Geometric Fun

I got my first suncatcher stamp in a fabulous grab bag special years ago from Biblical Impressions. I had never heard of suncatchers, so did not recognize what it was, just thought it was a neat geometric design. And although I have since heard of them, and confess I do not care to use the stamps as such, I still love the creative ideas they generate.

I made a batch of impressions of the 16 pt. suncatcher, embossing all with silver and went to work. After the first idea I had (and will post next time, actually), I decided, as the suncatchers come in four levels of "depth," that I would order the 8 pt. suncatcher. A flower was an obvious shape to make with the stamp, and I filled in with H20's. While I had planned to make a card with it, my eyes happen to light upon this little trinket box, and although the green was not a perfect match, the image looked perfect on it. I haven't permanently attached it yet, but when I do, I will use foam dots to give it a 3D look.

With the 8pt. design, A star seemed the obvious design. I embossed the image several times, embossing some in silver and some in gold. I then embossed the Psalm 36:5 scripture in gold. The panel is Yuzen Washi paper.

Next time I post for Biblical Impressions, I will have two other, very different cards made with the same stamps.

Memorial Day

Somehow, even though I've always appreciated what the soldiers and sailors have sacrificed for our nation, I still, maybe not consciously, but certainly by my actions, thought of Memorial Day parades as I do all parades: events for the children. After dutifully making it a full family event, I eventually deputized my husband to take the children while I enjoyed a quiet house (with four children barely over four years apart in age, perhaps you can understand the need for that!). But after reading a fascinating book about a vet, including a scene with a Memorial Day parade in which almost no one attends because of the cold, but the aged vet is there, I am realizing that my perspective has been decidedly shallow. While I did feel a surge of emotion as the veterans walked by each year, it never occurred to me what they might think about the level of turnout at a parade, that they might have a need to see that people in their community had not forgotten their sacrifice, or the sacrifice of their comrades. And then another thought struck me while reading an internet article about mothers of fallen troops, and I realized that in milling around in the Memorial Day parade crowds, I might be brushing shoulders with a mother, father, wife, husband, or child of a fallen soldier or sailor. Wouldn’t they also have a need to see that their community was aware of the price they had paid in supporting their loved one in his/her decision to serve? I confess, a lot is happening this week, and I haven’t finished college for the summer yet, so it’s going to be hard to drag myself away this morning. I hope I will, and I hope you will too.

Text is computer generated. Flag Background is from Eureka.

wedding card

Journal time!

I have always loved notebooks and journals. I don't personally manage to maintain a journal, but just owning them makes me happy. :-) I used to make journals for sale, up through last Christmas, but although I still have a bunch left, I probably will continue to make them! For the He Has Shown image, from Micah 6:8, I embossed in gold. The journal is, as mine always are, covered with wallpaper. By using wallpaper and mitered corners, the journal can be easily wiped clean, and the corners do not get mashed like they would with paper.

Eureka Blog Hop!

Welcome to the last stop on the April Eureka Blog Hop! If you are following the Hop, you should have arrived here from Roxie at "Paper Scraper"! If not, but you would like to start at the beginning, hop over to QKR Stampede for the entire hop!

I stamped two images of the Rose Border ,embossed them in white on vellum and chalked in the roses and leaves. I glued one onto a white panel, and cut a rose out of the other to afix in the corner (without mounting on white). The "on your wedding day" comes from this full sheet. The pink panel is a slightly deeper color than you see here, and the pink on the rose border is the same as the pink in the corner, and looks much more like it on the actual card. :-)

Butterfly Mania!

I went a little crazy with the images from the Dragonflies full sheet from Biblical Impressions!  This first card has the large butterfly.  I embossed with Purple Pastel gold leaf, then painted in with H2Os.  The cardstock I used has a slightly bumpy texture, which in turn gives the gold leaf a bumpier appearance.  I like the effect!

For the shadow butterfly, I used irridescent mica powders.  I used a paintbrush to apply the color in splashes, then when fiinished, gently used the brush back and forth over the whole panel to get every area coated.  If you look closely at the edges, you will see a slightly smudged look: I handled this too soon after embossing.  Unlike gold leaf and embossing powders, mica powders need to be left for awhile to "set" before cutting.  I hadn't used these in a long time and had forgotten.

Here is a picture that includes all four of the butterfly images ... do I have an obsession with embossing??? ;-) I think Biblical has a stamp that says something like, "so many stamps, so little time;" I think I would reword that to "so many techniques, so little time!" at least for these stamp images!   Note that the shadow butterfly shown  here is a more accurate rendering than the photo above.  By the way, if you look at the medium butteflies, embossed on dark green, blue, and red marbled cardstock in the upper right corner, there are a few spots of chipped gold embossing.  This is because I did not trim them right after embossing.  On glossy cardstock, both gold leaf and embossing powders get dryer as time passes, and so will flake off when cut.  However, shortly after embossing, there is still enough moisture to keep this from happening.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Scenic coloring is always a challenge for me, but I like working with images where coloring is very straightforward, so this Stained Glass Dove was perfect for me! I used H20s to paint the colors onto the embossed image. I then embossed the image a second time onto a transparency. I attached the embossed transparency after applying a thin line of diamond glaze along all the black "framing" of the "glass" (When you emboss the plasic it will buckle, so I had set it overnight under a weight to flatten it down, and repeated that step after attaching the two pieces.) The Galatians 5:22 scripture is not embossed.