Thank you all SO VERY MUCH for the well wishes, healing thoughts and prayers! I truly apologize for the HUGE gap in time with my communication. I feel that the surgery went well, but it will be some time before I really know the outcome. I am feeling very optimistic being I am getting around extremely well considering everything they did, but it takes the bone 9-12 months to heal and so I will not know for at least another 3 months whether or not they were successful in the reshaping of my femoral head (the bone that fits into the hip socket). Sitting (and walking any length) are still a little difficult (OK, so a lot difficult some days Ü) my behind feels like it is on fire if I sit for too long - LOL and so I have been trying to treat my body "gently" in order to maximize the healing in these first weeks.
It has also been a bit of a challenge for me to have my creative "stuff" separate from my office. I am at the mercy of my DH's schedule right now in getting my "studio" put together at my office. I will then have all my creative supplies moved down there as well and thus will be able to be a lot more efficient. When this is completed I will take photographs and share them with you. I have put quite a bit of thought into the organization of this space and so I hope that everything will have a spot so that I don't waste time looking for stuff - LOL! You know how that goes - we accumulate things to try and then they don't get a home, so we then can't find it when we want to use it :D Well hopefully the storage solutions I am trying will rectify that. J.J. will be working like a trooper this week to get all that IKEA furniture put together and then move my "stuff", so hopefully I will be up and running (well, not literally LOL) by next week.
Now on with the creative end of this post :D
When creating this month's stamp of the month packet I wanted it to be versatile enough to be used for the upcoming month's events. With Father's Day and Fourth of July right around the corner, and it starting to feel a lot more like summertime, grilling and outdoor cookouts are much more on my mind. I also wanted to showcase a fun layout that would incorporate Inchies in to it, thus I picked the IB Hot Dog and IB Hamburger as my focal point.
I stamped these images directly on the White Inchie Squares using Memento Ink. One of the things I had noticed when I stamped on these dense Inchie Squares with any of the other inks I have been using with Copic markers I have always needed to heat set it. So I wanted to try the newest Tsukineko ink with the Copic markers. I must say that I am truly taken with these! I did not have to heat set! I will be carrying these new inks in my store when I get around to being able to place an order, because I was so impressed.
I apologize for not being able to recal all the Copic colors that I used on my Hot Dog and Hamburger. If you are in need of the colors please post below and I will pull them back out and do my best to figure out which colors I used. Everything happened in such a hurry the end of last month and with surgery on May 2nd my life just started spinning out of control - uggh!
The black square was then cut to the size of 1 5/8" wide by 3 1/4" high. I mounted the white Inchie squares, leaving a gap in the center. I then place my two red brads to add some punch in that center.
There were a number of phrases I thought about using, but being I wanted to use this as a Father's Day card I thought the phrase "What's cookin' good lookin'?" would be fun. I printed it out in Word on a sheet of paper. I then cut out my Double Ended Tag. I affixed it using a temporary adhesive directly over the printed words on my sheet of paper and sent it back through the printer again. When I can't find the stamp I would like to use, this is a wonderful way to be able to say whatever I would like.) I then placed my tag back into the die and embossed it.
Next I mounted my tag by running the ribbon through it, putting adhesive on the back and mounting it on my card front. I then mounted the Inchie squares panel and ended by adding a little piercing to give the card front some additional texture.
Thank you all so much for your patience with me during this time. I am most definitely looking forwards to being back on a more consistent basis with more creative stimulation soon!!!
