Louisville Twice

Cave Hill Cemetery on Presidents Day 

My boxing buddy, G-MA, and I have been talking about going to Louisville all year.  We made plans to go 3 times and each time we canceled due to rain.

I always plot the course for our trips and I realized that G-MA had been to Louisville without us.  I was looking at boxes in Cave Hill Cemetery and saw that she already had some.  I assumed that she had all the boxes there so Daddy's Favorite Princess and I went over on Presidents Day and got all the boxes at Cave Hill and a small cemetery next door. 

Cave Hill Cemetery on Easter Monday

When I got home and started logging the boxes I realized that G-MA didn't have all the boxes there.  Oops.  So, when we finally went together we had to go back to Cave Hill so we would both have all the boxes there.

Most of my kids were out of school on Monday, I took the day off, and G-MA, the princess and I went to Louisville.  We left at 8 am and traveled 2 hours. 

We started off in Cave Hill Cemetery and the small cemetery next door.  We performed maintenance on my box and went to lunch.  Then we slowly started heading south stopping at cemeteries and parks to get boxes. 

Calvary Cemetery  

After a while we decided to go downtown and look for just a few more boxes before heading home.  Downtown was very busy and we were not able to find the boxes we looked for there.  We stopped for ice cream and then looked for one more box on the riverfront.  The riverfront park was so busy we thought there was no way the box was still there.  But we were pleasantly surprised to find it.  It was a great way to end our trip.

When we were done there we headed back home.  There is a rest area box along the way that I need but the rest area is currently closed :(

We arrived home at 8pm.  Altogether G-MA found 15 while the princess and I found 23. We found and left a few hitchhikers on both trips and I planted a box on the second trip.   

Fishing Lures LTC

This is my card for jlsd0218's "Fishing Lures" LTC swap.  My card is called "Old School."

I kinda feel like I cheated on these cards because I didn't carve a fancy fishing lure.  I'm not much of a fisherman and in my limited experience we have always used worms or bugs.

My parents had 3 girls and my dad would treat us like boys.  When I was born, my dad ran down to Sears and bought me a fishing pole.  While my mom was still in the hospital, he was out getting me a fishing pole.  I still have that pole.

One time, we were camping at Harmonie State Park and we went fishing in the lake there.  We were doing really well.  My dad was putting the fish on a line in the water so we could take them back and eat them.  After a while we noticed that the line was moving a lot.  A snapping turtle was having a feast with our fish!

Fishing Lures: Old School

Back to the cards, I tried something new for these.  I have been wanting more Distress Oxide ink pads and I saw a 12 pack of Distress Oxide sprays.  I had a good time playing around with them.  I tried 3 different things so some of the cards look a little different.

One time, I sprayed the DO sprays, sprayed them with water, and dried them with the heat tool.  Another time, I sprayed the paper with DO, splattered them with water from a cup with my hand, let that sit a minute, and removed the extra water with a paper towel.  The last time, I sprayed the watercolor paper down with water first, then sprayed with DO.  That didn't work well.  The color was too washed out.

I stamped my stamp, mounted it to card stock, and sent the cards off.  Then I got my cards back from the "New/Underused Product" swap and I wanted to ask jlsd0218 for my cards back.  Someone had used Distress Collage Medium thru a stencil and I loved the look.  I went down to the craft store, bought some, and tried it on an extra piece of background paper.  I loved how it made the cards look wet but felt silly asking the host to send my cards back.  I made 18 cards and only 11 people joined the swap.  I will probably put the college medium on the extra cards.

My First Shaker Card!

Back in the fall dancingpecan posted an Interactive LTC swap.  I wasn't really interested so I didn't pay much attention but it filled up and she posted another one.  It filled up and she posted another one.  I decided I would jump on the bandwagon and joined the last one. 

My card is called, "Sun Tea" and it is my first ever shaker card :)  I probably did this the hard way but I had a lot of fun.  Here we go...

I carved the lemon, tea bag, and jar.  I stamped the lemon on yellow paper, the tea bag on cream paper and brown text paper, and the jar on white paper.  Then I cut them all out, along with the inside of the jar.

The back layer of the card is just brown card stock.  I usually make the back of the card last but was smart enough to do it early in the card process this go round.

Now to assemble the top layer of the card.  I cut the table cloth paper to size, cut the sky to size but tore the bottom, and tore some white clouds, and glued it all together with a glue stick.  I glued the jar on top and used an X-ACTO knife to cut the sky and table cloth out of the middle. 

At first I glued the clear transparency paper to the back of the top with tacky glue.  But the glue would ooze out and make a mess so I switched to a tape runner. 

