They have a lovely light fragrance and a beautiful pop of color.
Close up, it's intense.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Encouragement
I made this card for a friend of mine who was going through a rough patch. I was inspired by an image I found on Pinterest.
I had an ideal scrap paper that looks like ocean waves which I layered on a plain blue paper. The fish is made from grosgrain ribbons and has a googly eye. The bubbles coming from his mouth are pearl stickers.
I printed the sentiment on blue parchment cardstock and cut it out with a scalloped edge scissors to mimic the ocean waves.
On the inside, I added more wave paper, trimming the top into the shape of waves. I used more of the blue parchment cardstock for the inside sentiment.
I signed the back as usual.
To carry the theme through, I used the scalloped edge scissors to trim the edge of the envelope into waves.
.
I lined the envelope with a coordinating scrapbook paper.
I hope the card gave her the encouragement she needed.
--
Inspired by winkchic:
I had an ideal scrap paper that looks like ocean waves which I layered on a plain blue paper. The fish is made from grosgrain ribbons and has a googly eye. The bubbles coming from his mouth are pearl stickers.
I printed the sentiment on blue parchment cardstock and cut it out with a scalloped edge scissors to mimic the ocean waves.
On the inside, I added more wave paper, trimming the top into the shape of waves. I used more of the blue parchment cardstock for the inside sentiment.
I signed the back as usual.
To carry the theme through, I used the scalloped edge scissors to trim the edge of the envelope into waves.
.
I lined the envelope with a coordinating scrapbook paper.
I hope the card gave her the encouragement she needed.
--
Inspired by winkchic:
Friday, May 29, 2020
Memory Maker
Dale and I are back at it. We completed another 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle this morning.
This is one that Dale received for his birthday earlier this month. It's by his favorite illustrator (for puzzles), Charles Wysocki. It's called Memory Maker because memories are what this photographer offers to help create.
The images have such a lot of great detail. The quality of Buffalo puzzles is great. I appreciate that this puzzle didn't have many oddball-shaped pieces.
I must admit, though, that I just about gave up on this one about half way through. All those leaves and trees were simply too difficult. But Dale persisted. Once he got more random pieces in place, I was able to sort the remainder of the pieces by shape. After that, I was able to help him finish.
It really is a wonderful image and piece of Americana.
This is one that Dale received for his birthday earlier this month. It's by his favorite illustrator (for puzzles), Charles Wysocki. It's called Memory Maker because memories are what this photographer offers to help create.
The images have such a lot of great detail. The quality of Buffalo puzzles is great. I appreciate that this puzzle didn't have many oddball-shaped pieces.
I must admit, though, that I just about gave up on this one about half way through. All those leaves and trees were simply too difficult. But Dale persisted. Once he got more random pieces in place, I was able to sort the remainder of the pieces by shape. After that, I was able to help him finish.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Throwback Thursday - 2007 Part 05
Today the Wayback Machine returns us to March 2007 when I completed more embroidery on paper cards.
Bird House Card
This is the third card from the embroidery on paper kit. The bird house doors were stitched in the round. The gold borders of the houses are simple straight stitches.
I mentioned last week that the backs of embroidery on paper cards are not as tidy as embroidery on fabric. Below is an example of a card back. The stitches are long, the thread carries for quite a distance, and there are bits of tape all over the place holding down the thread ends. This is to be expected, and is also why the backs are always covered on the completed cards before sending them. This kit came with lining papers for the cards. The finished result is quite professional.
Bird House Card
This is the third card from the embroidery on paper kit. The bird house doors were stitched in the round. The gold borders of the houses are simple straight stitches.
I used this card as a "Welcome to your new home" greeting.
I mentioned last week that the backs of embroidery on paper cards are not as tidy as embroidery on fabric. Below is an example of a card back. The stitches are long, the thread carries for quite a distance, and there are bits of tape all over the place holding down the thread ends. This is to be expected, and is also why the backs are always covered on the completed cards before sending them. This kit came with lining papers for the cards. The finished result is quite professional.
Baby Carriage Card
The design for the next card in the kit was to welcome a newborn. This particular design had extremely simple lines to embroider.
25th Anniversary Card
This is the final design in the embroidery on paper kit. I find the circle around the "25" to be very pretty and effective.
In the next edition #throwbackthursday, I'll move on to projects from April 2007 which included more embroidery on paper, some counted cross-stitch, and some crocheted hats.
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Melody's Birthday Card
I made a little something special for my granddaughter's third birthday. A piggy bank birthday card!
This was my first attempt at a "shaker card." I did it with a twist. The items being shaken are coins.
I drew my piggy inspiration from Pinterest. I found a piece of clip art that I converted into paper using cardstock. Then I added googly eyes, Sharpie, a sticker and a stamp to complete the front.
I duplicated the image at 95%, colored it with bright colors, and pasted it to the inside of the card.
I used double-sided tape to attach a piece of acetate, leaving the top open. Then I framed the pig with some glitter paper.
