My “Clean & Simple” Fail!

Hey stamper!

Did you see my post yesterday, with the Watercooler ‘Clean & Simple Masculine’ card challenge?  If not, you can see it here, and read about how it took me a while to come up with ‘clean and simple’, which is not really my style (actually, I’m not sure what ‘my style’ is!  Let me know if you have an idea!)

So I thought I’d come back today, and share with you  the first card that I made for the challenge – and then decided that although it certainly met the ‘masculine’ portion of the challenge, I don’t think that it hit the ‘clean & simple’ mark!

I mean, I  guess it’s clean & simple looking – but the brayering required doesn’t really make it simple!

I just adore this stamp set – called Nature Silhouettes – that retired even before I was a demonstrator.  In fact, I saw this set used shortly after I joined, and I’ve been on the hunt to buy one ever since!  I finally found one for sale earlier a couple of months ago, finally inked it up!

I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock, masked off a 1 3/4″ circle by punching a piece of a Post-it Note and sticking it onto the cardstock, and using my Brayer added inks in Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze and Cherry Cobbler for the background.  After removing the mask, I used a Sponge Dauber and gently rubbed some Cajun Craze over the moon to soften it.  I  then inked the tree/grass stamp in Memento black ink and stamped that on the side, then added the deer.   I stamped a bit too far away from the top with the tree, so I inked up just the tree again, and stamped it again above the first tree.  I then used a sponge and sponged the Memento black ink along the bottom and side.

I stamped the sentiment from the retired Hostess set Simply Sketched in Cajun Craze ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock, and layered it and the image panel onto pieces of Crushed Curry cardstock.  They were then attached to the Cajun Craze cardstock base, and the Candy Dots added to either side of the sentiment.

So – this card may be a failed attempt and ‘Clean & Simple’, but I still think it’s a gorgeous card; I’m very happy with how it turned out!

I just love the nature sets that Stampin’ Up! produces, especially the more realistic ones (spoiler alert – there’s more on the way in the January Occasions Catalogue!).

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my ‘failure’, and get inspired to break out your own Brayer, and have some inky fun!  I will try & work up the courage to do a quick video on using the brayer; I’m certainly no pro, but that just shows you that if I can do it, anyone can! 🙂

Enjoy your weekend! Until next time – happy stamping!