All About the Horses...........

Hi and welcome to my blog.  Our Canadian "Victoria Day Weekend", better known as the "May Long Weekend" has just finished and this will probably be the quietest one on record with all the COVID-19 safety measures about social distancing still in place.  However it will also be a memorable one for other reasons.

On Sunday during the RCAF's "Operation Inspiration" flight over Kamloops a tragic air accident involving one of our beloved Canadian Snow Bird jets occurred.  The Snowbirds have been flying across Canada since taking off from the Maritimes at the beginning of May and the flight, dubbed Operation Inspiration, was supposed to boost morale for Canadians who have spent months in isolation in an attempt to flatten the curve of COVID-19. 

Canadians are now mourning the loss of Capt. Jennifer Casey of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Captain Richard MacDougall, the pilot and lone survivor is now recuperating in hospital with severe injuries.  Our condolences to Jennifer's family, friends and co-workers, she'll be truly missed.  We are praying Captain MacDougall's full and speedy recovery.

Last Chance Products Review:  

We're getting closer and closer to the end of our catalogue year and so I thought over the next week I'd get back into blogging by sharing some of my favourite stamp sets, papers and dies that will be retiring for good on June 2nd.  

To kick off this review, I'm featuring two stamp sets that I've enjoyed immensely.  They are Let It Ride and Country Road.   Probably some of the best country images Stampin' Up! has come up with over the years.  Man, who doesn't love horses and country?   

Let It Ride item # 148765 is a 9 piece red rubber cling mount set that uses Stampin' Up!s Acryllic Blocks c,d,e, and g.  

Country Road item # 151356 is a 6 piece red rubber stamp set.  It also uses the c,d,e, and g Stampin' Up! Acryllic Blocks.  

 Here are some of the cards I've made with these sets 

Card One:

I was inspired by Dawn Griffiths to try out a new to me technique called the "Triple Panel Stamping".  Click on Dawn's highlighted name to see her great video tutorial on this technique. 

Card Two:

The images were stamped on Very Vanilla, Mint Macaroon and Soft Suede for this sample.  The card base is Early Espresso card stock.  What a difference when you use the three different pieces of card stock.  
These are such super simple and quick cards to make, but the end result is very impressive.  I think my favourite of the two is the white and black one.  What about you?  Which one do you like best - one or two? 

The next grouping of cards are my own own design and feature a combination of Let It Ride, Country Road, Very Versailles and Waterfront Stamp Sets.  

Card Three:  

The card base is Crumb Cake with Chocolate Chip (R) and Very Vanilla Layers.  I repeatedly stamped the horses head  from the Let it Ride stamp set for the background and the circle images.  The layered circles were cut out with the Stitched Shapes Dies and the Happy Birthday sentiment  was cut out and layered with the Stitched Rectangles Dies.  Once I decided how I wanted this card to look, it came together in about 5 minutes - inside and out.  

For the inside of this card I stamped the horses image in Crumb Cake ink and the "Take the Reins" sentiment in Early Espresso ink.  Once again the panels were in Chocolate Chip(R)* and Very Vanilla card stocks.  

*(R) stands for Retired.  I have an abundance of Chocolate Chip and other card stocks in my stash and use them, regardless of the fact they are retired.  In this case the Chocolate Chip is the perfect compliment with the Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla 

Card Four: 

I really enjoyed making this card for my brother who has Alzheimer's and is having difficulty with the COVID-19 "stay in place" rulings.  I try to send him a card every week to let him know we love him and are thinking of him.  This card features a combination of the Very Versailles stamp set, Country Road and the dotted stencil from the Basic Pattern Decorative Masks. 

The two stars were stamped in Early Espresso and fussy cut before adhering them to the panel with Mono adhesive.  To add a hint of colour I inked up the stamp with Sahara Sand and then lightly thumped it with a Mossy Meadow marker along the stems.  You can't do this with Blends as that it an alcohol based medium, but markers are a great tool for adding some extra detail in your stamping.   

I used second generation stamping to stamp the weather vane image from Country Roads in the center of the panel.  Second generation stamping is simple ink up your stamp then stamp it off on a scrap to get a lighter image and then stamp on your panel.   The sentiment "Always thinking of you" is from the Very Versailles stamp set.  I sponged the edges of the panels on both the front and inside with Crumb Cake and a sponge dauber before adhering them to the Chocolate Chip Panels.  

Card Five:

Card Five was once again a mixture of the Let It Ride, Country Road and Waterfront stamp sets.  What fun I had creating this imagery.  Normally you would layer in your elements working from the top down, but I wasn't sure what kind of a scene I wanted to create so I began by stamping the small horses from Let It Ride in Momento Black ink on my Very Vanilla panel.   

The next  element I added was the meadow and to create this I used the pebble stamp from Waterfront.  I stamped it several times in Gray Granite, Old Olive and Crumb Cake inks.  I used a sponge dauber to add some Crumb Cake and Old Olive colouring to the meadow area and as you can see in the picture, I did this with the lightest of touches.  Then  I coloured the horses and grasses with Soft Suede and Old Olive Blends.   I stamped both the tree images from Let It Ride and Waterfront in Mossy Meadow and Old Olive. 

At this point I still had the top of the card to fill in but had to make a mask for the horses first.  I cut one from a post it note and then inked up the Mountain image from Waterfront with a mixture of Gray Granite and Soft Suede inks.  I stamped this image right over the masked horses and the tree line.  The sun from Waterfront was stamped mistakenly with Gray Granite ink and then I over-stamped it several times with So Saffron ink to correct my boo boo.  After all, we can't have a dark sun.  Anyway, this seemed to work okay so I went with it.  The final touch was to sponge in some clouds with  - Seaside Spray ink and stamp the sentiment "Friends Make the Good Times Better", sentiment from Waterfront. 

The finished 5" x 3 3/4" panel was adhered to a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Basic Black card stock.  The base of the card is also a retired card stock I have, called "Buckeroo Blue" (R).  It's very close to the Seaside Spray colour, which I was out of.   

Again, the inside of my card is stamped very simply with the sentiment and trees from Waterfront.  

Card Six:

I CASed this card from Francis Martin and it's called the "Silhouette Technique".  To see the video that inspired me to try this out click here.

This was a very simple card to make, mainly stamping and sponging.  The only changes I made to this card were the use of a black Sharpie pen instead of the recommended Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker, simply because I don't own one.  As Frenchie explains in her post and video, the Black Stampin Blends and or the Black Marker pens simply aren't dark enough to create this silhouette effect. 

Card Seven:

There's nothing super special about this card it's simply stamping with the Let It Ride stamp set and colour added with Stampin' Blends alcohol ink markers. Like I said, nothing special in the way of techniques but all in all a pretty cool card.  Sometimes you don't need to have all the bells and whistles. 

This card show cases the beautiful galloping horse and the sentiment "Take life by the reins" which is stamped in Momento Black Ink.  I love that sentiment. 

I used Soft Suede light and dark Blends to colour the horse, Granny Apple Green blends for the trees and grass and a bit of Light Pool Party for the sky around the trees.  That's it.  The card base is Early Espresso and the first layer of the card is Pool Party card stock.  

Again nothing special about the inside of this card, simply some stamping with Momento Black ink.  Enjoy! 

Well that's the end of my post.  I hope you have enjoyed the seven cards that I've shown you.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on them.  

Remember if this post has inspired you to purchase either the Let It Ride or the Country Road stamp sets they are part of the Last Chance Product list and will no longer be available for purchase after June 2nd, 2020.  

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin Spot 

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