Earrings

Hello, blog readers. Shelby here to show you my new creative outlet. Earrings. Can you believe I just learned how and I made all these earrings?

It's true. I have never seen anyone pick up on how to make earrings faster. She was a total whiz!

Hundreds of pairs of earrings I made all in one evening!

Actually it was 20-something pair, but still very good. And I can't get over your craftsmanship. I've been making earrings for several years, and yours look as good as mine, sis!

And it's all for charity, too.

As hard as it is to believe, she did make all these earrings for charity. I bead for a group called Maanza a Leza that supports a village in Zambia. I brought some jewelry home to work on, and Shelby picked right up on the earring part. Now if I could get her to string beads for necklaces.

Boring. Earrings is where it's at. I don't want to be stuck with the tedium of putting very tiny little beads on a wire over and over.

If you would borrow my reading glasses . . .

I don't need reading glasses. I'm much more valuable as an earring specialist.

It's a shame you scanned them all in a jumble. I'm sure people would be able to see your workmanship if they were scanned neatly in pairs or something.

You, Cyndi, are just jealous of my artistic vision.

Until next time,
Cyndi and Shelby

Bandana Technique

Hey stampers, have you tried the banadana technique? Sponge dye ink where you want it, stamp in black, and highlight with a white gel pen. I had done this technique before, and thought I should try it with a Christmas theme. The birds, snowflakes, and sentiment are by Inkadinkado. The corner motif is by Bo Bunny. (Who knew Bo Bunny made stamps?)

As it was explained to me, this is a "double tag," a popular shape in some circles. I certainly don't understand it--you can't fold it to make it into a card because the back of it is not pretty. In fact there are ink smears all over the back of it. Also, you can't send it in an envelope without folding it because it is fairly large.

Yes, Shelby, but the front of it turned out quite nicely. And it's art. The trim is Dresden foil that I purchased from Rock Candy Studios.

You would not believe the amount of time Cyndi spent on this with that white pen. If anyone gets this as a Christmas card, I can almost guarantee it will be the only one.

Hey, "Dresden Foil" might be a good name for my band. It's got kind of an Old World feel to it. We have been practicing and are now up to six songs that are performance ready. "Dresden Foil"--what do you think?

I think it's better than some of the other names you've come up with which are not appropriate for a family-friendly blog.

Until next time . . .

Cyndi and Shelby

HEY!!!

I just read her post! First of all, just because I wear skirts a little above the knee does not make me an exhibitionist. Secondly, okay we only know five songs, but we play them for a long time. And lastly, I would welcome any input by way of a name for the band. We're all over 40 (although I'm just barely), but we can still rock. Me and four (really cute) guys.

It has been a long time since I've done anything like this. And even though it was a lunch time gig at a "tire" store, I was really "tired" afterwards. I guess if we get invited to open a muffler store, I'll be totally "exhausted."

Shelby

Tumbled Tiles

My dear sister Shelby has gone to bed, so I guess I'm on my own with this post.

This coming Saturday my rubber stamp club, Rollin' On The Rubber (no, we don't pass out condoms at local high schools), is hosting the third annual Stamper's Day Out, and I am teaching one of the projects. We are making coasters out of "tumbled tiles."

I think everyone will have fun with this project. Basically you coat your tiles with two colors of alcohol inks and then, when they're dry, you stamp on them using StazOn ink. Then you can either bake them or seal them with spray sealant. I'm going to bake mine.

Now, I will let you in on a little secret. When I stamped the image on the second tile I made (the orange one), the image smeared. I got out my StazOn Cleaner and wiped the whole thing off. No problem. In fact, it left the tile a lighter shade of orange, like you see here, with the natural marbling of the tile showing up beautifully. So I left it light and stamped that. I liked it so well I lightened the blue and the purple tiles the very same way, which really make the stamped "weeds" pop out. The green tile was light enough for my taste, so I didn't lighten it at all.

The wildflower stamps are by Endless Creations, and the bee is from the Stampin' Up! set Serene Sunflower.

The reason Shelby has gone to bed so early tonight is that she was up so late last night. Normally that would not be a problem as she generally sleeps until lunch, but today she had to get up by 8:30. Shelby has formed a band, and they had to be at the opening of a tire store by 11 a.m. to play for the lunch crowd. The gig didn't last very long as they only know four or five songs so far, and they only got paid in the number of hot dogs they could eat (or stuff in Shelby's oversized purse), but they were very excited for the "exposure"--a very applicable word considering the length of Shelby's skirt. I wish them every success as long as they don't practice in my house.

