Broke, but Happy

Yesterday I went with my DD and three friends to a big stamping and papercraft show about an hour's drive from home. I've been to every show except two since it started 14 years ago and always enjoy it; this was the biggest and the busiest I can remember. One stall in particular had some terrific bargains and I blew my budget in the first half hour, but I have no regrets and enjoyed watching demos for much of the remaining time. I didn't buy anything entirely new (do the words Nesties and Martha Stewart punches and stencil paste have a familiar ring?); in fact one of my purchases was an early Cuttlebug embossing folder which I've happily ignored for years but saw on someone's blog recently and realised I needed it immediately! I ought to keep my new toys out to play with and then show the results here before I put them away.......not being very tidy that shouldn't be too difficult, however today I just stroked them then pulled out some old favourites to create an anniversary card for friends.


After my efforts with stencil paste last Sunday normal service is resumed, using an image from JustRite Stampers; Nesties; a Cuttlebug embossed background and a Martha Stewart punch. Not for the first time (and undoubtedly not the last) the finished card is quite different from the one I set out to make - plans have to be changed when you realise that the 'scrap' of card you have cheerfully cut up for a punched border was the piece that 5 minutes ago you had carefully measured,cut and trimmed to make the background. OK, so there's always Plan B...

It isn't obvious from the scan but the fold is at the top of the card. The centre motif from JRS's Breath of Spring set is stuck only at the top and holds the bottom flap in place - I used Promarkers to colour the flowers and tinted the background with light brown chalk. The pink background is embossed with Swiss Dots (another delayed purchase which rapidly proved its worth) layered on matt silver and the MS punch is Double Loops. Just an aside here: I realised that the MS punches I was most tempted to buy yesterday were so very similar in style to this one that I had to force myself to buy something quite different!

I almost forgot to say that yesterday afternoon concluded with a group meeting of members from one of my internet craft forums. I've 'borrowed' the screen name of one lady to use as the title for this post - I couldn't have put it any better myself.