Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #312 - Easel Card

Time for a Tuesday Throwdown challenge, #312. Our sponsor this week is The Stamping Boutique and the challenge is to make an easel card. I must admit this is my first attempt at an easel card as I have always been intimidated because they look so complicated and we know I don't like complicated. Imagine how surprised I was that they aren't complicated at all!

I used The Stamping Boutique's Princess Jennifer Latte Bubble Bath digital stamp. Colored with trusty Copic markers, added a bit of glaze for an enameled tub look and sparkle to random bubbles with glitter.  My original thought was to mount this high on the fold with a bit of vellum. Then I realized that the Copics would show through the back in the right light. So a bit of girly pink paper to the rescue.

To make my card, I cut an 8.5 x 11" white cardstock in half the long way. Scored that at 5" and slid card up a quarter and scored one section at 3". Or as my mind thinks, scored in half, and scored one half in half. After all, who needs to remember those silly fractions. I then repeated my steps with designer vellum. Because vellum doesn't always fold cleanly, I applied more pressure than needed. Lesson learned as one of the scores bumps up a bit when flat. It's not a big deal but it bugs me and next time, I will cut the size of squares desired, rather than one continual piece.

To make the "stopper" or brace for the card to rest, I took some old fuzzy white paper, colored it with Copic marker, stamped the word "relax" (mimic those hotel bath mats with their logos), and punched
with a circle punch. Mounted on a bit of foam tape; pretty good but even I thought it was too simple.So from Monday till Saturday I stewed over what to do. In my quest, I found some old shank buttons. I cut off the shanks and lo 'n behold, we have flip flop slippers and they even coordinate with the tub!

I did a thickness test and I am happy to report this card will mail with out any special packaging or postage. That's a win in my book! Also, there is plenty of room inside the card for a special message.

If I can make an easel card, anyone can so get busy...can't wait to see those entries. If you need some fun stamps to work with, The Stamping Boutique even has some Halloween and fall images 40% off for September. Score!!!



Parting thought:
     Always trying new things is always more fun, and it can be scary, but it's always more fun in the end.

                                                                                           John Krasinski

Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #310 - School Spirit

Welcome to Tuesday Throwdown Challenge #310 - School Spirit, sponsored by MyGrafico. Please, visit their store, I promise you won't be disappointed in the wide variety of digital stamps, papers, etc. 

When I hear the phrase school spirit I automatically think of sports. Shame on me! School spirit is really about the love of learning. I am not afraid to say I loved school. Last week I believe the love of school was passed onto my grandson as he starts 4 Pre-K. I know he told every person that he saw  he was on his way to school, even the construction men working at the school. When he was picked up, he proudly declared it was his best day EVER!!  

With that in mind, I used their "books, apple and worm" digital stamp and chose to keep a primary color palette on this card with the use of blue, red, yellow Copics. A dash of green for contrast with the worm. My first sentiment thought was to use Together Everyone Achieves More which could work for academics or sports. However, I kept messing it up in one way or another. Time to rethink my strategy as too close to posting deadline for comfort. Once I stopped stressing over my lack of success, I ended up using a rub on sentiment which  I think also shows school spirit. After all, education allows you to dream big and reach goals. Here is my end result:

Thank you for stopping by, comments always welcome and hope to see you enter the Tuesday Throwdown/MyGrafico "school spirit" challenge. 

Parting thought:
"Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the 'creative bug' is just a wee voice telling you, 'I'd like my crayons back, please.'
     Hugh Magnus MacLeod of MacLeod