The grandchildren have arrived!

So if I don't post much this week, and don't comment on your blogs, that is why. I will try to visit every day, but they will probably be very quick visits!

Lighthouse Double Easel Card

This card uses JustRite's Oceanside Oval Medallion for most of the elements, and JustRite's Sea Shell Bay Labels Twenty Two for the little shells which hold the card open.

The shading on the labels is Aegean Blue, and the distressing around the card is Distress Antique Linen. The coloring on the rope, border and wave is done with Copics. The paper is K&Co.

I stamped the lighthouse three times, and cut them all out with JustRite's Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies, then I cut just the lighthouse out of one of the stampings, inside the red border, and traced that around the saying and cut the saying so it would be the exact same size and shape as the inside of the red border on the extra stampings. Then I mounted both the lighthouse and the saying dimensionally inside the borders on the extra stamped images. I hope that was clear as mud!

It was originally going to be a double twisted easel card, but I messed that up, and made it a double easel card instead. I made it so the two easels were different heights to make it look more interesting.

Aqua Lace

I felt like playing with Spellbinders yesterday, so I made this card with some of my favorite dies, Persian Motifs, Persian Accents, and Ironwork Motifs.

I used a 5x7 card, and layered gold mirror card and CS from the DCWV Mariposa Stack on top. Then I added the borders from the Persian Accents set, and motifs from from the other two sets. The motifs are mounted dimensionally on top of each other.

The flower in the center is one of those Prima flower parts with a little center from a tiny Darice bouquet I had, and stamens added to it. I added Liquid Pearls to parts of the motifs and borders.

Instructions for Ship and Fish Fancy Fold Card

I had a request for the instructions for the Ship and Fish Fancy Fold Card I posted a few days ago. I didn't follow any set of instructions, I just played around with paper and folds, and this is what I came up with.

I took a sheet of 12x12 CS and cut it in half horizontally. Then, I scored each sheet vertically at 6". I scored one sheet corner to corner from the upper left corner to the lower center score, and folded the resulting triangle up. This is the left side. I scored the other sheet from the upper left score line to the lower right corner and folded it down. This is the right side.

I lined up the two unfolded sections and used my ATG to glue the unscored left side on top of the unscored right side. This resulted in a card which is 18"x6" when unfolded.

Here is where I wasted a lot of paper. I used paper which had a definite horizontal and a definite vertical pattern. I cut a few pieces in the wrong direction, and each time I did, I wasted 5 3/4" square pieces of paper, so if your pattern is like this, be really careful when cutting it.

Each piece of DP was cut to a 5 3/4" square, then cut diagonally in half, following the direction of the section I was going to paste it in, except for the center unscored section, which is not cut diagonally. Then the triangles are placed in each scored section. They only go one way, so if you mess up like I did, you have to start with a whole new square.

When you have your DP mounted, then just stamp and cut a medallion for the front of the card and attach it to the top half of the front only.

I hope this was sort of understandable! I will try to do a diagram soon.

Simple Things and Clover Double Easel Card ODBDSLC113

I was playing with some of my newest ODBD stamps today, and realized this would also qualify for this week's Our Daily Bread Designs Three or More Stamps Challenge ODBDSLC113, so I decided to enter it.

For this card I used the Simple Things Set. I colored the design with Copics, and cut it out with the matching ODBD custom Clover Die.

Then I stamped and colored the ODBD Flower Border to match the clover, and cut it out using the matching Spellbinders Labels Eighteen. The clover and bees from the Simple Things set are mounted dimensionally on top of the Flower Border, even the teeny tiny bees. (Those two little tiny bees at the top of the clover are also die cut with the matching die at the same time as the clover)!

Next, I stamped the Laura Ingalls Wilder phrase from the Simple Things Set, and cut that out with Labels Eighteen as well. I outlined both Labels with Krylon 18K Gold.

