A Special Birthday Celebration

During Kate's Birthday Celebration week at I {heart} Papers last month, she challenged us to make a "special" birthday card. Coincidentally, Lynn Mercurio shared the technique for making easel cards in her weekly Try a New Technique Monday challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.

My best friend Marsha's mom, who has been my kids' and my own Grandma Berman for the thirty years that Marsha and I have been friends, will be celebrating her 99th birthday next week. Can you think of anything more "special"? This was the perfect opportunity to make a wonderful card for "Grandma B". I can share it here because even though she has always kept up with the times and still has plenty of spunk, computers are something she has never had any interest in so I don't envision her surfing the net and finding it! Whew! By the way, this picture of Marsha and her mom sitting in our garden was taken in early spring.

Easel cards are fun cards that open to form their own "stands", revealing a greeting or other decorative elements. I stamped and embossed the birthday greeting on the card base and embellished it with an ombre rose flower that holds the lower edge of the card when the card is open and on display.

I modified the dimensions to make a 6 inch square card with some wonderful fall themed paper from My Mind's Eye's "Fall in Love" glitter stack. I used the large grapevine wreath from Stampington and embossed it in brown on brown and embellished it with a wired ribbon bow, Prima flowers finished with Kaiser half pearls, one of Kate's ombre rose flowers, a vintage button, and some punched leaves that have been inked and lightly distressed. The stop on the easel base is another of the ombre rose flowers.

The glittery flowers are part of the original paper design but the darker image in the center of the wreath is a a tone on tone embossed spray of butterflies and leaves.

More Halloween Fancy

I have received some wonderful vintage Halloween images from Dover Publications through their weekly free image samples. Here are a couple of wonderful cards I've made this week to send Halloween greetings to friends. Click on the images for larger views.


The top image is mounted on a scrap of paper that has a brick print background. I stamped spider webs in the corners and then embellished it with Martha Stewart's "Glow in the Dark" glitter.

The lower image has panels of paper from the Twilight Collection (Memory Box). Both have some of that to-die-for silk ribbon from I {heart} Papers.

Happy Halloween!

Fall is my least favorite season -- it means winter is just around the corner! But the colors are never more magnificent than they are this time of year.

Recently, Lynn Mercurio shared the technique for these windshield wiper cards on Splitcoast Stampers' Monday Techniques challenge. You can find her post and tutorial information here. The first one you make takes a little bit of time, but once you figure out how these deceptively simple cards go together, it's a breeze, so don't let a card with moving parts intimidate you!

This first card was my first attempt at a windshield wiper card. I finished both the front and the back. The image on the front is a free download from Dover Publications. The sentiment is on the back and is a Unity Stamp, "Tis Near Halloween". The patterned paper is from Memory Box's "Twilight Collection". Both are from I {heart} Paper.

I also used Gina K's Chocolate Kiss card stock, which makes a very sturday card base, Versafine's Vintage Sepia ink, copper Stickles, the Martha Stewart Leaf Edge Punch, and a small scrap of a two-sided red and orange ribbon from Michael's. I actually used the punched out leaves from the decorative border punch to embellish.

When I made the second card, I used paper from an 8.5 inch K&Co. paper pack for a base and the size of the paper limited the width of the card.

This card is also reversible and features a watercolored pumpkin on the card front and tag. The bright orange ribbon is inch wide silk from I {heart} Paper. I am a silk ribbon junkie - it's so easy to work with and it makes a stunning bow.

For this card, I also made a coordinating envelope lined with the same patterned paper and with the smaller pumpkin stamped and painted on the lower left front corner.

I used a large spider web stamp from Tim Holtz to stamp across the side panels on both the front and back sides.

To get the rounded corners, I punched each corner with the card completed and closed. I used the Crop-a-Dile Corner Chomper to do this -- first time I used this gadget and I love it. I'm embarrassed to admit that my husband Steve decided I needed this and bought it for me -- about three months ago. I'm so intimidated by gadgets, it has sat in the package in my closet since I got it! This was the first time I used it and I am now thrilled to have it!

Here's the complete recipe for this card:

Stamps: Large pumpkin, Inkadinkadoo #9515; Small Pumpkin, Hero Arts #LP017 Halloween; Spider Web, Tim Holtz' Trick or Treat Collection (Stamper's Anonymous by Stampendous)

Paper: Que Sera Sera Collection (K&Co.)

Ink: Burnt Umber (Palette); Classic White (SU); Aged Linen Distress Ink (Ranger)

Accessories: Orange silk ribbon (IHP); Brads (Making Memories); Nestabilities dies; Mica Watercolor Paints; Tombow markers; Watercolor pencils.

