Happy Thursday! Hope everyone is having a great day so far. Once again, I drug my flabby fanny out of bed a little after 9:00 a.m. (I have got to quit this) to rain. I looked out and the streets were flooded once again, but luckily the carpet in the stamp room is still dry. Cross your fingers for me!

I’m curious today. How many of you have fingers that lock up? When I got up yesterday morning, the ring finger on my right hand was locked. It was folded down toward my palm and didn’t want to move back into place. I had to give it a little nudge with my left hand. It bothered me throughout day the yesterday and this morning it was the same thing again. I called my mother, because her thumb used to do this. I asked her what caused it. I am thinking my diet is not the most spectacular and I might be missing some needed vitamins. She told me I was just getting old! That her fingers have gotten worse and she really didn’t know what it was except maybe arthritis. Which makes sense, I have spent the better part of my life working as a legal secretary and typing is just second nature to me. As for my diet, some of you know this and most of you don’t, I have a wheat allergy. Since last November I have been on a gluten/wheat free diet. Sometimes I slip and I’ve been slipping quite often the last few weeks. But for the most part, I can stick to the diet but I seem to go for the easy things – rice cakes with chicken salad, ham rolled up in cheese, and oatmeal with bananas. Let’s not forget that I will never give up my chocolate, but I have learned that it must be plain milk chocolate – nothing else added but maybe almonds (which I eat by the handfuls – almonds that is). Anyway, enough of my babbling about diet, etc., I’m more curious if this is happening to anyone else and what you do for it. So, spill! I’m curious!

I was excited when I saw that the SCS Ways to Use it Challenge is a spray challenge. The challenge is to have fun spraying – glimmer mist, airbrush, color spritzer, water misting – anything that you can spray. I’ve had some Rileys from Hanna Stamps sitting out on my desk for a few weeks now, and one of them is Golfer Riley. It’s warming up, it’s almost golf season here in this area and today seemed like a perfect day to use Riley.

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Riley and the green were colored with Copic Markers and then I airbrushed the sky with the Copic Airbrush System. I learned the other day how to make the perfect mask for working with the airbrush system. I stamp the image on either a post-it or a sheet from a writing tablet, cut it out and then paint the back with rubber cement. While the rubber cement is still wet, place it on your image. You can airbrush the masked image then and the mask doesn’t come up. You need to remove the mask carefully, by pulling from one corner, but when you have removed the mask, the rubber cement will clean right off your image. Just take you fingers and wipe across and the rubber cement rolls right off (not to be gross or anything, but it’s kinda like a booger). Anyhoo, back to the card. The blue panel behind Riley, is Soft Sky paper, that I misted with Shimmer Mist that I made with Soft Sky Reinker, Perfect Pearls and water. Once the layer had dried, I sponged both the edges of this panel and the image panel with Soft Sky. I decided on the sentiment “You’re my favorite” from the set Things Hanna Would Say, well because I could then right on the inside “DUFFER!” BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA – can’t wait to send this one to a golfing buddy!

WT159 PRODUCT

Stamps: Golfer Riley and Things Hanna Would Say from Hanna Stamps; SU Flannel Plaid

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Old Olive, Soft Sky and Basic Black

Ink: Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black and Archival Jet Black; SU Soft Sky and Old Olive

Accessories: Copic Markers and Airbrush System; Ranger Perfect Pearls and Mini Mister; Spellbinders Nestabilities; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Cuttlebug; Ribbon; Brads; Mounting Tape

I hope you all have a great day!

Oh my BADness, it’s Thursday already! This week is going by much faster than I need it too. Of course, it didn’t help that I slept until close to 10:00 a.m. for a couple of days. I guess I’ve caught up – I was awake at 6:00 a.m., and have gotten so much more accomplished this morning than I have all week. I still have some things to do for Mallory and I do believe she gets home on Saturday. Hmmmm, so much for procrastinating any longer!

