back to stamping...

Ever so often I seem to lose my mojo and go a week or two without stamping anything that isn't for business. The last couple of weeks have been one of those times. Hope you all didn't give up on me.

Since I hadn't stamped in FOREVER, or so it seems, I needed a little inspiration. I find that card sketches are always a good way to get me going so I turned to Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday sketch. Her sketches always get me going. Combine that with Emily, over on SCS, color challenge and I could stamp a card with a lot of the thinking already done for me. Also in the back of my mind was the fact that I wanted to do a card for Operation Quiet Comfort. Cards that are sent to wounded soldiers in field hospitals.

I didn't do anything really tricky with this card, though I did tone down the brightness of the pumpkin pie ribbon by sponging it with a little chocolate chip classic ink. All of the layers are stamped with the weathered background stamp inked with chocolate chip classic ink but stamped off multiple times, so basically just with a dirty stamp, then the edges were sponged with the chocolate chip ink as well. I really needed brown brads for this card and since SU doesn't sell any I used a little trick I learned online. I took some silver brads, roughed them up a little bit with a sanding block, dipped them in chocolate chip craft ink then embossed them with clear embossing powder. You gotta be really careful that you don't burn yourself when you heat up the brads, but tweezers work really well to protect your fingers.

What I used:
A Light unto my Path stamp set, Weathered background stamp
Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White card stock
Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky classic ink pad
Chocolate Chip craft ink
silver brads
Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon
clear embossing powder and heat tool
sponge