February 17th Weekly Post

 Howdy everybody.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Lent begins tomorrow, so I hope we all got all sinful shenanigans in by now!

I am going to try to not oversleep for Lent.

Sounds weird, I know, but if I can force myself not to sleep as much when I feel bad or have an arthritis flare, I think it would actually be helpful to not be so indulgent in that respect. Try, anyway. I may find out that I have to have the sleep, we'll see. Honey thinks I need the sleep I need, which means he'd rather me not mess with my sleep. He's never minded when I mix up my days and nights or sleep 12-13 hours. I really could not ask for a more understanding spouse. Plus, he took us to get haircuts this afternoon and then eat some Tex Mex at a favorite restaurant, so he is definitely on my good list this week.

Not much interesting to report on the new house, just two old frugal farts struggling to finally use sprinkler and alarm systems for the first time in our lives, lol. I would say formerly frugal, but that's gonna be a struggle as well. Ha!

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is hosted by Mandy and is LAVENDER.

I have no lavender rubber/clear stamps but I did have this Power Poppy black and white digi in my files.

I printed it out, trimmed it and layered it onto a 4x6 purple card. I used a brown Micron pen and a ruler to draw the table line. I made a mask for the planter, adhered it and then stenciled the wall using an Indigo Blue stencil and Old Paper Distress Ink. Next the tablecloth using a Tim Holtz Layered Doily stencil and Brushed Corduroy DI. I colored the image using Promarkers, Pitt Artist Pens and a green Micron pen. I cut some purple scrap card with a Spellbinders Labels 9 die and handwrote the French sentiment with a white gel pen.

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This card was for our mail lady. I used an A7 Recollections card base, K&Co designer papers and a Spellbinders Heirloom Legacy die cut as the frame for the Whimsy stamps focal image on white card, which is colored with Promarkers and Sakura Stardust gel pens. The sentiment stamp maker is unknown.

And here is the sketch I used.

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My last card to share today is for our youngest great-nephew's first birthday.

Once again I used a digi stamp (from Di's Digi Stamps) that I had in my files. I printed it out, trimmed it down and colored it with Promarkers, layered it onto some SU orange card stock and die cut a length of ric rac (MFT) and a round seal (Avery Elle) on which I stamped the Creative Vision sentiment with Versamark and heat embossed with white powder. The dp is Basic Grey and the card base is SU.

And here is the sketch I used.

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Well, that does it for me this time.

I always appreciate your visits and comments.

Thanks for hanging in with me.

Seeya next time!

XOX

February 9th Post

 Hiho! 

I'll be here when I make it here from now on for a while.

Closing on the house went like clockwork and now the real fun begins.

My busy weeks have begun.

So I thought I would go ahead and post my card for Sunday Postcard Art this week. Marion is hosting and her theme is ALL THINGS ALICE. SPA was forced to move to blogspot when Wordpress just locked them out. I knew they were closing the free sites and another friend got same treatment. So I wanted to get my card in to show solidarity for continuing on in our new place. 

Now the materials I've used are simple. I happen to have Yana's Crafting Etsy's Alice in Wonderland Complete Digital Collection and found this image in the papers. I added the text, the top line was created in PSE and the quote is included in the collection. I love her expression. I've always been fascinated by the story. I never snapped to any of the drug imagery as a preteen when I first read it. But Lord Howdy, it's there! 

I printed out the focal image and found a green that went well for the 4x6 base, then I glued them together. And then scanned it back into the computer to share. Ha! I really resisted the urge to tweak anything because I love those vintage-y shades as is.

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Birthday card for a sister-in-law. Recollections card base. The label going across with the Stampin' Up sentiment stamped on it is a Cuttlebug embossable die that I ran a green ink pad or a Promarker maybe to darken the raised areas. Other than that, all Spellbinders. The cover plate cuts out the oval for me (I cut another in white), then I used a coordinating stamp for the flowers, stamping in both directions. Colored with Promarkers. I used a yummy golden SU card stock for the cover plate.

And the sketch I used.

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I have a cowgirl girlfriend who met her hubby at The Crosby Stomp about 45 minutes north of me, back in high school. Many of us went sometimes. It was on Saturday nights and in a tiny little shack - when they played the music it shook, when the dancing began it shook more. Just an old time country and western dancehall where you do could the Cotton-Eyed Joe, the Two-Step and The Country Walz. So I figured this theme would work for her. I was at a loss otherwise.

There's a lot on this card. The inchies on the vertical band are Queen's Dresser Drawers stamps and I colored them and cut them with a Spellbinders postage die. The card base is Kraft, the next light yellow layer is Recollections, then kraft again, then some Farmhouse dp (also top layer of the vertical band). The floor is a Scrollswork stamp and both the dancing ladies and the sentiment above their heads are Art Impressions. An Amazon Happy Birthday vertical die cut on the left.

  

And the sketch I abused, tilting to its side and stretching it to an A9 half sheet card.

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Okay, so thanks for visiting and I hope you have a great week.

Until next time, 

XOX

February 5th Weekly Post

 Hey, Everybody!

