Thank You Chair & Going Too Far!

  Well I did get some stamping done over the weekend but it was mostly working on my March Christmas card for the Christmas Card Challenge so they aren't finished yet but I'll be sure to show the design once once I've got everything put together.  I did get to some stamping last night while DH was out playing hockey.  I started with the Mojo Monday sketch challenge.  It took me a while to get through this one and I think I went one step too far but it was too late to do anything about it (more about that later!).  Overall, I like the design and it's fun to keep adding to a card and trying things out without having to think, "do I have enough of this or that to use in a class?" or "there are just way too many steps for 15 stamping ladies to do!" or if something is retired. 

  I just got Have a Seat last month and it hadn't seen any ink yet so I grabbed that one after my first attempt with another set failed---we won't even go into that.  I stamped the chair with Early Espresso and then punched it out with the 1 3/4" circle punch.  I layered that onto a 2 3/8" Soft Suede scallop circle.  And here is where I went a little nuts with the embellishments.  I put little pearls on each scallop and then made a quick little flower embellishment.  The Rose Red flower is actually one of the retired felt pieces from a year or 2 ago (I think they are called Flower Fusion but don't hold me to it, all I know for sure is that I have a whole bunch left in an adorable tin).  Then I punched out a little flower in Crumb Cake with the Itty Bitty Punch shapes and layered that on top.  The final touch to my little flower is a pearl studded Vintage Trinket brad.  Where in the Stampin' Up Idea Book & Catalog would one find a pearl studded Vintage Trinket brad you might be asking?  Well, it's actually a medium sized adhesive Basic Pearl on the little button brad from the Vintage Trinket collection!!  Super cool huh?  I also did the same thing on the ends of the banner.  The banner by the way was made with the Petal Cone die in the Occasions Mini catalog; it has a cute little banner as part of the die.

  All the layers of Very Vanilla are sponged lightly with Crumb Cake ink.  The banner and the chair are both popped on dimensonals.

  Now onto the "she just didn't know when to stop" and "too much of a good thing" part of my card.  So when you look at the sketch on the Mojo Monday blog (see link above) you'll see that little flourish peeking out from under the focal panel.  Well I had everything on my card but my chair and decided that I wasn't following the sketch just right if I left off that feature.  So I dug around in my stamps and the only thing that would remotely work as a flourish was the big swirl from Baroque Motifs.  Generally I LOVE this stamp so I thought it would work o.k. even though it seemed a bit too organic (if that's the right word) for a card featuring a chair.   Well, I was determined to have a flourish so I inked up part of the stamp using my Versamarker since I didn't need the whole thing just a little piece.  I stamped it on my card and embossed with clear embossing powder since I just wanted a hint of flourish....well as you can see it totally doesn't work, I stamped it partway on the Rose Red panel (should have used the Stamp-a-ma-jig!),  it's too light... basically a mess.  But everything was already put together and it was late and I wasn't about to cut new paper and start again so.....it is what it is. 

  So the stamping moral of the story is; sketches are just starting points, they are to be tweaked and adjusted for your particular project and available supplies and sometimes it's just better to leave well enough alone and go to bed!

Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

Stamps: Have a Seat, Baroque Motifs


Ink: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Paper: Very Vanilla, Elegant Soiree DSP, Soft Suede, Rose Red textured, Crumb Cake


Accessories: Petal Cone Die, 1 3/4" circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, dimensionals, Vintage Trinkets, Basic Pearls, Flower Fusion felt flower, Itty Bitty Shapes punch, Versamarker, clear embossing powder, Scallop Edge punch