A Little Stampin' Penance

Call it what you will, and maybe 'penance' is not the correct word, here, but what I did was make myself use something I already had before I broke into my new stuff.

Some time last year I 'discovered' Parchment FX stamps. As soon as I typed that I recalled that writer David Sedaris said he would never date anyone who 'discovered' a restaurant currently listed in the phone book. So I guess I 'stumbled upon' these stamps when I saw this card in the SCS gallery. The poster hooked me up with the company in the UK (it is her LSS), and I caved and bought all the sets. I made one or two cards, then set the stamps aside, mostly to gather dust. I took them out today to USE them - a novel concept, I know.

The Parchment FX stamps allow you to stamp an image that looks like Pergamano, but without all the work. You can also go back over them with the punching tools, but that is not why I purchased them. I am LAZY! I wanted the look without the work. :-)

I have already used some of the fan parts to make this card and this card, so I decided to cut out the butterfly sets and use them today. This is the first butterfly card:

Recipe: Stamps - Parchment FX, Warmest Regards; Paper - Whisper White, Vellum Cardstock, Pallet-O-Prints So Saffron; Ink - Versamark, Basic Gray; Other - Winter White Detail EP, Ribbon Originals Sherbet.

The butterfly is made up of three parts (layers). I stamped the three images with Versamark on Vellum Cardstock; I think the paper vellum is too thin for this. The Parchment paper used for Pergamano is more like SU's cardstock-weight vellum, and I like it better. I white-embossed the images and cut them out, then stuck them together in the middle with tiny pieces of red-line tape. The wings are not stuck down at all, and that gives it a lot of dimension.

I have to say, cutting these out is very easy, and you get an amazing look with the little time you've invested. I wanted the butterfly to stand out, so I chose a soft color of DS paper, and as I walked past my stash of SU ribbon (see what happens when you don't put everything away? It is right there in front of you for inspiration!!) I grabbed the wide So Saffron ribbon to go with the So Saffron DS paper. I can never figure out what to do with the wide ribbons, anyway, so there ya go! :-)

I chose the Basic Gray ink for the sentiment so it showed up, but was still softer than black would have been.

The first card used the basic butterfly images. This next one uses the more kicked-up butterfly images, and I think I like it better:

Recipe: Same as above!

Now that I have made these, I have satisfied my 'must use it' requirement so I can now play with my new stuff! Yay! Off to play!