Driving Me Wild!

I find the so-called "simple" one layer cards to be extraordinarily difficult. You really have to know design principles or simply have an innate eye for design to make this style sing. I was not born with the "design" gene, so I study other folks' work and read what they say. Julie Ebersole is the queen of this style of stamping and I frequently check out her blog, Paper Trufflez, for tips on how to pull off this genre. I have to admit, the one layer isn't my personal style favorite -- give me layers, and distressing and embellishments any day. However, these 2 stamps by Memory Box were so cute that when I saw them at my "local" stamping store, I grabbed them. A Happy Stamper in Reston, VA, is a good 30 minute trek from my home, so I don't get there very often, but the folks there are nice and there are no steps -- critical for taking along my Mom when we are looking for an excuse to get her out of the house. . . . Plus, actually seeing a stamp before buying eliminates unhappy surprises, such as crooked mounting or sloppy trimming. I could spend hours in a stamp store! How I made this card: The base is a 3 x 3 Whisper White Ultrasmooth card from Stampin Up. These little cards and matching envelopes are just perfect for tucking into a lunch box or backpack. Both the car and phrase are by Memory Box. I stamped the car first in Memories Black Ink, purposely making it look like the "driver" was a little wild and let it dry for a few moments. Then I used SU Real Red and Green Galore markers to color in the hearts and car. The phrase stamp is all on one line, so I took the red marker and colored in only the first 3 words and stamped. Then I cleaned off the stamp twice, stamping on scratch paper to make sure it was good and clean, and then colored in just the word "wild." (The stamp ends with an exclamation mark, but I liked it better plain on this card, so I omitted coloring in that part of the stamp.) Finally, I stamped the word "wild" on the card. The font of the phrase is just a little crooked, matching perfectly the sentiment. I just love when stamping companies do that!