Welcome back to another installment of Squirrelz Stash Bash. And not just any installment, but the first of 2023!!! We’re all getting a little bit busier these days, so to make things more doable we’re making a teeny tiny change. If you came here from my sweet friend Anna’s amazing blog, I’m so glad to have you here! And if you are already a follower, I’m so thankful to see you again!!! If you are new here, the Squirrelz Stash Bash is a small monthly hop where my friends and I, a.k.a. the Squirrel Squad, make cards based on a monthly theme with the goal of using supplies we’ve been “squirreling away” and have neglected. In years past, our monthly prompts had 2 components: a required theme and a randomly selected supply type or technique. Having to combine both was sometimes very challenging. Several of my talented squirrel sisters are doing design work for companies these days, so to free them up we’re making a slight change. The monthly prompt will still be a required theme, but the randomly selected supply / technique will now be optional. To kick off the new year, the prompt for January is Love / Friendship and the suggested technique this time is ink blending.
Before I get ahead of myself, let me share the hop list with you. There’s just a handful of us, so it makes it easy to see all the interpretations of the monthly prompts! I’m sure the girls will wow you with their talent, like always!
- Anna Mahtani
- Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
- Lounon Riviere
- Marie Bingaman
- V Fairchild
- Bory Yankova – skipping this month
Ok, so although the technique is optional, my silly brain went all in on the ink blending and almost forgot to incorporate the actual theme. Ever have a time where your brain is just so insistent on something that it neglects to consider other alternatives? I kinda knew I wanted to use a new to me stamp set I received for Christmas (Hero Arts Little Buddy) before it was squirreled away and forgotten about. Have a look at how my cards turned out:
I say I went all in on the ink blending because I immediately had the idea to ink blend both a background, but to use the ink blending as a way of coloring too. I started by stamping the images and heat embossed them, knowing I would be ink blending to color them with Distress Oxides. I used a handful of browns for the squirrels, acorns, and branches, blending until I was happy. I used new to me dies from Gina Marie Designs for the panel layer and sentiment layer. I applied masking tape to protect the edges of the panel, and then used another handful of Oxides in pretty colors to create the backgrounds directly on the panel, blending the inks with makeup brushes. I used grass slimline stencils from Stamp Anniething to ink blend some details on both panels. I wiped all the extra ink from the images, expecting the heat embossing to show through with its glossy finish, which it did not, which surprised me! It was not a showstopper though, and the embossing still provided a raised line to assist in fussy cutting. The squirrels were easy to snip out, but we will not talk about how long it took to cut out those oak branches! Assembly came together easily with parts of the branch glued flat to the panel and the acorns being popped up on foam tape for dimension, as was the sentiment. Here is a closer look at each card:
Don’t look too closely at these cards because they have more than a few flaws. In fact, you’d swear these cards were actively trying to thwart their own creation. Crafting only once a month is making me rusty and I made multiple rookie mistakes and wasted valuable time. I tell you this so that if you too have days where you make more garbage than projects, you are not alone! I have misplaced my mojo many times, but I always find it again… eventually!
Time to hop on over to my good friend Lounon’s blog, Craft Me Craft Moi, where there is no lack of mojo or talent! I’m heading there myself as I’m excited to see what she, and the others, have made this time!!! Thank you so much for visiting!
Misplaced Mojo 