Yikes! Its been awhile since I had reason to pop in here but I’m happy to announce that my Squirrel Sisters and I are continuing our hops to encourage us to use all those supplies we have squirreled away! This year we are trying to make it easier on ourselves with prompts that aren’t too stringent and to focus on using supplies that have never been used before. That was easy for me to pick because the only crafty purchases I made last year were on Black Friday, and it was all still in a pile to be added to my Evernote inventory. While I didn’t buy much, I scored a Waffle Flower grip mat which I *knew* I had to use for this card. I grabbed a new stencil and got to work! Have a look at what I came up with:
My inspiration was making a birthday card for my son whose favorite colors are lime, black and gray/silver. Digging through the new-to-me supplies, I saw a few things I got from Stamp Anniething. The HB2U die set got me thinking about other music related supplies I have and got my wheels turning (You spin me right ’round baby right ’round, like a record baby, right ’round ’round ’round… sorry, not sorry). From there I looked at my new stencils and the one called Retro Circles, also from Stamp Anniething, made me think of record albums. Now once I stenciled Black Soot Distress Oxide through the stencil, I realized I was going to need labels to make the circles look like records. Also in the bin of new supplies was a cover die from Gina Marie Designs called Polka Dot Background Plate, which die cuts a bunch of circles within a frame that reminds me of swiss cheese, but it was the die cut circles I needed. I used paper scraps to cut a whole bunch of the smallest circles to make the labels. Then it looked weird without the hole in the center, and I didn’t trust myself to do it with a pen, so I dug through my older stash for something that would make tiny holes. I found the Halftone cover die from Altenew and cut a bunch all at once, though the time I save in die cutting I lost in gluing on all those teeny tiny dots! Of course I die cut the HB2U with the layers and music notes, but it was getting lost on the busy background. I checked my stash of previously cut shapes to use as a mat and found a stitched circle cut from vellum, which was perfect to help the sentiment pop without covering too much of that background I spent so much time on. I die cut an extra HB2U to glue underneath the vellum to help it pop off the background even more. But I felt like I needed something else. A quick search of my Evernote inventory showed a fun die set I had never used before, this one from Spellbinders, called Sing It Loud 2 that had a record die! I totally forgot I owned this 🤦♀️ but thank goodness for Evernote or else I’d have never remembered to use it! Also in inventory with a music theme was a stamp set by My Favorite Things called Keep On Rockin’, and to my credit I HAD actually used the heck out of this set when my son was younger. We made cards for every instructor he had for drum lessons, every school music teacher, marching band director, symphony director, and venue manager where his rock band played. Now it is finally getting used for the inside sentiment on his birthday card. I had an extra scrap of the stenciled background, so I added that to the inside to carry the theme, as well as another record. To give the card a final touch, I added white gel pen on the puffy looking sentiment to make them appear more dimensional, and to the records and music notes. I thought about adding Glossy Accents or Wink of Stella, but had to remind myself that the card was for a 23 year old boy. IYKYK.
Hopefully I didn’t lose you in all of that rambling (and singing), because there is way more fun to be had by hopping along and visiting the other Squirrel Sisters to see what goodies they chose to play with for the hop! There’s just 5 of us, so it won’t take you long and by the end you should be running to your craft rooms to break out *your* newest supply!!!
- Anna Mahtani
- Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
- Lounon Riviere
- Marie Bingaman
- Virginia Fairchild
Thanks for dropping by and be sure to head to Lounon’s blog, Craft Me, Craft Moi, and prepare to be wow’d! And if you didn’t arrive here by way of Anna’s blog, Crafty Anna Studio, make sure you go all the around the hop cause you do not want to miss seeing her creation!!!
Misplaced Mojo 