Snarky Cat for Inkspirational 354

Hello,

It's been a long time since I tried to create or blog, but here I am. The past few years have been tough on my mental health, so I'm trying to get back into cardmaking to maybe help a little. :)  I figured I'd start with some Tim Holtz Snarky Cats. The image worked perfectly for the Inkspirational challenge since my kitty is wearing a knit sweater. 

I do apologize for my photo quality. I don't have any type of light box set up right now so I just had to snap one as my card was on my desk. The quality really decreased when I emailed it myself from my phone. Normally my phone camera is pretty good! Oh well.  I gotta relearn what I'm doing and come up with a better system. Baby steps. 

Rita

Snarky Cat Meets Gel Press

 Hi all! I figured I'd check in to see if we've all almost survived what feels like THE longest January ever!!  I've been having issues getting my pictures to upload to my blog, but finally downloaded Firefox and it seems to work. I love Chrome, but it doesn't love me back I guess. Anyway...  some of my stamping friends created a fun new challenge blog and I wanted to play along with them. The blog is called Beyond The Blue Challenges and you should totally check it out. The first challenge uses a gel press, which is one of the tools that terrifies me! I used my new snarky cats that I just adore. 

We are still hanging around the house and hoping for better days soon. Jason has had both rounds of his vaccine, but nothing for me yet. I think I'm going to be pretty low on the list. lol I sure have been missing going to the movies or out to dinner lately, but maybe I'll just REALLY appreciate them more when/if I do get to go again. 

I hope you are hanging in there and staying safe. 

Hugs.

The Shining Moon

 

Hello strangers!  How is everyone?? Surviving COVID? Election? It's been crazy, right?  I know my mental health is in the crapper, so I made a deal with myself to try and stamp every day this month. I've made it so far! I've been doing the Falliday Fest challenges on Splitcoast along with a friend. It's good to have accountability, huh? This is the card I made for the challenge using a source of light. 

The tree die cut is Tim Holtz, the moon is Altenew, and the sentiment is from Neat & Tangled. It was simple, but my Facebook friends loved it. 

We're still just here. Laila's still a work in progress. We found a new psychiatrist and she seems to actually listen. Hopefully we can get her stabilized and happy. I had to stay goodbye to my 18 year old kitty last week so I've been struggling a lot with missing her. I got her ashes back today. 

Dare to Get Dirty continuted

A little blast from the past here.  I love cone flowers.  I have them in my garden and I end up with a ton of pictures of them when we go to the arboretum.  I missed getting this set when it was current, but a sweet friend sent me hers because she knew how much I love the flowers.  I thought the silhouette of them would look pretty on a yellow and orange background.  And, remember Tiny Tags? Now that was another favorite of mine and I added some of those too.  That's one set and punch I'll keep for sure.

The other night before I went to bed I made a few backgrounds and left them to dry.  This was one of them.  I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up and saw how it turned out.  Hopefully it reminds you of a beach?  lol  That big huge acrylic block from Stampin' Up! comes in handy for backgrounds sometimes. I tapped on two blues and two browns of distress ink, spritzed it, and laid it on watercolor paper to try.  Doesn't get much easier than that!

Oh look! More cone flowers.  lol  Power Poppy had this beautiful digital stamp, so of course I needed it.  Since I had Tiny Tags on my desk, I used the friends stamp to add a little sentiment. I am really liking digital stamps lately, but my printer gets a bit grumpy about it.  I need to make sure the next one we get has an option to feed the paper differently.

We went school clothes and shoe shopping today.  I can't believe it's so close!  It does start later here on the 28th, so a little while longer at least.

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

Hip for Summer Halloween

Halloween again. :)  I believe this is the last week of Sizzix's Hip for Summer promotion, so I wanted to get another entry in.  I thought the ostrich would be fun as a witch and I think she is.  I had fun using some different supplies and techniques to create it.  Also a lot of cutting. lol

Little Lady is doing great.  Well, if by great I mean keeping me awake at night I guess.  lol She gets a super playful spell right as it's time for bed.  Then at 3am she comes and lays with me.  That would be awesome, but it's right on my face!  We work through it and then I get snuggles until 6 or 7 when she's up and ready for another round of crazy.  Good thing she's cute.  :)

Hip for Summer

Every now and then I see a stamp set and it makes me laugh.  The Hipster set from Stamps Anonymous was one of those.  I used it here on a monochromatic card and I love how it turned out.  It's one of my most favorite cards I've made in a while.  Sizzix has a fun challenge going on all summer using it, so check that out on their blog if you have the set.

Now I'm off to finish up some chores so I can be ready for Game of Thrones! Anyone else excited about it?

