It's the most wonderful time of the year....

The kids are back in school, there's a nip in the air, and my favorite holidays are coming closer every day! I've been stamping a lot of Christmas stuff lately, in case you haven't noticed, but I had neglected to pull out the new Halloween stuff I had gotten from the Holiday Mini until just this past week. What the heck is wrong with me?

Probably what is wrong with some of you all...occasionally you just get tired of stamping, so you let it rest a bit. At the beginning of the school year, as well, I have to swing back into my balancing act of school, church, taxi driving, and (gag) housekeeping. I can no longer wait until my daughters tell me that they have no clean socks, I actually have to make a point of at least washing school uniforms once a week. So this week I've been doing lots of laundry, clearing the backlog of stuff that has collected in the laundry room.

But I have gotten some stamping done, just not as much. This was actually my second effort with the new set "Dark & Dreary", but it is the one I'm most excited about, so I'm showing you this one first. It is what is called an easel card. You can see a tutorial on how to make one here, but I found it simple enough to figure out from a swap card I had received from Kelly Powell in the Controlfreaks Summer Mini swap.

However, I wanted to do something a little different. Instead of a square card, I wanted to make one that was long and thin...of a size to fit into one of the small open-ended envelopes we sell. Lookie:

Ingredients: Stamps - Dark & Dreary, Grateful Greetings; Paper - Nite Owl DSP, Tangerine Tango, Pear Pizazz, Basic Black, Whisper White; Ink - Basic Black, Pear Pizazz; Other - Scallop Border punch, 5/8" Basic Black satin ribbon, Scallop Rectangle Clearlit, In Color & Brights Glitter Brads, dimensionals, sponge wedge

OMGOJUS!!! (YILM!) This was fun to do and took a couple of tries to figure out, but all in a good cause, eh? I know you're gonna want the dimensions so here is the base and where it is scored:

3.25" x 11"

Score at 5" and 7.25".

The greeting piece is 1.25" x 2.75", matted on a 1.5" x 3.0" piece.

The main image mat is 3.0" x 6.25", and the pattered paper is cut 2.75" wide and layered in strips. The rest you can figure out. When folded flat, the Tangerine Tango piece continues the look of a mat all around the image piece. There is room enough when the whole thing is opened to write a small greeting and sign it. The greeting piece is popped up on dimensionals to help give the main image piece some place to rest against with the "easel" is up. Isn't it clever? I wish I could lay claim to the original idea, but instead I will be content with the awesomeness of having come up with a new format. (YILM!)

Someone asked me about the French Foliage card I posted last time and how I distressed it. I crumpled the main image piece and smoothed it out again, then went at it with the new Distressing Kit we carry. I used some of the distressing ink, the flat stamp that comes with it, plus the sanding block. I also spritzed it with the Color Spritz tool. I like the way it looks, but it's too labor intensive for a swap.

Well, must be off to do more laundry...it never stops!

Comments

[Holly/catrules]

I love this tink! Great job :)

[Cali]

Oh, I like this! I really, really like this. I looked at the tutortial - what is ScoreTape? Is it different from other two sided tapes?

[Marjori Miller]

Oh girlfriend, you should make your kids wash thier own laundry so we can see more of your stampin' talent. ;o)

My 12 yr old son has been doing his own laundry for 2 years now...got the hubs to do his own also! How? Just don't do it and when he runs out of clothes, he has to. It didn't take too long for it to become a habit for them! ;o)