IBSIC, SOS, DYSU, oh my!

We finally got some thunderstorms yesterday (I think three by the time they were all done), and lost power in the morning, but the humidity is down to 75% today. It seems strange to regard that as a relief, but for weeks it's been 90% or higher. Yesterday was 96%. It feels like breathing water at that point. One of our dehumidifiers died for good - for the last month both of them have been running 24/7 trying to keep the air in the basement manageable. We had yet another sewage backup (that makes 3), this one a week after the last. We are the next job, but it's hard to wait for the crew to show up when every time I go downstairs I half expect to be greeted by sewage. We won't know until they start, but we're beginning to suspect that the pipe may in fact be the original put in place when they added indoor plumbing, which would make it over 60 years old. Right now we can't even clean up (other than to remove the water) because it could back up again any time. 

What am I doing to avoid thinking of all this? Besides rocking & sucking my thumb (hey, it works), I've been catching up on packets to go in the mail, crocheting mats like crazy to get those sent out to the people I've promised them to, making cards, reading (today it's the latest True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse novel, "Deadlocked"), and watching season one of "Rescue Me". I picked up seasons two and three at the library yesterday & can't wait to see what happens next. I am sucked right in. 

I've got a couple of cards to share today for 3 challenges altogether - this first one is for IBSIC #16, a sketch (open until Wednesday), and Shopping our Stash #58 (open until Monday), my second take. For SOS #58, the challenge is:

use at least three items from the following list on your card: ribbon, flowers, lace, pearls, glimmer mists, punched elements or die cut elements, rhinestones, doilies (stamped will work, too), dry embossing or scoring -OR- use three of one type of embellishment.

And here's the sketch from IBSIC:

Supplies: papers from Bo Bunny;
Lace/ribbon from October Afternoon;
Wilton Doily;
Astrid's lilac chalkboard glimmer mist (Tattered Angels);
flowers from Recollections;
pins from Little Yellow Bicycle;
corner rounded (for scallops);
Purple Twilight adirondack ink; sentiment from Studio G;
pearls & button from stash;
Sakura stardust pen

I used quite a number of things from the SOS #58 list this time: lace, ribbon, pearls, flowers, glimmer mist, and a doily. The doily is sprayed with the chalkboard mist, and then I dried it with my heat gun to keep the paper from warping. The pins are tucked in behind the green ribbon, and then I made sure to stitch them to the card when I sewed on the button. Pins make me nervous, but it turns out it's relatively easy to secure them to cards without risking someone poking their finger. 

My next card is for the Red challenge for DYSU #79 - I've been so busy lately that I haven't done any quilling, and I'm completely out of quilled cards in my stash. Not a single one. As soon as I saw the DYSU challenge (open until Tuesday at 5) I knew I wanted to make a big ol' flower. 

Supplies: Barn Door distress ink; Tonic edge distresser;
sentiment stamp from AmyR Designs (CC Designs);
swirl stamp on envelope from Autumn Leaves;
flower quilled by me (2 layers);
red & clear rhinestones

As always, you can click  to view photos full-size for more detail

For some reason, my camera finds red quilling very hard to photograph, so I've tried to emphasize the contrast while editing the photo. The flower is made in two layers of 8 petals each - the large petals are made with full 24" strips of quilling paper, and the small ones are made with 6" strips. The edges of the mat were first distressed with the Tonic edge distresser, and then I carefully swiped them along the Barn Door ink pad...very carefully, because I'd already adhered the flower at that point!

With any luck we'll be off to the beach this afternoon - I hope you're having a fabulous weekend!

xoxo,

Jessi