Simon Says Distress It

The kitten woke me up at 3am.  I swear it's like having a newborn! lol I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to come stamp.  One of my best friends from high school is having a lot of health issues, so I wanted to make a new card for her. I've been trying to send encouragement to her as much as I can and I thought these sticker words from Tim Holtz would be perfect.  I used a bunch of techniques from the Creative Chemistry class.  If you love Tim's products, I'd totally recommend them.  I distressed the heck out of it and am entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

We had a lot of rain earlier in the week, so Laila got to go do her most favorite thing in the world besides eat chocolate.  This girl LOVES jumping in puddles.  We even met a neighbor because she had the best puddle in the neighborhood. She was happy to share. :) Overall it's been a good week.  I got some great feedback from her social skills class and we are trying some new stuff to help us all. I'm not sure what today will hold, but I know it will include a lot of coffee for me!

SSS Wednesday Challenge with Tim Holtz

One of my goals for the year is to finish up three of the classes from Online Card Classes that I've signed up for.  I thought I'd work on the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102 a bit this week.  Again, EASTER!  lol  I had never inked up this particular stamp, so why not?  I used Distress Paint for the background.  I tried to match my Copics with the same colors when I did the egg.  I think I got pretty close.  :)   I'm entering it in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I'll try to get back to adding supply lists when I have time. Hopefully that will help with some of the questions I get and have no way to reply to the person asking.

Stamps:  Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Easter Blueprints, Stampin' Up! Indescribable Gift
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Archival Black
Paper: Neenah Solar White 110lb, Manilla Tag
Other:  Dreamweaver Embossing Paste, Heidi Swapp flower stencil, misc sequins, Stampin' Up! Island Indigo ribbon and twine
Colors:  Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon, Cracked Pistachio
Copics:  BG02, BG05, BG07, BG09, YG01, YG09, YG09

The butterfly center had an amazing display where you could watch as they came out of their pupa.  It was the coolest thing!  We've watched them in our backyard, but only 1 or 2 at a time.  They had so many!  It's just a really cool place.

Paper Craft Crew 231

I haven't played around with my distress inks and stencils for a bit, so this sketch from the Paper Craft Crew seemed perfect for that.  I don't know if it's too much brown, but I kinda like it.  Monochromatic cards can be fun sometimes.  The stencil and butterly are Tim Holtz stamps and the sentiment is from Neat & Tangled.  (On a side note, I used up my first reinker last month.  Early Espresso, of course.  It's my favorite Stampin' Up! color, so I need to get a new one! I love that color so much.)

Now I'm off to clean up my desk.  I made a huge mess making this one.  I changed my mind a million times on various things, so my desk is a pile of maybe, maybe nots.  :)   Have a great end to the week! 

Halloween & Santa

Sharing a couple more cards today.  I came in last night and colored a bit and was able to turn those images into cards for the Falliday Fest challenges.  This one is for a pink Christmas challenge.  A friend sent me this cute Stampin' Up! Naughty or Nice set and the Santa stamp is so cute!   Doesn't he look good in pink? :)

The next challenge I did was a good/bad witch card.  I picked the bad witch and used lots of greens and blacks.  Now I want to go watch The Wizard of Oz.  I miss waiting on it to come on that one time of year.  It's funny how much things have changed from my childhood sometimes.

I'm off to rest a bit.  Jason is working overtime today so I have four days of solo parenting this week.  I hope I make it.  My depression/anxiety is the worst it has even been right and it can be hard to make it through one day.  Four?  Well, send positive thoughts!

Double the Dirty

So today starts a week of fun Dare to get Dirty challenges at Splitcoast Stampers.  I usually try to do a few, but with my current stamping slump, I thought maybe I should try to do most of them.  We shall see how that goes!  Up first is Lydia's challenge.  Now I can't share the details of the challenge with you as that's a secret for Fan Club members, but they've all been fun so far today.  I think it's well worth joining the site.  :)

I love these crazy birds so much.  I thought pairing this guy with the sentiment and some yellow watercoloring might be funny.

Another fun challenge, more watercolors!  I figured I'd use them a bit while they are on my desk, so it might be the theme of the day.  This one is for Teresa's challenge.  I love the pretty color of the paint I used on this one.  Those Gansai Tambi colors are amazing!

You'll be seeing more frequent blog posts from me this next week or so, so I hope that's not annoying.  I want to get them uploaded as I do them and as I get a chance.

12 Tags of 2016: July

I'm a little behind this month, but I did get my Tim Holtz July tag finished today!  It's been a work in progress and sitting on my desk for a week.  I've added and worked on it as I had a few minutes here and there.  I am so excited about how it turned out!  I still need to go back and do the months I've missed, so watch for those as I find some extra time.  lol

What do you think?  I think I got pretty close this time!  Yay!

Isn't she the cutest?  lol  So crazy, but that means there's never a dull moment around here.  :) 

Rainbow Tag the Remix

I thought I'd share another project I made during my stamping time with my friend Meg.  We worked on a rainbow coffee tag similar to the one I did for the last coffee blog hop.  We added a bit more to it this time and I was so happy with the results.  It really allows the coffee cup to shine!   

