August 10th Weekly Post

 Hello again and Happy Sunday!

Hot and tiring week for me, probably because I had a lot of trouble trying to flip my sleep schedule. It also heated up more than the forecast last week said.

On the bright side, Honey and I found bed pillows we like. It's been a long saga for us trying to find some. Seems like every pillow is made to be filled to the max with stuffing ("hotel quality") and we both need a pillow that is kinda flat in comparison and able to be squished into the shape we need as side sleepers. So, I'm thankful for our eventual success!

This week I have some cards made for women:

Girlfriend card #1.

I printed out this funny pre-colored chicken image from Beccy's Spring Chickens digital stamp set, along with the Bugaboo sentiment. I used Kraft cardstock and Farmhouse Market Square designer papers. I embellished with Promarker dots to make a ground and then added a few light blue Viva Decor Pearl Pen paint drops to finish.

And the sketch that I used.
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Girlfriend card #2.

I was on a roll with Beccy's images, also printing out this pre-colored image from the same set. I cut it out with a stitched circle die and dotted in a ground with Promarkers. The Polkadot Orchard sentiment was also printed out. Before adhering the checked base paper layer, I dry embossed it using a Spellbinders chicken wire folder, then I ran my Versamark pad across the raised surface and heat-embossed it with white powder...or so I thought. I mistakenly used clear powder, so it barely shows up. I tried correcting my mistake, repeating the Versamark and using white powder, but sadly it didn't take. I inked the edges with some Barn Door Distress ink.

Oh well. You can see it in real life.

And the sketch that I used.
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This card was made for a niece and uses Lavinia designer papers and white cardstock.

The Lavinia silhouette fairy Giselle was first stamped with Nocturne Versafine Clair ink on the scenery paper, then stamped again on a piece of white card and heat-embossed. I fussy cut her out after coloring her wings with glitter gel pens and adhered her to the scene on top of the stamped Giselle. This was done to have the bubbles (which I also colored with the gel pens) and also the bow on the back of her dress be stamped so I wouldn't have to cut them out. Once she was adhered and the bubbles colored, I then stamped the sentiments.

All paper layers were punched with a Fiskars corner punch and the base paper layer was edged with a Promarker.

Here's the sketch that I used.

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Well, that does it for me this time.

Thanks for the visit and I hope your coming week goes well.

Stay cool and hydrated!

XOX

August 3rd Weekly Post

Happy first Sunday in August, everyone.

I'm really amazed at how fast this week sped by!

I wouldn't mind waking up tomorrow and it's Nov. 1 and no hurricanes this year.

One can always dream!

It's been a weird nature year here. Strangely, we saw no butterflies in Spring but now they are everywhere. Along with cardinals!

No June bugs or cicada killer wasps.

Never saw a black fly in my life but we've been inundated with them on and off since March, after rains and it's rained a lot this year.

I was thinking all this time they were flying roaches but there was an article about them in the Houston paper recently, because they're a new pest for us.

And we just had a mini cool front. Didn't even break 90 degrees for 2 days.

Not to mention all the crazy weather going on everywhere else right now.

So you can see why I'm gonna hope for no Gulf storms this year.

Might as well, Nature's always changing up the game!

🙏😉🙏

I'll continue the cool front with two Christmas cards I made for the July Doors theme at Splitcoaststampers.

I got this Colorado Craft Christmas Winter Village stamp as a freebie in Creative Stamping Magazine Issue 115 a while back and always wanted to use it, so here we go. 

(At the image's bottom, there are several houses with DOORS.)

I stamped the image first on masking paper with Memento ink and cut it out with a knife so that I also had the outer shape surrounding the tree as a mask. I also cut masks for the horizontal white lines you see using a My Favorite Things Cloud Cover die.

Then, with Versamark ink on white card, I stamped both the image and the Impression Obsession sentiment and heat embossed them with white powder.

Next, I applied the outer mask around the stamped image and ink-blended the tree using Twisted Citron Distress Ink and let that dry before removing the mask.

I laid down the line masks and placed the tree mask over the stamped image and ink blended the background using Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, let that dry and removed the masks.

I layered my card onto a white card blank and the card front was done.

 

The sketch was flipped vertically, switched to a portrait mode in PSE for my A2 card. 

(I learned how to remove the sketch number with the Eraser Tool.)

I used the sentiment with its two large words in place of the two pink dots and I placed the lines behind the tree instead of in front.

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For this card, I used a door die I had but hadn't ever used yet.

I cut it out of white card and colored the door and window above it using a black Promarker and a gold glitter gel pen, and I added a wreath sticker from Tim's Christmas Sticker Book.

