Well hello there!  For the past month I’ve not done any crafting, in fact I’ve not even been in my craft studio as I’ve been on an extended vacation in Europe.  I had a lot of fun with family and friends, not least because we celebrated the marriage of our daughter.  We only got home yesterday afternoon so I’m still unpacking and getting myself sorted out.

With such a long break it felt quite odd sitting down at my desk this morning and trying to come up with an idea for my blog.  In the end I decided that some motivation was required and the Enjoy Life Stamp Set had exactly what I needed.

I began with two pieces of Thick Very Vanilla Card cut out using my Big Shot and multipurpose platform and the #7 plain-edge die from the Layering Ovals Framelits (counting from the smallest up).

I set one of the ovals aside and on the second one I placed a Post-It® Note covering about the top third of the oval.  Then using pieces of Stampin’ Sponge I sponged the bottom section with Mint Macaron ink, then Old Olive ink.  I moved the Post-It Note so that only a section of the right side of the sponging was showing and then sponged over that with Gray Granite ink to create a path effect on the ground.

Next I needed to sponge the sky so I moved the Post-It Note so it covered the sponged area before sponging Pineapple Punch ink over the top portion of the oval.  I added a mask punched from a Post-It Note with a 1″ Circle Punch to overlap the main mask and then sponged the visible area with Blushing Bride ink.  I removed the circle mask and sponged a little Gray Granite ink over the whole sky area to give it that early morning effect and then removed the larger mask.

With the background complete I used Tranquil Tide ink to stamp the large foliage image from the Enjoy Life Stamp Set on the left side, followed by the standing person image using Early Espresso ink.

On a separate piece of Thick Very Vanilla Card I used Early Espresso ink to stamp the “Wake up.  Kick butt.  Repeat.” sentiment from the Enjoy Life Stamp Set and punched that out with the 1″ Circle Punch then sponged some Pineapple Punch ink around the edge.

I was almost done, but I wanted to give the pieces a glossy finish so I pressed a VersaMark Ink Pad onto them and then covered the sticky ink with Clear Stampin’ Emboss Powder.  I tapped off the excess powder and melted the rest with the Heat Tool set on 2 (high).  I let the embossing cool and then repeated the process twice more to give a really thick layer of embossing.

All that was left was to fix a small magnet to the back of the oval piece and then fix the second oval to the back with Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow).  The sentiment was attached to the front with a Stampin’ Dimensional and I was done.

You know I don’t think I’ve ever made a fridge magnet before but it was really easy and I now have some motivation every time I go to the fridge to get milk for my coffee.

The next load of laundry is ready to be hung out on the line and while that’s drying I’ll get on with creating tomorrow’s blog project for you.  I hope you’ll be able to join me.

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