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Loving Sunflowers!

I've been playing around again with the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp bundle.  I love these sunflowers and they are so easy to color with the SU Blends.

I really like this sunflower on the Cinnamon Cider cardstock!  The pattern in the strip at the bottom is from Tasteful Touches which also can be purchased as a bundle.  The dies that come with this bundle are labels - Tasteful Labels Dies which I can see myself using them a bunch!

Another sunflower card - this time using Bermuda Bay and black cardstock.  

I trimmed some of the flowers off the front of the card and used them on the inside.  Makes a pretty inside.

I got to meet the newest member of our family last Sunday.  We had a family get-together at my sister, Marianne's house.  Derek (my nephew) and his wife brought sweet little Abigail who is 2 months old now.  I didn't get to hold the baby but mom did which was great.

Celebrate Sunflowers

Don't you just love sunflowers?!!  When I lived in Washington state, I had sunflowers in my garden and loved them.  Here are some interesting facts about them that perhaps you didn't know.

• Each sunflower is actually thousands of teeny flowers.  The yellow petals and fuzzy brown centers are actually individual flowers themselves.  As many as 2,000 can make up the classic sunflower bloom.
• You should harvest sunflowers in the morning, not the afternoon.  They may wilt if you clip them in the afternoon.
• Sunflowers are native to the Americas and were domesticated around 1000 B.C.  In 2014, 1.7 million acres were planted in the US.  The majority of those were found in North Dakota.
• A dried sunflower makes a unique, natural bird feeder.  Our feathered friends love to snack on sunflower seeds just like we do.
• Each sunflower can contain as many as 1,000 to 2,000 seeds (lots for the birds to munch on!)
• There are about 70 species of sunflowers.
• The French word for sunflower is "tournesol," which means "turns with the sun."
• The tallest sunflower on record was over 30 feet tall!
• Sunflowers have been planted to help soak up nuclear radiation.

In the new Annual Catalog, the Celebrate Sunflowers bundle can be found on page 13.  It is in the Flowers For Every Season suite.  Here is one of the cards I made with this set.

I stamped the base sunflower with Memento Black Ink and used my So Saffron SU Blends to color the petals.   The sunflower outline and detail center piece is die cut with Copper foil paper.  The very center is die cut from Early Espresso cardstock.  I die cut the leaves in Mossy Meadow.  I found the little circle embellishments in my stash and decided to use them for an accent.  The base card is So Saffron.

Close up of the sunflower.

Press-N-Seal Tasteful Touches

I love this card!  I followed a tutorial by Andrea Walford and made a few little changes.   It's not as complicated as it looks!  I used the flower from Tasteful Touches and the sentiment from Blossoms In Bloom.

I stamped the flower image 5 times onto white cardstock using the following ink colors:  Gorgeous Grape, Bermuda Bay, Coastal Cabana, Mango Medley and Granny Apple Green.  I then fussy cut each flower trying to cut as close to the edge as possible so not a lot of white shows.  Next I positioned the flowers where I wanted them on the card and then placed Press-n-Seal on top of the flowers, gently pressing the Press-n-Seal against the fussy cut flowers.  This is called the Press-n-Seal technique which I had never done before.  Press-n-Seal is a unique "like saran wrap but much better" product that makes this card much easier to make.  After arranging all the flowers on the card, I used Press-n-Seal to pick them all up at once.  This made it easy to stamp the leaves where I wanted them (with the help of my Stamparatus) and to apply adhesive to the back of everything and place it back into the original spot.  Such a time saver!  The leaves were stamped in the same color as the flowers but they were each stamped off once.  Using Tombow liquid glue, I adhered a 1/2" strip of gold foil paper to the right side.  Lay the Press'n'Seal flowers back on top of the stamped (leaves) cardstock panel.  Carefully pull back the Press'n'Seal off the flowers and put glue on all the flowers (except Grape).  Allow a few seconds for the glue to set up and then gently remove the Press'n'Seal.  Put a couple of Glue Dots for the gold thread in a spot under the Grape flower so it does not show.  Adhere the Grape flower with dimensionalds and add your text and a little bling.

