Spring is in the Air

This is my Daffodil card for the "Spring is in the Air" swap.  I went a little crazy with alcohol inks.  For the back ground paper I took photo paper and sprayed it with yellow & green alcohol inks and sprinkled with salt.

I found some refillable alcohol ink pens on sale so I got some to try.  And I quickly discovered why they were on clearance...they leak like crazy!  I would start to color in my image and drops of ink would come out of the top of the pen.  I was able to finish my cards but I will probably not try this technique again.  But I am happy with the cards and it was fun to play around with :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4uFjsgYJdg

Hitchhiker Hostel

The earth stamp is not included in the box. 

I have decided to make a Hitchhiker Hostel.  It seems that hitchhikers come to our town and get stuck here.  We have found some of the same ones two and three times.  Last year we found one that was planted here four years ago and it never left.  So I thought a HHH would be a way to get some of the old ones out and get in some new ones from other parts of the country.

Before I send off my hitchhikers I wanted to make a LTC of them.  The HHH will start of with 8 stamps and you can see them here on my suitcase LTC.  I have never found a HHH before but I think this will work well for our area.

Easter Egg LTC

Card stock w/ starch, Tattered Angels & plastic wrap.

This is the technique that I used for my card "Glimmer Egg" and it is for the Easter Egg II swap.  I really enjoyed making the paper so I thought I would share what I did.  I found this technique when I was looking for ideas for my Something New for Christmas LTC.  I thought this would be nice for a Spring card.

Photo paper

In the YouTube video they instruct you to take plain card stock, spray on spray starch, spray on Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, and press wrinkled plastic wrap on top.  You let it dry and in the video it looks very pretty.  So I tried it and the paper was pretty but not like the video.  I tried again with photo paper because I thought thicker paper would help.  This time the wrinkles were very clear but it was not shimmery.

My LTC and the finished paper. 

I was lying in bed thinking about the technique and I remembered that I had Mixed Media paper.  So the next morning I tried it again.  It was better with that paper but still not like the video.

I was watching another video for Ranger Inks and the woman sprayed the paper with water before she added her Ranger spray.  I tried spraying the paper with water, starch,  Tattered Angels & plastic wrap and just water, Tattered Angels & plastic wrap.  Finally I got the technique to work.  The water, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, and plastic wrap gave the look that I wanted :D

Busy Boxing Year

Cadette Scouts found a Letterbox

I have a feeling that this is going to be a very busy Letterboxing year for us; and not because a local boxer is planting every chance he gets.  I have agreed to help Brownie Girl Scouts earn their Letterboxing Badge at Day Camp this summer.  I am already working on that and have asked for stamp donations.  I am over whelmed by the response I got on AQ and I can't wait to see all the stamps come in.  

I recently had a Cadette Girl Scout Troop ask me to come teach them how to carve stamps.  I love to carve and said that I would help them out.  That was today and when I got to the leaders house I asked if they had found many boxes.  She said no but that they also wanted me to go with them to find some Letterboxes when they were done stamp carving.  I was a little surprised but I had nothing else to do so I went along.  The girls had a great time and it looks like I have turned the leader on to Letterboxing ;)

Also, our local libraries are celebrating their 100 birthday.  For the celebration they have planted Letterboxes and Geocaches in every branch.  The person who planted them asked if I would do a Letterboxing program to go along with their Summer Reading Program.  Of course I said yes!  I am excited about telling Girl Scouts about boxing but I am a little nervous about the library programs.  So far, two of the local branches want me to do a program.  I sure hope we can attract some new Letterboxers our town.  

Plants vs Zombies

My son, R2-D2, got a DS for Christmas and we all love playing Plants vs Zombies.  We like it so much we got the computer version too.  So when a Plants vs Zombies LTC tracker came up I had to join.

It is hard to see in this picture but I wanted the background of the card to look like corn.  First, I went to the pet food store and bought some squirrel corn, rolled it in paint, and rolled it on my paper.  It just looked like little dots and not like corn at all.  Then, I went to the store and got some real corn on the cob and tried the same thing and got the same result.

Finally, it hit me that bubble wrap had circles on it and that if I stamped it in paint it would probably look like corn.  I am really happy with how my Kernel Pult turned out.  We will probably plant a Plant vs Zombie series later this year.