Old Truck Photo Card

Whilst wandering the backroads of the Nebraska Panhandle I came across an old abandoned farmstead that had this old truck rusting in the tall grass.

I can just imagine some farmer hauling his hard red winter wheat crop to market in this old truck. 50 bushel a load and thinking how high tech he was because the horse drawn wagon would only haul about 10 bushel AND the trip took all day.

Now we have semi's that haul 900 bushels. The only thing that hasn't changed is the price we get for our wheat. We are still averaging about what our father's got for wheat in the 1950's with production costs far far more. Remeber, gas was 19 cents a gallon in the 50's. This old truck was probably purchased for a 3 figure price. Times have changed. Today's farmers and ranchers ride the razors edge each year as to weither he will be able to operate again next year. One hail storm, one misjudgement in the market, one mistake with chemicals, one big breakdown ($25,000 tractor overhaul) and he is no longer farming. The bank is selling him out. Unlike the auto industry, farm operations have to cash flow or they never get the loan. AND we have to repay our loans.

Medallion Punches

Here is yet another card created while I was at Charlene's. As you have been able to see over the past few days, we really did have a lot of fun and used every little bit of scrapbook paper that was pulled from the stack. It is almost like a challenge to use every last little piece of paper. (I know, I know, OCD)

The punch is by Punch Bunch. They have superior punches and are a favorite of mine. After punching out the medallion, I turned a square punch over so I could position it perfectly to punch out that medallion. Next I punced out one size larger square in the dark brown and glued the blue medallion to it.

The border on the left side of the card is a Sizzix extended cut. It has four long narrow borders on one die.

I used a dark brown ink to sponge around the edges to soften the look and to help pull the whole together.

More Fun From Charlene's House

This is another card that was designed while in a creative frenzy at my friend Charlene's house. We had gone through some magazines and ideas that I had printed from the internet. Using what she had in her stash (which is considerable, like mine) this is one of the designs that we came up with.

The stamp is by Inkadinkadoo and the dies are from Spellbinders.

Playing With Die Cuts

I certainly do like the Spellbinder's Nestibilities dies.

The edges of the scrapbook paper that is used to cover the card base have been sponged with dark brown. This adds depth and softens the edges.

Inkadinkadoo is the maker of the stamped image in the center. I used a metallic brown embossing powder.

Hope some of you get some ideas for using your die cuts from this card.

Framed Flowers

Another card that was created while at Charlene's. We had so much fun. The paper, glue and stamps just flew around her studio. We both tend to be more daring and innovative when we stamp together.

I used a punch for the oval flowers. Spellbinder's Nestibilities for the two layer frame and another punch for the three brown bars with a hand punch was used for the blue dots on the bars.

Note the sponging with dark brown ink around the card base, the flowers and the blue layer of the frame.

The flower stamp is by Inkadinkadoo. I think the phrase is by Hero Arts. Not sure as these are Charlene's stamps.

Dark brown ink was used to stamp all images.

Playing With Punches

Combining punches, decorative scissors, a little ink sponged on the edges, layering rulers, and coordinating scrapbook papers can have wonderful results.

I had the pleasure of spending a whole day with my friend and fellow stamper, Charlene, in her home in Holdrege NE. We stamped and created up a storm. Creative excess!!!! Love it!

Old Truck

I found this old truck on an abandoned farmstead and fell in love. True love. Isn't it just stunning? I had to make a card using this image.

The photo corners are real. I am thinking this would work great to send a picture to my daughter and then she could just remove it from the card and save the photo.

The scrapbook paper on the card front is from K & Company. One of my favorite companies. I sponged around the edge of the card. When using black and white photos it looks wonderful to sponge the edge of the photo.

The hardest part of using photos on the front of a card is finding just the right paper to go with it.

Psallm 118:24

More scripture cards!!! After stamping several 12 x 12 sheets of scrapbook paper I had to do something with them. At the time that I stamped and embossed these I was sure that the paper would be easy to work into some great cards. These have laid around staring at me for several months. One day I just couldn't take it anymore and started playing.

