June 22nd Weekly Post

Hey there and happy Sunday!

I am on my iPhone making this post because…computer problems. 😵‍💫 They say bad things happen in 3’s. First the dishwasher died, then Thursday the microwave died and Saturday I got the blue screen of death on my 2011 Dell desktop. I was going to buy a new one this year but I did not anticipate needing to because of this lol. My whole life is on that desktop. Carbonate backs my data up automatically so I haven’t lost it and Tuesday Honey is taking it to our local tech guy to make a flash drive backup for me as a secondary. I’ve ordered a new computer that will be here by Friday so I may not be back to normal next Sunday but I will make a post like this one to update.  

The worst part is definitely not being able to access my supply inventory files or any other data, or watch Netflix while I color or listen to music yadayada, but I will get through this just fine (repeat after me haha). See y’all later. Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

June 15th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

Since today was Father's Day here in the USA, I had a lot going on this weekend, so I'm taking a break from Sunday Postcard Art this week (and maybe next).

 Here is this year's card for Honey.

It's a pretty simple layout but with a masculine look I was going for.

Color Mates orange card base, SU brown and green card stock and Verve and See-D's sentiments stamped on white card stock scraps and cut with Lawn Fawn banner dies.

The focal image is a digital .png by Angie Blom that only has the top whited, and I layered it onto some brick digital paper from Lozzy@Nin's Papercrafting. I thought the effect was cool because I was going for memories (which are sometimes hazy). My inside sentiment is long and personal, speaking to this.

Honey loved it. 

I've decided that guys are happy with a card design that is eye-catching but simple and uncluttered. 

 

And the sketch used was stretched to a 6X6.

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Also made another Christmas card for Splitcoaststampers June Decorations theme: decorated street signs! LOL I bought this Neat & Tangled stamp and die set ages ago, thinking how cool. It comes with a bunch of sentiments to stamp on the signs. But I really don't ever remember using it, so it was time. I stamped it and the sign sentiments, then colored the pole and sign edges with a silver metallic gel pen, adding accents with a red gel pen. The top sentiment was stamped with Versamark and heat-embossed with white powder. The bottom sentiment was computer-generated in PSE and printed. The Christmas lights were the work on this: lots of die cutting with Impression Obsession dies, then coloring them with glitter markers, and arranging them to glue on. And of course, the camera picked up none of the glitter but it's there. The card base is Cardstock Warehouse, and the designer papers are from my stack of 6X6 mystery papers that I'm trying to use up.

And the sketch used as is.

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And last but not least, this card was an experiment that actually worked!

😎

The Stamplorations sentiment shadow dies were cut from the same SU card stock as was the base. The white deckle-edged 4X6 layer was ink-edged with Dusty Concord Distress Oxide and then stenciled. For the rings, I used an Altenew rainbow stencil and Spun Sugar DOX. The dots were made with a Tim Holtz Bubble stencil and Milled Lavender DOX. Then the flowers were done using a Stamplorations Peeking Dahlias stencil and Worn Lipstick, Wilted Violet and Dusty Concord DOX's. The flower centers were dotted with Starry Night Stickles.

I had first thought to just represent the rings in the sketch with the dahlias, but I experimented with layering them over the stenciled rainbow rings. I think the bigger rings make it look like the dahlias are in plant pots, from an overhead POV.

And the sketch I used. 

(If you look again at the card up close, you can see the smaller rings as well.)

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I hope we all have a good week coming up.

It's rained all week down here (we got 6 inches one day) with a little more tomorrow, but then I'm hoping things will dry out some without getting too hot, please.

I need to find some time to make my Summer banner because this Friday is the official first day.

Thanks for the visit and stay cool and hydrated!

XOX

June 8th Weekly Post

 Hello, Friends! Happy Sunday!

I have a backyard photo and video further down, but first the art:

Sandie is our hostess this week at Sunday Postcard Art with the theme of Aviation.

Now, Sandie and I are old art friends, having bonded over our mutual love for Artistic Outpost Stamps.

