Try a Little Handmade Tenderness...

Hi friends! E-stir is pulling ANOTHER late one: just trying to get it alllll done, baby! It's the last few weeks-o-school stretch and I'm feeling the pinch! On top of that, I spent most of the day celebrating the life of a very special man who passed away last month. There was a huge memorial service for him at a local community center and it pretty much took all of MY mo-jo to *gasp* get dressed up and be all grown-up like for an entire DAY! It was actually very much a "celebration" and I love that, in a weird way. As long as the celebrating REALLY happens I'm good: let's not clobber each other with sad remembrances if we're "celebrating." That's just my take on it, anyway. With that said, I'm going to share a Sympathy Card I made for the family. We paper crafty folks KNOW how magic it is to make and give this type of note PARTICULARLY during a sad time.


I'm thinking this isn't the kind of post for me to get all silly sharing technique and crappy lyrics that I've imposed over some catchy old tune, but I'm pretty sure you'll forgive me... Let me just say that this is a RARE and SIMPLE effort compared to what I usually do, but I thought it suited the mood and flavor of a sympathy card... I hope it inspires you in a productive and supportive way!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Printed Transparency - Hambly
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Ribbon- Stampin' Up!
Half Pearl - Stampin'Up!
Flower and Circle punches - Stampin' Up!

HOORAY! It's Saturday!

"Hooray!" What a dynamite word that is! Really! Ever think about words: all by themselves!?! Hooray, is a universally accepted word of happiness and celebration and I just realized: I love it! It's 1:30am.... Eeeeeeaaaarrly Saturday morning... (Late, if you {like me} are still up from Friday..) but "Hooray" is a great word because I just finished my card for this weeks CPS sketch challenge... HOORAY for me! AND hooray, because, well, check out the sentiment:




"Hooray! For YOU!" What a perfect, all purpose, sentiment that was INCLUDED in the darling "circus animals" from My Cute Stamps! I set out to make something VERSATILE with my card inspired by CPS's hot, HOT: H-O-T! sketch! Love it! Couldn't wait to get to this one, but HAD TO, darn it... So here I am, L-A-T-E at night or E-A-R-L-Y in the morning.... but thrilled, because I got it done... I am always running short on kid cards, so I'm excited to add this one to "my stock!" tee hee

See how fun this sketch looks:






This card is a celebration, if you will, of some of my FAVORITE materials and tools of late and that makes it FUN! CAN YOU MAKE OUT THE "HAMBLY- Clearly Heavy" TRANSPARENCY! I cut it with my Sizzix, with Scallop Circles #2! Woooo! If you have the means, I suggest you partake of the wonder of Hambly's Clearly-Heavy run THROUGH your machine: it makes a really satisfying crunchily CRUNCH and then it POPS from the die and WOW! "Clearly" fun (that's what I say!)! I loved adding it to this card to continue the circular theme but give me the opportunity to compliment the original circle called for in the sketch with the "now you see it, now you don't!" advantage.... Wooooooo {AGIAN, with the woooooo}! Adding the little green fish (that were first stamped on Kiwi Kiss C/S WITH Kiwi Kiss Classic S/U! ink) on the right hand side of the central circle element, but naked toward the inside....


I NEVER think of taking that many "before pictures" but I thought this one was valuable to show how I used the freedom of the individual words from the set, but was able to place them in the perfect way to fit on the large arrow from Stampin'Up's (triple) arrow punch... I used ANOTHER arrow in the upper left corner:







AND, please don't overlook the BUBBLES, bubbles, BUBBLES from Cuttlebug, that I also ran through my fabulous Big Shot machine! Goodness, gracious are those things bubblcious! The darling seal image was stamped with VersaFine quick drying pigment ink in black, and then colored in with Going Gray ink with a small aqua pen, like the Elephant (from the same set) I did a few posts ago.... WHAT FUN! There was a beach ball image in the set that was too small but inspired me to play with a bigger, paper pieced beach ball for my main circle shape! Golly gosh: I just love gooooood inspiration!