Both labels are mounted dimensionally on this K&Co DP, which is mounted onto Core'dinations Gemstones Linen textured Pearlized CS, which is mounted onto ordinary white CS.

I had been planning on making a double twisted easel card with the two easels side by side, but I couldn't exactly remember how they were made, so I decided to add one in front of the other. I didn't know how to do that either, so I just cut some white CS the same width as the white CS the larger label was on. I left the length longer than usual so I could trim it to size when I finished the card.

Next I scored one end of the base in the usual way and folded and attached the larger label. Then I made a tiny easel card using the smaller easel and adjusted everything without gluing until I was happy with the placement. Then I trimmed the base to that length. I added the pink and DP to match the labels to the base of both easel cards, and glued them together. The front easel holds the back easel up, and the pearls hold the smaller one. The photo below shows the card from the side so you can see how it's made.

Thankyou so much for your comments on my last post. They brought tears of gratitude to my eyes. :-)

The Trials and Tribulations of getting my truck repaired

I mentioned on June 3 that my new truck got T-Boned by someone backing out of a parking space when we were stopped at the end of an aisle at a supermarket.

Well, their insurance company really stunk. First, it took forever to get a first call back. Then, we were supposed to have a website to visit to see how the claim was progressing. Well, the website didn't work no matter which browser I used. There also was a telephone number for a lady at their claims company to get information from. No matter what time of day you called, you always got a recording to call back during regular business hours. (It always was during regular business hours for almost a month straight). The same thing happened when you tried to call the supervisor. It was always the same recording. Finally, after three weeks I called the insurance company back directly rather than the claims people they use to find out when someone was going to come and look at my truck so I could get it repaired. We made an appointment with a repair place two hours away for Monday of this week. The adjustor was supposed to show up last Friday.

The truck is a 2011 GMC Sierra Extended Cab 4x4 with 5,000 miles on it. The whole back door is completely smashed in, as well as lots of damage to the front door and the bed of the pickup truck.

Everything was set up for Monday, then Enterprise called late Friday night and said there were not going to be any cars until Tuesday. (Apparently the insurance company never called them until after 5 on Friday to reserve the car).

We called the repair place first thing Monday morning to let him know that there were no cars, and he said to wait until this morning because he didn't want us to have to spend the night in Bangor and have to use a taxi to get around. I called back to the other insurance company and told them what happened. They put me on with a supervisor, and he gave me an upgrade for the rental.

(Part of the problem was that we had told them originally that we would definitely need our truck between the 29th of June and the 7th of July because we were planning on going to meet the kids and grand children in Mass. and spending a weekend camping with them. Then we were all coming back up here, and we would need the truck because we would have to have room for three car seats in the back. We will be doing a lot of baby sitting while the parents spend time with friends, and we need to be able to take the kids with us. (The parents aren't registered to drive the rental, so we can't switch cars). Of course the Ins. Co. scheduled the repairs for the week we needed the truck, so we had to cancel our plans for the camping weekend. The kids live 15 hours away, so this was a big deal for us. Anyway, we ended up getting a larger car from the insurance company, so we could at least take the kids swimming and things.

We had the car at the repair shop at 8 this morning, and picked up the rental. On the way home, the repair shop called and said that the ins. co. would only go for a skin for the rear door, and that was unsafe because the door was beyond repair, as well as the reinforcement things being cracked and bent and it was a safety issue. The repair shop actually got hold of the claims adjustor, and he said no. The repair shop refused to do work which would make a vehicle unsafe, plus the truck would not pass inspection because of it.

We headed back to Bangor. I tried calling the claims adjustor and his supervisor back, and leaving messages. As of 1 pm, they still hadn't called back, although once I got a call from the supervisors number, and the minute I answered he said "wrong number" and hung up. It was his number that called my cell phone, so he must have hit my number by mistake. After that, I called our insurance Co, the Hartford, and found out that we would have to come up with the $500 deductible immediately, but we don't have $500. We took the truck to the dealership, and also to another repair facility, and they all refused to touch it because of safety issues. Both repair shops, the dealership, and apparently the Hartford had been making calls to the other ins. co., but none of them could get a response.

