A Note of Thanks | The Maui Stamper

I’m sorry that this single sailboat stamp retired. I love the image, and it lends itself to a lot of fun techniques. There must be a few of you who bought it and are still looking for ways to use it, right?

A Note of Thanks, Wonderfully Worn, Woodgrain (ret) and Sail Away (ret) stamp sets
Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Pear Pizazz and Not Quite Navy card stock
Pear Pizazz, Soft Suede and Not Quite Navy Classic ink pads
Not Quite Navy, Rich Razzleberry, Calypso Coral, More Mustard and So Saffron Classic ink pads (sunset)
Stampin’ Sponges
Big Shot and 3 inch circle Originals die

The sunset is just Stampin’ Sponges tapped on the Classic ink pad and dragged across the cardstock circle. I stamped the sailboat image first, created my background, and then stamped the sailboat again on a scrap of Whisper White and cut out the sails. It was easier to piece them than to try to mask them and keep them in place with all of that dragging!

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me to do a Thank You card for her workshop. She wanted it to be something simple and reproducible. She was looking for inspiration for gifts, and thought if she could take the same card and produce it in a few different colors she could make sets.

No problem, I said. That’s an easy one, I said.

Famous last words.

Maybe the muse was on vacation. (I live on MAUI, for goodness sakes. Where would my muse want to GO already?) Maybe I was putting too much pressure on myself. Shoot, maybe it was the hormones – they’re responsible for everything else that goes wrong in my life!! It took much longer than it should have, but I came up with something that made us both happy:

Vintage Vogue and A Note of Thanks stamp sets
Very Vintage Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel
Whisper White, Poppy Parade and Early Espresso card stock
Early Espresso and Poppy Parade Classic ink pads
XL Decorative Label and Bitty Circle punches
Crop-a-dile; Stampin’ Sponge; Early Espresso 3/8″ taffeta ribbon

My goal for this card was to come up with a design that could be made in the 2010-2011 In Colors. I think that’s what made it challenging for me. I wanted to highlight the great value in the Card Stock and Classic Pad In Color kit – 5 Classic ink pads plus a 20 sheet assortment of the 2010 In Color papers for $29.95 (item 120952). If you haven’t done the math yet, I’ll do it for you; that’s getting the paper assortment (valued at $6.95) for free. It’s even in the catalog on page 165, but it doesn’t jump out at you so I like to point it out at workshops…or even in blog posts.