Custom retirement card: Summer Mini Sneak Preview!

It's a great morning--my son slept for more than 14 hours last night without a peep, woke up completely dry, ate a good breakfast (yippie, skippie!!) and has been in a cheerful mood all morning. Will wonders never cease? We went to Trader Joe's this morning for our weekly grocery run and he even did fine there. He is puttering around with his toys in the living room listening to Chicago's Greatest Hits--I used to have that album in LP format and kind of miss my big ol' record player at times. It fell victim to my move to Russia eight years ago and I couldn't justify replacing it when I moved back to the States. There was something viscerally satisfying about putting the needle down on the record and hearing the little scratchy pops as the table started turning. I miss 8 tracks too--we had a player in our station wagon growing up and I always think of them when I listen to Mac Davis or Gordon Lightfoot or Seals and Crofts. Ever listen to Honeysuckle Magic or Burnin' Thing? Classics. I can't find a embeddable version of either of those on the web, but here is his version of In the Ghetto (love it--this version is better than Elvis'):

I was very slow to adopt CDs and am being very pokey about giving them up for mp3s now. Yes, I know, I'm a peaceful Luddite.


My sister called me earlier this week to ask me to make her a customized retirement card for her husband's co-workers. I had just received my pre-order Elements of Style stamp set (available May 1st in the summer mini!) and knew exactly what I wanted to do. CASE Michelle Zindorf, of course! I'd been eying the set since samples starting showing up on the blogs in January after Leadership, when attendees received the set for free, but was sitting on the fence about it until I saw Michelle's card. Then I knew I definitely wanted the set! It is so versatile--you can use the big flower stamp as a toile background or as the center piece of your card or project, and the flourish stamp is a lovely accent. The hummingbird had to grow on me, as I'm not much of a "bird person", but I like him now too. And, I'm proud to say, after a long period on the outs, that my brayer and I are now officially on good terms. Possibly even BFF terms. :)

Supplies:
Old Olive smooth and textured, bashful blue, very vanilla cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Jet black staz-on, blush blossom marker, Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue inks, basic black, certainly celery, always artichoke markers
stamp-a-ma-jig
white gel pen
sponges, brayer
large oval punch, large circle die cut