This Little Piggy ...

This little piggy ... did NOT go to market. Nope! This little piggy is a card I mocked up for the YouthZone organization to be used as Thank You cards for their annual Kiss-N-Squeal charity event.


My personal challenge here, aside from the fact that they talked with me about this last summer, and I am just now getting to it, is that I decided I wanted two pigs kissing, but that meant I needed to figure out the mirror technique. HA!

I just love this pig stamp from the retired SU "Walk This Way" set. He's cartoon-y, which is what they wanted, and he is unloved, stuffed into my "don't sell these yet, I don't think" stamp set drawer. Whew! Glad I held onto it!

So the challenge (MY challenge): the mirror technique. All the write-ups make it sound sooooo simple. Just stamp it onto a large, smooth stamp image, or (as a few of my Tweeps suggested) an acrylic block or a piece of acetate or the image sheet from the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, all of which I tried. And all of which failed. I used pigment (craft) ink in an attempt to get a better image, but it was not to be. Then one of my Tweeps suggested I try the brayer. I did, and IT WORKED. Well, it was WAY better than anything else I'd tried, so I went with it. I inked up the stamp and laid it ink-side-up on my workspace (or what's left of it), rolled the brayer over the inky image, then rolled the brayer onto my card stock.

If you look closely (and I know you will), the image on the right is a little lighter than the one on the left. BUT, since I was cutting them out anyway - why I do this to myself I'll never understand, I think it minimizes the difference in the intensity of the inked images, so I am safe.

They want 10 of these, so I have some cutting to do, assuming this design will be accepted. But at least I finally have a plan!

In other news, we had a Soups & Stews cook-off at work today. I was coerced into entering my quickie crock pot beef stew, and I figured out if I cut up everything the night before, tossed it into the crock pot, and left it to cook all night, I could just take it to work in the morning and be done. This was actually a sound and reasonable plan, and it worked! In an attempt to help stabilize the crock pot so it didn't dump all over the car in transit - been there, done that, bbq meatballs, white slacks, new car carpet, smelled wonderful for about 2 years - and I really didn't want to go there again, I used a container of kitty litter I've been storing in my car - and that was also a sound plan. However, my condo, my clothing, my car - EVERYTHING - smells like eau de beef stew, and will for days, I am sure. Oh, and no, I did not win. Ptthththt.

I'm off to send this pic to the YouthZone peeps to see if it passes muster, then I'll come up for air after I'm done with all the cutting.

Thanks for stopping by!