Welcome to YOU and ME!!

Perhaps it is time for me to join the "age of technology" and make it easier to post my Magnolia cards for all to see and critique. I must admit that I much prefer cutting and glueing to writing all about it--I'm sure I will have to ask the experts for proper terminology to use when explaining myself --so hopefully you all will bear with me. If you ever have questions, please don't fail to ask me for explanation or clarification. I would love to hear from you!!

I discovered stamping and cardmaking this past November so I am very much a neophyte in this arena. On my wanderings around the internet I found myself in the Magnolia-licious Yahoo site and was welcomed to the Land of Magnolia Addiction by all the members! I met my "Magnolia Mentor" who sent me the first images I had ever had and I began coloring them and glueing them into some semblance of a card. With her help and constant support and confidence, I now know the difference between Elmer's glue and Scor-Tape, the difference between notebook paper and Bazzill cardstock, and certainly the difference between Crayolas and Copics, I think. As a matter of fact the very first card I EVER made was a thank you note to her in December and which is in my Yahoo album.

Having made that first card I was truly in love with those cute little round faces with no mouths and was discovering the unique characteristics of Copic markers. I would never have believed that at this point in my life that I would be so taken with coloring paperdolls!! But like many of you, there are never enough Maggies no matter if you have them ALL!! I am a retired college professor so maybe that explains my eccentricities...I LOVE PAPER AND COLORING IMPLEMENTS!! When shopping, the very first place I have always gone is the School Supplies section...smile...and now on the cardmaking adventure, I find myself looking in faraway and strange places for unique items and ideas to use on my cards...antique shops, frou-frou shops, hardware stores, junque shops...etc.

For my very first blog I will share with you a little bit more about my most successful as well as my latest card in my SCS gallery...GOSH it had 30 comments and favorited by almost 20!!!! I will attempt for the first time to give you a bit more detail on this Magnolia cutie, Tilda With Hat from The Love Collection 2009 which is available at Magnolia-licious. A number of you have asked if I would walk you through how I make cards so this is my first attempt. The cardstock I used is Bazzill and all of the DP is actually a set of wrapping papers that I adhered to the pink and green cardstock with Scor-Tape (that stuff is magical!!!) Admittedly, I am a paper freak and am so taken by unique and out of the ordinary papers that usually I can't even remember where I bought paper, much less the name of it. I do order alot of paper from Europe at the web stores since the closest LSS is about 20 miles away. After making all of the major portions of the card (both inside and outside) I stitched around all backgrounds in gold metallic thread on my Janome mini.

I then used a pre-printed wreath from FlowerSoft (Edwardian Elegance - Ovals),which I trimmed and cut out, and mixed several shades of the FlowerSoft to match the colors in the DP, placing it in a particular pattern to look like trailing roses. I have discovered that rarely can I use FlowerSoft just as it arrives in the jars--I have to mix some together to get the right shades. After the glue was dry I selected a tiny silk ribbon and starting at the top and glue-tacked it around the wreath (using popsicle sticks as lifters) to the point where I wanted little Tilda to sit...I also added a length of the same tiny ribbon as Tilda's perch. I colored Tilda with Copics, popped her up on dimensionals, and added her to the wreath. I then placed a wider contrasting ribbon across the card and added the bow with rose to match the roses in the DP and placed the wreath, popped up on dimensionals, on top of that ribbon...To finish the front I added flat-backed pearls in the corners.

On the inside, again I used papers from the wrapping paper set, stitched both sides with gold metallic thread, cut yet another piece of wrapping paper for the oval nestie for a place to jot a note and placed the same kind of ribbon on the other side fancied up a bit with a pearl and sparkle flower. Again, pearls on all the corners.. Voila!! A card is born!!! Gosh, that was easier and faster to write about than to make the card!! I must be way too slow and deliberate when I make a card, as it certainly takes me a LONG time...sigh

Just a couple of notes I will make: My cards are usually quite a number of layers of matting as well as layers on my images. I tend to put as much time on the insides of my cards as I do on the outside. This may or may not be your preference as well. I tend to believe that design is a very personal matter and I am sure there are many who would not like to pay the extra postage to mail my kind of card and detest the layering and ditzy things I add to my cards!! I am such an enigma that I can never decide when I am finished with a card....

I hope this has been helpful to you as you try to figure out the madness of my cardmaking...and I welcome you to join me on my NEW adventure in Cyberia!!