Random on Purpose

Just My Type

Today's challenge on Splitcoast was to use black as the basis for our card.  I've had this card in my head since I got this set a few weeks ago, so I figured it was a good one for the challenge:

 

I random-stamped and embossed the typewriter on the black main panel, then stamped a row of them on some kraft cardstock and trimmed it down.  The main typewriter and sentiment are stamped on parchment and embossed.  I wanted type-written lettering dp for the other strip, but didn't have any, so I made my own by typing the alphabet repeatedly (Adler font) and printing it on parchment, as well.  I've had the little Rolodex-looking punch for a loooong time, but always forget about it.  I was looking at the card before I stuck everything down, and decided it needed something "office-y" in a couple of the corners, so that was my answer there...  The edges of everything have distress ink in Vintage Photo and Tea Dye.  Pretty much all there is to it!  I figure this is a good masculine card for almost any occasion requiring one... 

Wow - two posts in one day - can you handle it?!?!  Gonna go find something else to do now, I guess...  Maybe finish the other projects I've been working on, maybe do some more stamp indexing (yes, still working on that...), maybe take a nap - we'll see where the evening takes me!  Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Puns From the Past; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Ranger Tea Dye and Vintage Photo distress inks; Paper: Stampin'Up! Kraft, Paperbilities black, unknown parchment; Accessories: Detail clear embossing powder, Stampin'Up! spiral and tag punches

Cottage Floral

I actually did do the sketch challenge yesterday, but it wasn't finished until bedtime, and at that point I didn't want to look at the computer (or anything else but my eyelids), so I went to bed without posting.  Here it is now, though:

 

I really like this sketch, and it's a pretty simple card - not a lot going on, and zero embellishments as far as ribbon, dewdrops, etc.  The only thing I did besides straight stamping was Cuttlebug a few panels and punch a few flower centers from one of the embossed pieces.  I also did the border-and-handheld punch combo again, only with a flower punch instead of a heart punch.  The colors were this month's color challenge for the Close to My Heart Yahoo group I participate in.  (I know - just under the wire there...!)  I've always really liked soft blues and soft yellow together, and these from CTMH are some of my all-time favorites. 

Not much else to tell, so I'm going to go unload my car -  much work to be done!  I'm working on some other stuff in between things, but nothing's ready for sharing yet, so come back around again and see what's up!  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Close to My Heart Cottage Floral, For Every Occasion; Ink: CTMH Spring Iris, Lilac Mist;Paper: CTMH Buttercup, Spring Iris, GP White; Accessories:  Cuttlebug with swiss dot and birds and swirls embossing folders, Fiskars threading water border punch, small flower and 1/4" circle handheld punches, EK Success 1 1/4" scalloped circle punch

Very Vintage

No philosophizin' today - I actually made a card!

 

JoAnn's is having a great sale - ALL of their stamps, stamp sets and stamp pads are 50% off!  I went Monday to buy some thread (uh-huh...) and walked out with five new stamp sets and two single stamps!  The color challenge on Splitcoast this week is Real Red, Old Olive and Basic Black, with your choice of Very Vanilla or Whisper White.  I opted for vanilla because I thought it would work better with the stamps, which are a FABulous set from Fiskars - Vintage Farmhouse.  Frames, flourishes, background, topiaries, a rooster - what more could you want? 

I wanted to do an emboss resist/brayer background, but I also wanted to have the black flourishes without having to cut them out (WAY too fussy!)  When you're going to layer elements like that, you sort of have to think backwards, because what you want to look like is "on top" has to actually be on the bottom when you stamp and emboss.  So, I cut my vanilla cardstock to 4" x 5 1/4", stamped the flourishes with Versamark and embossed with detail black.  Then I stamped the background with Versamark and embossed with detail clear.  I brayered Real Red over all of it and used a sponge to get in some of the more intricate details that the brayer missed.  After letting it sit for a minute or so, I wiped the ink off of the embossing with a baby wipe, so the vanilla would show up better.  The frame is done the same way, only using Old Olive instead of the red.

The topiaries aren't embossed - just stamped and colored with Bic markers, then cut out, popped up on a curly label, and attached to the frame.  I inked the edges of everything with black just to add to the vintage feel and give a little more separation to the elements.  Note to self: ink the edges before embossing - the ep resists ink...

And that's the end of the story!  There's a sketch challenge today that I really like and have an idea for, but I should've started sewing two hours ago, so I'm out for now!  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Fiskars Vintage Farmhouse; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark; Paper: Stampin'Up! Very Vanilla and Old Olive; Accessories: Detail black and detail clear embossing powders, curly label punch, brayer

Something Else to Think About...

