Off the Grid!

Happy Thursday!!

Ahhhh ... finally a *down* day ... one with no particular plans ... and it's cloudy and a little rainy ... a great chance to get caught up on some of those niggling little things on my *to-do* list.  Whilst the girls seem to be able to function just fine now that school is out I'm struggling a bit to find any sort of rythym (I THINK that's how you spell rythym ... I checked with my 10-year-old ... we think it's right *lol*).  If/when the girls sleep in I have to be quiet as a mouse so I don't wake them (Rebecca will wake up at the slightest noise!).  Being quiet is NOT my forte ... and it keeps me from getting anything productive done!  What it DOES let me do is craft!  Since my craft room is in the basement ... and since it's a QUIET *task* I can stamp for a while before anyone is vertical.  That's what I did today.  I have one card that I *love* and one that is ... *meh* ... it's ok ... but isn't what I was aiming for and doesn't blow my hair back!  So let's start with that one first, shall we?

I started this one last night ... but my mojo was stuck and I walked away.  I was trying to get inspiration from the yummy new DSP "Modern Medley" - page 154 - $13.50 (but at the moment all of the $13.50 DSP's are buy 3 get one free!!)

I particularly like the striped sheet ... so I cut a 1 1/2" strip of that and layed it on a Very Vanilla base.  And then I sat.  And stared.  And turned it sideways.  And turned it back.  And sat.  And stared.  And grabbed a few stamp sets and black ink.  And sat.  And stared.  And sat.  And sat.  And sat.  And gave up.  It just wasn't happenin'.

This morning I went down to play and it kept niggling at me.  I tried again.  To make an all-ready-too-long-story shorter I ended up with this:

I say again ... *meh*.  I think some of the circles need to be bigger but I couldn't be bothered to play with it anymore.  It just wasn't coming together easily ... like back in high-school when you were trying to write that opening paragraph for your paper and it was disjointed and awkward ... same thing here ... I'll try again another day but today wasn't the day.  The recipe for this one ... I used a Very Vanilla base and a 3/4" strip of Basic Black card stock.  The sentiment uses one stamp from "Cycle Celebration" - page 10; $20.95 clear; $26.95 - stamped in Black Staz-on and was punched out with the Decorative Label Punch (page 181; $22.95).  I then stamped "Happy Birthday" in Real Red from the hostess set "Express Yourself" - page 205, and punched it out with the Large Oval punch - page 182; $21.95 and popped it up on a dimensional.  The black striped circles use the Modern Medley DSP and the red ones were made by stamping one of the images from the Six-Sided Sampler set - page 125; $22.95 clear; $32.95 wood in Real Red and punching it out.  I used the 1", 3/4" and 1/2" circle punches.  The little dots are candy dots but can also be made using your Crop-a-dile.  So there you have it ... and card that I don't really like that tooks way too long.  So let's move swiftly along to a card that I DO like!  It too took longer than it should have.  I think I'm too tired for quick and easy stamping this week.  While it took too long I really like how it turned out!  Her it is:

Ta da!  I'm not sure if this can be used as a masculine card or not ... I suspect the swirls on the sentiment would kick it into the reject pile in Craig's opinion ... of course you *could* use markers to ink the sentiment without the swirls ... but that just adds time to the process so I left them :)  It actuallu IS a very simple card.  It uses only Very Vanilla and Baked Brown Suger for the card stock and ink.  The background is made with the clean and simple (but very *guyish* stamp) "Off the Grid" - page 108 - only $14.95 (it only comes is wood).  The sentiment is from "You're Amazing" - page 15; $27.95 clear; $37.95 wood.  I stamped it in Baked Brown Sugar on a scrap piece of VV card stock and used my fingers to tear around it.  I then used a finger dauber to sponge the edges with Baked Brown Sugar.  It was a good and quick start ... and then I started to struggle.  Keeping it simple is HARD!  I had a piece of burlap that I was playing around with but a) it wasn't Stampin' Up! product and b) I just couldn't make it work.  My Stampin' Up! burlap ribbon should be arriving any day now (yes, if you don't have the new holiday mini there IS some yummy new burlap ribbon it it!!!) ... so I aborted that aspect.  I then spotted my "Clockworks" stamp set and knew I had it!  (Page 109 - $21.95 clear; $28.95 wood).  This set is a must have!  It's a *keeper* set that can be used for masculine cards for SURE!  Since my set is in clear-mount I simply grabbed the three cog stamps and placed them directly on my card to see where I wanted them stamped ... once I had the configuration I liked I grabbed my clear Block "D" - page 196; $11.50 - and pressed the block down on top of all 3 stamps at once.  Then I stamped all 3 images in the Baked Brown Sugar ink and stamped it on my card.  Wa-low!  Stamped exactly where I wanted them ... and I could now mass-produce the card with the exact same placement every time.  Clever, yes?  The card still needed something ... I turned to my Stack-and-Store Caddy that houses all of my buttons, brads and so on.  I spied the retired Spinner Hands.  That was it!  While these are retired, I could justify using them because just yesterday I spotted them on the Clearance Rack ... for $.99!!!  Of course at THAT price I needed to order a bunch ... but then stopped myself ... once AGAIN I realized I HAD these in my craft room ... but I had never actually USED THEM!!!  ARGH!  I seriously think I need some sort of intervention.  Seriously!  I never want to USE these products as I usually don't have enough for one of my classes ... so they sit ... and they only see the light of day once they are retired!  Well ... if you've been following my posts for the last month or so you'll know that I'm SLOWLY trying to rectify this problem and HAVE been using my new products (I still need to start using my DSP's ... little steps ... it's all about those little steps *lol*).   ANYwaaaaaay - back to the card.  I added the spinner hand and two other brads to the cogs ... I also added a small strip of the 7/16" Trim along the bottim corner.  Before I added it I used my dauber to add a little Baked Brown Sugar ink to it just to darken it a little.  PErfect!  The edges are slightly frayed to make it a little more grungy.  Yep!  This one I like - fairly quick and easy, uses one ink color and can be used for a guy card.  Ticks off most of hte boxes in my list for a successful card!

Right ... my stomach is growling so it must be lunch time.  Pop in again soon.  Until then ... have a stampy day!


Tam