Fifth Avenue in Blues

I finished my blue rose last night with the WOW technique described in yesterday's post. The colors don't show very true, but I used Baja Breeze and Pacific Point cardstocks and reinkers, with just a bit of Yoyo Yellow in the center. Also used Old Olive and Whisper White CS. Did the fake brads again with Crystal Effects and the Eyelet Border. Used a scrap of Flamingo DSP, too, although I'm not that fond of the dotted pattern. It had the blues in it. Thank You is from retired Wonderful Words.

Thanks for stopping by!

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Been Busy

I hesitate to say it, but I gotta. I've been a busy little Beaver! LOL My upline shared a link with me last week with a WOW technique from the SU Regional in Seattle. WOW techniques are just what it says. You see it done and go WOW! My upline shared with me Sandi McIver's blog: http://www.sandimaciver.com/ . Sandi gave credit to a "very creative and talented Connie Ingram from the Mile High Stampers in Colorado [that] demonstrated this technique." I also found Patty Bennet's blog at: http://pattystamps.typepad.com/pattys_stamping_spot/. Both are excellent with great instructions and/or video tutorials on how to make these gorgeous roses with SU's Fifth Avenue Rose, shimmery cardstock, a water spritzer and reinkers.

This first card I made uses Regal Rose, Rose Red, shimmery, Basic Black and Whisper White cardstocks, layered with some DSP out of the Walk in the Park pack. I think I used Rose Red and Pink Pirouette reinkers on the rose. I've slept since then, so don't exactly recall. I finished it off with white grosgrain ribbon, the new scalloped oval punch and the large oval punch (not all that big), with sentiment out of Oval All. I've misplaced my little sizzlet for the leaves, so stamped the leaves from the old SAB Best Blossoms and fussy cut it out. Almost identical, just not as easy!

This second card is basically the same except for layout and I used sentiment from Sincere Salutations. Dotted around scalloped oval with white opaque Signo.

I wanted to try another color combo, so for this one, I used Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange and Pumpkin Pie. Made fake brads with punched out 1/8" circles with a drop of Crystal Effects on them. I also made a blue rose which I'll share when I get it finished.

Lastly, I fell in love with the butterfly pattern in the Basic Grey Ambrosia 6x6 pad. I had these black flowers and buttons for a card I've been thinking about doing in black and white, so I tried them on here. I didn't have access to real orange buttons for the flowers, so did some faux ones. Poked holes on them and threaded through thin strips of black CS. Threaded strips of orange CS through real black buttons on the bottom. Finished this off with my fave sentiment from All Holidays. Aside from being a little Halloweeny, it's starting to grow on me.

I've been making other stuff, too, but I'm not finished. Been playing with the Manhattan Flower textured impression die and will share what I've done soon.

Thanks for visiting!

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Love that Soft Summer

I was poking around looking for something and found this that I made with Soft Summer out of the Occasions Mini, an SU texture plate and Nestabilities oval dies. Cardstock is Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White. Colored dogwoods with watercolor pencils and blender pens, fussy cut them out and popped them up. Sentiment is from One of a Kind (duh!) stamped and punched out with large oval punch with new scalloped oval punch framing it. I think I will send this to my auntie who just turned 97!

Thanks for stopping by!

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

March 28 Workshop, Finally

Sorry it took so long to get these pics on here, but I've been busy this week.

I gave away a box really similar to this as a door prize, but hadn't made a picture of it first. I made another one this weekend with the addition of a fussy-cut flower from the Flamingo DSP that I used on the top and bottom Top Notes. The box was made from Summer Sun which matches the yellow in the DSP. I used the SAB Yummy set for the stamping on the top. I have to admit this pattern and the identical one in red are my favorites out of the Flamingo DSP pack. I guess I need to get some more! The pattern for the box came from Kerin Sylvester here on her March 5 entry. She has lots of gorgeous stuff on her blog which is in my favorites.

At Pam's workshop, for a make and take we made this cute little spring card (although everyone chose the blue over the So Saffron one). Dawn Griffin has the most fabulous videos, all listed here and this particular video tutorial spring card is her January 17 spring card #2. To make this card, I used DSP from the Delicate Dots pack offered in the SAB catty, So Saffron, Whisper White and Basic Black cardstocks, and the Congratulations SAB set. The center flower was stamped on the DSP from One of a Kind.

