Catered and deconstructed: Thankful for You

The new challenge at Catered Crop is "Thank You Kindly".  As I was browsing the Pinterest board that Linda curates for each challenge, I noticed a "thankful" card which reminded me that I had a set in my new stash that I had gotten specifically to tell my nieces how thankful I am for them.

My brother and his family recently moved to a nearby suburb.  It was so easy to pop over last Sunday to watch the Denver Broncos football game together.  My 8-year old and 5-year old nieces spent the afternoon making bracelets and necklaces for me on their rainbow looms, or else dragging my 13-year old out to the trampoline.  They spent hours working on flips - hmmm, my guy was out sick from school yesterday with an upset stomach - I wonder if it's related?  In the next few weeks, I get to go to grandparent's day at their school (sadly, they have no living grandparents so I'm subbing) and to their Christmas pageants.

I love my nieces and have so much fun with them as it is so different from my world of teenage boys. The It's a Sign set from My Favorite Things seemed like it would be perfect for so many occasions!


I am using the current deconstructed sketch.  I thought the angled panel gave it a jaunty look.  I was thrilled when I found that bold and colorful leaf print in my stash for the tall panel (but the edge with the brand was cut off so I have no idea what it is!)

I'm sure everybody does this - but I wanted to share something in particular about the Pierced Rectangle die from My Favorite Things.  The die was a little too wide for the stamp.  So I just moved the die over and cut it a little narrower.  What makes the Pierced Rectangle die so nice is that the dots just click into place as you slide the die over.  It makes it very easy to line up and cut the narrow size!

The other thing that I have to share is that I have finally found truly white embossing powder.  I have a large variety of "white" embossing powders, but they are actually all off-white or cream.  As a CAS cardmaker, the little things matter - and using as much white cardstock as I do, the off-white powders look wrong. I have a bottle that I am hoarding, from a company that no longer exists, but as I am starting to see the bottom of the bottle, I ordered even more white embossing powder in the hopes that it was "white"!  And I found two that were!  They aren't unusual brands, just not the brands that I already had in my stash.  Hero Arts White Embossing Powder is white - yay!  But the even better find is Wow Opaque Bright White Super Fine Embossing Powder.  Because it is Super Fine, sentiments emboss beautifully (see my card!)

• Stamps: My Favorite Things Pure Innocence It's a Sign
• Paper: Stampin' Up Island Indigo and River Rock dsp, Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz, unknown dsp
• Ink: Memento Black and Copics, Versamark
• Miscellaneous: My Favorite Things Pierced Rectangle STAX, elements from Blueprints 1 die, Hemptique 10-lb white twine