Give Peace a Chance

This world just seems like it has turned upside down!  In North Carolina, where I live, we are in Phase 2 of re-opening and I'll be honest .... it scares me.  We have had an increase of confirmed cases since the state was opened up a little a few weeks ago.   I am still staying at home as much as I can, but wearing a mask each time I venture out.  I try not to overreact but honestly, I feel like a lot of people are just going right back to normal and are not taking the precautions they ought to.  We drove to South Carolina over the weekend.  Our first stop (with our masks) was Frugal McDoogals (a wine and liquor warehouse in Fort Mill, SC.)  The line to get in the store was funny to me but I was glad that the correct precautions were taken.  Next we went to the Peach Stand.  Same thing - people lined  up (most with masks) to get in the little market.  After those places, we drove to a little restaurant that we love.  They have the best fried chicken and veggies.   Yum!  Since we were there at an odd time (2:00), we didn't figure they would be very busy - plus, there are only about 15 tables in the restaurant and several had "do not sit" signs on them for social distancing.  By the time we finished our meal, the restaurant was almost full with only a couple of tables left.  Guess everyone else had the same idea as we did about going early (or late depending on what your meal is.)

Ashley just sent us these Steelers masks!

And if COVID wasn't enough for all of us to deal with ... the country seems to be at war with each other in terms of the unrest we are experiencing.  I feel like we are at a turning point.  It saddens me that a video of a black man getting murdered right in front of our eyes has happened for the world to stop and pay attention! 

Let's all sing John Lennon's "Give Peace A Chance" which was an anti-war song.

Color Coach

I have been working on a Color Coach project.  Do you remember when Stampin'Up! offered a Color Coach?  Many times, I struggle with color combinations and need something quick and easy to put colors together.  I have kept the two Color Coach's that I have bought in the past and added all the new colors to it.  I took apart the two that I had and combined them with the new colors.  If you google on line "SU Color Coach" you will find a lot of them that you can download and make your own like I did on mine.  This stack of color is my "go to" when I'm looking for colors to combine.  I can fan them out and try different colors together to see how I like them.  It makes color selections simple.

They couldn't all fit on one so I just divided them up and labeled them to make it easier.  I could also have put them on a large ring but I had those little screws already.  I may put them all together later if this doesn't work.

This is the front of the card.  If I didn't already have the card with the color combinations from my old Color Coach, I cut a piece of coordinating cardstock and adhered the combos to it (see Sea Side Spray card below.)

This is the back of the cards with the different color combinations.   

This is one of the cards I had to make.  I googled and found the new in-colors, printed them out and adhered them to a piece of cardstock that matched.

Hope this helps you with matching colors.

Birds and Branches

I understand we are still dealing with COVID-19, but I think we need to make as good of a summer as we can.  Most of us can get outside in some form - whether sitting on the porch, taking a walk, or participating in some form of an activity (golf, tennis, swim, etc.).  For those of you with children, my hat is off to you trying to make it a fun summer.  My point is - summer is moving quickly and fall will be here before we know it!  Think about doing some card making with your children.  It's a great activity when it is hot outside.  Maybe start on your Christmas cards.  Believe it or not, but on July 1st Stampin'Up! is releasing their Holiday Catalog to demonstrators!  This is a first on having it so early.  Happy Stampin'!

Believe it or not but it was actually cold (and rainy) here yesterday!  Even Sonny was cold and put on long sleeves.  We broke a record I think with temps just getting to 61 degrees and I don't think it is going to be much warmer today!  Why couldn't this have been last week when our A/C was not working!

I'm still fighting the pain in my back and have to take a lot of "sitting breaks" during the day.  I can tell when I've done too much.  Last week, I thought I was doing pretty good.  There were several days that I didn't even take any Tylenol, Alieve, etc.  But Friday did me in.  I went to water exercise in the morning and in the afternoon I went to a friend's house.  She lives on the lake and has been wanting me to come over and paddleboard or kayak with her.  I kayaked until my arms got sore and then switched with her and tried to use the paddleboard.  I didn't feel comfortable standing so just got on my knees and paddled until I couldn't anymore!  She ended up tying a rope to my board and towing me back to the house.  Aren't I a wimp??   I really felt like one especially when I leaned over to pick something up and felt a pop on my side!  Not sure what I did but I was in a lot of pain the rest of the day and Saturday.  I am better now but I am really taking it easy.

Here is one of the cards I made for the NC Quarterly swap (that was canceled!)  I love this Birds & Branches stamp set (catalog on page 120).  It was the first stamp set that I ordered from the new Annual Catalog.  The stamps - birds, branches, eggs and nest images - all coordinate with the Birds & More Dies to help you create beautiful cards!