This was something I made for my hostess gift, a little stationery set made with a large envelope, 8 3/4 x 5 3/4". One third of the envelope was cut off and both pieces were stamped all over with the flower from the Polka Dot Punches SAB set. The bigger piece was then run through the corrugator so that it would fit into the other piece once it was full of cards. This held 4 cards with their envelopes. The striped DSP was from Delicate Dots, the flowers were punched with the 5-petal punch out of Bashful Blue and So Saffron, with silver brads holding them together. The flowers were stamped with the flower used on the envelopes and the greeting came from Heard from the Heart. I got a thank you card from my St. Louis buddy that uses the regular A-2 envelope done with this cutting and crimping technique and long ago and far away, I made a stationery set this way, so I have no link.

Our other make and take at Pam's workshop was this cute little treat basket. I got the idea from Lynn in St. Louis's gallery on Splitcoaststampers.com, here. The instructions are in the Technique Learners Challenge on SCS, TLC 211, http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=424568. I made this treat box using Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red and Whisper White cardstocks, along with some more of the Flamingo DSP. The only stamping on it was with the Easter Wishes sentiment out of the All Holidays set. The center was punched out with two scalloped squares, offset from each other and the ribbon is the Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon. The cellophane bags were filled with Jelly Bellies and tied shut with some white grosgrain ribbon.

If you have any questions or any of the links don't work for you, please let me know.

Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

New Occasions Promotion!

Connect with family and friends when you make them beautiful cards and gifts using products from the Occasions Mini Catalog. From April 1-30, when you buy $40 in products from the Occasions Mini or host a workshop totaling $150 or more, you'll get one item from the "Under $10" page (p. 208) in the Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book & Catalog - FREE! Start connecting today! Contact me to schedule your workshop or place your order.

Below are two cards I made using Soft Summer out of the Occasions Mini. I did my favorite watercoloring with my watercolor pencils and blender pens, then fussy cut them and popped them up on dimensionals. Both cards used Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White cardstock and some of the pretty Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper. The first card used the Spiral punch along the edge. The sayings are also from Soft Summer, stamped and punched out with the large oval punch and the new scalloped oval punch. Those two make gorgeous framed sentiments.

I love pink dogwood!

Thanks for stopping by!

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Banyan Tree

Tracy said I should do a quickie little post on the Banyan tree from the Edison-Ford Winter Estates grounds. This Champion Tree (Florida has a program for its exceptional trees) is the biggest Banyan in Florida. Henry Ford, knowing Thomas Edison was doing research on latex-producing plants, brought a 4-foot sapling Banyan from India for Edison's research gardens, sometime around 1920. After almost 90 years, it now covers almost an acre! That's an almost life-size statute of Thomas down among the roots. A popular spot for photo ops!

As the branches off the main trunk grow heavier, filament-like roots extend down to the ground and then grow into columns to support the branches.

Here's me and my buddy Tom!

Thanks for visiting!

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Edison-Ford Winter Estates

On our first full day in Fort Myers, Betsy, Steve and I went to tour the Edison-Ford winter estates. Russel stayed at the hotel in avoidance of pollen. Thomas Edison built his house first and his great friend Henry Ford came soon after and built his right next door. The main purpose of Edison's estate was to research various tropical plants that produced rubber and Edison's lab on the grounds tested over 15,000 different types of latex-producing plants. After years of research, it was determined that goldenrod provided the most latex per pound of plant, but even that was horribly expensive and inefficient. After all that, Henry Firestone, a frequent guest, discovered that man-made materials (a by-product of petroleum) made excellent rubber for the tires of Mr. Ford's cars. Enough facts. If you want to learn more, check out: http://www.efwefla.org/home.asp On to pics.

This first pic is of Edison's home, showing the pergola to it's right, covered with Queen's Wreath. I thought it was wisteria from a distance, but up close, Queen's Wreath is much more impressive.
This is the back side of Henry Ford's home. It was under rehab, so not much to see inside. We could only peek in both houses, but pics of antiques or bare floors are booooring, so I'll spare you those.

