/s and then from white glitter c/s.  Inlaid the white glitter pieces into the red canes (saved the glitter frames and red pieces for another card). Applied some Nuvo Crystal glaze - comes out of the tip so much easier than Glossy Accents. Several layers of white snippets cut the bow, colored all the pieces with green shades of copics, then added some Nuvo glaze after it was adhered to the oval doily.

- S/B Floral Oval die

- Simon Says Marilyn Full Card Die   (cut fairly well after using the super-duper metal shim that I have). Next time this die is used, must remember to use some Stick it, as there's lots of places that glue had to be dabbed on, in order to get it to adhere well.

- Dark green cardstock covered the white card base.

- Wplus9 Hand lettered Holiday WP9D-103. several layers of the dark green c/s, then topped with 2 layers of red snippets from cutting the candy canes. Added the Nuvo glaze. (the link is to the stamp set. Simon Says apparently doesn't have the matching die in stock at the moment).

Hope you will take time to visit my team members to see their inspiration for Challenge 13. Their blog links are in the right side bar. And big apologies, Lorraine, for being so late with this post!

Thanks for visiting, and ya'll have a great upcoming week. Blessings and Hugs.

Birthday Alcohol

Hi, Nope it's not what you think! It was a birthday card made with alcohol inks!
First though....big whooping shoutout to Darnell for the blogger fix on the commenting problem.  I know many of you have seen this, sent me a heads up, but just in case you've had the problem, missed Darnell's excellent instructions, here's the link above.

Now I have to say: I'd tried this very thing (deleting the email, saving, re-adding, then saving again) a couple of times. It did no good. But as I read through Darnell's post, I remembered that I'd not had the blogger email asking me to subscribe that she mentions. Soooo...very carefully, I followed her instructions. Checked my email, and there were 2 notices from blogger to subscribe. I had 2 places where I changed & re-added that email address. I subscribed to each blogger email.  And Heavenly Day, very shortly I had a comment come in to the preferred email. Oh did I holler & cheer! Hoping that things were on the mend. Today I had more comments come into that mailbox. Also had a bunch in the Hotmail, (went into a junk folder). My tech had set up the Hotmail id as a new user in the outlook program, and I'm able to see stuff when I go to the regular email I use all the time. Don't have to hunt all over to find it. So things are looking up. Mucho thanks to Our Darnell! She is one smart cookie (well, yeah, I know, she gets a lot of help from Hammy, but he was on a little family vacation, or so she said. Wish I had a helper like that!)

Ahem, on to the card:

Had seen this card by my blog pal Loll (who has just joined Penny Black on a Design team!YAY! PB will be very happy she's on their team I know).

Loll foiled the sticky places one sometimes gets as blobs are drying on an alcohol ink card. Now I had a day when I was pretty disgusted with blogging, and just generally aggravated by many other things, so I decided to drag out the AI's,  some translucent yupo paper and have a little play. Loll was right about the places that stay a bit sticky as the ink dries. You place a foil piece over it, pretty side up - and just rub it pretty well (technical term is burnish) with your finger. The foil will stick. The translucent yupo is a much lighter weight, more like a good quality vellum, than the regular yupo. First time I've tried using the translucent type.

Now my foil really IS there, and if you enlarge the photo - you may get a hint of it. IRL it shows a bit better. It's where the deep red place is on the right and then another small red spot on the left. I liked it! And will be trying this again, (inks are still out on the table!). Had done another alcohol piece using the regular yupo, but didn't have any 'sticky' places on that. Die cut a no-name die from this pink & yellow yupo piece, as it sort of complimented the pinks in the background. These inks were some of the latest Ranger colors, Coral something, and a blue one. First time I've tried these colors. 

Versamarked the background edges, heat embossed with Ranger Queen's Gold. A small sentiment was done with the same process. Tha's all Folks!

