ABNH: May Sketch

My monthly sketch post is up over at A Blog Named Hero. Here's one of the many cards I made:

Why not stop by ABNH and see what else I've cooked up? :)

Thanks for stopping by!

InLinkz.com

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Here ...

The first time I saw this stamp from Rubber Moon:

I knew I needed to own it. Well, I thought I needed to own it. The other day I mentioned making cards at a crop, and then sharing them here with Lessons Learned. This lesson was: "Don't buy it just because you think it's cute." I firmly believe you create the best with stamps you love and can see yourself using over and over again. While my pal Libby rocks this type of image, me? Not so much.

Here is the card I made:

Oh, look, one of her eyelids fell off. I'll need to fix that. 

I started by selecting this piece of water-color-y patterned paper, then decided I needed to also water color the images. That didn't work. This is my paper piecing effort, and I think it's passable. I did water color the faces and the edge doodles using my Derwent Inktense pencils, mostly by taking color off the pencil point with a wet brush so I didn't get too much water on my paper.

Meh, it's okay. Not my usual thing, but sometimes you need to try new things to know what your thing is, if you know what I mean.

I think I'll go work on some new stuff now. Thanks for stopping by!

Gelato™ Thanks

Here's another card I made at Saturday's crop:

I had brought my Gelatos™ with me, and some water color paper, so I used them for the current CAS Colours & Sketches challenge:

I used three of the four colors from my 50s Diner Gelatos™ set. I first scribbled them onto the smooth side of a piece of water color paper, then used a small wet brush to smooth out the colors. They do overlap a bit, and I got a little of the yellow mixed in with the blue in a few places, but I think that's kinda cool.

After it dried, I stamped the sentiment in black, and when I got home (well, today, not last night) I added some Neat & Tangled sequins.

Is this really CAS? I think so. All I did was scribble a few lines of color, add some water, then stamp a bold sentiment. I'll leave that to the challenge judges to decide for sure, though.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: Hero Arts Big All Time Greetings (I can't find it online anywhere, sorry), Neat & Tangled sequins, and the following:

InLinkz.com

Gingham Happy Birthday

I spent Saturday at a crop to benefit a friend's daughter's school band. I can't believe schools today have bands (or any extra-curricular activities, really), but don't fund them. I think that in order to have well-rounded kids, you need to have non-book-based activities, and it just seems wrong to me that it's now so difficult for everyone to participate. So I had NO PROBLEM going and buying a bazillion raffle tickets to try to win some of the yummy prizes, but more on that another time.

For now let's just talk about how I sat at a large table with several crafty friends and stared at card stock all day. No, really, it took me HOURS to make one card. I'll share a few of them with you over the next week and include the Lessons Learned with each one. I had LOTS of time to think and stare and chew my nails.

This card started out completely different(ly) than it ended up. Here's the card, then I'll explain:

This started out with a strip of gold chevrons where I now have the stamped black gingham. The red circles* just didn't work with the gold, even without the home-made enamel dots. The gold chevrons + peach/red were for my attempt at the Just Add Ink challenge:

See? Gold chevrons and pink. It's probably the (gah) pink that messed me up. :)  I was following this layout from Clean & Simple:

I started over with the vertical element of the sketch, and stamped the Paper Smooches gingham/checked image in black, and decided it looked a LOT better than the gold. Plus, it let me add some of my home-made enamel dots:

I've read about these, but when my bloggy pal Jackie made some of her own, I knew I needed to try it myself. Why? I don't know, because it's not like I NEED more enamel dots. I think this goes back to my story about how I belong to the confused generation - caught between parents of the Depression who saved everything and made all their own stuff, and the current disposable mentality of "just buy a new one". I want to make my own, even though I don't need them. See: confused.

ANYway, I bought some beads and made some of my own dots, and I loved the striped ones! I took them with me to the crop to see if I could use some, so I call that effort a success. :)

Jackie also has some follow-up posts on her experimenting here and here. You should check them out. I love when my pals do all the research and experimenting for the rest of us. :)

I'll share some more crop-day creations later. Right now I need to go spread out some mulch. I had 20 bags delivered yesterday (local High School football team fund-raiser ... there it is, again). The nice guys even placed the bags along the beds so I don't need to haul them myself. BONUS!

Thanks for stopping by!

*The red/pink card stock was made by rubbing Fresh Peach ink onto white card stock. It's all I had with me, and I like how it came out. :)

Products used: Home-made enamel dots made from Perler beads, SU black card stock, and the following:

InLinkz.com

Moving Right Along

I haven't gotten too much stamping done this week due to work on The Project, but I did accomplish one thing. Well, *I* didn't do it, but I hired someone else to do it for me, and it got done today. What might that be? I had my gardens tilled, which is not the same thing as having my clock cleaned*, though that is something I do need to schedule.

Following are the before and after shots I remembered to take for posterity.  First up: most of the back yard:

I cut the grass yesterday.  Doesn't it look nice? :)

And the side where the garden will go:

You can kinda see the string (well, really it's yarn) I put up with craft Popsicle sticks to indicate the area to be dug up. We crafters have everything.

Here is a shot of the sod cutter in progress:

I cannot imagine doing this by hand. Ugh. Backbreaking work.

Ready for the after? Here's the main part of the yard:

and the garden:

All tilled and ready for me to get started. It took them about 1 1/2 hours. Soooo worth it! I plan to head out now to pick up some manure (treated, of course) and some vegetable plants. And maybe some plants for the back corners. I need to beat the weekend crowds!

I'm attending an all-day crop on Saturday, so hopefully I'll get something done that's worthy of sharing. That is, if I can think of what to pack. I still have no clue what I'll work on. Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by!

* Seriously, I have a grandfather clock, and they need to be cleaned every few years. Plus, mine was moved part-way across the country, so it needs attention. I love having the clock cleaned and being able to tell people. I also might be a 12-year-old.