The BUTTERFLY counts not months but moments . . . . . .

and has time enough.


~ Rabindranath Tagore ~

Until we meet again . . . . . . . Wishing You Memorable Moments.

Never Give Away Your Dancing Shoes . . . . . .

You never know when you might need them.

HOPE is like a bird . . . . . .

My dear friends and fellow bloggers,

As some of you already know, this past week has been a difficult one for my husband Lee and me, as well as for our sweet greyhound Harley. Lee has been in the hospital for the last nine days, with a complication of an ongoing condition that has been under control for quite some time.

In between long and sometimes stressful stints at the hospital with Lee, I have managed to spend some time quiet time here at home with Harley who, despite being lonely, has been amazingly mellow throughout all of this. But productive, I have NOT been. And there has been very little time for my usual creative pastime (indeed, my "therapy") of cardmaking.

Nevertheless, because my Blog is also a creative outlet for me, as well as a valued connection to the outside world, I've been trying to continue to post a few entries during the past week. Not surprisingly though, I don't have many words right now to go with my blog entries, so I've been relying upon some of my favorite photos and photo memories, as well as some of my previous card creations and favorite quotes to carry the "messages" of my blog posts of late.

Tomorrow, Lee is scheduled to undergo another diagnostic procedure to help the doctors figure out what's causing this current health issue and to help decide where we need to go from here. Lee and I are both relieved that we now have a plan, and we are thankful to have a group of skilled and knowledgeable physicians involved in his care.

So it is with a hopeful and confident attitude that both Lee and I are approaching the next few days. Hence, the theme of my Blog post today is HOPE . . . . .

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Until we meet again. . . . . may all your days be filled with hope.

Let the light shine. . . . . .

Where there is light . . .

there is vision,

there is hope,

and there is strength.

Cardmaking in Black and White: Variations on a Theme

Well, it's been almost a week since I've blogged, and as usual, I've missed it!

However, I'm a bit short on time (and words) this week, so I've decided to do a brief blog post featuring my most recent card creations.

It seems that I've been on a "black and white" card kick lately! I do love black and white together, and whenever I go to my local crafts or scrapbook stores, I'm always on the lookout for new and beautiful patterned papers in shades of black and white.

What I'm going to be featuring in today's post are several cards that I've made over the past couple of weeks, using a wonderful floral patterned paper (by Basic Grey), in shades of black, gray and white with just a hint of cream and gold. I found this paper a number of months ago during one of my frequent (and therapeutic) shopping trips to my local Robert's Crafts store.

I've learned over my years of paper crafting, never to pass up a paper that I really like, because it may not be there the next time I look for it! I had no idea when I first found this paper, what exactly I would use it for, but I just loved the design, so I bought it.

And as luck would have it, I recently found the perfect use for this paper.

A few weeks ago, I received a request from a fellow Etsyan for a customized 40th Birthday Card. She left the card design up to me, but mentioned a few possibilities for preferred card colors. Since black was among the colors mentioned, I thought of this paper that I had stashed for just the right occasion!

So I pulled out the paper, studied the bold floral design, hoping for some inspiration, and came up with the idea for a hand-cut paper pieced flower, specifically created to coordinate with the underlying patterned paper. And voila, a new card design was born!

On graph paper, I first hand drew a couple of large flower petal patterns, based roughly on the floral design in the patterned paper. Then from these two petal patterns, I individually handcut eight petals (four of each design) from textured black Bazzill cardstock.



I wanted to make the card particularly elegant, since it was for a special friend and a special birthday. So I decided to add a touch of gold to the card design, pulling from the cream and gold accents in the patterned paper.











The background of the card design is textured white Bazzill, over which there's a layer of shiny goldtone cardstock, then a layer of the "inspiration" paper, around which the entire card design was created.

I've embellished each corner of the card with a metal goldtone brad. And I pen-outlined each paper pieced flower petal with metallic gold pigment ink.

The numbers in the center of the paper pieced flower are purchased self-adhesive 3-D goldtone metal pieces.

I'm happy to say that my custom card client was pleased with the outcome! Whew!

