To Dust is a Must!!!

Now I could lie to you and tell you that as I was "dusting off my stamps" I ran across the Stampin' Up! "Garden Whimsy" set and just had to play with it. Dusting?? I'm still laughing. Ok there is a half truth to it. I did have to dust that one off to use it. I think I have to dust each one off to use them!!! I've decided that it's more fun to stamp than to dust!!! I dust when I have stampers over!!! Are you suppose to dust more often than that??? LOL Maybe I should just set a cloth by my stamps and the ones that the stampers want to use they can dust off. Then I would know the most popular stamps, right???? LOL There's got to be a better way to get around this dusting. UGH!!!

Actually I was looking though my stamps to see which ones I have to part with to make room for some new ones and this set caught my eye. I have hardly played with it at all. I bought it because I liked the flower, ladybug and the butterfly. So I've done a couple of things with that set. I will show you the card tonight and early next week I'll show you my altered letter. I can't show it to you until after the DIVA event. I don't want my fellow DIVA's to see it before Sunday!

So here's the card. Brocade blue is another color I don't use very often and it matched the circles in the decorative paper very well. Not exact but close enough. And you're probably wondering why I chose Really Rust for the flower. Well, under the flower on the decorative paper is a rust colored circle that went SO well with the flower. After assembling the card the rust was no longer visible. Oh well!!! It's not like it doesn't go with the other colors it's just that there is no other rust to tie it all together. So your eye is immediately drawn to the flower and it kind of just hangs there. This card doesn't allow your eye to move around much. I like the card layout and I think I'll do another like this but try to get the rust circle to be visible!!! It's a very easy card to make. I used Chocolate Chip card stock for the main part of the card. Using background papers really save you a lot of time stamping, especially if you are doing a lot of cards at one time.

To color this flower in I used the "Direct to Rubber" technique. You color right on the rubber with your markers. When you are done and have your card stock in front of you to stamp on, you "huff" on the rubber. The steam from your breath remoistens the ink and it's all fresh and ready to stamp. I usually hold my stamp on the card stock to the count of three. Do not rock your stamp. Lift straight up and your image should be nice and clear. I cut my card stock the same size as the wood on my rubber stamp. If the image is smaller then I can always trim it down. Cutting it the same size as the wood insures you that your paper is at least big enough. I sponged the edges after stamping the image.

The layers range from adding 1/8" larger card stock to 1/4" card stock. It's all in what the look you trying to achieve.

The "Thank You" is from a self-inking stamp I got from Vista Print.

I added some grosgrain ribbon and assembled the card. This was a pretty quick card to make. It looks like it takes a bit more time than it did but I was surprised at how fast I was able to make this card. Coming up with the idea and layout took a lot longer!!!!

Don't forget to leave your comment for the blog candy. One comment per person please, duplicates will be deleted. Drawing is Sunday night when I get back from my FABULOUS time at the DIVA event my manager has for us!!! SO much fun and I LOVE to be spoiled and she's SO good at spoiling us!!!

Thank you SO much for stopping by,

Wanda