Mixed Media Leaves

 Well, today I decided to try some mixed media. Yikes. It is wayyyyyyy out of my comfort zone. lol  I saw the blog challenge Creative Artiste Mixed Media and got inspired to try it. I used distress oxides, distress paint, fibers, dye ink, some die cuts and various stamps. I don't know what to think about it, but hey, I stamped and made a card today. :)

Do you like mixed media? It can be fun and messy to change things up and try it every now and then! It's been a long day, so I'm off to find my pajamas, quilt, and a book. See you tomorrow. 

Rita

Distressed Fall Leaf

 

Tuesday! Whew. Today has been a long day. It feels like it should be Thursday by now. lol I wanted to share the first card I made this month. It uses an older set from Concord & 9th that I just love. I used distress oxides, embossing powder, and some distressing tools. It's always fun to do a clean and simple card with distress products. :)

I'm tired, so it's a quick post and run from me today. I am ready for pajamas and my book!  I hope you are having a great week!!!  

Rita 

Dare to Get Dirty Day 2 cont.

More fall colors.  :)  I tried a new technique using tissue paper and distress inks.  It was fun and the result is pretty neat.  I need to try it again with some brighter colors.  I think yellows would be pretty, maybe some blues?  If you want to try it, cut out some tissue, spread some distress inks on a craft mat, spritz with water, lay the tissue over it and let it absorb the colors, and then carefully pick up the tissue and lay it on a paper towel to try.  It works beautifully with Stampin' Up! inks, so I might give those a go!

Finally a simple card.  I think bees and hexagons make a cute card.  Plus yellow and black are a favorite color combination of mine.  I got a new little bug and insect set to make notes for Laila, so I borrowed the cute little bees for this one.  

And finally a little Christmas card.  I figured I should get at least one Christmas in July card made before we start a new month.  Not much stamping here.  I just added a little of the Stampin' Up! Dictionary background stamp on the birch trees.  It adds a little interest, but doesn't take over the card.  I'm hoping my cardboard deer doesn't look like he's been flame broiled at Burger King.  lol 

That's it for today. I didn't manage to get any of the challenges for today done, so now I'm five behind.  Oh well.  I like to try to do them all, but life gets in the way sometimes.  This is one of the rough weeks of the year for me with Eli's birthday coming up on Wednesday, so I try to distract myself by creating.  I hope you're not getting tired of all the posts.  

Have a nice week.

Rita

Simon Says Stamp Distress It 2

I don't know about where you are, but Texas has been miserable this week.  So hot and humid that nobody wants to go outside.  Today we added the run of thunderstorms. I went to hide away in my stamp room a bit and play with a couple new Distress Oxide inks I got and my new leaves background from Hero Arts.  I love the background, but the card didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.  I guess I'll have to get messy and make another background and try again. :) Entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I guess I'm in a Distress It! mood.

I am ready for Fall! :)  I think I might switch over to making cards for Halloween and Thanksgiving for a while.  It's crazy that we don't really have any holidays before then.

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Fall Colors

Hey!  How is everyone on this fine Friday?   I can't believe I haven't posted since Monday.  Well, I can, but that's breaking my recent streak of doing better.  lol  Jason worked overtime this week and I was solo parenting for most of it.  He was home yesterday and I totally took off for brunch with a friend.   I wanted to share a couple more challenge cards with you.  I have a lot of cards made up for Fall now, so I need to start sending those out soon.   This one uses my most favorite Stampin' Up! set, French Foliage along with a sentiment from Truly Grateful.  I stamped on the Kraft paper that was sold back in my demo days.  Do they still have that?  I love it!

And this card...  Lori challenged us to use wheat and I think this counts, right?  lol I pulled out the distress inks for this one.  The wheat is from Concord & 9th and the sentiment from wPlus9.

Laila started going to a cooperative play groun this week and it's from 4:30 to 5:30, so we have to stop for dinner on our way home.  She picked Panera this week.  She seems to enjoy the class so far, so I hope it will benefit her.  With this description, it seems to cover much of what she needs help on. The Cooperative Play group addresses social skills, communication, and emotional regulation skills.  They work on things such as taking turns, expressively identifying how they feel, flexibility with non-preferred activities, keeping their body in the group, thinking with their eyes, cooperative play and communicating with peers during play, along with other skills.  If I could list her issues, it would be most of those. Thank goodness we can at least work on them while we are waiting on an evaluation/diagnosis.

I'm off to clean up my desk.  It's a wreck as is my floor.  Creativity is messy!

Falliday Leaves and Halloween

Back with more cards for the Falliday challenges!  I'm like seven behind, so I don't know if I'll catch up before it ends or not.  I'm working on them, but it takes me a long time to make one.  This challenge was to use fall colors for your card.  I love this sheet of patterned paper from Stampin' Up! so I based my card around that.   The stamps/dies are from Concord & 9th.

The next challenge I worked on was for a joy fold card.  I am not that great at anything outside of a traditional fold, but this one is pretty easy to make.  Thank goodness for great tutorials.  lol  I went with a Halloween theme as I seem to have a lot of paper and stamps for that now.  Here's the inside:

That's all for now.  I have to clean my desk and my room up to be able to make anything else.  It is a wreck.  Laila has been in here with me this week and she's "helped" a lot in hiding the carpet.  lol   I'll be back when I can see my desk and floor again.  Have a great weekend!

