Waltzingmouse Makes...

Good morning! Happy hump day! Anya might be here later with the Big Cheese, but I'm just sneaking in a little card I made now that I've found the camera battery charger...

I made this last night, just for myself, well actually I might give it to someone, but I was thinking of myself and my wee mum as I was making it. That sentiment (from Words of Wisdom) is one that my mum said to me often when I was feeling a little bit anxious about something or other.

The card base, cut with Spellbinders Grand Labels 23 die templates, is a patterned paper from a Glitz Vintage Blue Paper pad, as is the rose. I discovered Glitz through Laurie Schmidlin and I love their style, it all seems to work so well for my antique bent.

The rose was created using a Spellbinders Blossom one die template and the leaves are made from kraft card using another Spellbinders Die template - Foliage. I stamped the leaves with the heart pattern from Nordic Spring - the butterfly is from that set also. To make the butterfly I cut out a butterfly shape on my craft robo using one of the free butterfly cutting files here, I stamped a butterfly on both sides, sponged around both sides and folded the butterfly in half to make it look like it was perched on the rose.

I made up the sentiment panel with a piece of yellow paper, also from the Glitz pad by trimming out a scalloped rectangle - my Grand Calibur was getting a work out last night as I got some of those handy dandy junior cutting plates, this greatly reduces my 'mangle time' LOL!! Folks old enough to remember mangles will know what I'm talking about...but really it means that you don't have to turn the handle so many times to get a pass, I love these, I felt really speedy last night!!

I laid a piece of twine around the rectangle and zig zag stitched over it - I believe this is called couching in seamstress terms and it was a tad footery, but i liked the effect. Then I stamped the sentiment on the panel, before mounting it on a plain rectangle of kraft card.

I really enjoyed making this card. It feels like ages since I have crafted at all, and over the last year or so especially, it seems that I have only made stuff when I needed samples for releases. I always regretted that, but it was a symptom of a busy life. I'm sad that life will be less busy now, since mum is not here to be cared for any more, but I look forward to crafting a little more and keeping her with me in my thoughts as I do so.

Hope it tickles!