Retirement--the New Adventure

Hidy Ho, crafty peeps!

Short post today.

Yesterday I went to a Beltane/Cross-Quarter party hosted by a dear family friend, Fran.

Don't worry...I didn't know what that was either.

Beltane is basically the Gaelic May Day celebration. It falls halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. It marks the beginning of the summer season (even though, technically, summer doesn't start until June 21).

As far as I can tell, people used to burn a lot of stuff in huge bonfires because they thought the flames, smoke, and ashes had special powers of protection. They'd walk around the fires and dance around the fires...and they'd lead their cows around the fires. It also has something to do with driving cattle to summer pasture lands.

So, I surmise it is all about cows, smoke, and fire...and hanging out.

Here, in Texas, we know all about that.

We call that a barbecue.

This party was also a retirement party for Fran's roommate, Teresa. Teresa was a judge in the criminal courts here in Dallas. Now there's a tough job. The Dallas Observer (a local newspaper) wrote a very nice little article about her in 2009. Here's what it said:

     "If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being charged with a petty crime and without sufficient funds to pay your debt to society, you'd be damn lucky if you landed in the courtroom of Teresa Tolle. A former nun, Tolle wears her compassion on her robe and is willing to buck the district attorney's standard plea recommendations for fines, and even the length of probationary periods, in order to accommodate financial hardship. Needless to say, she is adored by the criminal bar, though prosecutors may worry that her standard of proof is different from theirs. But in a job in which seeing humanity's masses daily offer lame excuses for conduct that ranges from the cruel to the idiotic to the benign, she manages to care. And that says something."

I made this card to celebrate her retirement. She's a lovely lady with a wry sense of humor (as I found out last night at the party). I wanted her card to be light, breezy, and fun.

The inside reads: 

Retirement

only means

it's time

for a new

Adventure!

I looked at DOZENS of vintage camping trailers on Google for inspiration on my design. I decided on an egg-shaped trailer (perhaps because Easter was here not too long ago).

I paper-pieced this one using various dies and punches along with hand trimming. While making this card, I realized that a lot of my crafting "tools" are so old, that a majority of them have been retired or discontinued.

How sad.

They may be retired, but they still work ALL THE TIME in my studio. Yes, my studio is a sweat shop for discontinued papercrafting supplies. And I work them like dogs. No pay....long hours. Thank goodness they aren't union-ized.

The embossing folder I used for the background is a retired Stampin' Up folder that I love.

The oval and circle dies I used for the trailer are from Spellbinders...they're REALLY old. In fact, they're two of their original nested dies long before they had named them "Nestabilities".

The clouds are from an Elizabeth Craft die, and the texture on the clouds is from an ancient embossing folder from Cuttlebug.

The grass is a Martha Stewart border punch (which they still make...YAY).

It's a very simple card (for me), but I think it's cute as a bug.