On the grounds, this huge bouganvillea appeared to have palm trees growing out of it!

Aside from all the antiques, here is a pic of what Mr. Edison called an "electrolier," one of the electric chandeliers gracing his home. With all the windows and doors open, the cross breezes make this home very comfortable except in the summer, when everyone fled back north.

This is Betsy and Steve admiring a Mysore Fig, a champion Florida tree. This kind of tree produces latex, but not very efficiently.

Here's a close-up of a Queen's Wreath. Definitely not wisteria.

More Queen's wreath.

Close-up of Bouganvillea. Love that pink!

Another view of Edison's home with glimpses of Ford's behind it. Yep, they're that close to each other.

Last, but not least, this Great Snowy Egret was fishing the waters of the Caloosahatchee River, which separates Fort Myers from Cape Coral. His breeding plumage is almost all gone, but what looks blurry off the back of his head and the end of his tail is the remnants. Click on the picture to see him better.

That's it for today. I'll have pics of what we made at last Saturday's workshop in my next post, probably not until Sunday or Monday, as I have to recreate a couple of the things we did and that I gave away as door prizes. Silly me forgot to take pictures first!

Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Sanibel

Last week, Russel and I met my sister Betsy and her husband in Fort Myers, about half way between Miami and Ocala. We spent a couple days "doing" Sanibel, the Edison-Ford Estates and Gamble Plantation. We went shelling the first evening, but missed low tide, so pickings were slim, but Russel got us to pose on the beach. We stayed till it got dark, headed back to our hotel and played cards for a couple hours.

Sanibel Light doesn't look like much as you cross the bridge onto Sanibel from the mainland, but up close it is more impressive. This was the view from the beach on this cloudy evening.

This pic is from the grounds of the lighthouse.

Here's the marker for the Light. Click on it and it will give you a bigger picture if you want to read up on the Light.

That's enough of Sanibel. On to Edison-Ford Estates. Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Gamble Mansion

Lots has been happening last 10 days or so, so I will play catch up in chunks. Been on vacation with sister and BIL down in Fort Myers, FL, and I had a nice workshop when I got home. Lots of pics and doings, but I will start with the easiest as I'm not completely done processing pictures or collecting my thoughts. This posting is all about the Gamble Plantation Historic State Park. It is located just off I-75 in Ellenton, Florida, close to Bradenton, between Ft. Myers and St. Petersburg. My sister, her husband and my Russel stopped there on the way to visit my Auntie in St. Pete. It was a nice couple of hours and a very interesting tour.

First off, this picture of the mansion. Built in the 1850's, it is the only one of its kind on Florida's Gulf coast. I asked the ranger why there are no flowers around it and he said it was because there were none back in it's heyday. After Mr. Gamble went bankrupt because of falling sugar prices, the house was empty till it was used to store fertilizer. When the United Daughters of the Confederacy (followed by the State) took it over to preserve it in the 1920's, everything but the original tabby walls were replaced.
I could bore you with lots of information, but will just share the fun things I learned on the tour from the ranger. I don't know if his little bits of historical fun were true or made up, but I wrote them down to share.

In the slave workroom on the section of the house separated by a breezeway from the main building, was this interesting contraption called a weasel, used to wind thread after it has been spun on a wheel. Keeping track of production was everything then and this winder spun and wound 50 yards of thread. When it had done revolutions totaling 50 yards, the little button on the box popped up, thus giving us "pop goes the weasel."

This table was in the kitchen, next to the work room. On the table is a spider frying pan, used to bake in the coals of the fireplace, sort of a dutch oven. Also is a round iron ball with a handle used to roast coffee beans and behind it a coffee grinder. The plantation dogs would loiter outside the kitchen in the breezeway, a/k/a the dog trot, hoping for a hand out and barking. The cooks would fry up little balls of cornbread and heave them out in the yard, thus giving us "hush puppies."

This is one of the tester beds in the main house. It's called a rope bed. Keeping the ropes taut was important so that one could "sleep tight."

That's enough for this post. Next up will be pics from Sanibel Island and the Ford-Edison Winter Estates, especially the gorgeous flowers. Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)