Sitting around and hasn't been used yet!!

So- over the weekend both of my kids had birthday parties to go to. I needed cards for both of them. Ally took care of making the one for her friend. She loves to come into my room at times and just play with all of my goodies. She knows which stamp sets and inks she can use with out asking and which ones she needs to ask.  :-). That led me to make two cards for Andrew to take to his birthday party that he was going to. His friends are twins so could not show up with just one card. I have tons of cards already made up, but the problem is they are all for girls. UGHHH... Girl cards are just easier for me to make. 

So I searched my shelves of stamps to see what I had that 10 year old boys would love. I found Build A Bear set, Train set, Little Monsters set, all cute but not for the big boys. I came across two small boxes with individual stamp sets in them. Pulled them out and was excited that I found something that would work. Extreme Dirt Bike and Extreme Skateboard. Both of these are retired Stampin Up sets from a few years ago. 

I used the Extreme Dirt Bike set and sat down and started creating. Got the first card done and opened the other set. I was shocked to see that it had never been used. Not only that, it had not even been mounted yet. I have had this set for 2 years and never used it. How SAD is that. I am really afraid to go though all of my sets now to see what has been used and what hasn't even been opened. I have a problem with ordering sets and then just putting them on the shelf when they come in. They get lost up there. So I mounted the dirt bike and set off to create with it. I will say that I did not come up with the designs for these myself. I am great at searching the internet and getting ideas from others. I usually change out the colors to what I have or I change out the stamp sets to something similar. The dirt bike one I copied as I loved the card. The skateboard one- I used several different ideas and made it into one card. 

I used a sponging technique to do the sky and hills. I added silver shimmer paint to the hills to give it some depth. Summer Sun (retired) Really Rust (retired) and whisper white card stock. Summer Sun, Really Rust, and Pumpkin Pie, and Basic Black ink. I am trying to use as much of my retired paper as possible. I have a stock pile of it.  

I used a crayon resist embossing technique on this card. Ran a piece of Whisper White card stock through the big shot with the Chevron embossing folder. While it was still in the folder, I rubbed a white crayon on its side all over the paper. This way it did not press down the raised areas. I then used a new color that is being introduced this catalog Smoky Slate. I sponged it lightly all over the embossed area. If you wipe the area off with a soft cloth the ink will rub off the crayon areas as it will not absorb into the wax of the crayon. I used Basic Gray around the edges to give it some depth. I stamped the skate board dude in Versa Mark and then embossed it in black embossing powder. Used the silver shimmer paint and sponged it around the image. Wiped it off some and then spritzed some shimmer paint that I made. I really like the way this one turned out. 

Thanks for taking a look. Stampin Up new 2013-14 catalog will go live on June 1st. If you need one please contact me today for your copy for only 5.00 plus shipping and handling. 

Happy Stampin

Jeannette