Hello! Is Anybody Out There?

It has come to my attention today that it's been a long time since I have posted anything here. Six months to be exact. Luckily for my family, I take better care of them than I do my blog.  My only excuse is work. Since I write for a living, often the last thing I want to do in my down time is write some more. Hence, my neglected blog.

I have come to realize two things over the last few months. First, as much as I love to scrapbook, I am, first and foremost, a card maker -- by necessity. I still love to scrapbook and am working on a slew of layouts in my head. However, I can't remember the last time I sat down and created a layout. As for making cards, there always seems to be an occasion that calls for my craftiness. And, I am grateful to have the excuse to create! Last week was the first time I actually bought a card in a long time. Wow! It cost $4 for one card! Maybe this hobby is actually saving me money. (Insert laugh here!)

Anyway, I digress.

The second thing I realized is that One Little Word is not for me. Remember this post? Well, lets just say that somewhere along the way I have lost my FOCUS. At least I have been keeping my emails to under 200, mailing cards more on time and focusing on family!

I am going to try to be less absent more present here and share whatever project I am working on at any given time. And, although I haven't been blogging regularly, I have been making lots of cards so I hope to have new content here once or maybe even twice a week. Stay tuned, there may even be a giveaway here to welcome you all back!

With that said, I do have a card to share today.

I made this card as part of the Stretch Your Stamps 2 class from Online Card Classes. If you are ever looking to jump start your creativity, these classes are great. This card called for making a stamped background from alphabet stamps.

To create the card, I lined up the letters for "Welcome Baby" on my stamp press. I really like the Lawn Fawn stamps for this technique. Since each stamp is a perfect rectangle, it's really easy to line them up and the set comes with multiples of commonly used letters. (Before stamping on the background, I tested the phrase on scrap and made the necessary adjustments.) Taking a piece of white card stock cut 5.5" x  3.75, I stamped the first sentiment in the middle and then filled in the background working from left to right and up and down. Once the background was completely stamped, I used blue distress ink to color the sky.

I stamped the adorable bunny image directly onto the background (for the balloon strings) and again onto a piece of white card stock. I fussy cut the bunny and the balloons, then adhered them to the card with foam dimensional adhesive. For the grass, I used a Martha Stewart drippy goo Halloween punch.

I am going to keep the supply list pretty simple. Leave a comment if you have any questions about a specific product.

Supplies

Cardstock: Neenah Solar White.  

Pattern Paper: Lawn Fawn.

Stamps: Lawn Fawn (Milo's ABCs); Mama Elephant (Up and Away).

Ink: Memento (Tuxedo Black) Ranger Distress Ink; Assorted Copic and Spectrum Noir markers.

Misc.: Martha Stewart Punch.