fresh & fun

Today’s Way to use it challenge was fun. The object of the challenge was to use stamps 1 1/2″ or smaller.

I didn’t have much time to play yet. It’s the last day of school and it’s a bit crazy over here. Rebecca went to school with the wrong clothes and I had to bring her the class shirt and pants. Today they sign each others shirts. I am glad she called and made me bring different clothes. Better then them having to sign her pretty dress!!! Then I went back for 5th grade award ceremony. I didn’t know they would make such a big deal out of it. Boy….that took quite a while.

I started the card inbetween both school runs and finally got to finish it. It’s a fairly simple card.

I started by cutting down a Fabriano notecard into a square. Next I stamped the saying from In my Thoughts on the lower right. I added ladybugs from the retiring set Ladybuds. They were colored in with Pure colored Pencils, gamsol and those cool new gadgets called Fantastix Bullet Tip. They blended the the pure colored pencils like a charm.

The card was still too plain, even for a plain card. LOL So I added doodling around the edges. Doodling makes everything better!!! I tried to make the little circles of the doodle border look a little like the spots of the ladybugs. Now the border looked fine, but the inside was still too plain.

Another thing that makes every card better is paper piercing. I love it. I use it ALL the time. Because I SUCK at eyeballing, I used the template from Stampin’ Up! and just turned it after every pierced hole to have the same distance between my holes. Okay….you all know by now that I am a bit anal. I can’t help myself. I am German. We call it accurate. LOL

Lastly I added May Arts ribbon to card. The inside of the card has Thank you stamped in it.

Last weekend Rebecca was invited to a birthday party. She helped me make the card by stamping the name and the bugs onto the card. Then she ran off graciously allowing me to finish the card. If it’s not stamping or coloring, I get to do it.

Rebecca started out by stamping Aiden’s name with Big Deal Alpha and Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Apricot Appeal , Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery Classic inks. She stamped the bugs from Bugs & Kisses in black Palette ink and then ran off. LOL

I added a shadow to the letters with bordering blue and my aqua painter. Leigh O’Brien made some great cards with this Big Deal Alpha and added shadows. Then I layered the shimmery white cardstock on chocolate chip.

My card base was a 8″ x 8″ Certainly Celery piece of cardstock folded in half. The patterned paper is from the May special from Stampin’ Up!: Palette O’ Prints. I have to say I am loving the new paper. Since they come only in 6″ x 6″ sheets as of right now, I had to piece two strips together to make it long enough. I punched the corner with the ticket corner punch.

Rebecca had stamped the saying in black palette ink for me. I punched it out with a Marvy oval punch. I layered the punchout on chocolate chip cardstock and handcut the border. Lastly it was layered on a scalloped oval in Tempting Turquoise. 

I wrecked my brain where I had seen a card with Big Deal Alpha and Bugs & Kisses. I couldn’t remember. Later I found it again on Michele Boyer’s new blog.