Golden Anniversary

What a frustrating couple of days we have had.  All caused because our portable BBQ’s regulator fell off and we thought we should replace it…although we have been using it and it does work. We bought a new one and decided yesterday to put it together. Ooooooh what a piece of junk it was. Nothing fit together and their instructions had bolts going the wrong way so we had to take it apart, and apart and apart trying to get things to fit right. The kicker came when we attempted to attach the legs and leg supports. The leg supports were obviously the wrong ones and they just fell right off. Now Joe and I have put lots of things together – shelves, BBQ’s, etc. over the past 25 years and we never have a problem and never have an argument but yesterday we just looked at each other and said “That’s it, its going back”. We packed it back in the box; half assembled, and took it back to the store.
 

This afternoon we decided to look for a new burner and regulator – 5 stores and zip, nauta, nothing. Our BBQ is a few years old and they don’t seem to make replacement parts for it anymore. We looked at new ones while we were looking for parts. Portable BBQ’s are either cheap junk at $50.00 or less or expensive at $200.00. At one point Joe looked over at me and said, "We had less trouble buying our new car."....so right! So, in the end, I washed up the old one and we have put it back together the best we could and we are going to use it until it gives up completely – while we look for a good one on sale!

 

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, on with the card. A friend of mine asked me to make her a card for her friend’s 50^th wedding anniversary. Here’s what I came up with.

 

(Just noticed the camera error -  the sentiment is on white paper, not grey - grrrrr. I have to find some better lighting when I take these pictures)

 

Two stamps used. First I stamped the flowers (sorry no manufacturer's name on stamp) on a piece of scrap paper and cut it out around the flowers. Then it was stamped with VersaMark and heat embossed in gold on Bella’s Bestest Paper (Stamping Bella). I ran some temporary adhesive across the back of the first stamped piece and placed it over the gold one to act like a mask. Today I learned something new using masks from “the frugal scrapper’s” blog. You can spray the back of what you are using for a mask with quilt basting spray, let it dry and then apply it. Being that I also quilt, I have lots of spray on hand so I will use it for large masks. For small masks I use post-it notes.

Sorry, off topic once again. I stamped up a Stamping Bella stamp with black Archival ink and stamped it on my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. Once the mask is in place I placed the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig over the stamped flowers to get the couple in the middle of the arch, removed the plastic piece, and stamped the image again. Perfect placement every time. Then I coloured the stamped images with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol and chalked around the people and the outside. The top corners were rounded with my round-it scissors. I don’t have the big Corner Chopper one, just scissors that work fine but only cardstock, nothing heavier. Seeing as the 50^th anniversary is gold, I cut a piece of gold paper, rounded the corners on it and glued it all together. A piece of the same gold was cut into a strip and added across the bottom of a preprinted card from Paper Wishes. The sentiment was printed out on my computer and added to the gold strip. The gold embellishment was made using two of the Spellbinder Majestic Squares die. Love those dies.

 

That’s it. Hope she likes it. Before I close off I have another hint for you. If you have trouble opening those plastic garbage pail bags that come stuck together, wet your fingers first and then rub the edge. It will open without any problem.

 

Cheers

 Violet