Recycled Flowers for a Friend

When recycling came to our town in IL, I embraced it wholeheartedly. I loved the fact that we set out more blue containers than garbage cans weekly, and that so much of what we didn't need anymore, i.e. glass, plastic, cans, paper, and cardboard, could be repurposed.

Moving to GA brought a bit of recycling disappointment into my life. GA residents cannot recycle EVERY number of plastic, only 1s and 2s. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY THINGS ARE 5s?!? We can recycle glass, but not curbside. I have to save it up and take it to an area recycling center, but there's no fee to participate.

Well, as much as I've accepted recycling as part of my life, I'd never thought of repurposing items for CRAFTING before I read these posts by my cool Texan friend, Lydia. She thinks WAY outside the box creatively, and inspires me to do the same. How does this play out? I think of her every time I open a business sized envelope that has junk mail or a bill inside it!

Lydia LOVES blue. All things would be blue if she could find a way to make it so. So, when I saw the guts of these unassuming envelopes on a fine spring day, I knew what I wanted to do with them.

I pulled out my 1.75" and 2" scallop circle punches and made flowers! I cut down the scallops so that they'd fringe a bit, thus becoming more three dimensional, plopped a 3/4" circle of Yo Yo Yellow in the middle and topped it with a little button.

Then I needed a "landscape" for these flowers. I chose the swirly doodle from retired set Doodle This and stamped it in Garden Green to simulate funky foliage. Okay, this is coming together, but what about saying something? This card needed a sentiment, and I was a bit stumped as to how to incorporate it into the design. So I left the elements on my desk for a few days and came back to it yesterday. I decided I wanted a pennant, so I went to my stashes of SU! blues and chose Ballet Blue because it's the closest to the flowers. The sentiment is from Season of Friendship and it's stamped on Whisper White with BB ink.

I hope this makes you proud, girlfriend! I'll never be as cool as you, but I can try!

Simple Card. Great Cause.

This Thursday, I'm heading down to one of our Atlanta Ronald McDonald Houses to host a night of card making for those in residence. I've been told there will be about 20 parents and kids who could choose to participate in this activity. I saw this card on Tessa Wise's blog and adapted it for kids who have fine motor skill issues. Since many won't find using scissors something fun to do, all they'll have to do is stamp the hearts on the squares, glue them down, and someone will help with the ribbon and the "i love you" sentiment (all stamps from retired Love Matters set). The card stock used for the 1 3/8" squares is Ballet Blue, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and Pumpkin Pie. The base is Riding Hood Red. I love that I can put my just-retired InColors and some older ribbon to good use!

This is the card I'm bringing for the adults to make. It too uses retired InColor card stock, but these folks won't know and won't care! It also has just one color of ink used--Basic Black. This simplifies and expedites things, since the stamps won't have to be cleaned between uses. I've stamped the flower and the leaves so that all that will have to be done once the panels are stamped and the edge is punched is some cutting. I hope they'll like them!

Being able to encourage people through cards is the main reason I craft. Being able to invest some time in order to make a small difference in the day of someone who is in the midst of a trial I couldn't begin to imagine jazzes me so much!

There are many ways you can be involved at your local Ronald McDonald House. Find your area's house by clicking on the link. The house manager will be happy to inform you of volunteer opportunities available so that you can encourage these families during their time of need.

CASE'ing: Sometimes You Can't Improve On Someone's Design

Nancy Riley posts her iPicks each week, and this week was a stunning collection of great cards. Because I want to prove to you that it's not necessary to reinvent the wheel, I'm going to show you a CASE (Copy And Share Everything) of a card I saw on Christine's blog, Christine's Creations.

In case you haven't been following the direction I've been going the past couple of posts, I'm featuring stamp sets and accessories that are on the Last Chance List. This means they're not going to be available after June 30, and I want you to know so that you can get them before it's too late!

Doodle This is one of said sets. It has been a great one. You can check the labels sidebar to see the cards I've made with it and the Stampin' Wheel that goes with it. If something this good is retiring, I can't wait to see what new is coming!

Christine's card featured three of the retiring InColors, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, and Kiwi Kiss. She paired these with Basic Black for a stunning card with lots of visual interest. At first, I tried to use another trio of InColors, but I gave up that and went with what obviously worked! Using BB is new for me, but I really liked how this looked in Christine's card, so I incorporated it into mine as well.

I did two things to change this up a bit: I turned the design so that the card was oriented horizontally instead of vertically. Although she didn't say, I'm guessing that her design is from SCS's Sketch Challenge 231. This week's hostess didn't provide measurements, but my card is 4.25" x 11" and each panel is 1 1/8" x 5". The BB panel is 4" x 5.25" and was punched with the spiral punch.

