Yet More Dictionary Backgrounds

The lavender card has the dictionary background

attached directly to the card.

Die cuts by Quickut.

Little girl image by Second Star On The Right

and background stamp by Stamp Camp.

A Sizzix die was used to cut the scalloped frame.

It was glued on the card and then darker ink was

carefully applied around the out sideedge.

Background stamp by Judikins.

Little girl with dolls stamp by Second Star On The Right.

Die cuts by Quickut. Background stamp by Judikins.

On this card the dictionary background is layered on the card front.
The background stamp is by Stamp Camp
and the little girl image by Second Star On The Right.
Die cuts from Quickut.

Can you tell that I have had an exceptional amount of fun

tearing up my old dictionarys, using my Second Star on the Right stamps

and playing with the resist technique??????

Next I want to try this resist technique on old atlas maps.

But that will have to wait until after I get my Christmas card

making frenzy over with.

Dictionary part 3

Some more dictionary pages that have become backgrounds. The die cuts are from Bosskut, the background stamp is from Stamp Camp and the little girl image is from Second Star On The Right.

The Leaves Are Falling

Some the trees here in western Nebraska are still dropping leaves. The slightest breeze has a cascade of leaves to intrigue our half grown kittens.

My stamping buddy and good friend, Bettye, had a stack of 8 1/2 x 11 papers that she did not want. Bettye is constantly giving me stamps or paper that she is no longer using or can't figure out how to use. What a great challenge!!!!

So with a thanks to Bettye, here is what I did with some of the papers. The last card is the only one that actually has stamping on it. The dark torn background has VersaMark stamped leaves with clear embossing powder.

I buy very little scrapbook paper with scrapbooking in mind. I am a stamper and card maker first and that is how I think and see papers and embellishments.

Stamping on Your Dictionary

Another look at using resist stamping on a dictionary page. Two different stamps were used for the resist. The flourish background is from Stamp Camp. Judikins is maker of the brown swirly background.

This lovely little girl is an image by Second Star On the Right. I bought mine in 2003 but can not find them anywhere now. I know the stamp line sold to another company and was available there for a while, but has now disappeared.

The highly detailed art stamps work best on glossy paper. I use a brayer to ink my stamp and go over it repeatedly to prevent any lines. Noe that I lightly sponged the edges of the image.

Quickutz is the maker of the die cuts framing the card that is in shade of brown. I sponged darker brown ink around the edges of the die cuts.

A Deer Tale

I don't know if this is a true story or not, but you will be crying with laughter by the time you get to the end of it. (and I suspect that parts of it are very true, I know some cowboys that would do this and I know deer can be very dangerous when trapped)

Author unknown - probably for good reason

Actual letter from someone who farms, writes well and tried this:

I had this idea that I could rope a deet, put it in a stall, feed in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), is should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope arouind my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold.

The deer still just stood there and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a stepp towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope...., and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that while a deer may just stand there lookin at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

The deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stonger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with some dignity. A deer ..... no chance.

The thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, It was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing our of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it of with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer.. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture to guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against vaious large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get i lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand.....kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite?????

They do! I never in a millions years wouild have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when.....I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse whwere they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questionin that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -- like a horse-- strikes at you with their hovers and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try and to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all,besides being twice as strong and three times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does nto immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your bakc and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering you head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why ehn people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope to sort of even the odds.

All these events are ture so help me God....An Educated Rancher

Dictionary part 2

More sampes of the dictionary background page. The brown background has metal accents from a Spellbinders pendant die. The oval girl is a stamp from Second Star On The Right. The company and it's stamps has apparently disappeared. I bought mine in 2003. They are fantastic stamps and you will be seeing some more of these images in the near future.

The die cuts on the other three cards are from Bosskut. This company has some of the most amazing dies.

Use Your Dictionary!

The background for these cards is dictionary page. Using a bold Stamp Camp background stamp, the image was stamped with Tsukineko's VersaMark and embossed with clear glossy embossing powder. After the heated and embossed powder had cooled, the unembossed area was inked using a makeup sponge.

In the purple version the entire card front is cover with the dictionary page, while the blue



version is layered on dark blue cardstock and then mounted on the card base.

The image of the girl reading the book is from Stamp of Excellence. These are wonderful stamps that I just love. Judi doesnt' have a website up and running just yet but you can find her at 1105 Main Street in Canon City CO or email her for a catalog, judisox@qwestoffice.net.
Be prepared for some fantastic stamps. I had a terrible time deciding which stamper were my favorites, sigh, I need a money tree that grows year round with people like Judi around making stamps.

