Shopping My Stash

While I was sorting through some stamps recently I decided which ones--the image for the front of the card and the sentiment for the inside of the card--I'd like to use for my holiday cards, so I set those aside while making Hallowe'en cards. And, of course, promptly forgot where I'd put them.

While looking for something else entirely, I found the two stamps.

Then I took a good, hard look at the ready-made cards (and envelopes) I'd purchased some while back when I first got back into stamping (after one of those creative breaks we all seem to take). While the card stock is cut squarely (rectangularly, but all the corners square and equal and cleanly cut), the scoring is off center, and so the cards aren't neat and even. The good thing is, it's a nice layering weight. Unfortunately, however, the cards (and the envelopes, of course), are slightly smaller than the standard A2 size of 4.25x5.5.


So the next step was to decide what the finished card size would be based on the envelope size, which worked out to 4.125x5.25 (that's four and an eighth). After deciding which ink to use on the cream-colored stock, I shopped the stash for similarly colored card stock for the card base and additional layering.

I stamped the image on the cream-colored stock, trimmed closely, then layered onto the colored card stock, trimmed closely again, and layered again onto more of the cream-colored stock.

Then I cut up another piece of the cream-colored stock to layer onto the card base, stamped a background image onto it, and put the card base and the cream layer together. I then held the main image layers against the layered-up card base, and decided I needed another layer between the cream layer and the background-stamp cream layer. So I shopped the stash again for another color of card stock. More close trimming. Then I decided to make the card base match that second colored layer, and then I adhered all the layers together.

The card base is dark, so I trimmed another piece of the cream stock to go on the inside of the card for the stamped sentiment and whatever else I write inside for each recipient. And then I decided that the sentiment stamp alone wasn't enough, so I dug around and chose an image stamp to use inside, too.

Then I decided to make another test card with the same stocks, but in reverse: a different color of ink for the image, matching card stock to layer behind the image layer, then the cream again, then the different colored layer, onto the cream, onto the base.

For those of you keeping score, that's Color A ink on cream layered onto Color A card stock layered onto cream layered onto Color B card stock layered onto background-stamped cream layered onto Color B base. And Color B ink on cream layered onto Color B card stock layered onto cream layered onto Color A card stock layered onto background-stamped cream layered onto Color A base. The ink on the innards matches the ink on the front.

So now I have 40-some cards made in the two colorways, but you won't get to see them until they've been mailed out.

And the saddest part: I still haven't used up all those ready-made cards.

Two Hobbies in One!

I rode down to the Anaheim Convention Center to the Scrapbook Expo and came home with a few stamps. Found a couple of really interesting sets, but didn't realize just what I had until I got home:

Yeah: Teresa Wentzler stamps!!

Charity Baseball and Bombing Sites and The Grassy Knoll, Part 1

Three of us arrived Thursday afternoon and evening and got settled into our rooms, thanks to C, who works for the hotel’s parent company and has made us all “sisters of different mothers.” Didn’t do much Thursday evening except catch up on chatter and rest after the travels (C from Kansas City; MH from Denver; Yours Truly from Anaheim). Friday saw us transported via hotel shuttle van to a bus stop which took us to the transit center in “Dowtown” OKC.

From there we walked up to the site of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building. Our journey took us right by this piece on the grounds of the Old St Joseph Catholic Church.
This was placed on the site of the destroyed rectory. We mostly skipped the outdoor part of the memorial because of the rain and headed straight into the building which houses the museum. Enlightening and moving. This glass piece is in the museum gift shop; no photography, with or without flash, is allowed inside the museum.
Then we headed back outside and roamed around the site of the Murrah building itself. These "bookends" are on the sites of the crosswalks across 5th St, one labeled 9:01 and the other labeled 9:03. The blast was at 9:02.
The reflecting pool occupies what once was 5th St in front of the Murrah building. This blast-damaged fire escape was across the street from the Murrah building, in the building which now houses the museum (to the left and out of frame in this photo). Below is a view of the memorial chairs, one for each person killed in the bombing, one row for each floor of the building, viewed from the 9:01 bookend, in the rain as we crossed the site to the museum entrance.

After that we headed back to the transit center to catch another bus so we could do a bit of shopping, since we’d all arrived wearing/transporting spring/summer clothes and had decided we needed umbrellas and long-sleeved shirts or lightweight jackets. I got to visit a Hobby Lobby—only the second time I’ve ever been in one—and couldn’t find a thing to interest me! Only visited the papercrafting (scrapbooking, which I don’t do but do use papers and tools, and stamping) and not the stitching. And didn’t find a thing that wanted to come home with me. Okay, I didn’t look that closely at the papers, since that would be harder to transport without proper packaging. And while we ended up not needing the umbrellas, the long-sleeved shirts/lightweight jackets came in handy. Even when I got home!