A site for my handmade cards, accompanied by my photos and written meanderings which are occasionally witty, often tongue-in-cheek, and rarely profound. Beginning in June 2013, you'll also see lots of NBUS, which is an acronym I coined for Never-Before-Used-Schtuff. Note: my Privacy Policy can be found at a tab below and you can find my NBUS Challenge online. I hope you'll join in the fun there! Thanks for coming by! Have a beverage and enjoy!

July 15, 2012

CAS-ual Fridays CFC61 ~ Let's Strip!

Well, hello there.  Come here often?

I feel certain that after last week's nude crafting at the Play Date Cafe and now stripping over at CAS-ual Fridays, I might see a lot more traffic on my web site, if you know what I mean.  Hello, gentlemen.  I'm sorry to disappoint you; it's not that kind of blog.  Move along, boys.

Of course,  when I first saw this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge,

CFC61

I immediately remembered that part-time job I had in college.  I'll post this one photo, the rest I'm too shy to share, I'm sure:
@Amazon.com for Leg Avenue

Ah, those were the days.  Now between modern times, clothing styles, and modern technology, we've seen it all, mystery solved, fun and flirting fossilized.

I did all right crafting in the nude last week, except for that one area, so now I think nothing of stripping and stamping.  But strips on my card?  What strips?  Strips of what? 

Since I don't have naked lady stamps, much to your surprise, what is the next best thing?  A dress form!  I have that.  Nope, some other clever stamper already beat me to it.

How about a bandaid?  You know, they're called "bandaid strips" and when you're done with them, you "strip" them off.  I have that.  Nope, some other clever stamper already beat me to it.

A card with a wallpaper-like pattern then, paper pulled halfway down in strips, because one "strips" wallpaper off the walls?  Mmmm, perhaps.

Ah ha!  What about an air strip?  You know, for landing airplanes.  But the only airplane stamp I have is a stamp of a plane flying, not landing.  Well, I could put strips behind the plane, like entrails.  Contrails?  I tried just triangulating the strips but they looked, well, dumb.  So I grabbed one of my new Memory Box dies that's all flourishy and I cut up the flourishes to make the contrails look swirly.  Thus:



