More Cardmaking and Thinking

Sad days, it just feels like endless waiting. And in addition to a pandemic and a heat wave, California is burning up. You know how during an eclipse you can look at the sun through smoked glass? Well it was like that. 

There was ash drifting down everywhere. I went outside to check on my little garden and the plants were covered with ash, the ground was covered with ash, the car too. I didn't stay out long because it was coming down like light snow and I didn't figure it was good to be breathing out there. 

So I've been trying to declutter, and get things out to donate, and I decided to do some card making to use up a little stash as well as reward myself for working hard to dig through the piles and be brave and Let Go of Stuff.

This one is done with resist paper from a pad that I impulsively bought last year and never used any of it. Turns out it's fun, and a quick and easy elegant card with the "blessed" word die from I don't remember where. 

Sometimes when I am card making it's for something specific, or sometimes the plan is to replenish someone else's stash of my hand made cards. It's fun to make cards for them, and they love to use them.

Sometimes I am just making cards to make cards and that's today. So I don't know where they're going yet. 

I've been inspired lately by Jennifer McGuire. She comes up with such wonderful cards.

These next two are a two in one thing. I cut a cover die, then used it as a stencil on one card, and then used the die cut on the other card. And yes, I'm on a "blessed" kick, because I have been feeling blessed. Some days are such sad days, like when I hear of another friend or acquaintance who has died, and sometimes I have to force myself to think of what I am thankful for. There's so much. I am so thankful for a roof over my head, air conditioning, and that we aren't in the path of the many wildfires our state is dealing with, just to start. I am thankful I have a bountiful crafting stash. I am thankful that I remember how to quilt even though I haven't for awhile. I am thankful for the technology that helps me keep connected with my daughter and her family even though she's far away. I am thankful this heat hasn't killed off the zucchini plants even though they wilt nearly every afternoon. I told someone today to write down their thankful stuff, I need to follow my own advice more often. 

Simple patterned paper and a flower I got many years ago from an overseas Yahoo group friend. I used most of what she gave me a long time ago but this was in a pile that I was sorting and it matched the striped paper scrap so there you are. It looks like a more masculine card, so I'm going to find a sentiment that says "happy birthday" and send it off to my brother this week for his birthday. 

My brother and I have had our ups and downs, and he lives far away and I rarely see him, but once in awhile we talk on the phone. Sometimes relationships are valuable but need a little extra work, so there you are.

I saw this technique first on a video by MayMay Made It. It is SO quick and easy, it's just swiped ink on an embossing folder image. I've gotten so I do a stack of these and keep them on hand for a quick card. This is one of my favorite folders, and Tim Holtz distress inks, the little cubes, seems to work best.

I miss being out in a meadow like this. Early this spring, I let one little corner of the yard grow into a "meadow" and lo and behold there were some edible friends growing there. So I enjoyed a little browsing in the garden snipping off some tasty morsels, and learned more about mallow, and how to make a throat tonic from it. So even though I am not living in the country any more, I can still have a bit of country here. There's still one plant out there I've been watering, I have no idea what it is, but it's fun to just wait and see. And there's a dove that greets me out there every morning with a little "good morning" song.

A long time ago I made a bunch of cards with the red "Just Because" that I printed on the computer and just cut it to this shape.and tore the top. I found this lonely one in a pile, and saw another scrap of patterned paper to pair it with. The flower sticker on the bottom matches much better in person, it looks purple, but it's really red. 

My craft supplies are getting more and more organized and it is so fun to just be able to go in there, and whip out a few cards with very little effort. 

So if my house doesn't burn down, I should be able to really get going on card making and other crafting again, I feel so much better when I make time to make things. There are a bunch of rocks I washed for painting, some have a base coat on them. A wall hanging just needs quilting. A quilt is all cut out and ready to piece. 

 And so I write and write, and nobody reads, but still I have this desire to document my life somehow. I know my Grandpa Linton was the same, I come by this naturally. I wonder how things would have gone with him if there was internet? Hmmm.