Ink Applicator/Blender Review

I have been using the old rectangle Distress Ink Applicator/Blending tool for a while now.  In my opinion the felt rectangles are too small.  But I make it work by using two of them or cutting my own.  If the Velcro underneath sticks out it can scratch your card.

But I recently noticed that many people are now using a round version of this tool.  I decided to give it a try and I do not like it.  The felt has been replaced with a sponge like pad that grips the paper and leaves big ink marks.  I had a very hard time getting the ink to blend and was not happy with the change.     

Sometimes I just use a piece of felt and not the tool part at all.  The long piece in the photo shows that I would use one color and then move down a little bit when I changed colors.  The next thing from Ranger/Tim Holtz will be little felt covers for your fingers; like a sewing thimble only felt.  You heard it here first ;) 

So, have you tired both?  Which do you prefer?

Secret Santa Stamps

This is my 5th year to participate in the Secret Santa stamp swap.  The 1st year we got an awesome Santa stamp that we planted near Santa Claus, Indiana.  The 2nd year we got a tiny frog stamp that we sent off as a hitchhiker.  The 3rd year we received a stamp of Charlie Brown, Snoopy & tree, that has recently gone missing.  Last year we got a Gingerbread man, that we sent out as a hitchhiker.

This year our Secret Santa was RideTheMoose (fun trail name).  She sent these cool stamps AND some chocolates!  One of the great things about these stamps is that they were carved on materials that I have never seen before.  The white one is labeled, "seed" and I don't know what the pink one is.  They are both much thicker than Speedball pink.

I will probably plant the strawberry in the spring and the leaf guy in the fall.  Thank you RideTheMoose :)

Self Portrait Collage LTC

This is my card for Beetle's "Self Portrait Collage" LTC swap.  My card is called, "Route 66."

My original idea for this swap was to carve a selfie and put that stamp on a photo background.  I sat down
and played around with the photo edit software for 30 minutes until I got the image in a way I could carve it.  I struggled with the carving and then Beetle posted on the tracker about how the photo could be printed.  I went back and reread the instructions and realized that I wasn't supposed to carve a selfie :(

Original Photo

So  I decided that I would remake one of my vacation photos.  I carved the stamp of the car and the Route 66 sign, colored everything with Sharpies, added my photo, and attached to the map background paper.  About half way through I thought that the darker (top) map paper would look better and I switched.

Unnecessary Selfie now a PT 

They turned out pretty good.  Kinda a pain to color them all.  I really should read the instructions before the start on my stamps/cards!  I love the little photo corner holder things :)

Him LTC

This is my card for Team Awesome Pants' "Him" LTC swap.  My cards is called "Track 12."  For this swap TAP made a Praise and Worship CD.  Participants were supposed to pick a number and she would send the song title that went with that track on the CD.  We were asked to keep our song titles top secret and I found it very hard to not share my card on Facebook.

I got Track 12: Our Great God.  I had never heard this song before.  About a year and a half ago we switched to a baptist church that only sings hymns and I don't listen to Christian radio.  It's a great song, but the first time I listened to it nothing jumped out at me for the LTC.  I thought about making a plain worship card with silhouettes of people with their hands raised on a gelli print background.  

But when I listened the second time the end of the last verse got my attention.  It says, "Let all the moons and all the stars, In all the universe, Sing praises to the living God, Who rules them by His Word." 

Him: Track 12

I jumped on Pinterest and started looking for space ATCs.  I found two videos of this background.  In the first video the woman is hard to understand and she doesn't tell what colors she is using.  I like her card better because it has more blue.  But I followed the second video because she gives more detailed instructions.  

I played around with different papers for this technique.  The woman in the video says she uses watercolor paper.  I tired card stock, Bristol, and watercolor.  Card stock worked best for me.  I rubbed the ink on, dripped water, blotted, let it dry, and splatted white paint with a tooth brush.  Then I glued my space background to the grey background, stamped my text stamp, and attached my moon with a 3D glue dot.  I LOVE how these cards turned out :) 

Christmas LTC's 2016

I believe this is my 4th year to participate in Beetle's Christmas LTC swap and my card is called, "The Reason for the Season."

 I found my image and carved it right away but I was torn on the background.  I really wanted to glue some burlap fabric to the card. But in the tracker Beetle asks that you don't make your cards too heavy because it is a large swap (30 people).

I was on online looking at craft supplies and saw the Tim Holtz burlap stencil.  I bought it but still had problems deciding how to use it.  I sprayed ink on it, rubbed ink on with a Distress Ink Applicator, and brushed acrylic paint on it.  I didn't like how any of those turned out.

Christmas LTCs 2016: The Reason for the Season

I got to thinking about my card from two years ago.  Here is the link to that Blog post with step by step instructions and photos.  Because this is such a large swap I was only going to make 30 cards.  But I got down to the end and ran out of paper.  I thought about using different paper on that last one but my OCD kicked in and I went to Hobby Lobby and bought more paper.  Now I have 5 extra cards.

In the tracker Beetle asks that you share a Christmas memory with your card.  One of my favorite Christmas memories is performing in the live nativity as a Girl Scout at our zoo.  The zoo provided children's costumes, played the story on a tape, and we would go out into the petting zoo area with sheep, goats, llama, etc.  It was a lot of fun and afterward we would get hot chocolate and cookies.  Our zoo is run by the city so they would never allow that type of thing now but it was fun the few times we did it

This picture was taken in 1987 and I am the magi with the blue hat holding the candle next to the angel.  My mom has a boatload of pictures in her basement and thankfully I only had to go thru 2 photo albums to find this pic.

Fast Food LTCs

Daddy's Favorite Princess and I are participating in Mommy's HERBs "National Fast Food Day 2016" LTC swap.

This was the princesses idea and of course she picked McDonald's.  She carved the golden arches and I carved her text.  We looked for a way to make her card more interesting and found the burger & fry washi tape on Etsy.

I picked Jimmy John's for my card.  My husband and I ate lunch there shortly after I joined this swap and I asked for an extra sandwich paper for the background of my cards.

I think our cards look great and we will look for a place to hide them on November 16th, National Fast Food Day.

Shawnee National Forest

Shawnee Forest Bigfoot

A few months ago one of my Facebook friends posted a pic of the Shawnee Forest Bigfoot.  I thought I have to plant a box there.  I got the box ready but never made it over to plant it.

Last week some of my kids were on Fall Break and we took advantage of the time off and nice weather to go over and play.  We hiked, climbed, and hid two letterboxes.

I hoped the leaves would have been more colorful but the weather was beautiful.  The kids really love climbing all over the rocks.  There were more people there than I thought there would be.  I guess a lot of kids were on break.

Kids at Garden of the Gods

It would be nice if it was closer to home.  I thought it was an hour away but it is an hour and a half.  And of course my kids can't sit that long without trying to kill each other.  We got almost there and I had to move the kids around.

I hope we can go camping over there sometime soon.  Maybe we can talk everyone into going there Mother's Day weekend :)