Every Friday there's a new Free For All Challenge on SCS. The most recent one was called What's Your Beverage (#WT829). I don't have them often because our closest Starbucks is an hour away, but when I'm near one I always enjoy a frappuccino. Yum!

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Stamp Set: Unity Stay Strong stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Cameo Coral CS, Stampin' UP! Heart Doily, and DP from my scrap file

Dies: MFT Stitched Rectangle and Your Next Stamp Coffee

Embellishments: Brads from an unknown vendor

I am one of those strange individuals who doesn't mind fussy cutting. I know... weird. Sheesh! I even own a Scan N Cut but sometimes it's just easier (or quicker) to take a pair of sharp scissors and snip, snip, snip. It is kind of soothing, in fact. Sooooo...when I saw the Ways to Use It Snip & Cut Challenge (#WT828), I didn't go hunting for images with scissors or any other scissors-related product. I grabbed my sharp scissors and fussy cut a darling donkey.

The donkey (and Hee Haw sentiment) are from the Stampin' UP! Sale-a-Bration Darling Donkeys stamp set that just arrived in my mail this week. This set makes me smile so I added the "smile" sentiment from the Taylored Expressions Simple Strip Backgrounds stamp/die set t my card, too.

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Stamp/Die Sets: SU Darling Donkeys and Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Background stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Marina Mist Cs and DP from my scrap file

Dies: MFT Stitched Rectangle and MFT Stitched Snow Drifts

Embellishment: SU Ribbon

We all need friends. They enhance our lives. I value the friendships I have - both in person ones and online ones. Funny thing is, in the past nearly year of sheltering at home (Covid stinks!) many of my in person friends are now online ones. I'm glad technology allows us to keep in touch.

This month's challenge for the Challenge Your Stash group celebrates friendship, which makes me happy! If you're not familiar with the Challenge Your Stash group, it's an SCS group, founded by my friend Barb. The premise is to use what we have (no shopping allowed) to make a theme-appropriate card each month. We take turns choosing the theme.

This month's theme was chosen by Lisa, who asked us to make friendship cards with flowers or hearts.

There's another challenge on SCS that I hope you know about. It is called the Misti Monday challenge. Each month there's a theme and one person who submits a theme-appropriate card wins a gift from Misti! How cool is that? Check out all the details - HERE - but hurry, the month is almost over. This card is my entry in the challenge.

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Stamp/Die Sets: Technique Tuesday Lotus (image) and Technique Tuesday Beautiful Narcissus (sentiment) stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Wild Wasabi CS and DP from my scrap file

Dies/Punches: Rubbernecker Nested Rectangle Stitch Die, SU Celebration Labels Die, and SU Circle Punches

Embellishments: Simple Stories Enamel Dots and SU Ribbon

Hello Friends. Welcome to the fourth and final day of the Stamping Sisters Mini Winter Camp 2021. Barb kicked off the week with a tutorial on Monday, followed by Darlene's on Tuesday and Kelly's yesterday. Now it's my turn. 

For some behind-the-scenes information, the four of us shared a supply list with each other nearly a month ago, but we didn't share any other details of what our tutorials would be. When our blog posts go live, we each scramble to make a card using the tutorial of the day. It's a lot of fun. It stretches us. We even learn some things along the way.

You may be wondering... what was on my supply list??? First, let me tell you, I had the shortest supply list of the group - only one item.

Old-fashioned (aka runny) school glue. It could be the good stuff (Elmer's) or the cheap stuff (call me frugal tight).

This is where it gets a bit sticky (LOL! Ignore my glue humor.) I read somewhere - I don't remember where - that when you add glue to cardstock (AND LET IT COMPLETELY DRY), you will get varying coverage of ink when you blend ink onto it. As I recall the technique could be used with any kind of ink. That's all I remembered from what I read. What's a girl to do? Experiment, of course.

Step 1:

I took a piece of plastic packaging and added a fair amount of glue in a pool on it (I'm sorry, I didn't think to take pictures of these steps) and then I dabbed a 2" square acrylic block into the glue and then transferred the glue onto a piece of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" white cardstock by gently placing the acrylic block on the cardstock, glue-side down. I repeated this process until I had a reasonable coverage on the cardstock. Though this was the first one I tried, it is also the one I ended up using on my card.

I did a similar process on another piece of cardstock but with less coverage. In the end this was a FAIL - it looked like spots on the cardstock when I inked it. I threw it away without thinking to take a picture to show you.

On a third piece of cardstock I tried a different technique. I smeared glue all over that piece of plastic. I then placed a piece of white cardstock on top of it to transfer glue to the cardstock and then carefully lifted it off. I really liked how this looked, but in the end, I chose the first piece to use instead.

Step 2:

Set the glued pieces of cardstock aside and let them completely dry. This step took longer than I anticipated. If you use an acrylic block to transfer the glue BE SURE TO IMMEDIATELY CLEAN THE ACRYLIC BLOCK!

Step 3:

Once the glue has completely dried, use a blender brush to add ink to the cardstock and notice how the glue areas take the ink differently than those without glue. I ended up using two colors of Ranger Distress Oxide ink on mine to give more definition of color - Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap.

As you can see from this picture, I die-cut my finished piece of blended paper.

Be sure to go Barb, Darlene, and Kelly's blogs a bit later today to see their glue-tutorial cards.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp/Die Set: Technique Tuesday Luscious Grapes stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Inks (for blending): Ranger Distress Oxide Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Cinnamon Cider CS and DP from my scrap file

Dies: MFT Stitched Rounded Rectangle and Rubbernecker Nested Rectangle Stitch

Embellishment: Eyelet Outlet Enamel Dots and Ribbon from an unknown vendor

Welcome back to the third day of the Stamping Sisters Mini Card Camp Winter 2021. Today's instructor/counselor is the super creative Kelly. I tell you, she has me looking at junk mail with new eyes today. 

On her blog (check it out - HERE) she instructed us to get creative with pages from magazines and such. She actually gave a few ideas (complete with samples) of how to use our magazines in cardmaking. Each idea is noteworthy and I suspect I'll be revisiting this idea as soon as the mailman delivers some suitable materials.

That being said, I didn't have much to work with - all I could find was a Young Living catalog that my daughter left here when she went back to Alaska months ago. (Sorry, Brittney; I hope you didn't want that catalog intact. I kinda sorta used part of it.)

What I did discover - and Kelly told us to expect it - it takes a very VERY long time for ink to dry on slick magazine paper. I also discovered that the ink loses its vibrancy as it dries... so my rose is a little muted.

Be sure to check out the cards on Darlene, Kelly, and Barb's blogs, too.

I'm in charge of the tutorial for our last day of camp - it will be here on my blog at 6:00 AM CST tomorrow. See you then!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamp/Die Sets: Technique Tuesday Sending Roses and Taylored Expressions Simple Strips Background stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Bumble Bee CS, DP from my scrap file, and a page from the Young Living catalog

Dies: Rubbernecker Nested Rectangle Stitch

Embellishments: Recollections Rhinestones

Every Friday there's a new Free For All Challenge on SCS. The most recent one was called Hold the Red (#F4A570) with instructions to make a Valentine card without using the color red. 

I pulled out one of the few Valentine stamp sets I had and created  card without red.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp Set: Sparkle N Sprinkle Will Ewe Be Mine stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Sahara Sand CS and DP from my scrap file

Dies: MFT Stitched Mod Rectangle and Rubbernecker Nested Rectangle Stitch

Embellishments: Brads from unknown vendors

This is the second day of the Stamping Sisters Mini Camp. Yesterday Barb stretched us with all of those little bits of paper for our background. Today Darlene is the teacher and she's having us make reflection cards - you know, the ones where the image is reflected on the ground/water. Please check out all the details/instructions on her blog - HERE.

Well, let me tell you... I feel pretty certain that I failed this class. I just hope they let me out of detention in time to do Kelly's class tomorrow.

I tried... and tried... and tried again. I finally did the technique of using vellum (turn it upside down after stamping) to get my reflection. BUT it just looks odd.

It was fun trying - well, the first or second attempt. LOL! By attempt #3 I was just ready to call it a day.

Here's my card... Grade: F!

  

Darlene, thank you for challenging me; that's what this adventure is all about! I know you will be much kinder to me than I am to myself. 

