Work on Sudoku ATC's

I just received Mary's ATC's this morning and decided to work on them since I had an idea. I am the first to add to her background so in some ways that makes it easy come up with ideas. I used one of my Tim Holtz stamps... I call it tickets... inked it up with black india ink and stamped it along the right edge of each ATC.
There is a definite top and bottom to this image, if you want to have the words readable, so those who follow will need to beware of how they make their additions to the ATC. These ATC's will be on their way to Jan in a day or two. I want to make sure the ink is dry before packing them up in an envelope.

Seniors on the Go card

This past weekend our town held it's second annual fundraiser for 'Seniors on the Go'. This organization provides rides for those in our community that don't have access to transportation and that need a ride to places like the store, the Dr office, etc. The local Rotary and Lions clubs organize a fundraiser that includes a live band for dancing, raffles with prizes, and a silent auction. The event was very successful again this year, as it was last year.
As I did last year, I created and mailed out thank you cards to those businesses and individuals who donated prizes for the raffles and the silent auction. I ran a piece of brown card stock through the cuttlebug with the retro circles embossing folder and attached that to the kraft card. I scanned a section of map showing our local area and then ran off the necessary copies for the cards. I sponged the edges with vintage photo distress ink before attaching to the right side of the card. I used a spellbinders label die to cut and emboss the 'Seniors on the Go' I had typed on some off white paper and then sponged the inside edges with vintage photo distress ink. I added 2 small dots of walnut stain distress stickles to the label before attaching it to the card with dimensional foam pieces. I stamped the old car using stazon saddle brown ink onto bright white shrinky dinks, cut it out, and then shrank with a heat gun. I applied the car to the map with a glue dot.
The thank you cards I made last year were similar, but since playing with shrink plastic earlier this year I decided to use it for the car.

Sudoku ATC's - Round 2

Round 2 of our sudoku ATC's is beginning and here are my backgrounds. This time we needed to make 8 because Mary has decided to join us.. hooray!!!
When I finished my backgrounds I looked back at the ones I had done for round 1. I found that my color scheme was very similar. But, I did use a different technique for these and I like them so much so I am going to use them.
I found the technique on Carol Sweeney's blog. You start with 2 sheets of glossy paper and 3 different colors of dye reinkers. After applying drops of the reinkers to one of the glossy sheets, and then spraying with some water, you place the second glossy sheet on top and 'smoosh'. A very technical term. When you pull the 2 sheets apart you can 'smoosh' them back together if you have any uninked areas. And if you don't like the colors you could add more reinkers and water and 'smoosh' again!! Very simple and very beautiful.

March shoebox

Shoebox night if fast approaching.. time to create. I wanted to use some of the new 'toys' I recently purchased at the Mark-It Place in Sayner. I used an embossing folder made by Darice. I ran a piece of white card stock through the cuttlebug with the embossing folder then layered that onto black glossy card stock, and then onto the green card. I used a Martha Stewart punch (birds on a wire) with red card stock to create the birds and then attached them with glossy accents. I used some green card stock to punch the grass with a fiskars punch and attached that to the bottom edge with glossy accents. And then, Bonnie will love this, I used my bow maker to tie the double bow using green ribbon and attached to the trunk of the tree with a glue dot.

For this card I used the embossing folder with Core'Dinations paper. This piece is from the Whitewash collection which is an off white on one side and various colors on the opposite side. After running the piece through my cuttlebug with the embossing folder I sanded the paper so that the blue/green color was exposed. Before attaching the embossed piece to the card I attached the small label to the front so that the thread I had strung through the holes on each side could be attached to the back. The 'think happy thoughts' is a small stamp I have that fits perfectly in the small nestabilities label. Again I used some of the red birds I had punched for the first card I did and a piece of green card stock that I punched to look like grass.

Sudoku ATC's - Round 2

Our WI Art Camp Group had so much fun with our first round of Sudoku ATC's that we've decided to do it again. This time we'll have 8 people instead of 7 since Mary has decided to join us... YEA!!!
Here are my backgrounds. I didn't realize until doing this posting to the blog that my backgrounds for this second round look a bit similar to the backgrounds I made for the first!!! But, these were created differently. I used 3 colors of reinkers: beach ball yellow/posh rainbow inks, sailboat blue/posh rainbow inks, and soft lilac/memories. I placed droplets of each of these inks (more of the yellow than the others) across a sheet of glossy card stock, I then sprayed with water, and then layed another sheet of glossy card stock on top of the first. I smoshed and twisted the 2 sheets together and then pulled them apart. If there were any white spots I smoshed the 2 sheets together again. I really like this look, so even though my color scheme may be similar to our first round I'm sticking with these backgrounds. Our swap starts the first week in April so I will wait a while before mailing these to Maggi... or I can take them over to her house on Monday since we have our shoebox night then.

