Plumber Thank You

I was in a race to make this card today. Unfortunately, my hubby discovered that one of our toilets was leaking so we needed a visit from the plumber, which was scheduled this morning. Fortunately, the plumber is a neighbor from down the block who is really cool and has a great sense of humor. As he was working, I decided that I wanted to make him a quick thank you card. I finished it, but just barely. He works fast!

I saved time by using Cathy's  really cool sketch from this week's splitcoast sketch challenge. It's a straightforward sketch which makes it perfect to make quick cards - I love it.

I embossed about half of the front of the kraft card base with the Measuring Tape embossing folder by Sizzix and added a piece of retired SU designer paper to the other half. (This scrap of designer paper is so old - it dates back to when SU sold single sided designer paper - wish I could remember what it was called). I found another scrap of retired SU designer paper for the center rectangular panel and mounted it on a mat of dusty Durango card stock before attaching both to the card front. I stamped the tools and saying form the Guy Greetings set on a scrap piece of manila folder in soft suede ink and die cut it with a framelit from the starburst assortment, attaching it to the card front with dimensionals. Finally, I stamped the sentiment form the Plane and Simple set on another scrap of manila folder and punched it out with the word window punch before mounting it on a mat made of a piece of not quite navy card stock punched with the modern label punch.

It's a pretty simple card but I think our neighbor will appreciate it, especially knowing it was made while he was working. I had fun making it and this was the best reason to make a card, even if I had to rush.

Recipe:

Paper: manila folder, dusty durango, not quite navy, SU retired designer papers, kraft card base from Neutral Smooth A2 cards and envelopes assortment by Darice
Ink: Soft Suede
Stamps: Guy Greetings, Plane and Simple
Accessories: Starburst Framelits assortment, word window punch, modern label punch, measuring tape embossing folder by Sizzix

Organic Thanks

The "try a new technique" challenge on Splitcoast Stampers today asked us to use salt and glossy card stock to make a background. I tried, but the end result was rather disappointing. Maybe it was the fact that the only salt I had was table salt, or maybe it was trying to dry the cardstock with a heat tool instead of waiting patiently, but when I scraped off the salt it left no evidence of its presence behind. That's the bad news.

The somewhat better news is that the background itself was a salvageable soft watercolor, so I decided to use it anyway. I was already combining today's challenge with last week's color combo challenge, and since the salt thing went bust I decide to add in last week's sketch challenge and last week's ways to use it challenge by heat embossing the images from the Organic Grace set and the sentiment from the So Many Sayings set with wild wasabi embossing powder.

I cut out a portion of the background and used it for the panel on which I stamped the fern. I stamped the sentiment on a strip of glossy cardstock that I colored with daffodil delight ink and an aquapainter. I stamped the dragonfly on a piece of glossy card stock as well, colored it with pacific point ink and an aquapainter and fussy cut it out so I could mount it to the background panel using dimensionals. I like the final product, I only wish I had actually managed to make the salt technique work.

Recipe:
Paper: glossy white, daffodil delight, wild wasabi, pacific point
Ink: daffodil delight, wild wasabi, pacific point, versamark
Stamps: Organic Grace, So Many Sayings
Accessories: Aquapainter, wild wasabi embossing powder