SOS Challenge #2 - Oldies

This week's challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Oldies but Goodies. We ask you to dig out your oldest stamp or digi and ink it up. For projects other than cards, dig out your oldest supplies that fit that project.

I went to my miscellaneous stamps drawer and found an old Magenta flower which I inked up to make this:

Now I know what you're saying: "This looks very familiar." Well, maybe so, and not because you have that same stamp (though if you do, I'd love to know!), but because the papers were snagged from an extra class kit. I am so lazy. All I needed was a piece of white card stock, and this one was so perfect in every way. :)

I colored the yellow-ish part of the squares with a Copic marker, and used a blender pen and some SU ink for the leaves and flower. The flower is covered in Crystal Effects.

I kinda like it.

So now we challenge YOU to dig back into your dusty and neglected stamps and show us one that hasn't seen ink or light or love in a very long time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hambo Hoedown - Over the Moon

It's time for another Hambo Hoedown challenge. The people who played last week got this moonscape image:

As is my nature, I immediately started plotting my strategy for the image, but - as is also standard in my world - I forgot to remember the PLUS part of the challenge ... there is always an AND in there that I seem to forget.

As I prepared this post, I reviewed the Hambo Hoedown post for what I'd missed, and *gasp* we were supposed to use texture on our card! I was resigned to post this as a non-entry when I spied the word "optional". I WAS SAVED! So here is my textureless moonscape card:

I suppose you could say it has texture because of my distressed brayering. Or because the stars are raised up a little. Or because the computer-generated sentiment is popped up. But no, those are a stretch, even for me.

Please note that there is no such thing as "distressed brayering", unless I've just invented it. My brayering skillz suk, and this is actually the best I can do. One of these days, I'm going to take a class from Michelle Zindorf and attain brayering skillz. One day, for sure.

And if the stars are aligned, I'll try another one of these with texture. I'm always going for those elusive extra credit points, you know. :)

Thanks for stopping b y!

Memorial Day 2011

Today is a day set aside for honoring the men and women of our military forces who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We remember them, honor them, and thank them and their families for fighting for all the freedoms we have today.

All across this land of ours, small towns remember their fallen, and it's personal. Here in the nation's capital, we have the unique honor of decorating Arlington National Cemetery.


(Photo from http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/images/Memorial%20Day%202010/Page/image%2008.html)

We also have the distinct honor of hosting the annual Rolling Thunder event:

(Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/varocker07/2524248165/)

... where over 250, 000 motorcycles ride through DC not only for our POWs and MIAs, but as a sign of patriotism.

Today is a day I choose to not go into DC. A little too crowded for my nerves, but awesome none the less. If you stand on overpasses in the area, you can catch some of the riders coming into town, and that's pretty neat.

So as you enjoy your day off of work, your gathering of friends and family, and your grilled food of choice, please take a moment to remember our fallen, and thank them for all the opportunities we have been given.

Thank you!

Jingle Belles Rock #22 - Three Kings

This week's challenge at Jingle Belles Rock is to use three or more different patterned papers on our card. Pretty paper - I haz some. In fact, I have two packs of Basic Grey holiday papers on top of my Heap O'Six-by-six paper pads.

I went in search of a sketch, and decided on this one from Pencil Lines:

and this is what came out:

I adore the images in Kim Hughes' holiday stamp set from the (sadly) now closed Cornish Heritage Farms. These papers are from the BG eskimo kisses pack, and I am slowly using up the stray pieces before I cut into another full 6x6 sheet. Yes, very proud.

The poinsettia is from a pack of Hero Arts poinsettia parts I got last year, and the ribbon is from a roll I got many years ago. It just always seems to come out when I make a card with a long-necked critter.

I made a second card using the same sketch, but with the BG jovial papers:

I had that deer stamped on vanilla, cut with an oval like the first one, and layered on a black oval, but it covered up the pretty layer, so I opted to de-oval them and just fussy-cut the deer instead. It disappeared into the background, so I fussy-cut a black layer form the "shadow" so you could see it.

This is a great, albeit modified, sketch for using up smaller pieces of coordinating papers.

