Flower pop ups!

Oh happy spring!

I made these pop up cards as a result of the current issue of Martha Stewart living. She did hers in pinks (of course!) but I decided to go for a mixed purple bouquet! I used our Lavender Bursting Blooms, Purple Floral Stream and Green Charming Flowers and the leaves are Leaf Green Lokta. The card is A7 Plum.

 This card was done with our Natural White Lokta on our A7 Chartreuse Card. The black dots are made with a sharpie marker.

Here's the link to Martha's Card. Most of the time I find MS projects complicated and this was the first time through. Definitely test and prototype with plain paper. I found the assembling of the card more helpful at this site: http://extremecards.blogspot.com/2008/05/seven-flower-pop-up-card.html.

Other words of advice: use pva glue instead of a glue stick--it is stronger and pop ups need strength due to the opening and closing of the card and use strong but flexible paper. The Japanese Chiyogamis/Yuzens work great and so did the lokta. The single flowers that you make before gluing them together are cool as well. I can see other possibilities with them. So get busy flowering; you'll definitely make someone's day with this card!

Decorah Eagles Hatching!

The Decorah Eagles have gone viral! Millions of people have checked out the live stream so far to see what the first days of life is like for baby bald eagles.

Today, the third of three Eaglets to hatch in an aerie in Decorah, Iowa started poking its way out on Wednesday evening. Gary and I actually saw it via the Internet while it was happening and it was exciting! Mostly I remember to check the site during the evening and the parent eagles are sleeping or preening and I never get to see the eaglets. So I was pretty excited to see the third baby hatching. The first and second Eaglets hatched this past weekend.

Check out the live stream video, as well as a time-lapse of the first hatchling coming into the world!