That's harder than it might seem in this day and age of social media, but she is pretty much my only friend, acquaintance or relative other than my in-laws who does not have a Facebook, Instagram or other kind of account. She does have e-mail but she doesn't check it very often; and I have to remind her to check her actual snail mail box so she can get the cards I make and send to her. At the time we became friends, I worked outside the home but she didn't. Now our roles are reversed and she is the busied, harried working mom trying to juggle her kids activities and work a more than full time job. The expectation from her employer is to work at least 45 hours a week and it is often 50 or more. I know, because I worked for the same company before she went to work there.
Gloria likes to make cards, too, and that is what we do when she comes for the weekend a couple of times a year. Therefore, my goal is always to make something for her in a style or manner that she wouldn't think to do, so that it is different from anything she would make for herself. This year I wanted to do something special since I started making cards this year. For my birthday in June, she sent me a card that played a song, really loudly! I had to take the battery out before I could read it because it was so loud. Ha! Shhhhh--don't tell her.
The design I came up with is really simple. I wanted to have something she could take with her to her office or her bathroom mirror or anywhere she might have a notion to as a reminder of our sisterhood. I always say, "Whether we're near or far apart, we will always be sisters of the heart." So I wanted her to see that heart and have it remind her that I'm always there in spirit. I'm planning to put a note in the card about how to remove the heart and take off the removable adhesive on the back side.
For such a simple card, this was quite the learning experience. I haven't done a whole lot of embossing and hadn't really tried to until August of this year. I initially tried to use some Cherry Cobbler Card Stock and no matter how much Powder Tool I used, I was getting bits of Gold Powder scattered all over the card stock and I wasn't getting the smoothness I wanted. So I opted to try it out on this Garnet Shimmer Paper and that was a winner. I'm learning that the smoothness of the paper has a lot to do with your results.
I stamped 2 - 4.25 x 5.5 pieces of the Garnet Shimmer Paper using an older Stampin' Up set called "Baroque Motifs" with Versamark and heat set the Ranger Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder. I really don't use the rest of this set, but I love that one particular stamp a whole bunch. Then I cut one of the panels using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies in the largest one. I used my Memory Box Stitched Hearts Dies to cut the other embossed panel in the largest heart. Next I put an eyelet through a hole near the top of the heart so that I could feed a narrow ribbon through it to make it hang like an ornament.
I cannot even count the number of eyelets I have. I bought several packages years ago at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, Texas. I lived in Dallas then so it was not too far of a drive and I went with one of my scrappy friends and we met up with other scrappy friends there. What fun that was; it makes me smile just thinking about it! But most of the eyelets I have can be set using a ball point pen. I happen to have a Silent Setter so I did use that since it also puts the correct size hole first. But these eyelets are easy to set. I had the ribbon (trust me when I tell you that I have ribbon) and since it was so narrow I knew it would fit through. I cut the Penny Black Happy Birthday die in gold metallic paper and made sure to place it on the removable heart. Then I tucked the ribbon behind my front panel and adhered that to my card base. I used a narrow strip of Removable Adhesive to hold the heart in place in alignment with the background panel. There's nothing fancy here, but she will love it.
The Garnet Shimmer Paper I have came from Create for Less several years ago. Sometimes Hobby Lobby will have some Shimmer Vellum in a nearly identical color called Lava.
I may have another project later as I will be continuing participation in the Share Handmade Kindness Campaign that you can read about on Jennifer McGuire's blog (link on the right hand side). If you stop by, please leave a comment for me; I love reading them!
For such a simple card, this was quite the learning experience. I haven't done a whole lot of embossing and hadn't really tried to until August of this year. I initially tried to use some Cherry Cobbler Card Stock and no matter how much Powder Tool I used, I was getting bits of Gold Powder scattered all over the card stock and I wasn't getting the smoothness I wanted. So I opted to try it out on this Garnet Shimmer Paper and that was a winner. I'm learning that the smoothness of the paper has a lot to do with your results.
I stamped 2 - 4.25 x 5.5 pieces of the Garnet Shimmer Paper using an older Stampin' Up set called "Baroque Motifs" with Versamark and heat set the Ranger Fine Detail Gold Embossing Powder. I really don't use the rest of this set, but I love that one particular stamp a whole bunch. Then I cut one of the panels using the Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies in the largest one. I used my Memory Box Stitched Hearts Dies to cut the other embossed panel in the largest heart. Next I put an eyelet through a hole near the top of the heart so that I could feed a narrow ribbon through it to make it hang like an ornament.
I cannot even count the number of eyelets I have. I bought several packages years ago at the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington, Texas. I lived in Dallas then so it was not too far of a drive and I went with one of my scrappy friends and we met up with other scrappy friends there. What fun that was; it makes me smile just thinking about it! But most of the eyelets I have can be set using a ball point pen. I happen to have a Silent Setter so I did use that since it also puts the correct size hole first. But these eyelets are easy to set. I had the ribbon (trust me when I tell you that I have ribbon) and since it was so narrow I knew it would fit through. I cut the Penny Black Happy Birthday die in gold metallic paper and made sure to place it on the removable heart. Then I tucked the ribbon behind my front panel and adhered that to my card base. I used a narrow strip of Removable Adhesive to hold the heart in place in alignment with the background panel. There's nothing fancy here, but she will love it.
The Garnet Shimmer Paper I have came from Create for Less several years ago. Sometimes Hobby Lobby will have some Shimmer Vellum in a nearly identical color called Lava.
I may have another project later as I will be continuing participation in the Share Handmade Kindness Campaign that you can read about on Jennifer McGuire's blog (link on the right hand side). If you stop by, please leave a comment for me; I love reading them!
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