Fall Colors at the Rose Cottage

I can't believe that Halloween is just days away! The summer here lasted about ten days. Spring lasted forever, with eight straight weeks of cool wet weather extending through July. We got a hint of summer in the August humidity, and then autumn arrived very early, with November temperatures settling down on us in early in October and our first snow fall two weeks ago (and melted already, thank heavens). Even though it's back up to the 50's and 60's this week, and projected to be 70 degrees for Trick or Treating, I am suffering summer withdrawal!

But the garden looks lovely every time of the year, and so I decided to update my blog with a new look for fall. If you like the background, you can find lots of gorgeous ones at this blog, which I recently discovered. And if you want a special treat, visit her Etsy shop. Kirsi has an amazing collection of vintage ephemera. I indulged this weekend and am having so much fun just looking through all of the images, planning ways to incorporate them into projects of my own.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures of the glorious fall colors in our garden this year. While the summer was a definite disappointment, fall has never been so lovely at the rose cottage!

Happy Birthday to I {Heart} Papers

One of my favorite places to spend some time chatting with other artists and getting inspiration is the I {heart} Paper group at Papercraft Planet. This friendly and talented group is the namesake of group owner Kate's store, where I have found many incredible finds -- gorgeous papers, some great new stamp lines, the most luscious silk ribbon ever, and my absolute favorite adhesive in the world, Kate's I {stick} Paper.

This week, I {heart} Paper is celebrating the one year anniversary of the opening of the store with a week of fun challenges and prize drawings for great prizes for randomly selected daily winners. The one hitch -- all cards or projects have to somehow be tied into a birthday theme.

Birthday challenge #1 was to create a card using the colors of IHP's logo: rose, light green, light blue, and black. I was fortunate to have some rose, green and blue plaid patterned paper from Paper Pizzazz and a scrap of green that matched perfectly to mat it on and embellish it. Another small scrap of a rose and green print added extra depth to the tag panel. The butterflies, all from different Serendipity sets, are stamped in Palette Noir and clear embossed and watercolored with pearl and light green mica paints.

The flower is layered silk, shimmer, and tulle Primas attached with a shimmery rose brad. The green tulle leaves are several thicknesses that have been heated and shaped with a heat gun. Ribbon is one of my most favorite embellishments and nothing makes a perfect bow quite like this 1-1/2 inch wide light pink silk ribbon. My friend Jerri, of A Touch of Grace introduced me to silk ribbon earlier this year and I have been hard pressed to use anything else since I acquired my first length of it.

The lay-out of this card was inspired by this week's sketch challenge at StampTV.

Image Swap Card Exchange

I recently participated in a fun and challenging swap hosted by Faith at the Stamp-Shack, which is a terrific site for stampers who enjoy card making.

In this challenge, swappers submitted multiple copies of an image stamped on card stock to the swap hostess and she sent each participant an image from each of the other players to make a card -- any kind of card.

The completed cards were returned to the hostess who sorted them and sent each player the cards that were made from her image. Here are some of the cards I made for that swap. I also made a coordinated envelope for each card.

I originally planned a black, gray and brown palette for Captain Jack but when I painted his bandana, the mica paint had a greenish patina to it, and I picked up on that with the celadon colors of this patterned paper from Wild Asparagus (Me and my Big Ideas). The twine gives a rustic finish to the image.

I punched holes with my tiniest hand punch and used fine, stiff twine (Wal-Mart) to overcast the edges of the image panel, which I distressed.

I used two coordinating papers, also from the Wild Asparagus collection, for this card and the coordinating envelope.

After painting with watercolors, I cut the image out and matted it on ovals.

The dark rose petals on the scalloped border are a part of the print that just happened to be in the perfect spot.


The headband was embellished with Ruby Slipper Stickles and gold microbeads. Larger gold beads and jump rings made wonderful jewelry. I adhere them with Diamond Glaze.





This adorable House Mouse image was watercolored and then mounted on a striped lavender and kraft patterned paper. The background I chose has lavender flowers on a kraft background. I embellished with die cut corners and punched flowers.

The image provided for this card was the largest butterfly. which I painted with Winsor and Newton Iridescent Watercolor Medium. I kept the color theme to black and white with a tiny punch of navy in the punched butterflies. The larger punched butterflies were stamped and embossed in black on navy.




Here is the inside of the card and a stamped embellishment on the envelope.







After watercoloring, I added some gold ink to the robes, then matted the image. I used scraps of the paper from the card front and border to embellish an inside panel that was stamped with a holiday greeting.


This card started out as a happy accident and ended up being my personal favorite of the lot.

When I first saw the image, I was stumped. I decided to paint first and let my muse take it from there. I intended to paint the beach ball in primary colors but grabbed the wrong green (olive instead of grass green). Seeing my mistake, I searched through my patterned papers and found Mellow, a lovely Basic Grey collection in a small (6" by 6") pad.

The "solid" blue has clouds and shading and made a perfect mat for the image, which I cut out and mounted on it. The water was treated with irridescent medium and stickles for shimmer.

