White, Black and Read

White, Black and Read ('read' pronounced 'red', that is).  The CAS-Friday challenge was to use those colors...white, black and red but to use a book as inspiration.  That got me thinking about a lot of books I've read in my life...some huge favorites for me like The Agony and the Ecstasy which is a fictional autobiographical account of the Renaissance artist, Michelangelo.  Another book I love is the very regionally popular book Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell...I also love The Red Tent, The Lovely Bones, The Clan of the Cave Bear, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Silence of the Lambs, and so many others including the presently popular The Help. I also am loving Good Night, Moon and about any Thomas the Train book! :)

So when I decided to participate in the CAS-Friday challenge I started thinking about different books I've read over the years and a book that popped in my head  was one I read many years ago as a teenager: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

Has anyone else read that book or seen the movie made about it starring Cliff Robertson (he won an Academy Award for best actor) called "Charly"?  I think that book actually had a pretty profound affect on me and was somewhat instrumental in my choosing to study speech therapy and work with developmentally disabled folks.

Basically Flowers for Algernon is about a young man (Charly) who has an IQ in the high 60s (developmentally disabled) who is chosen to participate in a research study to see if his intelligence can be increased.  The procedure was first done on Algernon, a laboratory rat, who showed significantly increased intelligence. Charly also became really intelligent...falls in love, yada, yada, yada.  But Algernon's intelligence starts reversing and well, you can guess what happens.  I won't spoil the story in case someone wants to read it (it's not a big book) but there is some significance to the "flowers" in the title.

Wow...what a trip down memory lane that was.  Yep, I got out of graduate school as a speech therapist and my first job was working in a state hospital with folks who were multiply handicapped...mostly non ambulatory, non verbal...a very tough job but also very rewarding.  I did work in that field for many years...I think my interest in helping mentally and physically challenge people stemmed somewhat from the impact that book had on me.

So...where does my card come in? Well, it's just a simple card...with a flower for Algernon (or actually probably for my cousin to whom I need to send a thank you card!).
I haven't thought of this book in years....it really literally just popped into my head tonight when I was thinking about what book I wanted to use as my inspiration....wow....

I made it with DCWV papers from the Stripes, Plaids and Dots stack (LOVE that hounds tooth paper!).  I used the Spellbinders Carnation die for the flower, some crepe paper bunched up like a ruffle, a Papetrey ink sentiment, a Stampin' Up word punch, and a Papertrey Ink edger die.

Well, CAS-Friday...thanks for the walk down memory lane!

Oh and this was also entered in the Play Date Cafe PDCC97 challenge which was to use black, white and a splash of red!

Technique, Technique, Technique and Challenges!

I had the most fun making this card!  I decided to pull out my Distress inks and make a background paper.  This is an "old" Tim Hotlz technique.  You basically use your foam applicator to rub the distress ink colors you like onto cardstock.  Then you put Versamark on your chosen stamp...spritz it with water and then stamp it on your distress inked cardstock.  The water will act as a resist with the Distress Inks and the result is so great looking!  I loved it!

So I made this little card for the CAS-Friday challenge which is doing a joint challenge with Clean&Simple Stamping.  Frankly I'm not sure if my card fits the clean and simple requirement....but I'm hoping that it does!  It sure was a fun card to make and will definitely do this technique again!

I cleaned up my room yesterday (trash day) and apparently threw away the list of the things I used...but the stamps were all Hero Arts, I put a few layers of UTEE on the butterfly.  The floral stamp was embossed with white Zing embossing powder. I added a little Baker's Twine around the embossed image.

Here's a closeup:

I just love that bleached resist effect on the cardstock!

Note to self...buy more Distress Inks!

And I made a whole bunch of these yesterday which is a direct scraplift from the Nicole Heady of Papertrey Ink's blog:

I loved the simplicity of this!...done with the PTI Parisian Doily and a square of cardstock...a little embossing for the sentiment and a nice but simple card. I'll be making more of these!

Happy Crafting!

Back to the Business of Making Stuff!

Once I clean up my room I usually have trouble motivating myself again because I don't want to mess anything up.  It's like when you clean your kitchen really well and then don't want to cook or even boil water because you're afraid you'll make a mess...or you wash you car and then don't want to take it out of the garage because you don't want it to get dirty.  Follow me?  It's another one of my many issues!

But I decided that I was going to forge ahead with the business of making stuff.  So, I went to my "This ain't no Ikea-Showcase-Pretty-Colors-On-the-Wall" studio.  BTW...I'm from Georgia.  We say things like "This ain't no" or "ain't got no"...and even though there are two negatives as in 'ain't' and 'no' it does not create a positive.  "Ain't no"....means IS NOT or ARE NOT  "ain't got no" means NONE, NADA, NOTHING, NICHTS!  So if you are not from the south perhaps you will feel enlightened to our way of saying things a bit.

Anyway, my husband's birthday is coming up shortly so I decided to make him a card with some leftovers.  (He loves leftover by the way...)  I don't think anything I used on this card is something I purchased within the last year.  Old, old, old....just like my husband will be on his next birthday! 

Actually my husband is 2 months younger than I am....he's smart, though...he never throws that up in my face.

So here is the card I made using the weekly sketch from Clean&Simple Stamping.  It's really quite simple and didn't take long at all to make. 

I used kraft paper from a pack I bought at Joann's, printed papers by MOD (I don't even know if this company exists any longer...), Stamps by Hero Arts and Page Pebbles by Making Memories.  I also used a Fiskars border punch...I love that spiral notebook paper edge.  I also Baroque Burgundy Stampin' Up ink.  A little twine tied at the top finished it off. 

Simple, simple, simple.  And it only took me about 5 minutes to clean up my mess! :)

I am also putting this in the CAS-Fridays challenge which was to make a masculine card and use kraft paper.

All done! 

Happy Krafting (terrible pun....I know...it's late....my room is clean....I don't know what to do with myself...)