So, I guess that's all folks: time to take my tired self to bed! hee hee (Hope all my linkies work: I'm too tired to double check!) You, early risers: GOOD MORNING, "DEARIES"...! I'll see ya'll later!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Clear, thick transparency - Hambly
Arrow and corner punch - Stampin' Up!
Scallop circle and embosses bubbles - Sizzix and S/U!
Metal clip - Rob and Bob Studio
Seal and Sentiment Stamps - My Cute Stamps
Little fish - Stampin' Up! (Old!!!!!)

Nighty - Night, friends!

It was just a {MAGIC} matter of time...

Hey and HI-dee ho, from Rancho Durenberger! There has been a hoedown of stamping and papercraftin' here today! Let me tell you: I let the horses run! Yee Haw!

Shoot, now! I didn't mean literally (you're looking for my typical HORSEY/WESTERN type -o- craftin', but maybe... I SURPRISED YOU! I surprised myself!) I was chompin' at the bit to get something out in time for Kristina Werner's Color Challenge, which mercifully, she extended! Yee Haw! I was hot for those colors and that ADORABLE photo of inspiration! I WANTED to do something westerny... but couldn't get past that great robot toy! THEN, I remembered the Caardvark's challenge for a "shaped" card and YIPEEE! I had myself a good - old - time!





This stamp was still sitting out from my last project... Calling to me... "Elise, don't let Stampin' Up! retire me... Do something WONDERFUL and unexpected with me!" It's from "Certified!" See if you can tell where I used bits and pieces from this hunk of stampy goodness!?!

Then, I remembered THIS OLD CARD that I've been saving since my boy was a wee-baby:

I'm not a "scrap lifter" or a "card borrower" as a rule, but something about a commercially marketed, mass produced card that softens my stance on where I gather inspiration from...



This ratty thing is my sketch and where I "road tested" my ideas. Reminds me of Flat Stanley of the future! Hee Hee

I whipped out the COLUZZLE to make these circular cuts through the body of my robot and then sandwhiched my transparency (new, from S/U!) that had been stamped with WHITE STAZ ON!!! OMG! (It turned out... OK... Not as crisp as I'd hoped but passing: I was, however, stamping on quite the slick surface, so I should be happy it came out as well as it did! Yipes!)

Now I have to tell you...(HEAR THE BRADY BUNCH SONG AND BARE WITH ME:) a little story.... Of the "M a g i c M a t t e r"... that was lonely, spending time all on it's own... Hadn't been used...in MANY years now... and it was all alone.. Then the one day, this crazy scrappin' lady, who'd been keeping and hoarding on her own... She was thankful, she was a pack rat, never parting with a single art materiallllllll. Then the one day, this crazy scrappin' lady: she was making, a funny robot card.. and she recalled this, little item, the one to make and even borrrrrrdderrrrrr.. So she whipped out this handy scrap tool, that so many others had allllll ready purged.. and she celebrated, as she drew nice and even lines.... around her ROBOT card...... Crazy scrappin' lady and MAGIC MATTER.... Crazy scrappin' lady and MAGIC MATTER... a happy FAMILY!!!! (WHOOOOOOOO! All that and NO afternoon shot of caffine on board! Holy Moly!)

He's COMING TO LIFE..... (wish I could think of a funny line from Young Frankenstein....!)! Did you notice my DOTS! Yipee! "Swiss Dots" from CUTTLEBUG! Oooooowww! Do they cast a lovely shadow! Very, very, definitely,very SHADOWY! Lovely, shadow, definitely shadowy dots.

A shot of the "inside view" of the little window! I don't like the "undergarments" showing, so I was pretty pleased with the way this turned out!

Check out his "heart light!" (My ode to "E.T.") I used Stampin' Up's glorious fluffy heart punch and popped it right to the inside of the card for my "peek-a-boo" effect! (Love that punch!)

