We're back after a long weekend of traveling to a family graduation; I checked my e-mail only twice for about 10 minutes total--can you believe it? Of course, I'm SO far behind in answering e-mail that I'm tempted to do a "select all" and "delete" and just start fresh. :-D (No, I won't really do that.) My husband has the wood boiler fired up again, and our house (that was well under 60 degrees when we came home) is starting to warm up nicely. So I'm back into the fray!
First I want to thank those of you who sent me links to where you found that threading water punch; that was so sweet of you! I have already given my CC information to one place that I ordered it from, however, so I'd probably better wait to see if they come through. Thank you for your help though!
I needed a boy card tonight and chose my PaperTrey Pond Life set with its adorable little fish. I first stamped a polka dot pattern on Aqua Mist cardstock with the Polka Dot Basics set. I find it simplest to align the polka dots when I use a gridded acrylic block. I lay my stamp on the grid very carefully so that I can follow the lines on the grid to stamp my dot pattern. If you notice in the picture below, my grid aligns to the cardstock on the bottom and left edges. (The angle of the picture skews it a bit, but it does align on the edges from directly overhead.) For my next stamped image, I can align the same lines that are aligned at the edge of the paper in this version as well.
Here's what my dotted background looks like. I almost always stamp a larger background than I need so that I can make the dots run out fairly evenly on opposing sides when I trim the cardstock, and so that I can pick the best areas in case I have any lighter areas. I did not stress over placement, and my dot pattern isn't perfect. But it's close enough to look good on a card front.
Next, after cutting the cardstock to 3-1/8" x 6-3/8", I penciled in three marks as guides for my 1-3/8" circle punch. (I used circle dies probably 95% of the time, but occasionally something is simpler with a punch.) I pushed the punch up as far as it would go onto the cardstock, then centered these lines inside the punch.
Next, I placed foam tape on the back side of the mat layer since I wanted it to float above the base layer a bit.
The white cardstock base is cut 6-1/2" square, then scored at 3-1/4". I peeled the papers off of the backs of the foam tape bits, then placed it down on the base card layer. Next I inked the fish stamp with two colors of chalk ink, Mango Madness over the whole fish, then Pumpkin Spice over just the lower edges and tail.
After stamping all three goldfish, I used the Aqua Mist ink and the bubbles stamp to add bubbles, rotating the stamp each time for a bit different orientation of the bubbles.
For the sentiment I used some Summer Sunshine twill and stamped it in Versamagic Turquoise Gem ink. I first cut my twill as long as I needed it to be in order to tie a knot, then taped it down to my desk so that it wouldn't shift while I stamped it. Again, a grid block is very helpful in getting sentiments straight. After letting the "birthday fishes" sentiment from the Pond Life Sentiments set dry for a couple of minutes, I tied my knot and stamped an inside sentiment. That's it--a simple boy's card. If you wanted to kick it up a notch, you could turn it into a gel card as Nichole did here. Another option would be to put a transparency layer on the back of the Aqua Mist layer for aquarium walls. I really love this Pond Life set, having very few sets that are boy-appropriate.
Thanks for visiting!