Cyndi

Sunset Serenade

Y'all are not going to believe this, but Shelby actually played an integral part in making this card! She did all the sewing on the background.

Cyndi could have done the sewing herself, but apparently she doesn't know how to thread her machine.

It's true. I was cursing the stupid sewing machine, when my older sister came to my rescue, threaded my machine properly, and then, while I worked on the foreground, she sewed the scraps of paper (which had their edges already sponged with Always Artichoke ink) to the base of the card front.

I'm your younger sister by 18 months.

As if. So anyway, the main image (a la Zindorf) was created as follows: I took a Post-It note and masked off the top two thirds, then sponged Not Quite Navy ink on the bottom third starting with the outside edges and working my way to the inside, getting lighter and lighter as I went toward the center. Then I used the same Post-It and masked the water. I sponged Summer Sun, More Mustard, and Pumpkin Pie inks, getting very light toward the center so it would look sunsetty.

Very imaginative word there, Sis. And who named these colors? Allie Alliteration?

Then I stamped the grass from Stampin' Up!'s "Inspired by Nature" set and highlighted the grass with a white gel pen. I also used the pen to add a little light to the water. Finally I added photo corners to the matted image to give it more of photo feel. What do you think?

I think you've wasted enough time on this card, and it's time you got some housework done. I'm not cleaning this house by myself again. Your readers would not be impressed if I photographed and posted the living room.

Unfortunately, she's right. We're off to do a few chores. Thanks for reading.

Cyndi and Shelby

Clear Card for Christmas

I put this card together for shoebox swap at the Memphis Gathering of Splitcoast-stampers which was last weekend. It uses the new-this-year To You and Yours stamp set by Stampin' Up! The really cool thing about this card, which you may not be able to tell from the scan, is that it is a clear card. The light blue panel behind the tag is actually the inside of the card, and the blue tag with the dove on it is glued to the front of the card. The snow on the house and the white swirls on the dove's trail are made with a white Zig marker from their Chalk Collection.

Shelby here. Hi, everyone. I don't stamp, but I can tell you that this actually is one of her better cards that I've seen. The concept is wonderful. What she calls the "card base" is a clear piece of plastic like those clear report covers. And she stamped white swirly things directly onto the clear part and glued the paper parts directly to the plastic parts.

Thanks, Shelby, for helping to explain it. The clear part of the card is "7mm acetate" (which is plastic) and the paper Shelby was referring to is "cardstock." I don't actually "glue" anything together, but I put it all together with dry adhesive.

Potato, potahto.

I should explain a little why Shelby is helping me out today. It appears that Shelby's therapist thinks that she and I could use a little work on our relationship and has suggested that we do a project together. This is it.

Heaven forbid we start something that I'm actually interested in.

So I will keep posting my art.

And I will provide the color commentary.

I'm sure it will prove to be very colorful.

Cyndi & Shelby

Sunflower - Summer's Last Hurrah

Here is the birthday card I made for my mother. Happy Birthday, Mom! Those of you who know me will be totally impressed in that I actually sewed on this card. That's right--it's not faux stitching on this card, but actual thread from my actual sewing machine. I gave up the TV in my stamp room, and now I have room for my Singer. These stamps are the "Serene Sunflower" set by Stampin' Up! and they are retired. Retired? How can this set be retired? I've barely used it!

For those of you wondering, life with my sister Shelby is actually going pretty well. It turns out she cooks! Now Bob and I have food in the house all the time. Need a snack? There are leftovers in the fridge (and they are not in Styrofoam take-away boxes this time).

Of course none of my pots and pans were up to Shelby's standard. She dug into her bedrooom closet full of boxes and replaced virtually everything in my kitchen with her stuff--even the salt and pepper shakers and cannisters. All by herself she boxed up all my kitchen paraphernalia and moved them to my bedroom. I guess she feels like we're more on an even par, now that my bedroom is hard to move around in as well.

Shelby has also started therapy, which I think will be good for her. The divorce from Art was quite a blow to her psyche. Plus it's probably stressful to her to have to move in with her (much younger-LOL) sister.

Finally, Splitcoaststampers is having a Memphis gathering this Saturday, and I am so excited! I've been making a shoebox swap (i.e. one card 40 times, but I only put one together. The other cards are cut out, but not stamped, and put into individual sandwich bags. Think "snowman soup" or a cake mix). I'll post my card after the event.

Cyndi

P.S. The text is in different colors because I can't get the paragraphing to work. Technology!