A card and a quilt today

     This is going to be a bit of a long post - two things to showcase - a wedding card and a wedding quilt. Our grandson is getting married this Saturday so these are for him and his fiancée.  

First the card which is 5 x 7.

                              
    They are having an outdoor wedding - hope it doesn’t rain - so I wanted the card to reflect that. This is actually the second card I made. The first one had the same embossed background but on a A2 card base (4.25 x 5.5) and it was too small for the rest of the elements. So I set it aside to finish later and used a 5x7 card base instead.

I wanted them to stand under an arbour but I don’t have any arbour dies. I found a fancy Spellbinder die that had the top that would work so it was die cut and then I had to trim out the centre part so I could add a piece of off white behind it. The little silver hearts cover up the part that was not perfect. Then the large heart, leaves and butterflies were die cut and everything was assembled and then glued down. Small white pearls were glued to the arbour where little decorative holes were and to the butterflies.

The tag was stamped and embossed in silver embossing powder. The butterfly and silver heart were added to coincide with the top ones. The bride and groom was die cut twice from white cardstock and glued together but when it was laid it on the card, it was too blah….too much white even though all the elements are different coloured white. So it was die cut once again in black and glued to the white. So much better.

    So, lots of layers on this card but they loved it so that’s good.

    They also loved the quilt I made for them as a wedding present.

      This quilt pattern is called ‘Chandelier’ and it was a free pattern I found on Pinterest. Most of the chandelier quilts use white instead of the black but the batik really looked nicer on the black. I wanted to use the batik fabric that I’ve been saving (or maybe hoarding) for years…but I wanted every main block to be different and I ran out of batik fabric and used looks-like-batik and then just bright coloured fabric.

The quilt pattern was square which I hate so I added the extra rows to make it longer. The pattern also called for black to be inserted along the edges but I wanted colour there so I made more blocks and cut them in half and added them. They loved it as well. Whew!

    So, that’s all the posts for this week. I’ll be back next week though so be sure to return.

 Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

 

 

White on White Card

 Well this has been quite the week. Hubby was sick over the last weekend and unfortunately he passed it on to me this time. I wasn’t as sick as him but I slept most of Tuesday and Tuesday night and was still tired yesterday.  

If you saw my last post you will remember that we had snow - in April! Not usual even for this part of Canada. Luckily it was all melted by noon the next day and today it was over 50F. Strange, strange weather.

So today I’m posting a wedding card. My grandson is getting married this summer so I thought I’d make a few wedding cards and then pick the one that suits them best. I actually made this card for my neighbour’s daughter who got married last month and I’m thinking of making another one similar to this for my grandson. So far I like this one the best.

                                         
      This card is white on white but a satin white very elegant looking in real life....it looks bluish in the photo but it is not. The bottom layer was run though an embossing folder; then the next two layers were die cut using an old Spellbinder’s die. The fancy banner in the middle is from the same die set and I stamped “It’s Your Day” in the middle. Then white butterflies were die cut using an old Memory Box die. They were glued on and then sparkly light blue gems were glued in the centre. It is very pretty in real life.

That’s all for a very mild Thursday, April 21, 2022.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

 

Spring is Back!

        Spring is back! Its above freezing again – but rainy!....but that’s okay. We don’t have to shovel rain and it doesn’t make the sidewalks slippery. No frigid weather expected for the next two weeks but lots of rain coming. I have snowdrops blooming and daffodils and other spring bulbs are popping up as well…..love the signs of spring.

        I decided to make a wedding card last week without any particular couple in mind….but a young hip couple for sure. 

         First I die cut the bride and groom on the double bicycle twice and glued them together. Then I sat there looking at them and didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with them. So, I took out a piece of light yellow cardstock and sponged on some darker yellow and a touch of orange and die cut a circle. The background clouds came from a 6” paper pack. My first thought was to have the moon part way down the card with a horizon line but then I decided the bride and groom were flying off into their future so I glued them on the moon. Then I had to think of a sentiment and I used ‘forever love’ from two different die sets – each cut twice and glued together. It’s different than the usual wedding cards I make but the right couple will love it.

        That’s Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 all for a rainy Monday!

A Non-Traditional Wedding Card

        Another cool dreary day today but the Weather Network says we can expect more spring like temperatures starting tomorrow. It could be 17C (62F) but mostly cloudy so it won’t feel that warm…..but it’s a start!

        Wednesday I posted a wedding card that was pretty much a ‘traditional’ wedding card. Today I’m posting one for the more modern bride.

 

        This background paper is actually double sided and you will see more cards made from it later this month. Facebook has a ‘Marketplace’ where people post all kinds of articles for sale. One lady posted a zippered container that included paper and cardstock for $10.00. I have a container just like that and I figured the container itself was worth more than $10 even if the contents were few and of poor quality – wrong! I was so pleasantly surprised to find that container was FULL of beautiful paper and cardstock. Sometimes you win, sometimes not… but this time I was definitely a winner.

        Anyway, I had made a couple cards already from this paper and decided it would be a great background for a non-traditional wedding card. I die cut two stitched hearts of different sizes and glued the on overlapping one. Then I stamped butterflies and hearts and the sentiment on the top one. Then it was a simple matter of gluing on the bride and groom silhouette. This was definitely a quick and easy card.

        That’s all for a cool and cloudy Friday, April 5, 2019. Have a safe and creative weekend all and I’ll be back on Monday with another card.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

A Classic Wedding Card

        I’m happy to report that the snow has gone and hopefully for good for this spring. It was replaced with a cold north wind though. We went for a walk this morning through Paxton’s Bush which has 3 open fields around it and the wind loves to blow through the bush. It was not a pleasant walk at all….but we still got just over an hour’s walk in.

        The wedding season is coming so I decided to be on top of things and make some wedding cards. This is one of them.

 

         The background is just some old designer paper I needed to use up. Red roses seemed perfect for a classic wedding card. It was cut to 5 ½” and glued to a square card base. These do not cost extra to mail in Canada. Then the large stitched heart was die cut out of some shiny white cardstock that I picked up at the Paper Pickle went it had their closing sale….so sad. Anyway, it looked to blah by itself so I raided my lace stash….yes, I have a lace stash too… and carefully glued the lace all around the edge of the heart.  The silhouette was die cut and then set on so I knew where to stamp the sentiment….I used the Tim Holtz stamp positioner to make sure I got a good clear stamping of the sentiment. Then the bride and groom silhouette was glued on. It sill looked blah so some heart shaped gems were added….and I called it done.

        That’s all for a sunny, but definitely not warm, thanks to the cold north wind on April 3, 2019.

        Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

A Black and White Card

        Still fighting the lung infection but coughing less and less so I must be on the mend. I’ve only been out of the house twice in the last 3+ weeks and that was to go to the doctor’s. Joe went out and bought groceries again this week….bless his soul….he knows exactly what to get because we’ve always, for the last 31 years, got groceries together. I always laugh and tell him it takes both of us to make one good brain, what I forget we need, he remembers and vice versa.

        Today’s card is another ‘wonder if this will work’ card and I quite like how it turned out.

 

         I had die cut that large floral background die and had no idea what to do with it. I decided it might look nice as a background for a wedding card so I glued it to a white card base.

Before I added a black strip of cardstock so the silhouette I was adding would not be floating, I stamped and embossed the sentiment. Then a silver peel-off strip was glued over the seam. Them the bride and groom silhouette was die cut and glued on. I found some small pearl hearts in the stash and added them and then 5 individual pearls among the die cut background…..always do an uneven number of pearls or other embellishments. It is much more pleasing to the eye. I quite like how it turned out.

        That’s all for a cool Wednesday, March 20. 2019.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

A Borrrowed Stamp

I’m still under the weather with this strange virus that does not want to leave. I’m now waiting for the results of a blood test to see if it’s mononucleosis! Yikes, I hope not. I told the doctor that I do not know anyone with mono but she said it doesn’t matter. Sometimes a person’s body will just do it itself.