After the clear window was in place, I added the foam tape.  I saw a video on YouTube where a kid folded the tape over to make it thicker.  I liked the idea and did it too.  I cut a section of foam tape, folded it in half and then cut it down the middle to make it thinner.  I attached it to the back of the top part of the card.  Then I filled the window area with the tea bags, lemon, beads, sequins, and some times glitter.  The Princess insisted that they needed the glitter.  I wasn't sure about it and left it out sometimes. 

Now for the hard part, attach the brown back so that it is centered.  I tried making the card in reverse and had issues.  One time I attached the foam tape to the brown background, filled it with beads, sequins, tea bags, and lemon and went to attach the top.  But guess what?  You could see the foam tape in the window.  So, I figure the only way to make sure the foam tape is hidden is to attach it to the back of the window.

Some of the cards are not centered.  Also, sometimes I got carried away with the glitter.  I think there were two that I threw away because I felt that they had too much glitter.  But I enjoyed making the cards and will search for an easier way to assemble the cards if I do this again.  The swap was for 9 cards and I made 12 if anyone wants to trade.

When I first joined this swap, I looked up shaker cards online and bought the We R memory keepers Photo Sleeve Fuse tool.  As you can see, I didn't use it at all.  I plan on making another shaker card so I can try it out.  I'm thinking about a snow globe card this winter.

Magaly Ohika LTC and Stamp Platform Review

This card is for Linden Leafs "Magaly Ohika Art" LTC tracker.  Linden Leaf hosts many art related trackers and I usually don't join them.  I struggle to make a stamp from a painting.  I've said before that my brain doesn't work that way.  But after some discussion on the message boards I decided that I would try to join more of her artsy swaps.

I got online and started looking for an image that I liked.  There were a few that stuck out at me but this is the one I chose.  I don't know the name of it but I have 2 sisters and named my card "Sisters".

I carved my stamp and decided to try a new toy.  I got the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform on a cyber sale the week after Thanksgiving.  When it came I played with and didn't like it.  I stamped 3 hand carved stamps and every time I got a big white spot in the middle of the image.  I tried re-inking the stamp and it still didn't work.  Everyone on the boards was a buzz about the new product but I hated it.  I decided that this card would be a real way to test it.

I cut my paper to size and attached my stamp with rubber cement.  One of the issues I had with the platform is that the grid on the top is not transferred to the bottom.  It would be much easier to remake a card over and over if the grid was also on the bottom.  Then you were sure to get your paper in the same place every time.

Another issue I had with the stamp platform, was that the magnets moved.  Maybe my stamp was to big.  I ended up taping the card down with washi tape and not using the magnets at all.

The original image has writing on the girls dresses.  I knew I could never carve this and I didn't want to write on all the cards.  So instead, I glued down text pages.  I inked up the middle part of the stamp, stamped it on the text paper, and cut out the dresses.

Using the stamp platform I stamped the image once, glued the text paper down, and stamped again.  The second stamping was often not lined up with the first. 

I am not happy with how the cards turned out.  In the synopsis area on Atlas Quest I call my card, "My ugliest stamp & card ever!"  I should chosen a simpler image of just a face and not tried this one.  I was so unhappy with how they turned out, I posted on the tracker to see if anyone wanted my stamp.  Someone responded that they would plant it with their own and I mailed it the very next day.

New/Underused Product Part 1

Linden Leaf is hosting some different LTC swaps this year.  She posted them last year giving us plenty of time to learn, play, and work on our cards.  For the swap you are supposed to pick a new or underused product and use that in different ways to make four sets of cards.  I picked the Gelli Plate.  I have 2 Gelli Plates and I have used them a few times but I thought I was not using it to its fullest.

The swap was posted in September with the due date in February.  I took advantage of a Saturday in November with nothing going on and made my cards for the first two swaps.  I saw this technique on Instagram and loved it immediately.  Here is the You Tube video if you want to watch.

It is pretty easy but I'll walk you thru it.  You put a little paint on the Gelli Plate.  I think in the past I used more paint than necessary.  In many of the videos you see them rolling extra paint off on a scrap piece of paper.  You want to use one tone of paint in the first layer and a different tone in the second layer.  For example, you don't want black in one corner and yellow in another corner.  I hope that makes sense :D

After you have the plate covered with paint, you lay down a big stencil and pull a print.  LEAVE the stencil down.  I made the mistake of taking the stencil off the first time, oops.  Leave the stencil down.  If there is extra paint in the open areas you can wipe them off with a baby wipe/damp paper towel.

