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….

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?????

Organizing and a question…

I haven’t created anything today, but I did go to Archiver’s to see what was on sale! I was going to go to JoAnn’s, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby, too, but I spent enough at Archiver’s to make up for missing the other ones! I’ve been sitting here for the last hour or so trying to decide if I should start on some Valentine’s, but instead I’m going to work on that never ending task, organizing stamps. Do your stamps seem to multiply when you’re not looking, too? I swear—they’re worse than rabbits!!!

So here’s a question for you—when you have sets of stamps, do you break them up or keep them together?? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! I made the decision awhile ago to go to CD case storage for unmounted stamps. However, some manufacturers, like Oxford Impressions or Artistic Outpost, put lots of stamps in a set—more than will fit a CD case. In these instances, do you split your sets or keep them together in some alternate type of storage? I know—this is the age-old question for stampers, but I would love to hear how you handle it! Oh—and while I’m organizing the stamps, I’m actually going to clean them (gasp!).   

I hope to get started on Valentines and a birthday card tomorrow, but until then, have you seen the video tutorial for this card? I got this stamp today—definitely see some of these for next Christmas!

More weekend creativeness…

I hate to admit that I’ve squandered this beautiful Sunday sitting inside making cards, but there you have it! I have some Halloween cards to show you. I’ve always sent Halloween cards to my nieces and nephew and have handmade them for the last few years. These are the cards I’m sending them this year.

This is my first attempt at a stair step card. I stamped the fence and monster silhouettes, embossed them, and cut them out (at least partially). That accounts for the glare on the monsters—sorry about that! The pumpkins, haunted house, and bats are Tim Holtz grungeboard painted with black acrylic paint. I sponged some yellow over the blue behind the house to give it an eerie green glow, but am not sure it looks that good. Oh well. I cased a card from Bad Sherry on SCS—hers is definitely better! You can’t see the sentiment between the pumpkins very well, but it says, “Bugs and Hisses!”

Here’s the next one. I used SCS sketch SC240. The stamp is Impression Obsession and in case you can’t see it, the charm has a skull and crossbones and says “Beware.” I picked these charms up awhile back—I think at Archiver’s. The paper is the new Basic Grey Eerie. 

This one gave me fits—I couldn’t quite figure out what to do with it. I knew I wanted to use this Edgar Allen Poe image from Oxford Impressions, but didn’t know what else to do. The Graphic 45 paper was pretty fabulous on its own, but I embellished it with some spider web stamps, a raven, and a spider. The black border on the right is chipboard cut with the Cuttlebug, as is the frame. The border was inked with black ink and the frame was painted with Antique Brass Crackle Paint. “Nevermore” was stamped on a piece of parchment looking paper that was torn and distressed. I attached another one of those cute charms—this one has a spider and says, “Creepy.” What do you think?

That’s it for this weekend—be sure to show me some of your creations soon!