LTCs & ATCs

Since it was football Saturday (I watched college football ALL day), I set up a card table in front of the TV and made some ATCs and LTCs for upcoming swaps I am in. Below are some of the results.

This LTC is for a swap on AtlasQuest.com. I hand carved the Buckeye leaf stamp. On shiny paper I stamped the image with Versamark ink and let dry. Then I used a brayer to roll on ink from a multi-colored ink pad. I stamped the leaf in the middle again with Versamark and poured on embossing powder. I heated the powder to melt it. It is hard to see in the photo but the middle image is raised and shiny. I used a copper paint pen to draw the border around the card. I made 30 of these. Unfortunately the original embossing powder I used did not look good so I "wasted" a few card in figuring out the right combination.

The following 2 ATCs are for a Punch ATC (using a paper punch) swap on swap-bot.com. I made 4 total with different shades of brown for the owl parts. I used Stampin' Up [SU] Woodgrain stamp for the background tree look. I punched the owl parts with the SU extra-large owl punch. The tree hole is a SU oval punch. Again the border is drawn with a copper paint pen.

OSU vs Marshall football game

The scoreboard during the game.

Thursday was the start of college football season and I attended the Ohio State University game against Marshall. It was a hot, sunny 95 degrees (F) and not feeling like football weather at all. John and I left the house at 3pm to meet family and set up the tailgate. John and his family go to every home game and tailgate with an RV that has a grill and big screen TVs besides the tables loaded with food. John is the grill master and grills the hot dogs and hamburgers to feed the hungry fans. After several hours of tailgating, we walked the mile to the football stadium known as the (Horse)Shoe.

The view of the stadium from across the river.

The view inside the stadium from our seats (near the 20 yd line).

About 105,040 fans attended the game.

The Best Damn Band In The Land (TBDBITL) - OSU Marching Band and a view of the tunnel where the team come out to the field.

It was Alumni Band Day and they had their own section.

I took a video of the half time show where TBDBITL and the Alumni Band did Script Ohio (4 times simultaneously) on the field. I hope to add it here at some point - I keep getting errors uploading it.

Final score was OSU: 45 and Marshall: 7
We missed the last score (a field goal) since we were hobnobbing with a local celebrity.

A special treat was to talk with Archie Griffin (#42 and 2-time Heisman Trophy winner) and get his autograph on my ticket.

The Lane Avenue bridge and its reflection in the river.

We walked the mile back to the RV and helped tear down the tailgate. We got home by 12:30am. Yep, we were gone 9.5 hours - around here football games are all day/night events.

Wildlife around our house

Some photos of recent visitors to our house:

I love dragonflies although I don't know the difference between them and damselflies.

Unfortunately this rabbit seems quite unafraid of humans and I got quite close before s/he moseyed away.

I was quite surprised to see this creature (ground hog?) when I went to investigate what was driving our cats crazy.

This photo was taken just before the "babies" were big enough to leave the nest. Once they were gone, the nest was removed and the pillar and front porch were power washed. We may have to resort to putting up nails or barbs on top of the pillars as this was the 3rd nest since we moved in this year.

Artistamps or Faux Postage

These are the scanned images of my first batch of artistamps (faux postage). I used inks, rubberstamps, paper punches, and markers. The "62" stamps also have some glimmer mist sprayed on them. I recently learned of artistamps and since I love all things associated with letter writing, mail art, or postage stamps; I had to make some.

The Three Muses Challenge this week is mail art so I will be adding a link to this blog entry on their site: http://thethreemuseschallenge.blogspot.com/

Wistful Water

Just a quick, short entry. I want to blog more often so I am trying different ways to do so. This is a photo at one of the Ohio State Parks I went to with a girlfriend a couple years ago. We went in the fall so the trees are brown or losing leaves. I miss being near large bodies of water.

Making Homemade Paper

One day this week I used my new 8.5" x 11" pour handmold to make recycled paper. I made about 12 sheets in 4-5 hours. You can left click on any photo to view a larger image.

The box of shredded bills, ads, recipts, etc.

My papermaking supplies set up (taking over the eating area):

The pulp (recycled paper plus party napkins for colors beyond grey and I also added some mica flakes which don't show in the photos) in the handmold:

The wet pulp formed on the screen and the wooden mold removed:

The paper after the initial removal of water (several sponge-fulls):

The completely dried paper (after hours between couch sheets and under heavy weight):
[the photo shows a lighter hue than it actually is]

I also played around with additives to make the paper more interesting.

Using dried flowers:

Gold dust (hard to photograph):

The tan (left) has scrubbed corn husks and cotton pulp added. The red in the middle has some flower petals. The blue on the end has some sparkle fibers (hard to photograph).

The purple on the right has iridescent flakes (hard to photograph).

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."

[Quote by Flora Whittemore]

I've always been partial to woodwork and wooden items. While in Peru, I saw several wooden doors that really caught my eye.

Some were more intricately carved than others.

When I decided to participate in an ATC / LTC* swap with a theme of doors, I chose to replicate one I had seen in Peru for my LTC. I hand carved the rubberstamp and colored the paper to appear more "wood-like" before stamping the image.

ATC = Artist Trading Card: 2.5"x3.5" piece of art (any medium) traded among artists

*LTC = Letterboxing Trading Card: same as ATC plus the criteria of an image of a hand carved stamp must appear on the card.

Check out http://www.atlasquest.com/ for more information on LTC's and letterboxing.