At 3:45, all of a sudden, the Hartford called back and said they had wavered the deductible, and an adjuster was on his way to look at the truck. They said that since the other guy's insurance had claimed full responsibility, (The other company only took responsibility after calls from the police about the accident, and finding out that it was all on the supermarket's security cameras), that they, The Hartford would fix our truck right and go after them for everything including the deductible. The Hartford was really mad because even they couldn't get a call back, and two repair shops were both staying open after hours trying to help us.

The Hartford called Enterprise and switched the rental to them from the other company, and told us to keep the car, and leave the truck and have it repaired. Buy the time the adjuster came, and everything was done, we didn't get home until 8:15 tonight. We thought everything was going to be fine, but now we find out that we are still going to have to go after the other company to pay the difference on the rental, because it is $50 per day, and they will only cover $20. The truck won't be done until the 6 of July at the earliest because there is so much damage, and they ordered the parts last week, but the company shipped some of the wrong parts. Since next week is a holiday week, everything is going to be later than usual.

I thought everything was straightened out, but tomorrow will be spent trying to straighten out the car rental.

Here's an update. This morning I got up dreading the long trip back to return the rental. I went on line to get the information I needed, and in my email, I saw a message about comments to a photo on my SCS gallery. The lady congratulated me on receiving customer card of the day at Our Daily Bread Designs. Wow, what an honor, and on a day I was dreading! Right after I posted a Thank You on the ODBD Blog, the phone rang. I think the car rental is straightened out. It was a call from the bad company, and he was livid about all the phone calls yesterday and was really nasty, but he said they will take care of it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe God is smiling on me today. :-)

Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 34 - Wedding/Anniversary

I made this card for Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge 34 - Wedding/Anniversary. I am just starting my collection of Cheery Lynn's beautiful dies, so I only have a few. I was planning on using Exotic Butterflies Small #2 with this Victorian Romance Flourish, but as I decided on a design and finished the card, the butterflies were just too much of a good thing, so I added pearls instead.

I cut the flourish out with Core'dinations white pearl paper, and used the same paper as the base of the card. The same paper was stamped with JustRite's Spring Rose Medallions Set, using VersaMark Dazzle, and embossed with Fine Detail Gold. The flourishes and medallions were mounted onto gold mirror card. The photo makes the card look a little strange. It is an easel card, and the base looks much lighter because of the reflection.

I had originally planned on making this card all white, but you know how it goes when you make a card, it doesn't always turn out the way you expected it to!

Garden and Friend Card JRC_075

I made another card for JustRite Friday Challenge #075 - Color Challenge. The challenge is to use Aqua, orange and apricot. I chose this K&Co. paper with the aqua background because it had a garden, so it went with the saying on the stamp set I wanted to use.

I think my current favorite stamp set has to be this JustRite CL-03685 Spring Rose Medallions - Cling set. I used the same frame and two different phrases, one for the outside, and one inside because they worked so well together. It would be suitable for either a dear friend, or for a family member or spouse. I stamped the medallions with VersaMagic Crushed Olive, and cut them out with the matching JustRite custom dies JB-10025 Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies. The shading on the medallions is done with Pebbles Cream Chalks, and all coloring is done with Copics, except the orange, which is Staedtler. The orange really isn't this bright, for some reason both my phone and my camera make reds and oranges much brighter than they really are.

The ribbon on the front is very old ribbon from Wrights Trim, and the pearls are Queen & Co.

This is the inside of the card.

Bird and Butterflies Easel Card ODBDSLC113

I made this card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC113 Three or more stamps. This time I am using colors which are a bit outside my comfort zone, so I'm not sure whether I am happy with this card or not. The DP is from K&Co.

