Peace Within (at last!)

How ironic that this set is called Peace Within, when the darned thing took me over an hour to finish, and I ripped it apart about four thousand times.  If you're ever tempted to just chuck a half-finished card in the trash, you know where I was coming from.  However, I had already used some of my precious rub-ons on it, and there was no way I was going to waste those, because I am just too cheap.
 

This card started out as a standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card, and now, in it's finished state, measures 3 1/2" wide and 3 3/4" tall.  Yes, the Incredible Shrinking Card, indeed.  As I have said before, when I don't like something, I tend to just whack it off until I do, or until the card disappears entirely.
 

The card base is Very Vanilla, and the image is also stamped on VV rather than Watercolor Paper.  I just didn't want the extra texture.  Keep in mind when you do this, that you can't work your colors as much on this paper as you can on the Watercolor Paper, or you'll tear up the cardstock.  I know this from experience.  I colored the image with my SU! markers and blender pen.
  

The image is mounted on a piece of Bordering Blue cardstock.  One end of the blue layer has been punched with the Scallop Edge punch, and the other end has had a rub-on from the Dots & Designs collection (a recent SUSHARES item) applied.  The rub-on is white, which was a little stark, and didn't really go well with the vanilla cardstock.  To tone it down a bit, I used a sponge and my Stampin' Pastels chalks.  Did you know you could do that?  Well, you can!  Just apply directly over the rub-on with a dauber, sponge or cotton ball and then wipe over it with a clean part of your applicator to remove the extra chalk from your cardstock.  Works great with all white rub-ons.
 

A little bit of Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon finishes off this card.  (And in case you were wondering, yes I did try to put the jars of flowers image from the last post on this card. What was I thinking?  See, I knew you'd say that!)

Country Morning

Hi, guys!  Welcome to my first post on the Everyday Stamper blog.  I'm hoping to get projects posted here more regularly and even to try to do some videos if you all can tolerate them.  First though, here's a card I whipped up the other day using the Stampin' Up! set "Country Morning".  It's a Level One hostess set and I absolutely love it, partly because it makes me think of my friend Heather.

The card base (folded) measures 4" high by 4 1/4" wide, which means I started out with a piece of cardstock measuring 8 1/2" x 4" in More Mustard.  The image is stamped in Staz On black on watercolor paper 2 1/4" wide by 2 3/8" high.   If you'd like to see a larger image, just click on the picture.

By the way, these crazy measurements are caused by me eyeballing everything and just whacking it down to size if I think it's too big.  This means that I never know exactly how big any given card will be until I'm done with it. (Wow - that's going to play well in my videos!) I tore this one apart several times, and the image that's on it actually started out on a completely different card that you will see in another post. You'll wonder why I ever thought this image might work on that card.  But, I digress.. back to the card.

The image was colored with my Stampin' Up! markers and the blender pen - boy, do I love those blender pens!  Colors used are:  Creamy Caramel, Bordering Blue, Old Olive, More Mustard, So Saffron and Pixie Pink.  After coloring, I layered the image on a piece of Cameo Coral cardstock, and then layered that onto a piece of Mellow Moss.  Behind the Mellow Moss, I used the scallop punch on a piece of paper from the Prints Sampler 6" x 6" pack (which is probably retired because I have had it forever, but you can substitute the patterned DSP of your choice).  I used the 1/16" punch to pierce each of the scallops.

Then I tried to find some ribbon to go on this card.  And I tried and tried.  Nothing looked right.  I liked the "feel" of the 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, but none of the colors really worked.  SO, I took a length of the Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon and colored it with my More Mustard marker to make my very own custom-colored ribbon.  I did not heat set it; it dried pretty quickly and didn't seem to need it.  I tied it around the card with a simple knot, trimmed the edges, and hey, Bob's your Uncle - it was done.  (If you have never heard the phrase "Bob's your Uncle" (it just occurred to me that you might not have), go look it up on Wikipedia.)

So, to all of my SUSHARES ladies, and to Tamaya, who thinks I am a big ole hoarder, I certainly am using my stuff, and so should you!  No hoarding!