Schparkly Dragonfly

Hello Stamplings!

The first week of July is always filled with lots of fun, celebrations, happy mail, and calories! Thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes on the 2nd, the beautiful cards that are still pouring in, and special thanks to the ladies of the CAS Watercolor Challenge who surprised me with a tribute for my birthday! 💛 So clever and hilarious! Who knew entering the seventh decade could be so much fun?! Mwah! And then the festivities continued over the 4th of July as we got together with lifelong friends! #feelingblessed!

With all that, I haven't had the chance to make new cards. I'm afraid I also haven't had the chance to visit many of your blogs in what seems like forever. I apologize for that and hope to do better soon.

So today I am sharing a one-layer card that I started in May at the ESCR retreat. 

In January of this year, Lolly made and posted a card (which you can see here) using this "Oragami Dragonfly" by Carabelle Studios. I fell in love with Lolly's card and immediately purchased the dragonfly. (FYI: If you go to buy it, I noticed there are knockoffs out there with shorter wing spans so you may not get quite such a dramatic look.) I love dragonflies and I thought Lolly's image was spectacular, so I couldn't wait to CASE her. We both brought our stamps to the Retreat and she kindly took me through the steps.  (She did the same for Bonnie and you can see Bonnie's stunning Twofer dragonfly CASE here!)

Lolly created a paper towel background for her card, while I watercolor-smooched my background using mixed media paper and Distress Inks. After that, I simply followed her steps and I think it's best if I let her explain it to you as she did in her post here. 

I stamped the image in black and clear heat embossed.  The design is intricate, so using the black ink gives me all the details.  Heat embossing in clear sets the design.  If I used Versamark and black embossing powder, I would loose some of the detail.

I painted the image with metallic acrylic paints (green, light blue).  I used a water brush to dilute the paint as it was being added.  I stamped the image on my card front as well as on a second piece of mixed media paper.  Both were painted with the acrylics and then I used a damp paper towel to lightly swipe over top to enhance the black heat embossed lines.  The separate dragonfly was fussy-cut ... just the top wings and body.  I then added crystal glaze to the body and let it dry before adhering on top of my card front dragonfly. 

Thank you, Lolly!

Here is a closeup of my card where you can see the schparkle from the Pearl Lumiere acrylic paints and the dementia achieved from doubling up the wings. What's that, Hammy? Oh, yes, you're right, I guess it's not a one-layer card!

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Party Time - Celebrate! Congratulations on your 100th Challenge!
• Country View Challenges: Blues and greens.
• Seize the Birthday: Option topping of sunshine.
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Make your own background.

Sorry, Dear!

Since we've reached our twilight years, there's never a dull moment around here. The Mister and I now seem to be in a competition to see who can do the dumbest thing. I did this with my car:

Oops.

So what happened was, the Mister walked one of his bikes out to the street to wash it. It was parked perpendicular to the curb with the front end jutting just a bit out into the street to give him room to walk around while washing it. 

Enter me, stage left. I had to rush out to a hair appointment. The Mister went into the house for something, stopping first to say goodbye to me. In that three seconds, I totally forgot the bike was even parked there. I backed my car out of the driveway as usual, cutting the wheel as I always do to avoid backing into the neighbor's car across the street. I was startled when I felt a bump and heard a loud thump. I quickly looked in my passenger side mirror just in time to see The Mister's pretty bike do a bit of a bounce. *&^*%!

Enter The Mister flying out of the house, his face the picture of abject horror. 😨 I sped away to my appointment, pretending I hadn't seen it.

Ah, c'mon. I'm kidding. I parked and got out to soothe him. Fortunately, my angels were watching over me because there was no damage done except for a tiny plastic part that's easy to replace. Phew!

Before you feel too sorry for him and his bike, however, here's the competitive part I was talking about. A month ago The Mister had another bike parked in the street. Getting in the truck, he proceeded to back up the truck and trailer in order to park it. He inched closer and closer to his parked bike because he didn't want to block our driveway with his truck. A little closer. That's it, just a lit -... thud! Oops. Too close! 

So we can each check "backing into our own vehicles" off our Bucket List of Dumb Schtuff To Do. We're even on that one, except it's funny how he didn't take a picture when he did it! 

I wonder what we'll do next?! Stay tuned! 😏

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!*

As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower! Please let me know you came by so I can be sure and return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

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