Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Overextended

Please note: I caught an error in the numbers of 1.5" lengths you need in the text I typed last night. You actually need three 1.5" lengths, not 6. Sorry!

So last night I promised that today I would stamp something new. No problem, I thought. I knew I had a meeting of the Friends of the Library but I honestly thought it would run short and I would still have a little time to stamp. No such luck! Instead of coming home early I got home 1/2 hour late, so there was no way I was going to have time to think up a whole new card. Luckily I looked up the color challenge on SCS this morning (always artichoke and groovy guava) so that part was done. But I had no idea what to do for a layout. So I decided to do a super simple love note. These 3x3 cards are small enough not to require too much fussing, especially this one! I just grabbed a scrap of the always artichoke and cut it down to a 6x3" size. I added a 2.75" scrap of groovy guava prints double sided designer paper. I grabbed a scrap of whisper white (I don't even know what size it is -- it just looked right on the card) and stamped the flower from the Year after year set in basic brown. I grabbed my aqua painter and added in always artichoke and groovy guava to the flower image. then I edged the image in always artichoke ink, added the word window tabs and gold brads, and popped the image onto the love not with dimensionals. I then stamped the "thanks so much" sentiment from So many Sayings and the card was done!

Wanna know the coolest part? Stamping the sentiment was easy because last weekend I finally decided that I was going to take the plunge and mount each line of sayings and images from the So Many Sayings hostess set separately.
Almost from the moment demonstrators first got a preview of this hostess set they were trying to figure out if it was better to leave the set in 3 large stamps or to cut and mount each line apart. Initially I was in the "keep in together" corner, since I like using the stamp-a-ma-jig and markers. But then I started hearing about everyone's mounting ideas -- on jenga blocks, on dominoes and on square dowels -- and I realized that this really made a lot more sense. So when we went to Home Depot this weekend to check out paint, I purchased two 3/8" square dowels. Each dowel was 36 inches long and cost $0.89. Bill cut them down for me to the various sizes I needed and then I used my craft and rubber scissors to cut the stamps into lines and mount them on the dowel pieces. I LOVE the way these turned out and I know that I will be using these stamps much more often than I would have had I tried to keep the three stamps together, especially since they're absolutely the perfect size for love notes!

You can see the index side of each dowel here. In case you want to do this too, I found that I needed 5 pieces that were 1.25" in length, 3 (not 6, see note above) pieces that were 1.5" in length, and the rest that were 1 7/8" in length. What I especially love about this mounting method was that every block fit into the box and the dowels were cheap! How nice is it to get a 34 piece stamp set for less than $2.00 and still have 3 nice wood blocks left over to use for other stamps (maybe those unmounted stamps I received in a goody bag at a shoebox swap this spring?)
So there you go. Hope this helps some of you who were still struggling with this decision. See you tomorrow!
Oh yeah, one other thing. It looks as though with the exception of a few minor glitches Feedblitz is performing its function all right, so for now I'll just leave it in place as my subscription service. But Adrian asked a question in her response to my Feedblitz query that I would like to address. I have both the e-mail service and the feed service set up to broadcast only the beginning of each post. I know that some people dislike this, as they do not like to have to actually click on a blog to read the article. But I sort of look at it as a quid pro quo. I like to see who's reading the blog, something I don't get if you're merely reading an article in your e-mail or through blogger. So I write the articles and make the projects and post them here and subscribers have an option. If they want to see the full posts, they need to "visit" my blog. If not, that's perfectly OK too (I'll never know -- LOL!).
I deliberately don't have a lot of bells and whistles on the blog and I don't run any outside ads, so a visit here shouldn't be too time consuming or offensive. But that "click," which registers in my site meter and gives me feedback about where my readers are coming from and what they're reading, is the "payment" that I ask for in return for seeing the full text and photos of my posts. I know I'm unusual in doing this and it probably costs me some readers, but I guess I hope that at least some of my silly posts are worth it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for the info on the stamp mounting. I just received this set and the only way I had seen so far was on the domino's. I really like your idea, it's cheaper!!! Thanks so much for sharing and I absolutely LOVE your blog!
Ilene B.

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this mounting method. I didn't even know dowels came square! I have the stamps cut apart, but then I didn't know where to go with them. I considered purchasing cling foam and using acrylic blocks, but I really prefer my stamps mounted on wood. Home Depot will be getting a visit today. :)

With regard to the blog feed, I actually prefer the short version, because if I don't visit the blog, I can't post a comment.

Great quickie card, BTW.

Crafty Connie said...

Thank you very much for sharing your mounting information. I too think that cutting them up is the way to go. Thanks for having the courage to take the first cut.
Love your blog and all the great projects full of inspiration.

Jules said...

Thanks for sharing, I like that set better all seperate like that...so many more options! Also disregaurd what I said about feedburner...for some reason my feed is mia? Strange huh? Looks like I will be switching to feedblitz!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I wish I had seen your blocks last weekend! I had my dh cut the SU blocks into four equal parts and then mounted them on three sides of the blocks. It works, but yours are so much nicer because you can see all of the sayings at once! Great idea!!

Anonymous said...

I adore the card, it's just beautiful, and so striking with the colors. Great tip on the Hostess Set. I haven't gotten one yet, but I will and appreciate your idea.

Val said...

The information about mounting the stamp set was great! Thanks so much for the information. I wasn't very enthused about that set before, but now I can see how useful that set can be.

Renee said...

That is a great idea!! I never thought of square dowels! Thanks for the idea!!

Anonymous said...

Such a great idea, I had to cut up some dowels myself. Umm now trying to figure out which rubber goes on which block. Could you post which sayings you put on the smallest 2 sizes of blocks to make it easier? Please! I'm having so many issues trying to commit a saying to a block that they are all sitting waiting to be mounted.
Thanks