Thursday, August 19, 2010

U Quack Me Up!

The PaperWorksCo is having a challenge called the Ultimate Summer Challenge. This is a team challenge, something I have never heard of in the world of stamping challenges. It requires a 4 person team to take on 4 different challenges, each person doing one. The over arching theme is animals and we have to use PWCO stamps or the provided digi image. I am team captain for the Buffalo Stampers and my buddies Cheryl Rowley, Lisa Kind and Debbie Morrissey kindly agreed to play along. I took the technique challenge which was to make your own background paper.

I used alcohol inks on glossy paper to make this cloudy sky...

I used it on this project...

After unsuccessfully trying to use Copics on this image (my yellows are sorely lacking!), I went with watercoloring with dye inks. I haven't done that in awhile and it felt good. The image is quite long so I opted to put it onto a gift box rather than a card front. I have several gable boxes in my stash so it was good to use up something I already had. The sentiment that goes with this image is also long so I only used a portion of it, combining it with a foam letter "U". I spent a bit more time than usual on the details, adding some stitching, a corner accent, glossy accents (on the puddle) and the bow treatment. This project was a bit like pulling teeth. Just ask the ladies who watched me work on it last night! But now that it is done, I am pleased. Oh, and I made sure to put it out of reach of Daisy the maniac dog!

Deep breaths people, deep breaths! Our senior pastor tells us that all the time, only problem is, I am a sloooooow learner! Thanks for all the stain removal tips. I worked on it for about an hour with an arsenal of products and have gotten about 98% of the ink stain in the carpet. Now instead of ink spots we have clean spots, lol! Then I had to tackle a chocolate ice cream stain my knucklehead son left on our new chair! Life is just a test some days.

The kitchen store sent a repair guy to look at our counter and it looks like they will be able to fix it. Phew! Lesson learned...always check the tops on bottles. I bought a bottle of Windex and because I was running late for church I set the grocery bags on the counter to unpack later. The bottle was on its side and the top was not secure so half the bottle leaked out, damaging the edging on 3 sides of our island. The repair guy said the lesson learned should have been to skip church! You tell that to my pastor husband.

Thanks for visiting! Blessings on you!

6 comments:

Jennifer Roach said...

This is SUPER cute Tracy!! I'm dying to get my hands on some of those images from that company.

Lisa Kind said...

This is so cute, Tracy! Love the ducks in watercolors! I spent a lot of time with this image and my copics, too! Love the gable box idea...mixing it up a bit was a good idea!

I purchased Tilex when I moved into my first apartment and the top wasn't on securely either. It leaked in my car (thank goodness it was in the trunk) and it soaked my bags. When I picked up my bags and they spilled out all over the place! My pants were bleached and my food ruined! What was worse was that the cardboard carrier my wine coolers were in (yes I said wine coolers!) got wet too and the fell and broke all over the place as well! Needless to say, I check the caps on bottles all the time! LOL!!!

Pat said...

Wow...this is absolutely too cute! Here's to hoping your team wins.

ChristineCreations said...

Adorable Tracy! Love your coloring! Fun idea for a challenge too.

And oh I'm so sorry about the mishaps yesterday. Yikes I'd have been ready to burst too. But I always have to remind myself...it's 'stuff' and God is bigger :) Hang in there girly, and good news on the counter top!

And hey...if you ever come out west....you know who to call right???

Cheryl said...

Good news and great project! Go team!
Love your watercoloring! I keep thinking about doing some again, but never get to it! Way to go, GF!

Igagnon76 said...

your coloring is great! love the box.