I'm off to stamp some more! Thanks for stopping by!

Market Update (5/28/11)

It was another beautiful day for the market yesterday. Well, it started out nice, but then it got HOT. Summer is here. Ugh. At least when there was a breeze, it was a cool one.

Ready for some veggies? Here we go!

The usual spread with which I begin:

Maters:

Zucchini and summer squash (both babies):


Kohlrabi:

Some kind of greens (I didn't pay attention, because as soon as I heard "gre ..." my brain shut down):

Two kinds of beans:



The end of Farmer Mike's strawberries:

Radishes:

Herb plants:

and 'mater plants:

The Rock Lady is back this summer with a gaggle of piggies:

Okay, not a gaggle, but maybe a herd. The babies are a litter. By the way, pigs are very clean animals, so they are much wronged by their association with dirt and mud. They just use the mud to keep cool, like elephants and rhinos do. We don't think of them as "dirty", do we? I thought not.

Moving on ...

Farmer Katie had some onions (orn-yons):

and rhubarb (leaving fast):

and asparagus:

and some strawberries:

Oh, and some apples (kept in cold storage from last fall):

The flower tent was full of flats of annuals:

and they also had some sunflowers (some of these came home with me):

Isn't this one pretty?

T-Shirt of the day:

And I know why you are really here. Sigh, it's not for the veggies at all, is it? Okay, let's look at the few dog photos I took that were actually in focus.

First up, this one was a total spaz:

He acted like a puppy - so full of energy, and this is one of four pics I took of him - the only one where he wasn't a blur. He's 7 years old, and the guy said he'll settle down in about 7 more years. What boundless energy! As for what breed he is? He told me and I forgot. It's some kind of {insert foreign country name here} hound, but he said it's also called a brown Weimaraner, which I looked up, but I don't think that's it. Anyway, if he comes back I'll ask again. I'm not shy.

Next up is Rocky, one of our regulars:

And then this beast came through:

Gorgeous animal.

Then this guy, that Marianne over at Ruff Haven would have tried to steal:

Part Chow and part Golden Retriever. Thick thick fur, and sooo friendly. I believe his name is Garcia.

That's it for the doggies. I did wander around a bit to check out some of the new vendors, and this guy had some cool stuff:

That fish and this owl:

The last hour or so we had a roving troubadour playing for us:

He was doing some great older songs, and he was pretty darn good, too! I hope he comes back!

That's it for the market. When I got home Saturday I was totally drained. I need to take my fan and some frozen towels with me starting next week if I hope to survive the summer.

I'm working on some crafty challenges, so I'll have something to show you later today and into tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketchy Sunday {TG021}

Remember last week when I said I'd caught up on all my Sketchy Sunday challenges over at Tiff's blog? I WAS WRONG!!! I was caught up for the previous 3 weeks, but another one was posted THAT VERY DAY. I just did last week's so now I'm ready for tomorrow's. Sigh.

Here's the sketch:

And here is my card:

I actually wanted to flip the sketch so this would be a vertical card and ergo it would fit in my card rack, but the x's and o's looked weird on their side(s), so I didn't. I used more of the olivia Basic Grey 12x12 papers that are on top of the Heaplet, even though they are (gah) pink. The kitteh and sentiment are from the Paper Smooches Chubby Chums set. The button is from my stash, the white twine is SU and the green layer is a piece of my precious hoarded SU Sage Shadow. When it's gone I may weep.

In other news, remember Krum from several summers ago? He was a 4-wk-old stow-away kitteh that was adopted by a big-hearted market regular we'll call J. Last summer J mentioned to the farmer that if another one was "misplaced" or otherwise needed a home, she'd love to take him. Today, the farmer said she had a kitteh, and J came running over and said YES, I'LL TAKE HIM! So next week we should get to see the little bugger before J takes him home. We are soooo excited! For now the kitteh is sleeping with the farmer and stays in her bedroom during the day while she's at the markets. I love happy endings!

I'll get my market update done tonight or tomorrow. It was H O T today and I am fading.

Thanks for stopping by!