Well hecker doodles, I just scanned my old posts for a picture from CHA that I had already shown you, and guess what? I didn’t post it! Well, bless my little heart. Let me go find it, cause this post won’t mean a thing without it. Enjoy some . I’ll be back in a flash!

How was your chocolate? Told ya I’d be back!

While browsing in the Product Performers Booth at CHA, I met Judi Hodgkin, owner of Scrapperydashery and designer of this fabulous paper and card design. The paper is double-sided and coordinates with Ranger Adirondack Inks.

Scrapperdashery outside

I loved the layout of this card, and knew that I would eventually make mine own.

Scrapperdashery inside

After getting the dogs out and my coffee cup in hand this morning, I turned on my computer. Geeze were there a lot of emails last night. The next thing I did was check in on the Splitcoast Ways to Use it Challenge today. Much to my delight, it was to use designer paper for everything on the card. If we didn’t use designer paper, we had to make out own. Here was my chance to make the card I’ve been so wanting to make – WOO HOO! Little did I know, that it would get so detailed and involved, take me all morning and give me ink-stained fingers, but I must say – I did it and think the effort was well worth it!

WT157 outside

To start with, I took a 12×12 sheet of paper that Judi gave me at CHA, and scored it in the middle at 6″. I made two more scores at 4″ each to make the tri-fold. Once I had the general design for the card, I cut the inside panel at an angle and using a 2″ circle punch, notched out the flaps. My next step was to distress all the inner edges and give them a quick sponge with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I started stamping all sides of the paper then, using the Tim Holtz Spills and Splatters collection. Now get this! I was stamping the sentiment on the front of the card, looked down and noticed that the seal was up.

WT157 cling

I stamped the sentiment and I’ll be darned if it wasn’t upside down. (See this picture of the stamp just flipped right to left)

WT157 rubber

Well, my heart just sunk, but I wasn’t about to waste another sheet of this fabulous paper, re-score, distress, etc., all over again. My thought, “Well, it says embrace imperfection – how more imperfect can you get.” I left it!

My next step was to make the inner tags. I laid out three vanilla tags side-by-side, and worked each step on each of them as I went.

WT157 Inside

I’ve worked with the Ranger Paint Daubers during a demo, but don’t actually have any in hand here at home. I do however, have tons of little bottles of acrylic paint and thought – hey they have to work the same way. I chose an Antique White paint, and quickly painted sections of the tags. The next step was to paint on Old Paper Distress Ink. I left this to start drying on its own, and once the edges started to dry, I used my heat gun to speed up the process. I can be very impatient when I’m stamping – want to keep moving. Once I had all the paint dry, taking pads to tag, I randomly worked Vintage Photo and Milled Lavender Distress Inks across the tags. Using a paper towel I wiped away all the excess and then misted the towel with water and picked up some more ink in different areas. Here are close-ups of the tags.

WT157 Dream Tag

WT157 Embrace Tag

WT157 Magic Tag

The images were all stamped in Walnut Stain and the sentiments stamped in Black Soot.

To finish off the front of the card, I had a small acrylic tag that I also picked up at CHA!

WT1157 acrylic

I worked alcohol ink on the back of the tag, let it dry, and then stamped a section of the Spills image in Black Soot. The Grunge Board hinge in the top left corner was inked in Vintage Photo, highlighted with Walnut Stain and because it was a little too dark, I sponged in some Peeled Paint hoping for an aged look. The jewels dangling from the hinge are pieces of some old earrings that my mother gave me. I had two pieces, but one broke while I was trying to tie them.

Here’s a photo of all the products used to make the card.

WT157 Product

Stamps: Old Photo Images – unknown source, and Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Spills and Splatters Collection from Rubbernecker Stamp Company

Paper: Oscar Wilde Temptation from Scrapperdashery; Vanilla Tags from Rubbernecker Stamp Company

Ink: Ranger Tim Holtz Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Black Soot, Milled Lavender, and Peeled Paint Distress Inks

Accessories: Ranger Tim Holtz Old Paper Distress Crackle, Alcohol Blending Solution and Applicator, Eggplant and Caramel Alcohol Inks, Distress Tool; Ranger Mini Mister; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Elements Grunge Board; Delta Ceramcoat Antique White Acrylic Paint; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Marvy Uchida 2″ Circle Punch; Old Jewelry; Acrylic Tag; Brads; Black Hemp Twine

– I hope everyone has a great day!