I think I've caught up commenting on the 2fer comments. I will do my best to catch up on a lot of the other posts where I was missing out because of the blogger problem. Ya'll have a great Friday, and a wonderful weekend. I think ours will be quiet. I HOPE it will be quiet! It's hot as heck here, so I'm just trying to stay inside in cool air conditioning as much as is possible.

Hugs, Blessings, God Bless and thanks for sticking with me! 

June Twofer Card Challenge - Trees

Hello and welcome. Trying to get a couple of cards finished, posted, etc, so I can enter this month's 2fer Challenge, and the subject this month is Trees. Now I have a lot of tree stamps, so the issue was picking one and trying to think of 2 different ways to use it. I'd been wanting to try this Black Ice technique I've seen around blogland; Father's Day was approaching, so I did get that card done with an old wooden Penny Black stamp. Then tried to think of a different design approach with the same stamp. I'm not very good at thinking out of the box, (and so I didn't!). Still trying to learn how to use the new computer, the software that came on it (Windows 10) and install some of the other software that I use, and hope it was compatible. The way Windows 10 lays out file hierarchy is so different from what I'm used to. I had my files separated by categories in different folders, so I'm hunting for things & it's irritating that I can't find 'em. But I'll learn and get this machine organized like I want it - I hope!  . My guru is to come this afternoon, hook the old pc back up, and hope I can get some things recovered. I cleaned off an external disk drive hoping I can copy a bunch of stuff to the external disk - should be large enough to store all the stuff I want to recover - and then get it transferred to this new pc. The way I had to get the pictures from my camera to the computer was different too, so that took me a while to import these today. So I've been a little busy, and not done much blogging

Here are the 2 tree cards together, and then I'll show them individually.

 

 

The Black Ice technique is demonstrated on quite a few videos, just search on Black Ice. I used a SU Champagne colored metallic (couldn't put my hands on the silver c/s I just got in house). A very inky SU Archival black - also new pad. I tried to be very light handed with the pad, but still got way, way too much ink laid down, so I wiped off a good bit. Still darker than what I wanted, but couldn't get off any more. Dried that with a heat tool on a light heat setting. Then used the Archival black to stamp the PBlack trees. Dried again, wiped with versamark, and then sprinkled clear EP over, heated on a high setting. The results are ok, and don't look as dark IRL, but not nearly so pretty as what I saw on the youtube or on some of the blogs. Next time I will try one of the older Archival pads & hope for better results. Also practice makes better I guess.  Matted with a purple glitter, then a lavender c/s (which looks white in the photo), black mat (which the photo is showing as gray) - then a white card base. The sentiment was embossed on black snippet using a Detail White by Ranger. Mr. said he liked it.

 

 

Used versamark to stamp the tree image 3 times across white c/s, then Brutus Monroe Alabaster to heat emboss. Then sponged - started with the DI Squeezed Lemonade around the trees area;  starting top down, with Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, several of the lighter blue shades. Finished up the ground with one of the lighter DI greens. Wiped off the embossed areas in the treeline.Added some spatters using white acrylic paint. Then dabbed around the grass area with the ink on my fingers. Embossed a white c/s with Brutus Monroe Gilded Gold, and placed on a side fold white card base. Added a few pearls and clear embellies, did the sentiment, and that's it.

 

Off to link up with Darnell's June Twofer Challenge, as it's open until the end of June 24th. I have missed the last several, so I tried to get an entry for this month.

 

Ya'll be cool if it's hot where you live, and God Bless. I'll try to get round to visiting ASAP. Please forgive me that I get so behind...Just two many things going on with blogger aggravation, new computer, trying to find files, stuff that got left off when moved to a new pc...etc  and keeping up on the home front! I'll get there...I hope!!!

 

Hugs & come when you can.

