A Splatter Grunge Card

 Well we have had our first official snowfall! The snow has to stay on the ground for several hours before we declare it official. This time we got about an inch of snow on Monday and we still have some on the lawn. It melted quickly on the roads though but not before there were several accidents. People just refuse to slow down in bad weather.

I've been busy making a couple of quilts that are being donated to a women's shelter way, way up North. So far North it is a fly-in community. I get so busy during the day that by night time I forget to post anything on the blog. 

 Today’s card is a little different than my normal cards. I was playing with my Perfect Pearls and/or other ones like it and this is what I came up with. I think a teenage boy or pre-teen age boy would like this one.

                           

 The background is just black cardstock. Before mounting it, I stamped some splotches with VersaMark using a Stampin' Up Grunge stamp and then adding some bright blue Perfect Pearls. Then I took another piece of black cardstock and swooshed on VersaMark ink and dropped bit of various coloured Perfect Pearls on it and brushed it around. Then I used a splatter die to die cut those funny shapes and glued them on. The ‘happy’  was die cut twice from black cardstock and glued to the splatters and then I used another large die to die cut the ‘birthday’ in bright blue. It was then mounted on bright blue card base.

That’s all for a cold Wednesday, November 29, 2023.

Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

Card number 6

 We finally got the rain! I’m sure there are some farmers trying to get their crops off that are not happy about it but for some of us, its very welcome.

Joe is recovering well from his cataract surgery and even though I was sitting by my friend who did not know she had Covid until the next day,  I did not develop it so I’m happy about that. After six days, I decided I was safe so I took myself off quarantine today and went to get a few groceries. The prices - jeesh.

Here is card 6 out of 7 I made from one piece of 12x12 cardstock. To see the original designer cardstock and other cards, simply scroll back.

                                         
By the time I got to card number 6, the pieces were getting smaller. I had enough of the old weathered wood to fit on a A2 card…except for one corner. So, a simple solution was to add a corner triangle in dark brown. Then I added a piece of light brown cardstock near the bottom to act like a shelf. The edges of the weathered wood and the shelf were ink in brown ink.

The backpack and boots are from another die set I bought from Cathy’s Creative Papercrafters site on Facebook. It came with more dies - a lantern, a thermos, a cup and another element. I just used the backpack and boots for this card as I had it in mind for a teenage boy. The die cuts were also inked with brown ink and I made sure the boots were roughly ink so they looked old and worn. I wasn’t sure how to attach the backpack but then I realized I could use a brad that looks like a nail and pretend the backpack was hanging up. The sentiment is a black peel-off.  It was then mounted on a brown card base. 

My friend saw this card and asked to have it so its gone. I really like this die set and I can see more masculine cards being made with it. One of my grandsons will be 19 in October so he may get one similar to it.

That’s all for a cool and rainy Wednesday, September 27, 2023.

Cheers

Violet

Ps: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply over over the image until the “Pin It” symbol appears and then click …. be patient, it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

Two Masculine Cards

 One last post for the week. My computer has been acting up all week and I finally just gave up on it for a few days. It’s only slightly better tonight - extremely slow and aggravating. I’m blaming it on the 2 day heat wave we just had - again…felt like 111F on Tuesday! ….and once again, the temperature is going to plummet tomorrow with a strong north wind making even colder. Saturday is bike riding day but it may not happen tomorrow.

I’m posting two cards today because they are so similar.

                                          

    So this is what inspired these two cards. I had a large piece of a 12x12 cardstock with huge leaves and other foliage on it…I think it was in with some paper I bought on Facebook Marketplace and someone cut part off and left the other part as is. It was just not my style at all and I had no idea what to do with it. So, I cut it down to two 4x5.25 size pieces and was determined to turn them into cards. It was still pretty ugly cut down so that didn’t help. I happen to have two different Happy Birthday embossing folders so I ran one piece through each one. Mmmm. No real improvement there. So I pulled out the Distress Inks - I think Salty Ocean but not sure - and started sponging the blue ink over the entire embossed piece, including the embossed words and the green leaves. Well, lo and behold, that worked very well. I love the grunge look so this definitely appealed to me. The blue ink made the green leaves less visible.  Progress at last. 

