Creative Accents May Stamp of the Month

As part of my Design Team commitment at Creative Accents, I'm required to make some card samples once every few months for their Stamp of the Month.  Well, it's not really much of a hardship, especially when I get to work with a beautiful background stamp like this one from Hampton Arts:

This first card is 4x4, and I just used some black ink to stamp the background image on a panel, then brayered and sponged over it with some Fired Brick and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  The patterned paper is from a BoBunny line called Serenity (GORGEOUS!!!) and I used a new Spellbinders/Page Maps die to cut paper for the sentiment.  Seems like I'm seriously lacking in small sentiments, so I just spelled out "hi" with TLC stickers.  The twine is from a roll I have sitting in the big mess of stuff on my scrap table, not sure where it came from, but I liked the olive green with the papers.  There you have it, easy peasy and reproducible at a moment's notice!

I loooooove how this second one turned out!  Let's see, I inked the stamp with some old turquoise pigment ink I had from Colorbox (I really had to work the petal on this one, as it was almost dry!) and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  Then I just brayered over it with black to make this beautifully vibrant panel.  I inked up a matching strip of paper, stamped a sentiment, and cut it into a little banner shape (which it looks like I cut off when I cropped the photo, oops!), added a little twine bow, and she's done!  I think I might make another one exactly the same for my MIL for Mother's Day.

I have to interrupt this regularly scheduled program to tell you about a stinkin' hilarious book I'm reading right now:

I've read some of Susan Juby's other books, and they were really funny, too (even her memoir, which describes her life as a teenage alcoholic in Northwestern BC).  Anyway, if you do take my suggestion and read this book, I suggest you don't do it in public, because it can get a little embarrassing!  I was reading it at judo the other night, and luckily there weren't many parents around, because I was actually laughing out loud!  I tried covering my face a bit, and biting my lip, but I just couldn't help it.  Hopefully none of the kids thought I was laughing at them, might be a bit of a blow to the ego.

Speaking of blows to the ego, yesterday morning Nolan looked at me with real concern and told me how my skin is very pale and I have dark circles under my eyes - he thinks I need more sunlight!  The sad thing is, I've definitely looked worse!

I need your advice about a hypothetical situation (actually, it really happened, but I'd like to pretend that it's hypothetical):  what would you do if your child was walking home from the bus and someone (another kid, who should know better but probably doesn't) threw rocks at them, hitting them in the back of the head and the butt?  Nolan wanted me to call the police, but I finally settled on the principal.  She said she'd handle the boy (and his sister, who I think of as the ring leader), but, sigh...  it just kind of weighs on my mind.

And my Nana is another weight on my mind.  My dad's mom is 91 and has had pretty good health up until her 80's, when she fought and defeated breast cancer.  But my dad told me yesterday that she had a couple of strokes and is in the hospital, poor thing.  I guess she still has all her faculties, but is partially paralyzed on the one side and talking with a slur.  I bet my dad would love to go over to Australia to see her, but I don't think he can fly due to the blood clots he had in October.  

Anyway, didn't mean to turn this into more of Roxy's Rambles, but it kind of ended up that way.  Hope everyone has a great day, and hope you're able to get some craft time in!