Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge #2

Wow! What a wonderful opening week for the new teaching blog, http://www.stamping411.blogspot.com/ As a member of the design team, I am so thankful for all of you who not only stopped by to visit, but actually played along last week with the sketch. I hope you'll be inspired again and join us this week too!

Here is my interpretation of this week's sketch. I turned to several items that are soon to be retired from Stampin' Up! - two of my favorites like the stamp set "Just B" and the Rockabilly Designer Series Paper.

As you can see this sketch is in the 'portrait' orientation and I went with it as is. Sometimes I will turn a sketch depending on the stamps and embellishments used, but this week I kept it simple.

My card base is made with Baja Breeze cardstock. I cut an entire 8 1/2" x 11" sheet in half lengthwise to obtain a piece that is 4 1/4" x 11" long. I then scored the piece in the middle at 5 1/2" with the scoring blade on my paper cutter. Sometimes when cardstock is cut against the grain, it can be hard to obtain a nice fold without scoring it first. The way to tell if cardstock is "with the grain" is to bend the whole sheet gently one way, then the other. The side that bends easiest is the one that is optimum for an unscored fold.

Next, I cut two pieces of the Rockabilly Designer Series Paper. The top piece is cut at 4" x 1" and the bottom piece is 4" x 4 1/4". I used SNAIL adhesive to attach them to the folded card base.

The seam of the two papers is covered with a piece of Sticky Strip Adhesive. I then took my Chunky Black Glitter and poured it out on top of the exposed Sticky Strip. Using my finger, I mashed the glitter into the adhesive, making sure to cover the entire piece well. I then brushed off any excess with the brush that came with my Powder Pals trays.

I then went to work on my focal point image. Using Whisper White cardstock, I cut the top piece at 2 1/2" x 3". The layers are measured as follows: Basic Black - 2 5/8" x 3 1/8"; Baja Breeze - 2 3/4" x 3 1/4"; Riding Hood Red - 3" x 3 1/2". Most of the time, I just cut larger pieces at 1/4" intervals allowing for a 1/8" mat under each, but for this design it looked nicer with just the 1/16" mat for the middle two pieces.

To stamp the focal point, I inked up the large "B" stamp with Riding Hood Red ink. It is stamped a bit to the right of the cardstock, allowing the "way to" stamp to be placed nicely to the left of the "B". I stamped that in Baja Breeze ink. After adhering all my layers together with SNAIL adhesive, I used my 1/8" hole punch and placed the hole for the Rhinestone Fire Circle Brad. I punched through all the layers because when the brad prongs are folded down, they wouldn't mar the front of the top layer.

Lastly, I took my Scalloped Oval Punch and punched out a scrap piece of Baja Breeze cardstock. Then I inked up the "fabulous" stamp with Riding Hood Red ink and stamped it onto a scrap of Whisper White cardstock. Then, I punched it out with my Large Oval Punch. (Here is the trick to getting evenly stamped punches - stamp the image first onto scrap cardstock then, holding your punch upside down so the "window" is facing up, insert your stamped scrap piece into the punch, line it up and punch! It really is that easy and saves you lots of frustration - ask me how I know!)

Once I had the piece punched out, I took my Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker and gently edged the oval with the brush tip, creating a subtle border. This piece was then adhered to the punched scallop with more SNAIL. To attach it to the card, I placed Stampin' Dimensionals on the back and mounted it in place.

I hope you like my creation today and if you do, leave me some love with a comment, ok? I love hearing from my readers! Be sure to go over to the Stamping 411 blog and view the other design team members cards as well. Detailed instructions for their projects will be found on their individual blogs. And, YOU can play along with us too! Take the sketch challenge and run with it. We'd love to see how YOU interpret this fun design with YOUR creativity!

You can post a link to your card to http://www.stamping411.blogspot.com/ by using the Mr. Linky Widget provided. Be sure to use the sketch # in your link - it's SSC102.

Happy Stamping everyone!

~~Robin