Our Rustic Cuff Story

I noticed a couple of months ago that whenever I tell a little story about the card I am making, a lot more people seem to comment.  This particular post is one I've had on my mind for a little while.  I really loved the last card I created and I wanted to create a special one like it to send to someone in particular.  This post is in honor of her.

We are married to twin brothers and have been sisters-in-law for more than 30 years.  We are both named Vicki (& Vickie).  Trust me when I tell you we have had some good clean fun over the years because of that.  But in the past year or so, we've gotten to know each other better and have gotten to be pretty close because of it. She is a fun loving person who knows how to see the bright side in pretty much any situation.  I really admire that about her.

Wayne and Vickie were here about a month ago for the Tulsa Chill Car Show (where BTW they won "Best of Show") and on that Friday, Vickie and I went out to shop locally for a couple of things.  You know, my local is different than her local and she was right here in an area where the population is over 1 million people and shopping for that compared to her entire county back home with a population of less than 10,000.  This is how we came to be at Kirkland's.  

She was looking for a gift for an upcoming occasion and I had mentioned in passing that Rustic Cuff was kind of cool and a somewhat local thing.  Without having one to show her, it probably didn't even register. But as we were walking around Kirkland's I noticed the associate was wearing two of these bracelets so I grabbed her wrist and said "Look! This is Rustic Cuff" and went on to tell her how this was an Oklahoma thing and how much I'd been wanting one.  Poor girl probably didn't know what to make of someone grabbing her wrist.  She asked me which color I liked and when I said the pewter one, she took it off her wrist and handed it to me saying that was part of the Rustic Cuff Tradition too.  I was floored.  I hadn't heard that part of the Rustic Cuff Story before.  As we were checking out and signing up for Kirkland Rewards, the associate learned that we were sisters-in-law, married to twin brothers, and that we have the same first and last name. She took her other bracelet off and gave it to Vickie.  It was a pretty special thing to receive the RAK but also seeing Vickie receive one as well. There is no one I would rather have shared that experience with.

The White Emerson

Of course, then I had to take Vickie over to the little boutique nearby that carries lots of different Rustic Cuff Bracelets and we both felt we needed another bracelet to go with the one we had been RAK'd. . .  *Ü*  The ones we have are all this style called The Emerson.

I've been wanting to make a card to send her to commemorate that occasion although I don't think either of us will ever forget it.  I used the colors of our bracelets for this card; Pewter, Rose, White and Plum. When you buy one of these bracelets you can get them with a gold Rustic Cuff logo charm or a silver one. We both have gold.  This is not the most colorful card, but I know Vickie will realize the time and thought I put into making it.  She has been one of my biggest supporters since I started making cards and writing my blog and she loves to receive them. You can read the full Rustic Cuff Story here if you are interested.  Suffice it to say that even Oprah has one (or possibly more).

This card was made in pretty much the same way as my previous post, just with different colors.  I chose to use the heat embossed gold leaves without adding color to the vellum to represent the white bracelets.  The rose colored flowers were colored with Hibiscus Burst, and the purple ones with Amethyst Allure. The background panel was inked up with Smoky Slate to represent the pewter bracelets.  Because of the logo charms on our bracelets, I went with gold accents where normally I think I would have used silver.  I used Altenew Beautiful Day and Altenew Peony Bouquet with their coordinating dies for the flowers and the Papertrey Ink Scripted Stamp Set and Scripted Dies for the sentiment. The banner is from the Tag Sale - Quilted die.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope you enjoyed my story of getting to share in some pretty magical moments with my Sister-In-Law/Friend.  I treasure her and she does mean the world to me.  The Word Art Wednesay Challenge Blog is all about being a blessing to someone.  I think it's also important to notice when someone is being a blessing to us and Vickie is definitely a blessing to me!

So Many Challenges, So Little Time

Challenges aren't a bad thing; they are an opportunity for others in the industry to see my work and hopefully like it.  They are also how I create new card designs and color combinations, so they are all good in my opinion. There are lots of them out there, but I try to find challenges that fit my style and I've noticed I pretty much participate in the same ones over and over.  I'll be linking this card up over at Double D Challenges, The Card Concept, Sparkle & Shine and Word Art Wednesday.

I sat down last week and made quite a few bouquets and stamped quite a few butterflies with the Bitty Bouquets Stamp Set and Dies and the Color Pop Butterflies from Papertrey Ink. The Color Pop Butterflies were designed by Betsy Veldman and I am enjoying using many different color combinations when creating my own using the multiple step stamps that are part of the design.

