Life Gets in the Way

Holy moly.  My life has been one big whirlwind for the last month.  Between soccer tournaments, starting my masters, work stuff, and a social life, I don't seem to have any downtime recently.  After a couple of hours reading up on the brain and its crazy abilities, I made an appearance in my craftroom.

At the beginning of the month I received several new sets that I've had my eye on for some time, and I pulled one of them out today.  I knew that I wanted to have a masculine themed workshop next month but hadn't really thought about the cards for it much.  Extreme Elements was one of the sets that I hadn't played with yet, so that was a match.  Then for colour scheme.  I have a bunch of More Mustard Scallop Dots ribbon that's been sitting there for months that I decided needed to be used.  I love Not Quite Navy with More Mustard, and Always Artichoke rounded things out nicely.

Now, I must admit that my Stampin' Wheel has been sitting in a basket unused for more than a year.  It's just too fussy for me and I don't want to buy 40 uninked cartridges and refills.  However, I recently purchased the Speckles wheel and LOVE it.  It makes a really nice understated background.  I can see myself using it on lots of things in the future.

Apparently I was in the mood for grunge since I roughed up and distressed all of my layers on this one.  The ribbon even got a bit of ink smeared on it.  I don't usually use ribbon on masculine cards, but I like the effect of having the ends showing.  I think it makes it less girly.  I wanted to add some brads as well, but I couldn't find the container.

Inside I used the footprints from the set, as well as the Father's Day sentiment from Delightful Dozen.  My stamp shifted on my block before I stamped the image, but I actually like the crookedness for this card so I left it.

2012 Retiring Stamps

With the new catalogue coming in June this year, Stampin Up has released its retired list.  These stamp sets are available to order until May 31st, or whenever stock runs out, whichever is earlier.

Take a good look through the list and see if there's anything you meant to order but didn't get around to.  This is your last chance!  Click here for a PDF of the list.

Happy Stamping!

Has It Been That Long?

Oh my goodness.  After returning to work following spring break life has been hectic!  Sorry about the lacks of posts, but things get in the way.

I have a new post for a but later, but I wanted to update an old post with a beautiful card that I did with my stamper's club this week.

You can see the original post for this entry here.  What I learned this week is that it's best NOT to use hot glue to adhere your pieces to your block.  The glues doesn't come out consistently, and you're going to end up with some pieces sticking up more than others as a result of the amount of glue underneath.  This gives you an uneven stamping surface.  Not so bad when you're just using it for backgrounds, but when you're trying to do a mosaic, you really need the Versamark to stamp clearly.  I suggest using some Sizzixx or Sookwang double-sided sticky sheets.  They're strong enough to hold your pieces on, and they'll give you an even surface.

If you love this card, here is a recipe for it so you can make it without trying to figure out the measurements.

Base: Always Artichoke

1st later: Crumb Cake - 4 x 5 1/4

2nd layer: Pink Pirouette - 3 7/8 x 5 1/8

3rd layer: First Edition - 3 3/4 x 5

Art Piece:

1st layer: Crumb Cake - 3 1/4 square

2nd layer: Pink Pirouette - 3 1/8 square

3rd later: Very Vanilla - 3 square

TOOLS:

Heat tool, clear embossing powder, textured impressions plate (flourish), sponge dauber, mosaic stamp (if you don't know what this is search STAINED MOSAIC in the resource section of splitcoaststampers)

INK/ACCESSORIES:

Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Soft Suede, VersaMark, Blender Pen

Vintage brads, Always Artichoke seam binding ribbon

*Stamp and colour your image. I used my blender pen for a gentler look than the markers gave me.

*Ink your mosaic stamp with VersaMark and cover coloured image.

*Cover with clear embossing powder and heat set.

*Use coordinating dark colours to ink brayer and cover image. Wipe off excess ink.

*Before mounting your pieces of cardstock together, use your scissors to rough up the edges, then distress them with your sponge daubers.

A La Card Monkey #102

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  Back to real life after a glorious 2 week spring break.  So much for doing three sketches per week!  I'll try and get back on track this week though.  To start things off I've done a challenge from A La Card Monkey.  Easter is this week's theme, and I needed another card so it worked out quite well.

I know I've already posted a few cards with this set (Everybunny) but it's just so darn cute that I can't help myself.  Plus, I'll have to put it away for another year now, so I wanted to get my fill.  I used Nursery Nest as my DSP and then the coordinating markers to fill in my image.  I seem to be on a blender pen kick right now.