Tim Holtz's style of tags and fun came into my life at just the right time.  Life right now feels messy and crazy, so it's good to carry that over into my stamping.   Now I have a way to craft that doesn't have to be perfect or frustrating.  If I make a mistake I can make it work.  I know it's just ink, but it is also therapy and sometimes therapy is a big hot mess.  If I cry on my tags, it just adds more to it. If I rip it, more character.  There's no wrong way, no mistakes, just art. 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Stampers Anonymous Fresh Brewed Blueprints, Bo Bunny Stained Textures

Ink:  Ranger Distress Inks, Ranger Archival Jet Black

Other: Manila tag, seam binding, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk stickers

Coffee Lovers Rainbow Tag

Today I got to play around a little and I made a tag for the Summer Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and for Day 3 of the Online Card Classes Summer of Creative Chemistry challenge.  I grabbed distress inks and got busy.  Boy were my hands messy!  I've been working on getting a lot of cards out in the mail along with making more things, so my desk is in a constant state of MESS!  It's crazy!

Here's another card I made with a rainbow theme. I forgot to snap a photo with my camera before I sent it off to some dear friends who I know are hurting this week.  

12 Tags of 2016: June

I finally finished up my tag for June and wanted to get it posted.  It was a huge challenge this month.  I didn't have a lot of the supplies, so I did a ton of improvising!  I think it ended up turning out pretty, but of course it made my wishlist grow...again!  Tim is going to make me poor! lol

Isn't his tag awesome? I want everything he used on it!  Cha-ching!  lol

Yellow Butterfly

Is it Friday yet??  Here I am again super late with my Freshly Made Sketches card.  This week has been a huge pain and I am behind on EVERYTHING!   It is starting to be normal for things to be that way, so I don't know why I'm continuously surprised when they are.  Anyway...  back to Karren's awesome sketch!

Another fun sketch with lots of ways to interpret it.  I went with a pretty straightforward one.  I wanted to use these new butterfly dies I recently got and they were the perfect "circle" part.  After feeling helpless and sad over the events in Orlando, I put out a call on my Facebook page for my friends to send me names of people in their lives who could use a little cheer.  This card is for a friend's mom who is dealing with the recent loss of a spouse.  Butterflies mean a lot of the family, so I hope she smiles when it arrives.  

We are wondering if Laila is finally showing a dominant hand!  She's been working in this workbook for a few days and while she does switch back and forth some, she's mostly using her left hand.  We got some bad news this week.  The school we had signed her up for this Fall is closing!  It's one step forward and a hundred back it seems.  We have a tour scheduled at a different school that's closer to home tomorrow, so fingers crossed!

Distressed Galaxy

This was my first completed tag that I made.  I love how it turned out!  It's so fun to play around and see what happens.  :)   I ordered some smaller tags that will on A2 cards, so I hope that helps me use them.  I love the galaxy look and it is so forgiving!  Just make a big mess!  lol

Update on me:  I'm hanging in there.  My exercising is going well and I've weened myself off my anti-depressants.  I know if I slip on exercising that I will need to go back to them, so it's good motivation to keep going.  I don't know for sure that it will work out to be off of them, but I thought I would give it a few months and see how it goes.  I don't mind taking them if I need them, but my health needs works and if walking can fix them both, why not?  I do have my anxiety medicine still nearby because that's been my major issue for the past few months.

In addition to my walking, I'm working on a cleaning schedule and keeping the house in a less stressful state for me.  It can be tiring to constantly be working on something, but I do have more energy now and less headaches.  So another positive! Yay!

Laila starts school next month and we are hoping for a better experience.  She will be at a Montessori school this time as recommend in her evaluation by the school system.  If it works out, she will be going four days a week from 8 until 3:30.  I won't know what to do with myself!

So that's where we are.  The rain is making us all a bit crazy, but thankfully we remain safe.  Others in Texas have not been as lucky, so please keep them in your thoughts.

Simon Says Distress!

I'm back today sharing my tag using some lovely gold/yellow and brown tones.  I wanted to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge and Barbara's project just really caught my attention and helped me decided on my colors.  I used the wrinkle free distress technique, some stenciling, and some stamping.  Pretty simple, but not.  lol  I am having so much fun with distress products.  I think my Copics are feeling a bit neglected!

A friend introduced us to SnapChat and the fun filters.  Oh my.  lol  They crack me up, but this one must makes my heart happy;  My pretty girl.  I can't believe she will be four in 18 days!  Yikes!

12 Tags of 2016: May

What???  Yes! I'm alive! and no, I haven't lost my mind.  Well, maybe half of it...  Anyway, I am still struggling something awful so this weekend I decided to try something different.  I signed up for the Creative Chemistry 101 class on Online Card Classes and have been watching the master of distress, Tim Holtz, do his magic.  I have made quite a few backgrounds and one other completed tag!  I wanted to be brave, so I jumped in on the last day and made this tag for this 12 Tags of 2016 May challenge.  It was fun, but hard!  I had such a blast though and I think I'll go back and do the months I've missed.   So yay! I'm crafting again.  :)

Now I need to sell a kidney or something to buy all things distressed.  lol

I'm still exercising most days and am feeling some better.  The past few days have been the bad part of the month for me, so I've been weepy and quick to anger.  Being distracted and staying in my room distressing stuff happened at a great time.  I like hiding out.

I'll be back tomorrow with my second tag which I love so much!