November

Probably you are wondering if I dropped out of blog land I was gone so long.  After my last post in October, my aunt decided she was moving into a nursing home full time.  It was left to my sister and I to clean out her apartment.  It is hard to sort through all of someone's belongings, wondering if each item is, if not necessary or valuable, something that been saved because it has meaning.  My aunt was more okay leaving everything behind than we were.  I am happy to report she is thriving in the nursing home.

In the midst of that chaos I managed to make my Thanksgiving cards and a birthday card for a dear friend.  My Thanksgiving card had to be simple because of time constraints, as in 'last minute'.  I have seen this technique using glossy paper in several places, but always with clear or white embossing as a resist.  To emphasize the fall colors I used a Claret embossing powder from Rub a Dub Dub and am very happy with the way it came out.

The stamps are 'real leaves' set of four from Hero Arts that I have had for ages. The colors used for the leaves and sponging are More Mustard, Fired Brick and Rusty Hinge distress inks.  There might be some Orange Marmalade in there too but it really wasn't showing well with the darker colors.  I added a sentiment from Inkadinkadoo, a gingham ribbon, and a leaf embellishment from my stash. The layer was added to a Bravo Burgundy card.

My friend with the November birthday is a wine lover so I knew I had to use this 'wine shop' stamp set from Purple Onion.  I colored the wine barrel with Peerless water colors and made a tag with one of the sayings from the set. The Old Olive paper from Stampin' Up along with the black paper from my scrap bin made the card and layers.  I embossed a copper shimmer paper with musical notes because I thought it went well with the rustic image.  I only wish, looking at it now, I had distressed the paper a little.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bonjour

Just a quick post because I finished our Thursday card.  We all stamped the Penny Black 'bonjour!' stamp three times, colored, fussy cut and layered.   Lola brought her Sizzix Eiffel tower die and while some went with sparkly pink or distressed red, I chose glossy black.  That was as far as I got after two weeks.    

Today, after organizing some of my new stamps and putting them away, I found the motivation to finish the card.  First,  I found the "Paris" in a Hero Arts set to be stamped in the corner of a quarter sheet of white.  Then I added parts of the tree branch from the SU Thoughts & Prayers in Pear Pizzaz kissed with Forest Foliage.  Since the tower was so solid, I die embossed the layer with diagonal lines. 

The final embellishment was the flower for Mimi's beret.  Alas I had only pink gems; but no worries, I colored over with a red sharpie.  Everything assembled on a red card.

Mimi is now ready for her Paris adventure.   Au revoir.

Best things

My friend and her husband, are starting a new chapter in their lives, having both retired from their jobs recently.  I have been searching for exactly the right card to send them on their way.  I chose for them the saying "the best things in life are worth waiting for" to signify the best years are yet to come.

I love fancy folds for cards so I knew when I found a pop-out window card on Pinterest that I had a the framework.

LeeAnn Greff has a video on how to make her card found on her website here.   The center of the front of the card is hooked to a z-fold on the inside of the card.

I used brush markers to color the flower flourish and then stamped repeatedly.  The butterflies were diecut and embellished with gems. 

I am rethinking this oval shape.  The square in LeeAnn's card fits more snugly than this oval so I might have to add a butterfly or flower in the lower left to keep it from pulling through.






I am entering the card in the Sparkle and Shine Challenge inspired by this photo.  As I sit here I see nothing but white out my window. With so much snow it is highly unlikely we will see any green this year on St Patrick's Day.  I am so looking forward to warmth and flowers and butterflies, so what I see when I look at this photo is Spring.  We just have to "wait for it".




I am also going to enter my card  in the Retro Rubber challenge because  I embellished with a tag using the Luni Stamps "Dream".  I have had that stamp and the Hero Arts flower flourish for a years. I also used a retired Glorious Green paper from Stampin Up. The other colors are Soft Sky and Night of Navy. The sentiment inside is from The Simple Things by Unity Stamps.




I hope I wasn't too long-winded today.  Thank you for visiting.

Edited 3/9 - My friend, Susanne, reminded me that I could also submit this card on the Hero Arts blog where the challenge is Nature so I am going to run right over there.

Morning glory

Hello, to my newest follower, Joy, from Morning Glory Card Studio.  In your honor, Joy, I pulled out this old Hero Arts morning glory stamp which I have had for almost eighteen years. The Just for Fun "Dream" stamp that I used on the inside has also been in my stamp drawer for almost that long. I think that qualifies this card as retro rubber!

My friend Susanne is a guest designer for challenge 8 on the  Retro Rubber challenge blog which involves using eyelets.  Yes, eyelets, isn't that a blast from the past!  I dug out my stash and found these little beauties purchased back when we were all using eyelets, and to the best of my memory, I have never used.

Thank you to Retro rubber for the chance to use some of my supplies.  I hope my readers will check out the challenge; you still have time to enter before the deadline, this Friday, February 27. 

I also used several snippets of paper in this card including the white cardstock, left over from my Valentine cards, and just big enough for a 4-1/4 inch square card.  The green backgrounds were in my scrap bin as well as the snippets I used for die cutting the butterflies. So I will be linking to Pixie's Crafty Workshop blog now on challenge week 165.  I hope you will stop by and say hello to Di and Parsnip.

Now to find my white pen in the mess on my desk to write a greeting on the green, hmmm.

Thank you, dear readers, for visiting today.

Color Throwdown 309

Hello,
I was intrigued by the challenge at Color Throwdown this week since blues and greens are my favorites.  Here is a card that I am going to submit made with a Hero Arts stamp that I love. 

I have to tell you that I actually saw a blue Queen Anne's Lace flower this year.  It was sitting all by itself on the side of the road away from all the other white ones. Here I gave it some company.

I added the embossing on the grey layer because it reminds me of the edge of a quilt that my grandmother had.



If you like this color combination, head over to the Color Throwdown site to see more.



You will see some Stampin Up elements on this card: paper, ribbon, die, embossing folder, inks. The sentiment is from an unknown company.

Thanks for stopping in.

Bouncing Brayers

Just recently I saw a gorgeous card that used the 'bouncing brayer" technique. Of course I had to google it and find out how to do it and saw many beautiful examples.  Thursday night the Cardologists played with brayers making lots of backgrounds.  Suzanne had made some delicious chocolate orange cookies for our dessert but couldn't join us.  (So sad)  But Suzanne, we didn't finish one card!  As soon as we heard the roads were icing up we closed up and hit the road. 

I made a card tonight with one of my backgrounds.  In my rush to post it and get to bed before midnight, I scanned it before the glue on the dew drops was dry.  (That's three more dew drops down and one thousand still to use.)

Stamps:  Hero Arts plant, Stampin Up hello
Dies:  Stampin Up Scallop Circle, Sizzix Circles, Heartfelt Creations posey
Distress Inks:  Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint
Paper;  Stampin Up Certainly Celery
I wish you could see the glimmer mist that was spritzed on.  And now I must say goodnight before I turn into a pumpkin, or loose my shoe, or just fall asleep at the computer and forget to go to bed.  Hope all my friends are safe and snug in their homes. Goodnight.