Long Explanation Coming...

I've got two cards today, and I thought I'd explain the sympathy card. So if you want to skip this first paragraph, I won't mind. Here we go: Several years ago, DH was approached by Professor Zane Miller about a book project. It seems he'd found a manuscript in the Wisconsin State Historical Society done by several people for the Federal Writers Project within the confines of President Roosevelt's Works Projects Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These writers were paid, in order to support themselves and their families, to write guide books about their cities. Books were written about many major cities throughout the US. Milwaukee's book never got published as the manuscript was completed just prior to the onset of World War II; it sat in the archives for over 70 years, unknown, unremembered, and unpublished. Until somehow Zane found it. He contacted my DH, and suggested an editorial collaboration to get this work finally published. Books can take a long time to get going, and after a couple of years of back and forth, Professor Miller dropped out of the project. DH had a copy of this manuscript, on yellow paper with purple mimeograph type. No program in the whole wide world would translate this for ease of editing. Yours truly spent last summer typing this 270-some page manuscript into a Word Document, correcting spelling and punctuation, with the blessing of the editor (DH). He wrote a forward, added photographs, and next month, it will be available to the public. DH, of course, sent one of the author's advance copies to Zane. He got an email back from Zane's wife; Professor Miller had passed away last month. DH was more than surprised, and asked me to make a card for Mrs. Miller. Hence, the sympathy card today. I am adding a link in case you are interested in checking out this work: Milwaukee in the 1930s: A Federal Writers Project City Guide. Thanks for sticking with me.

My card was inspired by Anita Bowden's card for Muse.

I was inspired by the colors and the design. Anita's card is really lovely isn't it?! My card looks like this: 

I tried to make my branch go up...I really did. My brain was having none of it....So it's downward facing. I used watercolor paper for all of this, as I like the texture it gives. I picked up Anita's colors with my Ziggy watercolors, and cut it out with a MB die. A gold scrap of vellum, gold embossed with a HA stamp, and a smattering of gold sequins. The branch is inlaid into an MFT pierced rectangle die.

Card number two is happier, and I'm playing along at Addicted to CAS, and AAA Cards with this little cutie pie! (I LOVE him...)

Isn't he just the sweetest little thing ever??!! WPlus9 came out with some new dies, and right away I heard them calling my name. The fox come with the ability to morph into a cat or raccoon too. The banner is from the other new WPlus9 set that I couldn't live without. I'll be using this with its accompanying bits and bobs soon. The sentiment is from SSS, the circle is an MFT die, and I added some black sequins. Other than the fox's head and the sequins, everything is inlaid. Have a great weekend, and happy dances everyone.