Thursday, June 19, 2008

Not for the Faint of Heart!

Life is funny sometimes. Here I just post a few days ago about bugs and slugs and icky things and how we make them cute on our cards, and yesterday life bit me in the bug butt!!

As many of you know, we had a tornado come through our town at the end of May, and we had a terrible ice storm Winter 2006. So, our big 50 foot tree that shades our whole yard and house has taken a beating. We finally got someone out to trim it and take out the dead stuff. I thought all was good.

But when he came knocking on my door and said "We have major issues...." I wasn't a happy camper. I did get to ride up in the cool cherry picker, though!! Almost to the top! What they showed me, in a nutshell, was a tree that will die in a few years (we hope it lasts that long) due to infestation of carpenter ants (they are HUGE!) and these ugly monsters:

I said, "So how many of these things are there? A couple hundred?" And he said "No, more like a couple million." I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't!! They are soooooooooo disgusting!!

Because there are so many, and the ants have taken over as well, we will eventually lose the tree. So this weekend, we are going to plant an ash and hopefully our big tree (I don't even know what kind it is!) will last long enough to get the new one going.

Like, I said a couple of days ago, you gotta make these little creatures cute! So today I made a snail card (don't have any grubs around -- WHERE ARE PUUMBA AND TIMON WHEN YOU NEED THEM????)
and this is what I came up with for today's SCS Ways to Use It Challenge (Rick Rack):

I used my Doodlebug ric rac (who knows how that is really spelled?) for my ground for my little snail to scoot along. The snail was watercolored using pads and an aqua brush and has lots of Crystal Effects on him to make him look slimy, but of course the photo doesn't capture that! (rolling my eyes here!) My clouds are made with a handcut stencil. Unfrogettable is one of my favorite SU! sets and I will probably never get rid of it, even though it is retiring!

This card is going to a SCS friend who needs some "happy" in her days ahead!

Thanks for coming to look!!

Stamps: Unfrogettable, Daisy Field Wheel, A Happy Hi (all retired Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Bashful Blue, Naturals White, HL DP
Ink: Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, Green Galore, Palette Noir Black
Accessories: Primas, large brads, Crystal Effects, ric rac (Doodlebug), corner rounder, handcut cloud stencil, aqua brush, sponge dauber
Techniques: sponging, watercolor

20 comments:

  1. Holy guacamole! Those little buggers are gross! I didn't realize how big they were until I saw the quarter. Ew! And millions of them to boot! Good luck to you!

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  2. LOL! Love the nod to Timon and Pumbaa! And your snail card is too cute!

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  3. Oh, my gosh! I would have fainted right there! Good for you for having a good attitude about it! :o)

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  4. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew!!! No thank you to the bugs, but what a cute-cute card, Judy! I LOVE the sentiment!

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  5. Sorry about your tree! Your card is really cute (:

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  6. Oh man...ew...poor you, but your card is adorable! Love your blog too!

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  7. Such a cute card. Love the flower accents and clouds, especially. Sorry about your tree, though - those things are really icky!!

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  8. My son would be so excited to see this post- I think I'll send it to him :)

    Are you not going to knock out the tree now then? How big is it? Good luck with the new one-- it's so sad to lose big trees, they take so long to grow!

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  9. Oh my gosh Judy! I would have FREAKED if I saw those!!! Your card is totally awesome though! LOVe that snail!

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  10. Oh my gosh those bugs give me the heebie jeebies!! I'm sad that you are going to lose your big tree.

    Your snail card is super cute though! I am also sad that Unfrogettable is retiring but hopefully there will be something just as cute replacing it in the new catalog.

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  11. YUKKKK!!! I swear I would burn it down if I didn't think it would catch my house on fire, how grody!! Super cute card though!!

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  12. OH!!! HELLO!!!!!! THOSE are GROSS!!!! EWWWW!!!!! YUCK!!!! NASTY NASTY NASTY!!!! My skin is all bumpy and I wanna get SICK!! YUCKY YUCKY!! LOL! They look like they are huge pusssss infested creatures that you just want to take a torch to!! BLAAAAHHH!!!!

    Oh ya...cute cards :)

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  13. What a cute card! I love the picture of your black lab in the window. Buster (my black lab) spends lots of snooze time in our bay window.

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  14. What a cute card. I like the blue and green together, very nice.
    Sorry to hear about your tree. We just had a guy out today to spray our lawn because we have those under our grass (although they are smaller).
    Good luck with your tree.

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  15. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!
    I hope getting rid of the tree gets rid of those BUGGERS! It is sad to lose a tree--but sometimes you can save others by losing one.

    What a CUTE card! I almost found my ric rak! :D

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  16. what a great way to make a very cute card out of a very ugly situation!! Those worms are soooo gross!!!!! I do love the card, though!

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  17. Really, really cute colours and I love the layout.

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  18. Hmmm...how about a recipe for those slugs? They're probably FILLED with protein...somewhere someone would be happy with those for dinner...right?

    Love the ric rac - it would make a lovely slime trail also!!!

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  19. I saw the thumbnail for this post at the bottom of today's post and just HAD to see what was up. Gross! OMG, I thought that was a dime they were next to, then realized it was a quarter! That was a few years ago, so I guess the tree is long gone now. :(
    Your snail tribute card is sweet!

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