Thursday 26 August 2010

Old Truck Photo Stamp


Hello! I was very fortunate to win this stamp from the Darkroom Door blog. Thank you so much Rachel! Here is the thank you card I am sending her. In real life it's a bit brighter, but not too far off. I think I over-tinkered the brightness of the other one a bit.
Anyway, I just love this stamp. I find it very evocative of the trucks you see here, parked in grassy corners of farms, or out in fields. Our trucks have the steering wheel on the other side, but that's what makes this a bit special - I know it's all the way from Australia. (Did you hear me shriek a bit at the end there? I tried to hide it and sound all mature, but it still got somewhat squeaky near the end.)
I used more or less the same technique on both cards, thinking I would make one for the bazaar stash while I was at it. I started by sponging various colours of Distress Ink on some Very Vanilla paper, roughly in the area of the image. I used mostly Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans. I added other colours as needed for depth/brightness, but you get the idea. Once I had it all good'n sponged, I stamped the image on using Ranger Archival ink in black.
For the layouts, I mounted my stamped image on black paper and struggled mightily with the layouts. I sometimes find it hard to match paper to Distress Inks, especially when I've achieved a nice glow. Paper either clashes or washes out the glow. Any suggestions? The card I'm sending has a bit of a blocky background, with a rust panel stamped in houndstooth (Cornish Heritage Farms scrapblock), a curry strip, and then a Darkroom Door word stamp (happy days) on the gray side (card is Basic Gray, SU). I made a curry tsumugi "thank you" using SU stamp and punch, sponged a bit with wild honey ink and Artprint Brown (Memories). All the pieces were edged in Artprint Brown. I didn't want any bulky embellishments for it's trip around the world, so I just added some photo corners. Black would have been nicer but I just have gold.
For the other layout, I used a strip of curry tsumugi and a narrower strip of old olive. I edged the main image panel in gold leaf pen so it would show up against the black card base.
Nice to finally play with this stamp! I've had it since I got back from holidays but needed some EZ Mount to put it on.
NSR: Have finally acted on my friend's recommendation to watch Modern Family. It is really, really funny. It stars the Bundy man from Married with Children (I won't guess the name because I always mix it up with the bad Bundy man) only he's funny in this one. He has a steamy Columbian wife and her son Manny, and two grown up kids of his own with their families. It's clever, crisp and makes me laugh every time.
On the book front, I just finished reading Little Bee. The jacket says it won't say what it's about, you have to read it, and implored the reader not to tell either. I was powerless to resist this ploy. I won't tell you what it's about, but would suggest that you look up the awards it won, in case they are for a category of fiction you are not expecting. I was expecting a category of summer holiday fiction, but this was more capital L literature, which I suppose is good for me now and then. I should read more than 1-para card descriptions in Stampers' Sampler..... So if you are game to read a book you know nothing about, I would recommend this one. If you want to know what it's going to be about, don't read this one. I'm not going to be the one to give it away. Actually I probably will give away this book, but not as in give away the story. Just the book. You know what I mean. And while I'm at it, can I make a confession? I didn't really like the Twilight books. I fear this might make me a bit of a freak. I tried watching the movie, thinking the thin plot might be better suited to Hollywood, but I didn't like that either. Give me Breakfast Club any day for movies about teen angst.
I'm going to sign off now, my man Vinney White's on the radio now with Studio 93 and he said he'd be playing Fine Young Cannibals. Can't miss that!

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