Cat Haiku:
So you call this thing
your "cat carrier"...
I call these my
"blades of death".

Another Cuttlebugged card...
kids got me folders for Christmas.
This machine is the best thing since sliced bread or chocolate cake!

Last one for today...
background is the Cuttlebug music folder.
Butterfly stamp is embossed in gold,
and the faux brads are just flowers
punched and indented in the middle.

Backgound here was stamped in
clear pigment ink (VersaMark) and
then swiped over with chalk.
ThankYou is embossed in Gold ep.

This one is stamped with clear pigment ink and
and embossed with white ep then
watercolored.

This card uses a wallpaper background and some
sheer ribbon. The tag is made by using a stencil
and dry embossing with a lightbox.
Then cut out and the message stamped and embossed
onto it.

This one uses the Dotted Swiss folder
and a penscore block.
Take the block, heat with heat tool
and lay over the folder. Ink the
block, stamp it and you have the opposite of your folder,
and a nice background...in this case, the darker blue.

This one wasn't done with the Cuttlebug,
but used the Bubble technique.
Colored ink in water with a bit of detergent.
Blow into the solution with a straw and lay your
paper over. Lift off carefully and dry.

You can hardly see them, but there are teeny
violet beads sewn to the centers of
the flowers. Ths flowers here were stencils embossed
with a lightbox.

This card was done with the Snowflake folder.
My good friend Carolyn sent me an extra she had :-)

Where's the sun...?

Have been busy using my machine and the new folders the kids got me!
Cuttlebug is the best thing since sliced bread!
Here are a few creations...

Back in the saddle....

Arrived in Port A last week. So far have been in a craft fair,
volunteered to sub for music at church, and made a lot of cards
trying to use up scraps :-)
Weather was nice 2 days, but otherwise has been overcast,cool
and windy weather. Good for chicken soup and card making!

No Probs

Hi...checking to see if there was a problem here...
so far haven't found any. That's a good thing! :-)
Back to Texas in 2 months, maybe I can find some time to post
again.

Back!

Arrivedback in Wisconsin April 29th.
Thought we may have brought the warm Texas weather with us, guess not!
Dang! Well, at least we had a few warm days till this cold snap hit, although
it's not unlike southern Texas in January. Going to try and get some things going
here again. So check back when you can :-)

Texas Sandfest 2009

To see 3 days of photos of amazing sculptures go to http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/jj89/catl8dy/Texas%20Sandfest%202009/?albumview=slideshow Password is "Redgranite"
It was awesome to see, am so glad we stayed for it.

Necklaces from the beach...

Upper right...Beach comber's necklace...Scallop shells

and knotted hemp.

Lower left...Dressy necklace with blue coquina shells , beads and a large shell pendant.

Project - Corner Bookmarks

Corner Bookmarks -

Have been making these to use up scraps and junk mail. Fun to make and useful ;-)

Cut the corners off a junk mail envelope...dimensions 2"x2" is good.

Leave 2 sides open to slide over corner of book page.

Then take scrap cardstock, cut and glue to both sides of envy corner to stiffen.

Next collage, draw, stamp, punch whatever you want to create art on them.

I used the gold edge from recycled Christmas cards, cut and scored to trim a couple.

These are really fun to make and use up those

teeny scraps that are always piling up.

Decided to use the "Zen" thing on one.

"Kiss this, furball..."

Some excitement..... watching TV the other night... AmberJo was in her condo, sound asleep, lower level, in the back window. Shade was pulled so there was just enough room for her to look out into the dark. All of a sudden there was this LOUD BOOM. Sounded like a sonic boom, or like something huge hit the 5th Wheel. Amber goes nuts and takes a flyin' leap off the condo and onto the counter..lookin' out that window, makin' crazy noises. Rog runs outside... there under the truck is an enormous cat, just walkin' along, looks like our old Muffycat. Well this feral cat had seen Amber sleeping in the window and launched itself right into the glass! There were claw scratches on the fiberglass and paw marks on the window. See photo above for Amber's thoughts on the situation...

More Zentangles! :-D

Top - "Phantom Olive"

Center - "Sea Creature"

Bottom - "Stairway to Nowhere"

Zentangles

Came across this fascinating artform on someone's blog on an AB site I belong to. Gave it a try. This is an "Ensemble" of 9 squares, each 3 1/2 inches. They are "doodled" individually and then put back together as a whole piece of art. Sort of like a quilt. The key to the picture is the pencil "string" that runs through it that gives continuity. To make a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. tangle, cut a piece of white cardstock to those dimensions. Then take a pencil and draw a random curvey line on it. Now take an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie and fill in the spaces made by this pencil line, with doodles. - The "Emsemble" would be a great group project.

For more interesting info on zentangles go to http://www.zentangle.com/. And no, I didn't purchase the $49.00 kit!

Tea and Jam Tag

This tag was created as an example for the March/April challenge on Stampin' on a Budget. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stampin-on-a-Budget/

Challenge was to create a tag or card using a product label and supplies we already had. I cut apart 2 labels from 2 jars of Strawberry Preserves (Parade and Hillside Brands) and used them as a background for the embossed and watercolored teapot.

Two hours worth...

of beachcombing this morning! The most sea hearts I ever found at once :-D --- Went out with the metal detector early, found a few coins, but decided to go back out after seeing all the "stuff" that had washed up after last nights wind. Came back with all this! See penny at lower left to get an idea of the sizes.
Just above the penny are 2 sea burgers. The round pods along the top are sea coconuts. Even found a lotus pod, far right center.
A good day treasure hunting!

Two if by sea...

We took the Ferry again yesterday to Aransas Pass to get supplies and I snapped a few pics. It was windy, but you could hardly tell, the boats are so heavy. They just got done refurbishing them. I think they have 6. Didnt have to wait to cross, but coming back there was about a 5 minute wait. There were beautiful black cormorants sitting atop the landing gates. And pelicans on the pilings. The fan-tail grackles were doing their antics, walking around the edge of our truckbed and perched on some guy's mirror looking in. I like going to the Pass...it's so hectic going into Corpus, not to mention twice the distance.
It reminds me a lot of Berlin up home, small town. Everything's there you might need, but not the traffic. Getting around is real easy. Did the usual HEB and WalMart things and stopped at a great little Mexican restaurant for lunch. When you see the Firemen and EMT's eating there, you know it's good! And reasonable. $4.99 and we couldn't finish it all. Back to the old diet today :-P

Just a note...added YouTube and Recipe Search gadgets over on the right. Type in any recipe or catagory (for YouTube) and the info will come up. Real handy!

Pelicans

Saw the coolest thing the other day...flocks of pelicans, hundreds.

Soaring low along the beach and swooping down into the waves. They fly with a leader, in a V like geese, but they're sooo quiet, not a sound. All you could hear was their wings cutting the wind. They were huge. What a site. Only caught 4 here, and I didnt have the zoom on. arrrgh!

Oh,....

have added a link to some original poetry along the sidebar if anyone's interested.

Shell Embellishments

The "Dream" layer was done with a plastic stencil and the Cuttlebug, then stamping and embossing "Dream" in gold.The butterflies are coquina shells that I sewed on and then applied a dab of tacky glue in the center. Other supplies include a torn piece of handmade paper.

ATC

The Irish Atc (Artist Trading Card) was done as part of a challenge on my Stampin-on-a-Budget site. Challenge was to use the inside of a security envelope somewhere on the project. Used it here as part of the background. Other items used: handmade paper, metallic rub-ons, punches, stamping, embossing, hand made music embellishment.

Pit Beads

"Art in My Garbage" is a favorite theme I deamed up.All that "stuff" in the trash-bin surely has another life as an "art supply" - Yesterday the discovery was date pits ;-DThey scrub up well, have a nice rustic, "woody" look and make great beads when drilled with a fine dremel bit. Have also just discovered "sea beans", along with the lovely shells on the Texas beaches. The teeniest bit of baby oil shines them up nice. Avocados, apple seeds, prune pits, etc. can all be used as well. http://www.beachbeans.com/bean_descriptions.html

Faux Brads

Brads give extra pop to a card. Can't afford to buy all those metallics and colors?
Take your 1/8 or 1/16 inch circle punch and punch them out of aluminum cans, yogurt container sealers, flaps from fancy gold Christmas card envies or colored cardstock. Then just
glue them to the corners of your card.
Want a fancy brad? Take a 3/16 flower punch, punch out flower, indent the center on a mousepad with a dry ballpoint pen or an embossing tool. Then punch the corners of the card layer you want to put the "brads" on with a 1/8 inch punch. Attach this layer to you base card. Put a teeny bit of tacky glue in the holes and on the back of the flower "brad". Insert in hole. The holes with the glue help to keep these 2 dimensional brads in place. (A tweezer helps a lot in glueing and placing them) See "Iris" photo on right.

Spring Break in Port A

Spring break hasn't affected us much here...outside of a little more traffic noise.
The beach gets crowded late morning and afternoon, but that's not when I go down there
anyway. Of course there were a few "incidents" on the news. The only thing I notice was the beachcombing is not as good for some reason, it may be the tide schedule, don't know. But haven't picked up much lately. Am going to make some cards using coquina shells later today. Will post. Oh...friend Debbe sent us a real cute musical St. Pat's Day card...AmberJo hates it. It started playing and she attached herself to my leg! Whenever I open it, she's in attack mode, even from a sound sleep. It plays bagpipe music. roflmbo!

Thursday, March 19

Loon & Crane Return in central Wisconsin is always a wondrous

event . Their calls and chatters bring the spring. This page is another done for the Traveling Wildlife Art Journal. Stamped, collaged and embellished.

Also, today was Dad's birthday.

The artistic ability is from him... and a Greater Power.

Here's to you Dad, Love always.

An "AHA" moment

After months of procrastinating, and searching for a good price, I finally purchased
a Cuttlebug die cut machine.
It's everything it's cracked up to be! So been playing around a bit.
Searched for "sandwich" recipes and been experimenting with those too.
They say every machine is a little different and not to force anything through that's too tight.
Brass stencils are supposed to work in it also. And here's where the "Aha!" comes in.
Thought, what about the thicker plastic stencils??? Here's the sandwich I came up with
that produced results even better than the brass stencils. Will get a picture in as soon as I can get it in the puter.

Plate A
Plate B
A piece of cardstock (used as spacer)
A piece of fun foam
Red rubber plumber's gasket
Cardstock that will be embossed
Stencil
Plate B