Drunken Stampers #19…

I have a quick card to post tonight that fits Drunken Stampers challenge 19—Birthdays.This card is for my wonderful friend, Angie, whose birthday is tomorrow. The card sketch is from Roni’s blog. I used the Medium Bee from Jo Capper-Sandon’s stamp line at Stampotique Originals. The button is a vintage one I found at the antique fair last month, and I broke into the vintage lace my blog buddy, Lynn, sent me. I love that I can tie two lovely people together with a piece of lace!!

Here’s the card:

 

If any of you follow me regularly—I want to let you know that my blogging may be a bit erratic over the next few weeks. I haven’t had a chance to catch up on my blurfing lately, and I haven’t had a chance to play very many challenges. My dad has been in the hospital and is now in hospice—we hope he will be able to come out of hospice, but I think that’s wishful thinking on our part. Please keep him in your prayers.

Mini-album, part 10…

This is the last spread in the mini-album from Roni. The challenges were to use the color yellow (the reason will become evident when you read the verse!) and to use a stamp you have not previously used in the book. Well, the challenge part was easy—I painted cardstock for the background with Claudine Hellmuth’s Studio Paint in Yellow Pastel, and then streaked it with Touch of Yellow. These colors are BRIGHT!!! You can see them here at Simon Says Stamp. The challenge came in trying to take a picture! It took awhile, but the yellow finally came out kind of close. The challenge to use a stamp that I hadn’t used before was easy, too. I used one of the first stamps I ever bought—who knew it would be so versatile?? The verse for this final part is, “Friendship is like peeing your pants. Everyone can see it but only you can feel the true warmth.” Don’t you love it? Now, here’s my take on the final spread:

I hope you’ve had as much fun with this little book as I have! I need to figure out what to do to the covers, and I also want to go back and distress/ink the edges a bit (you can still see the chipboard edges) and maybe embellish some of the pages a little more. The hardest thing I need to do is decide who to give it to!!

I also want to say again—this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. I really didn’t think I could do it, but it ended up being very easy when it was broken down into manageable chunks. If you’ve been hesitant to try something like this book or any project outside your comfort zone, I say, throw caution to the wind! What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll have a “learning experience?” Go for it, and be sure to share it with all of us!

Mini-album, part 6…

Well, my lovely, pampering weekend is drawing to a close. I guess I’ll be glad to get back to work tomorrow. To wind up the weekend, I braved the rain we’re having here and went to an outdoor antique fair. The way this particular show is set up, vendors can set up stalls completely outside, or they can rent stalls that are under cover. Unfortunately, the rain kept all but the most hearty away from the outside stalls, but there was plenty to look at in the covered areas. I spent about two and a half hours, but my feet were getting soggy and I was getting a chill since my jeans were soaked halfway to my knees!! So, I came home and started working on part 6 of Roni’s mini-album challenge. The verse this week is, “When you are confused I will use little words.” and the challenge is to use words or alphabet stamps somewhere on the spread. Roni kept her layout to a minimum, and I decided to do the same. I did have some fun with the background, though. If you’re like me, you love poking around in the art supply area at the craft store. I picked up some iridescent medium last week, and decided to play with it on this layout. I made a tissue paper background using the iridescent medium and mini misters with reinkers/water in them (how did I live before I got those things? Love ‘em!) So—here’s the layout. You can really see the iridescence. and that golden glow? Wild Honey Distress ink! This is the first time I’ve used that one, and it is very nice!!

Finally, I want to share a pic of my antiquing goodies with you. Everything I picked up was with crafting in mind, so don’t be surprised to see some of these things show up in future posts.

Nothing was more than $5, so I can’t complain. And before you start scratching your head over the bright, spiky earrings on the left—the first thing I thought of when I saw them was some of the more recent Cosmo Cricket paper lines—the colors will go really well!!!

So, I  hope you had a chance to pamper yourself and recharge your batteries this weekend! 

Mini-album, part 5…

Whoo-hoo!!! I’m caught up! I finally caught up with Roni’s mini album challenge over on Ink Stains. The next part airs tomorrow, so stay tuned!!

The challenge this week was to use recycled items. The only cardstock allowed was on the collage images, and you could use brads and other embellishments that weren’t recycled. Roni’s background for part 5 used torn pieces of an old book. I decided to deviate a little, and use a technique that was a result of a successful experiment a couple of years ago. Plus, it’s green!

This is what I started with:

This is a brown paper bag from Skyline Chili. If you’ve heard of Cincinnati chili, this is what they’re talking about, but that’s for another post!

I actually had two of these—you can’t tell from the picture, but they are the size of a standard lunch sack. I tore off the printing and threw it away, then took the rest of the bag and tore it into irregular pieces. I then wadded each piece up pretty tight to get some texture, and then pulled out a bunch of ink pads. I unscrunched each piece of paper, and roughly rubbed an ink pad over the high spots. Once I had a bunch of these little pieces of paper, I adhered them to the album’s chipboard base with Mod Podge. After it was dry and the edges were trimmed, this is what I ended up with:

I love the look of this. I used this on a composition book a couple of years ago, and it still looks great!