Play Day - Feb 2012

How exciting!!!! Pea, Maggi, and I planned a play day in February. We hadn't gotten together to play in years. We were all looking forward to it. We decided to have a marathon card making day. The plan was for each of us to design 3 different cards and then bring enough supplies for all of us to create 5 of each design. Were we crazy!!! That would mean that each of us would be creating 45 cards.... in one day!!! Can we do it?? And remember, we needed to take a break for lunch too!
Silly me... Pea took pictures during the day as we worked and from where I was sitting my camera was within my reach! How come I never thought of picking it up and snapping a few pictures? Well, here we go....

My 1st card design is definitely a birthday card. The blue piece of card stock was embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder. We had the choice of using the 'numbers' or the 'happy birthday' embossing folder. The five candles image was stamped onto a piece of blue card stock and then cut with a spellbinders label die. We sponged the edges of that piece with faded jeans and colored the flames with a gel pen before attaching to a brown piece of card stock that had been die cut from another spellbinders label die. We punched holes on both sides of the piece and then threaded ribbon through. There were various choices of ribbon available. The ribbon was secured behind the blue layer before attaching that layer to the brown card. We stamped 'wish big' onto a piece of blue card stock and then cut with a spellbinders inverted scallop circle die. We sponged the faded jeans ink around the circle and colored the star with gel pen before attaching with dimensional foam squares.


My 2nd card design has a few layers. A tan card stock was layered onto the green card. I cut some decorative scrapbook paper and then punched each corner with a decorative punch. Brass brads were inserted into the corners of the decorative card stock after the edges were sponged with vintage photo distress ink and before attaching to the tan layer. We stamped the lighthouse and then cut using a spellbinders oval die. The edges were sponged with vintage photo ink before attaching to a green oval that was cut with a spellbinders deckle edge oval die.




My 3rd card design. I really like the clock theme; it seems to be good for so many card giving occasions. The rust layer was embossed with a cuttlebug embossing folder and was swiped with an ink pad... although you can hardly tell. I used a spellbinders decorative tag die with the tan card stock and then stamped the words on a piece of rust which was then cut to fit in the center of the tag. The flying clocks were stamped with black ink on tan card stock and cut out. We used a clear stardust glitter pen on the wings of the clock although I don't think the shimmer is showing up in this photo. Then they were attached to the card front using dimensional foam squares.






Working hard to get as many cards finished as humanly possible!








Here is Maggi's 1st card style. Instead of creating 3 card designs and bringing supplies to make 5 of each, Maggi created 5 card designs and enough supplies to make 3 of each. No matter, I was happy to have all the various styles of cards.
The background of this card was embossed with a cuttlebug folder and then inked. The 'celebrate' was cut from a tag/label die and attached to the card with dimensional foam squares. Before attaching the tag the the card we folder a flower embellishment and tucked it under the corner.



Another great card from Maggi. This is her 2nd card style. We received 3 different colors of card stock pieces for the strip attached to the top of the card. And, we had a choice of several cuttlebug embossing borders to use on that strip. The solid piece of card stock behind the 'birthday' label is color coordinated with the strip across the top of the card.




Here is Maggi's third card. We each had the same pieces in our card kits except for the decorative strip that we attached to the right side of the card. There were several colors and patterns available for us to choose from.




This is definitely Maggi's style. In her 4th card we stamped the flower and greeting on white card stock and then layered those pieces onto either a peachy or blue piece of card stock. We cut out a third piece of colored card stock and then attached all three pieces to the white card. Maggi had purchased some bird embellishments for us to use on the lower right of the card. We also stamped a bird image, cut it out, and attached to the inside of the card.



Maggi's 5th card will make a great birthday card for kids. The brightly colored decorative card stock and ribbon along with the cupcake sticker make it perfect for kids. These are the cards I made following Maggi's sample.










And the card making marathon continues!!







And now for Pea's contribution.
For each of her 3 cards she handed each of us a large envelope with a multitude of card stock, decorative papers, and in this 1st envelope, some ribbon and white shrink plastic pieces.
Each envelope contained more materials than we needed to make the 5 cards.




These are the cards Pea created for us to use as guidelines as we created our own variations. I loved Pea's black and white theme, but I started combining red with the white and black and then wandered into yellow, black, and white.





Here are my creations of the shrink plastic cards. I love these!!! And I love the look of white shrink plastic much more than the clear shrink plastic that I had been using in the past. I have more shrink plastic pieces and papers to use and plan to do so in the future. Most images that were stamped on the papers were done using Pea's stamps.




