Happy Earth Day!

In fact, the next few days contain Earth Day celebrations globally, so perhaps it's Earth week, LOL. And when I Googled for info, I saw a couple of celebrations that were on Saturday, the 18th, but that might have been for the sake of weekday workers who wanted to plants trees or some other day-long venture.

Those of you who've been reading my blog for a year or more know I like to make something to honor this day that incorporates the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle theme. This year I wanted to add bestowing an award to someone special who is environmentally aware and pushes for it on their blog more than anyone else I know.

The choice for me was easy. I immediately thought of my friend Vicki Cook, who never fails to commemorate days of action on her blog, whether it be to celebrate the beauty of trees, to plant flowers, install a bird feeder, or coax new birdie visitors with a nesting house.

Vicki, I salute you for being a 2008 Earth Angel and all around Nature Girl Extraordinaire! Here's your award, for displaying on your blog sidebar (I hope!):


Ok, so on to my Earth Day creation. I wanted to make Vicki a piece of hanging art-iness, and I wanted to include my ATC "Patchwork Earth" that I'd made weeks ago, because I'd originally made it with Earth Day in mind. Although I'd been excited about making this ATC from little slivers of scrap paper to look like a quilt, I wasn't 100% happy with it when I finished it. It was missing something.

So, I laid it aside and forgot about it for a while, hoping and knowing deep down that I'd come up with something to make it more acceptable to my tastes. Picking it back up recently, I decided to do the back with a map of the world stamped image (one of those background stamps from a previous post that I mounted cling cushion on and created storage in the VHS tape cases). I then let it sit some more and thought about adding some rhinestones and jewels and maybe some little stamped cut-out birdies to finish that side.

Turning to the front of the CD, I decided to go over the red gel pen with black, blue and green, thereby toning the red down some. That helped. And, I coated the entire top with my favorite Diamond Glaze, which always makes things look better. I also filled in the bottlecap earth with some Glaze, and then I applied some Crystal Stickles to the inside perimeter. Now, I was getting happy with this little card.

Next, how to hang it? Well, I killed two birds with one stone by using an old CD -- I was able to recycle, plus I'd be able to get out my alcohol inks and paint like I'd been wanting to. That done, I went looking for other elements I could add that were sitting around waiting to be re-used. I had some skinny green satin ribbon that I'd looked at for a few months on my creating desk, so I grabbed it and curling-ironed it straight, then stitched it through holes I'd punched with my Cropadile. Then, I found some beads that were the perfect colors and started stringing two tails on the bottom. (And I might add a couple of "arms" on the side.
I think those beads are so pretty, like porcelain or that turquoise kitchen ware from California in the 1940's (with the drink pitchers that look like a tire-shape with a spout and a handle?) Uh, yeah, obviously, I don't collect dishware, right? ROFL!

Anyway, I'm terribly later than I wanted to be with this post, because nothing went anywhere near a timetable today. So, I'll close with a cool thingy you can make to funnel rain water from your gutter to a rain barrel. And, it hangs, too!You can then re-use the water for feeding and watering plants and birds. You'll find instructions here, courtesy of Lowes.

Big Red Scores Again!

Good morning. Well, today my money assignment is to watch MSNBC's key political shows and list all the advertisers. Seems there are quite a lot of folks who would like to write these companies...but let me save it for the paycheck and just say "I told you so" and get on to the art...

It may be clouding up outside my window, the economy may be heading into the nearest ditch, and the Democratic National Committee may be writing its own suicide note, but HEY! I hung onto my Big Red Sizzix instead of chucking it when I bought a Big Shot, and I am so avenged cuz I discovered that I can smash bottlecaps with it!


*******
The 3 photos above show how I did it. First, the right sandwich recipe: from bottom to top, I stacked 2 white platforms, 1 sheet of chipboard (paper pad backing), and then 2 black Sizzlets adapters. I laid the bottlecap with the inside of it up, and I made sure that the Sizzix system converter was OFF the machine. And the last photo shows the bottlecap before and after. Sweet!

I was so jazzed I grabbed my old-school Crop A Dile (it was easier to reach for than my Big Bite) to see if I could punch a hole in my bottlecap, and yes, we can (as they say in yadayada-bama land). This further excited me to the point where I quickly used a couple of smashed n punched b-caps to secure some woven ribbon onto my card box for a handle that I've been meaning to make for forever.

"Patchwork Earth" atc


"Sunflower" atc

Of course I had to make some art with my smashed caps, right? So, here are 2 of the atc's I created.

Now, why would I suddenly start using bottlecaps? (You know I'm Old-School 24/7, but still...). I should fess up: I've been really into the challenges at Bringing It Back blog. It's been fun to re-visit even more of my vast giganta scrap-stash than I've thought to use. I mean, the bottlecaps that have been sitting in my stash drawer for oh, about 2-3 years kinda frightened me. But the challenges give me courage to just experiment and play (I mean, what's the downside? This stuff is so old that if I ruined it, no loss at all. And if I don't and actually make something I like, that rocks.) And I don't have to worry about stupid peer pressure...working with materials in the BTDT category...because my "cover" is the challenge! So, hey, join us if it interests you.

Now, onto the other flowers before I get to the dirt. Been reading. A Book. Don't faint now. I do this from time to time, it's just that my tastes run towards historical and political, not Oprah-bot best sellers, so I rarely even mention them. But I want to mention 2 of them today. The one I'm reading is


Valerie Bertinelli's Losing It: And Gaining My Life Back One Pound at a Time.
It's a great read! Highly recommended, if for nothing more than all the dirt on her and Eddie. Which is pretty much why I'm reading it. I dunno though. She is brutally honest and just a nice, level-headed girl. I've always liked her and I always will. You can read a little of it at the link I provided and see for yourself.

