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Inspired By . . .

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There are two challenge sites now with "Inspired By" in the title. I enjoy the inspiration pieces for both, and have a card to enter in the newest challenge at Inspired By . . . H is for Hoppy. I think my last three posts have been for these two challenge sites.

H is for Hoppy

Like Tracy's birthday card, I'm sharing an Easter card ahead of Easter to meet the challenge. This one is for Caleb. I think he'll appreciate the pun.

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Both the dies and the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Huggables: Bunny & Chick" were perfect for this challenge. I die cut all the pieces for the bunny from Soft Stone (PTI), Neenah Solar White, Orange Zest, New Leaf, and Lovely Lady (all PTI). I die cut a piece of Soft Stone "Bitty Big" patterned paper for the background and die cut it with the W Plus 9 "Gift Card Layers" die. The heart was die cut with the "Stitched Hearts" from My Favorite Things. 

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I used two small black pearls from Amuse for the bunny's eyes.

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I'll have one more Easter card to share before the holiday. Caleb and Hannah's cards need to get in the mail in the next few days.

Inspired By . . .

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I'm inspired by so many things: color combinations, photographs, cards made by the most awesome designers, magazine ads, and of course, inspiration posts from a variety of card challenges. There are too many to keep up with each week, but I do follow several. One of them is the Inspired By The Little Things challenge. This week's photo inspiration brought to mind a beautiful piece of patterned paper by Papertrey Ink for their Mini Market Kit: Herb Garden.

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I needed two sympathy cards, and sat down with another wonderful Papertrey Ink product, "Penned Elegance" and created two of the same card. The light, airy herbs in the photo reminded me of the subtle leaves and pretty greens of the patterned paper.

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I die cut the patterned paper with a Stitched Rectangle die from Simon Says and mounted it on a card made from Pinefeather cardstock. I love the die cut sentiments for "Penned Elegance." I die cut two from white cardstock, stamped the sentiment in Pinefeather on one of them and stacked them for a little dimension. I think simple is best for sympathy cards, so no embellishment was needed.

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Sadly, the kit only had two pieces of this patterned paper, so a replacement set of paper is in my cart waiting for my next order.

Lucky

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After a flurry of photographic posts, I'm back with a card. This one for two challenges: FUSION: St. Paddy's Day, and Inspired By: Get Lucky.

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St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching. We'll be celebrating twice because it's also Tracy's 70th birthday. Matt, Betsy and the girls are coming for a birthday dinner Friday night, and the two of us will celebrate on Saturday with the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner at home. We'll eventually go out to dinner to celebrate as well, but St. Patrick's Day is just too crazy.

Typically, I'd post Tracy's card on his birthday, but since it's perfect for both challenges, it's going up a couple of days early. Both challenges end very soon.

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Except for the two stickers from Jolee, everything on the card came from Papertrey Ink. The patterned paper is an older one, and I cased this design for the card from one Lizzie Jones posted during the January release. The dies and sentiment are from the "Lucky" series of stamps and dies released that month.

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I wanted a bit of embellishment and was happy to find a sheet of St. Patrick's Day stickers in my stash. 

Hope your week is off to a good start. I've had lots of fun playing with stamps, so there'll be more card posts in the near future.

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Morocco Part 3

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This is the final post of scavenger hunt photos from Morocco. I have two more photos to post, but I took both of them in Chicago before we left. I'm planning to put all the photos from the hunt in a SmugMug album as I usually do. I don't feel any need to choose just one photo for a prompt, but like to see how many different ways I've managed to capture them. 

Number 18 was "A Signpost." This is probably the lowest quality photo that I kept of the trip because it was taken out of the bus window. Actually I took some really fine photos out the window with my iPhone, but try as I might, I could not seem to get a signpost in clear focus.

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"Detail," prompt #20, was photographed over and over. I loved the detail in the stucco work, the mosaics, and many of the crafts. So here are several. 

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Here a craftsman is carving a marble headstone.

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A close-up of one of the bronze doors in the King's Palace in Fes.

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A closer look. This one could also work for the next prompt:  "Handles"

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Here you see stucco work, mosaics, and calligraphy—all are hallmarks of Moroccan architecture.

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The beautiful woodworking on a minbar in Marrakesh. The minbar is the pulpit in a mosque where the iman stands to deliver the sermon. (This one was showcased in a room in a kasbah in Marrakesh.) 

Number 21 is "Handles," and I found a lot of those I liked as well. The first ones show my interest in worn and ancient doors and handles.

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Although hardly new, this one shows a little less wear and tear.

Although "Symmetry" (#22) is also a hallmark of Moroccan design, it was most apparent in the beautiful mosaic fountains. Almost every riad in the medinas had a beautiful fountain.

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Number 24 was "Steam or smoke." I have one for steam and one for smoke. 

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Mint tea being poured after our lunch at the Governor's House in Salé. We were told that it is traditionally (and almost always in our daily experience) poured from a height so that a foam head appears on the top of the tea. If no head appears, it means you are being served old tea. Mint tea is a symbol of hospitality, and it is considered rude to refuse it. In my reading before the trip, it was noted that it is usually quite sweet, but we were always offered mint tea, with or without sugar. The beautiful glasses were almost always filled with fresh mint before the tea was poured. I became quite fond of it. At some hotels we were greeted with trays of mint tea, and in both of the rug cooperatives we visited, tea was served prior to a talk on the rugs.

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Here spices are being roasted in a souk in Marrakesh.

The last prompt (#25) was "a peek inside." Until we reached Casablanca, a peek inside was all we could see of a mosque. Unlike Istanbul, where all the mosques were open to non-Muslims during times when there was no worship service, in Morocco, only the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is open to non-Muslims.

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One of the most beautiful mosques we peeked into. This one was in Rissani, Morocco.

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A peek into a room in a ksar in Rissani. A ksar was (is) a fortified castle, and many ancient ones exist in Morocco. Most are in a state of disrepair, and there are very few Moroccans living in one. This one was in terrible condition except for a very few rooms. One family was still living here. A woman opened the door to one of the rooms, and two goats stuck their heads out!

Someone commented that the scavenger hunt seemed made for my trip to Morocco, and indeed it did. There are a few more photos to share, perhaps, but these scavenger hunt finds give a good flavor of what we experienced on our tour. 

Take Three Thursday: WSH Heart

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I'm joining Mary-Lou for her Take Three Thursday meme with three choices for #23:  "A Heart," all found on our trip to Morocco.

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Tracy spotted this one on a tomb in the Fes Mellah (Jewish Quarter). Notice the French rather than Arabic. The French held a protectorate in Morocco from 1912-1955. They are responsible for building much of the modern parts of the main cities in Morocco, and French is still spoken by many Moroccans. The French influence is still felt throughout the country. In addition to the public schools, there are both French and American schools. These are private and lessons are taught in French or English, respectively. The two official languages in Morocco are Arabic and Berber. The Berbers represent nearly a third of Moroccans, but their language did not become one of Morocco's official languages until 2016.

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This was one of the walls in the restaurant in Fes where we stayed, and had one of the best meals on the tour—a sea bass tagine.

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I took several photos of these two storks in their nest, and truthfully, didn't notice that their heads formed a heart until I uploaded the photo.

I still have six more prompts for the Winter Scavenger Hunt to share, and will be back with those in the next day or two.

 

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Morocco Part 2

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In the Making, prompt #9, was also an easy one to find in Morocco. In the medinas of Fes and Marrakesh we saw many, many craftsmen and women in the process of making. Here are a few:

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This woman was making sheets of phyllo. She'd spoon a bit of the dough on the hot griddle, pat it flat with her bare hands, and place it on the pile to the right.

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Hand painting pottery in Fes.

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The brush being used here is fascinating.

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Hand hammering copper pots.

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Polishing the copper ware.

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Weaving with agave silk. They strip the leaves of the agave plant, die the "threads" and weave it into scarves, tablecloths, and other linens.

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The women in this shop embroider without a pattern, "from their imagination," the owner told us. The underside of their work is as perfect as the top.

The photo for Having Fun, the tenth prompt, happened in the weaving shop. Without being asked, both Tracy and I were wrapped in turbans, as well as a third member of our group. All of the wraps were different, and used for different purposes.

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Stationery was the twelfth prompt. I snapped a photo of the stationery folder at our hotel in Fes.

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I posted photos for "A line of . . ." here. Although I've also posted some photos of Volubilis for the February 5 in 5 meme, here are a couple more that work for both "Stones" (#14) and a "Sense of History" (#16).

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"Many" (#17) was also easy to find in the souks of the medinas.

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The copper souk near the craftsmen shown above for "In the Making."

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Leather shoes. I bought a red pair for about $10 which I intend to use as slippers when I visit friends who prefer you to leave your shoes at the door.

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Lanterns of all types and sizes.

And although out of order, I'll finish for today with #19, "A pair of . . ."

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See above.

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This board with pairs of Moroccan shoes (babouches) was hanging in the lobby of our hotel in Marrakesh.

 

 

 

 

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Photos from Morocco

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Today is the first post to share the photos I found for the Winter Scavenger Hunt while we were in Morocco. There are multiples for some prompts, but I thought it would be a good way to share some of our trip.

Men at Work is the first prompt. We saw many, many men at work, but the most arduous jobs, in my opinion, were those in the tannery in Fes. These men work hour after hour, day after day, in very unpleasant working conditions. When we were in Fes, it was quite cold, and most of us were bundled up. These men were standing in huge vats of dyes, and working out in the open.

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The second prompt is Luggage. One advantage of being on a tour is that our large suitcases were taken from our rooms to the bus. We took care of hand luggage (in our case, backpacks). Nothing was loaded on the bus until you arrived and indicated that all your luggage had arrived.

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Domestic Trivia is the next prompt. On our way to the dunes to see the sunset, we stopped at a nomads' camp in the desert. I felt like it was intrusive to take photographs, but our guide said we should feel free as he provides them with some income in exchange for our visit. One of the women was making a rug on a loom. Many of the rugs are used by the nomads themselves, but others are sold to rug cooperatives, two of which we visited while we were in Morocco. 

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A Winter's Tale is prompt #3. When we were leaving Fes to travel south to Erfoud, there had been an unusual amount of snow. The night before it was uncertain whether any of the passes over the Atlas Mountains would be open. In the end, one of the two roads was open. When we got about halfway to the pass, we were stopped and had to join a caravan of vehicles waiting to go over the mountain. The plows were clearing the road, and the road was not wide enough for the plows and the larger vehicles, like our bus.

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Prompt #5, Passengers, was an easy one. I could have taken any number of photos in the airports or on our bus. 

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I failed to get a photo from our trip for #6, Wrapping Paper, but I have one that I'll post at the end of the hunt. Number 7 is On the Water. Although both Rabat and Casablanca are on the Atlantic Ocean, it wasn't until our last day of the trip that I saw enough of the ocean to get a good photo. We had lunch on the harbor on our last day.

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Prompt #8 is Silver, and again, there were many opportunities to take photos, and I have many. This one is a set of perfume holders in the governor's home in Salé where we had lunch on our first day in Rabat. We saw similar silver vessels used other times to sprinkle rose water on your hands as a way of greeting.

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I've divided up the prompts into three posts, so I'll be back soon with the next installment.

 

Take Three Thursday and Winter Scavenger Hunt

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When we left for Morocco, I thought I would try to find each item on the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt on our trip. In fact, I did find every one of them, but failed to take a picture of one—wrapping paper. I bought a dress for Hannah in a wonderful shop in Marrakesh run by disabled Moroccan women who use their profits to provide health care and preschool education for their children. Their handmade clothing and home accessories were beautiful, and they wrapped Hannah's gift and tied it with a bow (another item on the list.) I gave the gift to Hannah, however, without taking a photo of the package.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting the photos for the scavenger hunt that I found in Morocco since the end of the hunt is coming soon. For today, I have three photos to link to Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday meme. All were taken on the day of our trek to the  Sahara Desert and are for item #13 A line of . . . Camels!

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(This photo took the most courage. I was on one of these camels, and had to let go of the reins long enough to extract my phone from my pocket!)

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Happy Birthday, Matt!

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Matt turned 35 today. How that is possible is amazing not only to me, but to him as well. We were there for a birthday dinner of pizza, and his favorite, a Wegman's chocolate chip cookie cake. The two older girls were anxious to help Dad blow out his candles.

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Here's his birthday card. 

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The three circles were die cut from silver and gray cardstock and then stamped with images from Papertrey Ink's "Initial Sentiments: Birthday." The large initial stamp was embossed in silver, and the tiny star was die cut from Smoky Shadow cardstock with the "Holiday Shapes" die from Simon Says. Then the circles were arranged on a rectangle die cut with the "Stitched Rectangle" die, also Simon Says, and adhered to a card made from Fog cardstock.

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Happy Birthday, Matt! Here's to a great year ahead. I'm linking this card up to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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February Papertrey Ink Blog Hop . . . and Make It Monday Challenge

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I loved Laurie Schmidlin's Make It Monday post this week where she shared three cards with framed sentiments. When I looked at the February Blog Hop Challenge, I thought I could combine the two challenges. Here's the cute photo inspiration for the blog hop; just perfect for an Easter card.

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I love the glass bunny at the top of this table decoration, and thought I might be able to recreate that with vellum, but it just didn't work well. In the end, I used a piece of polka-dot vellum over a white bunny with the eye dotted with a Sakura Glaze black pen.

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I used the same dies Laurie used for her first card on MIM, from the "A2 Scalloped" die set. The bunny, eggs, and flowers are all from the "Bunny Blessing" set. The flowers were die cut from some watercolored scraps in my scrap box, and the eggs stamped with Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, and Bright Buttercup. The grass is a Jolee's product that I luckily had in my stash.

 

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I didn't have a pom-pom small enough for the bunny's tail so I trimmed a larger one. It's a little fluffier, but it looks like it will hold up. 

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The last addition was a few rainstones. Off to link up with Make It Monday, and to check out all the inspiration at Papertrey Ink's blog hop.

 

Take Three Thursday: Storks

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We're home. It was a fabulous trip, and it far exceeded our expectations. Morocco is a country of great contrasts in geography, and incredibly rich in history and culture. I'm just beginning to sort through the 1500 photos I took over two weeks time. Granted many are duplicates, and many are easily tossed, but it's going to take awhile to pare them down to a reasonable number to keep and print. I aim for about 100-150, although I'll keep more than that for memories sake.

I thought I might use Mary-Lou's meme, Take Three Thursday, to share a few isolated photos over the next few weeks. When I was growing up, one of my favorite books was The Wheel on the School.  When I read that storks were frequently seen in Morocco, I was hoping to see one. It didn't take long. Our very first day in Rabat we visited the Chellah Kasbah, and there they were. 

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It rained most of the day in Rabat, but it didn't diminish our enjoyment. It made for pretty dull looking skies in the photos, however. 

It’s Valentine’s Day

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It's February 14th and Valentine's Day. Little did I know I'd be celebrating in Casablanca, Morocco this year! It's our last night here; we'll be heading back to Chicago tomorrow morning. I made sure to have all the valentines made before we left. All the grandchildren got books this year in addition to their cards. And all five cards were made with the same design, the same stamps and dies. The only variation was the individual stamp chosen and the patterned papers—all from my stash.

The first three have cute little critters from Simon Says "Cuddly Critters," attached with mini-Wobbly's. If you touch the critter, it wobbles back and forth. I've seen people photograph them as they wobble, but I was too lazy to get out the tripod, and couldn't get a sharp photo without it. The heart was die cut with MFT's "Stitched Hearts."

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Both little girls got very similar valentines, no wobblys—I've learned the hard way they'd be pulled right off! 

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Here's what the inside of the cards look like—colored in with Copics as were the critters.

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I also made valentines for Matt and Betsy, and Sarah and Adam, but in the rush to get ready to leave, I sealed them in envelopes before I took a photograph of them! I do have Tracy's to share. It might be one of my all-time favorite cards. I love the stamp (Simon Says "Center Cut Heart," and I love the color combination (PTI's Soft Stone and Pure Poppy).

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The stamp is an unusual one. The center heart pops out. You can stamp it and add it back in or leave it open for a sentiment. I embossed the larger part of the stamp in white on the Soft Stone cardstock, and embossed the center heart in black. I colored just the tiny center heart with a red Copic marker. 

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All that was left to do was mount it on a Pure Poppy card. I love the graphic design of this stamp, and have several more ideas for using it.

Hope you've had a Happy Heart's Day!

 

Recover!

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Masculine cards are often the hardest to come up with, and get well cards seem especially challenging. A good friend fell a few weeks ago, and had to have major surgery to one of his legs. The recovery is going to be long and hard. I remembered I had an older Memory Box stamp (from the days when you could only purchase wooden stamps) that I thought might work.

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I found a scrap of patterned paper that I fussy cut to paper piece the chair. Then I discovered that one of my newest stamp sets from Papertrey Ink, "Ways to Say: Get Well" had the absolutely perfect sentiment included. How lucky can you get?

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All that was left to do was to color the cup with a Copic marker. 

Butterfly Hope

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Awhile ago, a good friend loaned me her "Butterfly Hope" stamp set by Papertrey Ink. While I had it, and stamped a variety of butterflies and put them aside for a time when I needed a quick card. That time came last month when my friend's daughter was in the hospital prior to her heart transplant.

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I also had a stash of die cut "Horizontal Stripe Cover Plate" dies from a previous project. This one cut from Smoky Shadow was a nice contrast with the orange, yellow and black butterflies. 

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The sentiments in "The Skinny" fit perfectly between the die cut strips and are so versatile. Just a few black pearls from my long stockpiled Amuse pearls finished it off. I don't know what I'll do when I get to the end of those pearls! I have multiple sets in black and in red, and they are often just what I need.

Birthday Wishes

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Two of my best friends had January birthdays, and I created very similar cards for them.

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The beautiful stamp is Altenew's "Arabesque Medallion" stamp. Actually this is just half the stamp! I embossed it in gold, and then used Zig watercolor markers to color each one, choosing a redder color for the one on the left, and pink for the other. 

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The sentiment, Papertrey's "Banner Sentiments" was also embossed with gold. One card was adhered to a dark green textured paper in my stash (probably Bazzil) and the other to a Pink Hibiscus card. For once, I didn't think either card needed any further embellishment.

I've had this stamp for several months, and was glad to finally put it to use. I have more ideas for it, so you're sure to see it pop up again in a different form.