Hot Mess = Success ~ playing with glue!

 

Hi friends!

Today's card is for the Hot Mess = Success card group

where the cards we make are ..... messy!

This card was so much fun to make

and I almost needed a raincoat there was so much water!

I added the 'how to' video to my YouTube channel 

if you want to peek

and I'll do my best to show you here, too :)

To create this card, the one unexpected item was:  school glue!

As you may have seen from the video,

this came about a couple of months ago after chatting with a friend.

She wanted to create emboss resist cards but didn't have Versamark

and I remember learning that glue resists paint 

100 years ago in grade school :)

I tried it and it worked so for today's card, I'm showing you another one.

To get started, you'll need 

glue, water, brushes, heavy weight cardstock, squeegee

 and paints, watercolors work best.

I've done this with acrylic paints, too, and it takes 24 hours to dry

and watercolors can be used with a heat tool for faster completion.

Once your glue is in place, don't move the glue - move the water!

I add gobs of water around the glue and let it work organically.

If your brushes touch the glue - no biggie ..

just rinse them before the glue dries.

I did several takes and ended up using the one above 

and stamped my Altenew flower Celebrate Today as my image.

For this Hot Mess = Success, was it successful?  Yes!

Would I do this technique again?  100%!

I had a joyous time and the end result was pretty pieces!

You can see the other members cards by heading to my sidebar

where you'll find Darlene, Barb, Carol, Jeanette and Terry.

This was by FAR my messiest but total fun - glad I gave it 

the old college try!

Here's another look:

I hope if you are in the mood for having crafty fun

and don't mind getting your hands and desk dirty/full of water,

give this technique a try ~ I highly recommend how therapeutic it is!

Thanks for stopping by!

card entered to:  Word Art Wednesday

Card flood for Stephen :(

 Hello friends <3

Today I had planned to share with you another

 one of my blogging adventures

and introduce a new series I'm starting this year.

However, sometimes plans get chance in an instant

and we redirect to where we are needed the most.

We had a very, very sudden loss of a very good friend of ours.

She was battling cancer but passed away unexpectedly last night

and was rushed to the ER only it was not meant for her to fight on.

Even when I didn't think I could shed another tear or have any left,

fresh ones find me.

If you could please pray for the children of my friend, Michelle and Stephen.

Stephen is like a son to us and grew up with my son-in-law.

He lost his father to cancer almost 3 years to this date ~ and now his mom :(

I know it would mean a great deal that he knows someone is out there thinking of him

and sending him love and, if you could, a card. 

(I'm sharing his address with permission)

You are all truly hearts of my heart and I SO appreciate it - 

the prayers, good thoughts or a card ~ or all 3 - thanks so much!

I'll see you on Tuesday!

Stamp What?! ~ Wanda's Wit and Wisdom!

Hi friends!

Today's card is from a Stampin' Up stamp set,

literally pulled off a shelf by my son 

 lovingly called my Old Dusties collection :)

THIS is how it all started and I'm. so. glad. it. did!

It's the second year of Stamp What?! and I love that we share this ♡ 

My son encouraged me to grab my old, forgotten Stampin' Up sets

and put them to good use as a challenge - so I did!

And, because my friends are always up for a challenge, 

I enlisted the other duo of the popular trio - Barb and Jeanette.

So we 3 pick any of our old Stampin' Up sets and make a card.

As always, I ask him to go and pick one off the shelf at random 

and then I ask him ....

Me: "So what made you pick this one?!"

Him, this month:  "It reminded me of the pandemic."

Awwww - yeah ... me, too :)

January's stamp:  Wanda's Wit and Wisdom 

circa 2004

My card is MEH

but she still cracks me up!

But it was a busy weekend and I have been recording for my YouTube

and my brain is mush!

How it's updated ... the gor-juss gingham paper is from recent SU

and the dies are all from MFT Stamps and just a few years old.

I also popped the top speech bubble up on foam for dimension.

And that's it!

You can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's card here.

I actually JUST THIS WEEKEND had an epiphany

that maybe I might unmount all my old stamps.

I think I'm the last one on the planet to keep them on the wood

becuase I LURV it! 

I'm a very tactile person and I just love the wood stamp in my hands

but ooooof - the lack of space is definitely hard :)

There's none in my house, lol.

I'll think it over and that might be one of my goals in '21.

maybe.

Thanks for stopping by!

3M: Have an ice day!

 

Hi friends!

I'm having an ICE day! :)

I hope you are, too!

I'm a little late getting my post up as I went to bed late (at 3 am)

and was up early running errands and *breath* had a zoom card class.

We're on break right now so I'm scrunching this in!