Supply list (take this a little "salty" I USED A LOT OF STUFF ON THIS CARD! OMG!):

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin Up! and Inkadinkadoo (cupcake only)
Yellow Glitter - Doodlebug
Transparency - Stampin' Up!
Punches - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up!; Staz-On; Versa Fine
Cuttle Bug Embossing Plate (Swiss Dots) and Sizzix Machine

WOW! So, I guess (shhhhhhh!) that's enough for now! Hee Hee If you're still reading at this point: bless you!

xo-

Elise

FRIENDS forever...

Cute little Dawn McVey gave me a run for MY money with this week's color challenge! Whoooeee! I took one look at those gorgeous colors she'd assembled and thought: giddyap! No problema....! Right.....? WRONG! I was a little "challenged by the challenge!" But, I guess that's the idea, huh!?! I finally got over myself, when I challenged myself to "dump some tackle" and boost things up a notch with some delicious, Stampin' Up! embellishments: check it! These guys have been banging around the old "tackle box" and needed some wear and tear: once I added some shiny metal goodness, I got over the hump, out of the box, round the bend.... Oh....., HERE!

So, I can live with this... That's the beauty of the journey! Plus, I played with "True Friend" and "Certified" stamp sets from Stampin' Up!, both of which I'm PRAYING they don't retire! Ack! Retirement list comes out June 1st! It can be a dark time of year for the old "E-stir"... I can't stand when they kill sets I haven't had a real GOOD chance to love, even though I start out each year of collecting with the BEST of intentions..... *sob* Think good thoughts for these gems!

Let's see if I can attach Dawn's beautiful picture for the color challenge (always a challenge in itself: tee hee)... I SERIOUSLY don't know how I did that: yesterday it was giving me fits! Ohhh, the wonders of the internet and modern technology! Yeeeee Haw!

Isn't that teeny, tiny clip delish! Ohhhhhh, goodness, how fun to have finally put one to use!


AND one last shot to say "I hope that we'll be friends FOREVER", highlighting that beautiful hunk of designer hardware... also by... yep! Stampin' Up!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up! (Rose Red, River Rock, Always Artichoke, Whisper White)
Scallop Punch - Stampin' Up!
All Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Metal embellishments- Stampin' Up!
EDITED TO ADD: (Woopsie!) Forgot to say "Embossing plates" - Sizzix & Stampin' Up!

Have a GREAT DAY you wonderful crafty folks! Thanks for stopping by!

I'm trying to use some MOXIE to be FAB!

A new challenge for the E-stir! These gals are so darling over at "MoxieFab" with PaperCrafts! They are talented ladies and purveyors of everything wonderful and crafty! My all-knowing blog superstar friend, Dana, guided me to their color challenge which looks fun and fresh, so I gave it a whirl!

They were inspired by some seasonal citrus colors and it was infectious and fun! I didn't know how to extract their photo, so you'll just have to take my word for it: it was delicious! They had some clean and juicy pillows from Pottery Barn with these colors! Yummy! 'Nuff said!

Tried to add a detail shot to show the electricity of the glitter glue (Old PSX Diamonds), and pearls with flowers cut and layered from Sizzix! What fun!

Thanks for visiting! I'm ALWAYS thrilled to know you stopped in for a peek! Happy Sunday!

Supplies:

C/S & D/P - Stampin' Up!
Stamp - (sentiment) Stampin' Up!
Floral Paper Ribbon - K & Co.
Grunge Board Brackets - Tim Holtz/Ranger
Pearls - Stampin' Up!
Flowers and Top Note Die - Sizzix & S/U!
Glitter Glue - PSX

You are FABULOUS!

This card goes out to all my crafty friends: you are ALL fabulous! Is there nothing you can't do!?! It's pretty special to be crafting "shoulder to shoulder" with y'all! In the blog-o-sphere and in the real world: crafty friends rock!




