Birds and Biscuits

Our friend Tony is celebrating his birthday on April Fool's Day. Since he is a bit of a senior citizen and glories in his shuffleboard, I made a shuffleboard card for him complete with Altoid "biscuits".  (Wikipedia assures me that the thingies they hit are called biscuits)

Unfortunately, he was a bit under the weather and didn't come to our Tuesday dinner party at Sam's, and now I am faced with either figuring out how to mail a card with altoids glued to it, or make a new card.

The new card is on the right. I kind of prefer it!

The birdie card is not original at all, I saw it at Nancy Zindorf's blog and had to make one.  Hers is prettier ... but I do like mine too.

Here is a link to her card.

Remember Brayering?

I took 2 classes with Nancy Zindorf and brayered every card for a month. I pulled out the brayer for this card, which is a direct result of her tutorial found here.

the Happy Brrrrrrr Day was my own addition

Flower soft

Flower soft seems perfect for a sympathy card.  A very dear friend has lost several people who were very close to her heart, and it is so hard to make a card that will in any way take away the pain.  But when I think of making cards, and sending them, what better reason than to send a hug in an envelope. Hope she likes this card, after all, SHE sent me the gorgeous blue flower soft!

The colors were still out on my table from these cards using the Zindorf technique ...

Owl be !

Owl be sending this cards They turned out awfully cute

Do they look like they're 'sposed to? I don't give a hoot!

Well, Owl be, I got all inspired over at Michelle Zindorf's blog and went on an Owl punching spree. I colored mine with copics instead of sponging ... and played around with the card layout. The biggest adaptation was not having her tree ... so I ended up combining a stampin up silhouette with some branches from a Unity Sympathy set!  I was quite pleased with my ingenuity!  The adaptations went on ... I changed colors and used a different punch for my photo holders.  My sizes are totally irregular.

I really like the white gel pen on the leaves. Looks even better in real life!

Some possible sentiments.

Whoooo Gives a Hoot?  I do          (caring and sharing)
Owl be wishing you a great day     (general purpose, birthday)
A word to the wise ---- Celebrate!  ( graduation? birthday? or retirement?
In the wee hours of the morning ... Owl be thinking of you.  ( caring and sharing)
Feeling like nobody gives a hoot? I gotta say, I think you're cute! ( caring)

If you have more ideas, please click on comments below and add your 2 cents worth!

Winter Palm

I made this tutorial for a friend in England who wanted to know how I did my brayering. ... of course I learned everything I know from Michelle Zindorf, so lets give her credit.

Now if I could just figure out how my scanner turned the card to black and white ... but just in the middle ...
Hmmm. I kind of like it that way!  But let me assure you it was all done in blues. Guess I gotta get out the camera.

Zindorf inspiration

Isn't this a nice masculine birthday card?  The tutorial is here.

Too bad I forgot the white gel pen.

Teapot Tuesday

Today it is Zindorf brayering meets Copic Coloring meets punch art --- this card is a real conglomeration. I was quite tickled with the end result till I noticed ... now go look closely ... that the place where I labeled the paper on the back oozed through at the horizon line, and the blender pen on Lady Liberty's book ran into my sky. I KNEW I should have clear embossed that lady first.

This is on Stampin Up Whisper White --- I know that cuz I labeled it ... duhhh ... and even though some people say it is a bad choice for copics, I was absolutely thrilled at the aged greenish patina on the statue.  And lookie lookie at my waves! White pen!

Live and Learn.   Play often ... and giggle when you have to admit your mistakes. That is my new set of mantras.

Wednesday Sketch Day!

A thank you for Michelle Zindorf. The lighthouse rays are a technique she taught us with the moonbeams.
(See my post from May 24 - Zindorf workshop cards)

It's easy with a sponge off the edge of a piece of cardstock or post it note.

After I printed out the text, it seemed a little extreme - kind of like I had joined a Brayer Cult or something.

Zindorf workshop cards

We made 3 cards at the Advanced Brayer class with Michelle Zindorf in Wheaton this weekend. I can't wait to try and see if I can duplicate what I learned now that I am home!

Thank You Michelle

What kind of card do you make to thank somebody who is a thousand times better with a brayer than you are? A card with no brayering, of course!

Seeing Double?

I tried to do the same card that I learned at the Zindorf class last weekend. You can see the difference between ultra-smooth paper and generic cardstock. Considering the fact that I had different ink colors, stamps and papers, i was quite pleased with how it turned out. Skipping the white gel pen across the water is the hardest part by far.

Z moonglow

Another Zindorf inspired card ... her tutorial is excellent. However, I managed to substitute different colors and use cheap cardstock from Walmart so her gorgeous sunset on the lake is more of a moonglow in a hazy sky. But I am happy. I am not a fan of square cards since I feel I need a square envelope and the post office is not a fan of square envelopes.

Juliet's turn ...

This would have been the next challenge ... but I complained so THIS is what I got instead ...
This is one scary rabbit man. Fortunately as is my habit, I made several backgrounds and can play with doing something different as well. And yes, I cheated. The tutorial has you stamp right on the cardstock and color right on the cardstock. Then you versamark and clear emboss over it before doing the background. I cheated. I made the background. I made the rabbit .. and I taped 'em together.
Here is a look at Juliet's interpretation.
Now I am going back to the Owl challenge. You know, the one I complained about ... that one.

Juliet's challenge

It was my turn to pick a card and this one really makes me think of Clearwater Beach. We drove across the state and down the coast and got to the gulf just as the sun slipped below the horizon. Everything they say about a sunset over the ocean is true, we live on the sunrise side and the sun kind of pops up with not a lot of fanfare. But the setting sun, and the noise and conch shell blowing on the beach, and dolphins breaking the surface of the water as they dove ... now that was a day to remember. And ... the sky was JUST THIS PINK !!!
For the whole tutorial, visit this blog... I am so lucky, I am going to take a class with Michelle in February.

... the competition goes on, or the friendly challenges, yeah, that is what they are. Juliet created a gorgeous sunset and then went and did a sunrise as well in a different colorway. You can go see her cards here ... I on the other hand, started 4 different cards using the tutorial and came up with 3 that just didn't make it. I am kind of pleased with this one ... and planning to frame it and put it in my stamp room --- probably with the saying that Juliet shared from a Tim Holtz stamp
... creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes art is knowing which ones to keep ( or in my case which ones to use as a background for a crazy octopus drawing ! Clearly I am more on the creative side than the artistic one.)

the OTHER Zindorf attempt ...

Here's the one I sent to Juliet ... since the background was the size of a business size envelope, the whole thing kept growing and growing. I ended up using a really pretty file folder as the card base!

Heyyyyy Juliet ...

She challenged me to do the card you see here ... and I followed the tutorial by Michelle Zindorf and came up with this card.

I think we should do this one next.