Be sure to check out the cards on Darlene, Kelly, and Barb's blogs, too.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Stamp Set: Unity No Better Words stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black

Papers: Cougar 110# White and SU Misty Moonlight CS and Fiskars Vellum

Dies/Punch: Gina Marie Stitched Rectangle Die, MFT A2 Rectangle Frame Die, MFT Simple Stitch Line Rectangle Frame Die, and SU Label Punch

Embellishments: Gina Marie Enamel Dots

I started a 50-week series in 2019 that I called Travel the World. Each week of the series I visited a randomly-selected country, sharing bits of information about that country. I then chose one tidbit of information about that week's country as inspiration for a card. As I explored those 50 countries in 2019, I knew I would continue on until I've visited every one of the 195 countries in the world, so I continued the series in 2020 and here I am in 2021, the third year of traveling the world. 

This week's country is...

Egypt

The formal name of Egypt is the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula.

It is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, across the Red Sea lies Saudi Arabia, and across the Mediterranean lie Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, although none share a land border with Egypt.

Egypt is the 30th largest country in the world by area. Slightly three times larger than New Mexico, Egypt’s area is 386,560 square miles.

Modern Egypt dates back to 1922, when it gained independence from the British Empire as a monarchy. 

Cairo, the capital city, is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East.

Egypt is known primarily for its deserts, pyramids, and the Nile River. Approximately 90% of Egypt's land is desert.

Since there are very few forests and grasslands in Egypt, wildlife is sparse.

The ancient Egyptians were the first people to have a year consisting of 365 days divided into 12 months. They also invented clocks.

Ancient Egyptians needed to predict when the Nile would flood, which led to the development of the world’s first calendar.

For the ancient Egyptians, the Nile was mysterious. Unlike most other rivers, it flows south to north, it floods in the summer, and no one knew where the water came from. 

Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile River flooded each year due to the goddess Isis crying. Her tears were said to cause the floods, therefore each year ancient Egyptians celebrated the floods in a festival known as the Night of the Tear Drop.

Ancient Egyptians kept such good flood records on the Nile that scientists today use their data to better understand rainfall patterns.

Egypt's Nile River is the world’s longest river, running 4,135 miles.

Approximately 95% of Egyptians live along the Nile River.

Egypt is home to one of the world’s largest dam, Aswan high dam, built to contain the raging waters of the world’s longest river, the Nile.

To stay cool and avoid lice, both men and women in ancient Egypt shaved their heads and often wore wigs. In fact, because wigs indicated social status, they became one of the most important fashion accessories in ancient Egypt. Rich people wore wigs made from human hair, while poor people wore wigs made from wool or vegetable fiber.

The most popular sport in Egypt is football.

It is common for Egyptians to make an offer once to be polite. If refused and the offer is made again, then the offer is sincere.

Egypt is known for its pyramids. They were built as tombs for the pharaohs and their royal families to link them to Ra the sun god. More than 130 pyramids have been discovered.

If the Great Pyramid were chopped into 12-inch cubes, there would be enough cubes to circle the moon almost three times.

The Great Pyramid was built by paid laborers, not by slaves, as some people believe. Many of the builders died during its construction and were buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramid.

On average, only an inch of rain falls in Egypt per year.

Egypt has 3,451 hours of sunshine each year.

There are five million Facebook users in Egypt, more than any other Middle Eastern country.

Tourism comprises 12% of the work force in Egypt.

Visitors to religious buildings are always expected to remove their shoes before entering.

Approximately 30% of Egypt's workforce works in agriculture.

Built between 2558-2532 BC, the great Sphinx of Giza is the world’s largest monolith statue.

The mystery behind the sphinx’ missing nose and beard has fueled a series of theories and myths. An AD 1378 myth has a Sufi Muslim cleric hanged for vandalism after he destroyed the Sphinx’ nose in a fit of fury over the peasant offerings to the Sphinx.

The Egyptians first writing system called hieroglyphs was by 3,300 BC. Over 700 Egyptian hieroglyphs have been recorded.

Because hieroglyphs have no vowels, we will never know for sure how the ancients pronounced their words.

The oldest dress in the world comes from Egypt. It is 5,000 years old.

In ancient Egypt, every big city supported one favorite god, similar to people who support football teams today.

The literacy rate for Egyptian men is 83% and 59.4% for women.

