Voluptuous Vellum

Hello Stamplings!

I hope you're doing okay. I'm sorry to have been gone so long. I've been having a heck of a time with migraines and allergies and worrying about what's going on in the world.

When I'm on the brink of becoming an eyeball-itching-TV-watching-zombie on an emotional roller coaster, Hammy climbs up on the top of my head, peers upside down into my face and reminds me that I have a Playhouse full of paper, inks, and product that allows me to make cards in order to spread cheer and thoughtfulness from sea to shining sea.

A check of some favorite challenges got us playing with an old favorite: vellum!

Here the green card base is covered with a piece of vellum which I dry-embossed with a Cuttlebug branches e/f and overlaid with a vellum precolored bird from GKW that has been in my stash for ages. You know those packets of vellum clip art that you could buy at Mike's or JoAnn's? I think it came from one of those. A simple sediment finished it off.

The only difficulty with vellum is how to attach it to a card. I usually leave a half inch on one side or over the top (of a tent card) to attach to the back with double-stick tape. For this card, I just glued the vellum behind the bird and left the sides loose. When you place it on the sill of an open window, the vellum flutters which makes it look like the leaves on the branch are moving. 

Challenges:

• AAA Birthday: Vellum.
• CAS Mix Up Card Challenge (new format): Embossing, vellum, and stamping. This isn't very CAS, so I'm just playing for fun.
• Sweet Stampers: Animals/birds.

These next two use beautiful sheets of white designs on vellum paper.

This one was attached to a sky blue card base and the sediment was silver-embossed.

Challenges: 

• AAA: Congratulations on 6th Birthday!!
• Country View: Summer fields.
• Paper Players: Tic Tac Toe. (Column three.)

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This one has a white heat-embossed sediment and the card base is a charcoal gray. I'm so happy to have rediscovered these pretty vellum sheets and I may now go on a tangent making lots of cards to use it all up. I'm sure the pandemic has a lot to do with my new resolve to use my schtuff. Plus, for all we know, paper has feelings, too, and hates being stuck in a deep dark drawer! (I'm sure it also hates being cut and stitched and stabbed, but we'll ignore that bit.)

Challenges

• CASology: Wind.
• Seize the Birthday: All about summer.
• Watercooler Wednesday: AG with a feminine twist.

 

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So Proud of the Young People

Worrying about the pandemic has now been superseded by the horror of what happened to George Floyd. I'm proud to see so many people, including so many young people, exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble to protest racism and draw attention to the need for better police training.

As someone who marched in the 60s for equality, it's hard to believe that this is still necessary, but racism takes generations to eradicate. With each new generation, fewer children grow up hearing bigoted comments from their parents and grandparents, who heard it from their parents and grandparents. And because they aren't directly or indirectly taught bigotry, they don't practice it or pass it on. Unfortunately, that's not true in every home yet, so we must continue to shine a light on racism when it occurs and we must be able to do that peacefully without fear of being attacked by our own government without provocation.

“If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.”
― Albert Einstein

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”
― William Faulkner

Please take care if you are marching and continue to wear a mask!

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A Reunion

Recently we decided we could safely get together with the kids in the back yard for lunch. We are all adults (or nearly) and we were able to maintain our social distance. As the happy day approached, I fretted about how on earth I was going to manage not hugging them. 

Well, duh, I finally reasoned, if I covered myself from head to toe, I should be fine. And so I did!

l to r: Dan, Adam, me; Henry, Adam, Rachel, Nellie, Dan; Rachel, Dan, me

Even though they live nearby, we haven't been together since January, so it was wonderful to see them! Hopefully it won't be long before we can do it again!

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

*Life is too short!

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