After looking at them for a few minutes I decided to wrap some baker’s twine around them before gluing them to a midnight blue card base. I stamped a sentiment on a die cut Spellbinder’s circle and them mounted it on a large circle die cut from the same midnight blue as the card base. I die cut a circle from scrap cardstock; cut it in half and glued each half to the back of the sentiment circle leaving a gap in the middle. That way there is no bump where the twine is. I have another grandson celebrating a birthday in July so one might go to him.

That’s all for Friday, June 17, 2022. Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend everyone and remember, be kind, always! Your kindness may be the only positive thing the other person has experienced in a long time.

 Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Balloons

 

         We have had thunderstorm after thunderstorm, and it has played havoc with my two brain disorders so I’ve been under attack for a few days. Tomorrow is supposed to be the only day without rain or a storm and then back to a week of thunderstorms….aaagghhh.

         Luckily, I have a few cards made and photographed on hand because I’m not very creative when the trigeminal neuralgia flares up…which we call ‘under attack’. One of our grandsons is turning 14 this month so this is the card he is getting.

                                

I like making masculine cards but teenage boys are difficult….and I don’t have many stamps for that group. However, I do have this huge balloon background stamp and decided it would work for Seth. It was stamped in black ink and then each balloon was painted with metallic water colour paint – which is shiny in real life but the camera couldn’t pick it up. Once it was dry it was trimmed down, mounted on black cardstock and then onto a black card base. The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark and then white embossing powder and heat set. I decided to attach it on an angle just for some interest.

         That’s all for a rainy week on Friday, July 9, 2021.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Card for a Teenage Boy

        We are having a fairly nice day here in Ontario but it was very windy and rainy all weekend – lots of flooding along the Lake Erie shoreline once again….and some rain predicted for every day for the next two weeks – some days as low as 40% chance, others up to 80% chance, including Halloween night. Rats, we picked up a huge box of chocolate bars last Friday so we could end up having a lot left over. I’m not fond of chocolate but Joe loves it so I guess they’ll get eaten.

        Yesterday one of our grandsons turned 15 and this is the card I made for him.

 

         Cards for teenage boys are the hardest to make for me. For this card I had that two coloured triangle square made up for something else and never used it so I decided it would be a good start for a card for him. I pulled more paper from the same paper pack and glued it on a Kraft card base. There was a piece of colourful striped paper in that pack so I cut one into a strip to add some interest to the card. Then I took two striped pieces, glued them together to make them thicker and die cut the ‘15’ using an old Cuttlebug die; glued it to a piece of stitched die cut rectangle on Kraft cardstock; and then glued it to triangle piece. The sentiment is actually brown but the photo changed the colour of it. It was die cut three times and glued together.

        That’s all for a sunny, lovely Monday on October 28, 2019.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

Teenage Boy Card

My heart breaks for all those affected by the tragedy in Pittsburgh. There is just too much hate in the world right now. I will continue to smile and say hello to everyone I meet though because you never know what a positive impact that could have. Perhaps it’s the only positive thing they have received and need it more than you will ever know.

        But life goes on and we must continue the best we can. It’s a beautiful Monday here in Ontario….after a couple nasty days of rain and cold wind. Last Friday we went out near Rondeau Park to a place called Keith McLeans Conservation area. A farmer donated all his land to the area so others could enjoy it free of charge. There is a rare visitor there in the marsh so we went to see if we could find it …..and we did. Here’s the Hudsonian Godwit we saw.

 He uses that long beak for finding leeches in the muck.
        Now for the card that I meant to post last Friday but forgot. Our grandson turned 14 on Saturday so this is the card I made for him.