NOW that I'd completed my first card using this wonderful black and white floral paper, I was energized to create yet another new card design. After all, I still had some of the "inspiration paper" left, a new paper pieced flower design, and all my coordinating papers spread out on my dining room table (read: craft table)!

So, here's what followed . . . . . . . .






I used my new flower petal patterns to cut eight more petals from textured black Bazzill cardstock. But for these petals, I actually cut them once again, so that there is just an outline of the black petals, allowing the underlying patterned paper to show through.

This one-of-a-kind Any Occasion card is embellished with silvertone brads and white eyelash fiber.

For the next card, I used the smaller cut-out petals remaining from the outlined ones in the previous card (whoa . . .does that make any sense?)

So what we have here, is a smaller version of the same paper pieced flower design, without the "inspiration" paper, but simply using black and white textured Bazzill.


I've added one of my favorite quotes to this Any Occasion or Note Card, "The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart." ~ Helen Keller


And after these three cards, I was STILL inspired and had yet more of what had become my favorite-of-all-time black and white patterned paper, SO . . . . .


I created another one-of-a-kind Birthday Card design, this time without the paper-pieced flower, and with a slightly different variation of white and black textured Bazzill, silvertoned brads, and black eyelash fiber.

And here's my final card design making use of my "inspiration" paper.

This card embodies one of my favorite styles of card, which I term, "Simply Elegant."

Speaking from my own perspective, I'd say that this wonderfully designed black and white floral paper served me well, and gave me quite a run on "inspiration". What do you think?

Wow, guess I had more words in me than I thought!

Ciao!

For the LOVE of DOGS: Part 1 . . . . . . .

It’s no secret to those of you who know me, or who have been following my Blog, that I’m a “dog person”. I love animals of all kinds (well, perhaps with a few exceptions), but I’m particularly fond of dogs.

Throughout most of my adulthood, I’ve always had one or two dogs. And in all honesty, I can’t imagine my life without a dog! I’ve often commented to friends over the years that having dogs adds another dimension to one’s life. Of course, I recognize that having dogs is not the same as having children. But for my husband Lee and me, our dogs have always been an integral part of our lives, and we consider them members of our family. To us, they are indeed very much like children.

So, on that introductory note, I’m dedicating today’s Blog post to DOGS and those who LOVE them. This will be the first of several related posts on this topic, which I’m entitling, “For the LOVE of DOGS . . . .”

Although one of Lee’s and my current “passions” is greyhound adoption, and we currently have two wonderful greyhounds, we haven’t always been greyhound owners. In fact our first two dogs were mixed breed dogs that came into our lives rather accidentally.


Lucky was a Gordon Setter and Black Lab mix, whose owner was one of Lee’s co-workers. As it turns out, the co-worker was moving to a place where he could no longer have a dog, and was looking for a new home for Lucky. So, Lee and I decided to meet her.

It was love at first sight, and we were both struck by her friendly and exuberant personality, her wonderful lustrous black fur, and the way she ran like the wind. So, we took her home. Lucky always kept us on our toes . . .she’s the only dog we ever had who took a flying leap and slid along the top of my baby grand piano to get a glimpse out the adjacent window, AND she’s the only dog that I’ve ever had who caught mice! She was a handful, but a delight.

Less than a year later, Lee and I came home after work to find a second dog in our back yard. . . .a timid and rather scraggly-looking terrier mix with long off-white fur, mostly matted! Later we found the place where she had dug her way under the fence into our yard to visit Lucky. She wore no tags, and she had apparently been through some rough treatment, because every time we tried to approach her (Lee more than I), she nearly cowered.

But eventually we managed to befriend this little waif, feed her, give her a bath and trim her matted coat. We couldn’t bring ourselves to take her to the local animal shelter, fearful that she wouldn’t be adopted. SO. . . . .. we named her and decided to keep her. That was a decision we never for one moment regretted over the years Mutt-Mutt was with us. She never got over her timidity with men, but she was one of the most affectionate dogs I’ve ever known. She was a gift.

For 16 years, Lucky and Mutt-Mutt were each others and Lee’s and my sweet and loyal companions. Early in 1997, both dogs passed away within one month of each other. Lucky died on Lee's birthday.