More dictionary backgrounds to be posted soon.

Papercasting On Stamps

Supplies:

kleenex or toilet paper (depending on size of stamp used)

liquid starch

small stencil brush

bold stamp

water colors (the inexpensive kid's water colors will work)

paint brush

1. Mix in a container 1 part liquid starch and 1 part water

2. Paint on your stamp. Don't use too much as it spreads out. Some people color at the end of the process.

3. Lay the kleenex over the stamp.

4. Dip stencil brush in starch mixture and begin to tamp the stencil brush up and down to push the kleenex into the depressions in the rubber stamp.

5. Add layers of kleenex. Tamp carefully so you don't tear the kleenex, yet get the paper into all the grooves.

6. You may only have to use the starch mix with every other layer. It just depends on how much starch the kleenex you use absorbs and how well it is going into the depressions on the stamps.

7. You can use from 5 to 10 layers of kleenex. It depends on how thick you want your paper casting.

8. When you are satisfied with the thickness or your papercasting, carefully tear paper around the edge of the stamp. I found that I had to firmly hold the paper on the stamp with one hand and tear with the other.

9. Now is when you can do you water coloring if you didn't do it at the start.

10. Gently remover your paper casting from the stamp and lay aside to dry. I have tried using my heat gun to hurry the drying. Don't, it will bubble and curl. You can straighten a flatten a little, but be careful or you will remove all stamp image from the paper.

This is pretty tough when dry, but you can flattten the image out of the paper very easily when it is wet. There can be a little coloring when dry, but again, it is easy to destroy the image from the stamp. I have used Rub and Buff to high light or accented with some markers.

Paper Ribbons

Paper ribbons can be addictive. You will find yourself buying scrapbook papers that coordinate just so you can make these lovely cards.

If you use text weight papers, you will be able to fold them in half and then punch. This will line the designs up across from each other perfectly.

I have found the Fiskars border punches to be rather fragile. They are not meant for anything heavier than a light weight text paper. You can prolong the life of them by placing the heel of your hand on the pivot point and them pressing the lever to punch. Other wise the plastic and the little pin that are the pivot area will break. Sadly most other punches of this type are made pretty much the same way.

I also used various decorative scissors to achieve the look that I wanted. One way to make sure you get an even cut with your scissors is to draw a line on the back of the paper and use that as a guide for your cut.

On the very widest parts I simply punched one long narrow strip and carefully attached them one at a time to the ribbon. That way you can match up the punched designs on either side and not use as much paper which reduces the over weight of the card.

Christmas Card Designs

It's getting to be that time of year again. I have been playing with several ideas for Christmas cards. While I like both of these designs, they are to labor intensive to make 50 of them.

The pine bough image is from Hero Arts. The lovely Merry Christmas image on the top card is from a company called My Sentiments Exactly. The Merry Christmas with holly is from Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers, which is no longer in business. The pine cone image on the second card is from PSX, aka Personal Stamp Exchange. I have found a few of their stamps at Sierra Enterprises. They have a very limited supply and may not have the pine cone stamp.

I used Ranger Distressed inks for the pine bough and the distressing around the edges of the cards.

The phrases on both cards have been embossed with fineline black embossing powder. Gold fineline embossing powder was used on the pine cone.

Mother and Child

Here is another lovely image from Second Star On The Right. It is a highly detailed art stamp.

The card is relatively simple. The corner punch makes a striking frame.

Now if some of my friends would just become grandmothers, I am all set with the perfect card.

Layered Medallion

This card may look difficult, but if you look closely you will see that it is simply mulitiple layers.

The while textured layer is paintable textured wallpaper. Gift wrap was used for the metallic golds. One layer was cut with a decorative scissors.

One thing I like about this type of card is the mutliple uses. I could stamp something across the bottom for a specific occasion or leave it plain and put a note on the inside.

Rather than the punched medallion in the center, you could pick a stamped medallion or use a variety of stamped of textured squares or rectangles to create your beginning medallion. There are endless possiblities here.

Precious Girl

This precious girl image is a stamp. The company was Second Star On the Right. I have had it for at least 10 years. I did a search for the company and could not find it.

There is a little trick to getting these highly detailed art stamps to stamp well. First you need to prime you stamp. Ink it up and stamp on scrap paper several times. I like to use a brayer to ink up these type of stamps. You will have to go over the stamp from several directions to get an even inking that has no lines in it. Glossy paper seems to work better than matte. If you ink pad is too juicy, the ink will pool on the stamp between the fine lines and dots and be a blob when you stamp it. This is why I like the brayer, I can't get too much ink on the rubber.