One of the perks of being a demonstrator is the ability to pre-order products before a new catalog becomes available. This year I purchased the Brewed for You bundle as part of my pre-order from the new “big” catalog. And as is almost always the case (at least for me) I didn’t touch the products until this week – a fair bit after they were available to everyone. I always have grand plans about using the lead time with products to create samples featuring them and help me prepare for the catalog launch. And almost always normal life gets in the way and I don’t have as much crafting time as I envisioned. All that being said – I have no regrets about purchasing this set! I just got around to inking it up a little later than I had originally intended.
Since I used a darker colored card base, I stamped a Very Vanilla panel for the inside to make it easy to see any sentiment that I decide to write on my brew birthday card. I do have some white gel pens that I use to write inside dark cards, and I could have left this one naked inside and still use it easily. However, I took this as an opportunity to stamp another beer and add some fizzy bubbles at the top. Maybe that’s the “another round” offered on the front of the card! 😉
Here in Vermont we live in the land of the micro-brew. At first it started with beers, and that industry has spread far and wide around the country. I *think* that Vermont still has the highest number of micro-breweries per capita in the nation. Of course, our “per capita” numbers are small in comparison so it makes it a little easier. But – you can easily find one or several micro-brews in so many towns; especially here in Chittenden county. The beer industry is very established and then cider micro-breweries started to appear several years ago. Now we have several of them, too! My personal favorite is the Tips Up flavor from Stowe Cider. Yum! All of this means that I’m thinking of micro-brews when I look at this card, and thinking of who I know that appreciates a good brew.
I used this current sketch challenge as the inspiration for my card layout. I knew that I wanted to have either a DSP large layer, or something else to add interest like embossing. I initially looked at the “He’s the Man” paper but decided that the patterns were either too busy or too much of a single color for what I envisioned in my minds’ eye. I did use the color combination from that paper for the color palette for the card. Then I looked more closely at the Texture Chic patterned paper and I really liked the mottled colors which were perfect for the sort-of grungy look that I wanted. With this paper there’s visual interest, but it doesn’t overwhelm the stamped layers that I wanted to pop front-and-center.
You may be a little curious about the thread that you see peeking behind the pair of brews. Believe it or not, it is white Baker’s Twine. Yep – that’s right! I pulled out my light Soft Suede Stampin’ Blends and colored the twine so that it coordinated perfectly with the colors on my card. That’s another great tip for the Blends – you can color white (or really light) ribbon with any color of Blends to create something that will coordinate perfectly with your project.
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