A bright spot at the end of a crappy day...Mixed Media Christmas Card....

So today I wanted to share the story of my day yesterday....it is almost to unbelievable to be true. 

We have all heard the stories of bad Monday mornings....well this is one of those stories!

Yesterday I had to go to the St Boniface Hospital to have blood work done, because I have an appointment later in the week with my hematologist. Whenever I see her, I have to go for extensive blood tests at the hospital...I cannot go to one of the outside labs like I normally do.(not sure why this is) 

So...I get up, get ready for work, and head off to the hospital.  I dislike going here for blood work because:
- they do not open early enough, so that I won't be late for work,
-I  have to go early and wait to be first in line and not have a huge wait time once they open
- I have to pay for parking

The lab opens at 7:30 , so I arrive at the hospital at 6:50 and find five people already waiting there!   Not good!  Oh well, what can I do, I sit down (coffeeless) with these people and strike up a conversation with the woman next to me. 
Bad decision!  All this chick does is whine and go on and on about things that she cant change etc etc....we will call her Debbie Downer....you know the type. 

So after ten minutes of this I get up and go to the washroom just to get away from her.  I come back and choose another seat on the opposite side of the room.

Time ticks by so slowly and 7:30 arrives....no staff....7:35 arrives....no staff.....7:40 and one person shows up....yep he is late and the rest are out sick.  Not good!

Finally....fifth in line....I get into the chair at 8:40....he draws the blood and I am a free woman....YEAH....let me out of here and get me to Timmies on my way to work.

I go to the parking station and put in my ticket and put in my credit card. There is an ungodly noise that comes out of this machine.....then you guessed it....will not give me back my credit card or ticket!!!!!  UGGGHHHHH!!!!

I push the button and explain what happened to the hollow voice on the other end of this machine who tells me he will be there as soon as he can.  Fifteen minutes later a "gentleman" with the personality of a piece of cheese arrives and opens the machine.  He hands me my card and ticked and orders me to use the other machine! 

I put in my ticket and it asks for $2.75 more that my original ticket ( because time has lapsed while I waited for him to come get my card out of the machine)
I told him that was not right, could he adjust the ticket as I should not be charged because of machine failure....his kind comment was "nothing I can do about it"

Well let me tell you.....it took all the self control I had not to go off on this "gentleman"  I put in my credit card and it would not read the strip....apparently the first machine killed it!  So...I  dug in my purse and found the 11 bucks in change and paid and got my ticket validated.

I go outside....draw a huge calming breath of morning air....and say to myself....it can only get better....it can only get better.  I get in my car, adjust my attitude, put a smile on my face and look forward to my day and my Timmies. 

I drive through the parking lot to the exit, go to put my ticket in the machine....and....THE DANG MACHINE IS BROKEN....it will not take my ticket and will not let me out of the lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Aghghghghgh!!!!!! 

For a full 30 seconds I just sat there in my car, wanting to cry, and thinking just how unbelievable this morning had been.  I then push the button on the machine and get THE SAME "GENTLEMAN" as before!!!!!

I told him that the machine would not let me out...and he says..." you need to put your ticket in the machine so the gate will open" 

That was the last straw....I LOST IT on the "gentleman"

Ten minutes later, with a line up of cars waiting to get out of the lot, he arrives and fixes the machine to let us out.

UNBELIEVABLE!

So I get my Timmies and get to work two hours late, all for blood tests that I should have been able to get done at an outside lab anyway.

Work was a typical Monday- INSANE and I was glad to get home at the end of the day.  I changed my clothes and went straight to my craft room to de-stress.

I had seen a card on Pinterest that was done with masking fluid and I wanted to give it a try.  I bought a bottle of the masking fluid at Walmart a couple months ago and had never gotten a chance to try it. 

So I grab my paper and the fluid and take off the cover.....and it is all dried out!
So here I am ....in my craft room....the last straw....bawling over dried out masking fluid....yep....makes no sense....but that was it.....the last straw of my crappy day.

After my  self pity party was over, I tried to think how I could make this card without the masking fluid.  Here is how it turned out:

 I started with a piece of watercolor paper and my watercolors.  I masked the moon and painted the background.  I was not at all happy with what was happening....looked like something a kindergarten child would do....so I grabbed my Derwent Inktense pencils and added some more color, and continued to build the background with the pencils and water-brush. 

Once this was dry I grabbed my ink blender and Marina Mist, Night of Navy and Island Indigo inks and continued to build and blend the background until I was happy.

Then I grabbed my splatter brush and watered down Whisper White ink and splattered the background. 

Next I grabbed my Gelly Roll glitter pen and put tons of tiny sparkly dots on the background (cant see them in the pic very hard to photograph but this card is AMAZING in real life)

I lifted my mask and found a hot mess underneath....after all that work!  I punched a piece of Whisper White card stock and sponged the edges to cover the hot mess and fix my moon.

Then I grabbed my MISTI and stamped the sleigh and the greeting. 
 My card base is Night of Navy and the mat layer is Silver glitter paper. 

At the end I was quite pleased with this card.....yep...the one bright spot in my crappy Monday.  Hope you like my card.