     The airplane and the Sky sentiment are from a Stampin’ Up set that I borrowed from my card making friend. The cloud stamp is from another set and the ‘you’re’ is from a very old Stamping Bella stamp that I covered up the rest so only the ‘you’re’ was stamped. The 14 is from the stash. The trees are from an old wooden set that are very close to the Stampin’ Up “lovely as a tree’ stamp set that I wished I owned, but do not. The background is two pieces of paper taped together at the back...and the top one is a light blue, not green....grrrrr to the bad lighting again. I wanted just the top of the trees to show. The large happy birthday was die cut with a Sizzix set. I die cut it twice and then glued them together to make them thicker.
That’s all for a wonderful fall day, October 29, 2018.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

A Grunge Card

I think I’m melting…. The heat wave continues with the temperature around 34C (94F) but feels like 41C (105F).

        We had to run a few errands today and wanted to go visit Joe’s sister so we braved it and ventured out….. and it was so hot it was unbearable. The heat on the weekend was so hot it buckled one of the highways! Now that’s hot! One more day of this and then the temperatures will be back to normal – thank goodness. I love summer and the heat, but not this humidity.

        Tomorrow is my oldest grandson’s birthday. Joven will be 19. He’s in university studying criminology with the hopes of joining either the Police or the RCMP – which scares the daylights out of me but we must support their choices. Here’s the card I made for him.

 

I wanted to make him a grunge card! He is after all a young man so heaven forbid they get a card with gems, bows or glitz on it. I used stamps from Stampin’ Up and their ink, Night of Navy and Crumb Cake. I wanted it to look like paintball splatters. I really didn’t like it so I showed it to Joe and asked his opinion – he thought it was great!....Yup, the man’s opinion is so different than woman’s! I hand cut the banner, sponged it with Crumb Cake and glued it on a piece of left over blue cardstock. The button is a paper one that I die cut and sponged Stampin’ Up Early Espresso on and tied on some jute string and attached it with a strong glue dot. It was then mounted on a Kraft card base.

        I’m still not crazy about it but hopefully Joven will like it.

        That’s all for a very, very hot and humid Wednesday, July 4, 2018. Happy 4^th of July to all my readers from the U.S.A.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

A Huge Candle Card

The weather outside is a changing by the hour. Someone posted this on Facebook and it pretty much says it all.

A friend of mine asked me to make a card for a pre-teen boy – something pretty plain of course. I finally decided to make a huge candle card. Here is what I came up with…and she loved it.

I took a piece of left over cardstock and ran it through the Swiss dot embossing folder and then trimmed it to the size I wanted and inked the edges with a darker blue. Then I hand cut another piece of blue to look like wax dripping and glued it on the top. I hand cut the candle flame from yellow and orange cardstock stacked together; then switched the pieces over to make one flame. They were then sprinkled with yellow glitter. The wick is just a little piece of black cardstock.  The background was in the stash and it looked great with the candle glued to it. It was then glued to the yellow card base. The sentiment was stamped onto a hand cut banner and was attached with dimensional glue strips. Glossy Accents was then added to the dripping wax piece and set aside to dry. I always have to do that last or I end up smudging it.

        That’s all for a cold and damp Friday, February 16, 2018. Have a wonderful and safe weekend everyone. My heart aches for those involved in that Florida shooting. So sad.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

Jack's 13th Birthday Card

We had our first real frost on Wednesday night but the days are still quite pleasant. Some of the trees are losing their leaves but a lot of them still have green leaves. They may lose them before they change colour this year…..at least in Southern Ontario. I understand they are very colourful in Northern Ontario.

Today one of our grandsons turns 13! Remember turning into the teen years….and how awesome it was to be a teenager!! Jack’s a great kid and he’s a pleasure to be around. He loves sports and music. Last year I made him a sports card so this year I did a music card….he’s been taking guitar lessons for about a year and is very good.  His 10 year old brother takes drum lessons....noisy house but my daughter said she would rather listen to them making music than playing video games!

