Fall ATC

 I live in a constant state of half finished projects & I have learned to embrace the mess of it all. One of my favorite ways to completely ignore all the mess & go full procrastination mode is by creating ATC cards. 

These little miniature pieces of art are a great way for me to use up scrap pieces of paper from my desk or scrap bin. They also allow me to try out techniques or ideas without sacrificing a large sheet of paper or lots of ink/paint. I have found lots of new ideas/techniques that I later use on bigger projects by just experimenting on these 2.5x3.5 pieces first. Plus, ATCs give me a quick creative burst when I need just a few minutes to escape and create.

I often go into ATC creating with a question... Today's question was, "How can I create depth on this piece of painted cardstock."

I started with a scrap piece of kraft cardstock that I had used to wipe off excess Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint. I purposely chose to drag my brush from one end repeatedly, leaving the other end free of paint. Most Distress mediums are water reactive, even once dry, but Distress Paint is NOT reactive with water once it dries completely. 

Knowing this, I used my ink blending tool and Walnut Stain Distress Ink to cover the entire piece. The cardstock free of paint took the ink well, whereas the painted portion allowed the ink to sit on top a bit longer before completely drying. I added a few spritzes of water & used a tea towel to blot away some of the ink before drying it completely. I then added a little more water to the background & sprinkled on Perfect Pearls in Perfect Gold. I heated the Perfect Pearls until completely dry and set.

Once I was completely happy with the inky/painted/pearled background, I began to add elements. The Autumn word stamp (from an old Ali Edwards and Technique Tuesday collaboration) was stamped in Ground Espresso Distress Oxide. 

I die cut the oak leaf die from the Ornate Leaves die set from Simon Says Stamp three times and stacked them together. The top piece was cut from scrap cardstock that had been splattered with Gold Perfect Pearls before die-cutting. I added a piece of jute twine to the top of the leaf & finished the ATC with a few gold gems from my stash.

  

Layered Die Shaker Card- Themed Friday #23

 My card today is for the Themed Friday card hop on Instagram. The theme for our card today is a New to You Technique.

I have made a number of shaker cards in the past, but I don’t believe I have made one using a word die and shadow. 

I used Antique Linen, Aged Mahogany, & Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks to ink blend and ink smoosh the background before die cutting. I also used Gold Perfect Pearls to add shimmer. The layered die set I chose to use is the Love die set from Simon Says Stamp.  

After die cutting the Love shadow three times, I stamped and embossed sentiments from the coordinating Love stamp set from Simon. I then added acetate to the back of the card panel and used foam tape to build three individual wells around each die cut shadow. I then poured in sequins to each well and attached a cream colored background. 

I matted the card panel on a black cardstock mat & then attached it to my card base. I added the die cut words to the shadows. I used the Tim Holtz Heart stencil, texture paste, & Mica Stains to add texture to the card front before I added additional sequins and crystals to finish the card. 

Stash Busters 2024

 

Welcome to Stash Busters 2024. This is a bi-weekly hop on Instagram where members share 3-6 cards &/or projects created using supplies already in their stash. This week’s theme is: “If I were a card, what would I look like?”

All the card stock, vellum, and watercolor cardstock for my cards today came from pieces that had already been cut down. I even had a few stamped images that I had not used on other projects that I was able to use on these cards. The “Birthday Wishes” sticker is an older one from my stash & I also pulled out a die cut piece from my stash and added a sentiment to it. 

I created three different cards that are very much my style.

Lots of greens and blues, Distress Inks, big, scripty greetings, natural (plant) images, splatters & sparkles. 

For this A2 card, I watercolored the two previously embossed, stamped branches from the “Be Kind” stamp set from Simon Says Stamp using Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters. Before setting it aside to dry, I took dry Perfect Pearls in Perfect Gold and dropped it onto the wet pieces. Perfect Pearls is water reactive, so I was interested to see what would happen when I just haphazardly dropped it into the watercolor. I set it aside to dry & when I came back I was excited to see that the gold color gave a nice touch to the pieces. Similar to a splatter, but a little different. I plan to try this technique again sometime soon. I then took Peeled Paint Distress Ink and ink blended it onto the the leaves closest to the stem. I fussy cut both pieces and added foam tape to the back of the leaves before attaching it to my white card base. I used an olive green piece of cardstock between the card base and the design. I used that same green as a mat for my sentiment sticker. I added sequins to finish the card. 

