I Can Be Bold

Today's Limited Supplies Challenge on SCS was to use only colors from the SU! Bold Brights color family in your creation. I never realized that so many people had such a hard time using the colors from this color family. When I first started stamping, these were the colors that I reached for most often. For me, the Rich Regals were a much greater challenge than the Bold Brights. As I've become a more experienced stamper, I have branched out and I will admit that I do not use the Bold Brights as much as I used to, but with spring and summer coming, I think I'll probably be reaching for them again.

This card uses the big flower from Bodacious Bouquet. It's stamped in Lovely Lilac Craft ink, then covered with iridescent ice embossing powder. The sentiment, a combination of "wonderful" from Warm Words and "friend" from Everyday Flexible Phrases are also heat embossed, but with white embossing powder. I stamped the On the Spot background stamp on the cardfront to go along with the rest of the circle elements on the card (eyelets, scalloped circle, paper piercing, dots in center of flower).

Here's a trick I've found useful for using SU!'s big background stamps, like On the Spot, without making a huge mess and/or getting inky fingers. Cover your work area with a piece of scrap paper at least the size of a standard piece of cardstock--I usually use old printed documents to cover my work table. After you ink the stamp, set the stamp, face up, close to one side/end of the scrap paper, then place the cardstock on top of the stamp. In my example, the stamp is set close to the left side of the paper.

Lift up the end/side of the scrap paper that is not covered by the background stamp and wrap the scrap paper over to cover the background stamp/cardstock. You can press on the image evenly now without worrying about getting ink all over your work surface and your fingers (and then your other projects . . .)

Tomorrow I'll be attending a shoebox swap. I have all the materials for my project cut out, now I just have to bag them up. I'll share my swap card tomorrow after the swap. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other stampers have prepared. Everyone is bringing either a floral card or a masculine card, plus goodies to eat. I'm bringing black bean salsa. Those who know me know that I do not cook. When I had my kitchen renovated, my mom remarked that now that the kitchen looked so nice, I'd probably enjoy spending more time in it cooking. The thought never crossed my mind. Why would I want to mess up such a nice space by cooking??? Anyway, this salsa is one of the few things I can count on to always come out right. The recipe was given to me by one of my co-workers a long time ago. Here it is, in case you want to give it a try.

2 15 oz. cans of black beans, rinsed and drained

1 14 1/2 oz. can of diced Mexican tomatoes, drained

1 11 oz. can of vacuum packed corn kernels

1 7 oz. can of diced mild green chiles

1/2 c. fresh cilantro, diced

1/2 c. chopped green onions

2 T. red wine vinegar

1 t. salt

juice of one lemon or lime (optional)

Mix everything together in a bowl and chill. Serve with tortilla chips.

Materials Used:

From Stampin' Up!: Bodacious Bouquet, Warm Words, Everyday Flexible Phrases, and On the Spot stamp sets; Lovely Lilac and Green Galore Classic inks; Lovely Lilac and White Craft inks; Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, and Whisper White cardstock; mat pack and paper piercing template; iridescent ice and winter white embossing powder; stampin' dimensionals; turquoise grosgrain

Other: mega circle scallop punch (Marvy Uchida); green eyelets (Making Memories)