In ancient Egypt, both men and women wore eye make-up called kohl, which was made from ground-up raw material mixed with oil. They believed it had magical healing powers that could restore poor eyesight and fight eye infections.

Scholars believe that ancient Egyptians were the first to sew wounds closed some 4,000 years ago. Egyptian doctors would often store their surgical needles in a case made from a hollowed-out bird bone.

Hippos were considered bad omens and were associated with the evil god Seth. They were more dangerous than crocodiles and they often capsized boats traveling the Nile.

Ancient Egyptians were the first to make toothpaste. They made the toothpaste from ashes and ox hooves powder mixed with burnt eggshells and pumice.

The country’s major exports include oil, food products, cotton, and aluminum.

Ancient Egyptians believed that cats were sacred. Keeping cats in the home was thought to bring good luck to the household.

My inspiration for this week's card is based on this fact about Egypt... The ancient Egyptians may have been the first people to keep cattle.

The sun die (Catherine Pooler Sunburst) was a bit too big for my space; not a problem. After diecutting it, I placed a slightly smaller circle die on top of the sun and made it the size I needed for my card.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp Set: Stampin' UP! Over the Moon stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Paper: Cougar 110# White and SU Misty Moonlight CS and DP from my scrap file

Dies/Punch: Catherine Pooler Sunburst Die, Rubbernecker Nested Rectangle Stitch die, Stampin' UP! Banner Punch, and Stampin' UP! Circle Die

Embellishments: Eyelet Outlet Enamel Dots and Stampin' UP! Ribbon

If you are a follower on Barb's blog - YAY! I'm glad! - you noticed that this week is a special week. It's the Stamping Sisters Mini Card Camp Winter 2021. The camp lasts four days with a different teacher each day. The tutorials will be posted by the day's teacher each morning and we'll play along, giving our best for the tutorial that's presented. Barb went first and she has a FANTASTIC tutorial. WOW! I would have never thought to do this! Check it out on her blog - HERE.

Barb's tutorial calls for creating a background out of strips of varying widths of cardstock. I can do that.

I didn't have any strip dies, but that's okay... I just used my paper trimmer and cut my own strips. While Barb's card/s were monochromatic in nature, I chose three Stampin' UP! colors of different color families for my card - Pretty Peacock, Rococo Rose, and Sahara Sand.

Another thing that Barb did in her tutorial was stack her word sentiment/die. She cut three of them and glued them together to give it more depth. I thought that was a great idea... but it wasn't as easy as it sounds. LOL! I needed all the prayers I could get stacking that word three times.

I see a lot of potential for the techniques on this card and I did have a lot of fun attempting Barb's tutorial. Why not give it a try yourself?

Tomorrow's teacher is Darlene... I can't wait to see what she has in store for us. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamp/Die Set: Hero Arts Prayers stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Papers: Cougar White and SU Pretty Peacock, Rococo Rose, and Sahara Sand CS

Die: SU Circle

Embellishments: Gina Marie Enamel Dots

It's no secret - I love LOVE Unity stamps. I have a huge collection of them and use them quite regularly in both my card-making and my Bible Journaling. That being said, I'm not sure what I think of their Whit Kit's, that are available as a monthly subscription. Some of them look to be much better than others, but until now I only looked at them from afar. I decided it was time to take a closer look. It's a minimum 3-month commitment, which should be long enough to see what I think. LOL! 

Today's card was made with the January 2021 Whit Kit. The kit includes the Anything Is Possible Stamp Set, a set of Nuvo Watercolor Pencils, a Watercolor Paint Brush, and a Packet of Tuscan Textures Designer Papers.

I colored my image with the watercolor pencils included in the kit (and water, of course). I'm not very good at water-coloring, so definitely need practice. I'm pretty sure I'll be using Copic Markers the next time I use this stamp set.

The brick designer paper is from the kit, too... isn't it pretty?

Here's the inside of my card:

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Stamps, Watercolor Pencils, and Designer Paper: Unity Whit Kit January 2021

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black

Papers: Canson Watercolor Paper and Recollections White and SU Just Jade CS

Dies: My Favorite Things Stitched Rectangle

Embellishments: Eyelet Outlet Bird Set Brad and SU Ribbon