Anything Goes?

First of all, I want to shout out a Happy 49th Birthday to my big brother, John.

Love you, John!

I've been saving this gorgeous paper from the DIY pad by Cratepaper.  

I love the watercolor look--perfect for a background.

I chose a spot with mainly pinks and yellows and cut it for my background, and then created a simple card with my Bluebells stamp from Serendipity Stamps and a bird die from Momenta.

Well,...I wanted simple, yes, but not blah.  And this looked downright blech!

After a bit of musing, I cut my card front in half.

With these two pieces, I created two cards.

For the first one, I framed and cut piece with a bit of blue from my scrap drawer.  I die cut another bird from a scrap of brown.  The sentiment is from my new stamp/die set from Sizzix, Hot Air Balloon.  When stamping the bluebells, I used blue and green markers, and then added a bit more color with a light blue chalk pencil.

I used the same supplies for this second card, using more of my brown paper scrap for the frame.  I almost think I like this one best of all.  I'm going to enter it in the latest Serendipity Stamps challenge:  

Thanks for stopping by!

Let me know what you think!

Bluebells

I've been playing with my new bluebell stamp from Serendipity Stamps.

For this one, I used an ivory card with layers of light blue, and stamped the bluebell in Sky Blue.

It shows up better in real life than here in my photo!

I'm entering this in the Serendipity Stamps Challenge #45, Monochrome

Other supplies:  Sky Blue pigment ink from Clearsnap; "Life is in Bloom" stamp from Printworks; brick embossing plate from The Paper Studio; Stitched Banner Duo from Pretty Pink Posh

Creating a Custom Poem

I got a request to "decorate" a poem, Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats.   Reading and re-reading the poem, I pictured my calligraphy on a background of sky, with maybe the silhouette of a few grassy flowers in the foreground at the bottom.  "Make it a sunrise/sunset sky," my client suggested.  That did sound lovely.  I did the calligraphy (without a mistake the first time around!  How is that possible?) and loved this sky I created with pastels.

My client, who lives in the UK, wondered if I could make those foreground flowers be English flowers--English hyacinth or meadow buttercups.  The hyacinths are her favorites.  Looking at this poem again, I realized the sky is too dramatic to pair with a dainty flower.  

I went back to the drawing board (literally) this morning.

Which one would YOU choose?

To see more, or get your own custom calligraphed poem, visit me at www.thirdsisterhandmade.etsy.com

Thanks for stopping by!