Falliday Leaves

Hey!  I missed you guys yesterday.  I had a card to post, but things got busy and I didn't have time to sit down and do it.  I'll share more on that later.  :)   First here is my card.  Dina's challenge was to use die cuts for masking.  I cut some leaves out of masking paper and masked off some watercolor paper.  I followed up with some Brusho crystals.  I finished it off with a bit of distress ink and a die cut sentiment.   Fun, huh?  the Stampin' Up! Dictionary stamp added some fun detail as well.  Be sure to go check out the Falliday challenges!

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! Dictionary (retired)
Ink:  Brusho Crystals, Vintage Photo distress ink
Paper:  Stampin' Up! More Mustard, Canson Watercolor paper
Other:  Lawn Fawn Stitched Leaves dies, Concord & 9th grateful die, bakers twine, masking paper

Now about yesterday...

As I sat down to eat dinner I looked outside and saw a little dog.  He was cute, a little black scruffy one.  I looked closer and I could tell that he was a stray.  His fur was matted and he was so dirty.  I set up our extra dog crate, got some food, and headed out to see if I could catch him.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I at least wanted to feed him.   I caught him and he was the sweetest thing.  Laila and I took him to a vet and they didn't find a microchip.  He had a collar but no tags. I could tell he had been out on his own for a while.  I contacted a local rescue and they were able to take him.  I was sad to leave him, but my life is too crazy for anything else.  Here he is:

Laila and I drove him over to the rescue's vet this morning.  Last I heard he was being groomed.  I can't wait to see some after pictures and see him in a loving home.

I appreciate everyone's words about Laila and sharing our struggles. I'll try to share as I can to let you know how we are.  I know Kelly mentioned that I don't share as many photos of Laila like I used to.  Part of the reason for that is because she doesn't make eye contact with the camera much anymore.  It's a struggle to have her be still long enough to snap one too.  If I do ask her to take one, I get this.  lol

Falliday Fest: Thankful Leaf

I'm feeling very thankful today.  My camera and purse arrived safe and sound on Wednesday so I was able to get better pictures for my newest cards.  On top of that, today starts a fun set of October challenges on Splitcoast Stampers called Falliday Fest.  I love crafting with fall supplies, so I'm excited to see all the challenges!  There's also tutorials for new projects as well.  Today's card is for Lydia's challenge to use some fall colors that you'd find in New York, her home state, and include some text.  I don't think if you can see it, but there's some text on the bottom left and the top right side.  Very subtle, but there!

Stamps:  Concord & 9th Lace Leaf
Ink: Distress Inks:  Shabby Shutters Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw, Barn Door, Gathered Twigs, Vintage Photo
Paper:  Stampin' Up! Early Espresso, Neenah Solar White
Other:  My Favorite Things Blueprints 20

I seem to have lost a lot of blog subscribers lately.  I'm going to guess it's from sharing too much about Laila and our current struggles.  I've decided to stop sharing and stick with just cards for now.  I apologize for annoying people.

Freshly Made Fall

Oops!  I just realized that I totally forgot to do my Freshly Made Sketches post!  Jen T created a fun sketch and I was able to sit down and make something.  I don't love the result, but I tried!   I love the idea of using a large banner, so I'll definitely try this one again!  The rest of the team did some amazing things, so be sure to go over and check those out.  You still have a little time to play along too.

Isn't that fun?!  I used my much-neglected banner punch board to make my banner.  That made it easy to get the size I wanted.  :)   The leaves and grateful are Concord & 9th dies. 

On Friday we took Laila to a little event to ride Thomas.  It was a four hour drive for a 25 minute train trip, so I don't think we'll be doing that again.  Such a long day!  She seemed very overwhelmed by it all too.   Thursday she was sick with a fever, so I'm hoping it was just that.  She did say she had fun, so I hope that was the case.  This past week was another bad one at school so she won't be going back anymore.  They asked that she not come on Thursday and after hearing the report of the behavior anaylst that observed her and the class, it just doesn't seem like a good fit.  She's already the "bad" kid and they aren't even trying to turn things around.  I figure we have years of this to look forward to because it seems to be the norm for her.  She just can't behave in a classroom. It's very hard to parent a kid like her and we are struggling.  Having no family nearby and no breaks from her make it even more difficult.  Send good thoughts our way as we'll need them.  I'm probably going to have to rehome our dog now because they don't get along and I can't walk the dog when she's home.  Just so much to deal with.  :o(  

On top of everything else, I left my DSLR at the restaurant near the Thomas event.  The manager found my purse and is supposed to be mailing it back to me, but we'll see.  That is crushing as I love my camera.  I don't know how I'll get pictures for my blog now, so it might be a while before you see me post again. 

Freshly Made Leaves

Wednesday means a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Karren is the designer this week and has a fun one!  I messed it up (as always), but I love my card anyway.   I just got some beautiful new dies from Concord & 9th and I had to use them!  Aren't they pretty?  Great way to use up some scrap pieces too.  :)

Stamps:  Wplus9 Grateful Greetings
Ink:  Stampin' Up! Early Espresso
Paper:  SU Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, and SU DSP scrap
Tools:  Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders, Concord & 9th Layering Leaf dies
Other: Linen Thread, SU Regals Candy Dots, SU burlap ribbon

Isn't that fun?  I love the "any shapes" option because the possibilities are endless!  I look forward to seeing you in the gallery!  Below is my first attempt with the sketch the same products.  I like the second on so much better!