Divertimento

Divertimento is a musical genre with most examples from the 18th century. The mood is lighthearted and generally composed for a small ensemble. It was the style of music I listened to (Mozart) while crafting this tag (hence the name of my post) and it seems to suit this fashionable lady.

The style of her "leg of mutton" sleeves dates from the 1840's and some were so large it was necessary to turn sideways to get through a door. If you'd like to see more examples, here's a link.

The background for the tag was made from an ivory sheet of mulberry paper that was dry embossed (Roses) and tinted with inks and paint. The fence and flowers are die-cuts (Gothic Gate and Flower Jar).

I cut the flowers from multi-color paper (Lavinia Garden Dance) and stamped them with gray archival ink. The lady's flowers and dress were tinted with Pitt brush pens.

I'm linking up to Simon this week, dry emboss is the challenge.

And as always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Glitter Gone Wild

Gitter gone wild is the name of this post for obvious reasons--I used it to embellish this birthday card for my niece. (If you click on the photo to view it in the light box feature you'll see the glitter in more detail.)

I began by stamping (Simon's Delicate Flowers and a Martha Stewart butterfly) on watercolor paper with clear embossing ink and UTEE. Remember this stuff? UTEE stands for ultra thick embossing powder and I guess it fell out of favor because I seldom see anyone using it anymore.

After applying watercolors for tint, I ironed off the embossing. When you do, the weight of the iron spreads the embossing out and you end up with slightly thicker lines that also act as a resist. If you'd like to know more about this technique here's a link to a popular post for the particulars.

I thought I needed more contrast so I outlined the images with a fine-tip black marker. Still not happy, I dug out my glitter (Stickles) and the extra color and sparkle seemed to do the trick.

I used a stencil (Simon's Tiny Dots) with white texture paste, a Simon die-cut for the sentiment and machine-stitched it to the card base using white thread.

Simon Says use heat embossing this week so I'm linking up to the Monday challenge.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Fudge

Simon's challenge this week is Food and/or Drink so I rummaged through my great Aunt Esther's recipe box. I found a yellowed slip of paper written with pen and ink (obviously quite old, she was born in 1893) and it prompted me to Google the history of fudge.

Unlike many of your other favorite candies and treats, fudge is a relatively new product, dating back to just the 1880s. In fact, one of the first recorded mentions of fudge was in a letter written by Emelyn Battersby Hartridge, a student at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1886.

The exact origin and inventor of this delicious confection are hotly debated. However, many believe the first batch of fudge was created by accident when American bakers “fudged” a batch of caramels. Hence the name “fudge.” (Wockenfuss Candies)

I used her recipe in the background for this tag along with some Tim Holtz paper. The "ingenue" was an image transfer and I clipped the text from an old book.

My aunt's recipe is really basic and oh-so-similiar to the earliest versions and, since a portion was covered up, here is the transcription if you'd like to try it. ☺

Melt one cup of milk with two squares of chocolate or four tbsp. cocoa. Add two and a half cups sugar and one heaping tbsp. of butter. Boil eight minutes until it forms a ball when dropped into water. Add one tsp. vanilla and beat.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.