 



New Computer, Windows 10

Clip art from the Graphics Fairy

Good evening ya'll. Today I got a new computer, withWindows 10. I'm looking for where things are...and they ain't where I think they should be. My Outlook 2016 didn't want to import the saved folders in my email program (which was Outlook 2010). My guru thought he'd exported those folders, but they didn't import back in on the new computer. We still have the old one, so he is to come back next time he's in my area, hook up the oldie again, and try once more. I would have retrieved a bunch of stuff, but he didn't think I'd need to do so.  We think he got all my address book stuff but if you are someone I email with, PLEASE send me an email to the address you normally use for me, so I can be sure I get you added back properly. Oh the joys of having a new computer. I'm a bit intimidated with the Windows 10, since it was so aggravating to me when I tried to install it some while back. At least my tech got all the peripheral equipment working with the new network.

I'm still not any further on trying to get the comment notifications into my email. I thought the problem might be that I set up the blog with a Hotmail address, and when I finally remembered how to access that address, I did see a bunch of the awaiting moderation comments. But took care of those (I think!) and now nothing else is coming back into Hotmail either. I am so frustrated I could just spit!!!

I'm trying to return comments by looking at either the Reading List, OR by just clicking on the blogger's name in the published comments. I've tried the suggestions many of you have made, but so far nothing is working. I hope you won't think I'm not bothering to visit you. I can work with this stuff for just so long; then I get irritated and just have to get up and walk away. I wasn't expecting the new computer to be built and delivered so fast. So that's another hitch in the works too.

An old neighbor - who moved about 30 miles away from where we live and isn't as readily accessible as when he lived just down the street - builds a lot of custom designed computers for the folks in here. Also he has a business that he operates, now that he's retired from school teaching. We discuss how I use my computers, what softwares I want on the system, DVD drives, etc. He's quite expert, and I'd hate to just buy one from a company. I learned a long time ago, companies put the very lowest quality of parts in one that you buy, just enough so that they can say "It has Intel inside" or verbiage of that sort. I know my tech uses top quality parts, and is honest about his charges. This is about the 5th computer he has built for us. He did tell me, though, I'll have a learning curve with Windows 10, so don't get upset with it right away.

Anyway, just wanted to update you with what's going on with me. I do thank all of you who expressed kind sympathy for my cousin who passed away. We had been close as children (long, long ago!) but as adults, we had not been all that close. Still it was sad for her family and reminded all the rest of the extended family of cousins that we are only here for a brief time. So best to live each day to the fullest extent possible. What I heard at the service was something I'd hope would be said of me someday: "She never said an unkind word about anyone". I'm not sure I'd live up to that, although - mostly I do try! This cousin was much like my aunt, who also never said anything unpleasant about someone. She said "If you can't say something nice or kind - just keep your mouth closed!"

Hope all of you are having a good week. It's been sunny & hot here, keeps looking like we could get some rain, but we don't! Working on some cards, but not ready to post anything yet!

Big hugs & Happy Friday. I'm still trying to catch up with the comments!

Sympathy Flowers

Good morning, and welcome. Saturday we had to travel to our hometown to attend the funeral of a cousin. Since the 2 older brothers don't drive, and both felt like our Dad's family should be represented, we got up early and made the 3+ hour trip. This is the card I sent to the family, along with a nice arrangement from our families.

- Gina K Arranged with Love clear set (Melanie Muenchinger) stamped with Memento Desert Sand, colored with copics.  My first effort was a watercolor try, using embossing ink, Ranger Queen's gold, and Zig markers. At first I was very unhappy with the attempt, but I've tried to look at the piece later, and not criticize myself so much. I might share it as a card later. I thought the softer colors of this piece looked more appropriate. This is a lovely image to color with copics.

S/B Decorative rectangle die (I don't remember the name!) to die cut with a pierced edging. It didn't get placed 'just so', and I trimmed off some of the edges, then versamarked, gold embossed and thought it looked ok. This set has some other sentiments with it, which makes it versatile. You can also ink up one of the roses and add it for dimension. Didn't think this was the occasion to do such, as I wanted to keep it simple, but hopefully pretty & tasteful.

