The Stubborn stamper

Hello crafting pals!

Crafting isn't all skipping through the tulips is it? Sometimes, we want to do something that just doesn't seem that possible. But crafters are obstinate folk (or is that just me?!) and when we want to produce the thing in our heads, we will darned well produce the thing in our heads!

Take this card for example:

A perfectly reasonable-looking card you'd say - or at least I hope you would! Well, this innocent-looking card has been responsible for sleepless nights and some very ink-stained fingers! It all started with this gorgeous colour challenge from the As You See It challenge:

Despite all the talk at AYSI about summery colours, I felt this palette was perfect for a 'midnight over the city' Christmas card I'd been planning with my new Cityscape stamps from Clearly Besotted! The problem? I had no Pretty Peacock ink and nothing even vaguely resembling it amongst my new Stampin' Up ink pads. I did have an Island Indigo reinker though! Great for the background - but when it came to inking up the stamp... not so much! So, why didn't I make a temporary ink pad using wet wipes you may ask? Because I don't own any wet wipes (and here is why.) How could I get round this?

My solution (and I promise it isn't really a solution...) was to put plenty of ink onto a plate and sponge it onto the solid stamp, huff on it like a mad train and stamp over my sponged background. I tried three times (new background each time!) and on the third time it was slightly less unacceptable than the previous times! A bit blotchy at the bottom - but that just gave me the opportunity to cover it up with a sentiment strip! I used words from Merry Christmas to All and gold embossed them.

Never mistakes, always opportunities! Now, let's focus on the sky and do a little star gazing! The stars have come out courtesy of a gold Stampin' Dazzle pen that I bought years ago and is still going remarkably strong :)

AND IN OTHER NEWS
September has arrived and we are now reaping the 'rewards' of all those beautiful days with the French doors flung open to invite the outdoors in. Along with the much-appreciated perfume of the roses, and the smell of newly mown grass, come less welcome gate-crashers. My son was the hero that hunted down this invader - and this is not a glass by the way, but a large vase!

PS. No spiders were harmed in the hunt - Stephen Spider was released into the garden (where he's probably rounding up a few of his mates to take revenge for the indignity of that vase!)

Thank you for popping in today. See you again tomorrow :)