Bunking Bronco

This was from Splitcoasters. If you have never been to that site and you scrapbook, you are crazy!  It is like a MUST DO!  I learned this technique from them.  I am just putting it together in my way. They did theirs as a hula dancer and it was so cute!!!  

The purpose of the technique is to make something on your card that moves.  I stared with a cardboard base for my card. I inked it with Walnut Stain, Old Paper, Tea Dye, and some Black Soot; all distress inks by Tim Holtz.

You have to choose an image that could "move" and not look silly. I chose the bronco because I felt it might look like the horse was bucking.  You make two stamps of the image. I used Ranger archival ink and white scrap cardstock. 

 You will then fussy cut one of the images (the one that will go on top).  Since my bronco is bucking I used this whole image. On the splitcoasters site, they cut out the grass skirt (brilliant).  On the image that will be put onto the card (the main image) you will use a craft knife and cut a square in the center.  I did not photo this part, but they do show it on the website.  I will provide a link at the end so you can go check it out.  On the back of the image with the square cut out you will place a penny.  On the front of the square you will place a glue dot.  Make sure it is on the penny and not your image.  On the second image you will put a glue dot on the back of it and place a second penny there.  You will now use another glue dot to put the pennies together.  Do not put any of the glue dot on your images, the pennies are going to act like a little hinge along with the glue dots. 

Here is my finished card with the bucking bronco.  This is him in the normal position.  And the photo below shows the bronco bucking around on the card front.  This is a very fun technique that I know I will try again.  

The stamp is by Stampin' Up.  The it's your day stamp is by Fiskars.  All inks by Ranger or Tim Holtz (which is really the same thing).  The gold paper behind the cowboy is also from my scrapbin, so I have no idea who made it.  

 

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/tilt_card/

Check out the original design on splitcoasters and thank you to the person who created this great card.  

The dam tour

One of my favorite scenes in the National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation is the scene of the dam tour.  It is so funny on so many levels.  We folks here in Western Kentucky also have a pretty cool dam....no not anywhere near the caliber of the Hoover Dam, but it works.

Ours is actually two dams, but I prefer one over the other.  We have Barkley Dam (named after  a former Vice President Alben Barkley) and Kentucky Dam.  It is the later that I like.  Ever since I was a small child I have always liked driving over the dam.  It feels so much safer than a bridge and it is awesome.  A few years back they rerouted the road that went over the dam.  It is not as thrilling as driving on top of the dam, but you do have a great view of the spillway.  And when that water is pouring over the top, it is a grand sight.

In May of 2011, we had just finished getting rained on from what seemed like forever.  Everything was flooded.  The floodgates were installed in Paducah to save our town. Levees were blown so the flood waters would not drown Cairo Illinois.  People were homeless because their homes were flooded.  Businesses where ruined because of flood waters.  It was pretty much as bad as the ice storm was in 2009.

The sunshine of this day was so welcome.  It was the day before Mother's Day, the day before my birthday, and God had put a rainbow in the sky just the night before...the flood was over!!!

For my birthday, John wanted to take me to Patti's and of course I was more than okay with his decision.  I just put the stipulation that we could go over the dam.  I was sure it was fuller than I had ever seen it.

So here we go, taking the dam tour.  I have many pages documenting the flood of 2011 because it was so vast. Most are for documentation purposes only and not much to look at, but this one is my favorite.  Take the photos out of context and you can just see the beauty of that water spilling over the dam.  Put them back in context and it is hard to image that something so lovely can be so terrible!!

I was inspired on the layout by Mojo Monday 231.  It was the perfect way to showcase my dam photos.  The circle to me could represent the "cloud" I wanted on my layout.  I have puffed it out because it represents all the days of rain that we had.  The flowers represent the rebirth/life that would come from that little cloud.  My color choices are happy colors because we would be happy again!  We had all banded together to help each other and it was beautiful like my color choices.  It is a time I shall never forget, but would not want to relive.  I am so grateful that God saved our towns. I am sorry for the crops and homes that were lost, but thankful that to my knowledge no lives were lost.

Hopefully we will not ever experience a flood like this here again..

You are the best

I promise to you that I am doing good at my goal to send more cards so that people know that I care or am grateful for the things that I have been given or for things that have been done for me.

Today's card is another extension of that....we don't often tell people when they do a good job, but we are all over  them when they screw up.  I tried to do this when I was working at Olivet...praise people for a job well done.  I am continuing this tradition now.  Here is a card that I made for someone that I know has very low self esteem, I only hope this makes them feel a little better about themselves.

Sometimes a little encouragement can go a long way. I know in my case I absolutely blossom when someone says "job well done"....but we all know you don't here that much.

Here is my card, I hope that it inspires you to be kind to someone today.   

I am entering this card in the CR84FN challenge...if you scrapbook/make cards and don't know what that is...check it out.  It is a great starter/springboard that can lead you to get inspired or to try something that you might not have tried without their prompting.  If you don't want to play and just want to browse, just clip on some of the thumbnails.  There are some extremely talented ladies out in this world.  I thank them for sharing their talent.  

The Yellows of March

Beware of the yellows of March!!!  Yellow keeps coming back to haunt me.  I do believe that the powers that be are determined to make me appreciate some yellow.  I will admit, I am trying hard to quit being a yellow hater.  I used yellow on much of the samples 3here.  I was trying to experiment with things and use my new stamps too.   I have 2 different cards here.  One that uses the Brono stamp by Stampin UP!  and one that uses stamps by Technique Tuesday.

The Brono stamp features a font called Bleeding Cowboy that happens to be one of my favorites on my computer and I use it often. The inks used are Chocolate Chip by Stampin UP! and Walnut Stain Distress ink.   It is a simple card  that did not take a lot of time.  I basically wanted to try out  that new stamp.  I am very pleased with this stamp and believe that it will serve me well. 

