Silhouette Songbird

I'm back! I was out of town on a business trip last week, but it wasn't all work (and even the work was pretty fun I have to say). I was able to attend my cousin's wedding and visit with family while I was away. The wedding was wonderful. It was a lovely ceremony, the bride (my cousin) was breathtakingly beautiful, and the reception in my aunt's garden rivalled the Governor-General's garden parties (or at least what I imagine them to be, since I haven't actually been to one yet). And to gild the lily, I got to spend some stamping time with my aunt during the week. I got to go to her LSS too, and found some treasures that I can't wait to start using. I found out that Lisa Strahl (!) was teaching at that LSS the day I flew out. I almost changed my flight to attend, when I found that out, but I found out after I got home, so it was beyond my reach on the space-time continuum to do that. But if I coulda, I woulda.

Now, about this card. I needed a card for my boss who will be going on extended leave soon. I wanted to use a silhouette stamp, and this one was one of the first ones I found (things are still in slings in my stamping area). I had planned to do a quickie card with my brayer and an Adirondack spectrum pad, but my brayer is nowhere to be found. I hope I find it soon. I've lost my little brayer, and I hoped it would turn up in the move, but no such luck. Now the big brayer is missing too. I miss my brayers!

Anyway, back to the card. Plan B was to make my own multicoloured background using my Colorbox stylus and foam tips with chalk ink. I've used this colour combination a few times before, and I would have tried something different only my boss seems to really like these colours so I used them. I added a little branch stamp in the background with platinum brilliance ink and light blue chalk ink. The bird is embossed in black and I added a frame around the whole thing with markers. I dithered with the ribbon for some time, added it twice and took it off twice, even curling it once with my heat tool (don't heat it too much or it will get holes in it...sigh...). After deciding the holey ribbon didn't really add a lot, I cut it off, but after I had the whole thing put together, I felt it needed ribbon after all so I squeezed it back on, threading it under the image panel. I was going to add my trusty Espresso acrylic paint dots, but I could only find my bottles of the coloured paint, not the black one, so I had to use brads. They show on the inside, but not too much since they had to through five layers of cardstock.... (I know, in addition to being a brayer addict, I am also a layer addict). And that's it for the card!

This weekend is shaping up to be a good one. Today was a barbecue down by the river for work, which made for a very pleasant afternoon. It's nice to see colleagues outside the office. Then this evening after the mad-chore-dash, The Office season finale from the spring was on and I got to do some stamping! The fun continues tomorrow when we're going to the fair (my thrill-seeking 2-year-old is going to love the rides), and my elder daughter has her dear friend coming for a sleepover afterwards. Then on Saturday we get to play with our niece and nephew and then Sunday we clean the house (likely the low point of the weekend) because my parents come for a visit on Monday. I can't wait!

Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies: Stamps: Song Bird - Penny Black, In Full Bloom, Linen - Stampin' Up; Ink: Kiwi Kiss, colorbox chalk (warm violet, wisteria, lime pastel), aspen mist versa? chalk, versamark; Paper: PTI white, basic black, silver, kiwi kiss; Other: black embossing powder, black brads, orchid organdy ribbon (retired SU), Tombow marker, stylus, foam tips.

I'm back - then gone again!

Hi! It's been too long since I've posted. There have been a lot of changes for our household. We are moved in now, and all the essentials are unpacked. I can cook and bake in my kitchen, and more importantly, stamp in my stamp nook! I have 95% of my stamping gear unpacked, in arranged to allow some usability. It's not the final configuration, but I need to give that a bit more thought before I purchase any furniture or storage arrangements. I did sort through my Stampin' Up sets to decide which ones will got to new homes since if I kept all my stamps, I wouldn't have room for any new ones (collective gasps of horror are then heard throughout the nations!). (And before you think I'm being presumptuous about my readership, I get hits from the US, and from all over the world. Not in enormous numbers, granted, but enough to justify the little "s" on nation.)

In other changes, we have started with a new daycare since the move (it was very hard to say goodbye to the old one) and DD1 has started in a new school (Grade 1!). It's very nice to be closer to family, and I took advantage of being closer to the cinema and went to see Mamma Mia (soo, sooo good!).

When faced with the big box of stamps to find new homes for, I felt badly about selling some of them since they hadn't been loved enough here. I decided that I would play with those in particular to "get them out of my system" and to see if I really couldn't part with them.

This card was the first set chosen, a hostess set from a couple of catalogues back, Reason to Smile. I have loved this set since I saw it, but never stamped with it. I remember seeing an awesome card done with it by Julie Buhler (blog - Paper Pleasing Ideas) where she coloured in all the flowers different colours. It looked stunning. Not one to take the easy route when stamping, I wanted to give that a whirl. I coloured each type of flower (and there are six, all very tiny) a different colour. Various flowers are accented with stickles and my glitter pen. Once that was done, pulling the card together didn't take that long (mostly because I was tired and it was time for bed). The background flowers are from Polka Dots and Petals, stamped in Platinum Brilliance. The ribbon is retired organdy ribbon that I had out to cut lengths as a little gift for my stamp club members for filling out my new catalogue Scavenger Hunt. It's the orchid colour, and it matched quite well.

Thanks for looking and don't hold your breath for my next post. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for Victoria for a family wedding this weekend, followed by a trip for work, also in Victoria. The work trip sounds really interesting and I'm excited about it. And who would turn down a trip to the West Coast!?! It will be great to see my family too, a rare and special pleasure. My aunt is a stamper too, so I hope to have a little time stamping with her in her fabulous stamping room. I hope once the wedding dust settles we'll get a chance.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Happy stamping!

Supplies: stamps: Reason to Smile, Polka Dots and Petals; Ink: chalk ink - warm violet, French blue, platinum brilliance; paper: PTI white, orchid opulence, cool Caribbean; other: orchid organdy ribbon, flower brad (Making Memories?), Tombow markers, stickles, glitter pen, deep well of patience.