earth day…

my kids are definitely “greener” than i am…

they know the lingo, they know what can be recycled and what can’t, they talk about earth day – i know they have learned about it at school, and i’m equally sure, they don’t quite understand what “green” is all about!

probably my biggest green contribution is that i like old stuff – so i reuse and repurpose things i find at flea markets and estate sales. i love the look of flowers in an old chipped pitcher or vase…

and when i planted flowers this spring, i used several vintage containers…

my favorite new find is also in the garden, i found this piece of wrought iron someone had probably welded together from some scraps. i was lucky enough to find a clay bowl that fit it perfectly too!

i also sell some of my unique finds on e-bay, so i guess you could say i help others recycle too! LOL!

i wanted to make a simple little card for earth day, and remembered i had some CORE’DINIATIONS cardstock that i’d been wanting to play with. i had been talking about the cardstock with my friend charlotte at the scrapbook retreat last weekend. she got some in her pinecone press book club kit. so i pulled it out, and combined it with an idea i had awhile back…

i kept thinking that it would be nice if i could emboss with my stamps, you know, just rub over them and get a nice design. well, most stamps aren’t firm enough for that unless you are using REALLY light-weight paper. so i thought about my using my watermark stamp pad to stamp the design with, then embossing it using my stylus. i am quite sure this is NOT an original thought here, just an original thought for me! LOL! so i stamped my image on the backside of the cardstock, embossed the design using a stylus while working on a magazine covered in a sheet of white paper {you don’t want any of the print to transfer to the “good side” of your work}. when i turned it over, there it was – my stamp – embossed! of course, now i could do several things with it, ink it lightly to get it to stand out, or maybe sand it. since i was using the core’dintations cardstock though, which has a color core – of COURSE i chose to sand it! it came out great, the areas that i embossed showed up as a lighter shade of the cardstock, and the raised details from the embossing added dimension. the technique was pretty simple, here’s the finished card…

 

here are the directions if you want to make your own!

supplies:

Core-dinations – cardstock  – flower power – green, blue and brown, Daisy Bucket – stamp – curly tree, Clearsnap – watermark ink pad, 3D dots, file, black pen and chipboard

directions:

1) cut a 5 X 10 piece of chipboard; score at 5″ and fold in half to make card. {chipboard is hard to fold unless you score first}

2) stamp tree top on back of green cardstock and tree trunk on back of brown cardstock using watermark ink.

3) emboss designs using stylus, be sure you press hard enough to emboss well, but not hard enough to tear. it helps to work on a slightly cushioned surface, like a magazine.

4) turn over, sand lightly to bring out the embossed design, then cut out and glue trunk to top.

5) outline card in black ink.

6) for background crumple a piece of blue cardstock. uncrumble, tear edges and lightly sand to distress. adhere to card by just tacking in a few places so that it doesn’t lie perfectly flat.

7) adhere tree using 3D dots

8) add sentiment.

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enjoy the day! get some fresh air and get your GREEN on!