A NEW ROOST

A few days ago, my mom and dad moved into an assisted living facility. It was a very tough move to make, after living in their house for 59 years, but they seem to have settled in somewhat. Each day gets a little better.

Since I live over a hundred miles from them, and, although I saw their  new apartment empty right before they moved in, I have yet to see it filled with all their possessions. You know, all the things that really make a place a "home". I can't wait to see how they've made it their own.

I decided to make a "new roost" card to send to their brand new address as a little welcome.

In my card, I used a variation of emboss resist. After embossing the bird in our luscious Pewter Embossing Powder, I sponged on a fall color combo of Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie and Soft Suede. I then cut out the image with one of the Framelits from the Window Frames Collection and sponged the edges with Soft Suede. I cut another piece of Pear Pizzazz with the next larger size of Window Frames, embossed it with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder and sponged the edges with Soft Suede. 

The backdrop piece is of Soft Suede embossed with the Woodgrain Embossing Folder. I sponged the edges as well as some of the woodgrain with Soft Suede. I didn't want to cover up too much of the lovely woodgrain,, so I opted to place an elegant Antique Brad  below the focal point. Added to a sponged-edge card base of Naturals White set it all off perfectly.

I even used my new Envelope Punch Board to create a "matching envelope". I also created a seal for the back of the envelope by embossing in pewter the same bird, and using the smallest of the Window Frames dies to cut it out. Adorable, isn't it?

I hope my little card brings a smile to Mom and Dad's faces.

Smiles.

CHARMING

On a bit of a lighthearted note, I give you this timeless Erma Bombeck wisdom:

 Erma Bombeck, a well-loved funny girl author, who wrote such classic gems as The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank, and If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing In the Pits?, was always one of my mom's favorites. And I inherited Mom's appreciation for Erma's droll sense of humor. 

One of her quotes that I've always loved is: "The only reason I would take up jogging is so I could hear heavy breathing again." And her touches of true and endearing/enduring wisdom: "A child needs your love  more when he deserves it least."

My husband didn't even smile when he read the quote I featured in my piece above. I dunno. Maybe it's a woman thing. You know, appreciating a dieting "joke". 

I turned to MDS (My Digital Studio) to preserve this Erma-ism. Searching through all my stamp images, I extracted those that resembled charms and added them to the mix. Can you find the faint outline of Erma at the top of the piece? She has lost so much weight, she is fading away.

Enjoy this little bit of goofiness. I had fun creating it for you!

Smiles.

STENCILED BUTTERFLY

Here is a way of making the best of a negative situation. Use it for stenciling!

Usually when you're using Bigz in the Big Shot, you are planning to use the piece you cut out. Right? Well, I did just the opposite for this card.

I used the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die and cut the largest whole butterfly from a piece of quilting template plastic. The negative space that remained after I cut out my butterfly was then used as a stencil to create the large yellow butterfly.

After the butterfly was stenciled onto Whisper White cardstock, I ran it through the Big Shot once more inside an embossing folder to give it beautiful texture.

The orange butterfly, stamped with  an image from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and punched out with the Elegant Butterfly punch was then added to the center of the yellow butterfly.

Would you like to give this card a try?

Supplies:

Papillon Potpourri stamp set

Calypso Coral cardstock

Whisper White cardstock

Black StazOn ink

Daffodil Delight ink

Big Shot

Stencil made from the Beautiful Wings Bigz die

Elegant Butterfly Punch

Stamping Sponge

Basic Pearl

Stampin' Dimensionals

Embossing Folder of choice

Instructions:

Fold a 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" sheet of Calypso Coral cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Using blue painters tape, attach the butterfly stencil in place on a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock. Use a Stampin' Sponge to sponge within the stencil, leaving the center mostly white. Carefully remove the tape from the paper.

Run the white piece through the Big Shot inside your choice of Embossing Folder.

Sponge all the edges with Calypso Coral ink. Adhere this piece to the card front.

On a scrap of Calypso Coral cardstock, stamp the butterfly in Black StazOn ink. Punch it out with the Elegant Butterfly Punch. Add it to the center of the stenciled butterfly with a Stampin' Dimensional on the back of the punched butterfly.

Add a Basic Pearl to the butterfly.

Negative 

Smiles.

FALL FLAVORS

Today is the official first day of autumn. Happy fall y'all!

So, I thought it would be so very appropriate to post a fall-hued card in my blog post today.

Recently, I've become enamored of sunburst-style cards I've been seeing, and decided to challenge myself to creating one of my own. I chose retired Stampin' Up Designer Series Papers in shades of brown, orange/rust and green.

For my adhesive to hold all the strips in place, I used my favorite, Tombow Multipurpose Glue, what I always refer to as "green glue". This proved to be quite messy, especially when it came to the thin sharp points. My fingers were wearing a lot of glue by the time I finished putting the strips in place. 

An easier way to accomplish this task, but more UNforgiving, would be to cover your base sheet with sticky sheet adhesive, such as Xyron. 

But, since I always try to keep my projects Stampin' Up! pure, I opted for my favorite glue. Even though it was messy, if I ever make another card like this again, I think I would use my green glue. The best part of my favorite adhesive is that it is forgiving for several seconds after placement. It it isn't positioned EXACTLY where you want it, you can move it until you are satisfied, as long as you do it right away. 

This is not the case with many of the other types of adhesive, including Xyron. Once it's down, it's down. 

Speaking of the strips, there are 39 OF THEM!! 

Hope your fall is delightfully colorful.

Smiles.

MARBLED CHALK

I love marbled papers. Don't you?

The other day I came across the directions to do something that I thought would turn out really GREAT, so I was anxious to give it a try immediately.

About the time Stampin' Up! retired their Stamping Pastels (chalks), I also retired mine. Never to give them another thought -- that is, until I came across this tutorial. So I dragged them out, dusted them off, and eagerly opened them.

The directions said to scrape chalks onto the surface of about a half inch of water. It suggested to try no more than two or three colors. Swirl it around a bit -- not too much, it said; otherwise the colors would blend and you'd lose the marbling effect.

I grabbed one of the old style Stampin' Up! wood mount stamp cases and added some water. I chose my favorite color combo -- pink, orange and yellow -- and used a craft knife to flake some of each of the colors onto the surface of the water. Quickly I picked up a popsicle stick and briefly swirled. It seemed like some of the color sank immediately to the bottom of the container, while some of it floated atop the surface of the water. Hmmm.

Being that I was going to dunk my paper into water, I decided to opt for using watercolor paper. I had cut a piece to 4" x 5 1/4". I laid it onto the surface and immediately and carefully pulled it straight up as the directions stated. Ewww.

Uh huh, the stuff that sank to the bottom barely made an appearance on the paper. I used my heat tool to hurry along the drying.

OK. Chalk that one up to beginner's UNluck. Pun intended.

Continuing to use watercolor paper and fresh color combinations, I attempted a few more:

OK. The directions hadn't stipulated which type of paper should be used in this project. So I set aside the watercolor paper, and brought out a piece of Naturals White cardstock. I gave that a try:

Oh my. Talk about hideous. Eh?

One that I hadn't shown you yet was a piece I decided to actually use in a card. I had attempted traditional fall colors on watercolor paper. But I was disappointed with the end result. I used it anyway:

I pulled out that ol' classic Lovely As A Tree set, and did some thumping on it to give it a more autumnal look. I had used a base of Old Olive and thumped on Cajun Craze, More Mustard (retired) and Pumpkin Pie. I also colored in the tree trunk with an Early Espresso Stampin' Write marker. 

I used one of the Labels Collection Framelits to cut out the tree image, then mounted it on top of a Cajun Craze leaf cut with the Autumn Accents Bigz die, popping everything up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Well, that little Paper Seedling didn't flower too well. But, I thought it had been worth a try. Tell me what you think.

Marbled

Smiles.