We have a weed along the trail that I take for my regular walks, that I think is absolutely gorgeous. It looks like a soft, crumpled paper.
I have a bag of jelly beans in a grocery bag stashed under my desk. The bag is getting very wrinkled as I pile stuff on it to hide it (my family has figured out that I often have a stash of sweets). As I was digging in the bag this morning, I realized that that crumpled grocery bag could work for this flower (and for
The Paper Players challenge challenge to recycle!!)
Since this idea occurred to me while I was pulling stuff out to do the
Splitcoast Color Challenge of Poppy, Baja and Pear - I didn't do my imagined earth-toned card reminiscent of a field of weeds - but I like how the brighter colors offset my white flower.
To get the flowers, I used my flower dies to cut two large white flowers, then I layered on three large grocery bag flowers and then three small grocery bag flowers.
Apparently I was not at my most creative this morning, because this card actually uses a sketch challenge too. (Usually I try to have something of my own on each card - but this card uses somebody else's sketch, colors, and recycling idea!!??) The sketch is from
Mojo Monday.
For those of you that like to shop after doing your blog-reading (or is that just me??) - I have to highly recommend the sentiment set from this card. It's called
Big Wish by Verve Stamps. It is definitely one of my go-to sets as it includes a wide variety of small to mid-size birthday sentiments. They are all very unique, but some use basic fonts, some have a cute frill and some are very elegant.
Verve Stamps are very high quality clear stamps. (I did a rant recently about cheap clear stamps. Cheap stamps are "squishy" and it's really difficult to get a image.) I had a conversation recently with someone who does NOT like clear stamps and it occurred to me that I should share two tips with you (just in case any of you feel the same.)
1. Be sure you have some sort of pad when you are stamping. Picture a basic wood-mount stamp - there is the wood, then some
foam, then the rubber. I actually unmount all of my wood stamps, right down to the rubber, so I have no foam. I need to have it somewhere, so I place a piece of foam under the paper on which I am stamping. The same concept applies to acrylic stamps - you need foam for that little bit of "give" that allows you to get a good image.
I use Darice's Rubber Stamp Pad - it's a large red foam pad that I have found at Joann's and at Michael's. FYI: I cut mine in half. A cheap piece of fun foam works the same way. If you have ever used Close To My Heart's acrylic stamps, they come packaged with a piece of foam and, if you read the instructions, it tells you to put the foam under the paper!
2. If your image comes out mottled - not crisp and clear - the stamp you are using may have a factory coating on it that is messing with the ink. Some people recommend that you do the following steps for every clear stamp, but I find that very few need it. To get rid of the factory coating, you can either:
a. Rub the stamp with a good quality white eraser.
OR
b. Ink, stamp on scratch paper, clean stamp
- repeat once or twice until you get a good crisp image.
I think that if you keep these two things in mind, you will find that you are more willing to work with clear stamps!
- Stamps: Verve Big Wish
- Ink: black
- Paper: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade CS and dsp, Pear Pizzazz CS and dsp, Baja Breeze CS
- Accessories: Martha Stewart French Scroll border punch, Stampin' Up oval and modern label punches, Papertrey Ink Beautiful Blooms II #3 flower dies, Michaels gems, Stampin' Up Baja seam binding, Nesties circle and scalloped circle, grocery bags!
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I recently discovered The Paper Players blog and challenges and did
a post on why I like them so much. Imagine my delight, when my card was named "A Cut Above". Details on this card on the same post.
