Flowerbug's Inkspot

Convention swap - Brayer technique

I started working on Convention swaps over a month ago.  Here is one of them:

I had to cut out tons of black 'top notes' for another project so I had a ton of these frames to use up. 

I used my brayer to get the beautiful sunset background on the Whisper White card stock.

On one long side I brayered Pumpkin Pie ink and the other is Not Quite Navy.

Here are some of the tricks of brayering on smooth card stock. 

• SU's Whisper White or Vanilla card stock works wonderfully for this!
• Have a clean piece of scrap or computer paper under work area and underneath your white card stock. Also be sure your surface is completely smooth.  A padded surface helps.
  
• Ink up your brayer only a quarter of the way if you are covering just part of your card stock.  This means that if you want to have two colors like I did above ink your brayer with just an inch of ink on one end.
• When inking your brayer, be sure to lift it up off of the ink pad with each roll then back onto the ink over and over until you have a smooth line of color on your brayer.
• Start brayering off of your white card stock.  This means your first pass is on the plain computer paper and not on your white card stock.Slowly move the brayer onto the white card stock with each pass.
  
• You will never lift up your brayer.  It has constant contact with the surface.  If you lift it up you can get brayer marks.
• Slowly, by quarter inches, move your brayer up and deeper into your white card stock.  Each pass adds a bit more color.
• You will run out of color and have to repeat the same ink color over and over again until you get the darkness you desire.  I believe I inked my brayer about 5 times to get the darkness of each color.
  

I would post pictures here but my camera battery is dead and I cannot find the charger since the evacuation.  Sorry!

The palm trees are from the stamp set 'Plant Hope' and the saying is from 'Sincere Salutations.'  I did use a sponge and black ink to add a hill under the palm trees.

Remember today is the last day to order from the current Idea Book and Catalog.  July 1st is when we can start ordering from the new one.

Watch for my In Color Bundle special on Friday for a fantastic deal.  This is the first time I've offered this to my long distance customers.  It's usually an Open House only special. 

Events Team Thank you

Thank you so very much to everyone who sent me a comment regarding our flood situation.  I am overwhelmed by your kindness. 

To answer some of your questions, yes we did get 90% of our posessions out of our home before it flooded.  I am sure it would feel even worse if we did not.  I think when you lose your home it's the loss of security that is the hardest.  Yes, we still feel lucky especially to have such wonderful friends and family.  Their support is what will get us through this time.

To those that asked, here is the address we'll be at:

Andy & LeeAnn Greff

901 15 1/2 Ave SE
Minot, ND 58701

And for those who asked where they could donate funds to our community here it is:

http://www.centerforcommunitygiving.com/donor/minot-area-recovery-fund/

 

This card brings back memories of our wonderful Alaskan cruise and being treated like royalty by SU.  I received it from the Stampin' Up! Events team.  They actually sent 'us' a thank you! 

It's so gorgeous.  I love the layout and technique they used. 

They stamped the new Doily background onto Black card stock using Whisper White Craft ink.  Then they cut it into strips and layered the black strips with Pretty in Pink card stock.  Next I believe they added the knot of ribbon in the center and wrapped the ribbon around the back and in front for the outer panels. 

So pretty and it sure does look like a doily doesn't it? 

River Crest

The guessing is over.  Our home has flooded completely.  

The house on the top left is ours.  The roof is actually an 'H' shape but you cannot see parts of it due to the trees.  The water came up over the rain gutters onto the roof.  They say the river crest is here and will last a few days at this level. Our home is a ranch style house so it's just one main level with a basement.  It was a large house and yes, my brand new 'dream come true' stamping studio was there too. 

I am not sure I can even describe the overwhelming feelings we have right now.  There are over 4000 homes lost due to this extremely unusual flood. 

The river hasn't been this high for over 500 years.  There also hasn't been a flood in our area for so long we and most others did not carry flood insurance.  You can imagine what that means.  And our home was almost paid off.  Do we start over?  Can the house be salvaged?  Will it flood again next year?  Where will we live for the next many months? 

Above is our neighborhood mall and grocery shopping center.

Here is another photo of just one neighborhood that is flooded.  Absolutely unfathomable.  Is this really happening?

But, let me tell you about the caliber of our town and neighbors.  There are over 10,000 people evacuated right now and our shelters are housing just 300 people.  This demonstrates the incredible generosity of our city.

Luckily we have amazing friends.  We are currently staying with a wonderful family that has taken in 4 couples along with two kids and 7 animals!  Unbelievable, aren't they?  They have a big and beautiful home but are a bit full for the long haul which this could very well be.  I have another friend who has offered her home to us as long as we need it.  She actually wants us to come and live with her!!  I cry each time I think of her generosity and kindess.  She says we'll be doing her a favor.   She is the model for this common phrase she has; 'stampers are the kindest people.' Of course she is a stamper and even a demonstrator!!!

I am currently staying with my sister in Bismarck and do plan to work and stamp this week so you'll be seeing some projects quite soon.  

In fact I am keeping my Open House date of this Thursday in Minot.  It will be at the Brentmoor Retirement Facility from 4 - 7 pm in the north side entrance.  I know many of you are anxiously waiting for your new catalog so I hope you can stop in.  We all need something to brighten our day and this catalog will surely do it.  More on this later.  

 

Evacuated & Flooding

 

It is hard to describe all of the feelings we are experiencing right now.  Foremost is shock.  It feels like a huge, long nightmare.  It's absolutely unbelievable to us that in just a day or two our entire home will be underwater to the main floor ceiling or more. 

I've got a few photos for you finally.

This is a photo of the dike across the street from our house from a month ago.  It isn't our home in the background, but our neighbors.   The green grassy area is a permanent dike and the dirt is the additional dike they added a few weeks ago.  See the sign in the water? 

This is the same dike yesterday.  See the little heads of geese on the top of the dike on the left?  We had a few families of geese and their babies hanging around this year.

This is the view from the front of our house and was the last thing we saw as we left for the final time Wednesday morning.  The water was just starting to run over the dike.The warning and final evacuation sirens ran a few hours after we left.

And this is a picture of what it is like today.  We did not take the photo but got it off of Facebook.  We know our basement is filling and will probably be full as of tonight.  We can only hope the structure of our home will be salvagable when this is done.  

They just raised the expected crest another 3 feet an hour ago.  They say it will be about 10 feet higher than you see above.  There are no words for what many of us are feeling right now. 

I have to thank all of you who have left a comment or sent me an e-mail offering us your thoughts, prayers and good wishes.  I so appreciate them!  I know there are even more who I have not heard from that are wishing us well and I thank you too.  The kindness of others is what will help us make it through this catastrophe.

Right now we are so very lucky to be safe and warm staying with some very gracious and generous friends.  They have taken in 4 families and their pets!!! 

The generosity and kindness of the many people who have helped us evacuate, lift and haul plus provide storage for us is just incredible.  There are countless heartwarming stories of complete strangers helping evacuate homes and others offering their homes, campers or garages for shelter and storage. 

The local Red Cross has set up two evacuation centers.  If you would like to donate to them, here is the link:

Minot Red Cross

Right now we are wondering where we will be living for the next few months much less over the next year.  Since we live right on the river we don't expect to get back into our house for quite a while.  And who knows what it will be like after a river has flowed through it for weeks.  Our emotions are all over the place as you can only imagine.

Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts and feelings here on my stamping blog.  At this point I hope to continue my Stampin' Up business as I love it and it is a good part of our income.  I may become a 'traveling' demo for awhile for my local customers.  But I do plan to keep posting my ideas here in the future. 

On a lighter note, here is something my son, Isaac and his friend Austin added to our roof before we left:

You may have seen this on facebook and I heard it was even on the National News!  We all need a little levity at a time like this, don't you think??

 

Flood Fight of 2011

Well we are being evacuated again. 

We have until Wednesday evening to get everything out.  They believe the entire valley will flood as the river is expected to rise 10 feet in the next week.  Yes, I did say 10 feet!!  That is an excess of 7 feet higher than the flood of 1969 that devastated this city.  We are getting the excess water that Canada cannot hold in their dams.  Besides the snow melt they have received tons of rain in the last few days. 

Please send your thoughts and prayers to the thousands of us that will have damage to our homes.  It will be weeks if not months before we can enter our homes again. Thank you in advance as I know from the past you will do this for us. 

I hope to update you again at a later time. 

Freaky Blog Hop for June

Welcome to the June Blog Hop for the Control Freaks! 

The theme this month includes both Summer Mini products and New Catalog Sneak Peak projects.

You may have arrived from seeing Jen Smith's beautiful projects.  If not you can go on back and see them.

I've got a few projects from the fabulous Summer Mini catalog.  The first set of cards is what we made at my June Card Clubs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Touch of Kindness stamp set is absolutely adorable!  I can't decide which main image I like better.  The images were colored with our SU markers.  Of course I had to color the kitty the same color as my Tigger.

Tip: be sure to use a border punch before you emboss or add texture to the card stock or you may get fuzzy edges while punching.  I used two different embossing folders; Square Lattice or Perfect Polka dots. 

The color combination here is a bit unusual but I think it works, don't you?  Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Rich Razzleberry. 

Here's a close-up of the bird bath image:

You can see the dimension and shine on the birds from the Crystal Effects I applied.  Hint: always add the Crystal Effects last.  Then put the card in a place where you won't lay anything on top of it.  Ask me how I know this!

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Now you can see what my husband is getting for Father's Day.

First, let me remind you that we love water - being in, near or on it just doesn't matter.  We love it! So when I was thinking of making him something I thought of these stamp sets - The Open Sea and Sail Away.

A set of coasters!  It's been years since I made any.  Let me tell you that if you've always waned to make some stop putting it off!  They are quite easy to make.

First find some tiles that are not finished. They should have no shine. Most times they are pretty dusty or even gritty from tile dust.  These are 4" square, a light taupe color and can be found in most large home improvement stores. 

You do need to use either Stazon ink or Craft ink when stamping.  If using Craft ink it is best to add embossing powder to set the ink.  Yes, you can emboss on ceramic tiles. I used a bit of each.  Black Stazon ink for the large boat and my craft ink spots for the smaller images I wanted to be a solid color. You can just heat set the craft ink with a heat gun, but you can also add clear embossing powder and emboss them.

I used our pastels and cotton swabs to color in the large sailboat.  And I also used the pastels to add color to the surface of all of the tiles.  I just picked up some chalk with a cotton ball and rubbed it all over to add some soft color to the surface. 

As soon as I finish coloring I take them outside to the garage and lay them onto a large cardboard box.  Then I spray them with a clear coat finishing spray.  You can do this twice if you don't get the shine you like. 

After they are dry, add some sticky-back felt feet on the back side like this:

Thanks for stopping in today and enjoy your next stop when you move on to see Cindy Major's creative and unique projects here.

Update and The Open Sea

Update on the Flood situation:

We're still watching the water levels very closely.  They are about 1 - 1 1/2 feet from when we evacuated - so very close!  Depending on how much rain we get in the next week or so will make the difference in how our dikes hold up.  The main city of Minot has been protected so far but some of the surrounding areas have lost their homes.  It is a very small percentage of the area but to those people you can only imagine the devastation. 

We have torn up much of our finished basement because we already are getting mold!  It's not black mold, but because of the water still pouring into our basement from the floor in each room there is so much moisture.  The lack of circulation may have contributed so now we have fans going.  Most of the drywall and baseboard has been removed along with the doors and trim.  Now it's just a matter of getting the water towards the one sump pump to drain it out.  Luckily for me, my husband if very handy and able to do most of this work himself.  He is getting quite weary both physically and mentally though.  It will be at least a month before we can even hope for a dry basement.  But we do have the upper/main floor to live in and that does include my studio!  Basically everything we 'need' is on the main floor of our home.  So we are still very lucky!

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Here is a card my Club members fell in love with and asked me to post so they can case.  I received it in a swap from Adele Heffern. 

Isn't it just gorgeous?

I just love the stunning layout and colors.  The diagonal stripe with designer paper and texture on each side is so eye catching.  And the simple way she accented the main image with the Cherry bakers twine!

Thanks for sending such a beautiful swap Adele! 

You can see this stamp set in the current Summer Mini catalog along with the Baker's Twine and Nautical Expedition designer series paper. 

The colors are Not Quite Navy and Cherry Cobbler.

 

Sweets for the Sweet

This is one of the cards we made at our Make & Take session on the Alaska cruise last month.  It uses all 5 of the new In Colors coming out in just two weeks in the new catalog! 

The names of the new In Colors for 2011-2013 are:

• Lucky Limeade
• Pool Party
• Calypso Coral
• Island Indigo
• Wisteria Wonder

And the pinwheel stamp is from a new set called Sweets for the Sweet.  It's adorable with images of candy and pinwheels.  You'll be seeing more of this one from me! 

The Happy Birthday is from Curly Cute - a favorite verse set of mine. 

Do you see the crimping on the Calypso Coral piece?  We stamped the birthday saying first and then ran just a portion of it through the crimper.  I love the texture this gives. 

More Retiring Faves

Here are more of my favorite cards from the past using stamps that are retiring.  I'll sure miss some of them!

Bella Toile Background stamp!!!

This is Pink Pirouette and Basic Gray together with the Top Note die and our beautiful taffeta ribbon.  Such a gorgeous stamp.

Cheep Talk - oh you're so cute!

A few cards made using the adorable birds and other stamps included in this set. 

Just Buzzin' By............

We made this card at one of my past workshops.  So cute and easy too. 

Notice the color combo?  Pink and Orange with Black and White!  I'm showing my favorite colors again here.

If you love any of these stamps - get them while you can here!