It was shortly after we lost Lucky and Mutt-Mutt that we adopted our first two ex-racing greyhounds.

Having grown up in Abilene, Kansas (home of the National Greyhound Association), I was somewhat familiar with greyhounds, but only from a distance. And Lee and I had talked about the possibility of adopting an ex-racing greyhound. So we started doing some online research about greyhound adoption in Utah.

We found out about a greyhound adoption group in southern Utah (then the only greyhound adoption group in the state), and contacted them to inquire about the availability of ex-racing greyhounds for placement. And one month later, having successfully completed the adoption “application process”, we were making the 5 hour trip from Salt Lake City to Kanab, Utah to pick up our first two greyhounds, Cody and Cassie.

Cassie was a beautiful brindle girl. She was a small and very shy greyhound whom we loved dearly, but who had a number of mysterious but serious health issues over the short time that we had her.

A little over a year after we brought her home, she succumbed to a bizarre illness. (We never did have a final diagnosis.)

Cody was all black, with a white chest and four white-tipped paws. Weighing in at around 87 lbs., he was the largest dog we’d ever had, and it took a little while for us to get used to his size! But he was one of the quietest, most gentle dogs I’ve ever known (except around cats!).

We called Cody our “gentle giant”. Cody was with us for 8 years, until he developed bone cancer and passed away a few months later. He was almost 10.

We adopted Ride (racing name: Emotional Ride) in 1999, shortly after Cassie’s passing.

This is a photo of Ride, not long after we adopted her. She was around 3 years old.

(I'd forgotten how dark her face was way back then . . .she hadn't started to turn gray yet!)

At first, we were a little nervous about how Cody would adjust to sharing the house again with another grey.

But mellow fellow that he was, Cody did fine, and it didn’t take long before he and Ride were best friends, which they remained until Cody’s passing in 2004.

Ride was our only greyhound for a couple of years. Both Lee and I were so saddened by the loss of Cody, we weren’t sure we were ready to attach to yet another greyhound right away, so we thought we’d wait a while to decide.

I was recently retired from my job by then, and since I was home all day, Ride and I became inseparable. She LOVED to take jaunts in the car with me, and I would often take her with me for short errands when the weather was nice.

Around November 2006, Lee and I decided that we were ready to adopt another greyhound, and as fate would have it . . . along came Harley!

It so happened that right about the time Lee and I decided to seek out another greyhound, Harley was “returned” to a local greyhound adoption group, where we know the kennel owner. Harley had been placed in an adoptive home a year before, but unfortunately the placement hadn’t worked out as well as expected. And when Harley was returned to the adoption group, he was not in very good shape physically OR emotionally, so he needed quite a bit of tender loving care and attention.

Once we brought Harley home, it was a difficult couple of months, in that Harley had moderate to severe separation anxiety, and somewhat aggressive food behavior. Thankfully, with a lot of patience, love, and consistency, Harley is now well-adjusted and happy as the newest member of our family.

And this beautiful fawn boy with amber eyes has turned out to be another one of the greyt joys of our lives.

Although it took Ride a while to warm up to Harley, they have become good companions to each other. And coincidentally, even though they are 7 years apart in age, their birthdays are only one day apart! Ride will turn 13 on March 28th and Harley will turn 6 on March 27th.

I am so grateful to have dogs in my life. Not only have our dogs always provided Lee and me with unconditional love, they have also brought us joy and laughter.

Our dogs help prevent Lee and me from being TOO introspective, TOO self-absorbed, and TOO serious. And, they provide us with special memories and “Kodak moments” that have helped to inspire us in our own creative endeavors.

I hope you’ll stay tuned for my next Blog post, “For the LOVE of DOGS: Part 2”, in which I will focus on how our greyhounds and dogs in general have provided inspiration for my handmade cards, scrapbook layouts, and other paper creations.

CARDMAKING: From CONCEPT to REALITY Article 3

Good morning once again, my friends,

I hope that you’re all having a fine week!

So far in my CARDMAKING: From CONCEPT to REALITY series, I’ve shared a couple of examples of my personal cardmaking experience….one card design that evolved from a poem and one that evolved from a floral design on a duvet cover. In today’s article, I’m going to share another of my cardmaking experiences, and this one, believe it or not, was inspired by a child’s hair barette!

