Rainy days make warped cards!

We have had our fair share of cyclonic activity up here in FNQ. There is yet another cyclone warning current and it has not really stopped raining since Larry struck about 4 weeks ago. You might think that makes for perfect card making conditions - conditions are not favourable for gardening, shopping, going out, washing clothes, etc, so why not make cards? Well, it is interesting that cyclonic conditions make for very humid days even though it is not hot, and everything is sprouting mould, and warping. So card making is an extra challenge. Even some of my books have warped and heavy tomes I have been using to flatten things out nicely are not always the best choice right now. I do have a small flower press which allows me to screw things down tightly. That seems to be a little more successful. By the time the recipients get the cards, they may be back in their original warped condition or begin to warp as soon as they are out of the envelope!! Oh well. I know everyone is having the same problems, so I am not going to let this stop me making a girlfriend's 40th birthday card. See you later :-)

Plundered the shops today

I went on a big stamping supplies expedition today. Spotlight was having a sale, so I had a look, of course. I came away with two new stamps, a new ink pad, ribbons, water colour pencils, stamp colouring pens, chalk, (the blackboard variety) and a couple of small towels all for under $25! I thought that was excellent :-)
I was wondering about an old makeup pallet I have that I have never used - surely the blushers and foundation would be useful for blending and colouring? I am going to experiment.
Maybe plundering the shops will be a thing I do less soon - SU! has come to Australia and I am trying to contact one of their demonstrators....

Major Mitchell Cockatoo!

Yep, getting new supplies does make me want to stamp. Not that I have explored the possibilities of all my other supplies! I tried out embossing with some white sparkly powder but it didn't 'take' very well and was almost invisible on white cardstock. Maybe black or navy or dark brown - a dark colour anyway - cardstock would have been the better choice. Then I tried filling in the background with pale green ink and water washing it. I coloured in the cockatoo with crayola pencils. He was still insipid. So I resorted to my black pigment ink pen. That did it. Not the effect I wanted, and he has a different 'personality' than the stamped image, but I kinda like him!

It's payday

It's payday so I went out and bought a few pretties for my card making supplies. You know - the usual - PAPER and RIBBON (Top of the List!) and this time I got an embossing pad and a new stamp too. An expensive trip, but hey, it was fun :-) I lent my enbossing pad to a friend years ago and it never made it's way home, so now I am stamping again I just have to have one. My town is so small, I had to order one in!

The new stamp depicts a cockatoo. I think he will look nice embossed in sparkly white and somehow I am going to give him some yellow or pink highlights in his crowning feathers. I hope it works out - this has inspired me ot try out some new stuff, so maybe there will be new cards soon after all!

Cards - what's that?

Ever since last week when I had some craft time because of the enforced 'rest' imposed by Larry the Cyclone, I have not been able to get the energy to make a card. It's a worry. I have noticed that any other people around me have this lack of energy thing too. I guess it could be the after-effects of stress taking their toll. Plus routines are still a little strange. Take this morning for instance. I had a drot and a hugs dump truck show up at my house before I even had my eyes open properly. The men driving them didn't knock on the door or anything - just started cleaning up the piles of snapped off vegetation on the footpath that used ot be my garden. Thanks guys. It was wonderful. I had to watch, of course. Then I was late for work! The street looks sooooo much better now. The reminders of the cyclone are gradually disappearing. It feels good.

Maybe life will settle back into a more normal routine pretty soon and I'll get my stampin' bug back. I know there are a couple of birthdays next month that I really need ot start doing something about now....special days are a GREAT motivator for me :-)

If you are reading this, how about telling me what motivates you to stamp/make cards?

Innisfail

Today I felt ill. I had to travel down to Innisfail to teach (110kms/68.5 miles) and the devastation from the Cyclone there is terrible. There are so many houses without roofs, so much vegetation that has been forced into everywhere it should not be, so much damage to property. The people are in good spirits though. The army is there, the emergency crews too, and there is a huge contingent of cheerful volunteer tradesmen. Even one of my students turned up! I am not sure if the other students are safe yet and I could not get hold of a phone and computer to find out their phone numbers and call them.

I did visit my 94yo friend and her 67yo daughter. Their house had most of the windows on one side blown out and they had been flooded inside the house. A ceilng fan from a detached roof two doors down had flown through their water powered (hydraulic?) elevator/lift (my 94yo friend cannot walk and the lift is needed so she can leave the house which is one story up) and mangled it so it is unusable. My friend is trapped in the house till someone comes to carry her downstairs. I am thankful that people know of her plight and are helping as much as they can. While I was there, a crew was chopping up fallen trees, removing trees from the roof and giving opinions on how to fix the lift. No one is really familiar with the things though so no one would actually touch it! They were afraid they would make it worse, I guess.

The sheer size of the devastation is still hard to grasp. It is pretty bad up here where I live but it seems to have trashed the countryside for hundreds of kilometres.

I hope we don't get another Cyclone like that again.

My last card upload at Splitcoaststampers 

How great is this?? An introduction.

I just read about the idea to create blogs at SCS. I chose a suitable blog name, don't you think? Susan's Cardmaking Saga, or SCS!

started making cards in a sporadic fashion some years ago and started collecting bits and pieces against the day whe I would be able to do it nore seriously, when I had 'more time'. I don;t really have 'more time' yet but have decided I want to make cards anyway. I am still hunting up all the bits and pieces I have stashed away! But I have found enough of them to get going at last, and being a member of SCS (the website, not this blog!) is just a wonderful focus to keep being more consistent and gain fresh ideas, new techniques, and make contact with people.

Oh - people - I cannot forget who encouraged me in all of this in the first place. Thank you Carla of cardsbycarla. You are a dream of a friend and have been just so wonderful in being that friend, encouraging me, helping me, laughing with me. Thank you.

I'm going to post this and see what happens next :-)