Added an embossed piece of cardstock, which was adhered to a white card base.

Been trying to scope out why no email notification of comments is coming into the mail address I have in the blog settings. Happened to think that I set this blog up with a Hotmail account (and of course Hotmail has changed the way it looks and I don't use it often.) That Hotmail account was hacked a few years ago, which caused me to delete all the contacts and basically quit using it.  So figured out how to log in to the Hotmail account, and there were a BUNCH of comments - that have to be the notifications! Worked on trying to change the Hotmail setting originally used for blogger. The instructions I found said to send an invite to the preferred address, and you accept the invite and add that address as an author. Which you can then change that to Admin, and go delete the old Hotmail. Well, I've not got it to work yet, so of course I can't delete the Hotmail address! Arrrgggh!

Ya'll have a nice day. Big hugs to any needing one, and folks, it's starting to get right hot around our area!

Christmas Card Club - Challenge 12 Anything But A Square

Hello and welcome to another Christmas Card Club Challenge - No 12 for 2018. Our team member Sylvie  selected this week's theme as "Anything But A Square". I was pressed for time as we had a first cousin pass away Thursday (although she had been ill for a few months, it was one of those 'improve some' 'regress again' kind of things). We had a 3 hour drive to our hometown with my 2 brothers; other mishaps ensued over the day, but finally we reversed the 3 hr drive, and arrived home safely about 8pm Saturday evening. Call us Tired.

 I made this card last night (Friday) after  discovering a recycled card from  years ago. I decided it would look cute to  cut a circle with the Hero Arts Infinity Circles, put some UTEE (Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel) on it, and turn it into an ornament. When you see it, you'll know exactly why the card got saved.

- Cut the part of the card desired into a circle; applied DI Chipped Sapphire round the edges; before applying the UTEE, another circle was cut and glued to the backing, to add some stability to the original cut..  Did one more UTEE coat. It looks very glossy  and quite like a 'for real' ornament surface. Next 2 larger size circles in that set  cut some lightweight red glitter paper for a frame.

Adhered the skinny red frame to another circle backing, thenlaid the UTEE embossed circle on the frame.  This backing had Chipped Sapphire sponged so that no white would show between the frame and image. Fitted the birds piece into the frame.

An S/B Delite set that had a coffee cup, with one of those holders (so you don't burn your hands) was used to cut the metal top. It's hard to see, but there are grooves cut into the silver (3 layers of  snippet silver that had been lying on my desk for who knows how long).  Just the right size to cut 3 pieces, with a more sturdy white c/s behind to stabilize.  Used a piece of gold cording to make the hanger, and there you go.

Please check the right sidebar for links to my team members and if you have time, see what they've shared in the Anything But a Square Challenge this week.

Hugs & Blessings; Have a great Sunday. Come again when you have time.

A Hedgie for a Birthday

Hi, and welcome. Back with another Penny Black themed birthday - so on to the show:

- Another previously colored PB Hedgie from a clear set. Used some Nuvo glaze on the balloon.

- edged the oval shaped hedgie with some ink and placed it over a snippet left from using a stitched die. I was trying to get an oval that had all the stitched lines - but of course, the center portion cut out. Left a negative with stitches around the edge. Hand cut around this shape, hoping to use that portion for something else. It didn't 'quite' fit this oval Hedgie, but I tried it anyway, and decided it would work.

- Poppystamps Happy Birthday background die - and even though this was thin paper, still had to do some surgery getting all the letters out. Did 2 passes, (no shim as I thought it would cut easily)...I think rotating the plate and doing 2 more passes would probably work without shimming.

- a bright aqua c/s behind this background, as I thought it looked pretty with the balloon blue. Added some sequins, and called it done, except for the insert.

Hope you like this one. The recipient is a bear lover, and usually the card I do for her, will have a bear. I hope she likes Hedgies too!