I really wanted to plant the lily bulbs that I bought in Toronto when I went with my sister to the Canada Blooms show. I had growing in small pots as per my sister’s suggestion and they needed to go out in the garden. I also had several packages of seeds I wanted to plant. It is quite warm today but the wind still has a bit of a bite but my keeper, oops sorry, hubby, was very concerned about me being outside. We compromised and he dug up the areas for me and I got them planted. As soon as I was done and before I could do anything else he said, “Okay, that’s it. You’re grounded again”. It is nice to have a husband that cares about my health and well-being and I’ve had the opposite in my first marriage that ended many decades ago so I don’t complain even when he seems a bit too concerned.

My friend, Jane, and I traded some stamps and dies. I only made this one card from her set. They did not stick to the acrylic blocks. She said I could use double sided tape but I don’t like to use that so I declined. I usually just put Aleene’s ‘Tack it Over and Over’ on mine. Here’s the one card I made with it....a Stampin' Up stamp.

 

I inked up the stamp with Versamark; picked it up with my hands and placed it on the blue cardstock; placed the acrylic block on top and pressed down. Then I had to carefully lift off the block making sure the stamp wasn’t partially stuck (it did the first time and landed on the card…garbage) and then embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I repeated it for the bottom. The sentiment came with the set and I did the same thing for it on a piece of velum. Then it was all glued to the white card base.

I did stamp a few in dark blue on white cardstock for future use but it was such a pain when they don’t stick to the block and it was hard to get a good impression so I quit. I haven’t been down in the lower studio (aka the basement) at all because it is so damp down there and obviously not the best place when fighting a virus. However, I have lots of cards and scrapbook layouts yet to post.

That’s all for a sunny April day, 26 April 2017.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards or other items I post to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know so I fix it. Thanks.

The Chosen One

So tired! Today was yard work day and time to put the garden to bed for the winter day….didn’t get it all done but did the most necessary….which means cutting back the roses and covering them with dirt. We have 22 rose bushes. The peonies and other perennials will have to wait until next week to be trimmed back. I won’t be doing much tonight except watching my Blue Jays play Cleveland in the first game of that series. Cleveland is my second favourite team so I’ll be happy no matter which one wins…but a bit happier if it’s Toronto.

I hope you have been enjoying the week of wedding cards and perhaps picked up a few hints and ideas too. Today I’m posting the card that Janette actually picked…and I knew she would be picking this one. I started thinking about her friend getting married. She is a lovely person who really enjoys being out in nature and her wedding is going to be small and at a lovely country chateau. So with that in mind I made a card that reflected her life.

 

I started out with a piece of plain white cardstock and this woodland embossing folder. The flat side of the folder was inked with very light blue ink and then it was run through the embossing folder. This leaves the embossed part stand out a little more. It’s hard to see in the photo because the blue is so light. To make it even more organic I ripped the edges of the white and then glued it to a piece of blue cardstock and then to the white card base. This card is 5.5 x 6.

The butterfly was die cut with a Memory Box die and just glued down the centre so the wings are free. Once again I used the Paper Smooches ‘celebrate’ die but only cut it in white. The ‘love’ was die cut with a Cuttlebug alphabet die. I was smart this time and ran the white cardstock through the Xerox first to get glue on the back so it was easier to glue down.

Small white pears were added to the body of the butterfly and around it. However as I look at it now, it needs one more small white pearl. I like uneven numbers of embellishments.

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

That’s the end of wedding cards. Next week I’ll post…..???? what ever pops in my head over the weekend. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. That’s all for now, 2016-10-14.

Cheers

Violet

Wedding Card Number Three

Another beautiful fall day here in Ontario….very cool at night but nice during the day…..just the way I like it. Not much to report today so I’ll get right to the card. After making two wedding cards for my daughter’s perusal I decided that these two are not going to be what she had in mind. Her friend is in her early 40’s and it is a second marriage so maybe a black and white card is not going to cut it. So, I went with a Champaign coloured card and black instead. Here’s what I came up with.

 

I started out with a thin piece of Champaign coloured cardstock so the first thing I did was run a scrap piece through an embossing folder – cracked in places which is what I was afraid would happen. To avoid this, simply place the thin paper between two pieces of scrap paper – like copy paper – and run it through – it embosses just find and no tearing or cracking. So that’s how the Swiss dots were embossed on the piece of thin paper. It was then glued to a white card base. The sentiment at the top was in a package of odds and ends I picked up at the thrift store so I have no idea who made it. It was printed on light grey velum so it was glued on black cardstock before being glued over the Swiss dots….it needed some stabilizing over the embossed dots.

Another piece of Champaign paper, but a bit darker in colour, was added over the Swiss Dots about half way down the page. The off-white flower was a premade one from Michaels who had a package of six on sale for less than a dollar… I think…. so I bought three packs of them. Behind the flower are coils of black and white baker’s twine. To get it to stay in place, I placed a large glue dot on the glue pad and looped the bakers twine around the glue dot and pressing it into the dot where I wanted it. Then I just had to lift up the glue dot and glue it to the card….but I added a bit of Zip Dry glue (my favourite glue) to the glue dot to make sure it would stay stuck. Then the flower was glued on top of the coils.

The word ‘celebrate’ was die cut in both white and black cardstock and then I glued the white on top of the black, off-side a bit so it looks like a shadow. This die is from Paper Smooches but it is not all one word but divided into three sections….which makes no sense to me but that’s how it came.

Well, I do like this card but it is not he one she chose. I’ll post the one she chose tomorrow…..and I knew as soon as I made it that that would be the one she would choose.

Cheers

Violet

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Wedding Card Number Two

My mouth is so frozen I don’t think it will thaw out until spring. I lost part of the filling and part of the tooth on Monday and it could not be refilled. The dentist had to put a silver cap on it instead. Hope it lasts! By the way, going to the dentist does not bother me in the least. I could fall asleep in his chair while he's working on me.

This is the second wedding card I made for my daughter to choose from.

This card is 5x6.5. The first layer was run through the Big Shot with the Swiss Dot embossing folder. The butterfly swag is a Memory Box die and it was die cut from black cardstock. The top designer paper is from an old 12x12 paper pack and it was die cut on an angle with the Spellbinder’s fancy border die. Then the same die was used to die cut a piece of black cardstock and glued behind it. It needed that contrast. The Spellbinder’s label was first die cut from white cardstock and then glued to a piece of black and I cut around it to give it a tiny border. The sentiment was from one of those .99 Michael stamps but it was attached to another sentiment so once again, I cut it apart. I can hear some of you cringing but I do it all the time.

That’s all for a lovely sunny day here in Ontario, 2016-10-12. It gets very cold at night but lovely during the day. Perfect weather in my mind! The trees around here have just started to change colour and some not at all...they are very late this year likely because it has been so much warmer in September and October. In fact my roses are still blooming like crazy and they should be forming rose hips and getting ready for winter. Hope we don’t lose them over the winter. We need at least one heavy frost to get the plants ready for winter.

Cheers

Violet

A Black and White Wedding Card

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for here in Canada. It was a sunny but cool long weekend here in Ontario…..and very quiet for us, especially for a holiday. We opted to stay home this weekend because we couldn’t find a time for us and the daughters and their families to be together except for a couple of hours and it’s too far to drive for such a short visit. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I ended up with a weird speech and pain from the brain disorders on Sunday and on top of that, my throat got sore yesterday. Today Joe had a slight sore throat….oh, oh hope we don’t have colds coming on! And then, just to make it more interesting, I lost a piece of my filling on one of my back teeth this afternoon. Sure hope the dentist is in tomorrow. So far enough filling is left that it’s not hurting but for how long???? I’ll be calling first thing in the morning!

In spite of all the downsides of this weekend, I did get some cards and scrapbooking done. My daughter’s best friend is getting married and Janette asked me if I would make a wedding card for her. Of course I was pleased to do so. In fact, I’ve made four so she can have a choice. Here’s the first one I made.

