Catching up

I'm trying to catch up after a couple of frustrating weeks.  During this period, I've had 2 laser procedures on my eyes for treatment of glaucoma.  In a few weeks, I'll see the doctor for testing to see if it helped.  I also have new glasses.  If that isn't enough, I also had a basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) removed from my scalp.

In an effort to help find some positive things in life, here's a photo this morning of my dog Tex checking out a new flower on a cactus.

This is a tiny little plant container with tiny cacti.  It blooms at night and will be gone by noon.  The flower is nearly closed now by 10 AM.

While in the big city for my eye surgeries, I did some shopping for new card making tools.  I found a good sale on embossing folders and I'm trying to create cards with them.

 

I used a white core cardstock for this card and sanded the embossed tree to show the white core, then added a little colored pencil to give it a bit of color.  The sentiment is a very old Cuttlebug die.

This card didn't emboss as deeply as I'd hoped and is a bit hard to see, so I added a bit of chalk to show the trees a bit better.  This sentiment is from Hero Arts - a fund raiser set for Operation Write Home.

Any Hero cards

My mojo is still MIA.  I have vision problems and I'm going through laser procedures for glaucoma.  One more treatment and then I'll find out what is in my future.

I did manage to make a few Any Hero cards for OWH.  These are sent to our deployed troops to let them know we are rooting for them.

The blue cardstock has white core, so I embossed it with the stars and sanded it to allow white stars to show, the added the some red for contrast.  The sentiment is a digi that I had printed years ago and didn't use.  I cut them out with Spellbinder's dies and framed them.  I just punched the stars and added some Glossy Accents.  I stamped this sentiment on the inside, then will wrote a personal note in each card.

Proud to be an American

It was 5 years ago that I learned about Operation Write Home (then called Cards for Heroes) at the Memorial Day Blog Hop.  I have been making cards for them during those 5 years.  If you would like to see the great cards being made during this year's blog hop, you can check it out HERE.

I didn't participate this year because of personal health issues.  My vision is failing and I'm just growing older.  I am seeing a doctor and will be having laser surgery soon.

Today, I did get inspired to make a card for our deployed troops.

I really am very proud of the freedoms we enjoy because of all those people who sacrifice so much to preserve that freedom.

Dogwood missing you

I'm trying to put my old card parts to good use.  I had 2 images left that were stamped in white ink on black cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils.

This is the first one I assembled.  I cut out the image with Spellbinders dies and added a frame.  The background paper is another of the faux batik, stamped with clear ink & clear embossing powder on rice paper.  I then added pastel inks to create a colorful paper.  Finally, it was ironed between absorbent papers to remove embossing powder.  I added a sentiment and corner bow, then framed and placed it on a white card base.

The first card felt like something was missing, so I added a black layer and sentiment to the second card.

I think this makes the card look more complete.  Whenever possible, I try to fix things I'm not pleased with to help me learn to make better cards in the future.  If I ignore it and move on, I'm left feeling unsatisfied with my finished cards.  Learn from your mistakes.

Shaving cream background

This cardstock with the shaving cream background was in my drawer of left-over backgrounds.  When I was learning to do each background years ago, I didn't use them all, so have some left-overs in my drawer.  I learned that frequently the early ones are very bright and colorful.  Near the end of the usefulness of the shaving cream with added ink, the colors become softer and more muted.  This was done at that stage.  After this stage, the colors become muddy and can no longer be used.

I did emboss this with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The image was also in my stage of colored images.  It is stamped on dark cardstock with white pigment ink, then colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The ribbon is just wrapped around card front and taped to back.  A short piece of ribbon was wrapped around with only one knot, then taped to card.  Sentiment tag is attached with a mini brad and image is popped on foam tape.

More old techniques

I'm using more of my old colored images and backgrounds - made years ago and never turned into cards.  It's time to put them to good use.

This image was stamped in white ink on this dark cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  The background is a technique called Faux Batik.  I found the instructions from long ago on Gingerwood.  Basically, it is stamped and embossed with clear ink and embossing powder.  I think I used rice paper.  I think I used watercolors to color the background.  After dry, this is ironed with absorbent paper to remove embossing powder.

Even the ribbon was from a small package from the $1 bin with several small rolls of ribbon.  I simply used a white card base and white layer to separate the dark colors.  I made a second card with a similar iris image stamped on black cardstock.  You can see the difference in this photo.

Next, I used an image colored with chalk and chalk blending fluid and used another Faux Batik background.

I just hand cut around the image because I felt I would lose too much detail by fussy cutting it.

Using those supplies

My sorting goes on.  Back in April, I started finding a lot of my old creative attempts.  You can see some of them HERE.  I've continued to find things.  I recently found a drawer full of backgrounds that I had made while learning new techniques years ago.

Some of these are very pretty, others just plain ugly.  I remember how some of them were made and you may see more of them as time goes by.  I picked out some that look lovely, but are hard to photograph and combined them with some of the colored images that I found in April.

 

I added some close-ups of these cards, photographed without a flash show more detail.

I hope to continue creating cards and use of few more of these long accumulated supplies.



OWH ODBD May challenge

I thought I was finished making cards today, but found one more challenge.  This is for the Operation Write Home Our Daily Bread Designs May challenge to make a card with embossing.

This is similar to other cards I made today.  I changed the sentiment and put it through the Big Shot in a swirls embossing folder.  Inks are all Brilliance Pearlescent inks.

Rebel With a Cause challenge

I had already posted a couple of cards made today when I read about the Rebel With a Cause challenge on the Stars & Stamps Blog.  I made 2 more cards using the same technique as the earlier post, but changed them a bit.

photo

scan

These cards look very much alike, but the camera and the scanner make them look different.  That paper is from a container that I had labeled Specialty Paper.  I've hoarded it for many years.  It's time to use it.  There are many varieties of paper in the container.  This one has a quilted look.  The ink is all Brilliance Pearlescent inks.  Background is added with Color Brushes.

Playing with old techniques

As I have been digging through that mountain of old supplies, I found a group of tags that I had left from a convention exchange.

I thought about reusing these tags on cards.  I like the design and the shimmer, but when I tested them I found they wouldn't work of OWH cards.  Some of that shimmer stuff wipes off and shows up on my sleeve.  This is the test for determining if cards are suitable for our deployed troops.  I'm guessing that I used Moonglow, Pearl Ex or Perfect Pearls to obtain this lovely shimmer.

I found suitable supplies and attempted to recreate this design.  I used Brilliance Pearlescent inks and Color Brushes (look like little shaving brushes) for my modern cards.  I used the same unmounted rubber stamp for the dragonflies with Brilliance Pearlescent Jade ink.  I mounted my design on pearlescent green cardstock, then onto a white card base.  I used a Corner Chomper for the rounded corners.