Mother's Day Thoughts

Just a quick post tonight to wish all you Moms out there a Happy Mother's Day!  It was a stunning day in our neck of the woods today.  Beautiful sunny skies and very warm temperatures.  Just right for Mother's Day.  My drama group performed this skit in church and got lots of laughs.  I got three beautiful cards from my three daughters and talked to them all via phone or skype at different points in the day.  My DH took me out for a Mother's Day brunch that exceeded all expectations and I got all my bedding plants into their respective hanging baskets or planters, while Ken planted all the annual beds!  I can hardly wait to see them bloom and grow.  Last year I planted gobs of petunias and faithfully dead-headed them all until I never wanted to see a petunia again.  I went to the local nursery and looked around for alternatives, but there didn't seem to be anything as colourful and reliable as petunias.  I was almost resigned to another year of slavery to my hanging baskets, when I found it - The Supertunia.  Says right on the tag - "Deadheading not needed!"  Yay!  And the pictures of the blooms are incredible.  We shall see what happens with those.  I'll keep you posted. 

Finally, I spent my evening doing what I love most - Stamping!  And can you believe that what I worked on today, Mother's Day, was a manly card for Father's Day and also for my next Technique Class, June 6, where the focus is on masculine designs and techniques.  Here's what it looks like:

This uses a technique called "Faux Mosaic", which I learned from my upline, Tamara.  The card design is very similar to one we did at one of her Technique classes.  For this technique you create your own mosaic stamp using left over rubber from Stampin' Up wood mount stamps after you have mounted your stamps on the bases.  This is what mine looks like:

I stamped the image, which comes from a great set called Countryside, which will still be available in the new catalogue, coming June 1.  I used StazOn Jet Black ink on special watercolour paper.  Then I used aqua painters to paint the image using two new In Colours for 2012 - 2014, Raspberry Ripple and Gumball Green, as well as good old Early Espresso.  I then spritzed the image using a Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write marker and the Colour Spritzer Tool.  When the image had dried, I inked up my special mosaic stamp with Versamark ink, and stamped it over the image.   I covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  Then I sponged Soft Suede ink over the embossed areas and the outer edges, to bring up the mosaic design.  Great fun!   Here's a close-up of the mosaic design:

And that's all there is to it.  Hope your Mother's Day was a satisfying as mine was.  What would your ideal day look like?

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