Zen Shark plus a Technique

I know it's Fall, but it's still SO HOT in Texas. We went to a "Fall Festival" today and it was like 91 degrees or something. We didn't get to stay long. I love the plant nursery where it was held. They are super nice and I love seeing the butterflies there. So yeah, no fall or Halloween card today; it's just too hot to even think about it. lol  Instead I'm sharing this card I made using a technique I saw on Splitcoast. It's called Coffee Filter Prints. I did make a background, but I ended up die cutting it to make my waves. I thought it would be cool that way.  I want to enter this one in the Crafty Friends Challenge and the QKR Stampede.

Laila and I visited it a while back and they were so sweet. They always give her food to feed the fish and they took us around to show us some cool caterpillars. I enjoy going there just for the nice staff as much as the plants and butterflies. :)

I hope you have a great Saturday. Jason works tomorrow and Laila is off from school until Wednesday, so I hope I can get some stamping in. It might be a bit more difficult, but I'll try.

Witch Way is the Candy

Happy Saturday!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I've been having a bit of a low key one. Laila seems to be getting sick again, so I don't want to take her out too much. I worked a bit on more of the Falliday Fest challenges from Splitcoast Stampers. This one was a new to me technique called dendritic printing. It was an interesting one for sure. If you haven't tried it, it's a great way to use up some acrylic paint! Here's the link to the YouTube video.

Sorry for the witch again! I had an extra one colored and wanted to use it! I need to put away the Halloween stamps soon and work on some Thanksgiving cards. I also need to mail the tons of Halloween cards I keep making. That's on my to-do list for Monday.

We did do a couple of fun things today. Laila and Jason made the Halloween House.  I struggle in doing those because I'm too much of a perfectionist and would take 6 days to complete it. I am not the mom who enjoys crafts with their kid. I try, but I'm biting my tongue the whole time.  It was nice to let him handle that one. lol  Then we went to a cool program at the library where kids can come and read to some of the therapy dogs in our area. Not much reading happened, but we enjoyed the dogs so much. Most of them are so sweet and calm.

Laila's still struggling at school. Thursday we ended up picking her up around noon. She had decided to be totally defiant and non-compliant. The staff seem to spend a lot of time sitting in the hallway with her. It makes me sad and I wish we knew how to make things easier for her and the teacher. We had the initial 504 meeting yesterday and they agreed to do a functional behavior assessment and work on a behavior intervention plan. It looks like most of her first year will be trying to figure out what works. It's really getting me down to continue to hear so much negative. She has a great principal, teacher, and counselor, so there's at least that. She's just so different than any kid most people have worked with that it's hard for people to know what to do with her. It makes me feel better to know it's not just her clueless parents who struggle. Keep sending good thoughts and let's hope we can keep improving each week.

Now I'm off to finish up Mindhunter on Netflix. I think I have 1.5 episodes left. :) It's been my binge show the past few days. Have a great Sunday!

Camp Create Day 1

Happy Friday!  I feel like it's Saturday for some reason.  Do you ever do that?  It might be that I didn't get much sleep last night.  Little Lady was crazy and so was my brain.  I finally got up and have been creating a bit since way too early.  My Favorite Things has had their Camp Create this week and they have some great techniques (with videos).  For day one, we worked on Inlaid Die Cutting.  I didn't have any scenery dies like Barbara used, but I still wanted to play along.  I made a rainbow panel with distress inks and then cut it using the Snow Drifts Background.  I also cut a piece of white with the same die to use as a frame.  After I pieced in the colors, I cut out the friend and was very careful to keep all the little parts from the rainbow panel to put back in it.  Fun card and I hope it will brighten someone's day.

Yesterday I worked for hours cleaning and straightening my craft room.  I don't know that I got that far, but I'm trying to do a bit every day.  I need so much less stuff.  I think that's a common issue, yet I always want the new things I see.  I am thinking September will be a no buying anything except adhesive if needed month.  I'm going to a crafty retreat that month anyway, so there should be plenty of new techniques and fun to do with what I have. :) 

Off to get ready.  Laila has her first swim lesson at four.  Send good thoughts! I never know how it will go, but we have to try new things and hope for the best. She seems to love being in the water and I want her to be safe. 

This is me every morning around 6am.  She loves to come snuggle right on my face.  If I don't wake up to pet her she puts her paws on my face.  She's a nut.  She makes me laugh and she makes me happy with her snuggles. 

...and more Dirty Cards

You guys!  I am still stamping, but I'm tired!  I keep telling myself I don't have to finish them all, but then I find myself making a list of what I need to work on.  lol  I have about six more left, so Jason swears I can do it.  We'll see. :)  This card was a fun one.  I made background with Distress Oxides that I didn't need, so I die cut this pretty Stampin' Up! butterfly from it.  I kept the background simple so it would be the focus.  The embossing paste adds interest without taking away from the pretty colors of the oxides.

It's a MONARCH!  lol I got a newsletter from Inspired by Stamping and they send out digital freebies on it.  One month is was this one and I was so excited.  I finally got it printed up and used it for a challenge.  We are still raising and releasing them.  We had a lull, but the mommas have been in the garden like crazy again lately.  Most of our releases have been female as well, so maybe they'll come back.  

I didn't love this one. I fussed over it, but I couldn't get it to turn out like I'd imagined.  The background is Distress Oxides and the arrows are from my Cameo.  

I figured it was a good time to start teacher cards.  Simple, but I like it. I need more stamps for teachers as these are the only two I have!

And finally, one of my favorites.  I made the background with shaving cream, reinkers, and a stencil.  So fun! If you haven't tried that technique. go to Splitcoast and check out the tutorial.

I'm hopping off to go get ready for Game of Thrones!

Dare to Get Dirty Day Something or Other

I'm back!  This card here totally derailed my creativity.  I struggled forever to find a layout that worked and tore it apart several times.  I had to color the girl a couple times.  It almost made me give on the challenges, but I'm back in the game now.  :)  I love this sweet little image.  Perfect get well card for a tea lover.

I've been trying to play with my watercolors a bit more, so this one is pretty simple.  A watercolor wash and then the die cut and sentiment.  I decided to add some sequins because I have so many!

I woke up at 5am today and couldn't go back to sleep. I figured I'd come color a bit.  I ended up with this card.  I love these little critters and it's been ages since I'd used them.  I don't have a lot of birthday cards for kids, so this will be gladly added to my stash. 

And finally this guy.  I don't have a clue about steampunk, but I found this image and thought it would be the closest to my style that I'd find.  It was fun and HARD to color, but I did it!  Whew!

I'm off to shower and then head out to the doctor.  It's a rainy blah day, so maybe I'll get more cards made when I get back.  :) 

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

DTGD Day 2

A bonus second post today!  I've been working away as much as I can today.  I have three more finished and three more to go to be caught up.  I don't know if it will happen. lol I'm getting tired.  I wish it didn't take me so long to make them.  I get caught up and it gets out of hand.  I don't even know how long this one took.  Have you tried the cling wrap background?  I thought it was easy and came out really neat.  It was a perfect under the sea background.  I love trying new techniques, especially the ones that work. :)  I'm doing good on my plan to use my Cameo more.  The seaweed was done with that.  I need to buy less dies, so that should help.

This was one of those throw things at it and hope it comes out looking okay kind of cards.  I can't really do the collage look very well, but I love trying it.  The background is made with Brusho.  I love the Stampin' Up! Butterfly dies.  Laila has already asked me to make a Monarch with it after she saw this one.  :)

This one is super simple.  That image is so pretty that I wanted it to be the focus.  I love trying to color it.  It is a nice test of using neutrals and coloring apples.  Plus, HEDGEHOGS!  Who doesn't love those!

Now I have to take a break and run back to the store.  We decided to have quesadillas tonight, so we need a rotisserie chicken.  At least it's only one thing to go get and there's tons of choices of where to go. 

Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow for more cards! 

Freshly Made Coffee

Back today with Freshly Made Sketches and that technique I promised you.  :)  I did struggle with this week's sketch because tilted panels make me a bit nuts. lol I tried a Christmas card, but I did the "shape" first and it was most of the card front once I put it together.  Then I saw the backgrounds I'd made last week and thought I'd try one of those.  It is made using a technique called Shaving Cream Stenciling.   I know we used shaving cream back when I first started stamping, but this was a fun new take on it.  I forget what colors I used now, but I know Bermuda Bay and Lucky Limeade were two of them. I'm also adding it to Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday.  I love this coffee set by them.

I hope you'll take time to come play along with us!  And go try that technique! It's awesome!  I might have to do more today with my new plaid stencil I used on yesterday's card.  

Happy Wednesday! 

Stampin' Up! Fall Leaf

I think I got stuck in Fall mode. lol I won a prize in the Coffee Lovers Hop from The Heart Desires and I got this awesome plaid stencil and Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide ink.  I played around with a fun water stamping technique I saw on Jennifer McGuire's blog and man is it fun!  I am so excited for cooler weather.  SO READY for it. I'm about to have to pull a lot of struggling plants from my garden because they hate this weather.  As do I.

Come back tomorrow for a new Freshly Made Sketches sketch AND another new to me technique that was also super awesome to do!

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Truly Grateful, SU Wonderfall
Ink: Distress Oxides Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso Distress Ink, Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip
Stencil: Carta Bella Plaid #1

SCS Swipe Your Credit Card

Getting in a last post for the month.  :)  I am finding the challenges on Splitcoast helpful to get back in the groove of stamping.  This card was made for their Monday technique challenge.  Karen has a fun technique this week and I loved her card.  I decided to make a version of hers just to get the hang of the technique.  I can't wait to try it again now!  I love the result! I love swiping my credit card without having to pay it back. Go give the technique a shot and see how you like it!

We had a Silver-Spotted Skipper visit today.  So cute!  We also had a Monarch visit and leave eggs.  More babies!  :) Yay! I'm off to collect the eggs and see how many she left us.

Winter Thinking of You

I thought I'd share another card we made in my class on Sunday.  I had pinned this video from Penny Black ages ago and thought it might be a fun technique to try with my ladies.   I had a bit of a touch time with it using watercolors, but it was pretty easy with distress inks.  Their cards all turned out so great and I was so happy at how adventurous they were in trying it.  I did take a big leap and let them use my awesome Branch Out set that I don't like to share.  lol  (Thanks again, Pat!)

I'm enjoying the freedom of teaching classes with no worry about who makes the product or if it is retired.  I love not worrying able selling things either.   I loved my time with Stampin' Up!, but I'm having a blast with so many other products.  I keep debating on selling off more of my SU stuff, but I know I still love some of it and will get back to using it more one day.   I think...  ;)

Laila loved the local nature park we went to and it really is a great place.  They have a playground, a center with all these bones/skeletons/skins as well as furs and preserved bugs and birds, live snakes and turtles, a turtle pond, and a little old time village where they host heritage days.  They have a program for 3/4 year olds, so I signed her up to go next month.  I hope she enjoys it!

...and DONE! Yay!!!

So happy!   I stayed up last night and managed to finish my last three cards!   I almost gave up around 9, but one last episode of Private Practice helped me stay and finish.  :)   I had to do fussy cutting, a new technique, and even managed to use an image I colored ages ago but hadn't used.   Whew!  Another year in the books!!

Yvette's challenge was to use construction related materials or stamps for a card.  I looked but we must not be very handy because I couldn't find anything.  I did have this awesome set from Two Paper Divas called You Are a Handy Guy that was perfect! I enjoy coloring these images a lot and cutting them out doesn't bother me at all because I love the look of them.  

This was my card for a try a tutorial from the SCS resource section.  I've been wanting to try the Iris Twist technique for ages, so I went with it!   It wasn't as difficult as I thought and I think the result is so neat!

And finally, Lydia asked us to cross the finish line.  We were to draw a line on our card and have something cross it.   I had colored this crazy bird back at the beginning of the challenges and hadn't had a chance to use her on anything.  I decided she was perfect for the finale.

Thanks for visiting and seeing all the cards from the past five weeks!  I hope they inspired you and I hope you will join in next year and make some of your own!

Butterflies and Bokeh

I think I promised to share our second club project with the butterfly dies today.   I had a small group this time, so we focused on learning the watercolor background and bokeh technique.   I hope they enjoyed it.    I was totally inspired to do this after seeing my friend Jen Timko's gorgeous background.  I just loved the colors and tried a version.  I used a bit different ones from her, but I think it produced the same vibe.  I over bokehed mine.  I think I was just having too much fun with my daubers and forgot to stop!  lol   My background is Crushed Curry, Crisp Cantaloupe, and Calypso Coral.   Splitcoast just did a tutorial on this if you are interested in trying it for yourself.  :)

I'll see you again tomorrow with a Freshly Made Sketches card!

Two Paper Divas Inspiration

I really love sentiment stamps and making cards that showcase larger ones.   I now have several from the awesome ladies at Two Paper Divas and I wanted to show you another one today.   Isn't it awesome?!   I paired it with a new product I recently added to my stash, Sakura Koi Water Colors.   This was my first attempt with them and I just love the colors. I can't wait to use them a bit more and learn more about them.  :)

Stamps:  Life is About Crayons
Ink: StazOn Jet Black
Paper:  Stampin' Up! Whisper White, Ranger Distress Watercolor Cardstock
Other:  Misc sequins, baker's twine, Sakura 24-Piece Koi Assorted Water Colors Field Sketch Set with Brush, Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mustard, Lil' Inker Stitched Rectangles dies

She is really loving this snowman "pack pack".  lol  We had to put money in it, so she's carrying around her first dollar.  She already told Grammy that she needs shopping money.  Ha!

Happy Bokeh

I've been wanting to try this cool technique I saw over on the wPlus9 blog for a while and finally took a bit of time to play yesterday.  It is so cool!!!!!  And easy too! Here's the link with the video of how to do it.  I used Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Wisteria Wonder, and Elegant Eggplant for my background and then Whisper White craft ink for the circles.   I made this to enter into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

She had so much fun at the little playground over near the ducks the other day.  She was very brave and climbed and was sliding so much better than before.  

Stampin' Up! Spiral Flower Die

My techniques class is tomorrow and I'm still working on getting ready for it.  That trip out of town really threw a wrench in my plans and I'm a bit behind.   We've been working on catching up the lawn and getting Laila set up with a sandbox, but I finally found some stamping time last night.   I pulled out my gesso and here's what I came up with.  The Naturals Composition DSP (sadly, retiring) is perfect to use with gesso as it resists it and you get this awesome look with little effort!  I finally ordered the Spiral Flower die and I LOVE it!  You can't really mail this card easily, but it's perfect to add in a gift bag with a gift!

We don't have a home phone anymore, but Laila had fun with an old one at my parents during our visit.  :)   She's so funny.

Stampin' Up! Lovely As a Tree CASE

We are trying to get Laila's pictures taken for the Hope Calendar again today (attempt #4), so we'll be on the go early.   I thought I'd share our other club project this morning before I jump in the shower.   It's a simple card using the masking tape technique.  A friend sent me a link to Laurie's awesome cards and I decided to CASE one because they are just so gorgeous!

Stamps:  Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Tools: Masking Tape

She's so cute when she's happy.  :)

Scrap Card Sunday continues...

Sunday scrap card!  Woo hoo!  I managed to keep up my streak.  :)   For this week, I used some longer scraps ( at least 6 inches) and the bargello technique.  Have you tried it?   You should give it a go as it's kinda fun.  Splitcoast has a tutorial here that makes it pretty easy to figure out.

Stamps:  Toxic Treats (retired)
Paper:  Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, scraps
Accessories:  Basic Black satin ribbon (retired)
Tools:  Big Shot, Labels collection framelits, brayer

My niece had her birthday party at the beach yesterday, so we made the almost two hour journey down there to celebrate with her.  It was Laila's first trip to the ocean and she had fun in the water.   Riding in the car for that long was a whole other matter, but we made it there and back.