Here’s the completely decorated spread:

And here are the individual pages:

The flowers are also recycled. I used the new Tim Holtz flower die to cut the flowers out of pages from a phone book. I sprayed them with various ink colors (yes, I finally got some mini-misters!), glued together, then dried with the heat gun. Once they were pretty dry, I sprayed them generously with Wheatfield Glimmer Mist, then dried them again. This time, the paper started to get a little “crisp” but the petals started to curl beautifully. I have to say—so far, this is my very favorite spread!!!

I hope you like it and that you like my distressed paper bag background.

Looking forward to the next installment in Roni’s challenge!!

Mini-album, part 4…

I got a little time to play today (shhhh…..I brought the laptop home and should have been working!). The next spread in the mini-album from Ink Stains was calling my name, so I took the background paper from a couple of posts ago and used it on this spread. Let me say again how much I like this glue distressing technique! I used it on the stamped image I incorporated into this spread, and think it turned out pretty darned good! This verse of the poem says, “When you’re scared, we’ll high tail it out of here.” This is getting pretty fun—I hope Roni hasn’t created a monster! I’m looking forward to making another one soon!

Here’s the two-page spread:

Here are the pages individually:

I am having some issues with this whole concept, though. I’ve never worked with collage images before, and I’m not quite sure what to do with some of them. I’ve been using them pretty much as is up until now, but on the second page of this spread I cut one out (the cowgirl on the horse in the upper right corner). For you folks who do this regularly—I salute you! They are very difficult to cut out!!! Embellishing isn’t coming easy to me, either. I feel like there needs to be more layers and “stuff” on these, but I can’t quite figure out what to to. Maybe when the whole book gets done, I will go back through it and add embellishments. If you have any suggestions, be sure to let me know!!!

I’m still one spread behind—maybe I’ll get caught up tomorrow. The technique for the next one is “recycle it”—Roni used pages from a book for her background, but I have something else up my sleeve. I’m looking forward to showing you.

Hope you’re having a good weekend where you are—it’s raining here. Good weather to stay in and play, right?

Background, please…

Just a real quick post. I didn’t get the fourth spread done for Roni’s mini album challenge, but I did get the glue distressed background paper done. What a very cool (and easy!) technique!! I can imagine lots of possibilities with this one! I didn’t have the Aleene’s Super Thick glue, so I substituted Mod Podge. Seemed to work fine—at least I’m happy with the results!!! In looking at Roni’s example, I should have smeared the Mod Podge around a little more, but I think this looks fine. This 12 x 12 piece of cardstock will look even better when I cut it up for the album background. What do you think?

  

OK—now I need to vent. This is info I should probably be too embarrassed to share, but you’re all friends. When I got home from work today, there was a pickup truck sitting in my driveway. They backed out when I turned on my signal to turn in. I got the car in the garage and they were still sitting in the street. The woman rolled down her window and said she wanted to ask me a question. They are interested in moving into the neighborhood and wanted to know if my house was under foreclosure!!!!!! THE NERVE!!!!!!!  Anyway, guess that was the kick in the pants I needed—the lawn mower is hooked up to the battery charger right now so I can get it started tomorrow night and get the darned grass mowed. But a foreclosure???? I’m still fuming. I’m sure there are plenty of you single gals out there who know how hard it is to keep up with the outside of the house, the inside of the house, and a full time job. That leaves no time for crafting, and a girl has to have her priorities!!!!! Obviously, mine hasn’t been the grass!!! So—the mini album spread will have to wait—I need to mow the grass tomorrow night!!

Mini album, part 3…

Slowly but surely, I’m catching up with the mini-album challenge that Roni Johnson is sponsoring over on Ink Stains. This verse says, “When you smile I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.” I’ve been trying to follow the techniques Roni has used for each of her spreads. The challenge here was to use glimmer on the spread. Initially, I wasn’t sure I liked the way this Northern Lights technique turned out, but the darkness of it lent itself to the theme that eventually emerged. I didn’t have any of the ink refresher, so instead I used a gold Glimmer Mist with the Perfect Pearls, and it turned out OK. I hope to get the next spread done before Tuesday, then I’ll be all caught up!!

In addition to the collage image (lower left) I also used some Oxford Impressions stamps from the Cowgirl Blues sheet. BTW—if you’re wondering what the brass embellishments are, they are spent .45 cartridges. Nuff said….

The more I do….

…the behinder I get!!! Sound familiar? I’m still two spreads behind in Roni Johnson’s BFF album challenge over on Ink Stains. These little album thingys are hard to do!!! Like I said, this is my first attempt at one of these and my first time using collage images. So far—not sure I’m too successful!!!

First, I want to thank Roni—she posted a picture of my first spread on her blog today. YAY!!! Thanks, hun!

After looking at that first spread, something seemed missing so I added another image—here’s the modified page:

Not a huge change—just added the cowgirl on the bucking bronco.