 

This card has many layers – four I think. It was made with a Spellbinder’s fancy die set and I think I used all the dies in the set except one label die.  The first layer is the black cardstock that was glued onto the white card base. The fancy cut large die cut was glued to black cardstock. The next layer has two parts…. the one large piece was die cut in white but I wanted something behind the filigree end pieces so I ran the die through the Big Shot but only embossing it, not cutting it. Then I simply cut around it and glued it behind the filigree piece which adds so much more dimension. It was attached to the larger piece with dimensional tape. The black label was die cut and the sentiment was embossed with white embossing powder. This small sentiment was originally attached to a larger stamp (not sure of manufacturer) so I just cut it off….which I do quite often if I want just one part of the stamp. This card is much nicer in real life where you can see the layers clearly.

That’s all for a lovely Thanksgiving Monday, October 10, 2016.

Don’t forget you are more than welcome to save any cards to your Pinterest account for future reference. Simply place the curser over the picture until the Pinterest save sign shows up in the top left corner and enter. This will take you to your Pinterest account. If it doesn’t work, please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Cheers

Violet

Two Cards Today

I just looked at the calendar and wow, Christmas is next week! The one drawback of being retired, for me anyway, is that I seldom know what the date is and sometimes I don’t even know what day of the week it is. Joe suggested once that we shouldn’t get up until we know what day it is – I told him some days there would be a good chance I would wet the bed before that happened! He quickly dropped that suggestion. I have all the blocks for the Irish Chain completed and now I just have to lay them out how I like them and sew them together. I had to quit working on it when I realized I hadn’t made my granddaughter a pillow yet. I found one extra block and some left over pieces from the quilt I made her last year and I asked her if she would like a pillow to match and she said a very quick “yes”. Done!

 

Today I’m posting two cards because they are very similar to each other.

 

The card bases are the light blue. They came in a pack of pre-folded cards and envelopes from the dollar store and I wanted to use them up. The dies are all Spellbinders. I love this lacy background die and it is just die cut from white cardstock. It is attached to blue card base with slivers of dimensional glue strips – yes, cutting that tiny is a pain but the end result is worth it. It looks better in real life though as it doesn't show much in the photo.

The middle die was cut out of the same white cardstock and the sentiments were stamped with some blue ink I had that matched the card base. It was okay but I decided it needed some pizzazz. So, I covered up the area below where the fancy scroll starts with scratch paper and inked the scrolled part with VersaMark and then the same blue ink as the sentiment and then clear embossing powder and heat set it. I have very few colours of embossing powder so this is my usual method of achieving coloured embossing.  The bottom part was done the same way. Then I tied the bows, attached them and added a pearl. I like a pearl on wedding cards.

That’s all for a Wednesday,

Cheers

Violet

 

An Elegant Card and our New Prime Minister

This has been a busy week. So busy I forgot to post a card yesterday! The weather is so nice we have been going for long walks and just enjoying this record breaking warm weather.

We had a federal election last month and our new Prime Minister was sworn in this week. Here is our new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

So many people are talking about what a hottie he is (he's married with children) but personally I just hope he is as good a leader for Canada as he was while campaigning. He is easy on the eyes though, I have to admit.....but only if you like them tall, dark and handsome!

I have a pile of Christmas cards made and waiting to be photographed but too busy to do it yet. So today’s card is a wedding card I recently made.

This card did not photograph as well as I hoped it would so you will have to take my word for it – it’s beautiful and elegant. The cake and doves were stamped on white cardstock with VersaMark and then white embossing powder and heat set it. The doves were just an outline so I filled the bodies in with a VersaMark pen and white embossing powder and heat set them. Using chalk, I sponged pink around each flower swag and then green for the leaves and some light blue around the edges….. and extended some of the chalk into the background – but lighter in value. The swirl at the top left is from a Cuttlebug small die. The tag (Little B die) at the bottom is popped up with dimensional glue dots. The sentiment was stamped in light blue. This was mounted on a white card base and then the sequins were glued on.

That’s all for a nice warm Thursday, (but chance of thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow and then back to cooler temperatures).

Cheers

Violet

 

So Much Love......

