Mississippi McGyver: August 2014

Friday, August 29, 2014

The Secret Rose Garden

Ever since I read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, it has been one of my favorite books. When I first saw this set by Mark's Finest Papers called KEYS, I knew I was going to have to make a secret garden card.What you can't see in these photographs is the golden sparkle. The roses as well as the green panels are sprayed with a gold shimmer paint. I cut the green panels and adhered them to the white panel and it was at this step that I thought it needed more gold, so I sprayed some more gold and it warped the paper a little. So my "FIX" was to emboss the whole panel.

With this collection of keys, surely one of them will open the lock so we can get into the garden.

I quilled four different sizes of roses. You can sort of see the gold shimmer paint on this photo.

This card will be going to one of the college students from my church. She is away from home for the first time. She is really homesick and she has only been gone a week. I hope this cheers her up.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A story of HOT GLUE gears

All good stories start with once upon a time... Right?

Well once upon a time there was a crafter who didn't have much money to spend on her craft supplies.She tried to find creative ways to do make do with what she had. In other words... she was cheap/thrifty. She really liked steampunk style with its gears and clocks and such. She bought some gears at a craft store but at 50¢ a piece that was too expensive. So she set out to see if there was a creative way to make a gear embellishment. Out of creativity, she thought to take hot glue and push the 50¢ gear into the glue to make an impression. When the glue cooled she took the metal gear off and painted the hot glue gear black. Then she rubbed copper inka gold over the top. The result was these gears. They turned out with imperfections. However,at a cost of 5¢ for the 5 gears, that was a price she liked alot.

(here is where the story takes a turn)

She was making a hot glue gear when she got distracted... not usually a problem, but this time it was. She accidentally put her finger into the puddle of hot glue. Long story short, she ended ripping the skin off the top of her finger. As she sat with her bandaged finger throbbing, she decided to share this cautionary tale. She recommends that when making gears out of hot glue, pay very close attention to what you are doing.

I really like how they look with Mark's Finest Papers GEARS TO YOU set.

This card really did start as the sketch for the SCS sketch challenge today. SC503 I had originally thought of putting the sentiment on the base. I ended up matting it and putting it on a separate panel, because I decided to emboss the base.

AUTUMN

My favorite time of year is Fall.

I grew up in AZ and we had mostly evergreen trees. The few deciduous trees went to yellowish/brown to different shades of brown before falling. I remember the year first lived in the midwest. When the leaves changed colors, I was so excited to see the extravagant colors. I had to catch my breath and was constantly saying "Thank You God for making such a beautiful world" I still feel that way each year in the fall.

My card used several Mark's Finest Papers sets. Here is a list of the sets:

I took the sentiments and and put them all on my large acrylic block. I used Black Stazon ink. Then I did ink spray smash technique to add fall colors. When that dried, I took a stipple brush to add more colors. I added raffia and a little acorn charm.

Mountain's Plains Crafters is having a LEAF/ AUTUMN challenge with a prize give away from sponsor Pan Pastel All you have to do is link up a new leaf or Autumn card to this MPC post

Monday, August 25, 2014

interlocking gate card

The TLC Challenge at SCS TLC496 was to make an interlocking gatefold card.This is my card for that challenge.

I added lace for her pinafore.

I was thinking that if it was an interlocking card... it might be fun to add a lock and a key. I used the new key set from MFP.

I was feeling pretty good about this card until I noticed that the sheet music that I glued to the back of the little girl was on upside down... oh well... too late now.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Mixed Rice

The mixed media challenge this week (MIX81) was to use really wet water colored paint and while there were still puddles of paint/water on the paper put rice on top of it so the rice can soak up the pigment.

You have to let it completely dry before removing the rice.

The rice effect was kinda subtle on my card and hard to photograph, but you can see it best in this photo of the corner.

Friday, August 15, 2014

The wish to learn

The design team at Mountains Plains Crafters has decided to make back to school cards for inspiration this weekend. I used digital images from Diane's Daydream Designs. I used
School Days Outlined Set

and

School Days Background Set

I made it into an easel card. I printed the books and apple outlines and watercolored them in.

I thought this quote about learning is so true. I printed it so it would fit on lined school paper. I printed another of the apple only itty bitty this time.

My daughter is going to college to be a teacher. I am going to give this card to her to remind her when she goes into the schools, what is important.

Mostly LEFT HANDED birthday card

In honor of National Left hander's day, I accepted a challenge to make a card predominantly using my left hand. (and Yes, I am right handed.) My brother is a left handed person, so I decided to make this birthday card for him. Since I knew I would have struggles cutting with scissors, I kept my design mostly squares and rectangles that I could cut using my paper cutter. (no problem with left hand) There were some things like tying the bow that required both hands. I think it is on the verge of impossible for me to tie a bow with only the one hand. I was surprised at what was easy to do: stamp and cut drywall tape. I was equally surprised at what I struggled with. I really struggled using the glue stick with my left hand, I struggled punching the holes for the brads (I guess my left hand isn't as strong) and I had a hard time opening the brads with my left hand. And what the hardest thing was taking the photographs of the card. The shutter release is on the right hand side and using my left hand to push that release meant that my hand covered up the card so it was down right challenging to make sure it was in focus. Good thing is I am done with his card 2 weeks early. That should just give me enough time to get it mailed to him.

Mark's Finest Papers Blog Hop Day 4

Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

August Blog Hop!

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

Featured Aug. 12
Crows and Scarecrow

Featured Aug. 13

Hydrangea

Featured Aug. 14

Keys

Featured Aug. 15
Dear Santa and Brrrr

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All six winners will be announced on

Aug. 16, 2014 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!)
The deadline for

commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Aug. 15, 2014