I started this card as an entry for the KWerner color challenge... But after my wild scrappin' weekend and MUCH SLEEP DEPRIVATION, I thought Wednesday was Tuesday, and the next thing I knew, I wasn't making it across the finish line before Mr. Linky headed out... boo hoo... The good news is that I was able to tweak my ideas to fit for the CPS challenge, so YEAH!


I saw "stars" the minute I noticed the bar at the bottom of the sketch with all those circles!



Then there is this (now expired - Wah!) sentiment from Stampin' Up!'s "Fabulous Flower" set that expired a catty or two back... How I have waited to make that thing shine: oooww, baby!

Finally! I sprung for some stamp sets from "My Cute Stamps" recently and picked up the darling "Circus Animal's" set to inspire me to make more "children's birthday cards" HA! So here I am making a card that I want to send to every crafty friend I have, but what the heck... It's ALLLLLLLL good! KWIM!

Here's the picture from Kristina Werner's color challenge (WHICH IS NOW OVER!!!) but it is still significant to me because my darling friend, Traci, submitted the photo for the inspiration! Wheeeehew! She rocks my world with her (and her husband's {wink* wink}) photography! Not to mention, super fabulous scrapbook L/O's and recently CARDS! But anywhoo, I couldn't ignore THIS inspiration, so for those of you who haven't seen it and even those of you who have (it's worthy of one more drool...)



Aren't those colors smashing! Not exactly colors you'd collect on a regular basis, but with this delightful inspiration: what fun!

I thought little Elephant looked pretty confident and that "she" could handle a LOT! So, she's juggling peanuts! I used that glittery Gelly Roll pen again to doodle some swirlies to imply movement for the peanuts... Do you like my juggling peanut routine? I also used an aqua painter to color the missy elephant and emphasize her lovely figure. It doesn't take much, but I'm telling you, look out Copics! For those of your afraid of the "$$$" commitment to Copics... think about practicing this technique... Just a dot or two of a re-inker, or squeeze your S/U! pad gently, BUT firmly, to get a small layer of ink on the lid and then that becomes your palette! Start by putting down the deepest color where the darkest part of the shadow would be and then clean your brush on your table-top paper blotter and work back. with less color and more water... It's easier than it may sound! I stamped the elephant several times to do a "study" with the watercolor application and it was too easy! (Please, don't be offended Copic lovers: if someone wanted to DONATE them to me, I'd be all over it! But for those of us who've already invested in SOOOOOOO many other color materials, it's nice you don't always have to RE-BUY everything! ) And that's all I have to say about that. Heh, heh!

One last little shot to say "be FABULOUS!" Why not!?!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin' Up (sentiment); My Cute Stamps (elephant & peanuts); pencil eraser (white polka dots)
Scallop Edge and Corner Rounder - Stampin' Up!
Tiny Star Punch - Marvy
Sakura Gelly Roll Pen

Some More Time Travel Lovin'!

Here's ANOTHER scrapbook layout to share from my recent retreat! Pretty simple, but man WHAT FUN to scrap simple! Dumped a lot of old "tackle" and enjoyed playing with the new! Tim Holtz's DISTRESS Stickles, to be specific in COTTON CANDY! Hello! Do you want to know how much I LOVES me cotton candy! Now there's a "Stickle" with that name! Goodness! This sport just gets more fun every time I play! Tee Hee




Yep! Those are my BABIES, again! I can smell that little tot's hair and I'm literally dizzy! Ain't life grand! Her first birthday was such fun and great photo opportunity, except for this tiny fact... Her light blue eyes were having no part of flash photography so I'm working with a lot of closed eye shots: but NEVER MIND THAT! We're talking about the opportunity to play with PINK! Everything PINK! No wonder I love cotton candy so much! Speaking of pink.. ever pondered how difficult it is to find the right pink? Do you have reams of pink that looked more "salmon" or hospital pink when you got it home! Stampin' Up!'s current "In-Color" assortment has the MOST outrageously perfect pink ever! For cards, you can buy it by the 8.5 X 11" pack, but for 12 X 12 you have to buy the assortment pack. Anywhoo, the year of the current "In Colors" ends June 30th, so if your hankering for some of the most delicious pink (Pink Pirouette) you ever scrapped with, YOU CAN E-MAIL ME if you have an order (I do not have a website with S/U! at this time, but I'm always happy to inspire and serve S/U! customer needs on a personal basis!) or contact your local, beloved S/U! demo! It's just the greatest!


The detail shot that makes my toes curl! Just look at all the pinky goodness! SEEEE the "Stickles".... Lord how they shine... (Can you hear George Strait!?!) The blush on YOUR page looks nothin' like mine..... hee hee


More fun detail, since my camera is doing much better with that than it used to... I accented the letters in the "LOVED" portion of the circle stamp by Autumn Leaves with with a sparkly "Gelly Roll" pen from Sakura that my lovely friend, Dana, the queen of all things glitter, turned me on to a few years back! It just gives the right accent for that delicious stamp! Have I mentioned how much I love SCRAPBOOKING! Wahoooooo! I hope you do too!

Supplies:

C/S - S/U!
D/P - Basic Grey & S/U!
Stamps - Autumn Leaves & S/U!
Chipboard - S/U! & Technique Tuesday
Stickles! - Ranger/TimHoltz
Flower and Polka Dot ribbon - MM
Birthday Cake Charm - ?
Birthday Quote Sticker - O' Scrap!

Time Traveler...

One of the most magical parts of scrap booking is the ability to travel back through time... Most of us love pictures and ALWAYS have, since we were little and just learning the meaning of "captured moments," and how photographs can preserve our memories. This past weekend, I had the terrific fortune to "retreat" with some wonderful crafty, scrappy gals, good music, yummy food (A LOT of laughter!) and memories. I left for this retreat planning to fall in love again! I was not surprised by this phenomena, since I literally took myself on a second honeymoon (quite unexpected, at THAT time...), by spending one retreat working on, nothing else but, my wedding album! (I'm not making any poor {as in taste} jokes here, btw! *you're welcome!* tee hee)

Anywhoo, THIS retreat I swooned over MY BABIES! I've gotten ridiculously behind in my "time-line" scrap booking, but no worries: WHEN I get to it, time is preserved in my pictures and then I get to tell the story and relive life's little moments! Wow! (I think I just tossed out names of 15 scrapbook stores or companies just in this one little post.. *chuckle* )

If you've ever scrapped in a group setting, you know that we scrappers are prone to "sharing", not only our GENEROUS supplies, but also OUR stories! Stories and exclamations of love, more stories, more sharing and sometimes even TEARS! Lot's of tears! But it's allllllll good! It's all a part of the journey!

So here I was, on this retreat, reliving the time in my life when my BABY (who had her 8th birthday last month!) had just turned ONE! Goodness gracious! This is my maiden voyage into posting scrap work, so bare with me: photography gets tricky for me here! Not only is this new to my blog, but I was working VERY freely, scraping pix printed LONG ago, pre-digital, so I'm making due with bad lighting, unfortunate color choices and a whole lot of red-eye (not so different from MY CURRENT PHOTOGRAPHY, actually! heh heh), but what the heck: we're all friends here! So, for your pleasure, my wee girl and boy (had recently turned 4 in this pict.!), gettin' their groove on! Check out the boy's grin: was he the proud, big bro or WHAT! Recently, I've been working on much more technically challenging work, so this is good and simple fun with lots of help from CRICUT combined with old AND new materials alike! Check out this little dangly tag I made combining and OOOOOOlllllldddd "Junkitz" tile, some card stock, fiber and HAMBLY!!! Whoooooooooo!

