Priscilla's Papercrafts: 40 Years!

My sister and her husband are celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss. Well, maybe not bliss all the time, 😉but they HAVE had a good 40 years together.

But...40 years? Where does the time go?

Instead of making a card full of hearts and flowers, I decided to create something totally out of my comfort zone - a card without a stamped image as a focal point. Look:

Now is that a celebration in a card or what?

Of course, you probably have already guessed that I am in love with the Rays of Light background stamp. I've created with it a few times in the past two weeks. But those were all "summer" cards, and the stamp was used to mimic sunshine.

Not this card! It's shouting 40 YEARS!

I first stamped the Rays of Light using Pale Papaya ink. I saw a color combination (thanks, Brian King!) with Pale Papaya, Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen, and I loved it!

Then, using the Stamparatus, I started stamping the words with Evening Evergreen ink. Why the Stamparatus? Let me count the ways:

1. Two of the words ("to" and "years") were not individual words. And I only had one chance to get them right. The stamps are from the Sale-a-Bration FREE set, Amazing Phrasing, and the phrases I used are "to another year", "I miss you" and "together". So I placed the "to another year" on the paper where I wanted it, picked it up with the Stamparatus, and only inked "to". I repeated it with "year", and then I lined up the second "s" in "I miss you", inked only that one letter, and stamped it at the end of "year" - clever, huh?

2. I wanted to ensure the words were stamped well. Using the Stamparatus allowed me to stamp the image again (it's all lined up perfectly) so when one of the letters didn't come out exactly right, I just stamped it again.

3. Look at "Woo Hoo" -

I wanted to heat emboss it with Clear Embossing Powder in order to make it shiny. It's easy with the Stamparatus - stamp the image in the color (Evening Evergreen), then clean the stamp, re-ink it with Versamark ink and stamp right over the original image. Easy Peasy! Then you can add the embossing powder, heat it up, and Woo Hoo - shiny!!

Aren't those colors divine? An Evening Evergreen base with a 2021-23 In Color Designer Series Paper pattern in Soft Succulent. And then another layer of Evening Evergreen, cut with the Deckled Rectangles dies (as is the main, top layer).