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Today's a big day for us, closing day on our new home this afternoon.

38 days went by quickly!

(Our realtor was released from rehab and is doing well.)

Prayers appreciated for a great outcome!

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Michele is hosting this week at Sunday Postcard Art with the theme of GEOMETRY.

I decided that this was the time to finally use my 8X10-inch Stamperia stencil about spirals.

I began by stenciling on letter-sized cardstock using Kitsch Flamingo, Twisted Citron, Rustic Wilderness and Prize Ribbon Distress Oxides. After it dried good, I scanned it into PSE, cropped and resized it down to postcard size, put a frame around it and then played to saturate the colors just a bit.

The stencil reads "In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point."

Is a Spiral a geometric shape? YES.

This video will tell you more than you ever wanted to know!

Is A Spiral A Geometric Shape? - Graphic Design Nerd

Michele loves Geometry and I love Michele, so I am doing it up right for her!

(And since I'm a notorious lower-level math nerd, I am more than happy to oblige.)

💜

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I made this birthday card for a lifelong girlfriend - we met in second grade.

She and my dad became friends later on in his life. He'd go to our mall to JC Penney where she was a manager, and she would shop with him, quickly becoming his personal shopper. They became quite close, which made me very happy because I love her like a sister anyway. Now she's retired and is her mom's caretaker. I cherish my lifelong friends so much!

To make this card, I used a Stamplorations sentiment die, a Crafters Companion floral stamp and die (colored with Promarkers), an Avery Elle signature die and the stamped sentiments that came with the floral stamp. The card base and strips are pink SU and the dp is KI Memories with punched corners. The sentiments were stamped with Versamark and heat-embossed using green tinsel powder. I used a green metallic gel pen to accent the seal dies and the stamped sentiment. I added a pink glitter foam heart to finish.

  

Here's the sketch I used. I stretched it an A9 size.

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I made this mixed media birthday card for one of my sisters-in-law.

This is a photo of the stamp set I used, a Katie Pertiet collab between Sizzix and 49&Market. It also included a die which I used for the floral. It's basically got a silhouette stamp and an outline stamp of the same floral. First time to use as I'd bought it recently. And I didn't really know which one I wanted so I stamped both of them using Lost Shadow DOX ink and clear embossing powder. I painted the outline one with my watercolors. For the silhouette one, I colored the stamp with Tombow markers, misted with water, stamped and then die cut both. I layered one on the other for the card front.

I used an SU card base, Kraft mats and K&Co. designer papers. I had yellow glitter off cuts from a Spellbinders die that I tucked under in 2 places. The dp has metallic foil and glitter on it, so to stamp my Hero Arts sentiment I used Versamark and blue tinsel embossing powder to match the little blue butterfly on the paper. The die cut label was ink-distressed with DI on the raised embossing and is a Cuttlebug embossable die. All papers were also ink-distressed as well, with Brushed Corduroy DI. 

  

And the sketch I used, stretching it to A9 size.

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That's it for me this time.

I hope the rest of your week goes well and a good weekend is in store.

Until next week,

XOXOX

January 29th Weekly Post

 Greetings and happy last week of January!

This month went by fast.

Our cold front ended up getting here a bit later and staying longer.

Thankfully the rain ended soon enough to not adversely affect us when the cold arrived.

No downed tree branches or power lines in my neighborhood or area.

Folks in the Deep East Texas Piney Woods a few hours north were not so lucky though, many are still without power.

And in a nod to my point last time that we down here do not know how to do ice and snow, multiple teens died while street snow sledding and/or falling through pond ice. And that was just in Texas. One hospital in North Texas reported 52 sledding-related injuries!

Prayers to all involved.

Winter Storm Fern's direct effect on me was to bake some cookies the first night.

I was so nervous about the storm that I did have a slight flare but managed to sleep it off.

These are chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (with walnuts and a few raisins).

Then the next day, Honey got into the action with some chicken noodle soup from scratch.

And I met his challenge with some homemade bread.

My 1990's Hitachi bread maker (HB-101, first model they made) is still going strong.

Funny story: right after I got it, I was so excited and tried to make some bread, but not being at all familiar with bread maker machines I took the baking chamber out of the machine first thing to mix the ingredients in it and then totally forgot I took that out and proceeded to pour a cup of water, not into the lift-out chamber, but right into the motor! Well, to say I freaked out would be putting it mildly. I was a young wife and mother on a budget and here I went and ruined this machine before I even used it! Frantically, I called their 800 hotline and got a very nice lady who calmed me down ("this has happened so many times") and proceeded to walk me through emptying the water out, using a hair dryer for 20 minutes on it, then putting it aside for 2 weeks to let it completely air out.

Two weeks later, it worked like a charm and has ever since!

Anyway, I hope I escape winter weight gain as easily as I got out of that near-miss bread maker calamity!

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The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Playtime, hosted by Sabine.

I've been really busy with the new house process (latest is we are good to close on Feb. 9).

Plus my birthday card schedule is heaviest the first 3 months of each year.