I used to have a picture of the world hanging from a string and a pair of scissors from a magazine on my fridge that said, “Every time I think I’ve got the world by the string, someone shows up with a pair of scissors!” Things have been going pretty smoothly here but late last night I attempted to heat something up in the microwave and it died in a blaze of sparks! Wow, is that scary! I quickly opened the door to turn it off and unplugged it immediately. You don’t realize how often you actually use something until it’s gone. This morning I went to make my oatmeal and no microwave; Joe wanted a sandwich for lunch but the vegetarian luncheon meat called Tofurkey slices was in the freezer and it would take to long to thaw them out on the counter. After lunch we went out and bought another microwave.

Today’s card is another wedding card that I actually quite like.

 

Please ignore the grey colour – I forgot to turn on my OTT light when I took these photos so there is a bit of a shadow on some of them. Trust me, it is completely white. The stamp is a little .99 stamps that I’ve had for a long time. I coloured the male bird black for a tuxedo look and the “bird bride” had pearl Stickles spread over her back; then small rhinestones were added down their sides. The leaves and the branch were quickly coloured in with markers and chalk was sponged around the birds. The fancy circles were from three different Spellbinder die packs. The sentiment was from another .99 set and three more rhinestones were added to it as well.

The background is a piece of white cardstock that I ran through one of the new embossing folders I just bought at the Paper Pickle. It was ¼” smaller than the white card base. I wanted to accent and define the edge but the peel-off lines choices were silver or gold and I didn’t like either one. So I took three silver peel-off lines and placed them on an empty spot on another set and ran Ranger’s Alcohol Ink over the top to turn them blue. They really do add to the card I think. If you have silver peel-offs and alcohol inks you can make them any colour you want.

That’s all for a rainy Friday, September-18-15! Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Cheers

Violet

 

Wedding Card Number Two

I love this kind of temperatures – warm but no humidity. The clothes are flapping on the clothesline and should dry in record time. There is, however, the hint of fall in the wind but we’re enjoying the nice weather while we can.

Today’s card is the second wedding card I made. I have no idea what I’m going to create when I sit down as I seldom ever have a plan or pattern in mind. It is what it is – either good or into the big “G”. This one escaped the garbage or recycle bin.

 

This time I decided to die cut a fancy hole in the centre of the card with a Spellbinder’s die. Then a frame was cut using the next size die and the original. The frame was white but it was inked with platinum ink to give it that shiny appearance. The sentiment inside was stamped with the same platinum ink which is what gave me the idea to ink the frame. The sentiment was then framed with another platinum inked frame same as the front.  

 

First the ribbon was glued down and the little pearl heart added. The leafy stem was die cut with a Die-Namites die and the leaves were inked with platinum ink. The largest butterflies were die cut with a Memory Box die and the small ones were from Stampin’ Up. The little platinum butterfly is actually on the inside under the sentiment. It, the embossed dots on the top butterfly and the tops of butterfly on the left were also inked with platinum. Then I just added some of the pearls I just bought at the Paper Pickle and the larger ones on the butterflies from the dollar store.

That’s all for a lovely Friday. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

  Cheers

Violet

 

First Wedding Card

Today was yard and lawn work. The fall clean-up is not nearly as much fun as the spring planting. Every summer goes by quicker than the last one. I remember when my youngest daughter was going into grade 11, I think, and about a week before school started she said, “I can’t believe school starts next week. The summer has flown by……OH MY GOD, I sound like you. Am I old now?” Funny kid.

Before I started in on the yard work I made a quick trip to the library and stopped at our local scrapbooking store, The Paper Pickle, to see if they had any tiny adhesive pearls…..the dollar store only had large ones. They did have them but they also had some embossing folders on sale for $3.00 each so I quickly grabbed 3 of them…..love my embossing folders. Then I spotted some glimmer paper perfect for wedding cards so they were added. $20 later I left….after ordering two more Spellbinder dies….(big sigh)…oh well, at least I don’t drink or smoke! Gotta spend my money on something ‘cus you can’t take it with you.

This is one of the wedding cards that I made this week.