The card on the left has a white card base. The texture is from one of the new Sizzix Texturz plates. (they had a LOT of texture plates now and they are slightly larger than an A2 card, love it, love it, love it) I used dark green and some olivey-type green card stock for the layering.

TIP: to get ink only on the raised portion or your textured paper, use a brayer with a very light touch. Don't try to get all the ink on in one go. Lightly go over and over the texture. This way your brayer won't dip down and color unraised parts of your paper.

The background on this card is a very formal mum stamp. I used Clearsnaps Olive Pastel Colorbox Chalk Ink and just stamped until the entire card front was covered.

The little ribbon on the right side was cut from dark green card stock with deckle scissors. Very simple and it adds the finishing touch.

I am not sure that I like the epoxy stickers, but they are on there now, so I guess they are ok.

The Psalm 118:24 stamp is by Stampabilities and the mum stamp is by Rubber Stampede.

Isaiah 26:3

One of my favorite companies that no longer exists

as a stand alone stamp manufacturer is

Embossing Arts. They had some of the most

wonderful scripture stamps. I bought every

single one of them I could get my ink stained

little hands on.

Fineline black embossing powder was used to make

this phrase really stand out from the scrapbook paper.

A coluzzle to cut out the circle, it was then layered

onto dark red cardstock and edged with a decorative scissors.

I covered a white card base with a lighter but

matching scrapbook paper, sponged the edges

with dark brown dye in, and stamp in the same dark

brown ink with the Romanesque Bolio stamp by JudiKins.

The above card has a side border using dark brown

and dark red cardstock cut with a deckle scissors
Here is used a lace bolio stamp with dark brown metallic
embossing powder. I have no idea who made this one
as the label fell off a long time ago.

Using The Scraps

This card is made totally from scraps and leftovers from other projects. Theonly stamping on the project is the medallion image that is embossed with fineline copper.

I used a decorative scissors, some leftover pieces of die cuts and scraps, scraps, and more scraps.

Paper crafters seem to have this phobia about throwing away even the tiniest scraps of paper. When I moved my studio I tossed I don't know how many bits and pieces that I had stashed all over the place. Sigh, all that lovely paper gone!, but you know I have not missed it one little bit, so maybe I am over that little OCD thing. (so my dh hopes, LOL)

Traveling The Back Roads

I have a very unusual part time job. I am an enumerator for Nebraska Agricultural Statistics Service. What is that you ask??? I gather the raw data directly from the farmers and ranchers in Cheyenne and Morrill counties of western Nebraska. This data is totally confidental with only the compiled data of many farmers and ranchers available to anyone who wants it. Want to know how many estimated acres of hard red winter wheat are in western Nebraska? Call Nebraska Ag Statistics and they will tell you. 1-800-582-6443

As I am driving around the back roads of the Panhandle of Nebraska, I find many old farmsteads. I have been taking pictures of the old houses, barns and whatever else is sitting around. Some of these building are of local stone and are just fantastic.

On my way back into a wheat field (trail road of 1 mile) I passed this fantastic old farmstead and saw this old truck sitting in the grass. Wow, isn't it just gorgeous? I have multiple pics from all angles. As it is a distance off the county road and not clearly visible there has not been the vandalism that many of the abandoned farmsteads suffer.

Punch and Shape Flowers

These flowers are so much fun!

Most of the punches used are from a wonderful company called Punch Bunch. The flowers are punched out and then shaped with various sizes of stylus. I use the back side of a computer mouse pad to allow the stylus to gently shape the flower petals. A circular motion seems to work best.

A few more hints, after the petals have all been shaped, turn the flower over and use a smaller stylus to press in the center.


I use a toothpick with a tiny bit of glue on it to pick up the flower centers from the back side, then carefully place middle of the shaped petals.

The ovals are cut from a Spellbinders oval Nestibilities die. Silk wallpaper was used for the textured cream background. I often check the damaged and sale section for wallpaper. I got this roll for $8 as the ends had been damaged. Still works great for card backgrounds!!!

The gold around the oval and the silk wallpaper rectangle is gold gift wrap.


Happy punching!!!