Back in Action

Hello fellow bloggers, and my apologies to anyone who has been checking in (both of you) for being so conspicuously absent for so long. Summer has been presenting far to many distractions. Also, this travelling back and forth is, I find, disruptive to my creative process.

I have made a few cards in the last weeks, but they were on an 'as needed' basis and so last minute that I did not even have time to take pictures before giving them away. There was also some sewing of baby gifts that took up a good 10 or so days. I finally sat down a couple of days ago to CREATE.

Here is the first of several that were the result of this creative surge.

The story behind this card is, I was perusing my favorite inspirational online source, Splitcoast Stampers, and came across this card which I decided to CASE. Then when I was finished and went back to link the original, I discovered that it was , itself, a CASE so I am linking the ORIGINAL original here as well. I find it ironic that when I got to the original card by Kittie, she had used the same die for foliage as I did. Thanks to both talented ladies.

I started with some beautiful Kaiser Craft patterned paper as my inspiration.The rest of the products except for the dies are all from Stampin' Up!. The plain c/s is vanilla, and the leaves, cut with the Cheery Lynn Tropical Flourish die are just the back side of the patterned paper. The message is stamped with espresso ink; I had to stamp each word separately as the stamp is one vertical line, so I used the marker to ink it up.Then I popped it up with dimensionals.

I really like this skinny sheer ribbon and how well it worked to lace it through the die cuts , which are Spellbinders Lattice Rectangles, I should mention.

The flowers (are they not the cutest) were attached with crystal effects. The cool thing about these little darlings is that you can die them with re-inker, and make them any colour you need to match your project.

Of course, I had some little strips left over, so I used them to pretty up the inside along with one more die cut.

I am quite pleased with the result. Now I need someone to have a birthday so that I can send it.

I will be back soon, as I have a couple more cards to show off. I hope that this is just the start for me, and that I am back on track.