I created this slimline card using smaller green pieces of patterned paper & cardstock from my scraps bin. I die cut the small pieces using the Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Greens, a favorite greenery die set that I use throughout the year. I added Distress Ink and Perfect Pearl Perfect Gold splatters to each of the die cut pieces and set them aside to dry. I found the cream colored die cut piece in my stash and heat embossed the gold “Sending Big Hugs” sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp “Big Scripty Greetings” stamp set onto it. The navy shimmer cardstock was given to me and I wish I had more of it. I used the die cut piece to trace the area for my greens, added adhesive to that area and them began to put down the greenery. Once satisfied with the arrangement, I popped the sentiment up on top with foam tape. I was just going to add Gold Stickles to the berries, but I didn’t like the result when I tried it. As I was wiping it away it smeared onto the Navy cardstock. I liked the look, so I continued smearing it around the design.  I then added pearls & crystals to the berries. I like the elegance of the finished card.

I loved creating this one! I took a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock from my stash & die cut hearts from the entire piece. I then used Crushed Olive, Evergreen Bough, & Faded Jeans Distress Ink to ink smoosh color onto the hearts. I added depth, by smooshing, then drying. I repeated that technique until I was happy with the results on each heart. Midway through each heart I added a coordinating Mica Spray to add a little shimmer to each. Once dry, I popped each heart up onto a piece of white cardstock & added a lot of sequins, crystals, and pearls. The sentiment, from the “Sending Happy Thoughts” stamp set from Simon Says Stamp,  was stamped in black & embossed with clear embossing ink on a piece of die cut vellum & then I added a few more sequins, crystals, and pearls. 

These cards are very much my style & I am so pleased with how they turned out. Take time to dig through your stash and find hidden treasures that you can create with. 

Week in the Life- Tuesday, April 25th

 Today, I wanted to capture a little bit about our routines. Our weekly morning routines are pretty much, well routine. Evenings are often dictated by whether the boys have any activities going on. This time of year Jude is playing Cal Ripkin baseball and Ethan & Jess are umpiring in the same league on the coach pitch field. 

The first minutes of my morning are pretty much controlled by the furry children. 

Dax often wakes me up even before the alarm goes off and after he stretches he lets me know it's time to eat & then he is ready to go out for the day.

Once Dax is out I let the girls upstairs and feed them. Here lately we have been leaving them upstairs during the day while we are at work and school. They seem to like being upstairs and having more light and a bigger area to run around in.

This morning Smokey was still inside. Most mornings he likes to wake Ethan or me before dawn to go outside. He immediately wanted out, only to come in less than an hour later to hang out inside while we were gone. 

Ethan drops Jude at elementary most days and it's Jude's responsibility to close the garage door after Ethan pulls his car out. Really need to invest in a garage door opener. 

As for me, I really thrive on routine. I walk almost everyday before I eat lunch. I used to walk outside, but I prefer walking the halls these days because I don't get sweaty. After lunch today I began working on reading lists for the upcoming year. There are a lot of choices and I try to pick a wide variety of books that meet my students needs & interests.

There were no after school or evening activities today, so we got home pretty early and so there was time for Ethan to relax and once it was dinner time for Dax we let him in to eat. After a little bit of scratches & love he was happy to lay down in the living room. I got leftover supper and breakfast dishes done and started on super nachos for supper which was a request from the boys. Jess is still in DeQueen with his Dad, who remains in the hospital with pneumonia. 

Carter made a quick trip home for supper and to have me iron his clothes for the end of year athletic awards ceremony at school. 

Carter stayed long enough to eat & play a little Nintendo with the boys. Carter and Ethan told Jude all about playing the same game when they were closer to his age and laughed about the teams that Carter built that are still on the game today. The player's names are horribly misspelled, thanks to Carter. He swears he spent a tremendous amount of time building those teams.

Favorite pictures of the day: As Carter left out, he made sure to hug both of his brothers & tell them he loved them. I am incredibly proud & thankful for the relationship that the three of them have. I never take a moment when I have all three of them under the same roof for granted.

It seems only right to end today's photos with more of the animals. Smokey has a pillow on Ethan's bed right next to Ethan.  He is quite a spoiled kitty boy. Tonight Dax came in to Ethan's room to give Smokey a little love before he went to our room to lay down on the floor on my side of the bed. They do take a little more care & they drive me crazy a lot of mornings, but our home would be quite empty without our sweet pets.

 

Week in the Life- Monday, April 24th

 Ohhh, Monday.... back to work/school.  Another week of wandering aimlessly around the library while a small group of students take our state-mandated standardized test. Nineteen days to go till summer break. Sooo ready for a slowdown and a shift in our schedule.

I walked out of the bathroom to find these two on our bed semi-touching. Quite the odd occurrence considering that usually, Smokey wants nothing to do with Tines.  

Called Mom on the way to school, just to check in and see how her weekend went. Phone calls while driving are kind of my go-to right now because it easier than taking time once I get home to make or take phone calls. 

