Blogger Challenge: Week 62

Summer is definitely winding down! The weather’s cooling off just a little bit. School started here this week. The miserable traffic delays that have been pretty much absent this summer have returned (it took about 1 1/2 hours for my 20 mile round trip to and from work yesterday), all signs that fall’s not too far off. Even Cosmo the crazy dog reflects the changes. Earlier this week, I had to “retire” Cosmo’s summer bandanna (I made it myself--you can see it here) and replace it with a new one. I picked a Wisconsin Badgers one for the upcoming college football season, yet another sign of fall. For this week’s challenge, we had a choice in honor of the Labor Day weekend, marking the unofficial end of summer. We could make a patriotic themed card or a baby themed one for the challenge. I went for one final red, white, and blue card for the season to create a card with a patriotic theme using the Playful Stars set from Kitchen Sink Stamps.

I stamped several of the different star images randomly on a piece of Shimmery White cardstock using some shimmery red and blue inks. I wish the photo captured the subtle sparkle better! I layered the stamped panel over a piece of paper with stripes in red, white, and shades of blue.

The ribbon is threaded through a slit I made in the card’s crease. It wraps around the inside of the card and is knotted at the left side of the card. The white looks so crisp against the bold red cardfront.

The sentiment is from the Ready 4 Any Holiday stamp set. It was a bit longer than the word window punch, so I stamped the sentiment on a narrow navy scrap and slid the scrap into the punch so that I could extend it just little bit so it would fit. I added a red star brad at the left end of the sentiment, then layered it over the stamped panel so it extended slightly beyond the panel.

You can find links to the other challenge participants in the sidebar to the right. They’re always wonderful sources for more inspiration.

Materials Used:
Playful Stars and Ready 4 Any Holiday stamp sets (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Moonlight White, Pearlescent Poppy and Pearlescent Sky Blue inks (Brilliance); Riding Hood Red, Night of Navy, Soft Sky, and Shimmery White cardstock, word window punch, mat pack and paper piercing tool, white gel pen, dimensionals (Stampin’ Up!); white grosgrain ribbon (Michaels); patterned paper, star brad (Making Memories)