The background is Distress Inks Mustard Seed; Chipped Saffire and Faded Jeans and maybe some Dusty Concord. Once it dried water droplets were thrown on to create those white spots. Black Soot was sponged around the edges. The guitar and ‘You Rock’ are part of an Inkadinkado set that I use a lot. They were heat embossed with black embossing powder. The sentiment is a black peel-off. The 13^th was die cut using two different Cuttlebug alphabet dies. He loved it!....and that’s all that matters.

That’s all for a sunny yet cool Friday, October 27, 2017. Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend everyone. See you Monday!

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

A New Die!

We just had the nicest weather over the weekend – it was actually hot in the afternoon…T-shirt hot! We just had to have another walk through the trails at Rondeau Park which we seldom get to do near the end of October – it’s usually cold and wet by then. Enjoyed it so much.

Today I spent the entire day at the church making quilts for kids with cancer. Sunday night Joe asks me, “What time does your party start tomorrow?” “Excuse me! This is not a party. We refer to it as the sweat shop of the quilt guild” I told him. He replied, “Well you sure seem to have a lot of fun there for a non-party!” True! We had 18 members show up today so lots of sewing machines running while others were cutting and sorting and ironing. Good day!

Today’s card is the first one I made for my grandson’s 13^th birthday that is coming up in a few days….but I rejected it after making another one. This one features a new die I treated myself too.

  

The new die is that back circle with the words wrapped around it. Love it! I saw a card make with one at our local scrapbook store, The Paper Pickle, and I bought it on the spot.  The background paper is from the stash; taped together at the back; and then a silver peel-off that was tinted green with an alcohol maker was placed over the seam. I cut a large circle and then used some scissors with a rough deckle edge cut to go around it because I didn’t like it left plain. It was then run through a musical embossing folder; a circle was cut out of it the same size as the black die cut piece. Instead of having the two background pieces show in the back, I glued a solid piece of the top green only behind it; then a plain green circle and then the birthday cake was added with a dimensional glue dot. The cake was a sticker and it was quite blah so I went over the middle parts with a VersaMark pen and then added metal Perfect Pearls to make it more masculine. I die cut the black music notes and added them. Jack plays the guitar…and does so quite well…so I wanted a musical card for him. He won’t see this one but another boy will like it.

That’s all for a rainy Monday, October 23, 2017.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

Birds, Flowers and Cards

We had a lovely warm and sunny weekend here in Ontario. Yesterday I convinced Joe I was well enough to get out of the house….except for a quick run into the store last Thursday for some milk, eggs and fruit, it’s been two weeks house bound! I still had laryngitis but no fever or headache so I was more than ready to get out for awhile….but I’m still avoiding people in case I pass this virus on. We opted to drive up to Rondeau Park to get our seasonal pass and maybe walk one of the short trails….if I felt like it….which I did. We stopped and grabbed a sub to eat out at the park - first picnic of the year! I must admit I was plenty tired by the time we got home! I got the evil eye from Joe who said I looked like I should have stayed home! He was not 100% on board with us going but I assured him I was just tired, not sick again. Nice to have a hubby who cares! There were not many birds but I did get these two shots of the White-throated Sparrow. Double click on any picture to enlarge it.

 

I’m taking it easy today but I did get another charity quilt top finished. That’s three quilt tops I have ready to turn in to the quilt guild. I do the tops, they add the batting and backing and get them quilted and then they will go to someone battling an illness. The spring bulbs are flowering like crazy including the hyacinths. One of mine has the most intense colour I have every seen. Here’s a photo of it.

 

Sorry this is a long post and now for two cards. I make a lot of masculine cards for both men and boys – 4 grandsons! Here are two that are similar.

