Fairy Dancer Card

To Blog Again...

My poor little Blog. I forgot all about it. And here I am again... A new season... A new card...

The fairy and sentiment imagines are from Unity Stamp Company. I stamped the fairy on watercolor paper and heat embossed it with Ranger Pale Gold embossing powder. I then painted her with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I also stamped and heat embossed the fairy hair, wings and skirt petals onto silver vellum which I cut out and glued over the imagine on the watercolor paper. The sentiment was heat embossed with Ranger Ultra Fine Silver embossing powder. Bits of jute twine were used to allude to the fairy's woodland setting.

The first photo was taken with a flash, the second without flash.

A Stitch in Time.

"A stitch in time saves nine." It's what we call an "old wives tale." I've heard it since before I was born. Once I got up old enough, I starting wondering: "nine what?" I mean, how could a stitch save one thing, much less nine? And nine of what? A cat has nine lives, so does it save all the lives of one cat? That must be it!

Then as time went by, I realized what "a stitch in time saves nine" really meant. Bummer. It just saved nine more stitches. Nothing romantic about that. Just practical old advice from some old wife who had to do too much mending.

But now that I've gotten old enough to be in my second childhood, I can make it mean all kinds of things! I can just chop off the end and the phrase "A stitch in time" becomes very dreamy, don't you think? It puts the focus on time instead of the mending.

"Stitches in time" makes me think of how each of our experiences are a stitch in the times of our lives, our lives on earth but a stitch in time. Mostly it makes me think of that wonderful poem in Ecclesiastes:

 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
 A time to be born, and a time to die;
      a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
 A time to kill, and a time to heal;
      a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
      a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
      a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
 A time to get, and a time to lose;
      a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
 A time to rend, and a time to sew;
      a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
 A time to love, and a time to hate;
      a time of war, and a time of peace.

Oh, how I love that poem. And yes, I sing it to the tune of The Byrds "Turn, Turn, Turn." If you heard me sing it, I can promise you you would either run or dissolve in stitches...

Oh, yes, the card! That's what started this whole thing about stitches in time. Over at the Outlawz, the Twisted Thursday challenge this week is to sew. So here is the card that evolved.

I found a piece of red DP from K&Co that I liked and cut it to 3.25 x 3.23 inches. Then I punched around the edges with a Martha Stewart punch set. Using the punched holes, I hand-sewed a blanket stitch around the edge with old counted cross-stitch thread. A plain straight stitch runs through the remaining holes.

I embossed the stripe DP (K&Co) with a Sizzix Tim Holtz folder. "Vintage Photo" distress ink (Tim Holtz) was sponged around the edges and lightly over the surface.

I found the coordinating blue background paper at Raspberry Road. It is part of their  Poppy Hill Add-on freebie . The sentiment is just typed over the background using "Garton" font for the A and "Dream Orphans" for the rest. The fonts were free downloads. The old watch is from  the Raspberry Road "Autumn Sunset" Elements collection.

I hope I didn't make this sound too difficult. It was easy. It just takes lots of words to explain, doesn't it? If there's anything else you want to know, please just ask. I will help you all I can.

Here's the sentiment as a freebie:

Blessings to you all!
Cathy

Keep a song in your heart. Always.

There are so many things going through my mind about keeping a song in your heart. It's all about keeping a positive attitude. It's about believing all things are possible. It's about God being in control and in charge. A message from Beyond the Fringe is what reminded me of the importance of attitude.

I've also recently become an outlaw! An Outlawz to be exact.  I've learned so much from some very talented folks who love to share their talents and knowledge.

So I will close my eyes and post my first card on my very own blog. I hope you enjoy it.

The tea kettle image and sentiments are freebies from Beyond the Fringe. The tea kettle was paper-pieced. All design papers (DPs) are freebies from Raspberry Road Designs .
The treble clef was cut from plain black cardstock using a Cricut with the "Quarternote" cartridge.
I covered the tea kettle and clef note with Versamark ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.
Also used: Spellbinder's "Grommet tags" die, Dritz black eyelets, sheer black ribbon,  plain dark blue cardstock.

I had loads of fun making this card and thinking about the message it conveys. A special thank you to Teresa and Lisa (Outlawz) who enabled me to paper piece!

Blessings to you all,
Cathy

Hello there!

I never in this world thought I would write a blog, much less be excited about it! Never say "Never," right?

My reason for starting this blog? I have somehow become immersed into the world of card making. In retrospect it was inevitable. I have always loved paper. Looking at it, feeling it...

I could spend hours in an office supply store just looking at all the paper and notebooks and pens and markers. That was in the days before "papercrafting" came into vogue and the craft stores started selling all of that wonderful "designer paper." Now, oh my, there isn't enough time in the day!

Then there are all of the "embellishments." "Before," an embellishment was when someone stretched the truth when she told a story. Now, just looking at embellishments and trying to decide which one or ones to get is enough to make my head spin. Some embellishments are called "findings." Well, let me tell you, before, I don't think there was such a word as "findings!" If someone had said, "Let's go get some findings," we would have thought she was out of her poor mind, or perhaps embellishing the truth again.

Are you wondering what all this has to do with my starting a blog?  I CAN'T REMEMBER  ALL THIS STUFF!!! lol  I am going to put my information here so I can let the "World Wide Web" remember it for me. These computers need to finally be put to some practical use, huh? 

Also, I have a passion for designing (for lack of a better word) sentiments on the computer. It is my goal to give those away here as "freebies."

Thank you for joining me. Hopefully we can "find" our way together. I am excited to see where this journey takes us! We can decide along the way if we want to add embellishments...

Cathy