Free to pee, you and me

Although there are so many important issues that we should be addressing, some people have lost their minds and have driven this country into a weird conversation about who should use what bathroom. I think my mom put it best when she said, Why is this such a deal? Transgender people have been using the bathroom for centuries! I've used many a bathroom under many a circumstance; transgender folks have never made me feel uncomfortable, if I even notice, and the worst I've ever gotten from using the "wrong" restroom is a surprised look from behind a urinal. Much of life's little problems can be solved with this one simple rule: Eyes forward!

Anyhoo, this seemed like another perfect opportunity to use Viva Las VegaStamps' "Man & Woman Symbol" rubber stamp. When I decided to make this card, I promised myself I wouldn't use the color brown. But once that promise was broken (I couldn't resist using this yellow//brown, flower/streaked double-sided DP) I just went all-out with the color!

I was inspired by the universal access sign. The circle on the front was die-cut from a lime-green colored box. I made the triangle stamp from foam, and stamped it with Peanut Brittle Memento dye ink. I stamped the gender symbols with watermark ink & heat-embossed the stamp with fluorescent yellow WOW! embossing powder.

For the inside circle, I covered a white cardstock with actual (brand-new) toilet paper. The triangle was stamped in yellow and the pee folk in Peanut Brittle brown.

Although I can easily make my own digital sentiments, I enjoy using my physical stamp collection. The sentiment on the outside is from Verve Stamps, and the speech bubble die cut is from Latina Crafter. The sentiment on the inside is from Graphic 45. The sentiments were stamped in Vintage Photo and Crushed Olive distress inks, respectively.

The edges of the inside sentiment piece & the left-hand panel on the front were embossed in my BigShot; honestly, I chose this embossing folder for its slightly phallic design!

I used a Prima distressing tool to roughen the edges of the patterned papers. I edged all the pieces with Desert Sand Memento dye ink.

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers: Fugly (yellow/brown DP + plus this whole situation is pretty fugly)
Tuesday Morning Sketches: Sketch #353
Viva Las VegaStamps May Challenge: Inspiration Board (distressing, subversive humor, common sense triumphing over fearful reactions)
WordArt Wednesdays: Family Friendly/Anything Goes

Update: Many thanks to everyone for their supportive comments! My mom actually bought this card! I was chosen as a "Princess of Snark" at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers.

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Simply Shocked

Here I am again with a CAS card featuring this "Positive Attitude Greeting" from DRS Designs:

My overall design was inspired by Job notices that pop up as new graduates enter the workforce this time of year. I cut the tabs on the bottom with scissors,  but the dashed line is cut with a die. I had some fun with staples on the top, and backed it with kraft cardstock.

The shocked secretary is from Clear Art Stamps, and is stamped, like the sentiment, with a blue dye ink. The grid (Viva Las VagaStamps) is stamped in Tumbled Glass distress ink.

This is about as CAS as I get!

Thanks for stopping by,

Primarily Prozac

I've had this funny sentiment rubber stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps for over 3 years, and I'm glad I finally had reason to ink it up! I matched it with a "coffee" die from Your Next Stamp & two takes on with primary colors.

I stamped the sentiment in black on a piece of notebook paper; I masked the explanation point on the original stamp & used an ampersand stamp instead. I cut the "coffee" from a red vellum & twice from a regular vellum that I colored green or blue.

The coffee stains were inked using a Tim Holtz stencil, directly onto a paper towel that I backed with cardstock.

I made the embossed background while trying out the faux patina technique; I got this sorta 3D effect by inking by embossing folder & running it through my BigShot twice. I didn't throw away this piece because I knew I'd find the perfect use for it, and this was it!

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #57: Embossing
Viva Las VegaStamps April Challenge: Coffee Fiends + VLV stamp (sentiment)
YNS Challenge #37: Sketch + YNS die

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Simply Fishy

If you're like me, you immediately took interest in this week's theme at Shopping Our Stash: You Stamped With What?!! People have come up with such great ideas!

I had the perfect object in my stash: a lattice-patterned plastic hanger that I've had in my stash for at least a year. I applied ink directly onto it and it stamped quite easily. I stamped it in green 3 times, once vertically and twice horizontally. I used a wet wipe to take off the border. I left the border for the yellow stamps on the base card.

I cut a circle from fun foam, taped it to a stamp block & stamped it in yellow. The sentiment was stamped in green with a Rogue Redhead Designs rubber stamp. Honestly, I chose it because of how it balanced visually, but the pun was an added bonus! I wet the stamp to bleed the ink a bit, for sharp color & an artsy look. The "carp" (Viva Las Vegastamps) was inked once with blue & stamped thrice.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Color Throwdown: Color Combo #388
Less is More #271: 3 stamps (I'm not sure if this counts, but I linked it up)

Shopping Our Stash Challenge #247: You Stamped With What?!!

Update: This was chosen as a Top Pick for Shopping Our Stash Challenge #247!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Love you an Eiffel lot

I've been having tons of fun with my new stamps from Latina Crafter (which I won at Connie Can Crop). I bought their Oh la la set mostly for the bilingual sentiments, but I wanted to ink up the Eiffel Tower & this sentiment as well. I'm giving this to a dear crafting friend of mine. Her favorite color is pink & mine is purple, so I think she'll get a kick out of this.

I Inked some white paper with a purplish ink & heat-embossed the Eiffel tower onto it in light pink. I stamped "oh la la" onto a pink ribbon & attached it to the fussy-cut piece. I stamped the sentiment, the tower, and a heart onto a pre-made pink tag, and attached it all to the card with a purple brad that I heat-embossed with more pink. The little Eiffel tower is from Viva Las Vegas Stamps, and is also stamped in black onto pink paper. The background was embossed in my BigShot.