Here's one more shot of the page: I had a tough time getting it to focus on the ENTIRE L/O, so we'll see if this one shows up a bit nicer!

The photo got a little smoky in this one, but the colors and detail seem a bit more true to life, so what the heck! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOO much for letting me share with you, AGAIN! I was delighted by lots of fun comments on my last post as I zipped up and headed off for fun! Now that I'm getting unpacked and re-organized... hope to be visiting lots of you, soon! Can't wait to see what you've been working on!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
D/S - Basic Grey
Rub on and transparency - Hambly
Fiber - ?
"2002" tile - Junkitz
Cricut cartridges - All Mixed Up & Street Signs
Quote sticker - ?

THANKS, friends!

Hi there, friends o-the blog-o-sphere! I'm zipping totes and wrapping my gi-normous spinner of S/U! inks and getting ready to spend four glorious days scrapping with some of the dearest and scrappiest ladies and friends a gal could ever hope to have in her world... This will be the first time I've gone on retreat since I started this little blog and tonight I'm feeling full of gratitude, because now I have so many more friends! Thanks to this blog and all that I have learned by meeting and being inspired by so many of you, I'm feeling full and happy knowing that the crafty world has grown so much wider, yet so much CLOSER because of all of YOU! So as I prepare to bid you farewell for a few days, I wanted to leave you with a card of.... thanks!

First of all, thank you for giving me a place to share my paper crafting, silly thoughts and hopefully, occasionally, crafty insights, sprinkled with joy and humor for this wonderful, WONDERFUL art form. To those of you who visit me regularly and whom I "stalk" regularly (please don't file a restraining order! tee hee) I'm loving THIS! Thank you for your warm and thoughtful comments, your time and in most cases, friendship! This is one of the most giving and generous communities I have ever had the privilege of being a humble part of. I feel like I'm JUST beginning to get a "lay of the land" and I'm already wondering how I've been crafting for all these years and not joined in the fun sooner!!!

Wherever you are and however your weekend is shaping up, I hope you get plenty of time for laughter and the company of dear friends... And if you plan to REALLY live it up, I hope you do all of the above AND scrap/stamp/glue/ink/glitter....... just MAKE SOMETHING! I'll be by soon to check it out!

xoxo-

Elise

HOWDY!

Howdy, friends! I've just moseyed on in from out on the range, here at Rancho Durenberger. It's always good to walk the fence line every once in a while and today I took this little buckaroo, my offering for the CPS sketch of the week, #115, along for the "trail ride" so I could attempt to photograph his good side:

This week's sketch WAS a dandy!

My ideas and "rules" of composition were challenged in about six different ways, but I just let it ALLLLLL go! You can see that I busted out MORE fragments to solve this card making riddle...! When will I tire of these dern things? Probably NEVER! They are just so handy for card-crafting accents and I continue to be powerless over their charm and possibility!

This was a project where I really let materials mix it up for the good of the craft: always a great time! I played with alcohol ink to color treat the memory foil tape from Ranger, and did not give up until there was good antiquing happening! Sometimes it's just great, old fashioned fun to get down and DIRTY with your inks: yeah, for inky hands! (A little ink stain can really minimize the impact of weathered hands and calluses from shoveling horse nuggets... - note that I try to RARELY include shots of my hands! ) Sometime it's just fun to say: I am an artist! So wear your ink proudly!

One last shot of the lil' buckaroo, before I share my materials list! Sorry about the back glare, I just liked the added visual interest of this photo in the ooooollllllld window of our big chicken barn. Thanks for parking your wagon at my happy little blog site today... C'mon back now, ya hear!

All C/S - S/U!
D/S - Hambly (wood grain); Crate Paper (stripes); K& Co. (lil' Buckaroo and calf)
Stamps - S/U!
Ink - S/U! craft and classic ink
Alcohol ink - Tim Holtz & Ranger (Pitch black and Espresso)
Memory Foil Tape - Ranger
Fragments - Tim Holtz

Sky Rocket in FLIGHT!