The other book is one I ordered today:

Adam Shepard's Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream
I should receive this one Monday and cannot wait. It's brand new and I saw Adam interviewed on CNN. He basically took $25, his college degree and the clothes on his back and hit the road to find the American Dream by trying to build a life from scratch, to see if it could still be done. Everyone and thing in his life up til then had indicated to him that life cost so much to live that he might never be able to. He found out that old ways are still possible. It just takes saying no to all the spending, and in the bargain you learn and receive so, so much more.

Not only does that sound like my kinda story, but I want them to be Missy's, too. I plan on giving her both of these after I am through with them. Lots of great, great lessons. I probably shortchanged Valerie's book greatly, because it's biggest impact is in her learning to rely on and believe in herself and in not being tricked into not seeing yourself clearly.

Oh, been meaning to let you all know, I am continuing the RAK'ing, but I decided to do it privately. No deadlines, and from the heart. I've already contacted my next batch and totally aim to continue it cuz it makes me feel good and I want to give back. But I don't want to make a fuss over it, like it's a competition and that's how it was feeling to me. I am also preparing a box of handmade cards to send to soldiers, Mother's and Father's Day cards. It really makes me feel like I am making some little difference.

You know, we don't need any outside force or source to "give" us change and hope. It's within each one of us and only we ourselves can produce it. I am blessed to have known that my entire life, as I see an awful lot of younger people who have no clue of this truth.

Possible shoe fetish...

I really want these Keen Bali Sandals. But $60? What do you think? I don't get out much, is this the going price nowadays?

This is shaping up to be a year of omens and signs for me, I'm beginning to think. The sciatica that my f-i-l suffered from (due to the same L4/L5 degenerated disk disease he and I had in common) suddenly began afflicting me the very afternoon of his burial. Yeah. Really a huge coincidence. And, it hasn't quit. It's merely lessened in severity. Still very sore and easily triggered unless I move just right.

Well, another one of those meant-to-be coincidences occurred within minutes of me posting that I was looking for the price to drop on those border die cuts before buying. I received an email advertising them for $30 off the lowest price I'd seen.

So, three guesses what I did next. I'm now awaiting taking proud possession of them from the mailman. That was enough of a discount for me. I've begun to self-enable: I now factor in something I call a wait factor cost when supply shopping. I feel it's time. To me, not factoring that in is a bit like not counting gasoline costs when pricing goods. (Heck, what with insurance, gas and payments, transportation is expensive. Our cars are all paid off, but still.)

So, anyway, the wait cost on those borders feels like another $30 to me. I don't wanna wait anymore. LOL Perhaps I should just make the wait cost be the total price. LOL No, better to save that for something I really need to rationalize on. Yeah, knowing my own game is one thing, stopping myself is another entirely....

Today I spent almost all day uploading things I've created this year so far to my 2peas and flickr galleries, and I'm still not finished yet! I need to get that caught up. I've already almost lost one image(thanks again for saving my neck, Heather), so that kind of got me back on the task. I'm a big believer in keeping images of what I make. It really paid off for me after Diego tore up that layout. Being able to look at the image of it helps me kinda forget it's not "alive" anymore.

Anyway, even more backlogged is what I've uploaded here on the blog. So, let me work on that a bit. I am very groggy right now, so I may only get started with a few, but I'm going to upload something! LOL

Where to start? Okay, here is the handmade RAK art I made for my first 3 names I drew (Heather, Gina and Lynn). For Heather, I made this:
I love to look at that atc. It's one of my all-time top five faves.

So glad to know that Lynn is now back home after her hospital surgery. I made her this to go along with one of the Twisted Valentine atc's she had commented on:

What I sent to Gina was an atc she'd commented on from that same swap along with this card: My standards for my photos are about as low as my graphic editing skills, but even I must be truly ashamed of the colors in these photos. I tried to lighten them and instead they took on lives of their own, LOL. But, the lighting was bad to begin with so... It looked better IRL, right, Gina? LOL

Well, I think my computer is telling me I've done enough image handling tonight. Time to restart the old thing. Til next time, then....

My day & a surprise RAK

Can you believe I've never done a Blog RAK? Wait, I think I did a few times like a year ago. Anyway, it's been too long.

As some of you may know, I turn 13 in Leap Years tomorrow. Since a Leap Year gives a little extra, I thought I'd honor that and do the same through my Leap Year (which technically lasts 4 years). I will definitely do 13 of them, and probably more. I could even do 52 of them in honor of turning 52. I'll get back to ya on that after thinking about it more.

You should know that I do RAKS a bit differently. You know me, the nonconformist. I pick from past comments! So, you never know when you are in the mix to be picked. Or when I'm gonna yell RAK! If someone I choose doesn't reply in a few days, then I choose another. I could bore you with my explanation how I choose the winners: the summary is that I pick a short list of comments I liked best, or needed that day, etc. Then I do the random picker thing on it, to choose.

And, this time it's a little somethin somethin hand-made.

So, without further ado, I have 3 winners today and 3 tomorrow, on my birthday:

1.) Gina (please email your mailing address to aimeslee_@_earthlink.net (without the _'s)

2.) Lynn (please email your mailing address to aimeslee_@_earthlink.net (without the _'s)

3.) Heather (I have your info, girl)

A little of my day in photos:

Big Baby Reggie


Our lunch - Grilled shrimp salad:



Something Hubs worked on:



Something I worked on:



About 1/2 way through with this, more later: