Country Roads Stamping

Shaving Cream?

Well, since stampers and scrappers seem to use everything that sits around their house on cards - and I think that is because we just grab what is handy and think about it later - it would go figure that someone would figure out a use for shaving cream!  Last week I had a party where the hostess requested that I do the shaving cream technique as she wanted to see what it was.  Now I have to tell you that I had some reservations because it can get pretty messy - but I went ahead and played with the stuff until I came up with a card that I was happy with and ofcourse had to use a retiring set. Here was the end result:

It had been awhile since I had used this technique but we all liked how it ended up - everyone's background looked different as everyone mixed their colors differently.  This just added a good look behind the old car.  I do believe that I waited too late to pick up this stamp set - have not used it enough and it will be gone on June 30.  Ingredients for this card was Really Rust Cardstock, Glossy white, Black and Old Olive.  The re-inkers used for the background were Really rust, Old Olive and More Mustard.  I also used the Pocket Silhouettes stamp set, in addition to Thoughts of Father for the "weedy" look along the bottom of the card and Elegant Cheer, another retiring set for the Birthday Wishes.  The scalloped edge punch was used for the center pieces.  That's all for today - have a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time today.  Thanks for stopping by. 

Another Day without Rain

Wonderful - that is how I'd describe the past couple of days - no rain, except for a shower on Saturday morning - we've actually seen and identified the sun!  Woohoo!!!  Lawns have been mowed and lawn chairs are out in the yard!  Hopefully a lot of you enjoyed time with your dads over the week-end and even some backyard cookouts. 

This Father's Day week-end hits me hard as my dad has a birthday at the same time so I have to do double card duty on Father's Day week-end.  So I'm going to post my birthday card on here first.  This is not an original idea of mine - this was on the SU! card gallery for demonstrators and I thought this was perfect for my dad - nice work apron with all the tools he typically uses when he works in my stamp room.

The "shiny" objects, i.e. crescent wrench and clip on measuring tape - were stamped on brushed silver cardstock and then cut out.  When I handed this to him, dad mentioned that he'd lost his crescent wrench - so great - he had a new one!  My sneaky daughter had sent him a musical card, which was kind of hard to upstage!  I'm going to have to see about finding those little buggers to put inside cards. 

This is the Totally Tool stamp set and it is great to have on hand for masculine cards and no, it is not retiring!!!

Now, other business - remember those huge logs that I posted last Friday? Well, I've had a lot of guesses for what they might me - including a swing for grandson, Gideon!! While some guesses have been close - very close - none have been correct - so . . . my husband wants a one word description or "name" for this item. 

 

Now there's enough here that you can really see what it looks like - so here's one more chance to give a guess - I'll have another picture to add tomorrow and this guy will be back to finish up on tuesday - however, we won't have the completely finished project for awhile - I can tell you that those of you that come here regularly will find it fascinating and no doubt will want to bring your kids by to check this newest venture out.  Now - Grafton girls - you are completely out of the guessing as you know exactly what this will be called!  Also - no hints in your comments!  Good Luck.

Also we were so busy taking pictures of this guy at work that I totally forgot to take pictures of the girls that were here for the all day event!!! Can't believe I forgot that!!! We had a great time - even though it was hot and humid it was still fun! 

Swallows of Capistrano

Well, that title should go well in a google search engine!  I was asking one of my friends Saturday what the birds were that return to Capistrano, California every year - and it was Swallows - I kept thinking Swans and knew that was wrong.  She is a bird person too, and she remembered - well, we have our own  swallows here - they are turkey vultures!!  Every year faithfully they return the last week of February - I don't think we have ever documented enough to see how close it is to the same day - but it is always the last week.  So we saw them a few weeks ago and that's a good assurance that Spring is coming!!! Then yesterday while doing my hiking training for the trip - I heard a fly catcher - another one that returns the same time.  I love hearing the spring birds - I can already tell a big difference in the mornings when I step outside.  Sparrows have been trying to build a nest on the back porch birdhouse but I'm afraid that construction effort is going to be stopped - I don't want them directly on my back porch because they are too loud and too noisy.  So I'll have to plug up that hole today before they get any further.  Then my little Carolina Wren friend (from where I get my user name) is trying to build a nest in the chicken house - not one of her better ideas! Just a little spring information for those of you that like the different news for the day. 

The card I did this morning is a very simple manly man card!  Well, it is masculine at least - I really like these designer papers - to the Nines - because they look earthy, which are the colors and look that I like the most.  I popped up the designer paper on 3D dimensionals and then punched with the word window punch and put the little greeting underneath - so it gives a different look of the 3 D.  I would have liked to texture the brown strip on the left, but the Big Shot was still upstairs, where I had not unloaded it from the party last night - so that didn't happen!! I do like the Funky Trees set - however, I have to use the aligner to get the green part of the tree matched up over the trunk - I tried and tried last night and then finally gave up and went to bed - so this morning I pulled out the aligner first thing and finished it.  After I got the card all loaded I saw the punched out hole was about l/16 off - now that doesn't sound like much - but it stood out glaringly - I was not going back down - so remember - that's the beauty of hand made!   What a great excuse for mistakes.  Got to love this hobby.  The little brads are the new brads and I think these things are great.  All in all this will work great for a man.  I have many, many cards to put together today, plus Steve asked me to make some sugar candy so I'd better get started on the day.  Have a great day and once again, thanks for stopping by!