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!!!

The Lord Is Great

Another scripture stamp. The background is stamped on cream cardstock and embossed with white fineline embossing powder. I sponged in a little dark tan to get more contrast. The diagonal piece is the same background stamp using gray ink on cream cardstock.

I really do like this design. I may have to make more, but I think I will stamp the verse on a different scrapbook paper. Maybe one not so busy. LOL

Inspirational Scripture Card

I really like my scripture stamps, but don't use them very often. Several months ago in the midst of a stamping fenzy, I stamped up some of my scripture stamps onto scrapbook paper. Well then I ran into the problem of what to use with this lovely, but very oddly colored scrapbook paper.

The background for the card is pastel olive chalk ink by Colorbox. (one of my favorite brands of ink) I simply stamped the same flower over and over until the front of the card was covered.

The die cuts are architectual corners by Sizzix. They rather difficult to cut, but worth the effort to shim until they do cut. The black strip at the bottom is the final touch. It seemed to finish it off nicely.

Ranch Life, Not a Flip Flop Cow Chase

Last week on Wednesday I left for four days and three nights with art friends in Colorado. I had my trusty Jeep mostly loaded with more art supplies than clothing and for once I truly did use most of what I had taken in the art department.

Now we have had some serious rains with BIG flash flooding, this means water in areas even my husband has never seen it before and he is fourth generation on this place. There were some serious erosion problems caused by flooding in some of the summer fallow fields that had to be fixed and we simply do not have the equipment for this big of a job. So of course the neighbor with the Cat arrives Wednesday morning and Joe has to be gone.

The first field to be repaired was past a wheat field, through one gate, then a holding and watering pen, through another gate and a pasture being saved for later in the grazing rotation. The Cat driver left the gate open as he really wasn't going to be there that long and the cows were way up in the hills. No problem. (you already know I am in trouble)

Joe left me with the words, "Close those gates when he gets done up there and make sure the cows don't get out." Now you know this is going to get ugly.

I am ready to leave. Showered and fresh, my hair looking so nice, makeup on, perfect!!! I am wearing shorts and flip flops, comfy traveling clothes for the 3.5 hours drive to several days of peaceful relaxing and creating with good friends. Ahhhhhh!!!!! life is wonderful..

I hear the semi loaded with the Cat slowly driving thru the gates and on to the last field that needs dirt work, so I mosey out to shut the gates. When I reach the first fence and look out my lovely day is shattered. My eyes see half the cow herd gleefully munching their way into the pasture where they are NOT supposed to be. These are the cows that my dear husband had assured me were way up in the pasture and would surely not be any problem. (one of the rare occasions when he was optimistic about cow habits)
I cross the fence and quickly shut the gate into the wheat so at least I don't have that problem on top of every thing else. Then I glance up and see the rest of the herd streaming out of the hills towards the still open gate into the ungrazed pasture. (it's getting worse by the minute)

Now you have to understand cows. They can be very very contrary creatures. A cow can have the most delicious perfect feed in the world in front of her and if you leave a gate open into a barren desert she will be guaranteed to abandon the feed in front of her, leave her calf and run over you to get to that barren desert. Cows just can't help themselves, they just know that the absolute best cow candy in the world is just through that gate. AND they would never be able to find that gate if you wanted them to go through it.

As I am closing that gate to the wheat I realize this is NOT going to be a flip flop cow chase. These old girls think they are in cow heaven and are going to do everything they can to stay there. They are belly deep in green grass. MMMMMM!!! yummy cow candy. On top of that, this is rattlesnake country and I am not about to go charging around on foot wearing flip flops in tall grass. That is just asking for trouble and I have enough of that already. So I hustle the short distance back to the house, as fast as my trendy pink and orange flip flops will allow. When attired in proper cow chase foot gear and clothing I fire up the ATV. I am going to get serious about this.

