NC Demo's March Blog Hop - saying good bye to In Colors

Welcome to the NC Demo's March Blog Hop.  This month we were to use one of the out-going In Colors (Pineapple Punch, Call Me Clover, Blueberry Bushel, Lovely Lipstick, Grapefruit Grove.)  The card can ONLY use one of the retiring In Colors.  We can use Whisper White or Vanilla cardstock and black ink but all other ink and cardstock has to be the single retiring In Color.   I had to really put on my thinking cap for this one!  But then I remembered I still had my daughter's Sale-a-Bration stamp set, Rise and Shine!  The In Color I picked is actually one I hardly used - Call Me Clover.  I think I have only used it at Christmas time.  It was just a little too green for me!  But I like how it turned out on my tea mugs.  My favorite In Color in this set is actually Grapefruit Grove - I'm really going to miss that color!  

This stamp set is a Reversibles set, so some of the stamps are two-sided with an image on each side of the stamp for more creative options.  It can also be used for the tea drinker (me!) and the coffee drinker.  It's not too late for you to earn this Sale-a-Bration stamp set but you need to hurry.  Sale-a-Bration ends on March 31!!

I stamped the mugs in the background on Whisper White cardstock, stamping off on each of them so I would get a lighter color from the mug on the front.  I mounted that layer onto Call Me Clover which then was mounted onto Thick White Cardstock.  Next I layered a piece of vellum on top.  With black ink, I stamped the steam and the sentiment.  (I won't tell you how many times I had to stamp the vellum because I kept smearing the ink!  That happens with vellum.  So, on my third try, I decided to heat emboss the sentiment with clear powder!)  On scrap paper, I stamped the mug with the stars and heat embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder.  Next I fussy cut it out.  There are dies to match this stamp set but I don't have them.  It's not a big deal to cut the images out.  I made a tea bag tag and attached white twine from the bag to the cup.

How are you surviving the Coronavirus pandemic?  My daughter is an Infections Disease doctor so I was a little worried about her.  But she also works at the military medical school in Bethesda.  She is deemed to be an essential member of the university so will not be on the front line taking care of patients.  Instead she is having to find placements for around 400 students who were in other places around the globe and US doing field work or residencies.  Not to mention, the president of the university announced last week that they are going to graduate the 4th year students as of April 1.  Now what they will do with these graduates is another problem since they are not technically a doctor yet!   

During this pandemic, I have been busy in my craft room.  I have made a lot of cards in the past couple of weeks and predict that I will be making many more.  Luckily my Paper Pumpkin arrived about the time everything went crazy so I have made a lot of cards with the kit and put them in neighbors mailbox or paper tube to cheer them up. It was one of the best Paper Pumpkin kits we have had to date.  I've also been using Evernote to organize my stamps and dies.  It makes a searchable catalog and I can search my stamps and dies by using keywords. 

I hope you stay safe and healthy during this pandemic.  There will be a time after the pandemic when life returns to normal.    We can get through this if we work together and remember there is sunshine on the other end of this tunnel.

OK - enough depressing talk!!  I hope you will visit the rest of the demos and see what they came up with for the monochromatic masterpiece!

Amy Austin-KInler 
Jo Anne Hewins   
Tina Lesson
Ariel Matera - 
Tracy Marie Lewis
Libby Foreman 
Toni Campana
Frances Wagner
Tracie Evans Langley
Laurie Meier
Sue Root: 
Tamra Davis
Sharon Maranich - YOU ARE HERE
Sue Stapp - 
Nedine Depree

Stay safe!!