A Masculine Birthday with Country Road for As You See It Challenge

Hi, stampers! I'm still on a roll with the Country Road stamp set from the Annual Catalogue. This time I created a masculine themed birthday card using fall colours and a rustic look with lots of wood grain. And since it's Friday, I'm using our latest As You See It Challenge sketch for my layout. Here's the sketch from Amanda:

For obvious reasons, this challenge is called "Flag Me Down", but I didn't want the flags to be such a huge factor in my design, so I did a bit of camouflage:

• I made good use of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack for this card, including the background panel, one of the flags and I stamped the weather vane on one and fussy cut it out, then used it for the top flag in the sketch.
• I stamped the grass, the wagon wheel and the weather vane from the Country Road stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The grass and the wheel were stamped on Sahara Sand cardstock and the weather vane on a small piece of the Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack.
• The other two flags are a piece of the 5/8" Burlap Ribbon and the Merry Merlot & Copper 5/8" Reversible Ribbon. The stitching at the top of the sketch, I used some Braided Linen Trim, knotted on the right of the horse in the weather vane.

That's about it. Now I just have to figure out which lucky male in our family is going to be the recipient of this creation! Hmmm!

Don't forget that you only have until Sunday to place your orders to take advantage of the savings for the World Card Making Day promotion. It's a great way to stock up on some basics or some kits and save a little money! I'll place my order on Sunday, so let me know before then.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Country Road Clear-Mount Stamp Set [147469] $26.00	Country Road Wood-Mount Stamp Set [147466] $37.00	Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack [144177] $15.00	Cajun Craze 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119684] $11.50	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043] $11.50
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25	5/8" (1.6 Cm) Burlap Ribbon [141487] $9.50	Merry Merlot & Copper 5/8" (1.6 Cm) Reversible Ribbon [147818] $10.25	3/16" (1 Cm) Braided Linen Trim [147808] $9.50	Paper Snips Scissors [103579] $13.50
Banner Triple Punch [138292] $31.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.00	Fast Fuse Adhesive Refill [129027] $10.00	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $5.50

Back to Basics for As You See It Challenges

It's been Back to School week here in British Columbia, and three of my six grandkids are now in school, two in Grade 1 and one in Kindergarten. Back to school seemed to go well for all of them and they are happy with their situations. And since it's Friday and time for a new As You See It Challenge, we had a theme challenge this week:

Back to Basics is a very timely challenge for this time of year, but what does it mean for crafters? Well, it means that you get down to the bare minimums: paper, stamps, ink and maybe a little ribbon thrown in, but not much more. Scissors and paper cutters can be used as well. I thought I'd tie this theme in with the back to school time of year to make an encouragement card for a student heading back to the books this fall:

• Using Basic Black cardstock and Wood Textures Designer Series Paper, I created a blackboard on which I stamped the ABC using the Letters for You stamp set and Whisper White Craft Ink. I added a few sponged smudges of the white ink to look like chalk dust on the board.
• I wanted an apple, but all I could find anywhere was the pile of apples from the Bike Ride stamp set, a 3 step stamping process. I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the outline, Real Red for the interior of the apples and Shaded Spruce for the leaves, echoing the Shaded Spruce card base.
• The sentiment is from the Better with You stamp set, stamped with Tuxedo Black ink again.
• The last touch is some Linen Thread wound twice around the Whisper White panel and tied in a bow at the right side.

Please join with us in the next couple of weeks and get Back to Basics yourself.

We got back on Tuesday from a camping trip to visit our daughter and family in Ft. St. James and then to see Barkerville, a historic site from BC's Gold Rush days back starting in 1858. Enjoy these photos:

These four photos were taken where my middle daughter lives in Ft. St. James. I had an great visit with her and with my grandkids, Kesten (above) and Cedar (left, in the tree). We visited the Fort - a national historic site, and you can see Ken posing there in the "lazy boy" on the left above and on the right above you can see the scene of the world famous "Chicken Races". I'm afraid that none of my selected contestants won even 1 of the races.

After leaving Ft. St. James, we headed to Barkerville, and here are a number of photos capturing the flavour of this Gold Rush city:

It was fun, but wet and cold on some days. We were sure glad we had Bucky (short for Buckingham Palace) our RV. We kept warm and dry inside!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Letters For You Photopolymer Stamp Set [141968] $62.00	Better With You Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146567] $26.00	Better With You Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146564] $37.00	Bike Ride Photopolymer Stamp Set [143716] $27.00	Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack [144177] $15.00
Shaded Spruce 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146981] $11.50	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121045] $11.50	Uninked Stampin’ Craft Pad & Whisper White Refill [147277] $13.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25
Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad [147084] $10.25	Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad [147088] $10.25	Stamping Sponges [141337] $4.75	Linen Thread [104199] $6.25	Stampin' Trimmer [126889] $40.00
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.25