We recently found out that one of our CTMH Team sisters is being deployed to Afghanistan. She has asked the team to make and send cards for her to share with the other Troops at her base and also for them to give to the Afghan children they come in contact with. Our wonderful Upline, Susan is going to be collecting cards from team members and sending "care" packages to our sister Consultant during her deployment.
I just got some new CTMH toyz to play with yesterday. Things that weren't available early for Consultants to sample, so I decided what better way to play with new things than to make some cards for our Troops! I'll be sharing cards as I make them over the next little while.
These card layouts are in our new Make It From Your Heart how-to publication. With the retirement of our prior how-to books these new publications combine the best of both worlds. They will have layouts for scrapbookers AND cardmakers! I also ordered some of our new Pigment inks and they are what I used for all of the stamping and edge distressing. The colors are so lush! Something you can't get with water based dye inks. There's also a bit of our new Metallic Silver and Gold markers on the stars. And speaking of stars. You'll notice that 4 of the cards are the same except for the size of the stars. ALWAYS be sure to check the size of your settings on your Cricut before you cut! I forgot to do that and my stars were smaller than I wanted. Rather than toss the stars, I decided I'd just do another set of stars in the size I'd intended for them to be all along! Paper pack is Dotty For You, an campaign from earlier this summer and is no longer available.
I've been struggling with these pages in my art journal for at least a week now. I really want to like Zentangle and I DO like it. When other people do it! Me doing it...notsomuch. I find it very frustrating. So i've decided I will sit back and enjoy the Tangles that others do and do what makes ME happy on my art journey. Because if you're not happy doing something, what's the point in doing it at all? Especially art, which is supposed to bring us joy and happiness.
Once I finally got the Zentangle tree on the right side done, the rest of this piece came together like a breeze! I splooched and slotched ink and paint, using various lids and even a pencil eraser for the blue dots! I used Dyan's eyelash lady, a couple of caterpillars for her unibrow eyebrows (a la Frida Kahlo!) and a Zentangled stamp of Dyan's for her hat/hair. That's how I like Zentangles! When someone else designs them and makes them into a stamp for me to use! Used a few word stamps that are important reminders for me. And when I cut out the "I am perfect just the way i am", they fell on my table just how I put them on the page. I thought it was appropriate. Just the way I am, I am perfect.
I know! Two posts in one day!
It's time for Compendium of Curiosities II at Linda's. We're at challenge 17 already. As always, we're based on the book by Tim and this week our generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp will be donating a $25 gift certificate to one lucky player.
This weeks challenge is all about Core'Dinations and can be found on page 61 of the book. Don't look too closely at my tag. It's upside down! As soon as I put the last stitch on the burlap I realized what I had done and decided I was too lazy to start fresh, so upside down it shall remain. As t!m would say, I'm embracing my imperfections!!! Or, taking a cue from my earlier post today, Just the way I am I'm perfect, and so is my tag!
It's time for week 2 at Dina's Out of the Journal challenge. And this week, I am NOT gonna be the last one getting my project done. Nosiree! In trying to get back into "teach's" good graces, I decided to use her very own Lonely Girl stampon my project. Lo and behold, when she posts her creation last night, she used the very same stamp!! Great Minds Truly Do Think Alike, hmm Dina!!
First I applied a few pieces of 7Gypsies Tissue Paper in random spots. In my ongoing attempt to use up some of my old acrylic paints, I used some blue and orange and left some white space on my 8 x 8 canvas, then came back in with two different circle stencils and dabbed red and lavender paint on a sponge thru the stencils. The quote is one that Dyan posted last week on FB. The hand writing is my own.
Dina has a new challenge going on her blog. Out of the Journal for the month of August. Each week, players will work on a canvas or some other medium other than in their journals. I am LATE coming to the party this week! I kept searching for inspiration and the more and harder I searched, the more it ran away! This morning, while blog hopping I came across this quote and I knew I'd found my inspiration! On the Art Journaling FB page that I am a member of, one of the gals posted a digi image of the lovely lass, so she became my image. I used acrylic paints on my canvas and then random stamped and doodled over the paint. There's some rub-ons used and some Christy Tomlinson She Art birds and butterflies.
Or maybe that should be Duo challenge! t!m posted his August tag the other day and Linda posted Challenge 16 for CofCII yesterday, so I am being thrifty and combining challenges! Somehow, I don't think either will mind. t!m used one of his new silhouette images to make his tag and since I don't have any of them, I improvised with a "silhouette looking" snowman Christmas stamp, which is also covered in Distress Rock Candy. The challenge at Linda's is to use the Perfect Pearls Technique found on page 54 of the book. I *think* you can see that once I embossed my tag and colored it using a mixture of Sailboat Blue and Cloudy Blue Paint Dabbers, I then used the Perfect Pearls technique over it. All of the other embellies on the tag are from my stash. I've got loads of Christmas stuff!
And I don't mean layer like in a layer cake, I mean layer as in CHICKEN layer! I opened the door separating the "little" girls from the "big" girls on Saturday. Queen Biotch Survivor has spent all of her waking time since in chasing the little girls back and forth, forth and back. I don't call her Queen Biotch for nuttin! But apparently, one of the little Americauna's found some spare time in being chased to lay her first egg. And that surprises me since the Buffs are the oldest of the "little" girls. I just ASSumed (and you know what "they" say about ASSuming, right?!) that the Buffs would be first to lay. I don't know who it is that gave me this pretty little blueish green egg, but I'll take it! I put it next to one of Queen's eggs since hers are the biggest of all. The eggs start small since their hoo-ha's aren't stretched out as much. As it stretches, the eggs will get bigger. And a little more chicken "birds and bees" if you will. You DO NOT need a rooster (male) for the hens to lay eggs. All females "lay" an egg. Chickens just do it on a more frequent timetable than say, a human female. The only reason you "need" a male is to fertilize the eggs. Hens will lay an egg every day or so, rooster or no rooster. Just like a human female "lays" an egg every 28 days or so. And there is NO nutritional difference in a fertile and non-fertile chicken egg. Also, eating a fertile chicken egg will not hurt you in any way, shape or form. Class dismissed!
