A Very Well Deserved Thanks Card For Hubby - Less is More Touch Of Red Challenge

Postie delivered some new stamps to me on Saturday morning.  A clear Inkadinkado set plus another old, retired, Stampin' Up! floral set.  I have added the Hydrangea set to my two-step stamping collection.  Oh dear.  The rubber images had not been trimmed before being mounted to the wooden blocks.  Each rubber piece had been placed on each wooden block with no cutting at all.  No mention of that on the eBay listing, just that the set had been 'gently used'.  I can only imagine the frustration of the person who stamped with them because they must have got the most awful inky halos around their images.  In fact, the inky state of the rubber testified to that. 

So I carefully peeled away the rubber, trimmed all the images and was then left wondering how to deal with the sticky, gunky wooden blocks.  With these two-step sets I prefer wood mounted so that I can stamp imaging sheets on vellum to use with the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig so using them as cling stamps wasn't an option.  I didn't want to use a wet sticky stuff remover 'cos I thought that would soak into the wood.  Then I tried wire wool - no good whatsoever.  So that left sanding with coarse sandpaper as an option.  Except I have a really painful shoulder and neck at the moment and I wouldn't have managed lots of sanding and couldn't have summoned the required elbow grease!  Bless his heart, my hubby Owen volunteered to do it for me.  What a job.  Lots of sanding, then a paint scraper to scrape the gunk off followed by lots more sanding - and I really do mean lots.  There are ten stamps in the set.  Anyway, much later in the day I had a lovely set of hydrangea stamps.  So I thought a thank you card for Owen was the least I could do!

I took the opportunity to ink up my new Inkadinkado 'Flourishes' set and I decided to check out the Less Is More challenge again.  This week the challenge is a Touch of Red.  Perfect - Owen loves black cards and so I made a black card with a white mat and some touches of SU! Ruby Red.  The card is an A6 size with the fold at the top.  I used a Labels Four Nestie die for the image and a Petite Oval Nestie die for the mat.  I added Ruby Red brads to the flowers in the image and I popped the white layer up.  I wanted to have a sentiment on the front but didn't want to add another panel.  So I hit on the idea of stamping the 'thanks' in VersaMark ink and embossing with clear powder.  I was very happy with that result and think it's ideal for a CAS, less is more card.   The main thing though is that Owen loved his card.

Supplies:
Stamps: Inkadinkado 'Flourishes' clear set, SU! Thank You Kindly set
CS: SU! Basic Black, Ruby Red & Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, VersaMark
Tools: Labels Four & Petite Oval Nestabilities dies
Embellishments & accessories: Clear embossing powder, Ruby Red brads, 3d foam tape