Good Morning Stampers ~
I am sure that many of you are wondering where I have been for the past 10 days. In short, I took a very sudden and unplanned, but very badly needed break.
Some of you who are closest to me know my situation of the past 8 to 10 months, and the incredible strain I have been under regarding my job. If you have read my biography, you know that I work for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company here in the southwest area of Jefferson County, Colorado. As is the nature of government contractors, programs and contracts ebb and flow, and this can cause "offloads" of employees as contracts wind down. My situation has been complicated by the fact that I have had one of the worst and most difficult bosses I have ever had in my working career. Technically I should not have been "offloaded" from the program I was currently assigned to until the end of 2018 or early 2019; but this gentleman saw fit to try to start getting rid of me last summer already, simply because he does not like me and saw no need to keep me around. I have been struggling for over 8 to 10 months now to locate another assignment/job within the Denver-Waterton campus, and would have found myself "on the street" quite some months ago already had it not been for good people whom I have known a lot of years that stepped up to help me over these difficult months. The situation came to a head during the week of August 14th, and I had to reach out to a Systems Engineering Director to keep from finding myself unemployed. By the Grace of God, I have found a "knight in shining armour" who has seen fit to move me away from the "bad boss" and get me under the protection of someone else who will have my back and help me as I continue to look for a permanent position.
Needless to say, the stress level and anxiety I have been undergoing has taken its toll. I simply could not do anything this past week except try to rest and try to wrap my mind around all I've been through. Creativity has alluded me for some time, and the last thing I wanted to do was go into the Studio and do anything at all. The rest and down time has been much needed. So I appreciate your patience and kindness. Some of you have reached out to check on me, and I am so grateful to know you care. I'm starting to feel a little better and a little more normal, so we will ease back into things here this week, and try to start finding a little excitement for the new catalog that is releasing on Friday! This is a fabulous time of year, and I certainly want to be a part of it and share with all of you. So please continue to be patient, and I promise we'll step into the Fall season and find our creative streak once again!!
So ease back into the week we will. I decided to create a pretty little card for today's blog post; one that had been swimming around in my head for the past 2 weeks and uses some new designer series paper that I am over the moon for. Today we start some sneak peaks of my favorite fall set in the 2017 Holiday Occasions Catalog 😉
I am over the moon for the Painted Autumn suite in the new Holiday Occasions Catalog. Most of you should have received your catalogs by now -- and you can find this beautiful suite of products on pages 48-49. The Painted Autumn designer series paper collection is absolutely to die for!! Today's card features "fussy cutting" from this paper.
Can you believe how pretty this paper is? If you want to see it a little closer, see my Sneak Video from a couple weeks ago -- you can view that on YouTube Here.
Thinking you'd love to have some of that paper to look at it closer? Now is the time to snag a spot in a Product Share -- and you can touch, feel, and play with all the new papers without having to break your pocket book. Check out my 2017 Holiday Occasions Catalog Product Shares HERE.
This card base is cut from Thick Whisper White cardstock; and has layers in Tangerine Tango (the matting), and Peekaboo Peach.
The Peekaboo Peach layer was embossed with the Sweetheart Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (TIEF). This is my first time using this folder, and I just LOVE it!!
The center heart was cut from watercolor paper -- and this is true fun watercoloring here.
First I stamped the sentiment from the Colorful Seasons stamp set using Versamark; then embossed with Copper embossing powder.
Then I used 4 fabulous ink colors and an AquaPainter to create this fabulous watercolored heart ~
This kind of "washed" watercoloring is literally about lots of water and picking up and dropping your color and letting it move as it will with the water, with minimal help from you. It is so pretty!! These colors were hard to pick up well with the camera and get the photo software to show in "true color" - I'm not really sure why. But this card is so pretty in person.
You can see that I "swished" some Lemon Lime Twist 1/2" Finely Woven Ribbon in the background; then popped my heart over the top of that with dimensionals.
Finally -- it was all about fussy cutting this gorgeous sunflower out of the designer series paper; it is also popped with dimensionals. So pretty!! I added a few Gold Faceted Gems for fun!
Turn to the Inside ~
This inside of this card just seems to compliment the outside beautifully and simply.
This "wonderful" sentiment is from Just Add Text and is stamped in Peekaboo Peach ink.
Another wonderful flower has been fussy cut from the designer paper and laid in the corner with SNAIL.
It did not take me that long to cut these little flowers out -- and the WOW factor is well worth it!!
You really could create this card with any color background you wanted - it would look equally pretty in a yellow or even a green - just change out the ribbon.
I encourage you to experiment -- and remember that you can order your Product Shares from me today ! And the new catalog goes live for you to get your hands on all the new goodies on Friday!!
We'll be back tomorrow to wind up the month of August and all our current promotions; and then we're going to skip Wednesday's blog post this week. So I'll see you on Thursday for some more sunflower fun!! 😉
Until Then Everyone . . .
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