Another archaeology project

I have a very generous friend who recently gave me the gift of Lion Country Safari. It's a local drive-through zoo. She gifted me with an actual annual pass! And me with no safari themed thank you cards. Come to think of it, I don't (yet) have any safari themed stamp sets. Well, My Favorite Things' big retirement sale to the rescue. But I needed a card today.

The flamingo and palm tree are from an old The Alley Way Stamps' set called Tropic Topic. I think I have only used the snake out of that set. The sun and clouds are from Lawn Fawn, and the grassy borders are from My Favorite Things.

I colored the bird and trees with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on real water color paper and cut them out with my Brother Scan and Cut.

Now, I'm off to get this in the mail! Fun fact: I used a shark stamp on the envelope!

Sharknado - one more time!

Yes, I just had to do one more. I just had to.

The shark is from Avery Elle's Hello Chum, and the tornado is an upside down Christmas tree die. The shark, tornado and background are all water colored with Distress Oxide. The "Smile" die is from My Favorite Things.

I printed the inside sentiments from my computer. Yes, I am stoked up about shark week and a new Sharknado. Silly me.

Challenges are a challenge, alright.

So, I decided to do a challenge this afternoon,  and ended up doing 2 of them. One was a sketch challenge from My Favorite Things, and another was a color challenge.

This was my 2nd attempt at the sketch. It turned out OK, but my first attempt, below, is not my finest work, and I probably won't be putting my name on the back of it.

Things actually started to go very sideways when I edited the photos, however. I was using PhotoShop Elements 11 and got an error message when I attempted to type in my blog address on the photo.  The interwebs told me to uninstall any fonts that came with the program, so I did. Now none of the drop down menus have any text and I have to go find the fonts I uninstalled.

I went back to PSE 2 in the mean time to finish what I had started. I've had that program for about 13 years.

I'll save my Brother Scan and Cut mat story for another time.

Flippin' awesome!

I have been experimenting with brick backgrounds this week, and here's my latest.

The brick background is from a cheap embossing folder (maybe Darice?) that I've had for a while, and I lightly went over it with Distress Oxide in Iced Spruce.

The fat chef is from My Favorite Things' Recipe for Happiness, and the red frame is from MFT's Blueprints 27. The blue background panel is cut with my new rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs' limited run of double stitched inside and outside shapes.

The shapes mostly cut well enough, but I get better results if I use my precision cutting plate in my Big Shot. Also, one end embosses the stitching better than the other, so I put a shim on one end to try to equalize things.

I am getting a little smarter, though. I've started to mark the end of the die that needs the shim so I won't have to test it each time. Live and learn, right?

Mr Chef and his kitchen tools were colored with Spectrum Noir markers.

And now, my random craft room thought: Where can I have put that BIG pad of Bristol Smooth cardstock? It's too big to be so hidden.

Share my lunch?

More cats from My Favorite Things' Cat-itude! What can I say but, "why not"?

Cats + Hearts = Purrfection!

Wow, I am still using up all the cats I colored back in May. Would you believe I'm still not done with them? Most of them were colored with Copics or Spectrum Noir markers and cut with my Scan and Cut, but these were on water color paper scraps, so were fussy cut.

Anyway, this week I ordered and received a bunch of basic shaped dies with double stitching around both the inside and outside edges. These dies, from Gina Marie Designs, are a value, priced much lower than the die sets from big-name companies, but are not no-name dies from China, either.

What I am discovering with these dies is that I must use the precision plate in my Big Shot, and if I want both ends to emboss the stitching evenly I need to put a little shim at one end only. My next project is to cut each one separately and mark the low end so I'll know where to shim them in the future. Oh boy.

Anyway, for the hearts in this card, I cut all three at once and colored each one separately with Distress Oxide Ink.

The front of the pink card base is embossed with the 2nd largest of the rectangle dies from Gina Marie Designs. It's very subtle.

The kitties, from My Favorite Things' Catitude set, were water colored and fussy cut. My Brother Scan and Cut is not so great at cutting things from heavy watercolor paper scraps. When I tape down the scrap the scanner wants to pick up the tape and it's too close to crop out. Yes, I need to get my cutting mat sticky again.

I finished up with some Nuvo Crystal Drops and Nuvo Jewel Drops.

Happy shark week, AGAIN!

So, this week I got another cheap no-name die in the mail. This is a scribble styled Christmas Tree. I have sharks on the brain and I immediately thought of Sharknado. I mean, really, how could I resist?

The water colored back ground has been in my paper scrap box for over a year now, as was the shark (from Avery Elle, Hello Chum). The "Smile" die was also cut and in my scrap box. I just had lost the tittle. That's the eye dot, I just wanted to type it. The smile die is from My Favorite Things.

I considered spelling out Sharknado, but I think if people see the tornado they will get it.

I used Emmit Alphabet from My Favorite Things for the inside "Shark Week", and finished it off with a script "Happy" from an old Stampendous set and a "watermarked" grinning shark in the corner.