Well, this old dog learned a new trick today! Needless to say, I’m just rather tickled, but I still have more to learn about it. The Splitcoast Ways to Use it Challenge today is to use your computer. Part of the challenge is to either generate a sentiment on your computer (which I already do), print off a template, an image or digital paper. One of the samples today was made with downloaded clipart from Microsoft. Hmmmmmm, I had to go take a look! Oh My BADness! I am in heaven!! I spent nearly an hour, just looking through backgrounds, checking them all out and saving some to my computer. The only problem is – I didn’t take the time to learn how to import them into a photo imaging software. That I will need to play with when I have more time!

Time! It is a valuable commodity here this week. Tonight I have a dinner banquet to attend with Daughter #1, and I’m on the road tomorrow to pick up Daughter #2. THEN, Saturday morning is Stamp Club and I’m still working on projects for them. I think my illness last week knocked me for a loop and I lost track of time! Of course, it hasn’t helped the last two days that I’ve actually slept a little later than anticipated and didn’t get up until around 9:00 a.m. Oh well, sometimes I’m worth it!

Let’s get to today’s card. As I said earlier, I was totally fascinated with the clipart downloads. When I finally settled on a couple to printout, I ran and got some white cardstock from the rubber room, and started printing away! The background panel behind the image, is the one I chose to work with today.

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The pucker up image (which was probably meant to be lemons) became limes today. They were colored with Copic Markers and then punched out using a 2″ scalloped punch. I sponged the scalloped edges with SU Green Galore, and continued working down in layers. All the little white dots were made with the new Inkssentials White Opaque Pen. This one I happened to have picked up at CHA, and I can’t wait until they are available for purchase! I trimmed the downloaded background to the size I wanted and then matted it with a slightly larger panel of Prism Desert Coral Med paper. I trimmed the edges using Fiskars Cloud Edged scissors and added more little white dots. Once I had the card laid out, I decided that the edges of the background needed a little something. I took the thread out of my sewing machine and used it to make the piercing along the edges. The ribbon is some I had in my stash, bought on clearance some time ago. I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it, and even though the colors don’t exactly match, I love the way it looks.

Stamps: Petite Phrases by Lizzie Anne Designs

Paper: Beckett Expression Iceberg Cover, Georgia Pacific White, SU Green Galore, Prism Desert Coral Med

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, SU Green Galore

Accessories: Copic Markers, Sewing Machine for Piercing, Computer for dowloading and printing background paper, 2″, 2-1/2″ and 3″ Marvy Uchida Punches, Fiskars Cloud Edged Scissors, Inkssentials White Opaque Pen, Tsukineko Dauber, Offray Nantucket Pineapple Ribbon, Mounting Tape

Here’s the pic of some of the product used today. I forgot to add in a few things – sorry about that!

WT156 Product

Happy Thursday! I hope everyone has had a good week so far. I’m still a little puny, but feeling better today. I slept most of the day away yesterday and that was probably the best thing I could have done for myself. I do need to get my butt in gear though. I have so many household errands to catch up on and the oldest daughter has a birthday this weekend – mom needs to shop!

I just looked at the clock and it’s Noon. So much for getting my butt in gear! I had such great aspirations today – oh well. I’m sure I’m due another day on the couch cuddled up with the pups and my blanket!

Today’s Ways to Use it Challenge on Splitcoast is to be inspired by music, either by a music-type stamp, a song, a title or a phrase. The possibilities are endless. My first thought was to go put on the iPod, dance around a bit and get inspired. Well, guess what was playing on my iPod this morning? Dixie Chicks – Sin Wagon (one of my favorite songs)! I have been working with a few Rubbernecker images just for fun – looking for ways to add a bit of twisted humor. by doggie, I think I got it!

