Scattered Straw and Tea Dye--who knew??

Scattered Straw and Tea Dye--who knew??, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Goodness, I am so behind on my blogging. The inspiration for this card came from the Less Is More challenge....way back in JANUARY.

So bad. :-o

Anyway, Laney on Laney's Place blog used a color combination I had never thought of before--Scattered Straw and Tea Dye. I LOVED it on her card and wanted to try it out.

I gently rubbed the Scattered Straw Distress Ink on a leftover piece of cardblank. (That's what the odd line on the left side of the panel is all about--I just cut the cardblank up and started playing around!) I kept the ink kind of mottled and then heavily inked the edges.

I stamped the butterfly in Tea Dye, which totally changes the color of that ink--it becomes more rusty orange than tea-colored.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment in Tea Dye too and adhered the butterfly panel on the left side of the cardblank.


Supplies:
Paper: Recollections (ivory cardblanks)
Stamps: Stampin Up (birthday stamp); Michael's Dollar Bin (butterfly)
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Scattered Straw and Tea Dye)
ETC: Glue Glider Pro


Tuesday I saw this young Bald Eagle in a tree in MY FRONT YARD!  For a youngin' he was HUGE!!  Check out the BEAK!!  WHOA.

~Cynthia

DITL (Finally)

DITL, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Here (finally!) is a page from my Day In The Life.

I assure you, the rest of the pages are just as exciting as this little number. That's right. I lead an exciting life, filled with things like counting birds for eBird and doing the crossword puzzle (IN INK!) after eating leftover Mexican food.

Woot.

This does give you an idea of how I approached Day In The Life. I checked out some of the blogs fellow DITL'ers posted on Ali Edwards' blog...and I (ahem)...didn't do my mini album quite like anybody else.

I used the same letter stamps for each headline. I specifically stamped them all wonky and messy. I used number stickers (also adhered wonk-ily) for the time. And instead of photos, I added ephemera from my day.

I freely admit I had a totally different idea in my head when I woke up that morning. I think the biggest lesson I learned was to prepare BEFORE I started. I found myself *documenting* the day instead of *living* the day.

And another problem was that I just really didn't have anything going on that day. I was way busier the day before and the day after. Weird.

One cool thing I did was to ink up the tire on my stationary bike and press it on a manilla shipping tag to create skid marks. It represents my workout. :-)

I also adhered the labels off of the shampoo, the body wash, and the cereal I used/ate. I added the newspaper headlines, samples of my makeup, cool quotes I read, the weather map, and bird feathers I found outside. I listed the weather and temperature at certain times during the day and everything I ate.

So for my first go 'round, I think I did OK. I like that there's continuity throughout, but it is a bit boring. I would really love to do this again later...with proper forethought and planning though. ;-)


Thanks for stopping in today!


~Cynthia

Manly Valentine's Day?

Manly Valentine's Day?, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I finally finished my Day In The Life project...but I haven't taken pictures of it yet. Soooo, in the meantime, here's the last of my Valentine's Day cards.

I made this for my 13-year-old nephew. I never know what kind of card to make him. That age is hard. But I hope this works. ;-)

I stamped the swirl--which I love. It's also hard to find a good swirl stamp, no?

Then I stamped the sentiment over the swirl--just eyeballing it, as they are both wood block stamps. I LERVE the ink color--Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. It looks fab on kraft paper. :-)

So, what do you think? OK for a 13-year-old boy??



Supplies:
Paper: The Paper Studio (kraft cardblank)
Stamps: Craft Smart (sentiment); All Night Media (Swirl #331)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Aged Mahogany)



Happy Monday! As usual, my To Do List today is about a mile long. I'm going to try to get everything done that I can--the weather tomorrow is supposed to be a bit rough. The weather folks are throwing around words like SNOW and SLEET. Not that it will stick, but you know people will be driving like idiots!! I should do my part for public safety and stay home in the craft room. =D

Thanks for visiting today!!


~Cynthia

Falling Hearts

Falling Hearts, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Here's a variation on a birthday card I posted earlier.

