Photo Stamping

"Wow!" you are probably thinking to yourself (maybe even saying it outloud to your computer monitor) "How in the world did Cyndi make such great-looking snow?" Well, I'll tell you . . . last summer I took a photograph of a cloudy sky, and then last night I stamped on the photograph using black StazOn ink. Pretty cool, huh? It even looks like Santa is stepping out of the shadows. I really liked how this came out.

The only thing I am adding today is that I didn't do the sewing on the card, Cyndi did it. If I had done it, it would have been straight.

I think it just adds to the charm. The stamp is from Artistic Outpost's Snowy Woods plate (see previous post).

Until next time,
Cyndi and Shelby

Renaissance Paper

Check out the cool background on this card. It's called Renaissance Paper and we made it at my stamp club this past Saturday. We took large pieces of paper bag, soaked them in water and white vinegar, and then sponged with acrylic paint, including metallic acrylic paint. It looks so cool in person.

No, it looks bumpy in person. As I'm looking at this card the wadded-up-paper-bag part isn't lying flat at all. Couldn't you have glued it down better?

Shelby's right in that it is not lying flat. But what Shelby doesn't realize is that parts of the background are glued flat to the black base and other parts are held aloft by Pop Dots--the big Pop Dots. I wanted it to look kind of like a sculpture.

Oh, I see it now. It's kind of like a door stuck on a rock.

The door image is by Artistic Outpost and is one of the images on the Snowy Woods plate. I watercolored it on watercolor paper using reinkers and a water brush. The door knob is a brad.

Since Cyndi's last post, which was a week ago (we're not very industrious, are we?), I have been getting a lot of flack from my friends about Corky and the dog and the tire swing. Well, I just want to set the record straight that (1) his living in an RV in my sister's backyard is not a permanent arrangement; (2) the dog is well behaved; and (3) the tire swing is a blast.

Shelby and Corky raked all our leaves into a big pile and jump into them from the tire swing. I have no idea why they don't break their necks.

Corky found an old mattress on the side of the interstate and we put that under the leaves. We're not stupid.

There's an old mattress from the interstate in my back yard!!!??? Ewwww!

Until next time,
Cyndi and Shelby

Totally Unreal!

Tuesday night I came home after a long hard day's work to find a strange man in my house. No surprise there. My sister (a strange woman) lives in my house, so why wouldn't she bring home friends now and again.

The really surprising thing is that I encountered him going from my sister's bathroom into our fenced-in the back yard. That's strange, I thought. It's way too cold for Shelby to be entertaining in the back yard.

A half hour later Bob came home and asked my why there was an RV in the backyard. WHAT? Our back yard is fenced in, and the gates are far too narrow for an RV. "Bob is ten years older than I am," I thought to myself. Was he suffering a stroke? Early-onset Alzheimer's? So I went into the backyard to check it out.

There was an RV in our back yard.

Bob and I knocked on the door of the RV.

Shelby and the strange man from the bathroom (turns out he's Corky, the new 36-year-old bass player in Shelby's band) opened the door and invited us in to share a bottle of wine (probably not their first). "How did you get this in here?" Bob asked very calmly. "Dude, it was not easy. We had to remove part of the fence, drive the RV in, and then put the fence back. Sorry about the tire tracks in your side yard." "You removed the fence!!!???" I asked. "Yeah, but we put it back real good," he explained "because we don't want the dog to get out."

Oh yeah, Corky has a dog.

This is totally unreal. I mean it, it is totally unreal!

Yesterday he hung a tire swing.

Cyndi

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