Happy FRIDAY and greetings from Planet Durenberger! Hee Hee (Yes: there is still too much caffeine in my system, but how else would I get everything done!?!) Here's a little card to tickle the sketch happy folks from Lauren Meader's super inspirational blog and it's a wee-bit out of my territory: It's a man-ish/ kid's congratulations card: something that I don't EVER make and need to have more of in the old vault... So yeah! Yeah, for sketches! Yeah, for challenges! (And what kind of challenge is there for getting the old homestead cleaned in time for Friday Night ENTERTAINMENT!?! Anybody?) Shhhhhhh. It's alright, don't answer that...

The SKETCH of inspiration:

It's a pretty straight forward little card, but I wanted to share that I crossed a boundary on this one, using NEW stamps I was influenced to buy, strictly due to my new community in blog-land! Thanks to the immersion into this scrapolicious society of HUNDREDS, maybe thousands, of crafty card-making babes who are inspiring me daily, here in blogland, I'm succumbing to the VIRTUAL shopping galaxy of the blogosphere! My first purchase: stamp sets from "my cute stamps!" I treated myself to the MOST DARLING robot and spaceship collection that looks like something from "Lost in Space" meets 20th Century Fox/BlueSky Productions, "Robots"... A-dorable!

Photography for this card was SUPER challenging! I'm not much of a photographer to begin with, but keeping these colors "true" was impossible! I was INSIDE, OUTSIDE, direct vs. indirect, flash/no flash: you name it. I'm okay with these pictures, but they still don't show enough contrast between the two main blue panels I was working with. The blue cardstock on the left side (with the moon) is BALLET BLUE from S/U!, which has a purple quality and can knock on the door of the "periwinkle" family quite nicely... I was working with that, to have nice compliment with the yellow of the rocket "jetter" flame-age, etc. THEN, I couldn't resist DOING a RESIST with the little stars from this collection, so I stamped them and embossed with clear embossing powder, and then sponged on BALLET BLUE & NIGHT OF NAVY ink to make the stars pop through the (originally) white panel... I chose NOT to add any purple in the mixture, because I didn't want it to blend too much with the upper left rectangle of C/S... But after seeing this in photography, the two blue panels look very similar after all. Dag nabbit. Oh well. It's still a fun card and if I give it to a child: um, yeah! I'm thinkin' "it don't matter...!" It was just a stroll down the "color theory" isle in my brain... If you joined up for the ride, I hope you didn't get too dizzy!

C/S - S/U!
Blue, Red and Yellow inks - S/U!
Stone Grey - Staz On
Mirrored C/S - Bazzil (?)
Stamped images - My Cute Stamps
Sentiment - S/U!
Brads - Michael's
Embossing powder - S/U!
Versa Mark Pad

Support from an Oldy but a GOODY!

PSX: Personal Stamp Exchange, c. 1994... Where have you gone? *sob* Remember them? Remember their stamps? I can't forget them... ever. My first! BEFORE Hero Arts, STAMP-A-ROSA...Stampin' Up! and all of you newer, up and coming companies.., Personal Stamp Exchange was a locally grown stamp company, that for me, had the most marvelous artwork in many of their images, but in particular, ANIMALS! I'm a huge "animal companion"/ lover of all things fluffy, protector of the furry, feathery... four legged... two... YOU NAME IT! I just loves me animals! That might explain why I just "redirected" my mortgage payment towards 100 bales of hay..... ANYWHOO! I've been struggling to get a contribution for the latest CPS sketch (114), so I turned to.... (see post title):

Presenting this week's Card Positioning Sketch Challenge, #114!

