How do you relax? LTC

How do you relax? into the woods I go...

I joined Thompson Whangdoodles, "How do you relax?" tracker and my first thought was take a walk.  When I get stressed I like to get some fresh air.

I carved my stamp and then started thinking about how to make the card.  I really like Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Inks/Oxides.  They are my "go to" for card backgrounds.  I have over 50 distress ink/oxide ink pads and I have never once used them to ink up a stamp.

I inked my stamp with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide ink and stamped it on dark green paper.  The oxide effect is really neat.  I should have carved my stamp a little smaller but I am happy with how these cards turned out.

Due to the corona virus, I have been out of work for 3 weeks (as of April 13).  During this time I have carved almost 20 stamps.  You can say that carving stamps and making LTCs helps me to relax.  Sometimes people send bonus cards in swaps and I decided to make an extra card for carving stamps and making LTCs.

How do you relax?
 Carving Stamp & Making LTCs

At first I got out my Gelli Plate pulled a print but I was not happy with it.  I had some extra prints and used those for this card.  Some of these are leftover from previous swaps.  A few are from the very first time I used my Gelli Plate.  I remember that I made a few prints to try it out but had no use for them and set them aside.

I tore the prints to size and used Mod Podge to glue sections of them together.  I glued the stamp image and the background together with a glue stick.  I wanted to add some glitter but many folks are anti glitter so I didn't.

My cards for this swap are pretty simple but I am happy with them :)

Think Happy Thoughts

Think Happy Thoughts: Pooh & Piglet 

This is my card for Damselfly's Think Happy Thoughts tracker.  My first thought was of Winnie the Pooh's quote, "Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon."

For this background I made a cloud of card stock and rubbed distress ink around it to make a blue sky and leave light areas for clouds. 

I colored my stamp image with copic markers on card stock, cut them out, and attached them with a glue stick.  I glued that to a yellow texture paper.  This card makes me happy in these crazy times. 

I made this post on April 13th.  I have lost my job due to the Coronavirus quarantine.  I have been off for 3 weeks and today I plan on applying at a few "essential" businesses.     

Mini Art Gallery & Camping LTCs

Mini Art Gallery: Go Outside

I have 3 LTC swaps due today, I decided to split them up and make 2 blog posts.  I have lost my job and I don't have anything else to do right now (April 13).

This first one is for Gypsy Fiddler's Mini Art Gallery swap.  I signed up and when I added it to my Countdown Widget I titled it, "frame".  I often abbreviate tracker names here.

I carved my stamp, stamped, and colored it with Copic Markers.  I cut out my frame and attached it with foam tape.  When I was finished I realized that I didn't follow the rules of the swap.  I didn't make a fancy frame like you would find in an art gallery.  I'm curious to see what others did with their frames.

Camping!: I sleep around

This year I am hosting a camping swap.  My husband ran for City Council last year and we didn't get to go camping as much as I would have liked.

I thought this image was fun and an easy carve after the waterfall.  I stamped and embossed it on some camping paper I had on hand.

Carefree Catfish LTC

Hello!  This is my card for Hartx6's Life on the River LTC.  The name of the Great Lakes Gathering (GLG) this year is Life on the River; the Mississippi River.  I signed up to make these LTCs and donate my stamps.

I wanted to make a background that resembled a muddy river.  I cut plain card stock to size and sprayed it with Peeled Paint & Walnut Stain Distress Oxide Spray and water. 

I let that dry and went looking thru my stencils for one that looked like water or scales.  I put down the dry card, taped the stencil over it, sprayed with water, and blotted with a paper towel.

I was happy with how these turned out and stamped my catfish with brown ink on the dried cards.  I took a different water splatter stencil, put it over the cards, and smeared Distress College Matte Medium with a knife.

When that was dry, I attached it to a green background paper.  I really like how these turned out.  Some of them have a lot of blue in the background.  I guess it is from the green spray.  I plan on carving a few more stamps to sent off to the event.

Flower Power

Flower Power: Water Lily

This is my card for Damselfly's Flower Power LTC swap.  Can you believe I made a set of cards and took almost no pictures?!  I guess I got busy with all the layers and simply forgot.  My card is called, "Water Lily." 