(that's when ya scramble and crunch ... at the same time!)

It's time for another round of 3M - that's the 3 Musketeers - 

card challenge using a mystery image.

This month's image was sent to Barb and I by Jeanette 

(hence, the 3 in Musketeers!)

I haven't used my Sugar Pea Designs stamps

 in a month of Sundays so it was fun to see!

It's called Have An Ice Day and it's soooooo cute :)

You can see Barb's card here and Jeanette's card here

and we'll be back in February with me as the hostess :)

Thanks for stopping by!

CCEE2101 ~ New Year's Resolutions

                                                                          Hi friends!

Welcome to a new year of challenges with the CCEE Stampers!

We hope that you had a wonderful holiday season.

Our hostess who'll bring us all the January challenges

is the uber talented Lynn McAuley!

Here is her challenge:

A new year usually means New Year's Resolutions. For the first challenge of 2021, I am asking that you feature something that you could add to or subtract from your life to improve the quality of your physical or mental health.  Your card can be tongue-in-cheek or the real deal!

Oh Lynn, such a wonderful challenge and so much to think about 

with the new year upon us and the goals we set for ourselves!

For me, I'd love have less Starbucks but I'm no quitter!  

time spent on social media.

 My iPhone tattles on me with that built in stats feature ...

"You've spent 6.5 hours online today!"

BUT!

That's where I blog and tweet and post and share with friends ... 

So rather than say what I can't really give up, 

I thought I'd share the goal to utlitize in 2021 ~ send more snail mail!

I've used MFT Stamps Crafty Friends

and the MFT stitched blueprints and window frame stitched dies

and colored her with prismacolor markers.

Should you post your design to an online gallery other than your blog,

 please use keyword CCEE2101.

Thanks for stopping by!

Writing My Story (blog series card #1) ~ Dragonflies

 

Hi sweet friends!

I'm super excited about this new card series

 I'm debuting this year called ...

Writing My Story ♡

There's so many wonderful moments in a day

... all 365 of them ...

that holds so much wonder!

Each of us has a beautiful story to tell ~

something that is so uniquely ours.

I'm so grateful that you stop by my blog and see my cards

(and my messes and mishaps and tried and trues!)

but there's often things that make me ME ...

what we love, what makes us smile, what brings us joy!

All the little things in between ...

            So, I asked my husband, my 4 children and son-in-law to 

write down 12 things (2 each) that are ME in their eyes.

They did!

My oldest daughter sealed them in a little jar

and will give me one at random each month.

I'm SOOOOOO curious as to what they wrote down!

This month:  a love of dragonflies! ♡

I know ... it's a bug!

They are so special to my heart and I've loved them since I was little.

After my dad passed away, skirting the cliche, I saw them everywhere.

Their quiet nature brings me such peace

and watching them flying and dancing in the air is such joy!

My card is a combination of stenciling a quick background with

the Altenew striped background

and the Fluttering Friends stamp/die set from My Favorite Things.

I used snippets of watercolored backgrounds to stamp/die cut

the images and popped them up onto the card.

I love the softness, the organically flowing watercolor mixes!

This stamp set was almost my One Plus Twelve ~

but since the challenge is only one stamp and these are so tiny

(and then my stamp found me on vacation)

 I'm happy to use it now :)

Everyone has a story to tell -

 each day ... a new page to turn :)

I can't wait to see what their next note is for me! 

Thanks for stopping by!

One Plus Twelve - January!

 Hi friends!

It's offiically time for my absolute favorite card series:

One Plus Twelve!

This is my 3rd year of doing this personal card challenge,

designed to stretch the use of my stamps in a creative way.

I chose a stamp

- and just one - 

and use it all year long for each of the 12 months.

You can peek here to see how it all started :)

Let's get started with January!

The stamp that stole my heart while on vacation

and whispered I'm the one ...

Altenew's Build-a-flower Magnolia!

Magnolias are my very favorite flower ♥

The moment the sweet aroma of a magnolia in bloom

drifted through the breeze on our trip, 

I knew what my stamp would be!

 So officially for me, it's an #Altenewyear :)

For my January card, I purposely repurposed :)

We were boxing up from the holidays

 and I wanted to use part of 2020 to create in 2021 ....

so the small corrugated piece of a box became my card base.

I added a base layer of gesso, let it dry, and followed it with

a coat of white acrylic paint and let that dry.

Going for a distressed kinda look, I took sandpaper and distressed it.

Next, I used a stitched die to cut the shape -

but keep the integrity of the ridges and texture - that was tough! :)

The look I was going for was take something (trash) 

and make it something else - like a phoenix rising from the ashes!

