Easter cards for the Grands

I decided to take a different approach to the cards

which is why I jumped to Easter and 

totally forgot about St. Patricks Day.

I decided that I wouldn't do the cards like an assembly

cookie cutter line and making them all the same.

I KNOW!

However, I do love a good challenge and I was giving

myself enough time because I started day before yesterday

and finished up today, when I had a month or so......

💓

So while trying not to do cookie cutter thing I did  a "sort of " alike

yet different. I found I didn't have an inordinate amount

of bunnies in my stash soooo...there are some 

similarities.

I also wanted them kind of fun and goofy and adorable.

😬

So using Tim Holtz dies, stencils, stamps, crayons, distress

and oxide inks.

Dina Whakely stamps on the birds pretending

to be chicks in the card below.

Those hopping rabbits make me laugh.

The pink card is prima stamps and I adore the set.

The carrot is TH.

I also had a birthday stamp with a bunny in a basket flying high

which I thought was funny - using watercolor papers

and inks and oxides to color I love that it's different.

 Actually, the watercolor ink look going on were all premade

papers done just waiting to be used.

And I'm proud to say I busted my stash and have to

create more.

Ah gee......

The little trees are quickutz.

I did make a second little girl, because  it

so adorable the first time, and, I have 2 granddaughters-sooo

it was a perfect fit, I even matched hair color, the rest of the grands

are boys. And yeah, some of these cards are kinda girly

I think it all work.

Yeah they're pretty much girly. 

I love them though it and was really fun to create

different looking cards.

Except for the insides - they look like the inside above 

only different colors and shapes. 

Mostly. 

Most of the papers is a really old Dear Lizzy 6x6 pad.

 

New Album in the works

 

This album is from Hobby Lobby and 6x8 comes with a

variety of inserts.

I decided not to do matchy matchy from the 

outside to the inside.  

Used a combo of stamps and stencils.

 

It's not required is it???

 

It's kind of fun, yet I feel sort of boxed in with the different

project life pages because I feel it's like

a one trick pony

 

plus  I have limited supplies.

FUNNY THING - I had to whittle down and kept what I

thought would be used for everything

and it fits "my style" (snort)

 

However, when I go to scrap it feels like nothing works.

Seriously.

 What else is fun is that the towns, even the little ones

have their own stickers which of course

I totally needed, however, they ain't cheap.

LOL.

 

So I try to work with what I have and in fact,

I have started doodling - we'll call -

because I.am.not.a.good.draw-er.

 

However, that minion is mine. 

It appears I'm a really good copy-cat 

LOL.

So above it appears I did all my journaling

on the page before and it's sorta/kinda a 2 page

spread.

 

Did a bit of Tim magic and made my own PL cards.

WouldYouBelieveI'mRunningOut

gaspfaintthud

Having a tough time with mojo.

 

I feel because of space I need to make albums smaller

but I am so used to working in any size

and somehow I can't convince my bad self to  just break out.

Traveler's Notebook - Tags and Pages

Love the filler card - that is a stamp

on vellum using TH crayons.

I love coloring.

The next page Brooke and I met up at the s/b

shop before I left and bonus- sale!

The cup and spill the beans is a new stamp

I bought that I have been eyeing forEVER.

It's all about coffee.

You'll be seeing it a lot.

An eagle landed in our lake.

Like out our backyard.

It was soooo cool.

And you can't have an eagle page w/o flag,

red white and blue and star stencil background.

Holli and I had one last play date before I left,

and behind us is a sneak peek of PART of her stamp collection.

It's so much fun playing.

The coffee pot stamp belongs to Holli and before

I hit the road I stamp a few of them to

have on hand because 

A. they're so much fun to color

B. love it

C. see above 

LOL.

It's actually the journaling for the next page

which as you know if you've been following my blog 

(which I hope you do)

is the challenge page from my pal Brooke.

You can read about it here.

I love the page and it was so much fun to do.

Dear Lizzy

Tim Holtz

Quikutz

Hero Arts

Stencil

This album is getting kind of thick so I need to

be pondering on creating another one.

 

Travelers Notebook - New book/New covers

I had the best time making these covers. 

                                                  Using a bunch of TH papers, stamps, washi tape.

Lots of different stamps.

                                                                        It'll be bound with rings.

                        I love using the rings since it seems I can't seem to stop with the dimension.

                                                                                    LOL.

Halloween tags for the grands

 

 I really had a great time doing the tags.

Normally I do cards but I wanted to do something different

so tags it is.

I also send $1 being the big spender that I am

and I'll be attaching them on the back with 

double sided tape.

I love how they turned out. 

And I'm also impressed that I used stash AND I was

able to get those Tim Holtz dies done.

 

That Halloween die with the 4 characters has a lot of itty bitty parts.

   I so do NOT do well with itty bitty parts.