Lots of things on my list of work to-dos this week. The first couple of hours when I usually have students is now being used for standardized testing, which means that my afternoon schedule is full of students instead of quiet come as needed library time. Stack on top of our irregular, wonky schedule: the yearbook due tomorrow & still needing to read the first half of the book club book for our meeting Wednesday and I am feeling slightly overwhelmed. Instead of actually working on anything that is due, I'm procrastinating and working on book lists for next year and planning the remainder of my day.  

Maybe it is a Southern thing, maybe just a weird people thing or maybe we just have some interesting ability to see the weird and wacky, but Jude and I encounter things we consider weird and wacky nearly everyday.  Today it was a guy driving down the road with a load of re-bar not tied down and precariously bouncing along and sticking out of the back of his truck. Jude was extremely weirded out by this and kept talking about how dangerous it is to be driving around like that.

Quick stop at Walmart to pick a few essentials that we didn't get into our pick-up order Friday. Besides the sourdough bread, avocados, and big, red strawberries, none of which were on my list, I also picked up toilet paper, dog food, and detergent.

Quick trip home to drop off groceries and relax for a few minutes, then back in the car to head to the fields for Jude's 5:30 baseball game. Jude decided that the best use of his time was to play at home till we had to leave and then dress in the car on the way to the game. As he was getting dressed I heard him mutter, "I definitely did not just put my shirt on backwards!" He puts on &/or wears something

backwards at least once a week. Somedays we catch it, somedays he catches it, and somedays he makes it to school and someone else has to tell him. Good Grief!

Pulled up at the ball field and parked by this guy, who had evidently made a pit stop at Sonic before coming to the field to umpire. 

Favorite picture of the day: Jude had a solid hit to left field and it turned into a in the park homerun. So proud of him! He was due a good hit! He was very proud of himself and the run put us ahead 4-3.

Jess and Ethan hard at work umpiring on the coach pitch field. 

Quick spaghetti supper, a shower, and a little Wii play before bed.

 

I got a call from Rhonda about Randall. He had been admitted into the hospital in DeQueen because of a severe case of pneumonia. Jess talked her and packed up and headed to the hospital to be with him.  

Week in the Life 2023- Sunday, April 23rd

 This week, I am documenting a week in our daily lives. I have done this project a number of times throughout the years & I'm looking forward to another opportunity to record a week of our ordinary days. I wonder what stories this week will tell.

Early morning snuggles with Tiny. I didn't sleep well last night, so I was hoping to catch a little more rest on the couch before getting the day started. Tiny wanted to help.

The last load of laundry for the weekend. All the cleaning this weekend allowed Ethan & me to get completely caught up on all the laundry. A rarity for sure, especially considering that Ethan doesn't often do his laundry unless I remind him or he runs out of underwear.

Jude was up earlier than I expected & all he wanted for breakfast was a bowl of dry cereal. He was happily playing Fortnite with friends when I headed downstairs for a little creative time.

Back upstairs for a hot chai latte refill & heard Smokey wanting back inside. It was chilly outside, so he wanted in quicker than normal. He usually likes to lounge on the front porch or in the yard. Occasionally he ventures off into neighboring yards or even across the street, but he is happiest just hanging out in our yard and soaking up the sun. The sun was hard to find today and the spring wind was fierce.

Ethan pulled Jude away from his screen for a little while to run pass plays in the front yard. I stepped outside briefly (it was still cool)  to watch, snap a few pictures,  and check out the hostas beginning to emerge in the front flower bed.

After completely cleaning our bedroom Friday night and all day Saturday, including shampooing the carpet and wiping down all the woodwork, Sunday was all about finishing up the laundry & picking up loose clothing from our room, and putting it away.

Jude turned off his Switch and picked up the iPad to watch Star Wars. He is a serious Star Wars aficionado. 

Ethan spent his afternoon cleaning and vacuuming his room and closet. He even organized his hanging clothes and his shoe collection. 

I went in search of Georgie, who hides 90% of the time, and Ethan pointed her out to me lounging in his window behind the curtain. A much more scenic view than that of the living room chair which she usually hides under.

Carter at college (check), Dad umpiring (check), only three people who love breakfast, specifically waffles with bacon and sausage, for supper at home. Waffles it is. Ethan, Jude, & I love breakfast for supper,

Favorite shot of the day: Ethan and Jude playing on our old Nintendo Wii. Jude and I went to see the movie Friday night & really enjoyed it. Ethan brought the Wii upstairs tonight and it was a huge hit! So much fun to all sit and play a little bit and reminisce about playing it together when the big boys were Jude's age. Glad he brought it up. I see many nights of family play ahead.