This background paper was in a pack that I picked up at the thrift store and thought it would be perfect for wedding cards. It has a faint printed background with just a hint of light blue here and there. So, first I ran it through an embossing folder to get some texture on just one side. Light blue ink was randomly sponged on over the embossed area.

 

“Congratulations” was stamped in blue ink right onto the white ribbon. It’s prettier in real life. Then I glued on the matching white bow. The butterflies were all die cut with two different Memory Box dies and glued on. Then I added the pearl drops by using Rangers Pearl Stickles. This is when I decided I really needed to buy some real small pearls. These ones turned out alright but it is a pain to get them the same size.

That’s all for a lovely summer day….oh wait, it’s September isn’t it!

Cheers

Violet

ps: Jinxxxygirl, I need your new email and address if you are so inclined to send it to me. Thanks.

 

 

A Wedding Card and Birds

This weekend was a holiday weekend in Canada. It started out being called Victoria Day named after the former queen of England but somewhere along the way it ended up being the May 24^th holiday even though it doesn’t always fall on the 24^th. Now it’s just referred to as May 2-4. We did get some more bird watching in but the photos are not the best as the birds were either way up high or in a tangle of bushes. We did see the rare Brewster’s Warbler though so that was nice. Unfortunately my camera started to fall apart on Saturday - not kidding. The outer housing that holds the lenses came loose and by Saturday night I knew I wasn't going to use it on Sunday. I have a back-up camera but I missed my Canon. Hope they can fix it.

 This is the Brewster. You can see what I mean about being in a tangle. I just took these so we would have proof that we saw this bird.

 The Common Yellow throat (below) is one of my favourites. He was waaaaaay back in the swampy area.

 Joe laughed as I took a picture of the Turkey Vultures but I told him I just had to take a photo of something sitting still and not in a tangle. Man are they ugly birds!

Today was doing laundry, cleaning the car and puttering around day.

Today’s card is a wedding card I made a couple of weeks ago.

While I was tiding things up and rearranging things in the lower studio where I craft (aka the basement) I came across a bag of wedding themed items including that bride and groom kissing under an arch but it was an odd colour of paper which is why I’ve never used it. Time to do something with it! I took my little jar of Tsukineko 70 Vegas Gold all-purpose ink, gave it a good shake then used a sponge to sponge on a couple of layers until I liked how it looked. That ink will cover up just about any colour. Love it. It was then glued to the black cardstock. The butterfly panel on the left is a Memory Box die. Then I just added the Spellbinder’s die cut label with the Mr. & Mrs. on it after it was edged in black. It needed a little something at the top so some gold rimmed pearl peel-offs were added. It will do nicely I think.

That’s all for a holiday Monday,

Cheers

Violet

A Wedding Card on a Busy Day

This was busy, wet day today! The forecast for the entire week is rain, rain, and rain with thunderstorms! April showers indeed! We absolutely had to go for groceries today – not a slice of bread in the house, no fresh fruit or veggies left and running low on milk. Neither one of felt like getting them over the weekend or even yesterday but today we just had to go. Talk about being lazy! Just before we left for groceries my friend called to see if could possibly look after her daycare kids while she went for a doctor’s appointment this afternoon. Joe had an appointment as well and it worked out fine for him to drop me off and pick me up later so I said sure I would help her out. She wasn’t gone that long but Joe had the car so we had a nice long visit while watching the kids play. We were waiting for the kids’ parents to pick them up we were sitting talking….about quilting of course….and I had two of the three year olds sitting on my knee jabbering away. Phene and I were chatting and not paying much attention to them until it registered what they were saying – they were arguing about whose grandma I was.   “She’s my grandma!” “No, she’s my grandma” over and over and we both had a good laugh over it. We have no idea why they decided I was a grandma because they know my name but it was funny. By the time Joe picked me up we were both tired and hungry and ended up going out for Chinese food for supper. Like I said, busy day! Isn’t that typical – you go for groceries in the morning and eat out at night!

The wedding season is coming soon so I thought I’d make a couple of wedding cars to have on hand. Here’s one of them.

