Tuesday, May 28, 2013

SOS #103 Anniversary/Graduation

It's Tuesday, and time for another Shopping Our Stash challenge. This week we are celebrating our TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY! Difficult to believe, I know! So our theme this week is to make an Anniversary or Graduation card -OR- you can make your project any theme you want as long as you use something that's at least 2 years old. Make sure to tell us what it is, too.

For my card, I may have over-achieved and done both. Here's the card, then I'll explain:


It's an Anniversary-ish card, because I think it would be perfect for someone to give to a spoose. But I also used three very old things to make this card. The embossing powder is PSX Platinum, and well, it's ooooold; maybe a little clumpy, even. And yes, it is embossed, and shiny, but I take sukky photos, remember?

The platinum card stock layer is from my DCWV metallic stack that I tried to give away at my April stampy retreat, but ended up coming back home with me. I've had that for years ... YEARS! And the ribbon is from SU, so I've had it for at least 2 years.

Now it's YOUR turn. Go into your stash and make an Anniversary or Graduation card -OR- make a card that uses something at least two years old and be sure to tell us what it is. Then come back to Shopping Our Stash and link us up so we can see what you've made!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not linked below: PSX Platinum embossing powder, Verve Bountiful Backgrounds, SU white satin ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls, DCWV Metallic 8x8 stack.





Monday, May 27, 2013

Pretend Diet

I've been rummaging in my stamp drawers today and I rediscovered my collection of Emerson stamps. This may be one of my first irreverent stamps ever purchased. I had another perfect storm of "stuff laying around" because I saw the current Catered Crop challenge of Mellow Yellow, and my pad of Fancy Pants Park Bench was out, so this happened:


I thought the ruler paper was perfect for the diet theme, and the yellow was perfect for the challenge. I paper pieced her dress from some yellow scraps I had stored in the front of the paper pad, and pretty much called it done. I love how bright and cheery it is. Also, she is my people, so there's that, too.

I need to use some of these older stamps more often. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not linked below: SU Very Vanilla, Emerson stamp from American Art Stamp, Spellbinders Large Petite Ovals, misc. twine.




Stamping Offset Chevrons

Back when I made this and this using a chevron stamp, Jackie, one of my beloved 3 (maybe 4) readers asked me how I did it, and I said maybe I'd be brave and make a video. Then she dared me to do it - DARED me. Well, normally I'm not phased by dares, but this is a long weekend, and I've spent three days in my jammies, so my resistance was down.

It took a few tries, and there's a lot of apologizing, but it's done.

Before I get to the video, though, I ask you to appreciate the music I included. A coworker of mine is a musician in his other life, and he wrote it for me. Some day I hope to be able to use the whole thing so you can hear all of it. It's awesome.

Okay, here you go:



If you are in a reader, you can click here to watch it on YouTube.

I hope that helps you see what I did, and I promise to work on  my set-up so my noggin stays out of the frame.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, May 26, 2013

A Challenge Three-Fer

When it rains, it pours, right? I've fallen off the challenge train lately, so this weekend I printed out a bunch with the hope of getting to a few. I had three challenge images on one piece of paper, and I decided they needed to all be done together on one card.

The inspiration for the background came from the Inspired By challenge:



The color combination came from The Play Date Cafe challenge:



and the sketch came from Deconstructing Jen:



Here is the resulting card:


I started by embossing the chevron background onto white with some white embossing powder. Then I applied Distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn and Chipped Sapphire. It actually came out exactly like I saw it in my head.

I wanted a not-rectangle shape for the sentiment, so I rummaged in the back of my sentiments box for this old MFT die & stamp set. Tip: When trying to stamp on a white die-cut, put it onto some colored card stock so you can see what you are doing. Yeah, this wasn't my first attempt at that sentiment.

The ribbon was sticking out of the UFO ribbon box at the top of my table, so it got used here. It's held in place by that brad. I straddled the ribbon with the brad and put both brad legs through one hole. It's all hidden and quite secure!

This was crazy-easy to make, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used but not linked below: SU ribbon, SU brad, misc mini buttons.