Totally clean and simple! ;-)

I stamped the sentiment, then the hearts. I felt OK leaving the hearts in an even number because the sentiment made the fifth image.

At least that's what I'm telling myself. ;-)


Supplies:
Paper: Recollections (white cardblank)
Stamps: Stampin Up (heart); Craft Smart (sentiment)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Worn Lipstick)


I'm still working on my Day In The Life project. I will admit it was a lot harder than I had anticipated...maybe because my life is just so darn boring. ;-) I hope to finish it up today and post a few pictures.


Craft happy!


~Cynthia

LIM Again--Aqua

LIM Again--Teal, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Here's another card for this week's Less Is More challenge: Use aqua.

I totally CASE'd host Chrissie's card...although she added a little tag and I didn't. I really love the look of the tone-on-tone!

To create the panel area, I masked off a section then brushed on the ink--Broken China Distress Ink.

I stamped the script from Stampin Up's French Foliage set off the left side of the cardblank. Gosh, I love that set! Every time I see someone using a stamp from it, I have to pull it out again and create something! :-)

Then I stamped the flower image randomly and in an odd number.

To finish the panel look, I scored it after I stamped everything. It looks cool like that, I think! ;-)

Finally I stamped the sentiment using Broken China again.

Simple, quick, fun. I love the color too!


Supplies:
Paper: Recollections (white cardblank)
Stamps: Stampin Up (French Foliage set); Hero Arts (Birthday Messages set); Stacy Stamps (Floral Minis set)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Broken China)
ETC: ScorBuddy


Ali Edwards is documenting a Day in the Life on Wednesday (the 8th)--anyone else taking up the challenge?? I'm planning on playing along, but I think I'll use only ephemera from the day--not photos. I think that's more of a challenge. ;-) I plan to cut the newspaper headlines out, stick in receipts or business cards, leaves from the yard--stuff like that. Oooo...maybe if it rains, I'll hold a Distress Ink-covered snippet of paper outside and let the rain react with the ink!! Oh, the possibilities!! =D Wanna join in? Head over to Ali's site for all the details and some ideas and inspiration!



~Cynthia

Disaster Averted...sort of

Disaster Averted...sort of, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I had die cut the heart for a previous creation. I thought it would be really cute to make a postage stamp out of the negative heart shape so I used Pinking Shears on the sides to replicate a postage stamp.

What I didn't realize....until after I had adhered it to the front of the card...was that the die cut has a number on it. Which, of course, embossed itself onto the postage stamp.

What to do? What to do??

PEARLS.

Of course! I'll just stick a few pearls on the postage stamp right over the numbers!

Disaster Averted!!

But since the card is white, the heart in the center of the postage stamp didn't really look right.

What to do? What to do??

DIE CUT.

Of course! I'll just die cut the heart again and pop it up with dots.

Disaster Averted!!

But then I stamped the sentiment.

And I didn't quite get a good image. See the H? Kind of sketchy there.

Oh well. Two out of three ain't bad, right?? ;-)


Supplies:
Paper: Recollections (white cardblank); Stash (unknown paper snippet--maybe BoBunny?); GinaK (Pure Luxury white cardstock)
Stamp: Craft Smart (sentiment)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Festive Berries)
ETC: QuicKutz (Heart die cut); Fiskars (Pinking Shears); Recollections (pearls)



Happy Monday! I'm off to get my To Do List done today. I still have a few more Valentine's Day cards to make though. Craft Happy!

~Cynthia

LIM-ish Birthday

LIM-ish Birthday, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

One more card based (loosely) on this week's challenge over on Less Is More.

Ya can't get much more clean-and-simple than this!! =D

I stamped the flowers off to one side, then stamped the sentiment. For just a touch of interest, I used a glitter pen on the centers of the flowers.


Supplies:
Paper: Recollections (white cardblank)
Stamps: Stampin Up (sentiment); Stacy Stamps (Solid Wildflower Set)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Dusty Concord)
ETC: Sakura (Glitter Pen)



Have a great weekend!! Thanks for all the comments this week--y'all made me laugh!!! =D


~Cynthia