I took out all of my ODBD stamp sets and picked three which had elements I liked together. The two medallions are from the Bird & Butterfly Labels Set. I stamped them with Distress Peeled Paint, and cut them out with Spellbinders Labels Eighteen. Then I chose the phrase from the Simple Things Set, since it fit the oval perfectly. I stamped another medallion in green and stamped the phrase inside the medallion with VersaMagic Aegean Blue because it was the closest to the color in the background paper. (It matches much better in person). I cut that out around the oval, keeping some of the green oval frame, and mounted it dimensionally over the oval on the medallion.

For the bottom of the easel, I decided to add butterflies from the 2 Step Butterflies Set on either side of the medallion. The butterflies were cut with the matching Grunge Butterfly Die.

I used Krylon 18 Karat Gold around each of the separate elements, and gold pearls in two of the corners and on each butterfly's head.

Ship and Fish Fancy Fold Card

This card uses JustRite's Anchors Away set, and K&Co paper. The coloring was done with Copics, and the distressing with Antique Linen. I stamped the medallion again and cut the center part out and mounted it dimensionally on top of the bottom medallion so the ship and antique paper part are raised above the wood and rope part. The medallion was applied with dimensional tape only on the top triangle, because you lift the triangles to open the card.

This is how the card looks when the first two triangles are lifted.

Then when you open the two triangles out, it looks like this. The center part has space for writing.

Another Wooden Box with JustRite Stamps

I'm not sure I liked how it turned out. I should have painted the part with the saying antiqued ivory or something.

Wedgewood Colored Thank You Card

I have some very old Wedgewood which belonged to my grandmother, and I've always loved it. JustRite's CR-03670 Vintage Rose Medallions looked like it would work for making a Wedgewood colored card. All the stamping and distressing was done with Distress Faded Jeans.

Unfortunately I was out of daubers, (I have some ordered), and the makeup sponges and Q-Tips I used didn't work as well as daubers, but I had to use what was at hand. The medallion was cut with JustRite's Nested Medallion Labels Dies, and I layered three of them on top of each other with dimensional tape.

I used more Spellbinders corner motifs to frame the medallion, then added pearls and roses.

Lighthouse Card ODBDSLC112

I made a second card for Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC112 Summer

Living on an island, we hear and see lighthouses every day. During the summer there are lots of lighthouse cruises and a festival, so I thought I would use ODBD's beautiful Keep My Lamp Burning stamp for this challenge.

I stamped the image first on this beautiful nautical paper by K&Co. Then I stamped it again on plain white CS, and stamped the compass again on the white CS. After cutting around the lighthouse and compass, I distressed them with Distress Antique Linen to give it a rustic and rounded effect and applied them dimensionally to the background. Then I cut the other compass out and distressed that and mounted it dimensionally on top of the other white compass so it was raised even more. Everything is mounted on a distressed driftwood brown linen textured sheet of CS, and then onto a distressed ivory card.

The kelp and starfish are on acetate and are from K&Co. The seagull and sand dollar are also K&Co. The seagull is cut from a little stamp that came from the same paper stack as the background paper. Then I used a piece of variegated hemp twine and tied a carrick bend for the other corner.

I am really excited to say that this card was one of the winners at ODBD!

Special Day Butterflies JRC_075

I made this card for JustRite Friday Challenge #075 - Color Challenge.

The challenge was to use Aqua, Apricot and orange, so I chose this paper from the Mariposa Stack, which contained all of those colors. (The sparkly flourishes are actually orange, but they look red in the photo). I chose JustRite's CR-03670 Vintage Rose Medallions for the medallion, and a banner from JustRite's CR-03705 Botanical Medallions & Banners-Clear. They were die cut with JustRite's JB-10025 Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies and JustRite's JB-03730 Vintage Label & Banner Dies.