Now, I do have to confess that I never would have come up with this card idea, had I not been participating in a card challenge with some of my cardmaking friends…The topic of that challenge was “Make a card using a ‘found object.’” (And NO, the challenge topic wasn't my idea!)

Not having a clue as to what I’d come up with for that particular challenge, I started searching the house for a ‘found’ item, anything that I thought I could possibly work into a card design, and wahlah......I found a colorful little barette with tiny rhinestone sparkles, in one of my many “junk collection” dishes I have scattered about. I had no idea where the barette came from, but I suspect it may have been a Christmas “stocking stuffer” purchase for one of my nieces years ago, that never made it to the stocking!

At any rate, I thought the color combination of fushia and aqua were striking, and so I set about looking through my mega stacks of cardstock and patterned paper to see what might coordinate well with this little barrette. And to my delight, I found a lovely pieced of embossed cardstock (by K and Company, as I recall) that had the PERFECT color combination in a beautiful floral design.

Then I searched through my textured Bazzill (I always have lots and lots of Bazzill on hand for just the right cardmaking occasion), and selected a coordinating shade of turquoise blue for the card design background. I’d just purchased some sheets of that color in the Bazzill “Bling” line, which has a lovely shimmer.

I also was able to find just the right shade of deep pink mulberry paper to coordinate with the color scheme. I fringed the edges of the mulberry paper for a little interest and used it to create an additional border under the embossed floral paper and under the text block.

Luckily, I was also able to find two different remnants of ribbon in my ribbon stash/tin, one in deep aqua, and one in deep rose.........those worked nicely to attach through the little barrette and add another touch to the card.

Text was computer generated and printed on plain white cardstock, then I chalk shaded the edges of the text block in (you guessed it!) aqua chalk.

With a few tiny acrylic rhinestones in a coordinating shade of blue to add a bit of sparkle, I thought this turned out to be a pretty nice little birthday card. And I guess someone else thought so too, since I SOLD IT ON EBAY!

So, here's today's story of how a card made it from CONCEPT to REALITY.....and in this case, I can honestly say this little card wouldn't have come to be, if I hadn't been challenged by my cardmaking friends and if I hadn't had just the right combination of materials in my cardmaking stash! (Guess that justifies my frequent shopping trips to the local crafts and scrapbooking stores.....or DOES it??)

Until we meet again.......May you be inspired today, even by the most unlikely source.

CARDMAKING: From CONCEPT to REALITY, Article 2

A few months ago, my husband and I were in a frenzy, trying to ready the house for out-of-state company. It had literally been YEARS since anyone had come to visit us. (We’re usually the ones doing the traveling!). And since I hardly EVER spend any time on interior decorating or “accessorizing” our home, it was definitely time for some updating.

One of the activities I set about doing was to find some new bedding ensembles for our master bedroom and the guest room. Of course, being a little hard to please, I ended up going to beau coups department stores and wading through numerous online and printed catalogues, before I found something that I thought would work for us.

Eventually, I did find a lovely duvet cover and matching shams and sheets for our master bedroom, in a design and colors that BOTH my husband and I loved . . . . . which is a feat in and of itself!

I liked the fabric design SO much, in fact, that I decided to use it as an "inspiration" piece for a new handmade card. Here’s a photo swatch of the fabric design from our new duvet cover . . . . .

The color combination of salmon and blue has long been a favorite of mine, and I always enjoy creating new paper piecings, so once again, I was all fired up for a new card project.

First of all, I started with a background "canvas" of a 5" X 7" piece of white textured Bazzill, which I glued to the front of a pre-folded cardstock base which I use for all my cards.

Then I dragged out my large and medium sized circle punches, my deckle edged and regular scissors, some scraps of textured Bazzill in a peachy shade and medium shade of orange and a dusky blue, and went to work punching and cutting. One thing led to another, as they say, and the flower just kept getting bigger and bigger! And then, of course, it needed a stem and some leaves........so MORE cutting.

Several hours and many layers and glue dots later. . . . . . here’s what I ended up with . . . .