Two-Fer Challenge

Today on Twitter, one of my tweeps and I were going back and forth quoting from old commercials. You know, like "Chock Full O'Nuts is a Heavenly Coffee" and "Dove is 1/4 cleansing cream" and "twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesoniononasesameseedbun". We have very philosophical discussions on Twitter.

So tonight, while I was getting into creative mode for this loooooong weekend, I decided to do a two-fer challenge - two challenges on one card, and my brain went to "It's two, two, two mints in one!" and "Double your pleasure, double your fun" with the Twiggy-skinny twins for Doublemint gum. Uh-huh.

Here's my card:

and it should satisfy these two challenges: (1) 4 Crafty Chicks asked us to use Melon Mambo (that IS TOO Melon Mambo, even though it looks red), Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizzazz, and (2) Moxie Fab World asked us to use a Chevron in an innovative way.

WAIT a minute - I may or may not have used Wild Wasabi instead of Pear Pizzazz. RATS. Okay, I guess this is only going to be for the Chevron challenge, then. :(

I wasn't all that innovative with my chevrons, but I thought I was innovative in calling my rick-rack die a "chevron", so I totally get points for that.

In other news, I have big plans to catch up on some challenges this weekend, so look for some crafty goodness coming your way.

Thanks for stopping by!

Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger - Pyrex

When I saw this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger:

the creative gears started to immediately churn. I saw birds, I saw bright colors that I probably have, I saw layers, and I saw this*:

I know YOU can't see that because I took a really bad photograph of the car in front of me while I was stopped at a red light and I used my low-res camera out of a dirty windshield just before I started moving, and that's as big as it gets, but see that shape? When I saw it I thought it would make a cool layered piece for a card. Unfortunately, I only remembered the top part, and not the oval part, because this is what came out of my first pass at this challenge:

First pass? Oh, yes! I sure hope to find the time to make something else, since I think this looks like a wedding cake! Ugh. And I don't know what it is about these colors, but I'm loving the combination!

The stamps are from two A Muse Studio sets (On the Wing, Sushi & Wasabi), the dies used are Nestabilities, and everything else is SU.

(time passes... ... ... )

WAIT! Another card has been created! Look:

I like this one MUCH better. MUCH. Same stamps, but I changed the colors from Poppy & Daffodil Delight to Poppy and Perfect Peach Parfait. The circle strip thingies are a MFT Die-Namics die, and the bird layer is a die from Scrap-Mart. Yes, I like this one way more better. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

* I finally found the source of that bumper sticker, but there is no image of it. It's from Great Country Farms in Louden County, VA. I know YOU don't care, but it took me an hour to find it. They have great marketing, including those bumper stickers.

Catered Crop FTR #12

Second post tonight - I KNOW! One of my bloggy pals, Libby, has been doing the Catered Crop challenges, and I've only gone as far as adding the blog to my Google Reader and thinking about them. Tonight she finally convinced me to play along, and I was game, especially since this was our inspiration piece for FTR #12:

Nautical? Me? Not usually, but in a Good Demo moment I bought all the new nautical stuff from the Summer Mini, and I saw this as a way to break into it and maybe even come up with a card for my June Stamp Camps. And it worked! I just made this:

The way this works is you FTR - Follow The Recipe, and you can pick as many or as few elements from the list. TOO EASY! Here's the list of ingredients:

• Colors – brown, blue, red
• Stamps and Stickers – nautical, light house, sentiment
• Color Mediums – stamp ink, Copic markers
• Embellishments – twine/hemp rope, charm
• Tools – die cuts, air brush system
• Techniques – make a scene or use a creative fold. Grace has wonderful instructions on how to make this "Center Step Card" here.
• Theme – masculine, Father's Day

I used (without knowing it ... I did have to go back and double check ... shhh, don't tell them):

• Colors – brown, blue, red
• Stamps and Stickers – nautical
• Color Mediums – stamp ink
• Embellishments – twine/hemp rope
• Techniques – make a scene or use a creative fold.
  
• Theme – masculine

Yes, I am very proud.