I added a circle of vellum paper for the backdrop of the magnolia

which I used with inks and alcohol markers to layer the colors.

Magnolias are pink, purple, white and even yellow

 but I'm pretty sure you'll see quite a few colors this year ;)

The sentiment is from the stamp set Amazing Things 

as it's a wonderful reminder at the start of a new year!

I am DELIGHTED that I'm seeing this creative idea take off

and friends AND friends of friends creating with One Plus Twelve, too!

My friends Barb and Jeanette will be joining me again this year 

as we tend to have a lot of fun doing card challenges together

~ I love when my middle-of-the-night ideas turn into fun-ness!

If you're joining in, let me know so I can vist your blog/gallery ~

let's connect!

Thanks for stopping by!

Card entered to:  Word Art Wednesday

2021 ~ Lucky Cats!

 

Hi friends!

I'm sure you are as excited as me to put 2020 behind you

and move into this brand new year!

2021 holds a lot of promise

and I can already feel it working for me :)

There's a pep in my step ...

a burst of creativity,

a joy to pick up paper, paint, pencils!

Maybe it's because the ideas are flowing that

I have all this creative energy, so

 I'm striking while the (hot glue) iron is hot!

I was the VERY lucky winner of a gift certificate from Mama Elephant

and chose this super duper cute Lucky Cat stamp set ❤

To create this card, I stamped the images and colored them 

with my copic markers and set them aside.

I made a quick watercolor spritz background to emulate fireworks

and then realized .....

I need 2 0 2 1 and don't have any number dies!

*cue my OH NO face!*

Lucky me again, I have the Brother Scan N Cut

(which I fully profess that I barely know how to use!)

and thought - this makes numbers, somehow!

It took maybe 5 minutes to figure out 

and even shorter to use thick glitter cardstock - total success!

Here's my completed card!

Thanks for stopping by!

2021: Word of the Year ♥

 Hi friends!

Happy New Year!

I'm excited to ring in 2021 with you :)

Let's be honest ...

2020 was just plain crazy pants!

Even though this is always an exciting time of the year,

 starting fresh and new and the

365 brand new chances every day to make it ours.

It's the 10th year of blogging my Word of the Year!

 Although I've had one for many years,

for the past 9 years I've been blogging the one that

I carry as my Word of the Year to be my mantra.

I love having a word that reminds me in a *snap*

aim for this, try for that, be your best ...

a word that says 

This.  Is.  You!

For 2021, this year's word is .....

Soar!

My WOTY always ~ ALWAYS ~ chooses me and in such unique ways.

This year's word hit me like a freight train (kinda like 2020)

 and I was unable to let it go.

This year, I think I may have tried to fight it 

... just a lil bit!

I thought eh, maybe, maybe not .... 

but there were signs.

Everywhere.

Like the small dragonfly clinging to a blade of grass in the pouring rain

on my daughter's college graduation ~ until we watched it soar.

And the bird I watched through the big bay window from the 4th floor of my first physical therapy appointment.  I was so nervous I couldn't think straight. But as I watched it swoop and soar and dance on the air and I SWEAR I thought I saw it looking at me.  

And then ....

looking back at my WOTY from last year, I saw it my own words ..

"I always believe there's room to grow.

and thrive. and reach. and explore. and soar."

It was then I knew :)

By definition, soar means:

- fly or rise high in the air

- maintain height in the air without flapping wings or using engine power. 

- increase rapidly above the usual level.

To rise higher and be bolder and be a better me than before ...

those are things I aspire to do.

Not just in my daily life

and as a crafter/blogger/vlogger :)

I am SO excited about the plans I have for this year ....

there are 4 NEW things on the horizon

that will be debuting on my blog this month!

In addition to continuing these creative groups,

1. One Plus Twelve challenge (my baby!)

3. The 3M

4. Stamp What?!

5. Hot Mess = Success

6. Creative Card Ladies

7. Ready Set Go challenge

8. Challenge Your Stash challenge

9. Double Duty challenge (new this year!)

10. Mission Impossible Possible quarterly challenge

 and *takes a breath* continuing on the CCEE Stampers Design Team ... 

I'll also be sharing with you 

4 new and exciting crafty adventures 

that I created and I'm SUPER DUPER excited about them!

It looks like A LOT seeing it all typed out.

And last year, I had great plans and sort of fizzled.

Okay, 2020 it's just plain fizzled!

BUT!

This is, after all, my year to soar :)

How about you?

Do you have a #oneword or Word Of The Year?

Drop me a comment and let me know what yours is 

and we can aspire, believe, create, dream, exhale, flourish 

(see what I'm doing here!) together!

Stay tuned for an exciting 2021 ....

we're about to soar!