Runs with Scissors

Hello, friends. The coughing, sneezing and whining are finished and I have put on my running shoes and picked up my scissors once again. My thanks to Cooper for doing such a fine job sharing his Christmas experience with you last week. He has read all the comments and is basking in the praise. I’m a bit worried that Penny Black Headquarters may decide that Cooper is the more talented and should be the permanent host of Runs with Scissors. I may have to remind them that he does not have opposable thumbs and he needs my help with the cutting and pasting.

Speaking of opposable thumbs, I’ve put mine to work this week using the Love and Roses release to make more Valentines. It is a joy to work with hearts, butterflies and flowers along with adorably cute images. I found myself not even missing Snowy this week.

This Butterfly Heart Pop Out is among my favorite Penny Black dies. What a beautiful combination of a heart and butterflies! Here I’ve used the Snowflake Stitch Frame for my base. I love coloring white cardstock with my inks and blender. Jill Foster has a video demonstrating the best way to blend inks smoothly. As Jill says, there is more depth and dimension to the color than you would get with preprinted colored cardstock. Blending inks onto white cardstock is worth the extra time.

This adorable Bubble Heart image is so fun to color with markers. I love adding that Heart String die cut to available space on my Valentines. These sweeties remind me of Evelyn and Jack who are about this age. Since they are in charge of bringing the mail into the house and sorting it, I will be putting this in the mail as a surprise for them to find.

Designer paper is always a good background for diecuts. I’ve used the Love and Roses die set and added a heart from the Sweet Heart die set. I colored the heart and flowers using Distress inks and a blending tool. Valentines are the perfect place to showcase those pretty papers you’ve been hoarding. You can not go wrong adding hearts and flowers to your love.

Do It Yourself

When I met Mr. RWS more than thrity years ago, there were many reasons to love him. I confess that the day he showed up with his toolbox and some power tools my feelings were confirmed: he would make the perfect husband.

At the time we met, I owned a one hundred year old home and had been a single mom for a while. My do it yourself skills were limited to tightening an occasional loose screw and using duct tape as needed.

Shortly after we married, Mr. RWS tackled the drafty windows, the rotten porch boards, and the deteriorating shower surround of that old house and when that was done, he even built us a picnic table.

We tackled updating and remodeling several homes over the years, including installing ceramic floors and kitchen cupboards. Mr. RWS did all the painting and I tackled the wallpaper stripping. We worked well as a team and always left a house in better shape than we found it.

Over the years we have found ourselves less enthusiastic about “do it yourself”, instead opting for “call someone else”. This past couple of years, especially, we relied on professionals to install the new hot water heater, build a new gate to the back yard, repair the garage door springs and replace the attic pull down stairs. We recognized, finally, that there were some jobs best left to others. I need to insert here that one of us recognized that need much sooner than the other.

Getting conked on the head while attempting to hold up the pull down attic stairs while Mr. RWS was in the attic banging on the hardware solidified my decision that our do it yourself days were over. Sometimes a good conk on the head is all it takes to clarify a situation!

My beloved mailbox

I’ve written before about our mailbox. It symbolizes the gratitude I have for receiving mail every day. During our full time RV’ing years, we received mail approximately every ten days and I’ve not taken daily mail delivery for granted since.

Sadly, last week, the wooden post holding up our mailbox surrendered to the wood rot that had eaten through its base. (The car barely nudged it, I swear!)   Down went the mailbox! The mail carrier was due in our neighborhood within the hour; not enough time to purchase and install a new post. We had to find some way to keep that mailbox at the curb.

Necessity is the mother of invention

I am embarrassed to admit, this was my idea. The base is a step stool Mr. RWS rescued from the neighbor’s curb where it had been put with the trash. He repaired the bottom step and declared it “perfectly good”. Duct tape was briefly considered to hold the mail box in place, until I realized bungee cords would work and would leave no damage or sticky residue behind.

Thankfully, this disaster only remained in front of our house for 48 hours, the time it took for us to shop for and install a new post on which to mount the black metal box. Time was also spent convincing Mr. RWS that this was not an acceptable permanent solution.

The shopping became more complex than one would imagine as posts and mail boxes range in price from $30 up to $400 and more! We also had to find a way to install the post without the use of a posthole digger into frozen ground.

I would show you a photo of the new post, but it is almost as pathetic as the “do it yourself” mail box shown above. (It does not fall into the $400 category). It is too cold to paint and we can’t mount the house numbers until after the post is painted. The new cedar post may be ugly, but it is not nearly as outrageous as our temporary system. And cars no longer stop to gawk as they drive by.

Yes, since this seems to be the best we can do lately, it is good we are out of the “do it yourself” mode.

Here I’ve used colored cardstock along with three dies to make a quick and easy and pretty Valentine. The Heart Drops die makes a great background for any die or image you choose to add. If you are sending many Valentines, this is an easy to make, assembly line fashion, card. The Heart Drops diecut would be at home on wedding and anniversary cards, too.

The kraft, brown and pink color combination I used in this card reminds me of an ice cream sundae, which should make any guy happy. That kitty from the So Loved set is irresistible and fun to color. The Love and Roses release includes enough images and dies to make Valentines, and other “share the love” cards that please everyone from little kiddles to couples, to friends, and to all the men and women in our lives.

This time, it is kraft and white, another good color combo for the men. I’ve filled in some of the blank space on the kraft base with the leaf image from the Hope Shines transparent set. The Heart Butterflies have attached themselves to a strip of gingham ribbon.

Cooper has set aside his writing career for now and is spending more time with one of his favorite toys. It’s a hedgehog with a duck call implanted instead of a typical squeaker. The sound surprises him every time he manages to bite the hedgy hard enough.

Once again, my time in the Penny Black studio is up. I need to do a quick clean up and put away and then I will be off to the Penny Circle Flickr Gallery to enjoy the cards I find there. I appreciate all the good wishes you sent while I was dealing with my Christmas cold. It will be a few weeks, I suppose, before Cooper’s head returns to normal size after all the positive comments. Little does he know that I am planning to find a way for him to take over the vacuuming and dusting since he’s shown such willingness to help.

Ooops! I almost forgot to stow the scissors!

Shop for today’s featured Penny Black supplies

Card No. 1: 51-132 Flights of Fancy, 51-284 Filled with Love, 51-291 Butterfly Heart Pop Out, 51-315 Snowflake Stitch Frame

Card No. 2: 30-458 Heart You, 40-272 Bubble Heart, 51-022 Heart String

Card No. 3: 51-184 Sweet Heart, 51-397 Antique Frame, 51-405 Love and Roses, 80-009 Painted Blossoms

Card No. 4: 51-022 Heart String, 51-183 True Love, 51-298 Heart Drops

Card No. 5: 30-457 So Loved, 51-292 Just For You, 51-397 Antique Frame

Card No. 6: 30-455 Smitten, 30-432 Hope Shines, 51-297 Heart Butterfly