While the stencil is still down, take a contrasting shade of paints and apply them with a sponge.  My first layer was light colored so I used dark colors for this next layer.  In the next part of the video, she takes a rubber stamp, put paint on it, and stamps it on the Gelli Plate/stencil to add texture.  I did this too but you can't see it on my cards.  I would probably skip this step next time.

Finally, you pull the stencil off.  I was really nervous about this next part.  You let the Gelli Plate dry and apply a thin layer of white acrylic paint. (I forgot to take a pic of this part.) I loved what I saw on the plate and I was worried that covering it with the white paint would ruin it.  But it did not :)  Now you get to pull your awesome print!  I love how they turned out.

I had to do this three times to make the number of cards I wanted.  The first time, I printed on plain white card stock.  The second time, I printed on text paper from an old book.  And the last time, I took a brown paper lunch bag, opened it up, and printed on that.

Linden Leaf said we could reuse old stamps or use the same stamp for each of these swaps.  I carved the finger print heart and I will use it for all of these swaps.  As you can see, I stamped it in pink on white paper, cut it out, and attached it with a 3-D glue dot.  Then I glued the whole thing to pink scrapbook paper.

New/Underused Product: Gelli Prints-Stencils

One of the things I discovered in this process it that the paint does matter. :P  I always bought cheap acrylic paint and I noticed that it is not glossy.  The more I work with the plate, the more I want a glossy finish.  As I buy new paints, I will defiantly look for nicer quality or a high gloss paint.

Thanks Linden Leaf for hosting these swaps :)

Winter LTC Swap

 I am participating in another one of aMAZEing adventure frog's LTC swaps.  This one is called "Winter Craft & Swap" and my card is called "Joy to the World."  When I first signed up, I planned to make a card with a snowman on it.  But after a while I realized that I hadn't made any Christmas themed cards in 2018.  So I changed my plans.

This card is basically the same as my Heart Art card.  I took strips of old text paper that I bought on Etsy (dictionary, encyclopedia, music, etc), spread a thin layer of glue on watercolor paper using an old gift card, both over and under the papers, and let it dry.  Then, I spread Gesso with a gift card and let it dry.  Next, I took an old sock and rubbed Ground Espresso & Rusty Hinge Distress Inks.

Finished card, card before extra ink,
card before crackle (L-R)

When I was done with that, I cut the cards to size, stamped my stamp, brushed Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint-Clear Rock Candy on top, and let that dry.  Last time I used this technique, I wasn't happy with the crackle effect.  This go round, I was disappointed that the Distress Ink background really smeared when brushing the crackle paint on.  I tried using my heat tool on some of the cards before adding the crackle and the problem didn't stop.  So in the end, I went back and added extra Distress Ink on top of the crackle.

I punched the corners of the cards before adding the crackle.  I glued the whole thing to brown paper.  I struggled to come up with a name for the card.  I wanted to use a Christmas Carol but I have already made a card called "Mary Did You Know".  I thought about calling it Madonna something but that didn't feel right.  I was listening to Christmas music and Joy to the World jumped out at me.  I love how they turned out.  I know it is February but I made the cards in late November <3

My First Coin

Beetle has started hosting Letterbox Trading Coin swaps.  Instead of 2.5 x 3.5 cards you make a 2.5" circle coin.  The first one she hosted had a cow theme.  I passed on that one but joined her next one about birds.  She called the swap, "LTCoins: BIRDS!" 

Like most of my cards, I carved the stamp right away.  I knew that I wanted to use Distress Inks/Oxides.  I rubbed the inks/oxides on my mat, sprayed with water, tapped/rubbed the card stock thru the ink, dried the paper, and put it in the ink again.  I was quite happy with how they turned out.

Then came cutting a million circles.  A few years ago my mom got me this scrapbook thing that makes cutting circles easy.  My mom is a big scrapbooker and I asked if she had an easy way to make circles for round logbooks.  She had one of these and let me borrow it.  After I borrowed it a few times she got me one for Christmas.

My coins are called, "Owl With Attitude."  The coin has 3 layers, I made 20 coins, for a grand total of 60 circles!  I glued all the layers together with a glue stick.

My original idea for the card was to stamp the owl on white card stock and color it in with Distress Markers.  But I liked the background so much that I didn't want to cover it with the owls.  It was supposed to be brown circle, distress circle, and colored owl on top.  When I switched to Plan B, I couldn't decide what background color to use.  The coins with a lot of blue got orange circles and the ones with a lot of orange got blue circles.  I really like how they turned out :)