Aren't those ducks breathtaking!?! Would you believe that I found this stamp in a bag of "Goodwill" bound art supplies that my dear friend was donating! Seriously, not to deny some savvy Goodwill-shopping stamp babe from her windfall... but c'mon! THIS BABY WAS BORN TO BE MINE! Poor little stamp was nearly buried in *GASP!* acrylic paint! I didn't even know if it would ever stamp a clean image AGAIN! But I took it home to my workshop... gave it a bath and massaged the gunk from it's rubber peaks and valleys.... Talked nice and encouraging to it, and then shined with with a clean cloth until it gleamed... THEN, tap, tap, tap... its first inking, in my care......

SO THERE! You can see for yourself that it made a full recovery! Thank GOODNESS! Of course I had to stamp it about thirty times, color in the images, cut them out with my best detail scissors and x-acto blade... And now I have a little pile, just waiting for "homes!" I sleep so much better knowing that I have ..... (here she goes, AGAIN!....) my ducks in a row... MY DUCKS IN A ROW! (Bump, bump, bump {go the drums..})

Sorry, the afternoon "trough" of coffee kicked in and I'm getting rammy... I surely hope you enjoy my offering today and that you'll look after YOUR coveted stamps and keep always keep an eye out for the "oldies and goodies" from your crafting past... You NEVER know where they might be hiding!

C/S - Stampin Up!
D/P - "
All stamps by - Stampin' Up! except for, of course.... the DUCKS which are by... PSX (of yester-year...)
Jumbo Grommets & Bookplate - S/U!
Scallop punch - S/U!
Scallop circle - Sizzix & S/U!
Teeny-tiny flower punch - ?
Ribbon - S/U!
Orange Stickles - Ranger

THIS post is a little FRAGMENTED!!!

Just a quick one to FINALLY share the wonderful project from the class I took with Mr. Tim Holtz last month. It took ME a while to decide how to make it "my own!" Not that it wasn't FABULOUS the way Tim had us do it, but with all those interesting little fragments, each one an exciting, artsy opportunity for creating and showcasing all things "eye candy", crafty and delightful... It was just too wonderful of a piece not to make it a little more "me!" I'm definitely planning to hang it on the wall of Scrapland! It's not going into the "vault" of old CKU & assorted class projects that never received that final "stamp" of my vision and style... So here!


Most of the images and ephemera were from the LOADED sack of supplies that came with the course materials, but where I had some empty "fragments" I saved them for more personal images! There is a tiny shot of my hubster and me, the night we "cut the cake" together as man and wife...

What's an authentic "E-stir" project without some form of metal or faux metal "star"...?

In the class we tried many techniques for filling the fragments! We made a lot of packing tape transfers did some alcohol ink techniques and even embossed! Very cool!



One thing to note when adhering images to fragments is that Ranger's "classy accents", crystal effects, whatever clear glue you use, can and most likely, will lift ink off printed material, unless it's properly treated or created. Ink jet photos, etc. will disappear as it dries. Printed paper, especially that for scrapbooking and card making works wonderfully. We used all kinds of cool ephemera paper from Design Originals, but colored copies made from commercial grade printers such as Kinkos, etc. DO work wonderfully glued or transferred. I had some scrap picts. that I'd printed at Kinkos from just after our wedding a LONG time ago! I just used two little things to enrich the "personal" quality of the mirror frame, but it wasn't to make it about THAT.... just images that inspire me!


I know that I've been going on and on about that silly class I took with Mr. Holtz... Sorry if you're tired of it. I'll tone it down NOW that I have finally finished the project! If you EVER have a chance to take one of Tim's classes (as if you didn't know this already!!!) I say DO IT! Sign up, even if it's in a town a little farther down the road than you're comfortable with! Even if you have to get a hotel room when you get there! Tim is the kind of teacher we all are in our heads, but he's real and he has his hands right here on the materials that we dream of using and gives us reason to "play", unashamed and uninhibited! Not to say that there aren't other WONDERFUL teachers on local and national levels: THERE ARE! But this man shared something in his class that I hadn't received as genuinely, in a long time, in that type of environment: INSPIRATION.