It’s true. I do. I really do. Cross my heart, and pinky finger promise.
I wanted to make a card which was fun, but sweet. Not sickly sweet, and certainly not cute, but something which had a nod towards the inner child of a ‘bloke’. A man of years, but still a boy inside.
So I decided that the ‘Love you to the Moon and back’ sentiment sounded perfect … but instead of making the card a more serious ‘love you’, I made one which suggested a rocket …. going forth to the Moon, landing …. collecting moon and star-dust …. and then returning to Earth, spreading sparkly Moon dust as it flew through the atmosphere.
I began by hand painting the background on some watercolour paper, using a combination of purples, blues and white from my Kuretake watercolours. Once dry I embossed all around the edge with silver Tonic powder, which was meant to look like star-dust and moon dust.
I threw a few pinches of embossing powders over the painted background and then heated them slowly and gently so that they melted onto the watercolour background, and looked like twinkly stars in the sky.
Apart from the ‘happy birthday‘ sentiment (bottom right of the card), the stamps I used are from Altenew. But the happy birthday sentiment ….well that came from my ‘sentiment stamps draw’. I cannot remember who the maker was. I just knew that I wanted swirly writing, which might look like the trail of a rocket as it swooshed and swooped and looped the loop through the heavens, and that stamp fitted the bill perfectly.
The Moon is stamped using two stamps, and two different coloured inks, and then using an embossing pen I ‘coloured’ in some areas and then embossed it in Tonic Silver powder.
I used the embossing pen to add a Moon dust trail to the ‘happy birthday’ sentiment. The words themselves were stamped and firstly embossed in black, then stamped over again, but this time I stamped slightly ‘off’ from the first stamp so that just tiny bits of the black (meant to look like a sooty residue) peeped from behind the silver.
I have no idea if space ships leave a sooty trail behind them, but the idea was ticklish to me so I went with it. I loved the silver over the top of it because it kind of pushed the sentiment into the whole picture. Instead of it standing out and shouting, it was just there …. part of the whole moon dust/star shine thing.
And that, as I am want to say, … is all there was to it!
I trust you are well and that nothing is wonky in your world. Although … having said that I know that some of you are having a bit of a ‘wonky’ time at the moment. Please know that I think of you often, and each time I do, I push a prayer out of my heart and head, and send it heaven bound, asking for help to be given to you.
There are some of you who are missing family members, and I know how difficult that can be to deal with the trauma of losing someone. My thoughts are with you, and I send you my love.
One of our blogging friends suffered a stroke just a few weeks ago, while she was off on her holibobs with her husband. There was no warning, nothing odd going on, when suddenly… out of the blue… a stroke happened while she was sat there in the car. Thankfully she wasn’t driving the car at the time.
I know that there are some blogging friends who suffer with depression, for whatever reason(s), and having a family member who suffers with this, I know only too well how difficult life and times can be because of that.
And there are more … lots of people, who have worries of one sort of another. A difficult time. Some difficulty that they are experiencing. Please know that I’m thinking about you. About you all. I may not know you personally, but I know you by heart. By the words you type on your keypad. And because of that I’ve come to care.
You … reading right now. I care about you. I may not always comment on your blog(s), but it’s not because I don’t care. Sometimes I just run out of words. Sometimes I think how grand or brilliant you are. Sometimes I sit here on my side of the computer and smile, giggle, laugh. And sometimes I cry.
But then … there are those of you who are SO amazingly talented that I just sit here wondering how I can possibly tell you how brilliant you are without sounding like I want to stalk you; or those of you who I want to kiss all over the face, leaving visible lipstick marks, for making me laugh like a drain.
Y’know … you’re all uniquely, amazingly, incredibly wonderful. I’m SO so glad that I began blogging, for I’ve found a world of the most fascinating, beautiful people who I never knew existed. Crumbs …. how did I ever get along without you all? My life is so busy now, keeping up with you, sharing your days, getting to know you, your families, your ‘stuff’. I have no idea what on earth I did before blogging. I must have had hours wasted, doing nothing at all!
Blogging really is a magical thing.
So … thank you. Thank you for being the most amazing person. Thank you for keeping me reading, entertained, teaching me, and giving me something truly extraordinary. What would I do without you.? [shakes head while smiling to self]. I’d be terribly bored, that’s for sure!
I am so very blessed. Thank you. Each and every one of you.
Have an incredible day. Be good to yourself…. and to everyone else you meet.
Much love from me in my corner to you in yours. ~
