A birthday gift for a friend

My friend Celia has a birthday on March 1, and Di Hickman had a rubber stamp giveaway on her blog, which I won. These two disparate events came together to cause me to create this wall hanging for Celia's birthday. Since I don't have a whole lot of supplies on hand, I had to make do with what I have that's not in storage or in boxes.

I began with the "celebrate" stamp from Di and the lace scrap. The lace looked like it would go well with the ledger paper I have been hoarding. I took an old Entertainment card that was given to me and turned it into a stencil after I scruffed it up a bit and painted it with green paint, gold fluid acrylic, and rust dye ink (Really Rust reinker by Stampin'Up). I also colored a page from a book with the rust ink, which was the closest I had in color to the lace. I didn't notice I had the book page upside down under the "C" until I was preparing to scan the piece.

I'm not much of a stamper, so this was a real challenge. I used a makeup sponge to add the ink to the stamp, but I had problems with consistency. For some reason, I thought the makeup sponge would work like a stamp pad, but it didn't have the same effect (remember, I'm not much of a stamper). However, I did manage to make the entire page look really grungy with the sponge, by swiping the rust ink on everything.

I had an image from my vintage altered book, so cut it out and used it. I had to laugh at the vintage lady and the "atomic" feel of the rubber stamp. Talk about mixing styles!!! Then I had no ribbon for a hanger that was anywhere close to the color of the piece. So, I "dyed" some really orange ribbon with some Really Rust dye ink. I sure hope Celia likes it.