SQUIRRELZ STASH BASH -- OCTOBER 21, 2022

 Hello friends!  Welcome back.  Today is the day that my crafty friends and I (aka the Squirrel Squad) get together and do a little hoppin'!  As you may or may not know, the goal for our little hop is to use some of that "squirreled away" stash of crafty goodies that we have collected and not yet used.  And throw in a technique we want to try or a specific supply or theme.  This month, we are focusing on BUTTONS and VINTAGE.  I do have a nice little collection of buttons that I don't really use, so it's good to be busting those out.  The vintage theme is a bit harder for me to work with, as it really isn't my crafty style.  I love the look of it, but actually CREATING IT is a different story.  Before I show you my card, let me share the hop list with you in case you get lost:

V at Passions and Distractions

Karen at Misplaced Mojo

Anna at Craftyanna Studio

Lounon at Craft Me, Craft Moi

Boryana ~ skipping this month

Marie ~ That's me!

And now, here is my card:

I went looking on Pinterest for vintage Christmas cards, and when I found the snowmen ones, I knew what I wanted to do.  I busted out the new-but-not-yet-used Build-a-Snowman die set from Lawn Fawn and started die cutting pieces to match this fella here:

Isn't he just so joyful with his little birdie friend?  I really do love the look of these old Christmas cards!  I used the same colors as on this vintage card, and even gave him a coal nose instead of a carrot one.

I started out by die cutting the larger snowman from the white glitter cardstock from Walmart (my new favorite!).  I used a scrap piece to test out which oxide ink color would look best and determined that Black Soot gave me the look I wanted...as long as I used a light hand to ink blend.  Light-handed ink blending is NOT my strong suit, but I think I managed it well here! 😀   I die cut the rest of the pieces I needed from red, black, and kraft colored cardstocks, and added details and shading with white gel pens and the Black Soot oxide ink. I built my snowman, and then added Glossy Accents to the entire hat, the coal nose, his eyes and each dot of his smile.  I think it really adds to the look!  Then I had to wait for it to dry....

In the meantime, I worked on the rest of the card.  I decided that I really liked the green background on the vintage card, so I dug out a similar shade of green, and then...inspiration struck!  I have had the Honey Bee Stamps Pierced Fancy Flakes Cover Plate in my card making stash for at least a year now without having touched it other than to repackage it and put it away.  I thought this would be a great way to add more interest to the background without getting too fancy or complicated.  I cut my panel to 4.25" x 5.5", and then ran it through my Cuttlebug (yes, I am still using it!) with the cover plate on top.  I then chose the largest rectangle from the Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics  A Card Creator die set to cut the panel down to allow for a small bit of the card base to show.  After the die cutting, I then did the ink blending around the edges.

For the sentiment, I chose to use Lawn Fawn's Winter Big Scripty Words stamp and die sets.  I stamped Let It Snow with Versa Color white pigment ink onto a scrap of black cardstock, and then heat embossed it with Recollections Snow embossing powder.  After the embossing was cool, I die cut it with the coordinating die.

When the Glossy Accents was finally dry, I glued the hat band to the hat, and added white gel pen accents on top of the dried Glossy Accents.  I carefully gave Mr. Snowman some rosy cheeks with a R22 Copic marker and added a white gel pen dot in the middle of each one.  I debated about whether or not I wanted to use an action wobbler to adhere him to the card, but I decided just to use thick foam squares.  The green panel and the sentiment were both adhered down flat with Bearly Art Glue.  And that's it!  I have to admit that I waited until the last minute to make this card and write my blog post...even more so than I usually do!  I really need to get better at that...

Anyway, thank you for stopping by!  I hope you all have a nice weekend.  Don't forget to hop on to V's blog to start the hop if you just happened to land here first.  Also, we would love it if you would leave us some comment love and subscribe to our blogs if you haven't already!  Until next time, my friends...

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie