Thanksgiving

Oops! Did I really skip all of October without a post? I will try to get back on the road of displays! :-)

I have been working diligently on Christmas cards, so I have been busy. I took a few hours last weekend to create a simple card to send family members for Thanksgiving. This was using a stem of leaves which I cut down and reshaped along with a small piece of ribbon I have had for several years. I love the fall colors of the two papers. It all came together well and you see the results. By the way, I wish anyone who reads this a very peaceful and blessed (not stressed!) Thanksgiving!

Leafy Impressions

Since I have been hiking in the northwest all around Yellowstone, Glacier and Waterton, I decided to pick a few leaves and make impressions on my home made paper stock and see how it turned out. I'm pleased with this result. These are baby Aspen leaves. The colors are not showing up here too well, but I inked the leaves with fall colors and pressed them onto a yellow paper and used brown ribbon for an accent. Simple but sweet.

Challenge

This is a card that came from a challenge issued by my carding group. It gave a grid of 9 different sections and said to pick 3 and produce a card.

I chose the middle grid which was lace on top, butterflies in the middle and red on the bottom. This is the result.

Often times such a challenge confounds my imagination, but this time I'm happy with the results!

The imagery is a window planter box with the flowers growing up and the bottom of the window is the lace above.

Local Adornments

Before taking a trip recently, Lis answered a question for me about alcohol inks. The answer included some time together at her house and she showed me, rather than told me, different applications. One of the papers we created were simply drops of the inks on a piece of Saran type wrap and a sponge dipped in them and streaked on the page. We made several different variations of the colors and inks mostly with photo paper. The card that is attached uses a striped piece using this method. The flower in the upper right corner is made from taking apart a small pine cone and the little flowers are dried from the sun and ripe for spreading their seeds. They are both part of the local Montana landscape. Ernie is a friend of a friend that received this card.

Ernie's Card

Laughing Out Loud

Have you ever done something that made you laugh just at the thought of doing it? This was the case recently as I created the birthday card for our grandson who recently turned 7. I had no real delusions that he would get as much joy out of receiving it as I did making and sending it, but I laughed the whole time anyway.

As a little background, I have to say that this child from the age of 3 showed signs of being in love with all types of machines. For his 3rd birthday he received a 'Black and Decker' yard blower, chain saw, weed wacker and one more machine. His delight was so keen that he would tenderly lay each machine down, all lined up one by one, in order to open the next. When we went on walks to the local playground, we always had to carry all of the them in the stroller so he could 'clean up' the play ground when we got there. The swings were okay, so was the slide, but beautifying the grounds was his main focus.

This is also the child that loved (and still does) to ride on the riding lawn mower with his dad each week but was having a difficult time with that last decision of being fully potty trained. Until...one Saturday his father told him only big boys that were always potty trained could continue to ride on the lawn mower. Low and behold, there was no looking back and the deed was complete!

So, back to his card. This is an iris fold of a tractor. It was easy to do and I personalized it by downloading a picture from Facebook and cutting it out. I did hear that he thought it was cool and liked the wheels on the tractor. So much for a reaction, ha! But I still smile when I think of the thought and fun it gave me!!

Kaleb's Birthday, 2013

A Family Birthday

I remember getting birthday cards from special Aunts & Uncles, Grandparents, Parents and Friends as I grew. There was no internet, no instant cards and, of course, stamps were much more affordable. Fast forward to today, and the event of buying, sending and/or receiving a card is almost non-existent.

A few years ago I was invited to a neighborhood Christmas Cookie Exchange party. This event was my first as I was new to the area. At the party, I discovered that the Host, Lis, was a paper maker (I will tell more of Lis in the future and how she has helped me!). Being interested in many things that start in their basic form, I was introduced to Lis and was able to speak with her about the paper making. She was gracious enough to share her knowledge and I began my journey making paper and producing individual cards, which gives the paper a wonderful use.

To that end, I send cards that I've made to everyone in our family. In order to keep track of who has received what, I created a theme for each year. This year is the Iris Fold. I try to develop a card and find a pattern that reminds me of the person whose birthday it is for. I am including pictures of two Iris Fold cards made this year. I hope you enjoy them.