Today I have a new card inspired by an old card. The old card I made in my pre-blog days and posted it in my now very neglected Splitcoast Stampers gallery. But I'm going to show the new card first. Since I'm challenge crazy, I decided to try my hand at a new challenge site: The Shabby Tea Room. This week's theme is "elegant shabby" using the colors pink, green, red, brown, and cream. There's a great photo to be inspired by. You can click over to them to see it (here).
Since I can't seem to stop using birds, here's another one.
SHOW
See how I used the tag as a nest by cutting a slit and nestling the bird in there? Kind of clever, if I do say so myself. :) Hmmm. Might be cute with some little eggs in there as an Easter basket. Maybe I'll try that. And, since I've had a real itch to do some embroidery lately, I did some hand-stitching on the card. I used to do all kinds of needlework and have been missing it lately.
AND TELL: stamps are from Papertrey Ink (2008 Holiday Tag Collection, Everyday Classics); cardstock is PTI (Sweet Blush, Vintage Cream) and Stampin' Up (Close to Cocoa); patterned paper is PTI (Bitty Box Basics in Sweet Blush), Cosmo Cricket Material Girl (Measuring Up) and Garden Variety 6x6 Mini Deck; ink is Stampin' Up (Close to Cocoa); ribbon is PTI (Vintage Cream grosgrain); also used a K&Co. rhinestone, DMC embroidery floss, Bazzill's In Stitch'z flourishes templates, Stampin' Up's Birds & Blooms Bird die, 1-3/4" circle punch and Two-Step Bird punch.
Here's the old card. In reworking it I used basically the same layout and, of course, the bird. I was planning to do the buttons the same way, also, but didn't want to use button twine or embroidery floss to string them together and couldn't get the ribbon I wanted to use to go through the holes. Since the stitching on my green panels made them a little "bulge-y" at the bottom I popped them up using dimensionals and changed the button accent to a bow by sliding the ribbon under the side panels. By popping up the stamped panel, too, it didn't get lost in all that dimension. Sorry to ramble on so about my thought processes. I rarely have a grand design in mind when I get started on a card. I just keep changing things around until I get something that seems to work. (The stamps used on this card are from Verve, most of the paper: Heather Bailey for Autumn Leaves, the buttons: Stampin' Up.)
I do find it odd that I'm so attracted to bird images right now — because I really don't like birds all that much in real life. I can appreciate them from afar, but, really, they give me the creeps. And here's why.
In the mid-1980s I was a young mom living in St. Louis with a toddler and a husband who travelled a lot. I also taught full-time and had about a 30-45 minute commute each way. One night when Ken was out of town, I was having a terrible time sleeping. I kept waking up, hearing bird calls. And in my sleepy mind that has a real over-active imagination when it's dark outside — I thought a gang of robbers was surrounding our house, signaling each other as they were preparing to break-in. (Crazy, I know.) My heart was pounding as I strained to hear what was going on and then I would fall back asleep only to wake up again thinking I was hearing scuffling and bird calls.
Finally, the alarm went off and I stumbled into the bathroom to get ready for work. The first thought I remember that morning was that there must be a mouse in the bedroom — and, for some reason, I was comforted by that thought. I certainly don't know why, because rodents give me the creeps, too.
You know how everything looks better in the light of day? Well, it wasn't light yet, but I was feeling better and was formulating my plan for how to deal with the mouse when I opened the bathroom door, and saw a huge greasy-looking black starling perched on the curtain rod on the other side of the room. Eeeek! I slammed the bathroom door, sick with the realization that that bird had been in the room with me ALL NIGHT!
Now, I've seen Alfred Hitchcock's movie, "The Birds." I know what ugly black birds are capable of. And I'm trapped in a very tiny bathroom with just a towel and my bathrobe. I can't just stay in the bathroom all day — I've got a daughter who will need me soon and I certainly don't want her wandering into the room, looking for me with that big black bird on the loose. Besides that, I've got to get to work and all my clothes are in the closet on the bird's side of the room. And, since the door and windows are closed, that bird is not going anywhere.
After calming myself a bit, I wrapped the towel turban-style around my head and pulled my robe up to cover my neck and face. Carefully and quietly, I cracked open the bathroom door and edged out into the room, sidling along the wall opposite the bird to get to the door — all the time eyeing the bird as he's watching me with his beady little bird eyes. Eeewww. I get the shivers just thinking about it.
So — once I was safely out of the room, I sat down with the Yellow Pages. But, who do you call to get a bird out of your house when it's not even 6:00 in the morning? After a 30 minutes or so, I decided the hour was almost decent enough to call my neighbor. Paul came over, opened the window, and the bird flew out. Just like that. So easy. Very anti-climatic ending to the story, wasn't it? But — I can't help it — birds are still creepy to me. However, I do like trends and since birds are trendy right now I'm jumping on the bird bandwagon. Just don't expect me to start lovin' the real thing.
That's it for today, now that you know more about me than you probably ever wanted to! :) (And, you can be thankful that I didn't post any of the scary movie scenes or creepy bird pictures that I found...) Hope you've had a great weekend and were able to spend some time doing something you enjoy! Thanks for popping in for a little visit (although, probably longer than you expected if you read this far!). See you soon.
