Rollagraph wheels

Do you remember when these were all the rage?  That was a long, long time ago.  I have plenty of handles, Ancient Page cartridges (surprisingly enough many were still wet enough to use!) and even have a big table-top model (gathering dust). 

An art sister asked if anyone wanted some of her wheels.  I spoke up for the Flagstone one because I had an idea in mind for it, albeit a lame one.  Much to my surprise, when the package came it had several in it.  Her only request was that a card (or cards) be made using them and sent to her (via photo was fine). 

This week I used 2 of the non-Christmas wheels on holiday cards that I will send on to the friend.  I hope she enjoys the fruits of my labor.  Both were original ideas but ones that had been on my mind for awhile.

I created background paper (Rollagraph wheel Designer #4) using a red ink cardtridge (yes, the ink was faded but still liked the color) and turned it from a spring-like background to one with more of a holiday feel by adding gold dots to the flower centers and outlining the card in gold and putting it on a coordinating pink mat on a white card.  The garland on the tree is stamped to coordinate with the pinkish mats.  The tree (Stampers Anonymous Watercolor Trees) was stamped on watercolor cardstock using distress inks and distress oxide inks.  The sentiment was stamped in Jet Black archival ink.  Both the image and sentiment were covered in clear embossing ink and heat set.  

The 2nd card I used Rollagraph wheel - Flagstone and green ink.  The holly & berries image and sentiment are from Stampers Anonymous December Doodles and stamped in Jet Black archival ink.  The holly & berries were colored with distress oxide inks.  I scattered Shape Shifter mini stencil 113 to some of the squares; I also drew black lines around some of the edges.  The background was created using images from the same set but stamped in distress inks.  Again, the image and sentiment were covered in clear embossing ink and heat set. The oval punch and scalloped oval punch are EK Success.  (This is not the original -lame - idea I had for this wheel.)

Guess I need to look around my craft space and see what else I can use that hasn't seen the light of day in a long time.  What's old can be new again!

Happy birthday, Lucas!

A good friend and local bartender turned 25 recently.  He just got a new truck, albeit a white one.  I just couldn't make this truck look good in white.

I used a Rollagraph stamp across an inkpad to create the tracks on the card.  (I was surprised he immediately knew what they were!).  The Dark Room Door image was stamped in Acorn archival ink onto watercolor cardstock and colored with General's pastel chalk pencils.  I did spray it with Krylon matte sealer to prevent smudges.

Inside I created a small pull out tag and envelope besides the traditional 'Happy birthday' wishes.  On the tag I stamped 'If it has tires or testicles, it's going to be trouble.'  He had a big laugh over that.  In his possession is a motorcycle, jeep and truck.

Archaeology dig

I'm a member of a bulletin board where the recent topic of discussion has been about all the ancient stuff we never use any more.  One of the members challenged the group to use a tool, stamp, technique or ingredient that has NOT been used or done for at least 5 years.  So, I'm going 'old school' with this 10.75" square scrapbook layout.

Once upon a time (late 1990's) I road-tripped with 2 friends from NJ to numerous stamp conventions in the northeast.  On one such trip I found these really cool packages of EcoAfrica scrapbooking kits by ProvoCraft.  Each kit contains handmade papers, fibers, beads, metal embellishments, etc.  At the time I was very much into items from other countries as my husband traveled the globe for his job.  Into my shopping basket they went.  Only to be buried under mountains of other things I just had to have.  You know how that goes.

***Qualifying items for this challenge:  EcoAfrica scrapbooking kit, Color Box stamping guide, Rollagraph, Stampin'Up Heart of Africa wheel, Prismacolor pencils, animal stamps (U-2280, U-2284) from Art Impressions, and a Repeat Impressions map stamp (5419)

Other items used:  Ranger distress and archival inks, Sizzix mini mover & shapers globe, numerous card stocks