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I stamped the image of Ethel with the shopping cart (her Sin Wagon), added Murray, and then colored them with Copic Markers. Ethel’s jacket and jewelry are highlighted with a Spica Gold Pen, and I added Ranger Glossy Accents on their eyeglasses for more texture.

WT155 eyeglasses

I didn’t have any designer paper to match the colors, so I made my own. I had the sentiment “Shaken not Stirred,” but needed something to go with it. Using the computer, I generated the first part of the sentiment “I like my men.” I used the new Inkssentials White Opaque Pen for the white dots highlighting the sentiments and the middle panel.

Stamps: Rubbernecker Old Characters Collection 74-01 Ethel with Shopping Cart and 74-07 Murray Rubbing His Head; Rubbernecker Happy Hour Collection 244-09 Martini Background, 244-19 Stylized Shaker and Shaken Not Stirred Sentiment from Rubbernecker Stamp Company

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Purple and Gray Cardstock

Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black and Cool Peri; Tim Holtz Black Soot and Dusty Concord Distress Ink

Accessories: Copic Markers, Spica Gold Pen, Ranger Glossy Accents and Inkssentials White Opaque Pen, Ribbon, Punches, Mounting Tape, Tsukineko Sponge Dauber

All products shown in the photo below (except the Spica Pen) can be found at Rubbernecker Stamp Company.

WT155 Product

I’m finally home and I’ve got my puppies by my side! I got in around 4:30 yesterday and couldn’t wait to get a cup of coffee and settle in. Kate brought the puppies home and relinquished her parental rights in the process. Maybe a week and a half was a little too long for her to babysit. I guess this means that they won’t be going to live her after all – .

 

I almost forgot that I need to announce a Tawdry Treat winner this morning. Oops sorry about that! I went to random.org and ran the sequence and believe it or not, the first comment came out on top. CONGRATULATIONS BETH MATSON! Here was Beth’s comment: Sounds like you had a great time! Also, love the sunflower card! I’ve sent you an email, but if you see this and haven’t received the email, let me know!

 

I was so happy to get back in my stamp room this morning. There is a lot of organizing to do this week (have to put all the new stuff away), but I did make some time to participate in today’s Ways to Use it Challenge on Splitcoast. Today’s challenge is to make a window. Needless to say, I had envisioned my window a different way, and when I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to punch through it all to make my window to the inside of the card, I made a faux window on the front.

 

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I started with a piece of white cardstock and stamped the flairs in Adirondack Shell Pink, stamping twice to lighten the ink and to make a shadow. Using a 3″ punch, I punched the first circle in the white and sponged all the edges in Vintage Photo ink. I then layered the white on pink paper and here’s where I messed up. I thought I would be able to punch the scallop then through the pink leaving a border. WRONG! The punch wouldn’t line up correctly and the edges would have been off. So I decided to punch a 2-1/2″ scallop out of the original circle and layer it on the pink. The chip board heart was then glued to the white scallop with Ranger Crystal Effects. The heart is chipboard that I covered with Shell Pink, sprayed with Shimmer Mist of Dried Marigold and Bronze Perfect Pearls. Once the Shimmer Mist dried, I stamped the music background in Vintage Photo. The sentiment is stamped in Vintage Photo.

 

Stamps: Tim Holtz Anthology, Stamp Oasis Graphic Collection 543 SO Music Background and Length of Life Sentiment from Rubbernecker Stamp Company

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Prism Iced Pink, Brown

Ink: Tim Holtz Vintage Photo and Dried Marigold Distress Ink, Adirondack Shell Pink

Accessories: Chipboard Heart, 3″ and 2-1/2″ Marvy Uchida Punches, Tsukineko Sponge Dauber, Bronze Perfect Pearls, Ranger Mini Mister, Ribbon

Now that I’m home again, I can show you product photos again. All products in this photo are from Rubbernecker Stamp Company.

WT154 Product

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