For those who are not familiar with cows, when chased or in any way upset they tend to have very loose runny manure. I truly believe they store it up as ammunition to make chasing them more of a challenge. It is absolutely amazing the amount of green runny manure a single cow can expel when you are behind her and you had better not get to close in case she coughs. (enough said about that nasty matter) Now remember, I am going to be zooming about rapidly on an ATV and when I run over fresh runny manure, of which there is sure to be an abundant supply, the rapid rotation of the tires is going to fling that manure up and the fenders will not stop all of it. (trust me, I know about this)

So I ride the ATV to the gate, off ATV, open gate, on ATV, drive through gate, off ATV, close gate, so when I chase them through the other gate and back into the correct pasture they will not just run straight through and into the wheat field. (I know cows, they would do this to me)

As I am doing all the gate things, the cows from the hills are galloping past, kicking up their heels with glee as they charge into fresh yummy new pasture. A pasture where they know they are NOT supposed to be.. I know they know this by the naughty sparkle in their cow eyes and the sassy tossing of their heads. (sometimes it gives me great pleasure to cut into a nice rare steak, especially when remembering events like this one)

Cows are very good at not going where you want them to go. On this day they were being really stubborn in a particularly deliberate and ignorant cowish way. Calling someone a cow is truly an insult. You would understand if you had ever had to chase any under conditions like these. They were a little spread out so I had to ride rapidly back and forth, hazing them towards the gate they had just gone through, but could now no longer see. I would get one side of the bunch headed in the right direction and the other side would make a break for the yummy new grass. So back and forth, back and forth, gradually easing them closer and closer to the gate. By now I am hollering, sweating and saying nasty things, like, "You stubborn old biddies, get going, haw!!!!". My husband is not nearly as nice to them in these kinds of situations and uses language that has to shock their innocent cow ears. Cows also seem to find the gate a lot faster for him, hmmmmmm, there is a lesson here somewhere. Finally one found the gate and bolted through, then the rest quickly followed. It just takes one to get the idea and the herd will quickly follow her lead.

At last the cows are where they belong, the gates are shut and I am leaving. Hurrah!!!!! I am hot, dirty and sweaty, but the cows are in and that is what is important. Ahhhh!!!! Ranch life, I love it. (and there are days when many would consider me certifiably insane too, LOL)

So ends the tale of just another day in the life of a ranch woman.

Faux Turquoise

I spent the past few days in Colorado creating with friends. Jen Lowe took the time to teach me how to make faux turquoise and after that I went totally overboard and made all kinds of shiny rocks.

Do they look like real rocks? The faux truquoise and the red rocks have a polymer clay glaze, while the pink and tan are just as they came from the oven.

I think I'm hooked. This is so much fun and I see endless possibilities.

Rubbadubbadoo Stamps Are Fantastic

This is one of my very favorite scriptures. Now if you add to that a stamp that has an easy to stamp AND read font, well, I am sold, totally. I am impressed that even the tiny scripture reference is so easy to read.

The phrase was stamped with VersaMark and embossed with fineline black embossing powder. It was then cut out and layered using three different Spellbinders Circle Nestibilites.

The background paper was made using some Basic Grey clear flourish stamp. Ink used was VersaMark and followed by a clean embossing powder. This technique gives a perfect color match for a subtle background.

A Martha Stewart border punch used on the opening edge of the card added the final touch.

The White Finch

Most of the finches are tan and dark brown with some black. This rare little finch is white where she should be tan. I am amazed that I got this good of a picture.

The finches have provided us hours in entertainment. They are such funny little birds.

Finches At Our House

Here are some of our daily visitors. The finches. Noisy and naughty, they adore the thistle seed that I put out for them to snack on.

These finches just make our cats crazy. The cats constantly stalked them for the past month, but seem to have given up lately as they were never successful at aquiring a finch dinner. LOL!

More Rubbadubbadoo

From the Stampers Quest design challenge for Rubbadubbadoo. I love this tree branch. Using it as a background stamp in one shade of green and as a darker green frame for the phrase is very effective.

The layering of dark green cardstock, gold metallic gift wrap and text weight light green is the finishing touch.