Aloha, all!
Not much time left for me to get my valentine cards in the mail! In fact, to be assured that mine get to the east coast by Valentine's Day, I'll have to mail them today!
So today's card, a challenge by the Diva Coffee Break Design Team (of which I am one!), will be my last Valentine to be mailed out!
And is this one ever different from anything that I've shared with you in recent memory. The images are made up entirely from Rub-Ons! Yes, here sits a Stampin' Up! demonstrator who absolutely despises rub-ons. Yes, I bought some when Stampin' Up! first came out with them. But I had such a hard time with them that I decided that I could do without, thank you very much. Now two recent events have brought change to that attitude.
First, Stampin' Up! must have known that there are those of us who hesitate to buy and use rub-ons. So they sent each and every demonstrator who placed on order in January a FREE sheet of the Love Impressions Rub-Ons from the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog. Um, let's see, that would have been back on January 4th when I placed my first Occasions Mini Catalog order. And the pack of rub-ons has been sitting there on my craft table, being moved from one place to the next, ever since.
Then on my online Stampin' Up! group, SUDSOL, a fellow demonstrator said that her secret was heating up her paper before she applied the rub-on. OK, so I was game. But I kept moving that sheet of rub-ons around to keep it out of the way, but still in sight.
Until today, when I saw that the color challenge from the Divas included the colors that are in this very set of rub-ons, and the game was "on." Wow! Was that easy! I just got out my heat tool (the one I used for embossing), warmed up my paper just before applying the rub-on, and there was magic! Woo-hoo!! This card was not perfect by all means as I had not practiced on a scrap at all. But I think it's quite good enough to show off both here and at the Diva Website.
Just having the rub-ons, even with a few layers to make the card more interesting, didn't seem enough for me. First I added some bling in the form of Stampin' Up! Basic Rhinestones, and then I added a bow, tied together with a Clear Rhinestone Brad. Those are some other Stampin' Up! goodies you haven't seen me use in awhile, either! So this is a Red Letter Day (and Pink Pirouette and Basic Gray Day, too) in Robin's Craft Room.
If you haven't used the rub-ons, give them a try. The little set in the Occasions Mini Catalog is probably too much in the way of a Valentine Design for ordering now. But there are other rub-ons featured in the Stampin' Up! 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog on page 184 – I just may have to buy some of those Play Date Rub-ons for myself on my next order!
Whether you use rub-ons or just stamp away, have fun with some paper crafting this week!
