This week is the third STAMPtember Challenge, to use heat embossing (or a different way of coloring) for a stamped image. It is also the birthday week of the owner of Queen & Co., and Demo Donna posted a birthday card challenge.
Since the owner is the Queen of Queens at Queen & Co., I pulled out the gift those in the Queen tier (for spending way too much money), and made a card with it. Except for the white ink and embossing powder, everything used was from Queen & Co.
The inspiration for the second week of STAMPtember that I posted on the RefuPeas stamping board is to make a card with your most recently purchased stamp set. I bought a few things when My Favorite Things discontinued them, which is the last stamp purchase that I've gotten. Their Carousel Horses stamp set and matching carousel die is one of the two stamp sets that I bought with that order. I'll probably be using the other one (My Favorite Things Mermazing set) during CARDtober, since I will be a hostess again this year.
This is the first time I have actually followed the full directions. I used a couple of Silhouette print & cut files for the sentiment and the jar of flowers embellishment. The plaid paper was from Simple Stories, and the other fall print was from Imaginisce (from a long time ago).
Here is an image that shows the two different cards when you do it as per instructions:
And yes, I did all 8 cards this time, too:
I wasn't sure that I was going to like the results, but I'm actually pretty happy with how the cards turned out.
I angled the sentiment to give balance to the asymmetrical banners. Normally I like asymmetrical, but I've had some issues with vertigo lately. I wasn't sure if it was due to my balance being off, or the asymmetrical banners just made the card feel off balance. Angling the sentiment the opposite direction on the banner seemed to look better, though, and I love the fall jar of flowers print & cut. with these papers.
I kept hearing about "STAMPtember" but didn't know what it was. The name sounded like fun, perhaps challenges, but it's apparently about Simon Says Stamp (SSS) having exclusive stamp sets during September. They came up with the name STAMPtember. With DH on disability, and me his caregiver, I need to be using what I have, not buying more stamps.
I asked if anyone on TwoPeasRefugees would be interested in a no cost version of STAMPtember inspiration, just simple prompts to make something with stamps we already own and sharing them to inspire one another on the stamping board.
The prompt for the first week (Sept.1st through the 7th) is to use a stamp or stamp set that is at least 6 months old, that you have never used.
I bought this Unity stamp set sometime in 2020, or Jan. 2021 at the latest, and it has been waiting to be used ever since. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but it reminds me of dragon drawings my oldest son used to do when he was younger. He's hitting a milestone birthday and is old enough that this seemed like a fun birthday card to do for him. I had some issues with the coloring (ink pad and sponge dauber), so I used Nuvo drops to hide the mistakes and give it a little dimension. I used Wink of Stella on his wings, although you can't really see it, and I'm much happier with the end result.
The birthday print paper is Doodlebug Hip Hip Hooray paper from awhile ago. The yellow with white polka dot paper is from Queen & Co.'s Beach Bound paper pad, and I used their Foundation dies for the various card layers. The teal and green card stock are both Bazzill. The Cuddlebug Dragon and candles sentiment are from Unity Stamps. I fussy cut the dragon.
I finished this one a few days ago. I like this collar fold (a.k.a. peek-a-boo) style of card with the flaps folded back to show the B side of the paper, and also having another paper showing through. Normally it is a vertical card, with the flaps folded back from the right side of the card. See the post from my 2019 CARDtober Challenge here to see what I mean:
https://scrapnnana.blogspot.com/2019/10/cardtober-challenge-8-dimension-1.html
I decided to rotate it to the left, and make it a horizontal card. I'd put this mummy face together without any real idea of what I was going to do with it until I was looking through some past cards I'd done. Having the idea for the mummy peeking out from the opening was the start. It needed something more, so I added the die-cut and stamped tombstone, stamped bat, and banner. The mummy hands are actually tiny pumpkin die cuts, just repurposed.
The bat/spider paper is from Authentique's Twilight Collection. The tombstone paper is the Say Cheese Halloween Spooktacular paper. Both are from 2019.
I used Queen & Co.'s Make Me Up kit, and a 6x6 paper pad by Echo Park called Fashionista for this one.
I just posted a short video (only one and a half minutes long) on YouTube about how box cards have changed over the years. It shows a sampling of the box cards that I've made over that time. If you are interested in a quick little video, here is a link:
