C.A.R.S. May 2019 Swap - Masculine

It's that time again.  The second Thursday of each month the Chicago Area Rubber Stampers meet and swap.  This month's theme was Masculine Cards.   I got a chance to use my new Buffalo Check background stamp from Stampin Up.  I did pull out an old retired Stampin Up set for the bear image.  The background behind the bear is stenciled and the fishy and greeting are from the Silhouette.  Looking back I probably shouldn't have tied a bow in Jute for a masculine card but I wasn't thinking of that.   So there you go another 18 cards down in the books.  I did take the month of April off as it was right before the craft fair and we were still prepping.

This month's meeting was bittersweet.  An original member of over 20 years is moving away so everyone was given the chance to say goodbye and we had a little celebration for her at the end of the meeting.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look hope your having a wonderful day!

Ahoy On Your Birthday - Stars and Stripes Card Series

We're more than half way done with this FUN card series.  Today I'm using Anna Griffin letterpress folders, dies and clear stamps to extend the nautical one more time!

I've inked up Anna's Anchor Letterpress plate with Archival Ink and run a piece of white cardstock through the Cuttlebug with to create the letterpress look.  For the anchor clear stamp I stamped it in Staz On on Strathmore Mixed Media cardstock which is the whitest paper I have that works with my Zig Clean Color Pens which is how I colored the anchor.  It is die cute with Labels 4 from Spellbinders.  The greeting OnYour Birthday are all Anna Griffin Dies as is the Striped Stars embossed strip under the anchor.

I really adore how this card turned out.  Thank you so much for stopping by today hope you are enjoying your June!  

You Brighten My Day - Stars and Stripes Card Series

Yay back on track.  The kids are finishing up the first semester of Summer School then going off to their respective jobs helping me out at work!  (DOUBLE Yay my office is going to get rid of most of the boxes while they are there!!!)  Our latest card series is underway and getting me excited for the upcoming 4th of July festivities!   I really wish we had a beach here but I will have to dream of lighthouses and beaches until I can get back to Florida.

Today's card will suffice as a manifestation of my dream.....  I love this little Lighthouse on the beach from Lawnfawn and I've colored it with Zig Clean Color Markers on Strathmore Cold Press watercolor paper.   The lighthouse of course comes with it's own stripes so I have added some stars in the night sky using my water brush to remove some of the color and putting a rhinestone in the middle of the washed out dot and a little yellow put back in so that the rhinestone looks as if it glows.  I love this technique wouldn't it e wonderful for a wedding or shower card so it looks like diamonds are glowing?  Or little street lamps, or lights on a Christmas tree.  The possibilities are endless.....

Thank you so much for stopping by today and getting a little Beachy stars and stripes.  Have a Wonderful remainder of your week!

Bombshell Blog Hop - A Cut Above

Today is the Bombshell Stamps Blog Hop..... 

The theme this month is Playing with Die Cuts!
WOO HOO right up my alley!  

You've arrived here from Angie's Blog and wonderful project!

I used the Bombshell Digital Stamp Set King of The Road.  Water colored with pencils and added some Viva Decor glass affects for the windows and lights.  The dies are all Memory Box, Gears and Alphabet Soup letters cut from black Co-ordinations.  Dream cut and water colored with shimmer water colors.  Also used was a Tim Holtz stencil for the dots.  Hope you like it!

Your now moving on to Valerie's Blog and her amazing project.

If you get lost along the way here is the full Hop list:

Bombshell Blog
Alison
Suzi
Kim
Angie
Marnie(You are Here)
Valerie
Kelli
Kathi

Delivering Trucks of Love

I'm back at the Memory Box Blog today with a fun boyish card.    You know how sometimes you have an idea but it's not quite cooked?  Well this was half cooked idea then I was sitting chatting with my kiddos and BAM crazy how fast the completed idea comes and I had to get up and do it right away before I forgot.  I dug through my drawers and found my furnace tape and my Alcohol Inks and colored up a piece of tape with a yellow/gold color.  I then cut out 3 of the Dump Trucks.  With a Black copic I carefully colored the outside of the wheels and set them aside.  Then came the background piece which was sponged with brown, green and blue Distress ink to create an outdoor scene.  Using the Happy Arrows Stencil I created a sign by stenciling Distress Ink over it outlining it in black ink and cutting it out.   The brown is just a couple of handcut strips of brown cardstock and the sign is stuck on top to create the sign posts.   At this point one truck get cut in half so that it can be dumping some of the hearts on the ground. Then the Dump Trucks are stuck down and a ton of hearts are cut with the Heart of Hearts Die and put into the back of the trucks.  Hope you like it I am totally excited by the metal trucks!   This would be a fun fun Boy Card you could put all kinds of things in the truck.
Products Used -