All coloring was done with Copics except for the orange, which is a marker from Staedtler, since I don't have an orange Copic. I tried to do the distressing with Copics, but am not good at shading from color to white, so I added Distress Antique Linen over it so I could keep the apricot color, but still have shading. Everything is mounted dimensionally.

The butterflies were cut with scissors from more sheets of the same paper. Since there was so much sparkle in the paper, I added Stickles to the medallion and to the butterflies which didn't have sparkle. The DP is mounted on gold mirror cs, which is mounted onto aqua cs and an ivory card.

Ship Box with JustRite Stamp

I haven't got a card finished today because I finished this box for my shop today.

I stamped JustRite's Anchors Away onto wood veneer and die cut it in my Grand Calibur with JustRite's Nested Medallion Labels Dies, then painted it with craft acrylics. Unfortunately, the paint was drying too fast even though I used a retarder, and it's not as smooth as I would have liked. It looks smoother in person. I was also having trouble shading the rope because it was drying so fast and it looks a bit messy in the photo. Then I mounted the veneer onto a wooden box and put a few coats of varnish on it.

I'd rather be making cards, but customers like my boxes too, so sometimes I have to make other things.

Ocean Scene ODBDSLC112

I made this easel card for the new Our Daily Bread Designs Challenge ODBDSLC112 Summer. I have seen cards with the scene cut into panels before, but I had never tried it. Since the theme for this week's challenge is summer, I thought the Mighty Sea would be a perfect set to use. It also seemed like the perfect time to try the panels for the first time, because it would be sort of like looking out the window of a summer cottage.

Originally I had planned on using a DP that looked like wallpaper, but when I tried various papers, I really liked this kelp paper from K&Co instead. The design and saying are stamped with Distress Peeled Paint onto a light blue parchment patterned CS. The scene and frame around the saying are colored with Copics. I mounted everything on a very old antique colored linen textured metallic gold CS. I don't remember which company made it. The shell I had was a die cut from K&Co, and the colors matched the card colors perfectly.

After I made and photographed the card I put it into my shop. I felt bad, because a man came in with his wife and daughter, and he carried this card around with him the whole time, and kept showing it to them, but they didn't buy it for him. Hopefully they already had Father's Day cards for him at home and that's why they didn't buy it. At least I know that men like this card!

I am excited to say that this card won Customer Card of the Day at ODBD. Thanks so much Ladies!

A Cheerful Thank You JRC_075

I made this card for JustRite Friday Challenge #075 - Color Challenge. This week we are to use the colors aqua, apricot and orange.

For my motif, I used CL-03685 Spring Rose Medallions - Cling and cut it with JB-10025 Nested Oval Medallion Labels Dies.

I colored the roses and borders with apricot and orange and just put touches of aqua in the dots at the top and sides of the motif, then colored the trellis background with a lighter shade of aqua. I used Copics for the apricot and darker aqua, but I didn't have an orange Copic, so I used a Staedtler marker for the orange. I also used a Derwent water color pencil for the lighter aqua, because I only had one aqua Copic, and it is quite bright.

I tried a lot of backgrounds, but the one I liked best was apricot with light yellow. Somehow using aqua or orange in the background didn't work for me on this particular card. The background paper is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, and I added Queen and Co pearls. All the distressing is done with Distress Antique Linen.

Good Friends Card

Today I made a card with one of my new JustRite Stamps Spring Rose Medallions, and cut it with JustRite's matching custom Die.

I wanted to try the technique where you brayer the color onto your embossing folder and then emboss. I've tried this before, but wasn't terribly successful. I was thinking it was done with Distress alcohol inks, so I dug out my blue one, (I think it's called broken china, it's at work, so I can't look right now), and brayered it onto one of my M-Bossabilities folders. Well, it barely colored the paper, so I washed my EF with soap and water, but it stayed blue. I dried the EF and tried the same shade of blue stain. The kind with the dauber on top. I lined the same sheet of paper up carefully in the same EF and embossed again. The color was a little darker this time, at least you could tell I did something. Then washed my brayer and my permanently blue EF again. I have no idea how to get the blue out, I didn't want to use anything stronger than dish washing liquid. Maybe I didn't use the right kind of ink, because I thought everyone else's EFs came out clean when they did this.

