Look mum, no ink...

Well, just a smidgen then... Good morning and many Blogful greetings to you all! It's Monday (yes, again) and so I'm in the house with my piece for Simon Says Stamp & Show. This week we want to stretch your artful minds and get you all get stamping without ink. These days there is such an abundance of sprays, stains and paints, you'll be spoilt for choice.

Years ago, I tip-toed into the crafty world when I decided to make my own Christmas cards and although I now love to create in a whole range of styles, I still love designing a card. My inky time is indeed precious with my little Ruby in top gear, so a card gives me just enough space to play and dabble.

l wanted to make a male motivational card which is not as easy as it sounds. Fishing boats or mountains weren't quite the look I wanted so I decided to go with foliage ad Autumnal colours so as to still be able to create an artful card.

I seem to have oodles of Design Papers in my craft room and even though I've long passed the 'dare not snip' phase, there are still piles of them in residence. I took a piece from my Retro Grunge pile and jazzed it up with foliage stamp from the Floral Tattoo set which I still really love. I stamped with gesso which gives that extra bit of texture.

I used a piece of Cut' N Dry foam to apply the Gesso to may stamp to get even coverage and so as not to overload the stamp which can happen if you just press it into a blob of paint. REMEMBER TO WASH YOUR STAMP IMMEDIATELY! Otherwise, it's bye-bye stamp... I stamped and aged the sentiment and then added a few Tattered Leaves also cut from scraps of the same paper stash. I stamped the leaves with words to make them stand out from the background, edged them with ink and curled them a little for movement.

 I layered them all up with an old torn book page and set it on a Kraft base. If I'm not sewing... then it's often string! So parcel string and a Philosophy tag it was to finish off.

So, there you go, that was my male card and inky fun for this week. Do take a look at the great inspiration over at the Design Team Blog and join in with the fun. We are on the hunt for our Top Three Artists and there's this great $50 voucher... Hmmm, just in time for Christmas!!!  Have a good week wherever you are. Thanks for popping by. Sarah

*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die TATTERED LEAVES Bigz Leaf Alterations 656927	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps STUFF TO SAY CMS110 2011	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD WALNUT STAIN Brown Ranger	*Tim Holtz Idea-ology PAPER STASH RETRO GRUNGE 12 x 12 Double Sided TH92823
*Claudine Hellmuth GESSO Studio Primer Paint Ranger	*Tim Holtz Idea-ology PHILOSOPHY TAGS Hardware Metal Charm TH92678	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps FLORAL TATTOO Stampers Anonymous

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