Here are the contents of the 2nd envelope that Pea gave me. My mind went blank!!










Here are examples of Pea's cards. The idea was to tear paper, punch out paper, or cut paper to create abstract designs on the white cards. I love the look of these cards and this is so different from 'my style', but I really want to make these. I haven't yet sat down to make any!!! But, I will.







This is what I found in my 3rd envelope from Pea. There is such a great assortment of card stock and decorative papers here... and a ton more than I will need to make 5 cards. Where do I start??









These are the cards that Pea created that we used as guidelines to create our own batch of cards. I didn't get any cards done on that day, but did work on some in the weeks after. Following are pics of my creations following this style. I still have materials left to make more cards in the future.







These whimsical cards were created based on some of Pea's samples and using materials she supplied. Even the stamped images were created with Pea's stamps. Some of these design ideas were quite different from my usual so it was great to expand my horizons.










I created these 3 cards following some of the samples Pea had provided. It was fun to combine the various decorative papers having the same color scheme. I also used one of Pea's stamps for the central image.





Here are 3 more cards I created using the materials supplied by Pea. The stamped image is also from one of Pea's stamps; I really like that stamp and maybe someday will have to get one for myself. These are great cards for men.

Working on Sudoku ATC's

Here are more pictures of the sudoku ATC's I have worked on. We are almost finished.
This is step 5 of Margaret's ATC...
I stamped the 'vixen' stamp just above the strip of music and to the right of the hand charm. I must say that when I finished stamping the image on the 7 ATC's, this is the one that I was least happy with my contribution. But, I'm hoping that the last 2 contributors will make additions that will make these ATC's beautiful.




Step 7 of Pea's ATC...
I am the last to contribute to Pea's ATC and I was stumped at first. But my mind finally kicked in. I used a gold krylon pen to add a border around 3 sides. Then I got out my Ranger's white enamel accents. I've used this stuff once or twice before and didn't like the fluid consistency of it. Well, I still don't like it. It is very tricky to use; you must use it very sparingly because it will run and puddle. Some of the ATC's didn't turn out as well as this one did. I filled in the numbers on the image running down the right side of the ATC. I do like the look, but wish the enamel was a bit more thick. Each of the ATC's if off to each of the swap participants.

Step 6 of Jan's ATC...
I love this ATC.. it may well be my favorite.. at least so far.
I had quite a few ideas for this one, but I had to be careful since the last step still needs to be added. These are now on there way to Pea for that last step.
I found the small stamp "think happy thoughts" in my many stamps. I don't even know if I've ever used that stamp before this!! I stamped it onto gold colored card stock and then die cut with the smallest of Spellbinders Label 18. Then I used my sponge applicator and peeled paint distress ink to add color around the edges. I attached it to the ATC using dimensional foam squares.

Tim's Fishing Journal

I just finished this fishing journal for Tim, my niece's (Tracie) husband. When they were at our house this last weekend Tracie was looking at the fishing journal I had created for Bob. She commented about it and said that she thought it would make a great birthday gift for Tim. I started the book on Monday and have just finished it. I had leftover scraps of fishing related papers and I had saved a word document that I created when I made the first fishing journal for Bob.... so it was easy. I used my 'Carl's Tozicle Binding system' to bind the book and now I remember why I don't use it more often. Even though the covers are only created with thin cardboard, once I attached the decorative scrapbook paper, I could not fit the cover into the punch because of the thickness. I could punch through the 'naked' cardboard just fine... which is what I did. Then after I attached the paper I had to use an exacto knife to create the binding openings.



I think that Tim does much of his fishing on Lake Michigan. He and his family don't live far; they live in Port Washington which is right on the west shore of the lake. I found this map by searching online, copied it, and then shrunk it to fit the inside cover of the journal. I used a couple of my stamps to fill the top and bottom space.
On the right side I printed a couple of fishing cartoons I found online that I thought were pretty funny.



Here's a sample of what the inside pages look like. The page on the left provides categories of information that Tim may want to record for each fish he catches and chooses to journal in this book. The page on the right is blank so that if Tim has a picture of the fish he can attach it to this page. Not all of the journal pages have the same heading at the top of the page. I think there are four variations, but I just took a picture of this one.



This is the inside of the back cover. I found the pics of these fish when I did a search online for the Lake Michigan map. These are the fish typically caught in that lake... and I think, the fish that Tim usually catches when he goes out.










Here's a look at the back cover. All I did was cover the cardboard with a piece of decorative scrapbook paper. I've used this same paper on a couple other fishing journals I've created. I was glad that I had some leftover to use on Tim's book.
Tim's birthday is in June... so it will be awhile before I need to get this to him. I hope my niece is right and that Tim likes the journal and gets some use from it.