Because I chose to cut out my sail boat (Sail Away - SU) and pop it up, I cut off all the birds, but you know me - I just drew them back in! The DSP is from the the new Nautical Expedition pack from the Summer Mini, the baker's twine is also from the mini, and the clouds are from the cupcake punch. I opted for no sentiment, because this way the card can be for any occasion, and I like that. :)

This was fun! And now I have one card for my June Stamp Camps! Yay, me! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

WOTT & WOYWW (5/25/2011)

Time for another reveal of the mess that is my stampy desk:

Yep. Looks pretty much the same as the past several weeks, and I'm down to the proverbial 6x6 space. Not even. What you see is my card-in-progress that will be posted Thursday for this week's Moxie Fab World: Tuesday Trigger.

There's not much else to say except that I hope to be able to pull out that grid paper to change it. There's more stacked up under it from previous classes (I save and re-use them), but I might have to make like a magician and whip that thing out of there without disturbing the stuff stacked on top of it. Or I could put eveything away. HAHAHAHAHA! I crack myself up.

Gosh I love sharing. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Jingle Belles Rock #21 - Visions of Sugar Plums

I'm writing this on Monday night to publish on Wednesday morning, because I have another post that HAS to go Tuesday morning so I need to delay this one by a day. Got that? I'm telling you because this means I didn't wait until the last minute to get out this week's Jingle Belles card. ;/ Oh, and the first thing I do when I create a blog post for a future day is update the date so when I accidentally hit Publish while I'm editing, it doesn't go live. I CAN learn from my mistakes. I just thought you should know.

So - this week's Jingle Belles Rock challenge is Visions of Sugar Plums, and our guest Hostess with the Mostest is amanda profumo (aka: Crafty Paper Girl) who gave us this as our inspiration:



You know what I saw? GAH pink and GAH purple and GAH ballerinas. YOU'RE KILLING ME, HERE, PEOPLE! Sigh. The Belles told us: instead of an ordinary color challenge we're calling this a "photo inspiration", so you're free to use as many--or as few--bits of the style board that inspire you, in whatever ways you choose!

Well, what if I choose to intensely dislike pink and purple and ballerinas, eh? THEN what?!?!??!! I think they are taking this "challenge" thing way too far. (I kid ... *waves at The Belles*)

Okay, so I stewed for a bit and thought for a bit more and decided to go with the Nutcracker idea. Hmmm, so that means I could do the ballerina thing, but a plain ballerina card would not exude "Christmas", so hmmm ... Then I got bright idea #8464, that I'd use the ballerina stamp but on shrink film stuff so it would get really small, then I'd hang it on a tree as an ornament.

Here are my three (yes, three) stages of shrunken ballerinas:

Please notice the one on the far left has her arm stuck behind her back. I tried to un-stick it, but I gave up and went for #2. That time I forced her arm to un-stick, and now it is longer than her body - she is deformed. So I went for #3 (I am nothing if not persistent). That one worked! Then I held it up to my tree image and it was too big for the tree, so I scrapped the whole idea and had to start over. This stamping stuff is HARD!

FINALLY, I decided to stamp the full-sized ballerina and have her in the foreground, so I stamped the tree to the top left of the card to make it look like it was in the background, and this is what I ended up with:

I KNOW! GAH pink and GAH purple and GAH ballerinas! I may barf from all this pink. First, to force the Nutcracker thing, I found a nutcracker image on the Interwebz, printed it on my still-not-wireless printer and cut it out. It's difficult to tell from my crack photography skills, but the tree is brown, the ornaments are Perfect Plum (get it? Plum? I'm going for bonus points ... work with me here ...), I drew the tinsel with a silver glitter pen, and that star used to be covered with Stickles until I had an unfortunate craftastrophe in my ghetto photo studio - the card fell over and the still-wet Stickles came off on the base of the photo studio. Oh, and the ballerina is popped up on dimensionals to make her even more front-and-center.

I'm telling you, these challenges are taking years (YEARS, DO YOU HEAR ME?!) off of my life. But I think YOU should play along with The Belles, so come on over and join us, won't you? :):):)

Thanks for stopping by!