I laid all the panels side by side and stamped the largest spray stamp three times across them. I also added Pink Pirouette to this color scheme with the small flower and the "hello" tag. I left off the ribbon Christine had, but other than that, it's a pretty close CASE.

I decorated the interior of the card using the large flower and the swirly doodle. I'll probably use the wheel on the envelope when I get around to sending it.

If you want this set, just click on the "shop online" icon in the upper right corner and identify me, Jenn Nahrstadt, as your demonstrator when you place your order. It'll come right to your door! Don't forget--this set is gone forever June 30. Don't wait!

Cheater's Watercoloring

I should be making dinner, but I set the frozen salmon out on my covered grill this afternoon to thaw, left it out longer than I intended, and it cooked! Yep, it's THAT hot today! I'm not sure we should eat it, so I'm going to check with hubby and suggest we order pizza instead.

Anywho...that gives me time to chat with you! On Saturday, I read about a technique using watercolor paper, SU! Stampin' Write markers, and an aquapainter on Cami Turnbow's blog. It sounded easy peasy lemon squeezy, so I pulled out a piece of watercolor paper from a package I bought from SU! recently and had laying around, and started experimenting.

Where has this been all my stampin' life?!? Oh my word was this ever fun, relaxing, and EASY! All I needed in addition to the already mentioned supplies was Staz-On, which is a waterproof ink that SU! sells (I used the only color I own, which is black).

Just use the brush tip end to place a line of color where you want it, then use the aquapainter to pull the color from that spot and fill in to whatever extent you desire. It's VERY forgiving too. Get too much water on it? Just add more marker color and continue! I love that!

This is a close-up of what the sheet looked like when I finished. I was so excited that I didn't know what to do next to showcase it! I had used all Bold Brights markers--Real Red, Only Orange, Yo Yo Yellow, Pink Passion, Gable Green and Tempting Turquoise--so I took my "masterpiece" to my shelf of BB card stock and started pulling out sheets from the color family to use as the card's base. I finally settled on Green Galore. I matted the watercolor on Whisper White and tied a simple black gingham ribbon at the top to add a bit more black accent to it. Look, Sandra--I used a BOW!

This is going to be a thank you card for whoever services my room while I'm at convention. This would cheer me up and make me feel special, so I'm banking on it having a similar effect on this as yet unknown to me person. Look around for someone this week who is performing some service for you, and make an effort to express your appreciation. It may require nothing more than making eye contact and saying a sincere "thank you". I'd love for you to post what you do here!

Does this Look like Florida to You?

My mom and dad spent some time in FL late last month visiting some friends who snowbird there every winter. Upon their return to the snowy Midwest, Mom asked me to make a thank you card to send to them. "I'd rather pay you than buy a card," she said. Thanks, Mom! To get some sort of idea of the couple's taste, I asked her what the color scheme of their condo is, and she told me yellow, orange, and green. It took awhile for the idea to percolate, but here's the final product.

It's much harder to come up with a card for someone else than to just make one that you like. While I've visited FL, I'm not a big fan of the state (south Fort Myers Beach/Estero Island excluded). And although I'm not a huge flower girl, I thought blooms would communicate the tropical feel I think my mom was looking for in this card.

Apart from my mom's description of the palette in the Fishers' house, the color scheme I chose was based on my desire to incorporate Groovy Guava double-stitched ribbon into the card. I knew the orange my mom was talking about probably wasn't your true FL orange, as in navel, but I knew that GG would stand in nicely. I also knew that it paired with Wild Wasabi, another of the In Colors, which would emulate foliage on the card.

But I wanted a few other colors, so I went to scraptitude.com and plugged in those two colors and asked the computer to generate all the combos that would coordinate with them. The combo I liked best out of the many it spit back included Regal Rose (which became the base), So Saffron (perfect for flowers), and Purely Pomegranate (also good for flowers).

I used the 2007 Sale-A-Bration set Delight in Life and paired it with Doodle This from the current catalog to get the look I was after. I stamped the flowers on a 4.5" strip and then cut it apart to create the three panels. The idea to weave the ribbon under and then over the middle panel just came to me as I played with the elements. You may just be able to see the main flower from Doodle This, which I stamped on the WW mat to create the feel of designer paper.

One of the new tools I acquired with my last order was the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. It's a positioning tool that makes it possible to get a stamp placed right where you want it--and straight to boot! That's how the "thank you very much" was placed so perfectly in the lower right corner. I'm going to be teaching all my stampers how to use this tool! For anyone with the least bit of anal retentiveness about straightness, this is the answer you've been looking for.

I'm going to insert a note my parents emailed me, which will convey their thanks to their hosts for the good time they had down South. I hope the card will help communicate what special friends my parents feel these folks are. That's what handmade communicates, doesn't it? You're special!

Go make someone feel special today! Send them a card from your stash, or create one and send me a link!