Country Livin'

Every once in a while a stamp set comes along that really speaks to a person.  This is what happened to me with the Country Livin' stamp set introduced in the new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue.  It's a simple stamp set with only three images and no sentiments but as soon as I saw it I knew I would buy it.

My father-in-law was more comfortable in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat than in anything else.  He was at home on a horse and some of my favourite memories are of my daughter sitting in the saddle in front of him, learning to be easy with those wonderful, beautiful animals.  And so I had to buy these stamps.  The boots alone sealed the deal.

As Fate would have it, three challenges converged to inspire a card using this set.  As soon as I saw the challenges, I knew what I would be creating.  It was as if I had the directions in front of me and I just followed them.  And when I was finished, the card was precisely what I had imagined.

This is a one layer card and I'm so glad that Stampin' Up! carries Heavy Whisper White cardstock.  It makes a much more substantial card than the "normal" Whisper White.  My stamping would not have looked the same using another colour as base.

First I stamped the image of the boots using the Archival Basic Gray ink on the Heavy Whisper White.  Then I stamped the same image on a piece of copy paper and fussy cut it out so that I could use it as a mask, protecting the original image from the next bit of stamping.  Once the two-way glue with which I covered the back of the copy paper had dried and was merely tacky, I carefully placed it over the original image.  Then I ripped a piece out of the remainder of the copy paper, making an oddly shaped hole in it.  I used that as a mask around the boots to protect the rest of the Heavy Whisper White while I stamped the open area using the Hardwood stamp and Archival Basic Gray ink.  Taking the copy paper away, I covered the stamped area with the piece I had originally ripped out of the copy paper, masking the stamped images.  That allowed me to stamp the splatters around the images using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set and Bermuda Bay ink.

After using my Aqua Painter to watercolour the boots using Soft Suede and the Hardwood using Marina Mist, I stamped the sentiment in the bottom right corner in Soft Suede ink, using the Jar of Love stamp set.

The three challenges for which I've created this card are:

Colour Q  cQc#345 which provided me with the colours.
                                                  

"Less is More" LIM#280 which suggested the splatters to me.

The challenge this week is for a One Layer Card with the theme of 

Splatters

Stampin' Royalty SR#333 which called for a One Layer Card.   

                              One Layer Cards!

Create a card using only one layer!!!