• Dump Truck - 98476
• Happy Arrows Stencil - 88509
• Heart of Hearts - 98781
• Russian Sage Card Base
• Distress Ink - Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive, Stormy Sky, Mustard Seed
• Alcohol Ink - Butterscotch and Sunshine Yellow
• Furnace Tape
• Brown & Red Cardstock
• Copic Marker - 100 and a Black Multiliner

Hope you like it!  Thanks for stopping by!

Bombshell Muse Monday

It's Muse Monday time over on the Bombshell Blog.  This month we are featuring the Speed Shop Stamp Set.  This is the perfect masculine stamp set.  It colors wonderfully with the Copic markers like I did here and then cut it out.  I created a background with a Tim Holtz stencil Dot Fade and Ranger Ink Watering Can.   I then used an embossing folder Darice Diamond Plate Pattern and heat embossed the raised embossing with clear embossing powder.  After that I added some Snow Cone and Squid Ink Gelatos creating the garage floor affect.

Hope you have a great Holiday Week coming up! 

Anchors Away! Goodbye August! EEEEK

 A little Nautical card using Bombshells Vintage Mermaid(anchor) and Koi Tattoo (waves).  First I stamped the Anchor in Versamark and embossed with Brown Sugar Zing embossing powder.  Then on the white piece of cardstock I stamped the Waves in Versamark and brushed them with PearlX Macro Pearl.  The waves were a bit hard to photograph but they look cool in person.  The Navy Anchor is cut out with a Memory Box Die, then I wrapped twine around the entire piece and popped up up on top of the card.  The Adventure Sticker came from a Jillibean Soup Sheet Happy Camper Stew.  It's the perfect Manly card for Palvi's challenge this month at Bombshell!  

I can't believe August is over!  I know I'm late posting but I was a little slow recovering from last nights crop and the excitement of my birthday celebration at said crop!  Can't wait to share once I figure it out......  Along with waiting at a police stop on the way home so some very young guy could walk the line and do all of the tests at 12:30AM ....  Argghhhhh  It was a long night.   Today the girls along with Mia and I went to the Library, out to lunch and then to a Demo at Blick Art Supply(Thank You Dianne K for the heads up) on Paper Marbling(ooooh the crazy fun things we can create!).   While there, I completed my Copic Collection, I needed 3 more markers.   Woo Hoo do we get a party for that!  Anyway I'm in full on organizing mode at the moment, as I get areas completed I will share photos.  Ok on to more fun putting away!  Hope everyone has had as Lovely a start to their Holiday Weekend as I have!  Enjoy and be safe.

CAS Cards May.....

 

Clean & Simple Masculine Cards.  This is a class I'm teaching @CraftFancy in Arlington Heights today and again on June 6th.  These are just in time for Fathers Day.  

 

Flying Home

 A quick masculine card using the Magnificent Pine, Puffy Clouds and the Flying Goose to build a die cut scene.  I also used a bit of chalk ink and cardstock.  And I have to give credit to my girlies they help me by doing all of the die cutting.  

Here the geese are stopping on their way home after wintering in the South.  We're a stop over for about half of them although the other half will make their homes here.  There is an awful lot of honking on a daily bases as they fly over and the pond over by Ab's grade school is covered with them resting and eating.  Just in the center where the ice is melted all stacked up.

Has anyone noticed I have a problem with Memory Box dies?  Shhhhhhhhh... don't tell anyone!!!  I can't stop collecting them.   I just moved my dies into new storage today, since I couldn't fit the new ones I've purchased in the last week into my old storage.  EEEK   I believe yesterday was the first day I didn't buy a new one while I was at work in quite some time.  But seriously I stared at them and used all of my energy and the tons of customers we had yesterday to keep me from coming home with the Umbrella which I believe I can't live without,  this week.....  It was still hanging on the hook when I left.   See I'm pining over a die and I already have another Umbrella die(banging head on desk).  Oh well I'm back to work today I can pine some more if it's not already gone I'm sure it will be a different one today.  I do have a lot of things to work on so keeping fingers crossed. 

