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 Well, my little "by myself" vacation is over.  Sonny got home last night after playing golf in Pawley's Island for the past 5 days.  It was kind of fun being alone and doing and eating when and what I wanted.  I tried out 3 recipes from Green Chef that Ashley gave me and they all were delicious but nothing my hubby would eat!  One of them had couscous in it and another one cooked the pork with figs and had feta cheese on it.  All of that would have him doing a thumbs down!  I had never tried couscous before but really liked it so it went on my shopping list for another time.

I don't know if you have noticed but the Blog List on the left hand side looks like it has lost a lot of blogs.  BUT look closely at the bottom and you will see where it says "show all" after the 4 or 5 blogs that are displayed.  I guess this is a new feature for Blogger but you can still see all the blogs that you enjoy looking at.

Here are a few cards that I have made.

This card is a technique that I learned from on of the NC demo gals, Laurie Meier using the Stamparatus and grid paper to make a wreath builder.  The stamp set I used is the flower in Free As A Bird.  The sentiment is from Color and Contour.  I love the two In Colors together - Polished Pink and Evening Evergreen.

 

Here is another card using Polished Pink but this time with Soft Succulent.  The white scalloped cardstock is from the Scallop Contours Dies which can be bundled.  The flowers and sentiment are from Color and Contour.  I stamped the flower image first on the a piece of white card stock and fussy cut it.  I stamped the leaves onto the scalloped white cardstock and tied a piece of ribbon around the stem.  I used the Aqua Pen and Polished Pink ink to scatter a little pink over the card.

For this card, I embossed a piece of Granny Apple Green with the Brick & Mortar embossing folder and then adhered it to the card. I stamped the floral image (from Art Gallery) on scrap paper and  used the dies to cut it out before adhering it to the white cardstock .  I stamped the flowers again with Pale Papaya and cut them out with dies before adhering them on top of the image.  I used a little bit of Gilded Leafing on each of the flowers.  The DSP is from Fine Arts which has retired.

A Few Cards to Share

I found a couple more cards that I made using the Pierced Blooms dies.

I love these colors - Magenta Madness, Basic Black and Just Jade!  That Magenta flower just pops off the page!

This card also uses the Pierced Blooms but is much more subtle than the magenta flower above.  I used the Stitched Rectangle dies to create the two "windows."  These colors are Petal Pink, Emerald Envy (retired) and Calypso Coral.

For this card, I copied a card made by one of the NC demos.  The folds are unique with the flower from Art Gallery popped up on dimensionals.  I put a little bit of Gilded Leafing in the center of the flower using Heat and Stick Powder.

This card highlights the Artistry Blooms DSP (which will be retiring soon.)  I colored the birds with Stampin' Blends and fussy cut them from Birds and Branches stamp set; stamped the tree limbs with Early Espresso and added a little but of Gilded Leafing.

I'm sorry I've been MIA lately.  I've been wrapped up in a health issue and trying hard to do my exercises daily!  I was dismissed from PT 2 weeks ago and yesterday got released from the ortho doc.  Next week, I am flying out to visit Ashley for a week!  I'm dreading sitting in the airport and plane with that danged mask on but it will be worth it!  Hope the weather will be good while I'm there.  I'm sure I'll be helping her in the yard!

I received my new SU catalog in the mail this week and have been looking it over!  I have to be honest, there are a lot of floral sets in the new catalog.  Truthfully, I have plenty of florals so that might save me some money.  There were a lot of stamps from the catalog and mini catalog that did not go away so that helps a lot too.  I love the cover of the catalog using Expressions In Ink DSP - that will probably be my first thing to order, along with the new In Color inks and refills.  If you are a customer of mine, you will receive a catalog in the mail in May.

Gilded Leafing

 Well, my order for the Gilded Leafing finally arrived!  I have been having fun using it in different ways.  I love the stuff!  Do you ever just have those days when you can't stop playing around with something?  Yeah, that was me last week.I keep finding new projects to use this Gilded Leafing on.  

Gilded Leafing comes in a small jar.  The jar is full of gold flakes that can be used to add beautiful accents to any of your projects.  The leafing has to be used with some type of adhesive to hold the leafing to your project.  It doesn't have any adhesive on itself.  By adding adhesive to a card, then placing the told flakes over top and removing the excess, you'll have a beautiful and glamorous gold accent left on your project in the same areas as the adhesive was applied.

When you first open your jar of Gilded Leafing, you'll want to have a storage container nearby.  You want an open container big enough to insert your card into that has a sealable lid like a Rubbermade  container with a lid.  When you shake the gold flakes out of the original jar, they will keep coming ... and coming ...and coming!  So be prepared with your container!

To use the leafing, first apply some type of adhesive to the area you want the Gilded Leafing to be.  I have used Tear and Tape, Heat and Stick Powder and multi-purpose glue (Tombow).  This glue works well because after it is dry, it is still sticky.  A glue that dries to a hard finish will not work.  Once the glue is applied, set the project aside to allow drying time.  When dry, either sprinkle or rub leafing onto your project OR dip it into your container of gold flakes.   (You can also sprinkle the leafing on wet glue.  Just set it aside to dry before rubbing off the excess.)  To get rid of the excess leafing, I've found that rubbing it first with my fingers and then with a soft sponge works well.  Another idea is to use a soft toothbrush.  Gently rub the sponge (or toothbrush) over your project until all the excess has been removed.

Here are a few tips:

• Use a large sealable container
• Use a Microfiber Cloth to clean up loose flakes on your hands and work area.
• Prepare multiple projects at one time.  This limits the mess I create and how many times I need to wipe off my hands.
• Experiment with the Gold Leafing.  Experiment with adhesives, application ...Don't limit yourself to just paper.  Enjoy and let me know what you think about this new product.

Here are a couple of cards I made using the Gold Leafing:

  

I applied the score tape across the card; removed the backing of the tape and stuck it down into my leafing container.  Next I used my sponge to take away all the excess.  I cut this piece in half to make 2 cards.

This is one of the cards I made using Magenta cardstock.

This one was made using Terracota Tile.

The flowers on these cards are colored with Stampin' Blends.  The flowers were fussy cut from True Love designer paper.