Hello Fellow Stampers ~
Happy 4th of July weekend and upcoming holiday! I had and am enjoying a 5-day long holiday weekend, and some additional vacation time this coming week as well. Normally I would have left yesterday for my friend's ranch on the Western Slope of Colorado (Montrose/Ridgeway/Ouray area) for a 10 day vacation; this year I have foregone my normal trip due to work stresses and other issues that I feel require me to stay close to home. Nevertheless, I do plan on having some fun and decompressing a little from the normal routine and stresses of life. So far this weekend has been extraordinarily busy ~ I spent Friday on errands and daily tasks such as getting some routine maintenance done on the car, a filling on a tooth at the dentist, and HOA duties as President of the Board ( ugggghhhh!). Friday evening we tried a new restaurant and enjoyed a nice evening out on the patio. Saturday morning I spent with a dear girlfriend shopping at the antique/vintage/eclectic outside market that runs here May through October - called The Paris Street Market. We LOVE it; and I came home with some fun treasures! Saturday evening, my honey and I did something I have never done in all these years living here in south Jefferson County - we attended the drag races at Bandimere Speedway! And had an absolute BLAST!!! I had no idea how cool these race cars are and how much I'd love watching this past-time. The very late evening ended with a spectactular fireworks display; and this morning we went to church and attended the Freedom Sunday service - which is put on once a year at my church, with lots of Patriotic music, honors to our servicemen, and a picnic afterwards. Needless to say, I needed the 3-hour nap I took this afternoon -- LOL
So, unfortunately, I did not get up Friday's blog post for this past week's Global Design Project [GDP093] challenge. The card was designed and done; but life and plans and schedules overtook my time to sit and write this post. So here we are, a little late, but I still want to share the fun; so I hope you won't mind!!
This fun and "eclectic" color combination turned out to work perfectly with the Naturally Eclectic designer series paper.
A little technique tip for you today - sometimes "fussy cutting" your designer paper to get just the piece you want can create the perfect card!
This design happens to "fussy cut" apart easily. You can cut between the arrow strips; and then cut apart to just the section you want in each row.
The card base for this card is cut from Thick Whisper White cardstock, 4-1/4" x 11", scored at 5-1/2" - a top fold vertical card!
The mat of Pool Party is cut at 4" x 5-1/4". I used this mat piece as my "base" to create and lay out the Whisper White piece and my "fussy cut" dsp.
Thus, the Whisper White is cut at about 3-1/4" x 3-7/8" to allow just an overlap of the dsp down the left side.
It's time for some summertime fun I decided. This summer canvas chair, stamped in Smoky Slate and Berry Burst is perfect for a lazy summer afternoon!
I used the "dotted" image from the Colorful Seasons stamp set to create "grass" in Lemon Lime Twist and the flowers "hang" in the background behind the chair to give the feel of a garden - Pool Party and Berry Burst create a perfect mix.
Don't you love the "tropical" drink hangin' out by the chair? The wonderful Seasonal Layers Thinlits make it so easy to create all this cuteness!!
Let's talk about this stamp set and "splitting" images for just a minute
When you receive this stamp set, you will find that the "dots" and the small flowers" are all included in one image (circled above)
Not exactly sure why they did this . . . but it doesn't work very well when you want to stamp separately, which I think in most cases you would.
Easy fix!!
Carefully use your paper snips (or rubber stamp scissors if you bought them years back), and separate the two image sets from each other.
You can naturally curve the areas around the images as you separate them; and they will fit right back in place on the acetate sheet.
Now this stamp and images just became much more useful and easy to use!!
Let's Turn to the Inside:
The layering inside the card reflects the front; and again, I "fussy cut" the piece of designer paper I wanted to run down the left side - a little inset this time.
Perfect now for a little note!!
Fun, don't you think? I had fun creating this card and I'm glad I finally found the time to sit down and share it with you. I'll be back in the studio tomorrow morning to create something fun for the Paper Players and hopefully patriotic for our upcoming holiday. I have a list a mile long of things I'd like to do this week while I'm taking a vacation ~ quilting projects calling my name, finish crocheting a baby blanket for a friend, get a little more serious about my latest endeavor (Bible Journaling) which I'm really enjoying, play with Paper Pumpkin kits, and curl up with a good book or two -- whew! What do you think? Will I get to all the things I want to do? How about this . . .
I just ordered and got this cute kit in the mail; do you think I'll get to it!!?? LOL
I hope so!
Have a great rest of your weekend everyone. I'm off to put my feet up, watch a good movie, and do a little reading for the rest of my evening!
Until Next Time . . .