For You, My Friend

Happy Monday!  Hope you had a good weekend.  It was very pleasant here all weekend.  The temps have been rather low for June which is very nice.  We just turned our A/C on a week ago.  Unfortunately, our upstairs unit was in need of freon.  We had to wait a couple of days for the A/C guy to come and fix it.  Sonny was in the A/C/Heating business (York) and has a jug of freon but he doesn't have the tools to put it in the unit.  But at least we only have to pay for the service call and not for the freon because it is ridiculously expensive.  There were a couple of nights last week before we got it fixed that when we went to bed, it was 85 degrees upstairs!  Luckily we have an old box fan that we turned on and it did the trick for us.  Our A/C units are on their last legs ... they are 20 years old so we know we are on borrowed time with them.  We haven't been able to go out on our boat because it also is not running!  Sonny worked on it for several days with no luck so he had to take it to the shop.  It's been a little over a week now and we haven't heard from them.  Hopefully, we'll have it by this weekend so Sonny can spend Father's Day on the lake.

I pulled out one of my old Paper Pumpkin stamps (from Jan. and Feb. 2019) to make this card.  

The card base is Calypso Coral.  I ran the Whisper White piece through the Country Floral Embossing Folder (retired).  I used a dauber to lightly put ink (Mint Macaron and Calypso Coral) onto the raised up flowers and leaves.  The Mint Macaron and Whisper White piece in the center was run through the Rectangles Dies.  I used SU Blends to color the cactus, lizard, bird and teacup. 

3 x 3 Mini Book with Purse

I made this cute little 3x3 mini book (and little purse to put the book in) this weekend to send to someone special.

I found the instructions and video for the little purse here.

The little book is made with some little note cards that Stampin'Up offered several years ago along with the Daffodil Designer Paper.  I followed instructions for the book on Patty Bennett's website.  She made the book using the Best Dressed 3x3 note cards.  I scoured all my stamps to come up with sentiments to put inside the book.  What do you think?

There are so many options for this little book.  I am thinking about making one with scripture for my pastor.  They would also make a cute baby brag book, or a graduation gift .... lots of ideas!

Clumsy Clara Checking In!

I'm starting to feel a little back to normal!  Playing cards with friends on Monday helped a lot.   I went to our neighborhood pool the past two mornings for water exercise class.  The water is still a bit nippy but once you get in and get wet, it's not bad - even refreshing.   My back is not liking me doing anything but I have got to do some kind of exercise and I am being careful.  I just take an Aleve when I get home and get out the ice pack.  I have found that it is limiting what I can do though which I don't like.  I can make one card and then I have to take a break.  My friend called me Clumsy Clara and my mom and husband want to give me a walker!  I get no respect!!  ha ha!

I hope by the time I get all the goodies I ordered yesterday from the NEW Annual Catalog, I'll be good to go and I'll be able to make lots of cards!  I ordered a lot more than I usually do but I figure I haven't spent much money in the past 3 months so I gave myself permission to splurge!  It took me about 2 hours yesterday to get my order in.  I kept getting error messages and the wait time to talk to Stampin' Up was crazy!  But I finally got it all in the computer.  Now just to wait for my order to be winging it's way to me!  I ordered a few of the new Stampin' Blends, all the In Color reinkers and stamp pads, some shimmer paint, Playing With Patterns DSP (6x6), Playing with Patterns Ribbon Combo Pack and the Stampin' Blends Storage Trays (pg 145).  The stamp sets I got are:  Blossoms In Bloom, Celebrate Sunflowers, Sending Sunshine, Drybrush, Tasteful Touches and some dies to match some of the sets.  Now looking over my order, I realize I ordered a stamp pad twice and neglected to make one of the stamp sets a bundle.  I think a lot of that was due to the error messages and how many times I had to close the order and come back to it.  I hate when that happens, but it's ok.

Here are a few cards I have made this week.

This card uses current product!!!  The card is Old Olive cut at 7 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4".  I matted the Ornate Garden DSP onto Terracotta Tile cardstock.  The flower image is stamped onto watercolor paper and colored with my Aqua Pen and ink refills.  It is adhered to the front flap just on the left side.  I cut a 1" piece of Terracotta Tile cardstock to mat the small strip of DSP on the inside right of the card.

I know we all like to look at our Designer Papers, maybe even take them out of the package and stroke them sometimes .... but come on, let's share the love and get cutting into those lovely designs or you'll be like me and have a LOT of left over DSP when a new catalog comes along!

I used the Tailored Tag punch and the Sale-A-Bration Golden Honey DSP for this card.  I did a lot  of layering using the Rectangle Dies.

By doing all the layering on both cards, I was able to get 2 cards out of it.  (I like the first one better!)