first of all!

I'm so excited to share my love of stamping and creating with you! For a long while I've thought of doing a blog, sharing what I love and answering the many times I get asked, "How did you do that?" In this era of fast communication, there is nothing as touching as receiving a real true hand-made card in the mail. Or from a friend who joins me for tea. We all love to be thought of and in my humble opinion there are few ways that say it as well as a handmade card. 

I hope to share tips and techniques here, and I am looking forward to YOUR ideas as well! We all can learn a LOT from each other!

I've debated long which card to show you first. Of course when we think of January, we think of snow, but I have a favorite that actually dates back to September. And yes, it's a fall-themed card. 

What inspired this one was a dark charcoal blue vehicle in the McDonald's parking lot one rainy day in early September. I gasped with delight at the contrasts of the perfect rainbow of leaves on the shiny wet surface. All the way home from town I dreamed of how I could create a card with that contrast. Here's what I came up with.

Long ago I saw a tutorial on Michelle Zindorf's website that reminded me of this, but her tutorial is no longer available, so I just had to wing it. In the end, I was mostly happy with the leaf, which I first colored with Stampin' Write markers then embossed three times with clear embossing powder. The veins in the rock are embossed as well with clear powder on the plain vanilla paper. Then with sponge daubers and good ol' cotton balls and a brayer (one of my favorite tools from Stampin' Up, and by far the best brayer I've used yet) I added the colors. And my biggest hope right now is that the "Lovely as a Tree" stamp set NEVER NEVER retires, because I use it on so many cards. 

My biggest disappointment on this card is that the background trees look so springy in comparison to the fallen leaf! Or maybe it's that grass. Or maybe, I dunno, it just kinda does!

So there you have it! My first card post!