I love how this card turned out. I ran a piece of white cardstock through the Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder leaving about 1 ¼ space in the middle flat. To do this just put one end of the cardstock in the folder, leaving the other end stick out the end and run it through your machine – I have Big Shot now. Turn the cardstock around and do the same thing. I had made a light pencil mark where I wanted the embossed part to start. Then I placed it on the Scor-Pal and ran embossed lines on either side of the flat spot. The sentiment was stamped in gold but didn’t show up as nicely as I wanted so I went over it with a gold pen. The gold and white hearts are peel-offs. The white flower vine is one of my new dies from Die-namites that I won. The large white flower came from a bunch from the dollar store and I just cut them off and hot glued it on.

That’s all for a wet and rainy Tuesday,

Cheers

Violet

Fireworks!

The firework display over the Detroit River last night was fantastic – at least on television! Every year, the last Monday of June, Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario team up to put on a spectacular firework display. Three barges are positioned on the river and they all have fireworks going off at the same time and it is all computerized. I’ve never seen it in person but a friend of mine has and she said it was extremely noisy, as I already figured it would be, and the traffic afterwards is a nightmare. Seeing as Joe and I both worked getting home at 2 or 3 in the morning and getting up for work the next day was not a good idea…and besides that I’ve heard that people get there early in the morning to stake out a place to sit and they stay there ALL DAY. We are retired now but my brain disorders do not like loud noises so we just watch it on television. Loved it!

Of course, it got us thinking about other fireworks displays we have both seen and one sticks out in our minds that we shared, and one is a favourite memory of mine. About 18 years ago we took our granddaughter, who was about six at the time, up north and it turned out that particular town/village was advertising fireworks that night. Cool! We set out in good time but still had to park about half a mile away, or so it seemed; bored to death as there was NOTHING to do at this park to keep the kids entertained; batted off mosquitoes the size of bumblebees; and waited and waited and waited. Then, mercifully, they started. They let them off one at a time and about seven minutes in they let 6 or 7 off and everyone started clapping. It was over. Wait, really, that’s it? And then we heard one guy say, “That was way better than last year.” So glad we missed last year! We still laugh about it.

My childhood memory goes like this. I think I would be about six or seven at the time. A village near us had a fun-filled evening for fireworks. The adult men and older teen boys played donkey baseball – yes, they had to ride donkeys around the bases and the outfielders had to ride them too. It was crazy fun as donkeys are not exactly docile or obedient. They had all kinds of fun things for the kids as well and then, as soon as it was dark, the fireworks. This was held in a fairground with grandstands so most people sat there but some sat on blankets on the grass. Each year the fireworks were piled in huge box and the men would take one out and place it on the ground and let it go. They had a few men doing this so it was pretty constant. However, this one year after only a couple were fired, one of them backfired and flew into the box containing the rest of the firecrackers. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM one by one they all started going off and shooting every which way but up. Mothers and fathers grabbed their kids and ran for cover. Little kids ended up crying because their parents scared them by grabbing them and besides that they knew that was the end of the night; teenagers were rolling on the ground laughing thinking it was the funniest thing they ever saw; and the parents were shaking their heads and wondering how the world this happened. It was over in minutes. I don’t think anyone was hurt but it sure put a damper on the night and I do believe they took extra precautions after that so it didn’t happen again. Isn’t it odd what we keep in our memory?

Okay enough rambling. This is the third wedding card I made with red roses and it is the one the lady chose.

Same red rose background paper that came from the dollar store. The stamp is Penny Black stamp that was either gifted to me or I picked it up at the thrift store because I know I didn’t buy it new. I have no idea if it’s still available. The roses were coloured with Prismacolor pencils and then I went over them with a VersaMark pen and added the silver eye shadow from the Dollar Tree – a tip from The Frugal Crafter! Look for any eye shadow that contains mica. It is the mica that causes the shine as if you used the Wink of Stella pen – but much cheaper. Then I added a few pearls here and there. Hope the bride and groom like it!

We enjoyed another play at Port Stanley today and drove home through a wicked thunderstorm and then ate supper out. Overall we had a great day. Hope your day was wonderful too.

Cheers

Violet