I Actually Stamped Something!

I have been so busy these past few days, it's been tough to actually finish a stampin' project. I started plenty of them, but they just sat there, needing attention. I got out of work early today for a Doctor's appointment, which also got out early (what a nice surprise!), so I grabbed the time to finish something.

But first - a little about what's been hogging all my time. I got an E-Z Up tent last weekend, and it needed to be taken out of the box and readied for use. This involved moving some stuff in my teeny tiny condo to allow me to open the tent part-way so I could attach the top canopy. Easy! I collapsed it and forced it into its case and set it up against the wall. The next day after work I moved stuff around in my car and put the tent into the car. I told you that's where it would live!

So what's the hurry with the tent, you ask? Well, this Saturday I am participating in a Yard Sale at the local stamp store. The LSS that is closing its doors, at least the brick-and-mortar location. ;-( I take this annual opportunity to sell my retired Stampin' Up! sets that have not sold online, and let me tell you, I have a ton of them left! The tent was necessary because if I did not have one, it would definitely rain. Now that I have one, it will not. And yes, I take my umbrella when I go out to lunch so it won't rain...works like a champ, but I digress. So anyone in the neighborhood of Montgomery County, Maryland, come on over to The Rubber Chicken, Saturday, April 12th, 9-3, and BUY MY STUFF!!!! Pleeeeeeease......

Also this week, I received the Ribbons and Bows Oh My shipment, and since I am hosting my workshops this weekend I needed to put it away. I dutifully sat there one evening and wound each of the spools onto clothespins and actually put them away. Without using them!!!

Here is a very poorly-lit photo of all my new ribbons, post-winding. They are all 3/8", and I think next time I will get the 1/4" instead. There's always a next time!

While taking the photo, I found myself thinking how several of the colors went so well together (I am so easily distracted) ...


... like the Navy and the Celery. Maybe the two ribbons would not work, but the two colors definitely would!

...then the Celery and the Taupe...








... followed by the Navy and the Yellow. Now if I called that Maize and Blue I could say "Go Blue!" :-)

Ahem. Okay, I put that all away and moved on. I started to play with my new Tart & Tangy set from Stampin' Up!, partly because I had it and it was staring at me, partly because I realized I have April and May birthdays coming up fast with no cards made yet, partly to try the Scratch & Sniff Technique, and partly to see if any of the above might yield a project for next month's workshops. This is what I ended up with:

Recipe (All Products by Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Tart & Tangy, Sassy Suzie; Paper - Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Real Red, Summer Picnic DS paper; Ink - Real Red and Garden Green markers; Other - Ticket Corner punch, 1/2" Circle punch, red gg ribbon.

The central piece sorta evolved, as do most of my projects. I stamped the two cherry images too far apart, and since they were almost straight, I tried to save the piece by tying a ribbon down the gaping white middle section. I remembered a card I had seen earlier this week on someone's blog (sorry - I cannot remember where - please tell me if you know!), and she had punched some notches in the center to hold the ribbon, so I copied her idea. I really like how it adds a little bit of something to go along with the notched corners.

This is the image that I wanted to use with the Scratch & Sniff. I mixed a bag of sugar-free off-brand cherry gelatin with clear embossing powder. I started measuring by teaspoons, but there was so little left, I just dumped it in. Then I spooned in more than that amount of clear embossing powder, like double the amount, giving me about a 1-2 ratio of gelatin-to-EP. I have seen so many different 'perfect' ratios of cherry stuff (gelatin or powdered drink mix) that I had no idea what would work, but whatever I did, it didn't. I went over the cherry images with a Versamarker and put the powder concoction over it. That's when it did everything bad that everyone warned about - leaving a red residue on the white card stock, embossing lumpily, if at all...ugh. For the card above I gave up and just put a drop of Crystal Effects on the cherries instead, and smoothed it around with a toothpick. Done! I'll work on that Scratch & Sniff thing another time.

Next up is a card that literally took under 10 minutes to make. I call it Faux Everything, because I used 'other' techniques to make something most people make using a Cuttlebug and Score-Pal, like these. Here's mine:

Recipe (All products by Stampin' Up!): Stamps - Sassy Suzie; Paper - Wild Wasabi, Whisper White; Ink - WIld Wasabi; Other - Dots Brass Template, Bone Folder, Horizontal Slot Punch, Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon.

I cannot use the 'bug in a Stampin' Up! workshop, and I do not have a Scor-Pal (couldn't use it anyway), so I had an idea. I saw my SU Dots Brass Template - left out from my last workshop. Yep, I tell ya, leaving stuff out is the way to go for inspiration! I used it to make the rows of dots along the top and bottom of the piece of white card stock. Then I lined it up on my grid paper and scored two lines with a ruler and my bone folder. It is not exactly the same as the Swiss Dots CB embossing folder + Scor-Pal, but I think it works. So far we have Faux Cuttlebug and Faux Scor-pal. Then I decided I did not want to wrap a piece of ribbon around the whole card, so I used two short scraps and just taped them to the back of the white card stock. Faux Wrapped Ribbon. :-)

Both of these cards have potential for both customer b'day cards and projects for next month's workshops. Not a bad afternoon, if I do say so myself!

My next goal is to work down through some more layers of stuff on my tables, as I seem to have lost my little bag of Ribbon Slides I got from SU, and if I do not find them before Sunday, The Ladies will be tying plain old knots instead of using a shiny silver ribbon slide on their projects. It's here, somewhere ....

Oh, and tomorrow is The Day. The day I take my little field trip to meet Heather and visit the Offray Ribbon Outlet. Oh, my, I am a bit worried, but I hope I can be reasonable. We'll see how that goes. I'll be sure to report back!