Do the math.

Inside, "You're old. Happy Birthday"

This card was completed for the latest challenge at You Know You Rock. The challenge was to use a background stamp as the focal image on a card. So here's my interpretation.



I scanned this, instead of photographing. The scan distorts the colors just a tad bit; the yellow layer is more goldenrod in real life, not quite so bright yellow. The background stamp is Club Scrap, the sentiment is River City Rubber Works. The background is direct to paper Vivid inks on glossy card stock. I've got the perfect birthday coming up for this card!

A Lame Hello in Metal

The "You Know You Rock" blog challenge this month was to use metal on a project. I hemmed and hawed, and dug through my boxes of embellishments. It was pretty lean pickings, aside from snaps, eyelets, paper clips and brads. I found these metal type-writer key letters which have little pokey things on the back to grab to paper. I used my Flourishes "Poppy" set to make this card:



It qualifies for the challenge, but barely! Again, my stellar photography makes it impossible to see that the keys spell out "hello"!

Y.ou K.now Y.ou R.ock Challenge

Well, here goes. My stamping friend, Julie Koerber, has a new challenge blog. I am determined to participate, since closure of our local stamp store means no more fun classes. I hesitate only because I've seen the challenge entries already posted, and there is SERIOUS talent in these challenges.

The challenge was to create a card using an "album" cover as the jumping-off point. Being old, I chose an old disc, the Brian Setzer Orchestra's "Dirty Boogie":


After several tries, I came up with this:


I sprayed Radiant Rain (Irish Mist, Sky Blue) on 140-lb hot press watercolor paper, and wiped with a papertowel. I have not perfected the blob-less application of these beautiful glittery sprays, so wiping after applying eliminates those glitches.

The stamps are all Impression Obsession. I went with the drink theme, although I used coffee in this iteration. On the album, the smoke from a cigarette is highlighted with white; I highlighted the steam from the coffee cups with a white gel pen. It's only slightly visible. I topped the card with a Martha Stewart border punch, to add some angularity, and balanced that with the stick-on pearls, which also adds a little more white.