I joined the swap and thought about making a rose or a daisy.  But then a request was made for stamps in memory of p green frog.  I decided to carve the water lily and send the stamp off. 

I have a lot of flower cards on my LTC Pinterest board and HERE is the one that was the inspiration for this card.  A few years ago I participated in a swap called "Lumpy Card Lovers Unite."  I really enjoyed making that card and I have been thinking about hosting a swap with the same theme.  But this card helped fill my need to make something layered and lumpy. 

For this card, I cut my paper into tag shape, stamped a text stamp with brown ink, smeared some texture paste on with a knife, rubbed some Mustard Seed Distress Ink on the dried texture paste with an ink applicator.  Then, I put down a stencil and rubbed Mowed Lawn Distress Ink down the left side and Spun Sugar on the right but you can't really see it.  I ordered a glitter brush pen from Scrapbook.com and brushed it over the yellow texture paste.  After that, I attached my vellum and misc text scrapbook papers with glue dots.  I LOVED the use of thread in my inspiration card.  I wound some pink thread up and attached it and my stamp image with a foam square.  I also went around the edge of the card with a dark brown ink.  I am thrilled with how my cards turned out. 

These are the stamps that I am donating to the p green frog box. On her profile page on Atlas Quest, her quote is "Life is Good."  I added this message to one of the cards and sent it off to TeachJR who was good friends with p green frog.  p green frog passed away late last year and they are making a event box in her memory.

The 7 Cent Solution

This swap is hosted by Team Awesome Pants.  She found some scrapbook paper on sale that she couldn't pass up.  She bought it, cut it to size, and put the cards in envelopes.  When you joined the tracker, she sent you a random envelope of cut paper.

My paper arrived and I thought it was okay.  It wasn't something I would normally buy.  The first thing I saw when I looked at the paper was a frog.  But it wasn't a frog at all, it was a suitcase.  I keep seeing a frog.

My first idea for a stamp was a bicycle with a basket of flowers on the front.  That idea didn't really work well with the papers being cut vertically.  I had another idea but again the paper needed to be horizontal.

The 7 Cent Solution: Toad Town

I went back to the frog idea and looked for images with frogs in clothes or with flowers.  My papers have a flower shop on them so I also looked at many bouquets of flowers.  I eventually found the frog on the bike and thought it would work well.  The cards need a little something.  I looked at stickers, washi tape, and flowers.  Think these little flowers look nice on my cards.

Not all the cards have the frog suitcase on them, but the for the ones that do, I tried to position my stamp so that you could still see the frog.   

I'm very curious to see what papers other people got :)

Mermaids & Hearts

Under the Sea: Seamaid

 I have 3 cards due in a span of three days so I decided I would just make one blog post.  The the one set is supposed to be a secret and I will wait to post that one until I get my cards back.

This first one is called, "Seamaid" for jlsd0218's "Under the Sea" LTC swap.  I wanted to carve a mermaid but I wanted her to be more of a sea creature than a happy little mermaid.  I looked at images for a long time and made a Pinterest board just for mermaids.  I went back and forth forever but finally settled on this image.

For the background, I rubbed my distress inks/oxides on my craft mat, sprayed with water, and tapped the cards in the ink.  I did it a few times and when that was dry I sprayed the cards with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Moss.  Then I stamped my image and embossed with gold powder.

I thought they needed something and I carved up some small fish scales and tried stamping it on the boarder paper.  I didn't like that and stamped it on the background paper in the corners with gold.  It just barley shows up.  I still think they need something but I was running out of time and sent them off.



This card is for Linden Leaf's "I Got a Jar of Dirt" quisp swap.  I carved the jar for the last quisp swap she hosted and she said it was ok to recycle jar stamps.

I Got a Jar of Dirt: Jar of Hearts

I carved my heart, stamped it on three different colored paper, embossed one with glitter red embossing powder and glued it all together.

I got the idea from the song Jar of Hearts.  There is a line in the song that says, " You're gonna catch a cold, from the ice inside your soul."  That is why I did the blue paper.  I felt like it should be more gloomy and have gray paper but I went with the blue because of the song.