I also finished the second spread. Loved the technique Roni used on the second spread, and I changed very little. I was worried about the brown chipboard showing through, so I covered the spread with some pages ripped out of an old book before creating the paint/reinker background. Before I show you the spread, let me warn you about this—I wanted the cowgirl to look like she was turning blue, so I smeared some blue Stickles on her face. She looks more like she has a case of chicken pox!! Oh well. So, here is spread number two:

And here are the individual pages:

I think these need more embellishments, but have no idea what to use. I made the yo-yo flowers with pages from the same old paperback, and the centers are some cool buffalo buttons I found awhile back. There just isn’t much “umph” to any of these pages so far, is there? Go ahead—you won’t hurt my feelings if you say so! I have a strange feeling I’m going to be fiddling with this little book long after it’s “done!”

Now, I have a challenge for you—why don’t you go over to Roni’s blog and play along!! I would love to see what you do with the challenge!!!

I hope to get caught up before the next spread’s challenge is posted next Tuesday. So—off to play. Leave a comment and let me know what this danged thing needs, OK???

Mini album…

OK—I’m back again today with the first spread of the mini-album I talked about yesterday. Since I was in a pinky frame of mind yesterday (and the pink stuff was already out!) I decided to go with pink for the first spread. Since I’ve never done one of these things before, those who know me well know I’ve been thinking it to death!!! I’ve decided to go with cowgirl images throughout and I picked up some trim at the fabric store a couple of weeks ago that I’m going to use on every spread to tie the whole thing together. Before I show you my spread, I want to talk a little bit about the trim I’m using. I’m sure most of you know this little trick, but for those of you who don’t—I tea dyed the trim to tone down the colors and make it work better with the shabby nature of the album. Here’s a pic:

The trim on the left is straight off the spool, and the trim on the right has spent about 15 minutes in some hot tea. This is my favorite technique for “distressing” fabric-y items.I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since this trim is nylon, but it worked great!!

Now, on to the first spread of the album. Roni used what looked like cheesecloth to add texture to her album. I couldn’t find any at the fabric store, so I picked up some burlap instead. It was a bit of a challenge to work with!!! And once it was adhered with the gesso, it seemed like nothing else would stick to it. I got it eventually, though, and here is the result:

 

Here are the individual pages, if you’re interested.

I may need to embellish some more—let me know what you think! Now I need to get moving on the next verse so I can get caught up! Keep an eye out—maybe I can get that done and uploaded tomorrow night.

Anyway—this is my first foray into the world of collage images—let me know if it looks like I’m doing something wrong. I think I’m going to need all the help I can get with this project!!!!

GCSP3, take two…

Last weekend when I was playing around with the string background tutorial for the Gingersnap Creations Blue Moon challenge, I ended up with a couple of “trial and error” samples, so I decided to use one of those for a card today. I love this stamp image!! Can’t remember who makes it and am feeling too lazy to go look it up right now—sorry! I do know I picked it up at Stampaway last year. I haven’t played with the new Distress Ink colors a whole lot yet, but I’m loving the Victorian Velvet—what a yummy color!!! The other thing I tried on this card was something I saw in the latest issue of Stamper’s Sampler magazine. There was a gal who made backgrounds by gluing down paper scraps and then going over them with watered down gesso. I did that with some paper last night, and liked the way it turned out, so I used that for the background. The Prima flowers have been hanging around here for awhile and I finally decided to use them. I altered them slightly by rubbing some Victorian Velvet ink on them and edging the petals with a little Rock Candy Stickles. Hope you like it!!

 

I can’t mention the latest issue of Stamper’s Sampler without calling attention to the fabulous article on Wendy Vecchi—doesn’t she do amazing work? And of course, the magazine also features some gorgeous creations by the even more fabulous Lynn Stevens!! You go, girlfriend!! When are we going to see a feature article about you?

I know I shouldn’t jinx myself by bringing this up, but I hope to post something else tomorrow. I mentioned something a couple of posts ago about the great mini-album challenge Roni Johnson has on her blog. I’m going to start on that. The thing is, I’m going to try to incorporate collage images, something I’ve never done before. Not sure exactly how to start on that, but I did make a resolution at the beginning of the year to try some different things, so this is it. Wish me luck!!!

Til tomorrow—TTFN!!!!

Guess who?

Just like Santa and the Easter Bunny, I do exist!! Wow—when was the last time I posted? To be perfectly honest, my mojo has flown the coop! I just haven’t felt at all crafty or creative. Do you ever have those periods? I even took a creativity workshop at the local art academy last week, and it didn’t help. I did make a card last night that I’m going to share with you—I hope you like it:

Love these stamps from Oxford Impressions! You know, I haven’t even kept up with my daily blog reading—that’s how bad it’s been. So if you’ve missed comments from me, I apologize!!! I did take a quick look at Roni’s blog, Ink Stains, this afternoon, and I may have to step up to her mini-album challenge. Check out the poem here.

I hope to get myself motivated soon. Until then, if you see my mojo will you tell it to get the hell home?????