DOILY HAPPY

Every once in awhile I get an out-of-the-box idea. I'm never sure where exactly it comes from, but when it appears, I am grateful and grab it with both hands.

I had been shuffling through some of my supplies some time back, and came across these lovely creamy doilies that I hadn't set eyes on recently. Aha! Let's make them go further than just a single use doily. Let's cut one into quarters! 

Since the doilies were symmetrical, this was very simple to do. Thus, each of the corners of this card are nicely decorative.

SUPPLIES:

Coastal Cabana cardstock

Vanilla cardstock

Beautifully Happy stamp set

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Stampin' Blends in: Light and Dark Pool Party and Light and Dark Granny Apple Green

Big Shot

Ovals dies

Vanilla doilies

Gold swirl embellishments

Dimensionals

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of vanilla cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this card base, add a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Coastal Cabana cardstock.

Cut a vanilla paper oily in exact fourths. Add each of these doily pieces to the corners of the Coastal Cabana layer.

Use an oval die that measures 3" x 4" and cut an oval from vanilla cardstock.

In Memento Tuxedo Black ink, stamp a flower stalk onto the creamy oval. Color the flowers and leaves as you wish. 

Add a shiny gold embellishment to the center of the large open flower.

Use dimensionals to add the oval to the card. It should fit perfectly within the space left by the doily quarters.

PLEASE NOTE: I am no longer a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator -- after 19 years! -- but I will continue to refer to some of the products I use in my blog cards by name. Obviously after 19 years, I have a TON of SU product, and will continue to use it.

Also, some of the areas on my blog are not correct, what with me no longer being a Demonstrator. Please ignore that. I don't know how to fix it. My apologies.

Doily

Smiles.

THE DAILY BIRD APRIL 2024

Still soooo far behind on posting my daily bird drawings. Today I am sharing a handful of my favorites from April, 2024. Yes, APRIL 2024. 

Above each of the drawings, I will give you the name of the bird, as well as where in the world this bird can be found naturally.

 albatross

pacific ocean

gray-bellied cuckoo

india, pakistan

hawaiian goose

hawaii island, maui, kauai

hawaii's state bird

tundra swan

arctic of north america

sarus crane

northern australia, southeastern asia, indian subcontinent

canada warbler

canada and u.s.

phoenix chicken

germany

tickell's blue flycatcher

tropical asia

whooping crane

north america

pigeon

worldwide

grey heron

temperate europe, asia, and parts of africa

dunnock

eurasia, including lebanon, northern iran, the caucacus

northern harrier

north america

treecreeper

palearctic and indomalayan regions, from western europe to japan and india

west indian whistling duck

west indies

golden-crowned kinglet

canada, northeastern and western u.s., mexico, central america

And there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this little foray into some of my bird drawings. Thanks so much for accompanying me on this journey!

If you would ever like prints of any of my bird drawings, please let me know. The drawings that I show in my blog posts are simply bad photos of the original art work. A print would, of course, be of good quality.

birdie

smiles.

PAPER PIECED BOUQUET

If you're like me, you love the look of paper piecing. The card I am sharing with you today is done with that technique. Join me in creating a card similar to this one by following the tutorial below!

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Paper Pumpkin Memorable Meadows, March 2024

Black ink

Big Shot

Basket Weave embossing folder

Green Baker's Twine

Stampin' Dimensionals

Sparkle

INSTRUCTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

Use a deckled edged rectangle die that measures 3 3/4" x 5" to cut a piece of white cardstock. Emboss it with a basket weave embossing folder. Set it aside.

Use the 2 7/8" x 4" deckled rectangle to cut another piece of white cardstock. On this piece, stamp the two- flower bouquet from the March 2024 Paper Pumpkin kit, or any other image that would work for this technique, using black ink.

Select a scrap of Designer Series Paper that would make a good flower, as well as one that would be good for leaves, and a little for yellowish flower centers. With the same black ink, stamp the flower, center and leaf elements onto the DSP. Fussy cut these pieces.

Adhere the pieces over their stamped counterparts.

Use Wink of Stella or any glittery pen you prefer to add a little glimmer to the centers of the flowers.

Tie a bow in a length of baker's twine and adhere it to the stem of the flowers.

Adhere the finished piece to the embossed cardstock.

Use Stampin' Dimensionals to add the finished piece to the white card base.

Paper

Smiles.

TIME AND MEMORY

It's one of those unfortunate aspects of life that we will all need to send out sympathy cardsat times. I experienced the outpouring of wonderful thoughts from others upon the death of my beloved mother not too long ago.

The card I am featuring today is a good example of how a hand created sympathy card can be made. I am working with tricky vellum, so read on to discover how I handled it.

SUPPLIES:

White cardstock

Old Olive cardstock

Designer Series Paper

Vellum

Bloom With Hope stamp set

VersaMark ink

Big Shot

Butterfly die

Embossing Buddy

Platinum Embossing Powder

Basic Pearls

Mini Glue Dots

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a piece of 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" white cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this, add a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Old Olive cardstock. And to this, add a layer of coordinating Designer Series Paper that measures 3 3/4" x 5".

Cut a piece of vellum to 2 1/2" x 3 3/4". Rub the Embossing Buddy over this. Stamp the words in VersaMark ink about 3/4" from the top, and emboss it with a Platinum Embossing Powder.

With a Mini Glue Dot in each corner, add the vellum to the DSP.

Place a pearl on each of the corners, covering up the Mini Glue Dots.

From Old Olive cardstock, die cut a butterfly.

Only putting adhesive along the body, add the butterfly to the lower portion of the vellum.

Adhere a pearl on the butterfly's "head".

Gently tip the wings upwards to give the butterfly the feeling of inpending flight.

Comforting

Smiles.