Thursday, June 4, 2015

Finally Getting Cute...and Precisely Grounded at the Same Time

Clearly Besotted is quickly becoming one of my favorite lines of stamps. For years, I've mostly eschewed cute stamps. Oh, I've tried the occasional cute set, but rarely did the resulting cards make me happy.

But like I said, Clearly Besotted is changing my mind. Check out this adorable fox from the Woodland Pals set.


Dang, this little fox is adorable...and just the right size! The set (if you're too lazy to click the link) contains five cute animals, a branch, and a mushroom, as well as a few punny sentiments.

One thing about these little animals: they need a ground to stand on. It won't do to have them floating around the card. As I used each one, I played around with different ways to visually "ground" each critter, and I'll share them over the next few days.

This little fox provided a wonderful opportunity to try something a bit different. Rather than use a standard ground stamp, I created the illusion of ground by repeatedly stamping a little stem from Papertrey's Modern Basics set and making a very precise line with it. Even though, technically, this fox is floating, the precise line of flowers creates the illusion of grounding...and preserves the light, airy feel of the card.




Aligning everything was simple using a gridded acrylic block. You might notice that the card looks slightly narrower than 4.25 inches. That's because the flowers are spaced in such a way that it created an uneven edge on the card...so I shaved the left side a bit so the row of flowers is centered on the card.

Cutting a bit off the edge is much easier than trying to work out the math of getting everything centered, don't you think?

I do.

Now, please forgive me while I get personal. Y'all, I'm not very grounded myself right now...I'm on cloud 9! Yesterday, we found out that Jack didn't get picked to be in the 6th grade talent show. We were so bummed, but then I got a call from the principal, who had heard that Jack's aide, Mrs. Mitchell, had cried when she heard the bad news. Lots of the special education folks were upset, actually. So the principal called and explained that the committee who picked the acts for the show had been worried that kids who didn't know Jack might be unkind if his trumpet squeaked. But since he'd heard how hard Jack had worked to get ready for the auditions, he wanted Jack's hard work to be rewarded! Yay!!!

The committee need not have worried. Not only did Jack do well, he got a standing ovation from about half his pod. (The 500 sixth graders are divided into three pods.) Kids in other pods who knew Jack were on their feet, too. It was awesome!!!


I'm one proud mamma! He put himself out there and did his best!!! Love this kid soooo much!!

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted Woodland Pals, A Little Sentimental; Papertrey Modern Basics
ink: Hero Arts rust; Memento bamboo, cocoa
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, gridded acrylic block


11 comments:

  1. Susan, what a cute card, I love this little fox. Your flowers work perfectly to ground him and he really looks like he is missing someone.
    Congrats to your son or doing so well. Its

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    1. Sorry it published before I finished, so I will finish here. Its brilliant when he world realises they made a mistake and give our kids ago. They always deserve a chance to prove to the world just how clever they are and not be prejudged. God bless

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    2. Thanks, Aileen. You're absolutely correct!

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  2. Love your little fox....he is much cuter than the one I JUST SAW IN MY BACK YARD yesterday...to which my granddaughter keeps referring as a wolf. Anyway, said granddaughter was totally enamored of Jack's trumpet-playing, and played the video over and over several times after seeing it on FB. Tell Jack he has a fan in PA!

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  3. Yeah for your son....happy you shared the video. You should be a proud mama.
    Cute card...sending hugs.
    k

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  4. Beautiful card & congratulations to Jack on a great performance :)

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  5. Total cuteness and well done, Jack! Putting yourself out there can be scary for anyone.

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  6. Susan, Jack did very well! Enjoy this wonderful time. Sylvia D.

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  7. HOW FABULOUS!! It's so nice to read that the kids supported him with a standing - actually its just nice to read about kids being nice! ;) -- Congrats to Jack for all his hard work and fabulous performance - TFS the video

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  8. I got a big, silly grin on my face reading about Jack on FB, and got another big, silly grin just now. THIS is what I'm thankful for today.

    And of course I noticed your card was a hair narrower than 4.25". You're nuts. Thanks for another grin.

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  9. I'm a tad surprised, but your grounding "illusion" really does work. I'm going to try that. I am totally with you on trimming things after stamping. Such a time saver. Why make yourself crazy doing math when you are supposed to be having fun?

    Glad you and Jack had a fabulous day!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!