CCC#038: July Cards Challenge - Green Planet

CCC#037: July 2014 Cards Challenge

Green Planet

Inspired by Earth

OK, friends, this month's challenge is to make a card inspired by planet Earth. Now I'll admit, this one really had me stumped for a while. I kept pouring over my stamp collection thinking... What direction do I want to go with this? Maps? Blue and green? When I couldn't make up my mind, and no stamps were jumping out at me, I decided this challenge called for one thing: Custom made stamps! :)

Isn't it amazing that we can carve our own stamps now?! Stampin' Up! just thinks of everything! I've done my fair share of linoleum block printing in my life, but the Undefined stamp carving kit has sat on my shelf for almost a year now (it was introduced at Convention last year, remember?) and I could never decide what I wanted to make with it. So glad I still had it there ready and waiting when I decided what to do for this project!

I decided to do my stamping on this paper from the Typeset DSP collection, because it looks like newspaper and, to me, that fits with the recycling part of the message. I kept the rest of the card very simple - a simple spiral border, linen thread, and I sponged the card base using the polka dots stencil from the new Dots and Stripes Decorative Masks.

As I was stamping these images, I was thinking about how nice they'd look just on a simple one-layer notecard. So I decided to give that a try too! But of course, I couldn't just leave it at that... :)

I ended up cutting about an inch off the bottom of the card, and then I adhered the DSP to the inside so it peeks out the bottom. And I also added some white bakers' twine.

I hope you enjoyed these cards and that you're excited to give the Undefined stamp carving kit a try! Let me tell you, this kit is amazing! Like I said, I've done linoleum blocks before with the hard linoleum and the soft flexible kind. The rubber in the Undefined kit blows them both out of the water! It cuts like buttah! I highly recommend you give it a try! :)

(P.S. These aren't the blocks that come in the kit for you to mount your stamps on - but there are 4 blocks that are included. My dad made these for me because my stamps happened to be a little too big for the small blocks and too small for the large block.)

Head on over to Cathy and Catherine Create to check out the other DT members' cards. And don't forget to link up your card if you play along with the challenge - you could win an awesome prize!

Happy Stampin'! :)