Happy Birthday, Nancy-Mom!!

First I need to welcome two new members to my blog family:  Megan, who is joining us from the Bahamas (I thought I heard Lisa talking to someone upstairs last night - and no one else was upstairs*), and Dawn from I Am a Happy Stamper.  Thanks for joining me on my happy little journey.  Every time I see that someone new joins my blog, I run around the house imitating Sally Fields Oscar acceptance speech, "They like me. They really like me!!"  OK, that's an exaggeration.  I didn't actually run!!

Birthday Wishes** going out to the mom of my beloved Andrew (some of you know him as Kall!).  It's really hard to sum up my mother-in-law in a few lines because she does so many things.  She knows everyone, and you can't go any where with her without running into several of her acquaintances all singing her praises.  Her home is right out of House Beautiful.  She's the hostess with the "mostest," and the volunteer that you want on your team.  Of course, to us, she Mom, Nancy-Mom and Grammy!!

Here's my box for Nancy.  It must be elegant:

It had to be Avonlea paper!!  I cut the decoration from one of the papers, the same that you see on the front flap of the box, and then covered it in Liquid Glass.  If you click on the photo, hopefully you can see the tiny pearls dotted around on the top.

Side view (Captain Obvious):

The box is filled with cards from my Avonlea posts.  I ran out of ribbon (Can you believe it??), so I will be making a lot more Avonlea Gate Cards in the future.  I promise, more will be coming!!

Hope it was the Best of Birthdays!!  With Much Love from your Family in Michigan!!

*.*  Karen

*It was Skype, naturally!  Where was that when I was a foreign exchange student in Belgium and phone calls were $3/minute?!!  What a wonderful way to keep in contact from med. school.
**Ever so slightly belated!  Yesterday was a crazy, busy day!!

H2H Rock 'n Roll Challenge

Heart 2 Heart has posted another challenge and this one is all about a technique that is near and dear to my heart.  It's called "Rock 'n Roll" or "rolling."  It's easy, but just a little intimidating the first time, as new techniques often are.  You should have seen the first time I edged a piece of paper by lying it on the ink pad. You would have thought I was going to get bitten!!

All the Rock 'n Roll technique consists of is stamping in a light colored ink, and then gently rolling the edges of that stamp in a darker ink.  Below, you can see that I stamped the medallion in Juniper, and then rolled it in Smokey Plum.  The outer flourish is stamped first in Slate and then rolled on the top and bottom in Smokey Plum:

For this next example, I tissue stamped the medallion in Juniper before rolling just the top and bottom in Smokey Plum, so as to increase the contrast.  I wanted to make sure that the Rock 'n Roll technique really stood out in the photos.  It's a cool technique, you should go try it!!  Hey, try it and then enter the H2H Challenge!!  You'll be glad you did because you will have made something today instead of just thinking about it!!

OK, here are the cards:

This is a gate card.  I was recently reminded about this design.  I haven't made any in a while and it was time to resurrect an old friend.  (Dungeons and Dragon, Magic the Gathering, even Pokemon - too many resurrection allusions in my brain at once!!)   To score this 5 1/2" X 12" card stock,  start at 2" and 10" and then flip it over and score at 4" and 8", so that your mountain and valley folds are perfect.

Had to make a second card with the second example:

On back:  yes, I rolled the tiny flower.  I just couldn't help myself.  ; )

I haven't finished the envelopes yet (migraine day).
They will look  like the ones in my Avonlea Post.

Now, get crafting!!  *.*
Hugs,
Karen

Avonlea Cards

I'm back in the swing of things after quite a lag there.  I had to recover from our trip to Indianapolis, which was full of family fun.  I think I mentioned that I was going to be crafting with the spouses at the conference.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  I made 3 cards. SERIOUSLY, THREE!

Introducing a brand new paper packet called Avonlea:

I used the Slate Epoxy Bubbles and the Grey Organdy Ribbon that came in the Avonlea Card Making Workshop on the Go Kit.  I don't think that they are available any other way yet.

There is actually a difference between the top two cards.  I forgot to put the stamped lace border on one of them!  I was going to fix it, but decided that I liked the more masculine look (to give to someone manly some day) and left it that way.  Sometimes I think we tend to go overboard just because we have so much coordinating materials that look wonderfully together - or maybe it's just that I like a more streamline look... probably because there's nothing streamline about my life!!  ; )  I'm pretty big into clutter.  I'd never find anything if I tried to put everything away.  I need it all out at my finger tips.

I wrote one of the Thank You cards and realized that I hadn't stamped anything on the envelope.  Between the Avonlea Workshop on the Go Card Making Kit stamps and the Avonlea Workshop on the Go Scrapbooking Kit stamps* that my daughter got when she became a consultant, I had many stamps to choose from in designing my envelope.  The colors were a bit trickier because there are some exclusive Avonlea colors!  I had the Chocolate and Slate, but had to fake it with Twilight and a second generation of Juniper.  I also used a retired color called Garden Green, but I think a second generation of Olive would have also worked well.

What is second generation?  Ink up your acrylic stamp really well, stamp it once gently on a piece of scrap paper, then stamp it on your project and you get a lighter version of your ink color.  Often you can successfully get a third generation as well.

Avonlea is the only set that has two Workshops on the Go Kits.  Normal people would choose Card Making or Scrapbooking, but having both really worked out well for me and I will continue to use all of these stamps together.  There is also a beautiful large stamp called Pirouette, and a Family Tree stamp set that I am really looking forward to getting as I have been working on our genealogy on and off since 1984. One sheet of Avonlee is printed with a pedigree chart, (see background of top photo).

*There was some mistake and the stamps aren't pictured in the Idea Book for the Avonlea Scrapbooking Workshop on the Go Kit.  This is what they look like:

Here you can see the notations for the Cricut Artiste cartridge.  I don't have that one yet, but when I get it rest assured I will show you these stamps on the coordinating shapes!!  ; )

To check out the Idea Book for yourself, click on the graphic at the Top Right corner of this blog, and go to PRODUCTS then Idea Book.  It's not just a catalog - it is full of inspiration!