Short List

The guy I was complaining about yesterday is today's hero. As I was chipping away at the list of things I had to do, he told me to work on the stuff that only I could do (like dealing with my clothes) and leave the rest for him tomorrow. Today, he said, was my day to relax and do what I wanted to do. With that statement, my list became considerably shorter. He's a nice guy. He just bugs me once in a while. I think I've mentioned that before.

My card was inspired by a card I saw earlier today somewhere out in the blogosphere. I'm not going to take the time to search for it, because the only similarity between my card and the mystery stamper's card is that the focal point image is a magnet. Our magnets are miles apart, too. Hers, as I remember, is a laboriously colored basket of apples in a gorgeous soldered frame. Maybe you saw it. My magnet is a simply stamped image behind a Window Charm. It's kind of like comparing a Mercedes Benz to a go cart.

As for the details of my little "go cart," I inked by stamp up with Goldrush ink and then used sponge daubers to add Autumn Terracotta and Cranberry ink. While I'm a big fan of the stamp rolling technique for leaves, I like using sponge daubers more if I'm going for subtle coloration. I lightly sponged Autumn Terracotta around the edges of my square and then used a speckled background stamp with Bamboo ink to soften it up. I used the Basic Grey Magnetic Snaps, sandwiching the negative half of the snap between the brown and gold pieces and adding the positive half to the back of the stamped image. The only trick was center the magnetic pieces so that the image/magnet was centered on the background pieces. What one could do if they wanted to give someone a card that would remain intact, once the magnet is removed, is to stamp duplicate images. Why do I have all these great ideas after the fact?

Materials & Tools: Colonial White, Barn Red, Goldrush, and Chocolate Cardstock; Harvest paper packet (retired); Chocolate, Goldrush, Autumn Terracotta, and Cranberry ink pads; Nature's Vein and Stampendous Holiday Words stamp sets; Speckled Background stamp (retired); Window Charms; Basic Grey Magnetic Snaps; Antiqued Copper mini brads; Stampin' Up Word Windows punch; Sponge daubers.

I'm still glued to television news and spent a limited amount of time reading the news and checking out reactions. I even ventured into the political blogosphere. I didn't go too far, however. There are an awful lot of extremists out there from both sides of the aisle. I'm glad I'm only an extremist stamper and that my political views, while I definitely lean, are not so radical.

Short list or not, this is it for me tonight. I've got some work-related things to do and a favor to do for a friend which involves a little design work for some gifts she wants to make. I hope the rest of your week is wonderful. I'll catch you later.