For Uncle Jack

My uncle is celebrating his 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest this August. Impressive, especially since he's been battling cancer as of late. Sadly, I won't be able to attend the celebration, as it is the day before the beginning of school for me. Our district considers it the "day after a vacation," and, basically, doesn't grant anyone a personal day. That means a dock day, which is 1/180th of our salary. That plus the travel would be a big economic burden on us.

Anyway, I made this card to send to him. I was inspired by this week's SCS Featured Stamper, artystamper (aka Julia). Her gallery has a lot of terrific ideas. Very clean. Take time to browse it. I decided to CASE her card, An inch of pitter patter.

I tell you, every time I use the Cuttlebug with my Nestabilities, I have to look up a tutorial. I can never recall how I should emboss. The tutorial I found was interesting, but different from what I had seen before. It worked, and that was the important part.

I had this all on PTI white, but I am continually confounded with embossing on the main piece of cardstock. The back of the card never makes it through unscathed. So, I cut it and matted it on silver metallic paper... and it was huge. I then had to see if I had any white 12 x 12 cardstock that would hold up a card. I found some Bazzill textured.

My other fun experience was with my Xyron. I swear I must have accidentally picked up a lamination refill, although it's worked OK on other things. I could not get it off of the image without separating the paper. It wanted to stick to it all. I finally thought this was not a bad plan, since I have sound the metallic pigment inks to fade over time. So, I just cut around the matting and left it on the top. It really makes for a sturdy card. Hopefully, it will help the silver to stay a bit longer.

Size: 4.25 x 6 inches

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Everyday Blessings

Paper: Papertrey Ink white, silver metallic, and Bazzill white

Ink: Encore Ultimate Metallic Silver

Other: Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval Scallop die with Cuttlebug