Forestry Tour Thanks

For my summer professional development opportunity, I applied for and was chosen to attend the 2011 Florida Division of Forestry Teacher Tour. The tour included four days of touring and learning about the forest industry from the science behind growing the trees, managing forests, and protecting natural resources, including endangered species, to all the products that are made from trees.
Some of the products absolutely amazed me! Thousands of scents and flavors are made from the turpenes in pine trees (turpentine). Ya know that burst of minty freshness in your gum, mouthwash, or toothpaste....turpenes. And the lavender scent in your fabric softener....yup! And so many others. The screens on many of our tvs, cell phones, and computers are made from a form of cellulose, another bi-product of the timber industry. And the list goes on and on!
Besides all the learning and riding around in a bus to all the different sites, they kept us in a most amazing style. The food was incredible!! Various companies sponsored the meals that were served each day. Seafood, BBQs, and so much more it would take too long to describe. I felt totally pampered in my hotel suite...king size bed (just for me!!!), big screen TV, fully equipped kitchen including a dishwasher (not that I needed one!). We didn't spend much time in our rooms, but it was oh so comfortable for the time I was there.
So....the mission is to send thank you notes to the various entities that sent representatives to be a part of our tour and open their facilities to enhance our learning experience. I have twelve thank yous to send out and these don't even include the numerous companies and individuals that sponsored each of us to be able to go on the trip. A shout out goes to Georgia Pacific who sponsored me and two other teachers on this trip. I can't begin to imagine how much it cost them to pay my expenses! Besides all the different state and national forest groups that we visited, we also owe thanks to Rayonier, Rock Tenn, Renessenz, The Weeks' Family Tree Farm, Dee Dot Ranch, and West Fraser Saw Mill.
The card above is the card I mass produced to send as my thank you. What other choice did I have than to use Lovely As A Tree? Use the baby wipe technique to make a variegated ink pad for the pine tree image. Card stock is crumb cake, early espresso, and garden green. Gold Krylon paint pen adds a faux layer.
I didn't really mean to bore you with so many details about my trip....it really was one of the most interesting trips I've ever been on! Most of you probably stopped reading long time ago. But if you're still with me, thanks for stopping in and happy stamping!!! BTW...did you know that the labels on cardboard boxes are done with GIANT rubber stamps? 

Father's Day

My Father's Day card for my dad this year. The image is a digi from Mo's Digital Pencil. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The paper with the tools on it is from DCWV but as yet, I have been unable to get my hands on a whole stack. One of my stampin' sistahs was checking out what I was working on while I was coloring and said she had the perfect paper for my image. Thanks, Penny!!  My dad has always been one to tinker and do all the fix ups around the house. Even at 84, he is still quite the handy man!

Faux Tooled Leather Class

Yes, I'm still around. I've just been very busy and haven't had any time for stamping. A four-day weekend was just the ticket!! I woke up this morning with a burst of inspiration to make this card using the faux tooled leather and faux burnt edges techniques. Love them both and they work so well together. I'm lovin' all the cute variations I've been seeing for easel cards and decided to incorporate one of them into this card, too. The whole thing folds down flat in a 4 1/4" square....love it!! I decided that the dad who gets this would love a masculine book mark to match, and so here it is...

It measures 4" x 1 1/2" and has a fold at the top. Hidden inside are a couple pieces of magnets saved from the advertisement that comes on the front of our local phone books each year. Every year I collect them from work and friends and I've found lots of ways to use them. Love being able to recycle those freebies that would normally end up in the trash!
I'll be teaching a class on how to make these two cuties at the LSS (Priceless Scrapbooks) in a couple of weeks. If your local, why don't you give them a call and sign up for the class? The link is in the far right sidebar. Here's a picture of the two pieces together.

I won't be absent as long this time. I actually got several cards made today besides this one. Unfortunately, two of them are sympathy cards for my dear friends, who are sisters, whose father passed away over the weekend.
Only two more short weeks and the summer vacation will begin....YAY!!!!

