Last of the hummers

These are the last of the humming bird cards that I will be making for a bit. I am looking forward to the real ones coming when the weather warms up some.

I really love the paper embroidery design to be used with ribbon. It is a nice touch.

My goal for the coming year is to use more of the supplies I have on hand, which includes printed scrap book paper, ribbon and embellishments. I was able to do that with these cards with a little imagination. Sometimes it takes a little effort and imagination to stretch the borders of what we have become comfortable with.

I had not used my Twinkling H2O's in a forever and it was fun to pull them out and add glimmer and sheen to the humming bird. When I begin to poke into the depths of my art room, I am amazed what I find there.

It is not unlike poking around in the flower gardens that have lay dormant for these last months. I have started clearing the beds on days that are warm enough for me. It is so much fun to pull back the dead leaves to find the first shoots of daffodils and tulips in their fresh greens and yellow tinges. What promise they hold of spring coming and beautiful blooms to come. The soil is soft and nice to work with.

It is the same in the art room as I pull open drawers to find treasures of beautiful paper I had forgotten I had and a box full of embellishments that would add such a pretty touch to a greeting card.

There is that same promise of wonderful possibilities in my art room as in the flower gardens. Creativity is everywhere for the taking. We just need to take the time to discover them.

Hope spring and creativity is headed your way.

Sallyann

Little Things in LIfe

Things are still pretty lifeless looking here in Michigan. Not even a sign of buds on the trees yet. I looked for the hint of crocus in the flower beds but they seem to still be asleep too.

So I decided it was time to poke around in the art room and see if I could see any signs of spring there.

I found a stamp that I had purchased a few weeks ago but had not put it in ink yet. Sure enough, there was this lovely little hummingbird!

I have been trying to get myself back into stamping and coloring and this little fella just buzzed right into my heart. I used Twinkling H2O's to color him. I haven't used them in a while and had forgotten what a treat they are.

But of course the Paper Embroidery is still calling my name so I decided to combine the two mediums.

Now this little guy is ready to "flutter" through the mails to hopefully cheer someone else of the winter doldrums.

Hope spring is winging its way to you.

Sallyann

In times of Sadness

A Dear Aunt of mine passed away in the last week She has 5 children that live all over the U.S.A. I live far from her home too so I was unable to attend the funeral. I decided to make each of them a card and send a personal note with each one. I chose 3 different designs to stitch and stamp. Making Sympathy cards is not something I want to do all the time , but I hope that the ones I have made will convey the love I have for my Aunt and her family.

This second card had a soft cream base and was a bit difficult to scan because you could not really tell where the card borders were. So I placed another piece of paper behind it.

It is hard to lose one loved one after another as we grow older. I realize that I have become the "older generation". It means that I need to make some changes in my own life and my way of looking at things. I realize that my own time is growing more limited and that I want to live those days touching and blessing others as best as I can. I hope that these cards will do that for my cousins in their time of grieving the loss of their mother.

A Stitch in Time.

Snowy winter days in Michigan has meant that I have been spending a lot of time in my art room or sitting in my favorite chair.

I have been doing a lot of paper embroidery and am not attempting to compliment the work with things like embossing or painted images with paper embroidery as an embellishment.

This pieced began with a embossed border design with an area in the center waiting for a stamped image, a stamped verse and in this case an altered paper embroidery design.

This one had the added feature of bead work.

I think the thing I love about making cards is that there are a million different ways to design and make them. There is no time for boredom because you can only do a few selective things.

The world is truly my oyster when it comes to making cards. This reminds me that spring is just around the corner and the real flowers will soon be in bloom.

winter of 2011

What a snow filled winter it has been for us here in Michigan. If it isn't the winter storm of 2011 that has swathed half the United States, then it is lake effect snow for us living so close to Lake Michigan.

I am quite content, no matter the weather as long as we maintain power so I can stay warm. I am thankful I don't get cabin fever easily.

So with snow in mind, I decided that staying inside and making snowmen was a good pastime.

Making them inside does not involve cold winds down my neck or icy cold fingers inside my mittens. And I can even enjoy hot cocoa and pretzels in between snowmen. These are my latest creations. Aren't they happy fellows? And they won't even melt in the sunshine.

The verse inside these reads: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

When life gives you snow, make snowmen.

Hope all of you are staying warm and cheerful like these snowmen.

S.

visiting creative friends

There is something so good about being able to visit creative friends.

Yesterday I went to visit my friend, Ruth. She is a rubber stamper, a knitter, a reader and a person that also does paper embroidery. I never know what I will find her doing next. I hadn't seen her since before the holiday because she was ill the first of the year. So there was so much to talk about and so much to share.

There is nothing like a creative friend to bring out a person's creative muse. Ideas fluttered back and forth like butterflies around summer flowers. When I got home I could hardly wait to set my creations together. The card with the flowers was my first attempt of adding color to Paper Embroidery. I am not sure how I feel about it. I think I will have to play with the idea some more before I make a final decision.

I have something on my scanner it seems so there is a blemish on the picture of the second card. I will have to correct that before I scan again. This one is the first of 7 sympathy cards that I need to make.

We both agreed that we had not done any coloring of stamped images lately even though it is something we both really enjoy. So..... I stamped some images last night and hopefully in a few days I will have something more to share with you and my friend Ruth too when I see her next.

Hope you have a great day filled with memories of flowers and friends.

S.

When your up your up....

When my children were little and in preschool they used to stand in a circle and sing a song with animation. It went: "Oh when your up, your up, and when your down, your down, and when your only half way up, your neither, up or down." It was a great song for the children to sing on a winter day when they could not go out into the play yard to play. Their lithe young bodies would stretch up to the ceiling and then stoop clear to the floor and then come only part way up before making a quick stretch to the top and quick drop almost to the floor. Each time the song was sang the music tempo was increased until the children ultimately could not keep up the motion and would fall to the ground in a giggling heap.

Life gets like that sometimes. We rise one day to sunshine and good work and good friends and then almost instantly something happens that brings us crashing down to almost the bottom. Then our lives take another turn and we seem to be teetering somewhere between being up and down.

The problem is, as we get older and the tempo of ups and downs come faster and faster, it gets harder for us to find the "halfway up" and when we come tumbling down into a heap we find we have forgotten how to giggle, knowing it is all a part of life.

As I have grown older the "downs" of life have been the loss of friends and loved ones to death. We all know we are not going to get out of this world alive, yet when death comes to those we love it seems so wrong. Not now! my heart cries, Not yet! But I know it is now for that loved one and that I will feel pressed low for a while. In time I find myself rising out of the sadness and I see there are others who are celebrating yet another year of life and I find myself being lifted out of my sadness to celebrate their lives and I feel half way up. And then a baby is born and I feel the newness of life and I find myself stretching to the fullness of "Up", knowing that life does go on and there is newness to rejoice in.

January brought me more "down" moments and fewer "up" moments as there were no new births in my small circle. So I find I am living in a "halfway up" condition, struggling just a bit to find newness of life in other ways.

My card making list has 3 birthdays and 7 sympathy cards and 3 thinking of you cards. If I take the right attitude that seems to balance things out pretty well. I chose to begin with the birthday cards and have two to share with you this week. One should always rejoice in celebration to have another year with a friend. I hope you enjoy this weeks work and wish you the ability to fall into a heap of giggles when life comes at you faster than you can make the transition. S