I found the image on the Internet so I printed it out on white cardstock. Then a background was sponged on with Distress Inks; adding Mustard Seed around the image to make him pop; and a variety of stamps used – all Stampin’ Up. The card base was dark blue so a strip of the same colour was added across the bottom with a peel-off black greeting.

This card was done the same way but with a different image.

 

These would be great cards for teenage boys and pre-teen boys.

That’s all for another warm and sunny Monday, April 17, 2017

Cheers

Violet

A Card for the Pre-teen Boy

I’m almost too tired to type so this will be a short posting. We went for an hour’s walk down to the library and back this morning and then we worked out in the garden all afternoon. So sad to pull up all the annuals, dig up the gladioli and dahlia and cut back the hosta, etc. But we’re pretty much done now. The rest can wait until the spring clean-up.

Yesterday our grandson Jack turned 12. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time making cards for the pre-teen and teenage boys. Girls are no problem, but boys – yikes! I don’t have many stamps for this age group either but I did find a digital stamp that worked. Here’s what I came up with.

 

I ran a piece of white cardstock through the printer to print the image. Then came the stamping using the grunge stamps from Stampin’ Up. Ink was sponged around the image for the sky. Then I die cut it using a stitched rectangle die and glued it to the card base. The label was die cut with the smaller stitched rectangle and then green ink was lightly sponged on and then the sentiment was stamped. He loved it. Whew!

 Now for a confession. I ran this image through the printer twice so I could experiment which was a good decision. I did basically the same thing but I used the blobs stamp and stamped it in red. OMG! It looked like blood splatters! But wait, is it just me that thinks that? I showed it to Joe and he laughed and said, “You can’t send him that. It looks like blood splatters.” Garbage!

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

And that would be all for a sunny fall day on October 28, 2016.

Cheers

Violet

Have A Blast Card

Well we had a couple of very busy days here….very hot and humid ones too. Our youngest grandson came for an overnight ‘sleepover’ (as he calls it) whiles his mom and friends went to a concert over in Michigan. We had a ball with him. He is one funny, smart, inquisitive and well-behaved boy. Here is our Finn.

The first thing we did was drive to Rondeau Park to deliver them this moth:

…….that unfortunately died in our front lawn on Tuesday. It is a Polyphemus Moth, one of the largest moths there is and not seen on a regular basis. I had the good sense to retrieve it and put it in a baggie and emailed the naturalist at the park to see if they wanted it for a display and they were delighted that I did so.

It was my oldest grandson’s birthday this week and I find it hard to make cards for teenage boys….mainly because I don’t have a lot of boy or teenage boy stamps. This was my initial card idea that I came up with.

It started out as a one layer card background. I used my new Stampin’ Up grunge stamp to stamp the splats and grid marks and then blue ink around the edge, yellow in the middle. Then I took another piece of white cardstock, stamped the sentiment and candles and sponged on more yellow and blue ink. To hi-lite it I punched the decorative border on one side of a piece of navy blue cardstock. It needed something extra so I took out some alphabet stamps and stamped the “Have a Blast” on another piece of white cardstock and inked the edges with blue and yellow ink. I thought I was done but it looked a little blah yet so this is what it looked like when I was really done.

Even though everything was already glued down, I took out the splat stamp and stamped it in red here and there. What a difference! Now I like it and I just might make some more similar to this one for my friends to enjoy.

That’s all for a hot and humid Friday, July 8, 2016.

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference.

Cheers

Violet

Teenage Boy Cards

 Well we had a wonderful weekend – with a bit of a surprise thrown in! We decided on Saturday to buy tickets for a concert in Sarnia that night. We seldom ever buy tickets ahead of time in case we cannot go and we seldom find events sold out….it has happened, but not often. We also decided to just spend the night there as Joe does not really like driving at night anymore and we haven’t been anywhere all winter. So, off we went and when we got to Sarnia…via the river road….I spotted an odd looking duck in the St. Clair River. He stopped and I got out to take a picture of it…..and I’m glad I did…..it turns out to be a Long-tailed duck which are not normally seen in this area. Here is a picture of it.