Hope everyone is having  a great week.  Thanks for  stopping by.

Very Masculine

This is one of my all time favorite techniques.  The Herringbone Tech is from Technique Junkies.  I have to research which month?   It's ideal for using up scraps.   I do it so often I can sit in front of the TV and piece these together.  This particular card was for the Vintage Card class using Graphic 45 a Proper Gentleman and the new Hero Arts stamps.  Along with some older Maya Rd. Stamps and my new wrought iron border punch!  Love it!

Friday Is Here! RAT in a Bucket!

Have you met our rats? I don' t think I've shared pictures of them. This is Petunia. The girls love putting them in these little buckets. Petunia however is just looking for a way to escape. Daisy(not pictured here) loves her bucket not icky little kid hands touching her, less bathing to do later after playtime is over! They are quite funny I will share a picture of Daisy soon, maybe after the girls put her back in her cage she freaks and bathes and bathes and bathes!

Last night Dave and I went over to 1st Place and had snacks(yummy bar food) while Abbi was in dance. Em was out to dinner with a friends family so we were alone. It was like a mini 45min date. I'm always suprised at how places are pushing that Summer Shandy beer. It smells like someone dumped pledge into beer and called it clean? Now I'm not a beer drinker(makes me need to sleep) nor do I really love Lemon so maybe I'm missing something. It so reminds me of Zima which was like cough syrup with bubbles. I never could understand why anyone would drink that either.

So after today there is only one more week of school left. Well a week and a few hours. The girls are getting excited and I'm getting nervous. Dave scheduled his next surgery yesterday so we have that to look forward to in June. Ewwww. This weekend though we are going to the racetrack to check out the horses. They have tons of stuff for the kids to do and we're going to take a picnic lunch and hang out.

Another Fathers Day card uploaded to the store. I stamped and colored this with Copics in bright colors then when over each image with a light brown and warm grey to tone it down and make it look more antiqued.

Ok so clearly I really have nothing to talk about! But at least I'm not neglecting my little blog! HA

New Stuff

Happy Wednesday! So yesterday I missed the Kindergym Final Celebration, all because I thought it was Monday. ARGHHHH Well things feel a little more normal today. Tonight is Scrapbooking and there is a new inspiration piece up over at the Schnockered Blog. I got that 50 cent tank cleaned out with CLR and it looks pretty good I want to rinse outside with he hose and then do a vinegar and water wash on it. Don't want to poison the rats with their new home. It was really ridiculous me wrestling the giant box of glass while standing on a stool in the kitchen so I could reach inside it. HA

It's gloomy and rainy here today which isn't all bad I'm back to organizing and laundry.

So yesterday and today are big Etsy load days for me. I have lots of new stuff to share, all quite random for the most part.

We have the Summer of Reading Aloha Bookmark Set then the Sail Away Happy Fathers Day Card, A Pink Damask Bag and Gift Card set and lastly a Golf is the Game Pop Up Fathers Day Card, which actually sold a couple hours after I put it up but it was so stinkin cute I still had to share. I've also added some more stamps and I have a couple of Anniversary cards as well. As I said it's random and all over the place. As is my brain I suppose!

So today is sweep and mop and clean day! See it's good it's gloomy I don' t feel so bad hanging out inside then!

Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there! Hope you have a FABULOUS Day!

Our Dad here is still sleeping away! No one wants to be the one to wake him on his day! HA When he gets up we're going to give him his presents then take him somewhere to eat. Maybe Super Dog he loves that place. If it's still raining maybe the Irish Pub he likes? After that well I'm not sure! We'll see what he wants to do! So here is the card I made for Dave. He loves Snoopy! Don't we all? The stamp is by Stampabilities. Papers by K&Co and BoBunny. Rubons Maya Rd. and I had to use my new Tim Holtz gears! Woo HOO! Oooh almost forgot you can't tell but the paper behind the stamped image is mirracard or silver mirrored cardstock. It blacks out when it's scanned. Have a great day everyone!