It's been awhile since I mentioned my firm belief that everything is The Same Subject - meaning, basically, that EVERYTHING intertwines with and is connected to EVERYTHING ELSE, so what applies to one area pretty much applies numerous and sundry other places, as well.  I've also noticed - frequently - that once you pay attention to a particular thing, it pops up everywhere.  Coincidence?  No - what we focus on expands, and we attract it by our attention...

After I posted my "For Sure" musings, I received comments and emails that validated several of the things I think about.  As I was going about my usual Sunday routine yesterday, I read an interview with Hugh Jackman that included a passage that caught my attention:

"He takes his religion very seriously and would prefer I go to church," Jackman says of his father. "We've had discussions about our separate beliefs.  I just find the evangelical church too, well, restrictive.  But the School of Practical Philosphy is non-confrontational.  We believe there are many forms of Scripture.  What is true is true and will never change, whether it's in the Bible or in Shakespeare.  It's about oneness.  Its basic philosophy is that if the Buddha and Krishna and Jesus were all at a dinner table together, they wouldn't be arguing.  There is an essential truth.  And we are limitless."

AMEN!!!  I un-joined the church I was raised in quite a while ago and, while I'm incredibly grateful for the foundation it gave me, I no longer feel guilty about not going - or even not believing various aspects of the dogma.  Much of it is still viable and resonates in my daily life, but some does not.  I keep what resonates and let the rest go...  I, like Mr. Jackman, believe that there are many forms of Scripture, and not all of them are written.  I expounded a bit of this philosophy in this post, and continue to learn and grow from many sources.  Information received in one venue/genre/your label here can be extrapolated and applied in many areas!

Okay, now I can get on with my day without these things buzzing around in my head!  Hope yours is magnificent!  Ta!

A Few Things to Check Out...

I haven't created anything new (yet) today, but came across a couple of things that might be of interest to you...

One of the blogs I subscribe to is Inspirational.  I've found some fabulous new blogs to follow through this one - it features a couple of new blogs/crafters every day!  I was visiting this blog - which is well worth a visit - and she had a link to this blog.  Debbie is giving away FABULOUS blog candy, and says she will ship worldwide!  Nesties, Copics, stamps, ribbon, buttons...  Check it out!   

The other blog featured on Inspirational today (yesterday?) is one that I've been a fan of for a while - BREATHTAKING, JAW-DROPPING GORGEOUSNESS!!!  Irene Tan is a fabulous artist who shares many of her techniques (as well as gorgeous pictures of her gorgeous creations) on her blog Scapperlicious.  I haven't been over to her blog for a bit, but I've saved pics of several of her ideas that I want to try!

Which reminds me...I haven't updated the blog roll in my sidebar for ages!  I guess I should do that sometime soon - it's woefully behind the times!

Ah well, I have many ideas bumping around in my brain, and a few things I need to run out and buy, and four silk drapery panels to sew, so I'd best get on with my day...  Happy Monday to you, and thanks for stopping by!  Hopefully I'll accomplish all of the above and be back later with fun stuff!  Ta! 

And Now, For Something Completely Different...

I did a few things today that I've either never done before, or in a style that's not usually "me".  Splitcoast was/is having a mini-Virtual Stamp Night as a warm-up for the real deal next month, so I decided to play along with a few of the challenges.  I've hit burnout now, though, so I'm not continuing on (maybe tomorrow...?)  The theme is "Viva Las Vegas", and all of the challenges tie in with that theme.

The first one I did was "Let's Play Blackjack", where we tried to make a card worth 21 points.  Each element of the card had a point value, and you added together everything that went into your card to get the total.  Here's my card:

 

Stamp: Stampin'Up! Bella Toile background stamp; Ink: Versamark;Paper: GP White, unknown pink; Accessories: Fiskars lace border punch, pink sparkle embossing powder, Stampin' Up! curly label punch, ribbon, bling brad, rhinestones, Stickles, Martha Stewart butterfly punch

And here's how I got my 21 points:

• 9 layers (including the butterfly) @ 1 point each = 9 points
• 1 stamp @ 5 points each = 5 points
• 1 ribbon @ 2 points each = 2 points
• 5 embellishments (bling brad, rhinestones, Stickles) @ 1 point each = 5 points
• 9 + 5 + 2 + 5 = 21 = Blackjack!

