The Buzz

In real life, buzzy beasts with stingers are not my favorite, especially since my husband now carries and epi pen for a nasty yellow jacket allergy and since a wasp flew up my jeans and stung me four times on the thigh. 

But I appreciate what bees do for us and thoroughly enjoy using their images on cards. Honeycomb hexagons look amazing, too. So here's an homage to our buzzy pollinators.

The background was made using a soft mat and stencil in my Cuttlebug. After I did that, I remembered I had a honeycomb embossing folder. Only I remembered wrong and DON'T have a honeycomb embossing folder. So my instinct to use the stencil was valid. 

My mind isn't what it used to be. Or, more generously, I'm blessed with so many gadgets, gizmos, stamps, and such that it's hard to keep them straight. Aren't I lucky? You betcha.

The dies for the raised images are Hero Arts infinity dies, which are my favorites. Those dies are just so darn useful and come in great shapes...stars, hearts, circles, squares, rectangles, stamps, etc. 

It's hard to tell in the photos, but I used a clear Wink of Stella pen to accent the wings and petals. Coloring was done with Copics.

Design-wise, this card was tough. I tried to use a fourth hexagon for the sentiment, but it looked weird. Four is a hard number to design with and adding a fifth looked way too cluttered. Switching it up to a rectangle seems weird at first, but it definitely looked better. The three hexagons are arranged in an irregular triangle, the hypotenuse of which bisects the sentiment, lending some unity to the design.

We had a nice holiday weekend. Our son Jack played with the Centerville Community Band in a lovely patriotic concert where my husband, an Air Force veteran, had to stand up during the service song medley. He hates being recognized. "That's not why I served," he complains. But I made him stand anyway. 

I hope those of you who celebrated Independence Day had a safe and fun-filled time!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan