Feather Finery With A Bookmark

I am popping in today with a card for the Challenge over at the Word Art Wednesday Blog.  Their challenges are always Anything Goes so long as it is positive and or uplifting in nature.  They provide a new digital word art each challenge (every 2 weeks) that is from scripture.  I haven't had a chance to play in quite a while but I knew this project would be perfect for their challenge.

Two years ago about this time my daughter got diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  I was diagnosed with MS about 6 months before her and we both have Rheumatoid Arthritis as well.  I have a few more auto immune diseases to go along with those two. So far, she only has the two, but she still has littles at home.  Her youngest is 5 and will go to kindergarten this coming fall.  I understand, first hand, how difficult these diseases can be and I try to encourage her every chance I get.  We got matching tattoos last year of a feather on the inside of our wrists so when I got these two stamp sets, I knew I wanted to make something for her.  I did some other cards using the Feather Finery Stamps and coordinating dies here, which she saw and loved. We live in different states so she doesn't get to see my work too often except here on my blog and on my Instagram.

Whenever I see feathers I automatically think of a poem and a bible verse.  The poem starts like this:

You can see the Bible verse on the card and bookmark I made her; Psalm 91:4 which is from the new Year of Psalms by Betsy Veldman for Papertrey Ink. I thought she could tuck these into her bible that she uses for bible studies. Whenever she sees them she will know that I was thinking of her when I made them.  The feathers are heat embossed in gold on Stamper's Select Vellum and die cut.  The purple is some cardstock I've had for a long time and it shimmers. One side of the bookmark has the purple and the other side is True Black Cardstock from Papertrey Ink. The sequins are black iridescent from who knows where.  I have a whole container of them and they give just a little touch of elegance here but allows the card to be, for the most part, flat.

I love this verse from Emily Dickinson so much that I've sent it as a suggestion to one of the Papertrey Product Designers who always does the most incredible typography.  The verse goes so well with Feather Finery and I hope she will consider it.  I might have to break down and order it if that doesn't happen.  I'm not going to link products in this post as you can easily look them up on the Papertrey Website.  Have a great day everyone!

Papertrey Ink 10th Anniversary - Day 1

I will have lots of blog posts coming this week and next as the 10th Anniversary Festivities of Papertrey Ink began in earnest this morning. Lizzie Jones knocked my socks off with her stitching project featuring Papertrey Ink's Stitching Dies!  She made this cute little project for a niece and nephew to take on road trips. Check it out!  Isn't this adorable and no more wadded up paper found after your trip. I love this idea although I have no stitching dies thus far.  But our challenge was to be inspired by the past and present projects so I went for a stitched "look" for my project today.

My daughter has been asking me for a bookmark to keep in her bible so I thought I'd try to put one together for her.  Now, I don't have any felt or other fabric that would have been suitable for hand stitching so I had to fake that, too.  So I pulled out this piece of specialty paper that appears to be some kind of super shiny rayon that's adhered to some kind of a paper substrate. It has the look of fabric so that is what I chose for my project.  I cut two of these using Papertrey's Basic Bookmark #3 so I could adhere them to each other back to back for a more finished look.  I did initially try to stitch them together but that only resulted in ripping the paper so I decided I better choose my battles and save the sewing for something else. There are tiny little pierced holes all the way around this die cut, but my needles were all to large to keep the holes intact.  I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte applied with a paintbrush to glue them together and ran them though my die cut machine with an embossing sandwich using an uncut top plate so it didn't leave marks in the "paper". The result is a very thin, flexible bookmark which will be perfect for her bible.  Even with the two layers, it is much thinner than a single sheet of cardstock.

Needing some kind of decoration to make it seem stitched, I pulled out my Button Stacks Dies and cut some from a scrap of the gold and white glittered paper.  These dies emboss as well as cut so they make the little impressions in the paper.  I used the leaves from the Friendly Flower Extras Dies and cut them from a scrap of Emerald Shimmer Cardstock leftover from a girlfriends wedding album that I did. The button stacks dies have the two plain small buttons included in the set and I did actually stitch all three layers together using DMC Gold Metallic Embroidery Thread.  I cut the Wonderful Words - Love Die from the gold and white paper and attached it and the flower clusters to the bookmark with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I stacked a few acrylic blocks on top until the glue was dried.  I was scraping the bottom of the barrel to find a bit of ribbon to run through the hole in this bookmark.  I don't have much ribbon around but I did have this little piece of gold and white to use. It was slim pickings I tell you! and a minor miracle than I had anything that would match.  Although the bookmark looks like it might be red glitter paper in the photo, I assure you it isn't.  

I've seen some really lovely projects done with felt and I think I might have to get just a few colors (Hibiscus Burst and Berry Sorbet with some New Leaf come to mind) for the coming monthly feature that Lizzie will be doing for Papertrey Ink.   I hope you enjoyed my project for today.  I'll be back tomorrow with the next challenge.  Have a great week everyone!