So after checking into the motel and a delicious Chinese dinner we headed over to the theatre and enjoyed some wonderful singers and musicians singing Country and Western duos from the oldies, like Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash to the current singers like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. We enjoy a wide variety of music and we’ve heard the lead female singer before so we knew we would enjoy it.

Seeing the duck was not the surprise I spoke of…..it was waking up to a snowstorm Sunday Morning! Yes, a snow storm. Sarnia is right on the edge of Lake Huron and they get what is known as Lake Effect Snow. We didn’t stick around long after breakfast as the roads were getting slippery. Half way home it was down to flurries and nothing in Chatham. I really thought I’d seen the last of snow for this winter! It cut our day in Sarnia short but we got home safe and sound and that was more important.

My oldest grandson is going to be 16 this summer so I thought I’d start making some cards suitable for a teenage boy. I made two using the same stamp but different backgrounds.

 

I coloured them both with Prismacolor pencils but I put one boy with a red had and one with a blue hat because here in South Western Ontario most people are either Toronto Maple Leaf fans (blue) or Detroit Red Wing fans (red).

Both backgrounds were done the same way – by layering various strips of paper on a diagonal and then run through an embossing folder which does two things….it really presses the layers of paper together so they are well sealed and it gives some extra dimension to the card. They were both then glued to the kraft card base.

For the blue card I thought I’d run a new word die set I bought at the Paper Pickle when they had their winter sale. So, I found some brown cardstock, layered it behind the image, and used the left over bits to die cut the word. Then I realized that it does not cut out the entire word…..each individual letter instead……GROAN! There were four dies in the set and unless you really, really looked hard at them, it looks like you cut out the entire word. Not happy with this purchase and I’ll be careful about buying any other ones. But they were die cut so I peeled them all off and did the Happy vertically and added Birthday on a left over piece of blue cardstock.

For the red card I took a large red rectangle glued the image on it, but off the edge and then die cut a corner unit out of the same red with my Stampin’ Up punch to add to the lower right corner.  This left me room to stamp the sentiment on the left of the red cardstock. Before gluing it to the striped background I ran some bakers twine around it.

That’s all for a very cold Monday – yes, it’s cold again! Mother Nature has an evil streak I think. We had one really nice spring day and then it turned cold again.

Cheers

Violet

The Orphange and a Card

Before I post the card of the day I want to tell you about an orphanage in Mexico that a friend of my daughter tries to raise money for. Last year he raised enough money to buy every child a bike and helmet. Things were going well for the orphanage until the hurricane hit Sept 14^th and many of the buildings were destroyed. Adam is now trying to raise money to replace some of the buildings, including their sleeping arrangements.  Here is the link to read about the orphanage and the terrible damage the storm did. http://www.youcaring.com/other/rebuilding-the-orphanage-hurricane-relief-fund-la-paz-mx/237531

Even if you can’t spare a dime to help, could you please post this on your Facebook page in case others want to donate. Thanks.

And now the card. This card would be good for either a teenage boy or girl who is into music.

These are all Inkadinkado stamps which were embossed with black embossing powder and then Distress inks were sponged all around it. The stars in the four corners are brads which I attached first and then glued the card to the card base. Pretty quick card to put together actually.

This was another busy day and this lady is ready to flop down for the night so that’s it for a Tuesday!

Cheers

Violet

A Steampunk Card

Well I won’t have to water the garden for a couple of days. Hurricane Arthur has dumped a ton of water over the last two days, especially today. We may get some more rain over night but the next few days should be clear. We decided to get groceries and run some errands today in between the storms, which didn’t always work out! When we went into Wal-Mart to get our bread (we like the brand they carry better than the grocery store where we get about 90% of our groceries) it was raining pretty hard. When we came out, the sun was shining and it was hot and humid. We just got in the house from getting the rest of the groceries and it started raining hard again. The crazy weather continues!