Howver, I did find out that

IF YOU DO ONE CHARACTER AT A TIME AND REFER

TO THE PICTURE ON THE FRONT OF THE PACKAGING

 THERE'S A GOOD CHANCE ONE CAN GET 

A FAXSIMILE THERE OF 

OF THE CHARACTER.

Just sayin....

Anyway it worked for me as I tried to do them all at once.

Total disaster.

 

I did some fussy cutting and the background was made from

Tim Holtz oxides and distress inks.

Sadly I didn't make notes but basically, 

yellow, orange, brown and black.

 

My new Traveler's Notebook cover

I really had the best time making this - I'm still struggling with 

blending everything together.

This was a combo of dyes and oxides and stamps.

Prima Stamps, the little girl stamp is my friend Holli's and

I have no clue (maybe Hero Arts) and the flowers

Stampendous.

The saying is Tim Holtz of course.

Using other mediums in my "watercolor" album

Because of limited space in my area I ditched

a lot of other mediums I had but

thankfully I didn't ditch the gelatoes.

Mind you, I didn't use them much before but they

are small enough to tuck them in somewhere and in

binge watching Missy Whidden (who's u-tube as hacked

and finally restored) uses gelatoes quite liberally

so therefore I had to be a copy cat.

Love the results.

Bold and fun, though if I need them softer, gesso to the rescue.

 Back to watercolors here, but I did purchase a new

stencial prior to all the stores closing down and

I love the "fireworks".

 AND then I had also kept a small stash of mists.

Mostly Studio Calico Mr. Huey

and THAT was to spray and let run.

AND THEN, I remember stickles from Studio G.

They were really popular back in the day and sort of

went out of vogue but I had some silver and

doesn't it look really cool.

 And picked up this cute butterfly stamp in the same

shopping spree and love how they're

watercolored randomly around the page.

They'll be easy if fussy cutting is on the agenda.

 This is kind of a stencil fail. 

It was too watery and leaked about but I learned

about "pencil" lines and one does not need to be

an artist to slap some pencil marks around.

AND there's always gesso to cover up and get a do-over.

Or just plop a photo there.

 AND then, I decided that the cover needed to be jazzed up.

Enter dylusions.

It's loud and psychedelic.

And then the title - I embraced my inner Lisa Fonseca

(check her out on u-tube) she handcuts everything.

From scratch.

Sigh.

She can handcut perfect alphas like nobody's business

without drawing them out first.

I drew out my letters first - and I love how they

work with the wildness.

I do not remember the mfg for the other dodads on there

except for the bird - that is a fussy cut stamp.

I'm likin' the bigger size because the TN is kinda restrictive

so we'll see how this one rolls.

Travelers notebook - using ephemera

I have started to collect stuff from restaurants, et all. Especially if it has the logo and especially if they're envelopes. So for Valentines day - it was laid back for us, except for the call from the Apple store to pick up my laptop. It needed a battery, and of course, my laptop the battery is glued in tight so naturally a professional is required. And a new keyboard. Woohoo!!!! 

Anyway, I used this red tag, tucked it in between the pages, because I felt V-day did not require a full page. So, fun die cut and enamel hearts on the front (and a premade leftover V-day title) and the journaling on the back. 

Quickutz dies, hero arts stamps 

Birthday cards

Had some fun with them and won't the adults (ladies) love them.

I did the llama thing because that seems to be in now, 

and because it was cute.

I did use watercolors because I'm growing quite fond of them.

Hero Arts stamps and a really old birthday journal card

that I cut up because I wanted those candles.

And yes, they look similar, because it just flowed that way

and why not repeat the fun stuff.

Christmas cards for the grands.

I need to remember they're getting older.

Sigh.

They turned out cute.

 Front side - inside.

Now to remember to mail them on time.

Mixed Media page - Greats

This is my album where I do what I want

no rhyme no reason.

Anyway, I was playing around because I had

run out of mojo and started fussy cutting

things out because I needed something to do.

So this is a photo of my great grandmother and great uncle.

It's printed on regular printer paper, actually scanned - I think.

I did a bunch of them because one of the creative

geniuses that I follow Suzanne Rose (I think) had the

idea of doing B&W's of your heritage or any photo actually,

on regular paper so it can incorporated into

a junk journal - use your relatives instead of someone else's.

So I did.

I thought the fussy cut flower and bee and the photo

just went together.

The orange paper with holes is a TH die cut. 

I'm not really sure what to do with it but I used both
negative and positive space.

Laid down some water colors and wa-la.

Mixed Media - Make a wish

This page with the black lines was done for the Monkey Man page.

The monkey was going to dangle on the page

and well it looked..stupid.

I abandoned this page until I came upon this photo

of my brother's birthday party rolling around in my embellishment bin.

 I am also using stash from my embellishment/die cut extravaganza and

these primary colored flowers are perfect for the photo.