It just so happens that some of my fellow cardmaker friends and I were having a card challenge around this time, and the theme of the challenge was to “make a 'wild' card” . . . . . . hence I named this creation “Wild Flower”. . . . . .and it has turned out to be yet another example of how a card design evolved from CONCEPT to REALITY.

Until we meet again . . . . . . May your days be wildly wonderful!

CARDMAKING: From Concept to Reality, Article 1

I’ve been doing a lot of introspection lately about the craft of cardmaking . . . . . . particularly in regard to where a cardmaker finds his/her “inspiration” to create new card designs, and then, once that inspiration occurs, how does the s/he bring those designs from “concept to reality” ?

As for me, I get the inspiration for my various card designs from lots of different sources . . . . such as colorful or special themed scrapbook papers, beautiful or unique embellishments, animals and nature, a poem or saying, a life event, or even a “challenge” by a client or fellow cardmaker to produce a card along a certain theme.

From the point that I get an idea for a card, how I go about developing that card design will vary…. For example, if my “inspiration” comes from a particular patterned scrapbook paper, I’ll start with the patterned paper and build a card design either around the color scheme or theme of the paper, sifting through all my papers and embellishment to find just the right combination. Other times, I’ll find a great quote, print it on a piece of cardstock, and then pick the papers and embellishments to go with that theme. Or, I might see something (a tree, an animal, a flower) that inspires me to create a paper piecing, and then the paper piecing becomes the focal point of my card design, with the overall card design evolving around that.

For today’s Blog post, I thought I’d show an example of one of my handmade card designs that evolved from a poem. The origin of this card was a rather lengthy poem (author unknown) that one of my card clients/friends sent to me, posing to me the challenge of incorporating it into a sympathy card. After a little tweaking, my friend and I came up with a shortened version of the poem (The original poem was actually about a “ship”, but I changed that to “boat”.)

A boat sails, and I stand watching till she fades on the horizon,

While someone at my side says, "She is gone."

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all……

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She is gone",

There are others who, watching her coming, take up a glad shout,
"Here she comes!"

I couldn’t find any paper that lent itself particularly well to this poem/message, so I decided to try my hand at developing a paper pieced sailboat. I was lucky enough to find an image of a sailboat in a cutout from a brochure I had saved. (I'm ALWAYS cutting out and saving pictures and sayings that I see in magazines and catalogues, and adding them to my “inspiration” file!)

Not being an artist by trade, but having some limited skill in sketching, I managed to come up with a sailboat drawing of my own, using the little sailboat cutout as a guide.





And from this drawing, I developed a paper piecing pattern for the sailboat. Then I used the pattern to cut out the pieces of the sailboat from various scraps of textured Bazzill cardstock that I have around, punched out a large circle (the moon, or maybe the sun...you decide!) from deep yellow Bazzill, cut out a few free hand seagull silhouettes, a mast and a tiny flag, and came up with the following sailboat design.

Since all of my cards are fully lined with another layer of plain acid free white cardstock, I printed the text of the shortened version of the poem on the inside upper liner of this card. The inside bottom of the card remains blank for the sender’s handwritten message.

Over the next week or so, I hope to show other different examples of how some of my favorite handmade card designs have come to be.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from my fellow cardmakers (and indeed, other craftspersons and artisans as well!) about how you get your inspiration, and once inspired with an idea, how you bring that idea from CONCEPT to REALITY.

Until we meet again..........I wish you calm seas and smooth sailing.

A Treasury of HOPE

Happy Thursday, Everyone,

I'm honored to have one of my favorite handmade cards featured in a lovely Etsy Treasury created by fellow Etsyan "Reflections"....the title of the Treasury is "Keep Holding On" and the overall theme is one of HOPE.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=10985

Please take a moment to stop by the Treasury........and make a comment if you wish.

What Inspires You?

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

I haven't had a chance to post to my Blog yet today, but I did write an article, entitled "What INSPIRES You?" for another blog that I participate in, THE CARD CHRONICLES.

My article was just posted a little while ago......I hope you can take a minute to read it and share your comments!

Here's a link to THE CARD CHRONICLES: http://creativecard-designs.blogspot.com/

Until Later......