Last Saturday was my oldest grandson’s birthday but I didn’t post on the weekend so I’m posting his card now.

I’m making all family members a Steampunk card this year. This was a free digi stamp and coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. After die cutting it with a Spellbinder square die, I left it in the die and sponged Distress Ink Antique Linen around the edges. This leaves the nice white border. I just happened to have the same colour of burnt red paper as the balloon I coloured in the stash. This does not always happen but I’m happy when it does. The background paper is from a Tim Holtz Steampunk paper pack I picked up on sale at Michaels. The sentiment is a sticker from Hot Off the Press called Dazzles. And yes, I got a thank you email from him. Nice kid he is…especially for a 15 year old.

That’s all for a rainy Tuesday!

Cheers

Violet

A Card for the Teenage Boy

This is for the Stamping Bella’s challenge which is for every Friday. This week she presented us with a sketch. I decided to make a card for the teenage boy. Not my favorite card to make. No flowers, no butterflies, no glitter, no gems – boys and men have a dull world!

 

Once again the stamped image was coloured with Prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol this time. While it was still in the die, Antique Linen was sponged around the edges. I just could not find any suitable background paper I liked. I wanted something light so the image wouldn’t be overshadowed but all my light paper had flowers on it. But then I had a brainstorm – which doesn’t happen often but I did this time. Why don’t I stencil a background? So, I used this stencil that always reminds me of other bricks or computer parts depending on what I use it with and sponged some light blue ink over it and voil`a I have a background that works for me. The rest of the paper is from the stash. The squares were die cut with Spellbinders square die set. Not my favorite card but I hope some boy likes it.

 

Cheers

Violet

 

Guitar Hero?

A quick post today for two reasons. Not much to say and I'm off shortly to have that deep teeth cleaning procedure done - the one that goes below the gum line. I really didn't think it was going to help much and I really thought it was going to hurt a lot but I was wrong on both thoughts. Doesn't really hurt and it has helped a lot.

Yesterday after Aqua Fit and running a few errands I hunkered down in my sewing room and got one more quilt for the Alzheimer ward completed quilted, except the binding. Good afternoon's work! But nothing really exciting or worth talking about happens in the sewing room so that's why this is a quick post.

I like this stamp but I always struggle as to what to do with it. Do you have stamps like that? This is what I came up with.

I made a card similar to this one a few months ago so I thought I'd try it again. I didn't emboss the guitar this time and I think I liked it better when I did that. The negative spots were coloured in with a Tombow marker and I followed the scroll lines as well with it. I used my Spellbinder tall rectangle die to die cut it (the die set that I wasn't sure when I bought it that I would use it much but I do) and once it while it was still in the die I sponged Broken China Distress ink around the edges. Then it was mounted on black and then glued to the background paper - which I remembered to pick out first this time so I could colour in the guitar to match. It needed something else so I added three black dew drops. This is another good card for a teenage  or pre-teen boy or girl.

Brown Happy Birthday Card

Had a great day today - went to Port Huron, Michigan to stock up on our vegetarian food that we cannot buy here in Ontario. So annoying that we are so limited to veggie food. It's getting better but still not as much variety as in Michigan. Oh well, I did manage to get to Hobby Lobby and picked up a  "few" things and over to Mary Maxim to get some flower soft...but it was really picked over. I just got one jar....and yes, we declare every thing at the border. Not taking any chances but so far they don't bother us with just a few groceries and craft supplies. We don't drink or smoke so we never bring those across so that helps.

Anyway, luckily I had some cards made and photographed so I have something to post tonight. Sometimes its hard to made a guy card but I think this would be good for male or female.

The card base is from Paper Wishes (http://www.paperwishes.com/). This is the only on-line company I have ever bought scrapbooking supplies from. Great products and prices and they charge the same shipping rate to Canada as they do shipping in USA - very unusual. No idea where the stamp and paper came from though.