Country Home Stamping Crosses Barriers

Coming to a new country isn't easy and when you come to a new country where the language is completely different right down to the alphabet, the food is also different because of religious standards, in fact the whole culture is completely different, the adjustment required to adapt to the new country can be overwhelming.

As you know, we are part of a group that sponsored a Syrian family to come to Canada and they have been here for about 6 months now. It has taken a lot of adjustment on everyone's part and now, in the throes of dreary winter, it has been difficult for them to stay positive! And as their sponsor group, we have struggled to find activities that we can do together that are not language-dependent, (although their English has improved a lot since they first arrived), don't involve food that they can't eat, (which is a lot, Muslims have to eat Halal food) or music they don't like (they haven't really taken to Western music much yet - Middle Eastern music is in a category all it's own). Sports are dress dependent for the women (eg. they can't go swimming). So you can see how difficult it is to find common ground.

But this week, I had a kind of epiphany! I know that the mom loves anything beautiful and often posts things on Facebook or Instagram that have lovely images, so I had a hunch that she would really like making some pretty cards with me. I invited her and the girls in the family to my house last night to try stamping some cards with me. I figured that even if they couldn't understand my directions completely, I would be demonstrating, so a "picture would be worth a thousand words"!

I designed two cards that were beautiful and hopefully, not too difficult, made some cookies (sweets always seem to be okay) and hoped for the best! It was more than successful! They left my house with the biggest smiles and felt so pleased with themselves, especially when I told them that they had not done beginner cards, but more advanced ones! They learned some new English terms like Snail and bone folder and Big Shot! And I think I have some new stampin' buddies. Stamping Up! breaks down barriers between people again! That's one reason I love it so much!!

• This was one of the cards we did together. It uses the Country Home stamp set and some Stampin' Blends colouring.
• We did some water colour washes on the Shimmery White cardstock for the card front before using the Tin Tile Dynamic Embossing Folder to emboss it with. Then we added some Frost White Shimmer Paint to the raised areas to enhance and glitter up  the front.
• We added some of the Chicken Wire Elements, which are, unfortunately, now all sold out, to the card front.
• The stamped image of the milk can and the floral arrangement were stamped on Whisper White with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured in with the Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends Combo and the Granny Apple Green Combo. To this sample, I added some Frost White Shimmer to the cotton bolls in the greenery.
• The sentiment is from the Country Home Suite and was die cut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits. A little bow from Mint Macaron Nature's Twine was the final touch.
• Just a humorous aside: In Arabic, you open a card from the left to the right, instead of from the right to the left as we do, so next time you glue your card front on backwards, just tell everyone you're making an Arabic card!!

This is one of my last posts before Christmas and we're down to the wire now for Stampin' Up! gifts, but if you're a last minute shopper, don't despair. Give me a call and I can write you out a Gift Certificate (a cute one,too!) for your Stampin' Up! loving friend! Hope that helps!!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Country Home Photopolymer Stamp Set [147678] $27.00	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910] $12.25	Soft Sea Foam 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146988] $11.50	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25
Frost White Shimmer Paint [147046] $11.00	Soft Sea Foam Classic Stampin' Pad [147102] $10.25	Mint Macaron Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [147283] $12.00	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [147274] $12.00	Aqua Painters [103954] $23.00
Chicken Wire Elements [147807] $6.00	Nature's Twine [146342] $12.25	Tin Tile Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [147906] $14.00	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50	Glue Dots [103683] $7.25
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.50	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

Country Home Stamp Set in Pastels

I have been so inspired by a set of cards made by Laurin Alarid from the Artisan Design Team for Stampin' Up! using the Country Home stamp set and pastel colours with lots of texture and layering. Laurin's inspirational blog is Crafty Little Peach. I'm used to seeing this set with more intense colours like Blackberry Bliss and Crushed Curry, so when I saw her designs in shades of Balmy Blue and Frost White Shimmer Paint, I wanted to get on the pastel bandwagon right away.

I used Petal Pink for my pastel along with Sahara Sand as my neutral and Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint (and a little Frost White as well). Here's how it turned out:

• I embossed my Petal Pink card base with the Tin Tile Dynamic Embossing Folder to add texture to the project and just because I love it so much!
• My front panel is Shimmery White cardstock because I wanted to do some watercolour smooshing and Whisper White won't stand up to the water you need to use to do that. To smoosh,  I used a Stampin' Write Marker and scribbled on an acetate sheet, then spritzed with a little water and pressed it to my paper, rubbing the ink around by rubbing the back of the acetate with my fingers, making the ink go roughly where I wanted it to go. I lifted off the acetate and blotted the extra puddles with some paper towel, then dried the paper on both sides with the Heat Tool. Once dry, I repeated the steps with another layer of the same colour or added another colour, in this case Sahara Sand.
• I love the combo of the Petal Pink and the touch of Sahara Sand. I ended up with a very marble-like design.
• You can use the Chicken Wire Element as a mask. I taped some down and painted over it with the Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint. I think I needed to add more paint to really get the feel of the chicken wire, but I was still left with a really neat shimmery, textury looking area that I really liked.
• I stamped my images from the Country Home stamp set on Shimmery White cardstock as well so I could watercolour them using an Aqua Painter. I stuck to Petal Pink, Sahara Sand and I threw in some Frost White Shimmer Paint for the cotton balls. It gives them a little dimension as well as shine. The images were fussy cut and added to the stamped front panel, bumping up the milk tin with Dimensionals.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Country Home Photopolymer Stamp Set [147678] $27.00	Shimmery White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101910] $12.25	Petal Pink 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146985] $11.50	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043] $11.50	Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint [147044] $11.00
Frost White Shimmer Paint [147046] $11.00	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $9.25	Petal Pink Classic Stampin' Pad [147108] $10.25	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad [147117] $10.25	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers [147156] $40.00
Neutrals Stampin' Write Markers [147158] $40.00	Nature's Twine [146342] $12.25	Chicken Wire Elements [147807] $6.00	Aqua Painters [103954] $23.00	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50
Tin Tile Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [147906] $14.00	Big Shot [143263] $150.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

Happy Thanksgiving

I've been enjoying having my youngest daughter and her family here for Thanksgiving weekend. Here in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving the second weekend in October.  Officially,  it's the second Monday, but usually that's a travelling day for people and Thanksgiving dinner is eaten on either Saturday or Sunday. We had ours last night complete with turkey and pumpkin pie and played a few games of Yahtzee afterwards. I watched the Great British Baking Show with my daughter and it wasn't until I got ready for bed that I remembered that I still had a blog post to write! So this is a quick post to wish you Happy Thanksgiving, show you some card samples and a video from Stampin' Up!, and give myself a bit of a holiday break!

• This is a card I made specifically for my Thanksgiving greeting to all of you! It's the first time I've inked up my Pleasant Pheasants stamp set. This is one of the fall images in the set. I coloured it in using Stampin' Blends and die cut it with the Stitched Shapes Framelits.
• You can see a fragment of the Chicken Wire Elements and the Country Lane Designer Series Paper between the front die cut and the Galvanized Metal embossed using the Tin Tile Dynamic Embossing Folder. 

These two cards are ones I made for Stampin' Up! friends who recently promoted, one to Silver Elite and one to Gold Elite!  The one who promoted to Silver Elite also earned the incentive trip to Greece! I thought the Bethlehem Edgelit dies with the roofs paper pieced with Pacific Point looked just like Greece! What do you think?

I'll leave you with a video from Stampin' Up!:

If you're one of my Canadian readers, enjoy your holiday today!