The photo was actually printed on regular paper because I had

visions of using it in a junk journal. 

Since I'm not doing well with the junk journal thing it was perfect

for this page. 

Sadly, all I know in this photo is my brother (with the black 

suspender look) and I'm the cranky looking one

jealous of the attention he's getting. LOL.

Evidently I'm in trouble because everyone's looking my way.

Love the buttons galore tossed about. I happen to have

a jar in just primary colors.

Shazam.

Love the sequins and those itty bitty red bits. 

Adding a bit of color.

And no page is complete without some Tim Holtz words

topping it off. 

Messing around in my mixed media album

I had this photo of me about maybe 4-5 years old

fussy cut out and rolling around in my 

embellishment box.

And I had a thought - I have not messed in my mixed

media album in like forever.

 Therefore, why not use that goofy fussy cut photo.

With layers. Lots of layers.

And paint.

And a background stamp.

 And using those lovely dylusions paints.

So I have this huge background stamp and painted

on 3 different color pains.

I love how it looks and then managed to cover up

the majority of it. LOL.

With layers. 

I have a tag way in the back that could be used

for journaling but I couldn't think of any at the moment.

Love how it turned out.

Hero Arts, Studio Calico, Sissix die, Dylusions paints

Got rid of lots of stash.

Woohoo!

So that is me circa 1958 - dressed for Easter or Church because

that's how we rolled back in the day.

Father's day card

I'm finally getting ahead of these things.

It's like Christmas just sneaks up and I'm never ready.

But this time.

 One in a row.

But hey, we have some Tim Holtz going on here and

some playing cards I got from a bubble gum

machine awhile ago and I'm running out.

And doesn't that bow make you swoon - it's Holli's

punch and I do a bunch up hoping

they'll match something.

I do a lot of shopping at Holli's.

I miss that. 

And here I got to use my new Hero Arts stamp

that I recently purchased.

So that's 3 things purchased and used.

WooHoo.

MM - That mushroom stencil

Has gotten around.

I did an Inky Quill thing while I had

that baby out and messy I 

plopped it in all 3 books - sometimes a few

times because - mostly because things didn't go well. 

LOL

 Also played with my new dylusion paints and after

watching Suzanne Rose and her amazing 

mushrooms - it just seemed to be the thing to do.

Again, my mushroom looks nothing like her's although

I can say I was extremely pleased how mine

turned out.

Also had a play day at Holli's where she had

that wonderful woman with a hat stamp

and it just totally makes the page.

That is a graduation photo of my mom and I'm

sure I scrapped it before but it just

totally worked out for this page and again,

I cut it out.

Because why not.

I'm liking that.

Rockin' another birthday boy

Had a lot of fun making this page.

Love the colors.

And what about those bats you might ask.

 Well.

 The birthday boy is Sam, a batman loving boy

and that was the theme of his party.

You may remember his impersonation of batman here in

case you missed my awesome handstitched 

bat mask.

Hence, the bats.

So Sam is the big 5.

It brings on lots of responsibility like

Kindergarten and everything.

Studio Calico, Hero Arts stamp, Quikuts die.

Fussy cutting and water colors

I loved the paper with the black and white flowers on it

but it was a tad be overwhelming so I decided

to water color some in and then 

fussy cut them out, mixing things up between

black & white and watercolors.

 And I love how it turned out.

 Broke out some stamps because I really really need

to use them more and stamped around the page.

The No: is from Kenner Road and the stamp with the numbers

is a combo of Studio Calico and Hero Arts numbers.

It came out quite heritagy looking so therefore, I needed

a heritagyb looking photo, of which, it took me forever to find

Because when I put the page together, I left only

that itty bitty little spot for a photo.

Sigh.

 This is a photo of my Aunt Sue and her brother Frankie.

Frankie died about a year or two after this photo was taken, sadly.

If you look really closely at this photo, it looks like someone

was beating them and then made them take a photo.

Neither are very happy.

Studio Calico.

Our Visit to Vicksburg

We took a quick trip to Mississippi the beginning of 

November, just a slight detour

in heading to see my dad in Tennessee.

I did not scrap this trip as we went because 

I didn't want to. LOL.

 I downloaded and have been playing with pic collage.

They have several templates you can play

with for free, and this is one of them.

It came out okay but I'd really like to have

just the collage and not fancy stuff in between.

 I chose photos that reflect the high points

of our trip around Vicksburg.

I'm still undecided on the picCollage, it's

$19.99 - not real expensive and it's

nice to play but I wish I could play more and

see if I could make the collage my way.

Does anyone use picCollage and how do you like it?

I did use PSE 8 back in the day but the tutorial I used to watch from
Scrapbooking ETC has been taken down and
it's been years, and I can't remember how
to do it, but I still have those templates.

Studio Calico with some Tim Holtz and hero arts stamps.