I'm still not quite sure I was counting everything correctly, but at least I tried, right?  This is going to be the Mother's Day card for Greg's mom.  No last-minute card-making here!  Next up, "Gold, Gold, Gold" - 'cause it's Vegas, baby - the more bling the better!  I took a slightly different tack and went with antique gold:

 

Ink: Rubber Stampede Crystal Gold pigment; Paper: Paperbilities black, DCWV pink; Accessories: Cuttlebug w/textile embossing folder, ribbon, button

I wanted to use that particular button in my ribbon rosette, so I based everything around that.  The background started out as plain black cardstock that I ran through the Cuttlebug with the textile embossing folder.  I took a gold pigment inkpad to it and ended up with this:

 

I also brushed a little Perfect Pearls here and there, too.  The ribbon is just stapled as I went along...  The next pleat hides the staple, so there you go!  The only other challenge I did was to make a card inspired by one of the songs from the Cirque du Soleil show "Love", which is based around the songs of the Beatles.  Since I'm VERY familiar with their music it was easy to come up with something!  The first card is inspired by their song Blackbird:

 

Stamps: The Paper Studio Birds and Botanicals, Inkadinkado Birds Galore;Ink: Close to My Heart Grey Wool, Versafine Onyx Black; Paper: Paperbilities black, Colorbok/Thomas Kincaide dp; Accessories: Blender pen, detail clear embossing powder

It's one of my favorite Beatle's songs - the music is beautiful, and the lyrics are very cool...  The other one I made for this challenge was just for fun, and is inspired by the song Baby, You Can Drive My Car:

 

Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas I Love Mew, Stampin'Up! Noteworthy; Ink: Stampin' Up! Barely Banana, Bashful Blue and Black, Versamark; Paper: GP white;Accessories: Detail black embossing powder, Fiskars large star squeeze punch, Sakura glaze pen

"Baby, you can drive my car...Yes, I'm gonna be a star...Baby, you can drive my car...And, baby, I love you...(beep-beep, mmm. beep-beep, yeah!)"  I know - I'm a spaz/dork (and OLD), but I don't care - LOVE the Beatles!!!  More on that in a minute - first, about the card:  I instantly thought of this adorable car from The Cat's Pajamas, and embossed it with detail black (for the car) and red (for the heart smoke puffs).  I punched a star out of some scrap cardstock with my Fiskars squeeze punch and used the scrap as a mask to sponge on the yellow behind the car (reverse masking), then used the star to mask the yellow while I sponged on the blue (regular masking).   The heart tied onto the car is a red glaze pen, and so are the doodled hearts on the background and all of the borders.  I sponged my base layer with the same blue as the main image, too.  Fun times!

Speaking of which, here's the rest of the story on the Beatles:  I have a brother two years older who is very musical, and a sister two years younger (I have two other brothers and another sister, but they're too much younger than me to be part of this story).  "Back in the day", my brother enlisted me (he thinks I'm artsy) to make cardboard instruments for us, and the three of us would pretend we were the Beatles and sing all the harmonies and everything.  In fact, that's how I learned to sing harmony!  Keep in mind that we were YOUNG - somewhere in the range of 6 (my younger sister, at the earliest we could possibly have been doing this) to 12 (on the outside, before my brother would have been "too cool" for us) years old, and it's easier to imagine...  Good times....!

Okay, loverlies, I'm gonna go track down my other half...  He was out riding (85+ degrees today) his Harley with "the boys" while I was playing with my stuff, and he's home now, so...  have a great night, and thanks for stopping by!

Organizing on the Prairie (Urban, that is...)

First things first:  If you downloaded a calendar from my post yesterday, DELETE IT FROM EXISTENCE!!!  I tweaked the templates to fix a typo (January 2010 was misspelled "Janauary"), and now they're formatted so you can stack and cut all four pages at once (see instructions in yesterday's edited post).  This will make your projects MUCH faster and easier to execute!

Why did I need a calendar, you might ask?  Well, Sherry's having a birthday tomorrow (Happy B-day again, GF!), and we got together yesterday to celebrate in true papercrafting-geek style!  She has developed some food allergy complication-type issues, so going out for lunch was not in the cards, and we've been trying to get together for-freakin'-ever to play with some of our stamping/crafting stuff, so she said for me just to come over and do that.  I asked if she wanted me to come up with the "project du jour" and she was stoked to not have to think of something, so we made these:

 

It's a coaster box/desk organizer thingy, made with coasters and Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers...  This side has the calendar (no duh, right?).  The other three sides are:

 

A dry-erase side (transparency cut same size as coaster and attached over the top of the paper - I tried it and it really works!)

 

A cork board side...  I have some thumbtacks around here somewhere that I'm going to add bling to to use here, but I haven't located them yet - may have to buy more...

 

A Post-It and flag side...  Where are the flags, you're most likely wondering?  Yeah, still at the office supply store - I'll buy them when I get my new thumbtacks, I guess.  They'll go next to the little bee...

Want to make one of your own?  Splitcoast Stampers has complete instructions here.  I made a couple of changes.  The first one is that I followed Sherry's thought of punching holes in the bottom coaster and looping the ribbon through them, instead of gluing the bottom on:

  

and I made a divider for the inside.  To make the divider, cut 1/4" off the top of two coasters (cover both sides with dp first), then slit one halfway up from the bottom, and the other halfway down from the top, then slide them together and slide the whole unit inside the coaster box.  I don't have anything holding them in place, they sort of just stay there on their own.  And that's the whole story!

Sherry says I should post the card I gave her here, even though I posted it already looooong, long ago!  She mentioned when I first made it that she wanted it, but I never got around to giving it to her until yesterday (great friend, huh?!)  Anyway - here it is (again):

 

Okay - I'm out, kiddos!   Have a great weekend, and see you next week!

Something to Share

Edited: I've reworked the templates - see changes below!

I'm working on a project that I can't share (yet), but wanted to share a sneak peek of sorts with you:

 

This is a scan of a calendar that I've put together in Excel (well, page two of it, anyway).  It's sized to use for coaster calendars and the like, and I've covered all the months from April 2009 through December 2010.  I'm offering it as a freebie for you.  I'm going to work on a pdf version, too, but I don't have time today.   (see edit below)  The font is called "Flinglet", and matches the Close to My Heart Chocolate Alphabet, which is really pretty, and which I love!  Here's hoping that I'm linking this up properly:

Download Calendar - Flinglet - this is an Excel file

Edited to add:  It's come to my attention that if you don't have the Flinglet font installed on your computer, Excel will print in a default font.  If you need help with this, please email me using the link in my sidebar.  Thanks!

Edited again:  Kathleen (on one of my Yahoo groups) converted the file to a pdf for me, bless her!

 Download Calendar - Flinglet - this is a pdf file

There are four pages, and the margins are slightly different on them (sorry -time crunches again), so you can't just stack them to trim them down.  I've edited them so that now you can stack and cut them as follows:

1. Trim 1/2" from LEFT side of sheets
2. Cut calendar strip to 3" wide
3. Trim 1" from LEFT side of remaining strip
4. Cut remaining calendar strip to 3" wide
5. Trim 3/4" off TOP of strip
6. Trim calendar to 2 1/2" high
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to end of strip
8. Repeat for second stack o' strips

I hope those cutting directions make sense, and I hope you find a fun use (or two or six) for them!  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

For Sure...

I'm in a bit of an introspective mood today...  It started more like the doldrums, but then I came across this, and had a shift in my thinking and mood.  Now I'm pondering - again - what really matters and what I can do to be more mindful and aware on a daily basis, or even minute-by-minute.  I'd hate to think that it would take something cataclysmic to move me out of ennui and apathy into awareness and action.

Like many others, my intentions are good and I have an intellectual "knowing", but haven't taken that other step into internalizing and acting on what I know.  My excuse is always TIME - there's just not enough of it to go around in my current paradigm!  And yet...I know that this is my perception, and not even an accurate one...  A more honest reason is PRIORITY, and my lack of follow-through on the plan to prioritize I alerted you to a while back.

Regardless, I am now thinking - again - of  "What I Know For Sure":

• EVERYTHING happens for a reason - EVERYTHING!  I can, with almost complete confidence, say that the reason is to teach you something - usually lessons in love.  Ask, "How does this teach me love?", and you can generally see the lesson.  Sometimes the lesson is as simple as "I don't value that behavior"...
• You will get the same lesson in a variety of ways until you LEARN IT!  Don't like how your life is currently going?  Figure out what you're supposed to be learning, and move on!
• You can control NOTHING beyond the three-square-foot area that is your "personal space" - not your spouse, your children, your boss, your circumstances, NOTHING - but within that space you have ABSOLUTE POWER!  You - and you alone - are in charge of the thoughts and emotions that move you into or out of the circumstance, the mood, the job, the relationship, etc.  It is the actions you take based on those thoughts and emotions that determine your life - YOU get to write your story!
• Continuing that thought: you have to be proactive in your life.  A turning point in my personal journey came after I heard this line from the Rush song Free Will: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."  It was then that I realized that I had allowed circumstances and others around me to decide for me, with close to disastrous results.
• You have to SAY.  It is complete insanity and completely unfair for you (or me) to expect anyone to meet an expectation they don't know you have!  Find loving ways to communicate your needs (and wants) to those who matter.
• The Universe (or God or Spirit or higher power or whatever label you're comfortable with) is just as willing to assist you and meet your expectations as you are willing to express them.  Again, you have to SAY.  The caveat - no frivolity or wavering here - mean what you say and what you expect and back it up with your actions.

There are other things running as an undercurrent in my head that I also know for sure, but these are the ones close enough to the surface to be able to articulate well enough to tap them out here...

There's probably more, but that's enough for now.  If any of this is helpful to you, then I'm glad, but - like I've said before - this blog is mostly for me to keep track of and improve my own life, so these are the things I needed to hear again today - glad I told myself!  If you've read this far, then take a minute or two (or an hour or two) to ponder what you know "for sure".  I'm certainly glad Oprah challenged me to do so (not personally, but in a general readership kind of way - still valuable...)!  Have a fantastic evening, and thanks for stopping by!

Aloha!

So, we have another domino effect today, but a GOOD thing, for a change!  It's Sunday, which means "featured stamper" day on Splitcoast, and today's FS is Jaymerz.  As I was looking through her gallery to select a card to CASE, and the one I wanted to do was this one because I loved the layout and color combo.  Frou Frou - another SCSer - sent me some images she stamped for me from the Tickled Pink set (flamingos - love 'em!), and I've been wanting to use them and thought this card would work, but then I looked at the swiss dot embossing on the orange panel, and thought "I wish I had a hibiscus embossing folder - the swiss dots just don't do it for me with flamingos..."  Then I remembered about this tutorial that Mel posted on her blog showing how to make your own texture plates, and so that's what I spent the day doing!  First off, here's the card:

 

I obviously didn't CASE the one I thought I was going to...I CASEd this one instead.  Changes include color and theme, orientation, added layers, and I moved the circle off to the side, included the sentiment on it, and changed it to an oval.  I watercolored the images with smooshed inkpads and water.  The shadow is a Prismacolor 10% cool gray marker.  On to the fun stuff!

I'm not going to write this as a tutorial, since it was Mel's brilliance and she's written a fab tutorial already, so refer to hers (link above) for full instructions.  I'm just going to show you a couple of the things I did that may be helpful.  First off, I trimmed down two pieces of a cereal box to 5 1/2" x 6 1/2" - one to use as the base of my texture plate, and one to use as a shim with it.  I made them this size because they filled most of the Cuttlebug plate this way:

  

and if I want to do a 5 1/2" square, say, instead of just a standard A2, then I'll have that capability.  Mel suggested using a light-colored or waterproof ink (like StazOn) to stamp your images to cut out, but I just used Versamark, so there's ZERO chance of color transference or bleeding.  If it's hard for you to see where to cut, then use something that works for you.  I used the smallest hibiscus stamp from Close to My Heart's Hang Ten stamp set and stamped it repeatedly all over more of the cereal box pieces.  It's easier to do the inside cuts first, before even cutting the images apart from one another - more to hang onto to move the cardboard around as you cut (I used a glass mat and a craft knife):

 

After I got them all cut out, I arranged them how I liked them on my base piece, then glued them on with Royal Coat decoupage medium.  Following Mel's lead, I also sealed the entire thing with Royal Coat after everything was stuck down.

 

Here's a closeup of the embossed panel:

 

And a pic of the whole piece attached to the card base:

 

Pretty darn cool, eh?  The embossing isn't quite as defined as I'd really, really like, but I think it's because I didn't mist it lightly with water before running it through the Cuttlebug.  That would be due to the fact that I have yet to locate my mister (Mr?) since the reorg...  Still, all in all, I'm content with it as is!

Okay, beddy-bye time for this girl!  Thanks for stopping by, sweet dreams, and I hope your week starts off fabulously!

Stamps: Stampin'Up! Tickled Pink, sentiment from Studio G; Ink: SU! Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Creamy Caramel, Yo Yo Yellow, Certainly Celery, Versafine Onyx Black; Paper: SU! Tangerine Tango, white, black, watercolor; Accessories: Cuttlebug w/DIY texture plate, oval and corner punches