I Still Relish It!

What do I relish? I relish many things in this gift of life of mine, but the one I'm referring to in my blog title is R-E-T-I-R-E-M-E-N-T!!! For those of you who don't know, I was "encouraged" to take an early retirement last December due to changes being made in my pension benefits package. Some referred to it as an "incentive package," but, really, it was the state bureaucractic way of forcing those of us who worked for the state for many years and were on an older (and much better) retirement benefit plan to retire early.

Mind you, I'm not sour grapes about this happening It's the reality of the economic situation in most places these days. Rather, I count myself fortunate to have had a good state career in the 35 years I worked. Now, I count myself even more fortunate that I no longer suffer from the Sunday evening blues in the drudgery of having to return on Monday morning to what had become an unhappy place for me to be. Now, I wake up each morning with a smile on my face, knowing that the day is 24 hours of how I want to spend those 24 hours. Yes, life is good, and these nine months later I still do not regret the decision to accept that retirement "incentive." My time is mine!

And, of course, one way I like to spend my time is creating my own greeting cards.  I made this card for Dolce Stamps & Cards using this beautiful peacock image by Impression Obsession.

(click on photo for larger view)

This beautiful peacock cling mount image is all one piece of deeply etched rubber and is available at the Dolce Stamps & Cards store.   

I colored the entire image with Copic markers.  After I colored the spots on its tail feathers with Royal Blue and Salad Green markers, I added Ranger Firefly stickles over the Salad Green portion.  Oh, how those pretty, iridescent spots sparkle in real life!!  Can you see the teensy-weensy royal blue gemstones on the peacock’s head crest?  I colored the crackled background with Pale Aqua and Aqua Blue markers and sponged Ranger’s Tumbled Glass Distress Ink on the outer edge of the cardstock.  The framed edges around the image were made with Tim Holtz’s Alterations On the Edge Die.  After I dry embossed the Crumb Cake panel with the polkadots, I ran my Rich Razzleberry ink pad over it to color only the raised portion of the dots.

Here's a list of supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Peacock by Impression Obsession

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black , Ranger Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, Stampin’ Up’s Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry, Black
Embellishments: Rich Razzleberry polkadotted ribbon, royal blue micro gemstones
Tools: Ranger Firefly and Xmas Red Stickles, Polkadotted embossing folder, Tim Holtz Alerations On the Edge Die, dimensional, Copic markers , blending tool.

Also, I want to remind you of the fall color challenge happening over at the Dolce Stamps & Cards blog.  I hope you'll check it out and play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by.  What?  You want to know how I'm going to spend the rest of my day?  Well, I do have a few design team commitments that I'll be working on throughout the afternoon.  Then, my beloved husband is taking me out to dinner for our  twelfth wedding anniversary.  We're going to the restaurant where he proposed to me!

Yes, life is good, and I count my blessings every day!