You're a gem

Hello everyone,
I'm back for a teensy post today.  Well not so teensy.  This one took me a little while to make.  The other day Kathy and I were commenting why no one ever makes mandalas/medallions.  Probably due to a lot of work!  But they're so worth it.  So keeping this in mind, I sat down yesterday after a long hard week and wondered what sort of card can I make today?  Well, my mind is highly overactive right now due to work stuff going on and making a medallion is a perfect treatment to calm that active mind. I'm sure you've seen those coloring books with mandalas out there.  The reason is because working with mandalas, whether coloring in or making them, is an excellent way to learn to focus and to help calm that overactive mind down.  This is why it's such a great activity for kids with ADHD.   Anyway, I'm trying to reach some very intense deadlines which has caused me to overwork so much that I've forgotten to eat (and I can tell you this has never happened to me before) and I can't even sleep soundly.

This truly was great...now I'm so relaxed I don't want to do any work! LOL.  So this mandala or medallion, whichever you want to call it, is created with ONE Holly Berry Stamp.  Are you intrigued?  Check out a wide assortment of Holly Berries.  This is actually one of the original ways Kathy and I learned to stamp...so making these mandalas holds a special place in our hearts and we do them often.  We found a ton of them when we took a visit to the stamp store in Branson, Unique Impressions.   Unfortunately, this store is no more in existence...a darn shame if you ask me!  The late Outlines also had these.

I've attached a closeup...as you can see this is one stamp just cut numerous amounts of times and stacked up one on top of the other.  This is one creation that actually works much better with embossing powder (in my example, I used silver).  Although the photograph really doesn't do it justice, it is actually quite sparkly because I've attached Swarovski crystals!  The only little faux pas I've made is made the sentiment crooked!  I hate when that happens.  On top of that, I cut the card wrong too...but you can't really tell that from here.  LOL (The back is shorter than the front).  I'm sure Kathy is laughing her head off right now...so typical when I'm bogged down with work!  This is what happens when you don't stamp all week!

Well I hope you enjoyed this card.  I hope to be back more this week.  Have a good Sunday and thanks for stopping by.  Margaret

Stamp:  Holly Berry
Accessories: Extra large spellbinders, Swarovski crystals, Embossing powder, Stickles

Happy Birthday Mom, and Mandala fest

Hello dear readers,
I have been ON A ROLL with cardmaking this week and have loved every second of it.  Today, I am posting a card I made last night for my mother's 66th birthday in a week and a half.  This is an Outlines stamp and a Cheery Lynn Diecut framing the stamp.  I popped out one of the flowers, its center, and the center of the yellow flower.  All were colored using Copics. You may not see it from this photo, but the card is super sparkly with lots of glitter and svarovski crystals (Details below). I think they still have the stamp available on their website.  As you may know, Outlines is closing their doors.  I am so sad over this as this was the stamp company that was one of the first few which hooked me into stamping.  I just adore their mandalas, one of which I'm posting below the card.  Unfortunately, I believe they're sold out of most of them.

Here you can see the parts that I cut away separately and popped up on foam tape.  I like to use the 3M foam.  Very strong adhesion.

The photo doesn't do it justice but I tried to capture some of the bling.  There are some Svarovski crystals on the pink and green flowers.

Now, onto part II.  As a tribute to with Outlines, I'm posting a mandala I made last year with one of their Blossom series stamps.  All papers were embossed card stock, with lots and lots of Svarovski crystals.  The pieces are adhered with 3M foam tape.  Kathy discovered that this tape provided the best adhesion and she's right!  I made numerous mandalas using the regular scrapbooking pop up foam circles, and they all fell apart after a year.  These just stick forever.  When you mount one of these in a shadow box, the bling just sparkles!  I hope Kathy posts some of her Mandalas because she does an awesome job of them.  In fact, that's who got me hooked on it!  And she uses these teeny tiny Svarovski's which are very hard to adhere -- so I'm just saying, her mandalas are a work of art!

Blossom Series stamp from Outlines Rubber Stamp Company.  Bling is all Svarovski Crystals.  White embossing powder.  All pieces attached with 3M foam tape.

Here you can see the different layers

This is another mandala, but here I used a medallion from Holly Berry Stamps.  If you have never heard of them, you must check them out...their medallions are GORGEOUS!  I don't think this one is in production anymore because i couldn't find it on their website, but as you can see they're very intricate.  There's also lots of opportunities to glitter them up.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful Friday. -- Margaret