The I Brake For Stamps brick wall was stamped with Nocturne Versafine Clair on Kraft card and colored in with a red Promarker. The Colorado Craft sentiment (a freebie from the same magazine cited in my first card) was stamped with Versamark on Kraft and heat embossed with white powder. I fussy cut it before adding.

The card base is Kraft card and the dp is from The Paper Studio.

The circles were cut using a Spellbinder die and I added gold star stickers to each circle. I also added a gold glittery border sticker horizontally where the designer papers meet.

No adjustments made to this sketch. I followed it pretty much as is.

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And last but not least, a birthday card for a sweet friend.

The card base is SU and the dp is Pink Paislee with a scrap of white for the MFT sentiment stamped with Warm Breeze Versafine Clair ink.

I cut all the paper layers using various stitched dies fromm MFT and The Stamps of Life.

The Art Impressions cake was stamped with Nocturne VF Clair and colored with Promarkers and glitter gel pens, then cut with the matching die before adhering to the front.

And here's the sketch I followed as is.

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Well, that does it for me this time.

It heated back up today but I believe the highs this coming week are only going to be in the low 90's and that's something to celebrate for August!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Stay cool and hydrated,

XOX

July 27th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope you all survived this past week.

I'm not gonna lie, I was and still am greatly affected by Ozzy Osbourne's passing.

I was never into his music when it originally came out. Black Sabbath with Ozzy was active in USA 1970-1979, and as I was an 8th grade goody-goody in 1970 I was not into heavy metal! 

I began at 8 years old with The Beatles, followed by Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Monkees, The Cowsills...pure pop (they called it bubble-gum pop if I remember correctly). I continued to listen to Top 40 radio music until I developed a huge love for Neil Young in 1972, which lasted for years. In fact, when Neil later got a bit metal-ly with his music, I quit liking him!

So, nothing in there for heavy metal, lol.

How I fell for the Osbourne family was their reality show on MTV.

Watched every episode with my daughter.

And it's been only the last couple of years that I've listened as a fan would to Ozzy's music.

And I fell in love with his music for the first time, after all these years.

A few hours after his final performance at Villa Park, a bootleg video of his solo set and Black Sabbath's set appeared on YouTube and I watched it all.

I have some experience with Parkinson's patients here and there (family, friends, neighbors). I'd also been in a service organization where I cheer-visited elderly in hospital, so when it came time for our daughter to do some service projects, I connected her with them. They persuaded me to join her and we were assigned patients with advanced Parkinson's.

This is when I really learned all of the problems those patients face. 

When I watched Ozzy perform, I was acutely aware of his constant struggle to breathe, swallow and the weary/dead look in his eyes.

It looked too terribly familiar to me.

So although it was a shock that he passed just 2 weeks after that, I wasn't that surprised.

Now that I've had a few days to reflect, I am just blown away that he had the superhuman determination to perform one last time for his fans and for charity. And that his wife Sharon made it all happen for him. And that he did such a fabulous job given his health.

Comedian Charles McBee said it best, I think:

"The Man. The Myth. The Mumble!"

There will never be another Ozzy.

 He was the ultimate showman, even to the end.

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Thanks for letting me post all that.

Now onto the cards:

I made this card for our daughter's recent birthday.

No sketch for this one.

I trimmed down a sheet from Ciao Bella's The Seventies dp pack and layered it over a piece of yellow-orange paper and a pink Bazzill card base.

I stamped a Deep Red Stamps City Girl and colored her with Promarkers before adding to the scene.

Stamplorations Celebrate die cut and MFT stamped sentiment cut with the SU Word Window punch.

Star stickers to finish.

I had to make this the week my computer died, so I didn't have my inventory at my fingertips and had to just grab materials I knew I had.

She loved it so all went well.

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Next up is a card I made one of our daughter's close girlfriends.

I also made this while I had no access to my computer files.

The  SU card base, lace and ribbon were in a pile on my table.

I luckily opened my 6x6 paper box and quickly found this Basic Grey Hopscotch dp to go with it, as well as smaller dp scraps for the circles cut with Spellbinders nested dies.

I also knew where the The Sweet Shop Stamps Foxy set was so I used those stamps.

Inside the fox is stamped again along with What does the Fox say? repeated.

And a speech bubble with Happy Birthday inside.

Again, a big hit with the recipient as she loves that song.

And I'd never before used the stamps! lol

And the sketch I used.

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Last up is a card I made my cousin's husband.

The base and brown card stock is Kraft, the dp is Pink Paislee, the sentiment die is Stamplorations and the candle stamps and dies are Catherine Pooler.

I stamped the candles with Versamark and heat-embossed with white powder.

And the sketch I used.

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Well, that's enough from me this time.

