A Celebration No Matter the Season!

And, another year is coming to a close. How does that happen? As I always say “in a blink.” It’s always fun to reminisce about the year that is passing and celebrate the beginning of a new one. When I first saw the Brutus Monroe December Stamp Club set my first thought was New Year’s — so with that in mind I got to work on a greeting card and a planner clip.

Keeping it pretty simple as usual…am I stuck in a rut, I wonder. Oh, I hope not…but I certainly do like to use vintage inspired papers and ribbons. Of course, I used the Brutus Monroe Detail Ink in Raven and on heavy white coverstock I stamped Champagne or Bubbly Cider bottles and glasses. I like the idea of two glasses in the finished cards and clips — so I stamped twice as many of those as bottles. (Did I really have to spell that out for you? Once a teacher…the rest you know!) I’ve said it before but it worth repeating — the Detail Ink is fabulous. I have been playing with some water colors these past few weeks and no matter how wet the project gets the Detail Ink doesn’t budge. That makes me happy — one less thing to fret over. Back to the task at hand —I used colored pencils — fairly simple — like I did with the Merry Selfie pieces I shared a few weeks past. I also punched up the coloring a bit with dots and dashes of silver and gold shimmer pens. I fussy cut each piece after they were colored, cutting a bit closer than usual for this project since I was squeezing lots of shapes into a tiny space. 

Then came the fun — I wanted to give the essence of a popping cork and a fountain of champagne. I used glittery holiday ribbon from my stash and curled it with the blade of my scissors. You know…we learned how to do that in school when we were six, right? I secured the curls to the back of the bottle. I wrapped and tied an organza ribbon to the front pocket card first and then taped the bottle in place, making sure the curling ribbons were coming out of the top of the bottle. I tucked the ribbon ends under the neck of the bottle and followed up by taping the two clinking glasses in place. For the card, I spritzed a bit of Liquid Elements in Guilded on a card back and when it was dry positioned the first pocket card and then taped the decorated card in place. (I did notice that the gold spray was not as visible as it had been on previous projects. Then I realized that I was using a different linen weave textured paper as my card back — I think it is much more absorbent than the smooth coverstock I usually use. Note to self — pay attention to the texture of the paper I am using. Different textures call for different techniques.) Did I mention that my pocket cards were cut from 110 pound cover stock that I had printed using patterns from my planner stickers in my Etsy shop? Well, there I just did — and they are cut to 3 inches x 4 inches and I rounded the corners with a paper punch. Clearly I love pocket cards!

The same components were used for the oversized planner clip — just a different configuration and no organza or twine bows. I sandwiched a large paper clip to the cards. It looks so cute popping out over the week in both my Happy Planner and Erin Condren planners. Since my planners live on my desks, I don’t have to worry about the fragility of things I decorate them with — so the ribbons aka champagne bubbles are safe and sound.

I love the seasonless nature of this stamp set. Yes, it’s really fun for New Year’s; but by changing up the colors of your background paper and using blue, yellow or red glitter ribbon and a happy birthday sentiment you’d have a great card for a birthday no matter the season. How will you use the stamp set? What fun — a monthly stamp surprise that comes directly to your mail box! Can’t wait to see what 2017 holds in store! “Cheers to the New Year!”

As you may know, I had the good fortune to be a member of the Brutus Monroe Inspiration Team in 2016. I thought it would be fun to share my posts from that blog with all of you here. Hope you enjoy!