Social Undistancing
Imagine that you’re really excited to get into a hot tub. You’re foot is hovering in the steam above the surface, but you don’t dare dip it into the water yet, because you have a feeling that the water is way too hot! It might even be hot enough to burn!
That’s pretty much how I plan to ease into normalcy as our government moves us through each phase of our restart plan. Here in BC, Canada, certain businesses are allowed to re-open with strict protective measures in place. I could make an appointment to have my hair trimmed, if I want to, but is my vanity worth the risk? Nah, I’m okay with my locks being a bit more disheveled than usual for a little while yet. I’m even okay without my dental checkup for another couple months. I’m pretty nervous about getting out there again and I’m expecting some peer pressure as the government starts releasing us from the current limitations. Friends are going to want to get together, but I’m not keen to open my bubble too soon. I’m eager to get back to normalcy and I can’t wait to social un-distance, but I’m not ready to jump in quite yet. I think I’m going to wait this out and see how it looks a month from now.
In the meantime, I need to get myself a face mask for when I go to the grocery store. It’s getting far too peopley out there, making it harder to keep that 2 metre distance. I know it won’t protect me as much, but it will protect those around me if I’m sick and don’t know it yet. Plus, if I make a mask, I can make it out of some of Stampin’ Up!’s retired fabric! Or I can use some iron-on vinyl and die-cut some letters to iron onto my mask and make it fun. Something like, “If you can read this, then you’re too close!” or, “It’s so peopley out today”.
The As You See It Challenge that inspires my card design today is this crazy colour combination! I was a little worried, as these are not colours that I usually put together.
However, once I got started, I realized that these colours are quite cheerful together! Here’s the card design that I landed on, using the Share Sunshine digital stamp set from Stampin’ Up! with the Artfully Aware stamp set (which is retiring AND at a discounted price as I’m writing this!).
I chose to watercolour the image using the colours in the challenge. The watercolour paper is die cut using one of the Rectangle Stitched Dies from Stampin’ Up! I layered that on some Soft Suede Cardstock and attached that to the Lovely Lipstick layers, the top of which was embossed using the Tin Tile embossing folder and my die cutting and embossing machine. This is all on the clean Whisper White card base.
The sentiment is from the Share Sunshine digital stamp set, which is a COVID-19 giveback global fundraising initiative as part of Stampin’ Up!’s Making a Difference program. 100% of the proceeds of the sale of this 15 page PDF stamp set will to to the COVID-19 efforts of The World Health Organization’s COVID-Solidarity Response Fund and/or the United Way Worldwide’s COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund. You can find out more about this set by clicking HERE. I have been finding this set to be so much fun to use!
I printed the PDF on Whisper White cardstock and cut out the sentiment from the page. I sponged the cardstock with Daffodil Delight ink and trimmed it down to size, flagging the end using the Banner Triple Punch. This was applied to the front of my card with more Stampin’ Dimensionals, but I also added a swirl of the Silver Metallic Thread (retiring), which I actually took the time to “tarnish” by colouring it with the Soft Suede Stampin’ Blends Marker. It’s a subtle difference, but it works!
Now, there is an embellishment on here that I haven’t mentioned yet. Those three little metal photo corners are not available to customers until the new catalogue goes live in June. I attached these antiqued corners from the Antiqued Corners and Slides embellishment pack using Multipurpose Liquid Glue. I love them!
The final touch on my card was to add some Soft Suede spatter. I used the Soft Suede Stampin’ Blends Marker and flicked the brush tip on the lid to cause the ink to spatter across my paper. This might not be a look that everyone loves, but it’s a look that I definitely love!
Did you know that two of these colours are retiring? Lovely Lipstick and Call Me Clover will be leaving us forever to make room for new colours. It’s a bitter sweet time, but I have to say that my excitement for the new products always overshadows the disappointment of what will be left behind!
Head on over to my online store to find all of these products and take advantage of some of the discounted prices on the Last-Chance Products and the Clearance Rack.
Stay safe and craft on!
