Bye Bye Birdies

I'm working on 2 cards that I hope to upload sometime today. Should have had them done and photographed but cleaning, draining and refilling the hot tub seems to take longer every time I do it. Hmmm... could that be (GASP) age? So in the meantime I'll just fill you in on my Robin Family. This is the final shot taken the day before they all flew away. I feel like a proud Grandma. Hope they come back next year.

Until next time...

A Rose Parade in July

Last Thursday was Stamp Club and for our projects we used the rose from StampinUp's Fifth Avenue Floral and the Manhatten Flower embossing folder.
On this first card, we stamped the rose leaves from A Rose is a Rose with Certainly Celery by stamping off on the base stamp and using the ink full strength on the detail overstamp. The white panel on the left was done by inking up a crimper with Certainly Celery and running the cardstock through, reinking as needed then smoothing out the cardstock. We tied a piece of white satin ribbon towards the top and mounted it to the left side of the Cameo Coral card. We ran a piece of cardstock through the Big Shot with the embossing folder and used the debossed side. We randomly brayered Regal Rose and Summer Sun onto it then cut it and our leaves out and mounted as shown. The final touch was to stamp the sentiment onto a strip of vellum and mounting across the bottom of the card with brads. Quick, simple, yet so elegant! I saw this technique on Patty Bennett's Blog here, back in April but never got around to trying it.

The second card uses a technique I first saw on Patty Bennet's Blog here. I didn't have the Fifth Avenue Floral set at the time so I used Embrace Life to experiment then gave the card away without photographing it first. What a dummy! Any who way... At club we only used 2 colors of reinkers so the results were very subtle. I ended up taking all the parts home because I wanted to stamp some sort of background on the card. I ended up using SU's retired Lace background in Pale Plum. The leaves were cut using a Sizzlets die which I then shaded with my Prismacolor Markers (Green Tea & the Colorless Blender) and I sponged some Mellow Moss onto the sentiment label. Once I got all the parts done to my liking I couldn't remember how the card went together so I just winged it.

Until next time...

Viva La Verve July Week 5

I actually made it through to the 5th and final week of these twisted challenges. The twist for this sketch was "texture" so for me that was embossing.
I started by stamping a sunflower background by Sonlight in Barely Banana on Very Vanilla. I originally stamped it in So Saffron on Barely Banana but then thought that might be overkill so I changed to the Vanilla and Banana. I then inked the edges with Mustard Seed Distress Ink. I cut a piece from Summer Sun, embossed with Cuttlebug's Music folder then inked the edges and raised portions with the Mustard Seed Ink. Used and EKSuccess border punch on the narrow Chocolate Chip strip at the top and embossed the Chocolate Chip piece at the side with the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss folder then tied with SU's Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon.
The center flower was cut and embossed from Summer Sun with a Spellbinders die. While still in the die, I stenciled the raised dots in the center with black and the petals with Mustard Seed. After removing it from the die I then pounced some Chocolate Chip in the center. The flower was then mounted to a Very Vanilla circle edged with Always Artichoke.
The sentiment from Verve was stamped and heat embossed on a piece cut from Always Artichoke with a Spellbinders Large Label die. I added 3 pearls around the flower and a small pearl to the dot over the "i" in Life and called it good.

Until next time...

Verve Challenge Week 4

Viva La Verve Sketch With a Twist for Week 4 of July involved using vellum. I LOVE using vellum. I have done many styles of Parchment craft with vellum - Tarjeteria Espanola, Tarjeteria en Pergamino, Brazilian Cartoes Rendados, Pergamano and I teach it hence my user name for Splitcoast Stampers "TarjTeachR". I love the lace look you can achieve by embossing on vellum. After doing this card I have a real itch to get out my parchment tools and do a full blown, traditional Parchment card.

The background, Lavish Lace by SU (1997), was stamped on white in Pixie Pink. The large vellum circle was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Contemporary Hearts Medallion, mounted to a Passion Pink circle then a Chocolate Chip scalloped circle. Stamped the flower from Verve in Pixie Pink on white, cut out and mounted in the center.
The smaller circle was cut with a plain circle die, embossed with the medallion center from the Contemporary Medallions set then the border of diamonds and posies was hand embossed using the diagonal grid from Pergamano. I then pierced 4 holes in between each diamond and posy and cut into crosses. This piece was then mounted to a Close to Cocoa plain circle and a Chocolate Chip scallop circle.
For the rectangular centerpiece I stamped the floral silhouette from Verve in Chocolate Chip on a Passion Pink plain rectangle then mounted it to a Chocolate Chip scallop rectangle.
The sentiment by SU was stamped on white in Pixie Pink, cut with SU's Word Window punch then mounted to a Chocolate Chip piece cut with SU's new Modern Label punch.

Til next time...

A Waltzingmouse Anniversary

On July 17th, my youngest son and his wife celebrated their 5th Wedding Anniversary. They had both liked my new stamps from Waltzingmouse and they love the color purple so the card sort of made itself. I don't use much designer paper on my cards but I had some of Basic Gray's Wisteria line and took the plunge. This card is very simple and basic so it really doesn't need any explaining but I just thought I'd share.

Buried Alive

I have been buried alive in "stuff" for the last few days. I am finally dejunking under the stairs where I tossed everything after closing down my Dollhouse Miniatures business over 10 years ago. I am nearly done but I still have 2 small table saws, a drill press and router table for the Dremel along with 2 jewelers lathes that need to find new homes. I have a 1/2 inch scale house that is only a quarter finished so I will probably just toss it along with my 1 inch scale fully landscaped gazebo unless we blow it up with fireworks.

I am hoping to upload several projects I have done since my last post as well as the final update on the baby robins before the weekend is out. Today is a major holiday here in Utah so I'm not sure just how caught up I will be by that time but here's hoping.

Until then...