I've started doing these bouquets by cutting several out in Stamper's Select 110# White Cardstock from Papertrey Ink and using the negative as my placeholder for the positive pieces with my MISTI.  This is my favorite White Cardstock and trust me when I tell you I have tried many different ones.

I know that it will most likely take a couple of tries to get the stamps lined up perfectly in my MISTI and I use the same die cut over and over for this purpose. It's fairly easy to tell which layer is the newest by the way the ink looks.  Dye based inks like the ones I use 99% of the time, absorb into the paper (dyeing it) and soften as they dry which makes it easy to tell which one you just stamped to see if it is lined up correctly. I try to do each round of stamping in one shot by moving the positive die cut in and out of the negative place holder. I do all the greenery first, then the larger flowers and if there are smaller flowers I do them last.  Not all of the bouquets have the smaller flowers but the Tulips do and they are my favorites from the four varieties in the set.  

Color Pop Butterflies Kit

I have always liked the look of soft pastels but I have definitely learned to appreciate the more vibrant colors as well and I'm finding that I really like them in card making.  I used a couple of Distress Inks and a couple of Papertrey Inks to stamp the Bitty Bouquets and get these really rich colors.  One of the best things about the MISTI is that you can re-ink and stamp the images a 2nd time to get a more intense and vibrant color.  For the flowers on this card, I used Seedless Preserves with Mowed Lawn and Vintage Jadeite with Hibiscus Burst.  The flowers were all double stamped to increase the color saturation. The butterfly is from the Color Pop Butterflies Kit and is done with one of the printed butterflies from the kit that you can cut out using the coordinating die that comes in the kit.  I just added some Wink of Stella Clear Shimmer over the top.

I die cut the polka dot paper using the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle.  Next I cut an oval from the Stitched Oval Stax by My Favorite Things out of Gold Metallic Poster Board and then a smaller Stitched Oval out of coordinating card stock. The sentiment is from Altenew's Beautiful Day Stamp Set and was heat set using Versamark and Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  This was a scrap of cardstock but I am pretty sure it is Stampin' Up! Melon Mambo.  I like the graceful curve of the oval for flower placement and it makes it easy to adhere the arrangement using Multi Medium Matte.  Everything was adhered to an A2 card base made from Stamper's Select White.

These are the inspiration photos I worked with today.  How can I go wrong when they used my two favorite colors?

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  I hope you enjoy the card I made for my daughter and that perhaps it will inspire you to create one of your own.  I always enjoy reading your comments if you'd like to leave one. Have a great day everyone!  

Beautiful Bouquets: Dahlias

This past week was release week for a stamp company that I really like, WPLUS9 Design Studio. Dawn Woleslagle owns the company and designs the stamps, many of which are based on her original watercolor pieces.  Now keep in mind that all companies have release week but how often depends on how new they are as a company.  WPLUS9 is a fairly new company and I think they have new releases every 2 months.  It was with great excitement that I awaited this week's release because it had the second in the series of Beautiful Bouquets. This one is Dahlias, which I love. Dahlias come in so many different colors just like the first Beautiful Bouquets: Ranunculus.  Put Ranunculus or Dahlia into the search window on Pinterest and you can see some truly spectacular floral photographs. 

Over on the Word Art Wednesday Blog, the theme this week is anything goes.  I think anyone and everyone can use a word of encouragement at any time and I like sending them to let people know I've been thinking of them.  I started by stamping my image in Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder on a 4.25 x 5.5 piece of Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper.

 

For the watercolors, I used Distress Markers in Wilted Violet, Mowed Lawn, Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Scripted" Stamp Set.  It has become a favorite along with Graceful Greetings. There's a whole slew of different ways you can put all of the greetings together for many different occasions so I love the versatility.  

I really wanted a striking color combination for this image so I cut a Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle from SU! Wisteria Cardstock, then cut another mat from Simon Says Stamp Blue Violet Cardstock and mounted that to the top of an A2 Top Folding Card Base made from Papertrey Ink's Tropical Teal Cardstock.  

I want to get this in the morning mail so I am going to wrap up this post.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  I have several projects that I'm working on this week, so be sure to check back. Don't forget to check in over at Word Art Wednesday and see all of the beautiful creations there and Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Try to Resist".