Inspiration:
Allsorts: Ribbon and lace
Share Joy Challenge #17: Sketch & Color Combo
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Something New (new stamps)

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Under the Sea with Crafting with Dragonflies

This fortnight at Crafting with Dragonflies our theme is Under the Sea. No beach scenes, just under water views. I made a sparkly scene:

The watery background paper is from my stash, and I heat-embossed the whole piece with glittery embossing powder. I cut out the "Oceana Corner" die by Memory Box twice from a shiny green paper, mounted the pieces onto a double-sided adhesive sheet, and covered it with blue glitter. The fish are a rubber stamp from Viva Las Vegas Stamps. They were heat-embossed with a shiny orange powder on a copper paper. I decoupaged two of the fish with foam tape. The sentiment is spelled out with Junkitz alphabet buttons, which I strung onto a green fiber ribbon and ahdered to the card base with adhesive dots.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Calendar August Challenge: Bingo (third column: Ribbon, Blue, Buttons)
House That Stamps Built: Sketch A2615
Inky Impressions #27: Decoupage Your Image
Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations August Challenge: Anything goes with a stamp and die

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at Crafting with Dragonflies,

Personalized Superhero Water Closet pun

image courtesy of QuickLOL

I was brainstorming ideas of how to use the "Restroom" symbol from Viva Las VegaStamps' Plate #917, and I remembered the funny joke (right) about the female symbol looking like it's wearing a cape. And then it hit me... it's Superman and Wonder Woman! I figured a million people had thought of this already, but if they had I didn't see it on Google... so do let me know if you've seen this before. There is nothing new under the sun, but occasionally you hit on something that people have, well, not seen recently.

I came up with this some months ago, but I never did make a card of it. However, the other day I saw on FaceBook that an uber-talented H.S. friend (aka MyRandomActs) designed the most amazing superhero-themed logos & invitations for her kids' joint birthday party. I wanted to make them a fun card, so I used this idea of mine to make this card with a pun on their surname, Culpepper:

Each color on the superheros, except the black base, was stamped separately and paper-pieced. The chipboard frame, metal letters, ribbons, metal frame, and star brads are from my stash (meaning, Mom sent them to me!). I made the cloudy background by inking the embossing folder before running it through my BigShot.

I'm entering this card into the following Challenges:
Crafting Musketeers #4: Sketch
Crafty Ribbons #58: Anything Goes with Ribbon


Here's a sneak-peak of some of the beautiful projects by MyRandomActs:

MyRandomActs on FaceBook

Thank you for visiting,

Hiring & Inspiring

My awesome brother-in-law hired me to make some Thank-you cards for his business, Nightlight Chiropractic. He sent me the files for his logo, made by Orlando Mesa at 407 Wraps & Signs based on the Orlando skyline, and since they were already vector images in Illustrator, I was able to export the layers into SCAL and cut them out with my electronic die-cutting machine.

I kept the cut-out sheets, and when my best friend was visiting recently, we used one as a mask to paint a background for this card for my friend's dad:

We also used the pop-up part! This was so much fun to make; my friend, who isn't a crafter, colored and cut out the suitcase himself.

My friend suggested that the image also looked like mountains, so I wanted to play with that idea. Here's my first try at it:

You can read more about this card in the original post.

I used the masks again to make this glittery card (for my friend's sister, actually).

It's really difficult to see in the photo, but the skyline is mirrored underneath. The top city is covered in glow-in-the dark glitter, and the bottom is covered in Prisma glitter, both adhered with sticky embossing powder.

The purse opens to reveal a sentiment from Viva Las VegaStamps: "The only time a woman came change a man is when he's a baby."

I used the cut-outs for some Father's Day cards:

Original Post

Original Post

And a Batman-inspired baby card:

Original Post

Plus, it came in handy for my OSAAT DT project featuring Cool Buds by BBKakes:

Original Post

I'm out of the city die cuts, but I still have some mask pieces that I look forward to using.

Thank you for visiting & for supporting my crafting,

Instagram Birthday

I bought Viva Las VegaStamps' Plate #917 for the great backgrounds it contains, but it also come with a stamp of the Instagram logo. I wasn't sure how I'd ever use it, as I don't currently use Instagram, but my sister-in-law uses quite a bit so I thought it would be perfect for her birthday card.

The Ribbon Reel

Tuesday Morning Sketches

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Ribbon Reel: Color/Photo Inspiration + 2 pattern papers + Ribbon & Twine
Tuesday Morning Sketches #192: Sketch, rotated 90° CC & square

Thank you for visiting,

CAS Prams

I know several people who are expecting babies this year, so I wanted to make some Congratulations cards. Since I don't always know the sex of the child, I thought that the sweet color combo at Less is More would work well.

The little stamp is from Graphic 45's Little Darlings collection. I cut it out, covered with Crackle Paint, and added a raised border with a white Sakura glaze pen. I believe the little metal clips are by Graphic 45 as well. The [originally silver] stork charm is from my stash (Mom got it free somewhere!), and since I didn't want a silver charm, I heat-embossed it in copper (ZING).

The baby carriage stamp (well, they just look like prams don't they‽) is by Viva Las VegaStamps. First, I stamped the Lace (Kaisercraft) in Antique Linen distress ink, and then stamped the line of prams in Mustard Seed (a bit more yellow than I wanted, but it was the closest I had).

Inspiration/Challenges:
CYDI Challenge #30: Little Ones
Less is More Week 109: Colour Challenge
Kathy's Waffle Sketch File: March Sketch

Thank you for visiting,