Everyone’s favorite day of the month is back again! Today is the day the Squirrel Squad shares our take on the month’s prompt, while intentionally using supplies we have squirreled away and perhaps forgotten about! Before I get ahead of myself, here is the lineup this month:

• V Fairchild
• Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
• Anna Mahtani
• Lounon Riviere
• Marie Bingaman
• Bory Yankova – skipping this month

In case you ever wondered, the themes/prompts are randomly selected from a list we generated at the end of last year. Some months it is a supply prompt, and other months it is a technique prompt, along with a theme. October’s theme and prompt is Vintage and Embellishments (the more unusual the embellishment the better!) and initially I was terrified. See, vintage is so not my thing and I didn’t think I had *anything* in my stash that would work. Then I actually started looking at my stamps and realized I could actually make vintage-y cards for days with stuff I had and forgotten about! 😄 Some supplies I picked up in mystery boxes, others in consignment sales or destash lots. Others would work if applied creatively to the theme. I made 3 projects for you but I think I could have made a dozen if I had only started sooner! Have a look at the cards:

When I dug through my stash the first stamp set I found was a Hero Arts set called Just Saying Hi with the vintage telephones. It immediately reminded me of patterned paper I have with similar phones, which I knew would look extra vintage if I distressed it with scissors along the edge, crumpled it up to make it wrinkly, and then used inks to dirty it up. Let’s take a closer look at the first one:

Distressed, vintage paper, check. Vintage image, check (heat embossed, even!). Embellishments? I knew I had some fun brads that would work great for the theme. I picked these because they also kinda looked like old time electronics buttons (to me, anyway!), and then I found this weird cloth like rhinestone-y stuff I bought thinking I would eventually find a use for it. I have a sheet with about 50 rows and have now only 48 more to go! LOL 🤣 It doesn’t show well in pics, but the circles are like concave rhinestones, which also looked buttons like to me. (Maybe I just have a button obsession… which is funny because I actually *do* have more buttons than I could ever use in my natural life span, and I didn’t think to use any on this theme 🤦‍♀️). Let’s take a look at the second card made from the same stamp set:

This checked all the same boxes, but this time I decided to use some ancient organza ribbon with an ornate button-like brad. I gathered the ribbon up between the clasps of the brad for a little flair. SIDE NOTE: I should add that all the metal on the embellishments of these two cards started out shiny, new silver which just looked wrong on the distressed backgrounds. I painstakingly colored the silver with a copper Sharpie which dulled it down to a muted gold. Its one of those things that no one knows you did it, but they would certainly notice if you had not! You know, like most housework. Next time you visit someone at their house, tell them how clean their baseboards look. I don’t know but my baseboards only get cleaned when I know company is coming! Ha ha!!!

OK, and now for something really different, take a look at the final card:

I am not going to lie to you and say this card is prettier IRL, but I will swear on my dead body that it does color coordinate better IRL. 😅 I spent WAY too much time on this card not to include it. This one morphed through 6 different shades of gold trying to match that (f#!&ing) adorable clock charm that has such a unique greenish bronze color! What I finally ended on is a ink color called Green Ochre, which really ought to be called Puke Green. *sigh*

Card details: the stamp set was a $1 deal by Forever in Time, (back when the traveling stamp shows actually had $1 deals) called Timepieces. The background is a Hero Arts stamp with the cutest name, Time to Stamp! The sentiments come from a MFT set called For the Boys. The pocket watch and sentiments are heat embossed on gold(ish) glimmer paper. I picked up a handful of these clock charms from a Scrapbook Expo show at least 10 years ago, and the chain is an even older purchase from when I thought I might enjoy jewelry making (SPOILER ALERT: I do NOT. Shame I didn’t figure that out before I bought All.The.Things. #stupidlyboughtitallbeforeeventryingit) I think I have 20 linear feet of this chain and I have now used it exactly twice for a grand total of maybe 10 inches. 🙄 Despite disliking the final card (only for its puke color), I had fun making it and I love the layout! If only that dang charm had been silver!!!

I now have a collection of other random vintage-y supplies on my desk to be put away: antique car images, keys and locks, typewriter keys and paper, camera stuff, light bulbs, old time hand tools, and random sewing themed supplies. See what I mean about how I had things that could be used on a vintage theme without actually buying them for that purpose?!? I am also thinking a floral image with patterned paper with a tiny flower, 1950ish wallpaper look would maybe work too!

OK, so now its time (pun on that last card!) to hop to the next Squirrel, which is the amazing Anna Mahtani, who I promise you would never make a card that looks like vomit. 😉 Like you, I can’t wait to see how everyone interpreted the theme and what they used for embellishments! Be sure to hop along with me to see all the vintage goodness. With only 5 of us this month, it won’t take long to click through and leave some love for these ladies who have exercised their creative muscles to make something beautiful for this month’s prompt.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and enjoy the hop!!!