I Don't Know When to Quit (Monkey Alert)*

Let me begin this evening by saying I know my purpose in life. That purpose is to be an example to the rest of you that stamping ain't all fun and games. Nope. It can be DIFFICULT and FRUSTRATING and MADDENING and ... and ... gggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Even *I* have my limits.

This evening I decided it might be a good idea to start thinking about my February Stamp Camp cards. Hey, I have some ideas, so why not? I went through my bookmarked items in Google Reader to {this one} [dang - I'll link you when I can find it again!], which I remembered being pretty simple, yet pretty and easy to make work for any occasion. These types of cards work well with The Ladies, as they can switch up sentiments and make the card their own.

Darn their luck they have ME as their Demo. Geez, what a night! Allow me to share my pain with you.

First, I did two lines of sponging for the ground and the sky, and considering I did it with a piece of printer paper instead of a huge Post-It (which I have yet to purchase), I think it turned out well:


I stamped the tress from Lovely As A Tree** with SU Basic Black. Yep - missed a spot. My first thought was I should stamp the trees first, then when I mess up (and I just KNEW I'd mess up again), I wouldn't waste time and wrist with the sponging. But I use the sponged areas to get the trees straight, so I was doomed either way. I took the liberty of pointing out the boo-boo. Missed a spot with ink or pressure or something. Pthfhft. So I tried again:

Missed a different spot. Tried again:

Sigh. And again:

Close. Close. But it was bugging me. I was bored, but I wanted to succeed, so I switched it up a little and made this version:

Let me tell you a story. I have the misfortune of commuting to work in the 2nd-worst traffic area (depending on which report you read) in the USofA. We have a 5-minute traffic report 6 times per hour, I kid you not. But what gets me is "the sun factor". Yes, the sun - that yellow-orange thing IN THE SKY? Apparently people don't wear sun glasses or use their optional-equipment sun visors ... oh, sorry, that was becoming a rant, and that's another blog. My bad.

ANYway, *I* look up and see a bright orange ball behind nekkid trees and it is beautiful, so that's what I was going for.

After all that, I am unsure if I will subject The Ladies to this. If I cannot master it in 5 attempts, I would not ask them to try. And they don't get 5 attempts - they just get one. I'm mean like that.

After that mess, I used the monkey stamps I had out, because I needed to get my snark on. So using DSP from the Heaplet, I made this:

Oh, man, can you feel the love? I can't keep this one in stock at my markets. People guffaw out loud (can you even guffaw quietly to yourself?) and ask how many I have. Seriously, it's almost too easy.

In other news, it's dumping snow in the Midwest in the feets, not inches, and I'm supposed to pick up a cargo van tomorrow after work and head West on Saturday, into the snow, to visit with my Dad. Hmmm. Please pray for me.

Thanks for stopping by!

*Monkey Alert. This is necessary since at least one of my readers has an aversion to monkeys. True.
** Lovely As A Tree. The most beloved set of any SU Demo, and it may be the oldest one still in the catalog. Every May/June there is a very serious discussion involving the meaning of life and how sad sad sad it would be for this set to retire. A great collective sigh of relief is expelled when the SU Retiring List is published, but we know it's only a matter of time. So if you do not own this set, GET IT while you can. It's the best go-to set I have ever owned.