Grassy Grove Calamity

 

Grassy Gove Bundle paired with Mountain Air stamp set & Harvest Dies

The greatest joys that Stampin' Up has brought me are the wonderful and supportive people that I have met - mostly in a virtual way.   We have celebrated successes, inspired each other and in the bleaker times their messages have brought love, comfort and the knowledge that I'm not alone.  And then something really magical happens and a bond forged in mutual interests and creativity develops into a warm friendship that goes way beyond card-making. 

This card was inspired by my friend RaeDeen and I really wish I'd done a better job!!

My dislike of wastage is well-documented but the embarrassing step by step photos below (which I share as a cautionary tale!) are testament to the fact that a certain amount of planning is beneficial.  My lack of planning, and poor choice of left over bits of card to use, created unnecessary challenges that kept me problem-solving each step of the way!

'Til next time
Stephanie

I hereby invite you to have some fun at my expense!

It started out OK with some sponging, white craft ink and the Mountain Air stamp

Having spent a few minutes kicking myself, I decided to rescue the piece rather than waste the card
so I proceeded to stipple the tree canopy with ink and colour the trunks with Stampin' Blends

For my next blooper!  Clearly this was not the best piece of card to have used!  A few more bruises added to my shins, another decision to not waste the card and another rescue mission required!

The ovals covered the problems at the lower extremity but that left a couple of problems to fix to the left of the card.  The Harvest dies seemed to offer the possibility of building a foreground tree with similar branches and canopy.

The "canopy" was looking a bit like a mess of green meringues so I tried to add some shading to bring it together a bit more.  I reckon I could have done a better job but at this point my problem-solving brain cells had rolled onto their backs with their legs in the air!

Crane of Good Fortune

Crane of Fortune Bundle

I was immediately drawn to this distinktive stamp set in the Mini Catalogue January to June 2022.  But, there is something about the drawing that bugs me a bit - so today I added a bit of shading to the lower part of the wing and I think it helped a bit.  

I had experimented with clear embossing the crane onto black cardstock and decided that it didn't really work (I'm going to try it on Basic Gray though!).  As you might know, I hate to waste anything, so that unfortunate crane now forms a shadow behind the star of the card.

If you're wondering about that label: I used a die from the now retired (sorry!) Vine Design Bundle and trimmed it to the size I wanted.

'Til next time

Stephanie

In The Moment by the window

 

In the moment stamp set

Oh dear, it's been a while, hasn't it!

I'm not going to make excuses - I've just been taking care of myself by removing the pressure to create, photograph and blog.  I've just returned to my craft room and am having fun with some new bits and pieces.

This is one of the images from the In The Moment stamp set.  

I stamped the image, masked it (yes, it was a little bit fiddly to cut out the window panes but not as bad as I had expected) and then stamped the trees from the Winter Woods stamp set.  I sponged the trees and sky before I removed the mask.  

Then I coloured the image with Stampin' Blends alcohol markers.

NOTE:
When I was making the mask - I extended the window panes.  Once I removed the mask, I simply extended the lines with a fine black pen.

I cut the little scene out with one of the Layering Square dies and sponged around the edges with some Smoky Slate ink.

Bye for now - I'll pop in from time to time when I feel up to tackling technology and feel I have something worthwhile to share.

See you then!

Stephanie
The Crafty Thinker