She has 32 sets of them and I have (blush!) 61 sets! Can we say Obsession?

I should probably tell her that if I die first, Honey will mail mine to her in England!

Anyway, as I suspected, she used the Charles and Amelia set to make her fabulous sample.

In fact, she did such a fab job at collage stamping (at which she is a genius) I did not even try to compete, and although I could have used the French Flight or Paris Exposition sets, I went another route after seeing my art friend Erika using stickers from a book we both have.

I went down a rabbit hole on Google (hereafter called a Google Hole, haha) reading all about the Montgolfier Brothers from France and how they were from a wealthy paper manufacturing family in the latter 1700's. And how they discovered that hot air made a paper bag float in air. And that led to their first hot air balloon, which began the aviation race in earnest. The younger brother also created vellum!

Hence, my card's French elements!

A sort of homage to the beginnings of Aviation, if you will.

The background of my card was stamped with a 4x6 Flourishes clouds stamp, then I added the air balloon sticker, a Fiskars Eiffel Tower stamp and Avery Elle Hats Off arms and berets, stamped, die cut. and colored. I did use the vertical sentiment from the set Sandie used (tracing over the letters with a black gel pen as it did not stamp that darkly enough to see good, quite skinny type), as well as the Par Avion from French Flight set. C'est magnifique words are from the Paris Exposition set. So I managed to get in some AO stamping anyway, which always makes me happy to pull out the sets.

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And while I'm at it, I'll show another Christmas card I made for Splitcoaststampers' June Decorations theme.

Kraft card base, Lawn Fawn designer papers, WPlus9 label stamp and die, Crafters Companion sentiment stamp, white german border scrap, a couple of snowflake sequins, and Gina Marie snow globe die cut with holographic card and scraps. I decorated the little tree, so it's technically decorations within a decoration -- HA! I love it and will hopefully use it again.

And the sketch I used (which screams snow globe, doncha think?).

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Now, to the backyard stuff:

A hottie-up week down here on the Third Coast, complete with high humidity.

While we are supposed to get a few days in the 80's (F), the 90's are becoming the norm.

I really should cherish and enjoy, for the dog days will be here soon.

Honey got a new bird feeder for the backyard, but I think he put it too close to the house (strapped it to the hurricane fence using his beloved zip ties), because it's attracting more squirrels than birds as the fences are a perfect runway for the squirrels. I told him to move it to the back of the yard on a taller pole, but...men lol. In the photo, you can also see his tomato plants on the right. The jalapeno plants are behind the tomatoes and already producing peppers. His basil bush in the raised bed to the left has taken off as well.

And now, my first ever video, hope it works, I did compress it.

Once you click the start button in the middle, you can click on full view icon then click the red start button and you can watch it enlarged.

Here you see our turtle family in their "pond" (aka our swimming pool turned into wetlands, lol).

We now have 4 turtles (Yes, Virginia, turtles will be incestuous in captivity, I Google-holed it.)

Honey feeds them iceberg lettuce because it stays crispier in the water, and they love it.

But I've been worried about the baby getting enough to eat because the bigger turtles steal all the food!

Yesterday when I did not have my camera, there was a giant food fight!

So today I made Honey feed them again so I could video it.

That little one is scrappy, so that's good.

One day, hopefully this year, we will get this pool demolished and back-filled with dirt, but we will have to relocate the turtles. I'd like to dig a little pond for them, but we'll see.

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Well, that's all this time, folks.

Thanks for the visit and have a great week - stay cool and hydrated!

XOX

June 1st Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday and 1st day of June, everyone!

Deann is our hostess for a Gypsy theme this week at Sunday Postcard Art.

I immediately thought of one of my favorite rock groups' songs: Fleetwood Mac's Gypsy.
Found this Gecko Galz digital image in my computer files and added a bit of the lyrics with the text tool.

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Here's a Christmas card done for Splitcoaststampers CCC May theme, Dazzle aka Shine Bright.

The white card base is Recollections and the unknown designer papers came from my stash.

I stamped and heat-embossed the Inkadinkado snow globe stamp onto watercolor paper and used my metallic watercolors along with glitter pens and markers to color it. I also added Stickles.

The white tree die cuts were coated with Versamark and heat-embossed with Ranger PolySparkle embossing powder. I put layers of gel pen and Stickle dots in the air inside the snow globe so when you turn the card front in the light it looks kinda like snow, lol.

Just wish the camera could capture it.

And the sketch I used.

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A card for a high school classmate using a Kraft card base, Basic Grey Marrakesh designer papers and Katy Sue 3D decoupage kit tulips with sentiment.

And the sketch I used.

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This was a card I made for another classmate using some deckle-edge 4x6 watercolor sheets I recently bought.

I used a Bearly Arts card blank and stamped the Simon Says Stamp blooms, butterfly, hearts and sentiment.

The coloring was done with watercolors and colored pencils, accented with Viva Decor Pearl Pen dots.

And the sketch I used.

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That about does it for me this time.

I thank you for visiting.

Let's hope for a good week ahead filled with love, laughter

and making art!

XOX

May 25th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday everyone!

Hope your weekend's been whatever you wanted it to be.

All is well here because we got the new dishwasher installed without a hitch:

And I got a new Dirty/Clean sliding magnet because we forgot to take the old one off before they hauled it away, lol. I think I ordered it from a mail order catalog back in the 90's anyway. Plus. this one has giant words for our old eyes, always good. Anyway, the controls on this new dishwasher are the same format and everything, even after 20 years! The learning curve on it hardly curved at all.

😎
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Peggy is hosting with a theme of Cancellation Marks this week at Sunday Postcard Art. There are some different ways to interpret this, but I went postal, thinking I could use my vast collection of cancelled postage stamps. So I visioned a layout, gathered supplies, then could not find those stamps to save my life! Well, never mind, I found some digital paper with stamps on it in my computer files from a seller on Etsy named Veriepear. It was the perfect base for me to add my cancellation and postmark rubber stamps (from Technique Tuesday, MaVinci, Hero Arts and Stampington). I also used two Deep Red people stamps: a postman and a young lady with the sign. I used colored pencils on them and I also accented with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen before fussy cutting and adding.

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My neighbor friend loves fairies, so I made this for her birthday.

I stamped the Creative Expressions Knarly Nook tree stamp in a light brown ink and colored it with Promarkers. I dotted leaves with a green Promarker. I stamped an Amazon door and colored it. I drew grass. Then I stamped the 3 Crafters Companion silhouette fairies with purple ink and colored their wings with Gelly Roll Stardust pens and Spectrum Noir glitter markers. Made some gold stars they are playing with. Stamped the top sentiment and embossed with gold powder and outlined with a marker. The I cut the CAS-ual Friday Celebrate die with gold glitter paper and adhered to finish. The card is all SU and the top layer was freehand cut and edged with glitter marker. I used a corner rounder punch on the base and mat.

And here is the sketch I loosely followed.

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Another birthday card for a girlfriend, using Katy Sue Designs 3D Decoupage flowers and sentiment.

SU card base and Basic Grey Euphoria designer papers.

Spellbinder torn edge ovals dies and Penny Black Antique Frame rectangle dies.

And the sketch I used.

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And one more birthday card, this time for a friend of our daughter's.

I used a Towashine stamp set for the birthday girl and the sentiment which was heat-embossed with white powder. Colored the girl with Promarkers and glitter pens.

White Recollections card base and Pebbles designer papers.

Stitched rectangle, circle and notched square dies, also used a stitched curve border die.

Everything on this card front that is die cut is stitched, lol.

I thought it was cute for a young woman.

And the sketch I used.

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Well, folks, that's all I got for this time.

Thanks so much for the visit and I hope your week coming up is a good one!

Until next Sunday, keep it creative!

XOX