Hubby's Birthday Cards

I never posted Kenny's birthday cards this year. The one I made for him didn't come out like I intended but he doesn't know that and probably wouldn't care either way....he rolls his eyes at some of my purchases, but I know he is one of my biggest fans!! So here is the card I made for him for his birthday back in the beginning of February.

I used an old favorite SU! set, Classic Convertibles, to make this. Other supplies are card stock from CTMH, Tim Holtz dsp, Nesties (Wonky), antique brad, ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing folder, sanding block and sponges. The words were already printed on the the ribbon when I purchased it.
My little junior crafter also made a card for her Bobo with the help of my DIL, Linda. Here is what she came up with...not bad for a three-year-old!!! You should see her crank a Big Shot to make dolls out of craft foam!!!

Off to see a live production of Charlotte's Web with Kyli and her aunt and cousin. I'm sooooo excited!!! Charlotte's Web is one of my childhood faves. I think I read the book about three times while I was in elementary school!! Crafting ahead this week as I am off for Spring Break!!! See you soon!!

TS Monday Challenge

The challenge this week over at Totally Stampalicious is to make a card using fabric somewhere on your creation. I dug out this canvas sheet I bought years ago at a craft store we had in town. The store closed a couple of years ago and had remodeled at least once since I bought this stuff! It had a clearance tag on it, so I wonder how old it really is. It came in a pack of 5 sheets and was designed to be run through a printer.  I stamped on it using Sean from Totally Stampalicious. I colored on the canvas using Copic markers and frayed the edges a bit.
I went digging through my stash for my embellishments and came up with this metal tags that reminded me of boy stuff. They say "discover" and "explore" and came from the same store and situation as the canvas. I stamped the sentiment "A little dirt never hurt" on the inside. I found these old SU! papers in my stash and thought the colors were appropriate for a boy card, so I colored the image with these papers in mind.Then I was looking for a way to dress it up a little without it being too girly and lookie!!! The MS border punch matches the papers exactly!!! How cool is that???? I love it!! It's so cool when you are able to use some of those things you have in your stash and never used.
The challenge isn't the only reason to hop over to the TS blog this week. We will be having a blog hop later this week for the release of four more new images of Jodie Mackrell's designs! They are so cute!! So dig out some of that fabric I know you have in your stash and get stamping and enter it into the Monday challenge. Then be sure to stop back Thursday evening to join in the fun of the blog hop!! See you there!!

TS Monday Challenge...make a masculine card

I had a surprise grad announcement show up in the mail box for my first cousin's oldest son. I know that makes him a cousin, too, but I don't know all the correct descriptions for what kind of cousin he is. The challenge at Totally Stampalicious to make a masculine card was perfect timing for me. Teen boys are so hard to make cards for, but this frog is cool enough for just about any teen! He's one of the original images from TS and still one of my favorites! I found these papers a while back over at Hobby Lobby. I had never seen this company before and only at HL. It's called a Glitz Pack and the line is called Hey Dude. They are really cool papers for guys....lots of rock and grunge designs in these great neutral colors with just a splash of bright. I used SU!'s star punches to make layered starts for the bg. Stamped the sentiment on the largest of the stars. The frog was colored with Copic markers and then I went over the whole image with Versamark and clear embossing powder to give him some stiffness when I cut him out. He is popped up on dimensionals and has a great shine to him. I'm pretty pleased with how this came out. I added a couple of graduation sentiment stickers to the inside which is finished off with a layer of the light paper since I used a really dark brown card stock for the base.
I bet there's a Father's Day, graduation, or birthday card for a male you have on your list of things to do, so why not make it up and enter it in the TS challenge this week. This week they are giving away a set of stamps...the Hawt Dawg set that is so versatile and wonderful for masculine cards.

Totally Stampalicious Masculine Challenge

The challenge at Totally Stampalicious this week is to make a masculine card. Well, it's a youthful masculine card anyway. I used Sean, one of the recently released images that was originally a Bugaboo digi that is now available as an acrylic stamp from TS. I used some sparkly red, white, and blue striped paper for the background and added a bunch of punched stars around the image. I used the Sizzix bigz scallop square die to make the card base. Image layer is colored with Copic markers and popped up on dimensionals.
This image makes me laugh whenever I see it because it reminds me of my granddaughter. How, you ask? Well, for some silly reason that is unknown to anyone, now that my granddaughter has finally come up with what she is going to call me, she has tagged me "Sean". There is no one in our family named Sean and we have no idea where she got this. No matter how much my son and his wife have tried to correct her, she persists with the name. I don't mind the name and have accepted it as my new moniker.
Thanks for stopping in today. Be sure to stop over at the TS blog after you have made your masculine card for the challenge and post your link. They always have some cool prize up for grabs!

Hillbilly Side Step (not a dance)

I made this at last weekend's 2 day crop at Priceless Scrapbooks...what a blast that was! I had this little hillbilly image all colored up and in my stash. One of my stampin' sistahs had a set of Art Impressions stamps that included this cute old cabin and clothesline. I would have like the clothesline to be the image farther in the background, but as is was larger than the cabin, perspective forced me to put it in the front. Still pretty cute, I think! All images are colored with Copic markers. Clouds were sponged. MS punches provided the grass and fence at the base of each layer. You can see the fence a little better in this angled shot:

Well, I'm off to work...just a quick post for some of the girls who were at my stair step card class the other day. It's been a crazy week!!! Have a wonderful day that hopefully includes at least a little stamping!!

Old Truck for a Car Swap

When I made this card, I did something I haven't done in ages.....watercolored my image!!! I have been so stuck on using my Copic markers that I haven't used anything else to color for months!!
This card was made for a swap using cars as the image. Didn't have any car images that inspired me (guess I need some new ones...LOL!) so I used my favorite old truck image. This image is appropriately called "Old Truck" and is from TAC. The papers I used are Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, and dsp from a new stack I found from DCWV that is just full of papers with neutral colors and loads of shimmery copper accents!! It's a wonderful masculine stack!! I think I'm gonna have to get another pad of these papers!! Added an aged copper paper clip and a piece of ribbon to the corner. The only other embellishments were the brads int he corners.
This week is just flying by! I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday already!! Only 39 school days left...where has the year gone?? Thanks for stopping in!

Woo hoo...it's a brand new stamp company!!

I can finally share my big news!! I was contacted by the founders of a brand new stamp company, Totally Stampalicious, to design some cards using images from their stamp sets that will be released for sale on September 15^th!!   I am so excited about this opportunity and am still quite in awe that they asked me to join in the launch of this new business with the other fabulous stamp artists listed in the blog roll below!!! This is definitely one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me!!  Over the next few days, I will be sharing some cards I have made using these adorable new images from  Totally Stampalicious.

The card I am sharing today uses images fromTotally Stampalicious’ set Road Hawg. I just love this set!  Can you see John Travolta in this image???  Such a fun set to play with!!! You can see other sneak peak cards on the blogs of these card designers:

Totally Stampalicious  -  http://totallystampalicious.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Kuhne  -  http://auntbaba246.blogspot.com/

Joycelyn Turner  -  http://stampsncoffee.blogspot.com/

Cindy Haffner  -  http://cindyhaffnerscorner.blogspot.com/

Cindy Motherway  -  http://mothermark.blogspot.com/

Jamie Morris  -  http://jaymerzstamps.blogspot.com/

Patricia Rose  -  http://stampingwithkokirose.blogspot.com/

Judy Rozema  -  http://jarfullofjoy.blogspot.com/

Kelli Hull  -  http://mommachull.blogspot.com/

Charlene Merrick  -  http://wheremmsgather.blogspot.com/

Cheryl Rowley  -  http://cheryllrowley.blogspot.com/

Mary Giemza  -  http://mycardz.wordpress.com/

Sue Titolo  -  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=109382

Stamps:Totally Stampalicioius; Road Hawg

Paper: Silver scrapbook paper, Bo Bunny dotted paper, Georgia Pacific white card stock, Stampin’ Up! cardstock; Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red

Ink: Black

Accessories: Water color crayons, water brush, circle punches, brads, deckle scissors, dimensional, diamond plate and bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folders