Sausage Anyone? LOL

Hello and thanks for coming back! I hadn't posted anything lately, and I was worried that any blog followers might lose interest (while I was busy creating March sneak peeks for Clear Dollar Stamps). But, I was able to play along with the Clear Dollar Stamps Weekend Color Challenge over on Paper Craft Planet this weekend, and Laurie Wilson is hostessing and substituting for Alex Maldonado (my fellow design team member), who is sick with bronchitis. Laurie chose the following colors: Pink Pirhouette, Regal Rose and Baja Breeze with white as an optional neutral.

I have four stamping friends with March birthdays, and I wanted to use the pig in the CDS "Farm Critters" stamp set for one of the birthday cards...turns out Laurie used the same pig stamp for color challenge sample. But what better stamp to use for those two shades of pink, other than a pig? Anyway, I wanted to created my own designer paper for the card, and I wracked my brain trying to come up with some to stamp a background with, that would tie in with a pig. Then, I had light bulb moment! I had a sausage stamp! I had never inked it up, but decided to go ahead and use it for the background stamping for this card. The sausage stamp comes from a Stamp of the Month stamp set from Clear Dollar Stamps. I thought that the whole concept of a pig, sausage and oinking worked, quite well! LOL Okay...the deets:

Stamps Used: Clear Dollar Stamps "Farm Critters" and "May 2008 Stamp of the Month" Stamp Sets
Cardstock: Colormates Light Pretty Pink and Dark Pretty Pink Cardstock, Paper Trey White Cardstock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze Ink
Markers: Copic Sketch Markers: RV11 Pink, RV23 Pure Pink, R29 Crimson, BG000 Pale Aqua, BG72 Ice Ocean, Signo White Gel Pen
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Regular Round Dies, Nestabilities Large Pinking Circles, Marvy Mega and Large Circle Punches, Piercing Tool, Karen Foster Click-It Hole Punch Kit, Tsukineko Sponge Daubers, Sewing Machine, Thread, Adhesive, Zots, American Crafts Dimensionals, American Crafts Photo Anchor & Brad, Pink Twine, Spare Parts Buttons, Judi Kins Diamond Glaze
Technique: Basic Stamping, Sponging, Paper Tole, Machine Stitching, Paper Piercing, Copic Coloring and Blending

DIRECTIONS:
A card base was cut to 7.5" wide x 8" high from Paper Trey White Cardstock and set aside. Four rectangular mats were cut for the card front to size: White to 3.75" wide x 8" high, Light Pretty Pink 3-3/8" x 7.5" high, Dark Pretty Pink 3" wide x 7-3/16" high, and the smaller white 2/75" wide x 7" high. Using the smaller white rectangular mat, I stamped random sausages using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored with Copic Sketch markers. Using Judi Kins Diamond Glaze, I applied glaze to each sausage to create a glazed, elevated effect.

The pig image was stamped onto Paper Trey White Cardstock twice and colored identically with Copic Sketch Markers and blended, as well. One of the colored pig images was cut out using the Nestabilities Regular Round Die, and then using a Tsukineko Sponge Dauber, I moderately sponged around the edge of the die cut circle using Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze Ink, and then when dry, using a Paper Piercing Tool, I pierced around the circle edge to embellish. I punched a mat out of the Light Pretty Pink Cardstock using a Marvy Mega Circle Punch, and then cut a larger circular mat using the Nestabilities Large Pinking Circle Die out of Dark Pretty Pink Cardstock. Using a Signo White Gel Pen, I dot doodled each pinking point on the larger mat. I then cut out the second stamped, colored pig and popped it up over the underneath stamped, colored pig, using American Crafts Dimensionals. I then glued the colored image mat, to the larger light pink mat and then to the darker pink mat and set aside.

The sentiment was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink onto Paper Trey White Cardstock using the Nestabilities Regular Round Die, and then using a Tsukineko Sponge Dauber, I moderately sponged around the edge with Stampin' Up! Baja Breeze Ink, and paper pierced around the edge to embellish. I cut two pink mats to enhance the sentiment using Nestabilities Regular Round and Large Pinking Round Dies. I paper pierced around the lighter pink mat edge, and then using the Signo White Gel Pen again, dot doodled around the pinked points on the larger pink sentiment mat. I glued the sentiment circle to the two pink circular mats and set aside.

I did something that I don't normally like to do. I took the sentiment "Something to Oink About" and it cut it apart to "free" the "oink" word. I wanted to stamp "Oink" randomly in between the sausages on the background stamped mat. So, using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink again, I randomly stamped "Oink" in between some of the sausages.

I punched two circles using a Marvy Large Round Punch, and tied two buttons from Spare Parts two the punched pink circles with pink jewelry twine...tying each button with a bow.

Using my Janome Hello Kitty sewing machine ; ) I machine stitched around all four sides of the lighter pink card front mat and then again on the inner white, stamped and colored "sausage and oink" mat using straight stitches and alternating with a zig-zag stitch. If you look closely, you'll see where I messed up and stitched the straight stitch with a tighter stitch in two areas. Oh well...it is handcrafted, right? LOL

Okay, to finish up the card. I popped up the stamped, colored and matted pig image onto the card front using American Crafts Dimensionals. Adding an American Crafts Decorative Photo Anchor and Matching Brad, I punched a hole through the card front and anchored the pig mat to embellish. I adhered the two button circles to the card front using Zots adhesive and then adhered the stamped, matted sentiment circle using American Crafts Dimensionals, again. To complete the card, the card front was glued to the 7.5" wide x 8" high card base.