Club Projects

I had one heck of a time coming up with projects for stamp club this month. Every once in a while that happens. I can stamp to beat the band, but then when I sit down to create something specific, I freeze up. There are several things I have to keep in mind when designing the cards we make. First, they can't be too complicated. Why? It's certainly not because I'm working with beginners. In fact, every one of these great women can stamp circles around me. It's because I'm a lousy teacher. Nevertheless, I like to tell, show and/or teach them something they don't already know. That's why we are going to use a flower from the Big Pinks collection for this card. I'm going to show them how to dry brush the light pink flower with ink to achieve a different color. The center of the flower was created using a little "trick," too. I wanted dimension but didn't have enough buttons that were the right color or chipboard circles that were the right size. Bigger Brads weren't "big" enough. Did you know that five pieces of cardstock layered on top of one another are the equivalent in thickness to chipboard? I saw it, heard it, or read it somewhere once upon a time, and so, the center of my flower is five 1-2 inch circles that have been glued together and stamped with a stamp from the With Love set. Perfect!

Materials & Tools: Colonial White and Hollyhock cardstock; Boom-Di-Ada Creative Basics Collection; Olive, Garden Green, Buttercup, and Hollyhock ink pads; With Love June SOTM and Happy Birthday stamp sets; Just Blooms Big Pinks paper flowers; 1/2, 1, and 1-1/4 inch circle punches; Corner rounder; 3M foam mounting tape.

The second card we're going to make is basically the same sketch as the first turned on its side. This one, of course, is all about the butterfly and how easy it is to color a realistic looking Monarch butterfly using markers. We're going to create our own patterned papers, too, using stamps from the Nature Walk set.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White, Garden Green, and Black cardstock; Garden Green and Black ink pads; Sunflower, Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, and Grey Wool markers; Nature Walk, Butterfly Kisses, and Butterflies stamp sets; Black My Heritage Writer; Black Bitty Brads; Corner rounder.

Now that summer is officially here, I can say that it's a crummy time to have a bad cold. While I'm up and about, I'm still blowing my nose every 45 seconds and coughing 'til I darn near choke if I don't. I'm sleeping like a newborn, too, which is probably a good thing. Marv gets disgusted with me, because I won't "take" something. I'm not big on any kind of medication unless I'm so miserable I can't stand it. My thinking is that if you mask the symptoms, it's difficult to be able to tell what's going on.

For now, I need to get off my duff and address the laundry I managed to sort yesterday. I have quite a stack of kids' clothes here that I need to get washed and to their father. Starting tomorrow, Bjorn and Mathias are going to a new daycare, which is going to be different for them. I'm told they are cool with the idea, however, as the new provider has a turtle. All I can think is that if adults were as resilient and easy to please as these two little boys, the world would be a much happier, peaceful place.