Hugs and thanks for visiting. Need to do a sympathy card for a cousin, so I'm outta here.
Blessings & Hugs

A Birthday Mouse

Good afternoon and welcome. Still not getting comment moderation emails, so I hope I'm not neglecting a return visit to anyone. I've tried the different suggestions people have offered to try to fix this problem, but so far...nothing has worked.

Some of our visitors have left us, some still here til the weekend. Doing bed and bathroom cleanup as is usual after visitors. Mr and one of our visitors had gone on a 10 day trip to visit their old navy buddy in Boston, so it was good to see them safely back home again. Daytime is nice 'me time', but the nights alone are a little nervous for me. I survived though. We've had some warm sunny weather after so many rainy days. And it's just time for Life to settle back into a normal routine here at our house.

Several family birthdays coming up this month. So here's a start on one of them:

- Think this is a clear PBlack stamp from a set - this was colored ages ago. The cake and candle flames have some Nuvo clear glaze added.

Darice die cut the image out (snippet)...edged the oval center and the outer with a sponge and ink.

- gray mat (snippet) embossed with a THoltz 3D leaf folder, then used the same sponge and leftover ink to highlight some of the embossing. Also put some of the Nuvo glaze into the little cutouts of that frame oval.

- VOS 6x6 pad of brightly colored papers were sliced into strips, adhered on a white card base at an angle.

- S/Binders cardmaker rectangles cut the outer black frame, and then used the inner piece to trim a mat for the focal center piece.

- sentiment die cut from black snippets and the very bottom layer was from a white snippet. A bit of that shadow white shows IRL, but I'm not seeing it in the photo.

Just checked and it seems that Pixie's Snippet Playground, Challenge #327 is still open. I don't seem to be able to play there much these days, and since I have quite a few snippets on this card, I'm winging over the Pond to see Pixie & Parsnip. (Doesn't that sound as though it should be the name of a fun tv show?!) Ya'll c'mon.

And come back to visit here when you have time. It's nice on the front porch swing still.

God Bless and Many Hugs.

Nuvo Shimmer Powders Thinking of You

Good afternoon. Here's the card made with the Embedded Brusho technique (examples shown here in the last post)

- Nuvo Violet Brocade, Cherry Bomb Shimmer powders. Sprinkled onto watercolor c/s while in a WR Memory Keepers EF. Embossed in the Big Shot. Spritzed after embossing. This created a very vivid piece, so after it dried a bit, sprayed with a pearlized mica spray, which softened it somewhat. I liked the softer look much better.

S/B Label 25 to cut out the focal piece; same die shape to cut a faux mat from some paper that looks like mulberry paper with the fibers in it, but it's thicker than mulberry . VOS.

- Hero Arts Papel Picado Confetti (D1500) cover die for the lilac layer, then placed over a hot pink layer. The Picado is a pretty cover die, but most of it is covered up here.

Don't usually put flowers on cards as my arrangements never seem to look 'right' to me (I see so many beautiful bouquets, but mine just never look that nice!). This card will be mailed in a larger envelope with some other items, so thought I'd try to decorate the card a bit. Flowers from stash.
MS punch cut the leaves from white snippets. Colored with several shades of green copics.

Sentiment from a Gina K set, die cut with a S/B label die. While inking the edge got a smudge, so added the little lilac flower.

A friend is having a rough patch of late, so I hope it will cheer her to know she's in my prayers.

Now, here's some more of the embedded Brusho play:

first impression

 

2nd & 3rd impressions

4th impressions - there was enough color on the folder, that by using a brayer was able to get 2 more pulls

the last efforts. The  'smooshed' look was just by dabbing this c/s around on wet pieces of c/s and to get the very last bit off the E/F. The colors used were Brusho turquoise and Lime Green. It seems that the darker colors yield more pulls. Maybe the Nuvo shimmer powder might have gotten more impressions, but the color combination didn't strike my fancy, so I didn't bother.

Thanks for joining me this afternoon. Ya'll come back when you can, and God Bless - lots of hugs too.