Flashback Friday

Well, I'm sitting out in the garage right now having my "garage sale"...."yard sale", or whatever you might call it in your neck of the woods! Not a SOUL has stopped by yet, I can hardly believe it. It's a gorgeous day for garage "saleing", sunny and cool. Two trucks have driven by, but they must not have liked what they saw. It's actually a very small sale, I don't have lots of "stuff" to get rid of this go-around, but I do have furniture, which is typically a big draw. I was so bored I finally decided to bring my laptop up and work on my post instead of sitting here like a bump on a log!! Good idea!

Today is one of our favorite days! Flashback Fridays, where we laugh out loud while looking at a card I stamped when I was just starting out! A few of you have suggested I "re-do" the flashback card so you can see sort of a "before" and "after". I thought that was a great idea, so today I'll do just that!

Ok, here's the "before" card. Isn't she puuuuurdy? I was so into DTP distressing of the edges, wasn't I? And yuk, why did I stamp the image on colored paper? I will sometimes do that on black cardstock with white ink, but I wouldn't do something like this anymore. I don't like the look. And of course, we all know that if I was making this same exact card today, I'd be slappin' designer paper all over that baby! Remember,I'm the queen of designer paper! I very rarely use my background stamps anymore. I find they are difficult to use...by that I mean they don't always give great images. I can't get a good background image with my paisely stamp for all the tea in China! And come on, there is NO background stamp near as pretty as a piece of Basic Grey designer paper!

And now for the "after" card. I hope this isn't too bright of a photo today. I actually took a picture of it outside (because of the garage sale), and I edited it on my laptop, which is outside. It's hard to see my screen very well! Hopefully it's not blinding you. I'll have to take a look at it when I'm inside again to make sure it's ok. On the remake, I used my favorite designer paper, MME/Tres Jolie, and used it as the main background. I stamped the tree in two different browns, Colorbox Fluid Chalk ink in Creamy Brown and Chestnut Roan. The sentiment, from Words of Wisdom, is stamped with a blue (since I'm outside, I don't have access to my inks!) and kissed it with a tish of Creamy Brown. Edges were slightly distressed (note: they WERE NOT distressed like they were on the "before" card) with a sponge and a bit of Ranger Ink in Walnut Stain. It is matted with a metallic brown cardstock. The coordinating strip of paper underneath the main image is the opposite side of the MME designer paper. I sewed a zig zag edge across this strip and all the way around the designer paper for some detail. A brown gingham ribbon is tied just to the left of the tree to finish the card off.

Well, what do you think? Did I do ok on the re-make? Do you like seeing "before" and "after" cards? In some cases, I won't be able to do it because when I first started stamping, I used all my friend's stamps. So many of these stamps I don't have access to. But when I do have it available, I think this is a fun little added-bonus to our Friday Flashback feature!

Be sure you check back tomorrow for Scrap Stash Saturday.....I put a little "twist" on the day that you're sure to get a chuckle out of! And, I made another card using the scraps one of my readers sent to me! It's a doozy, let me tell you! You won't want to miss it!

Have a great day!

Amy