Try Something New Tuesday!

Good morning! And what a beautiful morning it is here in Lakeville, MN! It has been scorching hot the last two weeks, and finally, last night, the heat broke. It was a glorious sleeping night, with temps dropping into to 60s! This morning it's 57 and sunny, heading up toward a high in the low 80s. This, to me, is heaven!!

Luckily, I managed to squeeze in some stamping yesterday for today's Try Something New Tuesday card. As you know, yesterday was a crazy day with my MIL's surgery and baseball last night(BTW, thank you so much for all the well wishes for Muriel). Surgery ended up lasting 4.5 hours, and it went well. Unfortunately, she experienced a slight setback yesterday afternoon after surgery because she was not taking in enough oxygen apparently. They decided to give her plasma and keep her sedated through today. I don't know what all that means necessarily, but I sure hope today is a turn-around day for her (I think plasma has a high concentration of oxygen in it, but I'll defer to all you nurses out there who obviously know more than I do....).

In honor of Muriel, I made today's Try Something New Tuesday card all about getting well. Of course, since Muriel will be in the hospital awhile, I needed to get busy making a "get well" card for her! I decided to make her card a "buckle" card, which I have never tried before. It was so much fun, and once you get the hang of it, it's really simple! I will definitely make another one of these very soon!

Now, let me warn you. I've made another very busy card. There is NO WHITE SPACE! If you like WHITE SPACE, this card is not for you and you might as well move on to your next blog (LOL!)! But, since I LOVE color, and I LOVE bold patterns, I went for it on this one (Like that's anything new for me?). No holds barred.


I must say, I'm in love with the colors I used on the card. These are the words that describe how the card makes me feel: Happy. Cheerful. Energized. Giddy. That's exactly how I want the recipient to feel when they open the card for the first time! I want Muriel to forget her pain for the minute or two she's looking at the card I made especially for her. I want her to be able to experience the beauty of color as it jumps out at her and arouse her senses. Color can do that to a person. Please don't hold back on using color on your cards. Obviously, there is a time and a place for subdued, cozy, and comforting colors. But don't use them all the time. Be wild! Be loud! Be brave and use color. I'm pleading with you!!!

Ok, today's "lecture" is officially over. I'll move on to the details now! I used Beate's SCS Big Buckle card tutorial on Splitcoast to guide me through the process of making one of these. It was so simple to follow and really rather quick! The main card base is Pink Passion cardstock. I thought the perfect compliment to the Pink Passion carstock was my favorite Scenic Route bird designer paper, which I used for the front panel of the card. The bird paper is matted with Old Olive cardstock. For a little while, I didn't have any paper on the inside panel, but it seemed a bit boring and sedate doing that. Amazingly, the reverse side of this bright, bold bird paper is a black and white floral pattern. I knew it would be the perfect addition to the card and would make it really pop! So, I cut a narrow strip of it and placed it on the inside panel down the right side, so it would show on the front of the card, but would leave me room to include a sentiment on the other half of the inside panel, which resides underneath the front flip panel (does that make sense?) The buckle was made using Cool Caribbean, on which I adhered some more Scenic Route bird paper (although a different pattern), which coordinated beautifully with what I already had on the card.

I was puzzled on what to put on the front panel of the card for a bit. Finally, I decided to use one of my Michael's $1 sentiment stamps, which I stamped in Versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder. I then cut the sentiment apart because it was too wide for the front panel. The sentiment was matted with the same designer paper as I used on the buckle. It is adhered to the front panel using dimensional tape. The last touch was the Technique Tuesday flower I embossed and cut out and adhered to the buckle. It ties in perfectly with the "thinking of you" sentiment. On the inside, I stamped "get well soon" in Versafine black ink, which totally compliments the black designer paper it sits next to!
Fun? Yes!! I hope Muriel likes it! Many hugs to Beate for creating this awesome tutorial! I'll definitely try it again!

Well, I have another busy day today. I am teaching a class tonight at my LSS, so I need to prep the materials needed for class. Then I have a business lunch, which I am considering cancelling. I also have some freelance stuff to work on. There's a baseball game thrown into the mix tonight too, but I'm afraid I'll have to miss it because of my class. Bummer!

Have a wonderful day friends

Amy