The sun was stamped, painted, and embellished with Stickles.

The red and green panels are from the same paper pad and coordinate perfectly with the floral background.

The tiny flowers and buttons came in a tiny bag of embellishments as a freebie with a stamp set I bought ages ago. Punched leaves and vines, brads for flower centers, and a tiny bit of twine finished it off. I hated to return it! Doesn't that pup look like he's having fun?

Hats, Handbags, and Shoes... and Chinese Peonies

Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) have become one of my favorite ways to "doodle" with paper. I just love creating these tiny masterpieces and they also feed right into one of my passions - finding a use for even the smallest scrap of "pretty" paper.

ATC's are very small artisitic creations that can be used to adorn card fronts, altered projects, and scrap book pages, or just enjoyed for their beauty and creativity. Some people use them as business or calling cards.

When it comes to ATC's, there are only three rules:

Size - ATC's are always 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches;

Construction - a foundation of quality material - card stock (two layers is considered the minimum), cardboard, grungeboard, watercolor paper, even fabric - as a canvas for your personal best work.

Value - They are art for art's sake, traded or given away but never, ever sold. In fact, once an ATC is sold, it is no longer an "Artist Trading Card"; it becomes an "ACEO", or Art Cards, Editions and Originals.

This monochromatic collection of fashion accessories used scraps of four different patterned card stock and design papers in addition to a solid textured card stock and watercolor paper foundation. For this card, I stamped the images in dye ink and clear embossed on the patterned card stock and used detail scissors and a craft knife to cut out the images.

These Chinese Peonies are a free clip art sample provided by Dover Publications. You can subscribe to their weekly free clip art samples here.

This card is an example of Paper Tole - using multiple layers of the same image to create a three dimensional picture.

I cropped and printed multiple images of the peonies and then cut out three layers for each blossom, trimming off a few petals with each successive layer so the center of the flower is increasingly prominent.

The flowers on the card were painted with Mod Podge and allowed to dry briefly. More Mod Podge was added to the bottom central area of the flower and the next layer of petals was applied and that layer was also painted with Mod Podge.

When adding additional layers, I used my fine tweezers to curl each petal forward slightly. It's important to then carefully coat both sides of the petal with Mod Podge. After all three layers were attached and coated, I let the cards dry thoroughly - several hours in the humidity we're having now. Then I painted them with Diamond Glaze. After they were again dry, I added a tiny drop of Diamond Glaze to the center of each bloom and sprinkled them with copper microbeads.

ATC's are a great way to use up those small bits of leftover punched borders, scraps, and extra images from larger projects. While many swaps require that you make 8 or more cards for a "swap", more and more, I am finding swaps involving 3 or 4 cards.

Pick a Theme swaps provide another one of my favorite ways to use leftover scraps of punched lace, extra images, and scraps of pretty paper. These swaps involve making one-of-a kind for participant's chosen themes. PAT swaps are available on several card swapping sites. You can read more about them here at a the newest PAT Swap posted in the Swap Forum at Splitcoast Stampers.

Sad news....

Well, I am very sad to report that a neighborhood cat discovered our babies and their nest. We had penned the area off to protect it from the dogs, never thinking that a cat might somehow find them. We don't even know who owns the cat, but early this morning, Toughie, one of our Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, gave an alert that there was an animal in the yard and seemed to be chasing something.

In the early morning dim light, we didn't immediately see what had attracted his attention but a short time later, a very large orange tiger cat sat licking his chops just outside the fence and a quick look showed that the nest had been destroyed, our babies and the remaining eggs, gone.

Several times this morning, Toughie has alerted and has raced to the trellis where the cat was stalking the bird feeder.

I know that this is part of the natural world we live in, And I know that this is what cats "do". But I am sad that we didn't get the chance to see these little ones take flight and join the rest of the birds who favor us with their wonderful song in our garden.

The Baby Sparrows Now Have Feathers!

Our baby sparrows are four days old now and they now have some feathers. It's amazing how much they have grown in just four days.

When they were born on Wednesday morning, their eyes were so huge, they literally bulged from their tiny faces. They have grown so much, their eyes now appear normal in size in proportion. We caught them napping here, while Mama is out getting food.

We are now leaving some sunflower seeds under the plant for Mama Sparrow, and since they are disappearing, I am guessing she's eating them. Best of all, none of the other birds who come to our feeders seem to be aware. We are still keeping the area barricaded with a puppy pen, but even when she hops down the walk to the butterfly garden, the dogs ignore her. The other two eggs still haven't hatched yet.... I wonder if they will. Perhaps she laid them at different times?

The Baby Birds are Doing Well

I finally was able to photograph the mama bird in her nest. She's a sparrow! Here she is, sitting on the two remaining eggs and her two little chicks. The babies are still so tiny and fragile looking!