Melody has a piggy bank and likes to put coins in and take them out, repeatedly. So I found pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters to add to the card piggy bank. I tried to find various years and designs so that Melody can study the coins to see the differences. For example, I have one of the older quarters and two different "state" quarters. I have one older penny, one new penny, and the oldest one that says "One Cent" on the back. The nickles are the best. I have one of the newer ones, one of the older ones, and one buffalo nickle!
On the back, I signed the card with the name Melody calls me, Mimi.
---
Piggy inspired by agomjo
This was my first attempt at a "shaker card." I did it with a twist. The items being shaken are coins.
I drew my piggy inspiration from Pinterest. I found a piece of clip art that I converted into paper using cardstock. Then I added googly eyes, Sharpie, a sticker and a stamp to complete the front.
I duplicated the image at 95%, colored it with bright colors, and pasted it to the inside of the card.
I used double-sided tape to attach a piece of acetate, leaving the top open. Then I framed the pig with some glitter paper.
Melody has a piggy bank and likes to put coins in and take them out, repeatedly. So I found pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters to add to the card piggy bank. I tried to find various years and designs so that Melody can study the coins to see the differences. For example, I have one of the older quarters and two different "state" quarters. I have one older penny, one new penny, and the oldest one that says "One Cent" on the back. The nickles are the best. I have one of the newer ones, one of the older ones, and one buffalo nickle!
On the back, I signed the card with the name Melody calls me, Mimi.
---
Piggy inspired by agomjo
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
I Love
Our daughter Jodie gave this excellent puzzle to Dale and me for our anniversary. She knows us well.
She said she found it on the USPS website. It's pretty big, filling up the entire top of the card table.
The pieces are oddball, fun shapes. It's great quality, thick puzzle pieces. The print is just lovely. The colors are vibrant.
It took a while to get in the groove of the best way to tackle this puzzle. I broke the code for myself by gathering all the pieces with partial words on them. Then things, quite literally, fell into place. This is definitely a puzzle we'll construct again.
The pieces are oddball, fun shapes. It's great quality, thick puzzle pieces. The print is just lovely. The colors are vibrant.
It took a while to get in the groove of the best way to tackle this puzzle. I broke the code for myself by gathering all the pieces with partial words on them. Then things, quite literally, fell into place. This is definitely a puzzle we'll construct again.
Monday, May 25, 2020
Dale's Birthday Card
We celebrated Dale's birthday a couple weeks ago. I made this card to accompany his gift. I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest.
I tried a new technique with this card. Using a die, I cut the brown paper version of "happy birthday." When I placed it on the wood grain paper, it didn't stand out very well. So I cut another "happy birthday" greeting from a dark brown cardstock. Then I layered the two together to give a drop shadow effect. I'm very pleased with the outcome and will be sure to use it again.
These delicate die cut letters are rather fussy to deal with. In the past, I tried adhering them with liquid glue. That was semi successful. But this time I turned the greetings into stickers using a
Mini Xyron Create-A-Sticker machine. That worked quite well! The delicate letters are still fussy, but the process was much more successful than the glue.
I tried a new technique with this card. Using a die, I cut the brown paper version of "happy birthday." When I placed it on the wood grain paper, it didn't stand out very well. So I cut another "happy birthday" greeting from a dark brown cardstock. Then I layered the two together to give a drop shadow effect. I'm very pleased with the outcome and will be sure to use it again.
These delicate die cut letters are rather fussy to deal with. In the past, I tried adhering them with liquid glue. That was semi successful. But this time I turned the greetings into stickers using a
Mini Xyron Create-A-Sticker machine. That worked quite well! The delicate letters are still fussy, but the process was much more successful than the glue.
For the floor nails, I used some short brads. I simply punched holes in the floorboards, and opened the brad on the inside of the card. With the twine, I pulled the three plies apart, then wrapped them around the front of the card, tying them in a knot.
On the inside of the card, I covered the brad and twine mechanics with the same dark paper used at the drop shadow.
I tried the three tier paper effect on the sentiment side of the card using the front and back of the dark brown paper, and another piece of the brown paper bag. It's more or less successful. Not sure I like it. I ended up writing my sentiment on a separate paper and adhering it on top of these three. That idea needs some finessing.
On the back of the card, I signed it as usual.
And on the envelope, I added a foam heart sticker in the bottom right corner. Don't tell anyone, but there is a bad ink blob under that sticker that needed to be covered up! I'd already printed the envelope and didn't want to repeat the process. Mistakes give an opportunity to add another creative touch.
Lemons into lemonade.
---
Inspired by Irma Kremer
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Playing with Our Toys
Time for another 500 piece Dollar Tree puzzle. I presumed this was going to be difficult, mainly because of how dark the puzzle is. I also thought that all those small toys would be hard to place.
Remarkably, this turned out to be a really fun puzzle to put together. There are so many nice details in the candy and toys that discovering the clues on each individual piece was delightful. We had to have a different strategy for putting it together. We'd find a few pieces that matched up, then put them on the puzzle board in approximately the right place. Then we'd move on to another group of characters and place them. Eventually the bits lined up and connected.
Perhaps that doesn't sound much different than most puzzles, but it was for me. I tend to find pieces that fit to the edges and grow the puzzle from there.
Anyway, this was quite fun and one that I'm sure to put together again. I like the illustration. I've never seen Pinnochio look quite like this before.
The confetti, streamers and lights were fun to figure out, too.
Remarkably, this turned out to be a really fun puzzle to put together. There are so many nice details in the candy and toys that discovering the clues on each individual piece was delightful. We had to have a different strategy for putting it together. We'd find a few pieces that matched up, then put them on the puzzle board in approximately the right place. Then we'd move on to another group of characters and place them. Eventually the bits lined up and connected.
Perhaps that doesn't sound much different than most puzzles, but it was for me. I tend to find pieces that fit to the edges and grow the puzzle from there.
Anyway, this was quite fun and one that I'm sure to put together again. I like the illustration. I've never seen Pinnochio look quite like this before.
The confetti, streamers and lights were fun to figure out, too.
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Ready for Summer
It's Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial beginning of summer. This row of houses is all ready to receive the swimmers.
This colorful 300 piece puzzle is easy to complete in an evening. It's one of the Dollar Tree jigsaws that I found waiting for me, unopened, on our puzzle shelf.
It's small enough that I could put it together on our living room coffee table. The pieces are a nice size and easy to decipher which are vertical and which are horizontal.
This colorful 300 piece puzzle is easy to complete in an evening. It's one of the Dollar Tree jigsaws that I found waiting for me, unopened, on our puzzle shelf.
It's small enough that I could put it together on our living room coffee table. The pieces are a nice size and easy to decipher which are vertical and which are horizontal.
Friday, May 22, 2020
Thursday, May 21, 2020
Throwback Thursday - 2007 Part 04
In today's #throwbackthursday edition I'm going to describe the process of embroidery on paper using the example of a card I made in March 2007.
Embroidery on Paper Card #1
This example of embroidery on paper came from the book New Ideas with Embroidery on Paper by
Erica Fortgens.
First, I made a working photocopy of my chosen design. This way I had the opportunity to change the size of the original pattern in the book. In this case, I enlarged the original design, making it 125% of the original.
I then attached the photocopy to the card stock using a couple pieces of light-tack tape to hold it in place. The card stock I used looks like parchment paper, but is thick like a greeting card.
I placed the card stock and design stack on top of a foam piercing pad and used a special piercing tool to prick the design through both layers. This creates the holes used to embroider.
After the holes were made, I removed the photocopy from the card stock. Following the directions in the book , I embroidered from hole to hole to create the design. In this case, I used DMC Light Effects floss #E3849, a fiber that has a lot of sparkle.
The ends of the threads are held in place on the back of the stitching with tape. Because of this, the backside of embroidery on paper pieces tends to be messier than the backside of pieces stitched on fabric. These embroidery on paper designs stitch up very quickly.
To do the finishing work, I used another piece of the same card stock to create a card blank. I cut a circle in the front of the card. Then using double-stick tape, I adhered the design to the card so it showed through the circle. I then cut another piece of the card stock just a tad smaller than the front of the card. Again using double-stick tape, I adhered this smaller piece of card stock over the back of the stitchery to hide all the mechanics.
I have all the specialty tools for this technique. But if you don't have the special piercing tool and the foam pad, you can use substitutions. To pierce the holes, use a fine, sharp needle. Use a stack of corrugated cardboard to protect your work surface in place of a foam pad. When I did my piercing, I placed the pad on top of a self-healing cutting mat to be sure I wasn't poking holes in my table top.
Erica Fortgens has published a number of embroidery on paper books. She does beautiful work. The book I used is not for beginners, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out the patterns. In this book she teaches how to use the embroidered pieces with paper that you have embossed using brass templates. I recently bought some of these brass templates in hopes of trying more intricate designs. I truly enjoy these beautiful, small projects and am sure to do more.
Next time I'll share the other embroidery on paper projects I finished in March, 2007.
I have all the specialty tools for this technique. But if you don't have the special piercing tool and the foam pad, you can use substitutions. To pierce the holes, use a fine, sharp needle. Use a stack of corrugated cardboard to protect your work surface in place of a foam pad. When I did my piercing, I placed the pad on top of a self-healing cutting mat to be sure I wasn't poking holes in my table top.
Erica Fortgens has published a number of embroidery on paper books. She does beautiful work. The book I used is not for beginners, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out the patterns. In this book she teaches how to use the embroidered pieces with paper that you have embossed using brass templates. I recently bought some of these brass templates in hopes of trying more intricate designs. I truly enjoy these beautiful, small projects and am sure to do more.
Next time I'll share the other embroidery on paper projects I finished in March, 2007.
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
National Flower Day
One of today's minor holidays is National Flower Day. It's cool and wet outside, so not the best day for a photo safari in the neighborhood to scout out flowers in the neighbors' yards or at the park. So I'm celebrating today by posting some of my favorite flower photos from years gone by.
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
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