So the first thing I thought of concerning playtime was a HunkyDory stamp set I received in Creative Stamping Issue 92 called Sporting Silhouettes. When I got it, I thought, how am I ever gonna use this? Well, this is how. lol 

I snagged a Michael Jordan quote graphic off the internet and in PSE created the 4x6 framed card with the quote in the center. I printed it out, trimmed it down and then stamped the silhouette images and heat-embossed them, thinking I would then stencil the white area with yellow ink. But, I looked at it and thought, hey, it's a cool graphic look, so I left it that way.

Then, as soon as I finished, I thought of all the craft stamps, yoga stamps and music stamps I could have used for this theme.

Oh well, my time is precious right now, so this will have to do.

And I got to use that stamp set YAY.

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Here's a birthday card I made, still using the Art Impressions stamps made for water coloring.

It's an all-in-one scene stamp which I heat-embossed after stamping with clear powder.

I also used some acrylic paint pens and a little colored pencil, so it's a mixed media piece.

I framed it using an Avery Elle frame die, which I used a gold metallic gel pen to accent the inset in the frame. The designer paper is DCWV and the card base and frame are SU. The Wild Rose Studio sentiment was stamped, heat-embossed and cut with an Avery Elle die.

I did not use a sketch for this one.

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I needed to make a retirement card for a dear friend who is moving to a lake house a couple of hours away to be closer to her daughter, granddaughter and great grands. I again used an Art Impressions stamp for watercolor that is also supposed to be for a sympathy card. But since she has been really anxious about this huge life change, I thought the Bible verse was appropriate here. I colored the focal image with watercolor paints and cut it with a Spellbinders postage die. The KI Memories designer paper behind it was cut with an Amazon die and layered onto an SU card base. I cut some stash scraps with Clear Dollar dies and arranged them behind the bottom sentiment, which was stamped and die cut from a Spellbinders set. 

Adn here's the sketch I used.

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Well, that is all from me this time.

Thanks as always for visiting.

Hope you have better weather for the weekend and some fun, too!

XOX

January 21st Weekly Post

 Hello again!

That week whizzed by for me, how was yours?

It rained quite a bit here today finally. And mild temps for a few days then Saturday and Sunday it's ICEMAGEDDON! Everybody's hyping it. The forecast has it being 56F at 1am Saturday and a continuous drop in temp down to 29F at 5am Sunday. Then down to 21F early Monday morning, before a few days of 40's. Wow, IF that happens, that's a really deep front moving down. We usually get shallow/linear intense ones. It's gonna rain all day Saturday, which is why they are using the ICE prefix. That part's not fun and I'm not even going anywhere. High humidity cold is bone-chilling, so ugh! But seriously, nobody down here knows how to drive on ice and they don't even sell snow tires or chains, so everyone should just stay home IMNSHO!

And along those lines...

The theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art is Blue Monday and hosted by Mandy.

Hey, I've been retired for almost two decades now but I can still feel that feeling.

Mine was the Sunday night anxiety thing, so very little sleep sometimes.

With all this extra house-buying work, I definitely felt it lately.

I looked in my digital files, found that background from The Digital Design Dock Etsy, the not-listening woman from Elena Zinski Etsy and the Polkadoodles snarky sentiment, opening them all up in PSE. I created the Mondays in PSE. I printed out all the different elements after roughly resizing them all in PSE. Then I fussy cut them, arranged and adhered them to the blue base, adhered that to a black 4x6 base and added some orange Art by Marlene die cut border pieces from my stash to finish.

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And now, it just so happens that I've made 2 religious-themed birthday cards lately.

So I grouped them together to share:

First one is for a really good girlfriend. I've used Art Impressions stamps with watercolors and Tombows. The sentiment die cuts are by Amazon and Stamplorations. The verse (cut with a Spellbinders die and edged with a purple Promarker) came with the path stones. SU card base, watercolor paper and the focal image is edged in a tiny border german scrap from my stash. I bought white, black and gold, and am glad I did. Harder to find now. 

And the sketch I used, but I flipped it horizontally.

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For this card to a niece, I used Art Impressions stamps and watercolors again to create the lighthouse scene. I really like how the rocks turned out and how luminous the lighthouse color is. I stamped using a very light Versafine Clair, one of the new ones. And heat-embossed in clear powder so the lines create dams against the watercolor and if you use a light color it will look luminous. Plus I'm digging that color of turquoise, though I've no memory of it, lol. I'd picked up a tip about birds in the sky. If you want white birds against a dark sky like I have here, after you finish your sky then stamp the birds with a light grey ink. Then go over the lines with a white gel pen or white acrylic and a liner brush. Or just draw the birds freehand. So I did the first suggestion here. The card base and mats are white and navy  Recollections, the designer papers are KIMemories, MFT waves border dies and the vertical writing in white on dp is a Dark Room Door stamp in Versamark and white embossing powder.

And the sketch I used...and flipped the front elements vertically.

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Well, that's all for this time, folks!

Thanks for the visit and have a safe and warm week.

Until next time,

XOX