The second card took more work as I first inked the entire card base using Distress inks in walnut stain, mustard seed, iced spruce and spiced marmalade.  I then dripped water onto the surface and let that dry. 

Then I used strip of patterned paper  that were left over from another project.  I punched a circle near the top and stamped a star (by Stampin UP!) on the inside of the card.  The 3/4 circle above the punch is a technique tile by TT and it is inked in mustard seed.

Grugeboard serves are the base for my sentiment.  The edges are inked in mustard seed and the font is by TT.  I watercolored yellow inside the letters.

The rectangle at the bottom is also TT as well as the very cool stamp.  I colored the inside with yellow watercolor paint, a gray watercolor pencil and a brown sharpie.

The last card features another stamp set that I just bought, So Very by Stampin UP!!  This one features vintage photo, tea dye and old paper distress inks.  These inks make up the background of the sorry part and mustard seed "paints" the card base.  All the patterned papers are from my scrapbin, I am trying so hard to get rid of the stuff in there. 

The water droplets on sorry are just that....water.  I love the way water reacts with  the distress inks.  That is my favorite part about them.  

Relax and Thanks a latte

This time of year I am thinking about Spring Break and dreaming of all the places that I could go.  Of course, I am dreaming of palm tree type surroundings, and possibly a theme park where one would find a magical wand toted by a young wizard; or maybe a land of enchantment with a mouse.  However, this card was as close as I could get...a balmy palm tree on a card.  It was fun to use these new stamps by Stampin UP! (well they are new to me, and they were never used.  I bought them at a yard sale for $5).  

 I have used Stampin UP! ink in Chocolate Chip and Close to my Heart ink in Clover Meadow as well as Walnut Stain Distress ink.  The florish stamps are from Technique Tuesday and all the papers are from my scrapbin.  The brads are by Paper Studio.  All the edges are trimmed in Iced Spruce Distress ink. 

For my this Spring Break dream card I used this weeks CR84FN colors of yellow, kraft and gray.  I am not usually a fan of yellow, but I have to say that I have been pleased with the yellow cards I have made lately.  This one just makes me calm, the next one is the one that I love.....

I love coffee, lattes, cappuccinos,hot teas, and the like and this card was inspired by my new Keurig machine.  The stamps from the letters are from the $1 bin at the Dollar Tree.  I watch Morning Joe and I love his coffee stain on his logo, I have been looking for a stamp of a coffee stain for quite some time and finally found one in a Close to my Heart catalog.  It is sooooo cute!!!! The heart stamp is from Inkadinkadoo.  The card base is inked in walnut stain distress ink, spritzed with water, then with Java walnut spray ink.  Coffee stain is stamped in Chocolate Chip by Stampin UP!.  All edges are trimmed in Iced Spruce Distress ink.  The cup is my own creation.  I look forward to sending this card to one of my coffee friends.

Liberty Tag

This tag is a collection of JUNK that I have had lying around.  Some old Graphic 45 papers (that I love but had not found that perfect project), some remnants of tissue paper from a gift, a 1776 coin from the History Channel, a green ribbon from a notebook that I took apart, left over grunge board, a rosette I made when I was practicing, leftover kraft cardboard (tag base), Tinkertoys rectangle (Graphic 45), and a washer I found in a tool box.

I used Tim Holtz distress inks to color the kraft cardboard first (Dusty Concord and Mustard Seed).  On top of that I using Distress embossing ink and Vintage Photo Distress powders with a Hero Arts script font stamp.  I also used a houndstooth stamp  by Technique Tuesday (words Playing and Laughing also by TT) and a postmark stamp by inkadinkadoo.  I painted a layer of Antique Linen crackle paint and inked that with Walnut Stain Distress ink.  Once all that dried I began my layering.  The stopwatch was created with a stamp by Delta which I embossed with midnight black by stamp n stuff embossing ink.  Once that set up I used Distress inks in Walnut Stain, Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord, Broken China, Seedless Preserves, and Spiced Marmalade to color the background of the glossy cardstock. 

A lady in a rainbow of color

I wanted to play with some glossy cardstock that I picked up at Archiver's (for .79 per sheet).  I got out one of my new stamps (that I purchased for $1.00 at the Trace Creek Crop yard sale) by inkadinkadoo and stamped it in Ranger Archival black ink.  I allowed some time for that to dry then I got out my ink pads.  I used Tim Holtz Distress inks in Chipped Sapphire, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Broken China, Dusty Concord, Festive Berries, Peeled Paint, Seedless Preserves, Fired Brick, Faded Jeans, Worn Lipstick, Iced Spruce, Evergreen Boughs and Spun Sugar.  

I gave the inks a few seconds  to dry then I sprayed water into my hands and dropped onto the image.  This give it the water look.  While some of the drops where wet I lifted the image up and shook it.  This made the water run down the tag creating that neat faded colors line down the front of the image.  I love the water spots!  Especially the ones on her face. 

The card itself was inked with Peeled Paint.  That is one of my favorite Distress ink colors an so versatile.  This was a surprise part. I was not sure if this would work or not, so I just had to give it a try.  I took a Tim Holtz fragment and inked it with cranberry alcohol ink.  When that dried I took a small Stampin UP!  flower stamp and stamped (using Ranger Archival black ink) onto of the alcohol ink.  I love the way it turned out.  It was a perfect little addition to the corner.  

All stamps featured on this card are from Stampin UP!

Buttons are from Making Memories (with exception of the pink one that is from a shirt that I had purchased)

The pearls are from a kids craft kit

The thread is DMC in 315 gray and 666 red

This card's sentiments state how I feel:  BLESSED!!!