Creating with "Call Me {Crafty} Al" and a Wonderful Friend

 

 

Good evening, everyone. It has been a very long while since I have posted anything here, but much has happened in my life within the past few months and has left me dealing with severe depression. With all that said, it is extremely difficult to find the energy or the motivation to create, which is incredibly sad when art should be a positive way to release negative emotions and provide a form of therapy. Regrettably, that has not been the case for me, but I am working on it and have gradually found solace in my crafty space. Baby steps, right?   Okay, enough of the difficult stuff...I hate sharing private information publicly, but I am thinking about creating a blog anonymously (under a pseudonym) to voice those things that I find difficult to express and to find the healing and wellness I crave.

 

 One of the best things to happen for me, as far as finding my want and need to create, is to find a kind, caring friend throughout my crafting journey. Her name is Carmen Olson, and she makes it a point to schedule crafty time for us to create together via Facebook Messenger. She makes me laugh and helps me get out of my head. There have been crafty sessions when we hardly spoke...just asked one another for creative advice...but it was comforting to know that she was there with me and holding my hand through papercrafting. 

This brings me to today's cards. In one of our recent crafting parties, she introduced me to Call Me {Crafty} Al and her SheetLoad of Cards. With me being someone whose head can occasionally be found in the gutter, I love the term sheetload. Does it remind you of any other terms? It does for me, and it makes me chuckle (💩load...wonder if the pun was intended? If so, it makes me appreciate her even more).

Anyway, I decided to play along with the March 2021 SheetLoad sketch. You can find it HERE at the bottom of the page, or you can find a link to her PDF HERE. Now, as you look at her sketch, I did not follow it exactly, but I hope you can see the prominent aspects of her sketch in the cards I created.

The papers and most of the ephemera are from a We R Memory Keepers' Antique Chic Collection that I purchased from Tuesday Morning when we had a Tuesday Morning in town. In other words, I have been hoarding it for too many years to speak of. You can find some of the paper HERE, HERE, and/or HERE. It is such a lovely collection, and I am ashamed that it has taken me so long to use it.

I absolutely love this antique phone, but I wish I would have used one of my circle dies to cut out the phone rather than a rectangular die. Then, I could have diecut the sentiment to make it work better with Crafty Al's sketch. Of course I didn't think of that until after the fact. Go figure.

The gold splatters are from Maya Road, and I don't even know if that company still exists, which tells you how old it is. Does anyone know if they are still around? I love(d?) their products, but have so much that I never checked to see if they've released anything new. How sad for the crafting community if they are gone. So, someone please tell me they changed their name or moved to a location I am unaware of. Please!

This dress reminds me of Audrey Hepburn, and I just LOVE it! Don't you?

Just a fun-to-make birthday card. I purchased the die for the birthday sentiment used...as in previously owned, so I am not 100% certain who the manufacturer is. I will look into it, but if you're anything like me, you probably have a ton of birthday dies and don't really need me to search it out for you.

I love how the Diamond Glaze takes a simple die cut and kicks it up a notch with all that glossy goodness.

I messed up on this card. I should have used a solid background or a lighter background for the celebrate die. Like most of the things I have used, it is also discontinued. In my defense, I am attempting to use more of my stash--what I already have--than buying "new" things for more dust to collect upon. I can honestly say, I am somewhat losing the battle because I am currently stalking the postal carrier. Yes, I know...I have a problem, but I also know that I am not alone. 😉😉

I messed up here too...kinda went overboard with the flowers, but I just love flowers. Here, I should have used more solid colors to break up the patterned paper, but this is what happens when you force yourself to finish a card when you should have been in bed. The blurry eyes and constant yawning should have been an indicator to stop, but I am no quitter...and here is the result of that. I should have gone to bed.

Well, here is my contribution to Call Me Crafty Al's SheetLoad of Cards for March 2021. Thank you {Crafty} Al for the inspiration, and thank you Carmen for inviting me to join you in the fun and for being such an amazing friend and getting me into my craft room. Now, I am looking forward to enjoying April's Challenge.😊 

Thank you for dropping by.