#16 Flowers

I never quite got on the Prima bandwagon, although I was tempted. However, for many years my Mom created gorgeous silk flower arrangements-- for our home, as gifts, and occasionally "on commission" for someone who admired her talent. When my parents moved from their big home to a much smaller one, I inherited a lot of Mom's craft items, especially huge boxes of silk flowers and and ribbons.

I finally dug through the attic and found some of the flowers I loved and have been using them for my cards. The fluffiness of the silk flowers (as opposed to the flat Primas) makes the cards more difficult to mail, but since I hand-deliver many to co-workers I still can indulge.

This card was inspired by one I had drooled over at the Paper Crafts magazine "Gallery Idol Challenge," created by Daniela D.

http://www.papercraftsmag.com/gallery/details.ihtml?idx=49898

I, too, made my card long and narrow, to fit in a #10 business envelope.... but not just any business envelope! Lucky me-- I found about six boxes of 50 each vellum business envelopes at the Dollar Store a while back. Hand-delivering a silk flower card in a translucent envelope really is eye-catching.

=====================

Happy Birthday Stamp by Co-Motion Rubber Stamps

(long gone and greatly missed)

=====================

#15 Great Gift for a Baby Boomer!

No card today but something I just had to share! I'll be turning 50 this week, and my husband and daughter bought me the most wonderful gift for a baby boomer: a turntable that plugs directly into the USB port of your computer, so you can turn all your vinyl into CDs.

I don't know anyone who has actually given up their albums. Like me, they've been stored someplace simply because it was too heart-wrenching to think of tossing them. We haven't had a turntable in the house for probably 20 years (got too hard to find the needles), but the albums have been lovingly maintained, although I wasn't sure for what.... Now I know!

First albums that got transferred?

• Elton John: Madman Across the Water (approx. 1971)


• Boz Scaggs: Silk Degrees (approx. 1975)


• Rupert Holmes: Partners in Crime (about 1980-- remember "Escape/The Piña Colada Song"?)


• Art Garfunkel: Breakaway (his solo album, 1975)


• Four albums down and about 215 to go!

Thank you-thank you-thank you, Mike and Beth for an absolutely wonderful gift! I don't know how you can say I'm hard to buy for...!

#14 Little things make a difference

I have been snatching up every single $1.00 clear stamp set from Michael's that I can find-- well, not every one, but most of them. Since I've previously purchased wood-mounted exclusively, there are a lot of gaps in my stamp library. It seemed that those little flourishes cost almost as much as a big, yummy stamp, so I had a tendency to avoid the sentiments and the decorative stamps. These little, inexpensive clear stamp sets have opened a new door for me and I'm inching my way through!

Both the "Hello!" and those rows of tiny little stars come from various Studio G sets. The scalloped square was stippled in the same turquoise ink and is from a punch (it's a Marvy punch that provides a 2" square punch-out-- not sure what hyperbole of a size that makes it), and the delicate yellow lacy thing is a die cut from a Cuttlebug 4 piece "Victorian" die set.

The sunflower is from a pad of Mary Engelbreit page markers-- tiny little post-it notes to mark your spot... or make a focal spot on your card!

#13 Simple isn't necessarily bad, I guess

I have had a couple of very busy months, and although I've made a lot of cards, they have been very simple ones out of sheer necessity. Maybe that's not all bad.

Initially, I didn't really care for this Thinking of You/Get Well card I made for my mother-in-law, but she loved it. I guess it's growing on me, although without a lot of layers, embellishments and stamping, it still feels a little naked to me-- and as if I've somehow cheated.

By the way, Louise over at Kard Krazy had the most wonderful tip today-- a real "smack-up-side-the-head-why-didn't-I-think-of-that???" idea. She separated out all of her little clear stamp sets into categories (e.g., all the flowers, all the sentiments, etc.) rather than leave them in the pre-packaged sets. As soon as I have a few minutes to call my own, I'm going to follow her lead:

http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/2007/07/something-different.html

=========================

Stamps: Studio G Clear Stamp Set from Michael's

Background: Anna Griffin

=========================

#12 Oinking of You!

A co-worker was in the hospital and has now been recuperating at home for quite some time, so I'm trying to send out a card as often as I can. "Get Well" isn't quite the right sentiment for the situation and plain old "Hi!" and "Thinking of You" are getting a little worn. I love this little piggy stamp from Gina K. Designs, so I computer generated the sentiment to go with it. The stamping is done on a paint chip that was being considered for a bathroom repainting project, but the color was hastily vetoed by the hubby....

By the way-- is anyone else having problems uploading titles into their posts? I haven't been able to do so for the past few days.

=======================

Gina K. Pig (Gina K. Designs) from All That Scraps
~Christine at All That Scraps offers free S&H on orders over $10.00-- and it sure is easy to spend that in her store!

http://www.allthatscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=245_250

=======================

#11 Brayer Challenged

Although I love the many beautiful effects other stampers create with the use of a brayer, I'm not one of the lucky ones. I can count on one hand (and prior to this card, one finger!) the number of cards I've managed not to toss after using any sort of a brayer technique.

I'm not even sure what I'll do with this card... I thought maybe a Sympathy card (have had to make waaaaay too many of those lately), but decided it's just too garish. I guess it could become a birthday or "just because" card without offending anyone.

Does anyone have any suggestions for brayer tutorials or other references? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

======================

~Stamp: from All Night Media 's "Ornamental" Set, embossed in detail gold EP

~Ribbon is actually Lion Brand Ribbon Yarn in the "Carnival" color

~The purple background card is a cut up legal-size file folder-- I found a box of 100 of them at the Dollar Store a couple of years ago. Love the color and weight of the cardstock, and I'll be using them forever!

======================

#10 Can't tell I'm a stamper by my cards, can you?

I absolutely adore rubber stamping and have been at it for more than 15 years (and untold hundreds-- thousands?-- of dollars later). But lately, I seem to be using a lot of other techniques in my card making, instead.


Some of that may be due to several recent massive purchases of Sizzix items that are going for pennies on the dollar, as they unload "old logo" inventory. However, I think the real reason is because I recently completely cleaned and reorganized my stamp room. Good heavens! I found stuff by the truckload that I had forgotten about... It was like Christmas, only it was all stuff I wanted!


Anyway, this card is for a co-worker who just celebrated the arrival of a new grandson. Jodi's husband is a minister, so I searched for a sentiment they would appreciate, although it's computer generated. It says "Babies are bits of stardust blown from the hand of God." Inside, I wrote "From God's hand to your grandparents' hearts. Welcome, Noah!"


The star is a Sizzix diecut, covered with pigment ink and glittered while still wet (Art Institute Transparent Glittering System-- not sure of color names, but a pretty royal blue on the edges and white in the center.)

The very center of the star has a small resin charm in the shape of a baby bib