you are loved, M&D!

Here's to the initial inking of my latest Avery Elle stamp set - Fanfare! It's a combo card in more ways than one. Firstly, I used Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch AND drew inspiration from Avery Elle's April AEI{heart}U challenge (I think the repeating fanfare swoops mimics the inspiration photo's floating Japanese lanterns, don't you?)! Secondly, tomorrow's my folkes' wedding anniversary and I'm thinking of them, AND Mother's Day is fast approaching, when I'll give this to my Mom (you see, my Dad passed away 8+ years ago and my Mom's got Alzheimer's BUT she still reads every card I give her, God bless her)!

The AE Fanfare stamp is a single line of swoops so I repeatedly stamped them using VersaMark on some SU Sahara Sand, then tied on some white cotton string, glued on the dies, and popped up the punches on some Neenah Solar White card stock. Easy peasy!

stamps: Avery Elle's Fanfare; ink: Ranger's black soot distress ink, Tsukineko's VersaMark; paper: American Crafts' Textured White, Neenah's Solar White, SU's Real Red and Sahara Sand card stock, unknown green DP; tools: EK Success Spiral, Marvy Uchida heart,SU's bird builder punches, Cuttlebug w Simon Says Stamp's you, and Sizzix Branch w Leaves dies; accessories: white packaging string

a case study

Let me start right off by letting you know that I can't count on all my fingers and toes the number of times I've said that, when I grow up, I want to create papercrafts like Debby Hughes of Lime Doodle Design blog fame! The girl just ROCKS, and today's card is a shameless CASE of her April 19th post. I've been neglectful of my Silhouette of late, and when I couldn't locate a decent sized bee stamp, pulled the Silhouette out of mothballs and now have it permanently installed at my desktop PC/printer station. I'd previously been pulling it out of storage each time I used it but I'm ashamed to tell you that I didn't get around to pulling it out all that often tho' I'm really pleased with it!

So, okay, confessions aside, today's card is for a coworker and it's a change of venue for me, as I usually do sailing-themed cards for her! Not to mention that when I think of the normal birthday greeting, I sign cards using the images of a hippo, birdie, and two ewes (all of which I have plenty of stamp samples in my stash, naturally), so this is really a change of pace for me! When I spotted Debby's card, I thought to myself, "Self, don't you have a bee stamp in one of those SU floral stamp sets?" ... and "Self, you haven't even USED that honeycomb embossing folder yet, have you?" ... and "Self, I know you've ORDERED that 'happy bee day' stamp set - no, it's not arrived yet (must be on a slow boat from China) - BUT you DO have Kim Hughes' fonts installed on the PC, don't you?!" After searching through my stamp sets and only finding miniscule honey bees, I decided it was time to pull out the Silhouette and that's where I found the bee used on the card. Such a deal, at only 50 center per image AND I still have a credit due me from my original Silhouette purchase (you see, the store I purchased it from gave me $200 in credits when I purchased it for $309 originally). My only regret is that I purchased it BEFORE the SD version came out, so mine's not especially portable!

stamps: n/a (sentiment is PC-generated using Kim Hughes SNF Daisy Jane and SNF Goody fonts); paper: Neenah's Solar White, Paper Reflections black, and SU's YoYo Yellow card stocks; ink: n/a (PC-generated sentiment and honeycomb circle); tools: Cuttlebug w MFT Stamps' Sweet Stack Labels (circle), QuicKutz's No. 73 Number Set, Simon Says Stamp's You, Talk Bubbles 2 dies; and Silhouette w bumblebee shape