The medallion was colored with Copics. I think I am getting a little better at this. I've made a lot of messes with Copics because I'm not used to those huge tips on them, but I'm quite happy with this one. The center isn't as pale as I would have liked, but I don't have very many colors yet, so I used my lightest golden yellow, and tried to shade and lighten it with colorless blender. Now that it's done, I kind of like the color.

The medallion and card background are mounted on blue Core'dinations. The medallion is outlined with Krylon 18 Karat, and the blue on the background is mounted on gold mirror card. The rhinestones are K&Co, and the blue ribbon is Ofray. The little blue flowers are some I made with little recollections flowers scrunched up and glued together with gold centers added. The gold lace ribbon is some I bought by the yard a while ago. I don't know what kind it is.

Bluebird Easel Card ODBDSLC111

When I received this stamp and die set yesterday, I knew I was going to have to enter another card into Our Daily Bread Designs ODBDSLC111 Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed or Given, Something Blue Challenge.

I used my new ODBD He Watches Me stamp set to make a bluebird with a yellow thistle, then cut it with my new ODBD Sparrow custom die. (I wrote a brief review about how easy it is to use these dies and how much I love using them here).

I cut some old pink, white, and green paper with my old Spellbinders Grand Labels Four die. The patterned paper is from K&Co. The lacy circle is a Marianne creatable, and the circle inside is some old handmade paper mounted onto old white CS using my old Xyron, and cut out with an old Spellbinders circle die.

The center piece, bird and label are mounted with dimensional tape my mother gave me, and the pearls are Queen and Co which my mother also gave me. I didn't have a die which fit the saying, so I traced around a Spellbinders Labels Four, holding it just above and just below the saying and cut them out with scissors so they would mirror the shape of the card.

The bird and thistle are colored with Copics, and the label is distressed with Distress Peeled Paint.

I am excited to say that this card was one of the winners at ODBD!

I love these stamp and die sets!!!

A few weeks ago, Our Daily Bread Designs did a review and tutorial about their custom cutting dies and stamp sets. After seeing all of the beautiful examples, I decided I had to have some, so I ordered three sets. I received them yesterday and played with them today for the first time. They are wonderful!

I love them so much I wanted to share them on my blog for those who haven't tried them yet.

The top photo is of the stamp and die packages that I have, with examples of them stamped and cut out.

This photo shows them cut out with the die sets. I'll try to explain how they work so you can see how easy it is to get perfect die cuts every time! (Disclaimer: ODBD didn't compensate me in any way for writing this review. They don't even know I'm doing it. I am writing it because I like them so much I want to share it with all of you).

Anyway, In the die set you get the die and a little acrylic cut out the same size and shape as the die. The acrylic piece is marked where the die will cut. You will notice in the photo that both the acrylic pieces and the die have little circular tabs on each side.

First, you stamp your design. Then you lay the acrylic piece (the side which faces up is marked), over your stamp so all the cut lines will be outside your stamp. It's very easy to see. When you are happy with the placement, you draw little circles in both holes in the circular tabs on the acrylic piece.

Lift the acrylic piece off and put your die over the stamped image with the cutting side face down. (The photo shows it with the cutting side up so you can see what it looks like). Line the holes in the little circular tabs up with the little circles you made, add a little tape to keep the die in place, and run through your cutting machine using the same sandwich you use for Spellbinders or other similar dies.

That's all there is to it, you have a perfectly lined up die cut! It's so much better than trying to fussy cut with scissors, and it also cuts out those little pieces between stems and other things inside the stamped part. As anyone knows, those little interior cuts are difficult and time consuming to make even with a craft knife.

Now I want all the sets! I hope you found this review useful!