Thanks for the visit and again for allowing me to share my Ozzy thoughts.

Hope you have a fabulous week.

Stay cool and hydrated!

XOX

July 20th Weekly Post

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope it's been a good week for you.

I've had a rough week with inflammation again, so my doctor suggested that I try to flip my sleep-wake schedule, as he thinks the heat is exacerbating things. I've done it before with good results, but for some reason I am having a problem easing into it this time. Bottom line is, I don't know if I'm coming or going, lol. But I shall trudge on!

😕😁

I had every intention of participating in SPA this week, but I think I'll need to take a bit more time off from that. I've been working on several cards to make for birthdays, as well as finishing my July door-themed Christmas cards. I literally almost forgot to post today, my regular day. With my health right now, that's enough on my plate.

Since I still have a few more cards that I haven't shared, here are a couple:

A birthday card for the nephew out in West Texas.

He's an outdoorsman, so I try to work off that.

I struggled this year, but this is what I came up with.

I'll show you the sketch I used first, because the idea for the card began with it.

I wanted to do the line divisions with colors and for some reason I thought of sunrays in a rotating array of colors that were in those blocks on the sketch. I grabbed my 7x7 Sheena Douglass Burst stencil because the blank "sun" area on it was off center just like element 3 on the sketch.

That's when I thought of the Paper Roses windmill die and using black card scraps for it and everything else, like in silhouette. The grass is a Sweet n Sassy die and the birds stamp is a Creative Stamping Magazine Issue 123 freebie. I stamped it and the Creative Vision sentiment with Nocturne VF Clair ink. Black SU card base.

I hope you can see at least a little of the sketch in my card. I like the different interpretation and that it's a masculine look too. Win-win as far as I'm concerned.

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And here's another birthday card with that same Creative Visions sentiment stamp, this time using Versamark and heat-embossing it with lemon yellow ep. It cut with a stitched round die enhanced with a gold gel pen run over the stitches. The card stock base is a brown SU and the two paper mat layers were cut with 2 nested Stamplorations stitched rectangle dies, also enhanced with the gel pen. That top mat was in my bits and bobs box. I'd previously stamped it with a Cornish Heritage Farms tree background stamp and I thought to use it here. I did add a lot of green using Distress Ink and a few Promarkers before adhering. The balloon was cut using paper scraps and a Catherine Pooler die set.

And the sketch used.

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And I'll leave you with a photo of Honey with his one sunflower that sprouted.

This was taken the first part of the week when it wasn't raining.

Honey is 6 feet tall, so it was a big one!

Thanks for the visit and have a good week-stay cool and dry!

XOX

July 13th Weekly Post

 Hello and Happy Sunday!

I'm posting a bit early because I'm delighted to be hosting Sunday Postcard Art this week and they are 6 hours ahead of me over in UK.

My chosen theme is Circus.

For my sample, I have used an Artistic Outpost background collage stamp from their Vintage Circus set. I colored it with watercolor brush pens, alcohol markers, gel pens and colored pencils. I adhered it to a 4X6 cardstock base that I had edged with 2 sizes of black checkered ribbon. Then I added several colorful star stickers for the finish.

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Next up, I have a birthday card that I made a family friend of ours.

The flowers look very muted because I experimented with a technique to make your stamped image look more abstract. I stamped the Simon Says Stamp with one of the newest shades of Versafine Clair ink (Arctic) that is a light greyish blue and when you use blue colorants, the stamped outlines melt. Anyway, it works well with monochromatic shades, so that's what I attempted here, except I didn't have enough blue colorant shades so I had to use a few blue-green ones (along with green for leaves). I think it looks cool, although I doubt I'd use it again any time soon.

I cut the colored image with an MFT border die and layered some lace underneath. That's layered onto the dry-embossed SU card stock base mat using a very old Cuttlebug folder. I used a white Distress crayon on the bottom happy and the rectangle birthday which I then filled in the words with a blue-green gel pen. Final touch was a few blue shades of Stickles in the centers of the flowers.

And here's the sketch I used.

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I made this birthday card using an already-stamped image in one of my piles, which I colored with the same assortment of watercolor, alcohol and gel pens and colored pencils. The stamp is Blackboard Birthday by Hero Arts and is on a wood block. I matted with some Lawn Fawn dotted dp. The card base is Cardstock Warehouse, and the base layer is Pebbles dp with 2 lines of washi tape from my stash. I cut an Avery Elle balloon from the card base scraps and added some glitter to the balloon with a Wink of Stella. The base layer mat corners were cut using a Fiskars punch, and same with the green dotted paper.

And here's the sketch I used.

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That's it for me this week.

Thanks so much for the visit and have a great week ahead!

XXO