You know how you have regular fries and then you have curly fries?  Well, you can have regular strips or curly strips.  Mine are curly.  What strippers strips can you think of to decorate your card?  I hope you can join in the fun challenge!

~~~

Let me slip on this house dress and show you our giant tomato plants.  They are only noteworthy because this year our plants are all "volunteer" plants that came up in the vegie boxes from last year's crop.  Usually we remove those and plant fresh tomato plants from the nursery.  Plants whose names we know.

So what happened was that this year I had an epiffaninny.  You see, I can't eat tomatoes (waugh, which I love), yet I am the one who, for the last umpteen years, plants them, takes tender care of them, weeds them, and picks them.   Now I am not very good at math, but finally the numbers fell into place in my pea brain, and I said, why am I doing this?  You do it, Mister.

Hence, since Mister would rather ride motorcycles than farm tomatoes, we have volunteer plants for the first time.  So far they are doing as well as, if not better than, any plants in prior years.  Here is a picture with a patio chair for scale:


That's a seven-foot fence, so that one plant in the middle should be called a Sequoia Tomato!  I'll keep you posted.  I expect it is going to fall right over one of these days as it is growing feets higher than its cage.  The one in the back has just started producing very delicious yellow cherry tomatoes.  The rest are still mystery plants.

I also wanted to show you our giant basil and tarragon plants, so I had one of the farm hands go up in the plane that was dusting Brock Lee's crops and take this photo.  That farm hand is going to be in trouble for not pulling that tractor back to the barn first, if Mister ever sees this picture.  When the cat's away . . .  


And finally, the following are photos of our ornamental oregano plant, "Kent Beauty."  I bought it last year and weathered it in the garage over the winter.  It all died off, except for one little strand.  It's so cool how it fully came back into this gorgeous plant.



I'm off to the nursery to get ideas for new plants for my other pots around the patio.  (I sure hope they have more Kent Beauty oregano plants for sale this year.)  I have about a dozen geranium plants, which are always reliable in the spurts of extreme heat we can get.  This year, however, the  infestation of geranium bud worms is too great and the plants are succumbing.  It's hard to combat a killer like that when a new one simply flies in, disguised as a pretty white moth.  Nature wins.

Enjoy!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!
Paper:  PTI white, black, spring rain
  SU DSP In Color
Stamps:  WeRMemory Keepers, "Travel
  Light" and Rubber Stamped, Inc.
  "We've Moved" A2464C
Ink:  PTI black
Memory Box die
Corner Chomper

19 comments:

Kara Lynne said...

I saw CAS-ual Friday's challenge this week and started laughing thinking about your PDCC post! Can't imagine embossing whilst swinging around a pole! Clever curly strips there, and I love the card idea all together. Enjoyed peeking around your "Jolly Green Giant" of a garden.

Inkyfingers said...

I always end up smiling when I visit your blog Darnell. I think your strips cover it just fine and it was very imaginative to think of a landing strip!
Loved your peep at the garden - ours is being devoured by an invasion of slugs and snails this year.

Ardyth said...

Love your curly strips! And you've explained very well why most of our non-summer (and much of our summer) produce comes from California! Great looking plants! Our winters probably kill any plants looking to volunteer the next spring - we replant every year, but I don't think we take out the old ones. Could be wrong since that's my mister's job! lol!

Victoria said...

I was looking forward to this post and I've not been disappointed! Fab stripping!

Di said...

Brilliant post as always Darnell! Sigh, if only we had some sunshine over here :(

Have you heard about using medical strip stuff to make your own washi tape? Just thought I'd plant the seed and see if it grows into a huge plant :)

Hugs, Di xx

Allisa said...

Great card, love the curly strips! Enjoyed the trip into your garden!

shirley-bee said...

Love your curly-wurly strips, Darnell. Because, let's face it, life isn't a straight line. Do you know, I think I have that very sentiment stamp somewhere.

Glad you're supporting the volunteer sector. We have lots of volunteer plants in our garden. Dandelions. Buttercups. Clover....

Redanne said...

Brilliant post as ever Darnell, you really should write professionally! Loved the stripping story and your strips are excellent. Glad you are getting some use out of those memory dies.......you must have great soil there to grow those marathon plants. A x

Carol L said...

Have you ever considered writing books?! You should!! Your posts are unlike any other, and I so enjoy reading them! Your card is pure genius for using paper strips the way you did, and I'm SO envious of your plants! My 2 potted tomato plants produced 4 tomatoes between the 2 of them - with no new flowers in weeks. My potted basil is the same size it was when I bought the plant - I have the blackest thumb in the world I swear!

Sandy said...

Lovely photos of the vegies and that oregano I have never seen before. Great idea about the plane jet stream. Happy crafting. Sandy :)

Karen M said...

I love your cute card and your blog is always so much fun to read, hugs x x

Craftychris said...

I am sitting here this dull rainy horrible day giggling away happily cause your post is so funny! thank you. Love your curly strip plane card and your tomatoes are awesome!! xx

Bonnie said...

I like those curly, colorful strips! I didn't realize that you borrowed one of our deck chairs, but you're welcome to use it. Imagine my surprise to see it beside your tomatoes and here I thought we lived thousands of miles away. Small world! You definitely have a green thumb. You can send some tomatoes when you bring the chair back.

Anonymous said...

Well you obviously have far too much time on your hands woman , in the few short days since I last visited you have posted several amazing cards, planted veggies stripped,been naked and goodness knows what else. Fabulous post so much fun and lots to think about and clever, clever card, love your thinking and yes you should write a book !

Marie

Anonymous said...

Well you obviously have far too much time on your hands woman , in the few short days since I last visited you have posted several amazing cards, planted veggies stripped,been naked and goodness knows what else. Fabulous post so much fun and lots to think about and clever, clever card, love your thinking and yes you should write a book !

Marie

Anonymous said...

Sorry all the double comments must be all the talk about twins !!!

Marie

Anonymous said...

Now that's what I call a creative take on the challenge :) That plane is super cool and I had a lot of fun reading your blog :D
Thanks so much for playing with us this week at CAS-ual Fridays!

Jean said...

Love your strips of color, keeping the rest of your card neutral really makes them stand out!

Lisa A. said...

Oh Darnell...you are just toooooo funny!! You really thought long and hard about this challenge!!! LOVE your curly strips...what a wonderful take on strips...great plane!! Your plants are AMAZING...love the tractor in the basil!! Thanks for being a part of the challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays and sharing your creativity:)!!