Namaste

Namaste my fellow stampers (puts hands together at chest and bows forward)... today I present to you my attempt at this week's sketch challenge on SCS (SC184). When I saw the sketch with all these diamonds, for some reason it reminded me of something Asian or Indian. I've been wanting to use my MFT "Serenity Now" set for ages - I loved it from the first time I saw it and actually informed my DH back in February that it was my "Valentine's gift" before I placed the order... ;-) But even though I needed it as soon as I saw it, it has sat since then, unloved in my clear stamp drawer. Until this week! I don't know about this card, though. I had such incredibly high hopes, visions of awesomeness when I went into the stamp room, that the end result doesn't quite measure up. I can tell you one thing I was absolutely determined to do, though - make a card without any scallops or polka dots and get Monica off my back!! And I did it, woohoo! Hmm. Maybe that's why I don't love this card as much?? LOL. Anyway - I found this DP in my stash and thought it would be perfect for a yoga card - such a neat pattern. The purple paper is something quite "unique," to say the least - it's actually Mr. Ellie Pooh paper. Paper made from elephant dung. I kid you not! This Mr. Ellie Pooh character was at a scrapbook expo I went to a while back. The guy was quite charismatic. Obviously. He convinced me I needed a bunch of paper made from elephant pooh!!! (man if a certain blogger is reading this she is going to have a field day - she already makes fun of my love of elephants - it goes against my true love of donkeys if you know what I mean...luckily I don't think she actually reads this very often... being a superstar and all... anyway...) The paper is actually pretty cool, I feel like I'm doing a good thing for the earth by using it (I hate to stop and think how many trees I've killed since I started papercrafting...!), the color is great (better IRL, the colors in this photo are a bit goofy) and it's almost like a heavy duty mulberry paper? It has a lot of texture - and I intentionally added some extra roughing up to the edges. The little lotus flower squares were embossed with silver EP. I cooked them a little long, which produced this cool look of the EP really getting down into the paper - it really has an Indian look to me IRL (I spent 10 weeks in Malaysia a while back - there's a lot of Indian culture there - it reminds me of a lot of the handmade paper things I'd see there). I wrote out "namaste" at the bottom by hand rather than using the stamp that came with the set because I wanted it to be a little bigger - but I think that was a bad idea because my handwriting looks crappy (LOL - just like the paper!). I also don't think the freaky headless woman's skin fits into the rest of the card too well - it's too stark or something. Oh well. Enough bashing of this card, it is what it is. So let me know if you've ever been convinced to buy elephant pooh paper at a scrapbook expo before - I'm curious. :-) (actually I do like the fact that it's eco-friendly - as their website says: All of our paper products are 100% recycled, 75% Pooh and 100% fun.) Have a great weekend!!!

• Stamps: Serenity Now from My Favorite Things
• Paper: Almost Amethyst, Brushed Silver, DaisyD DP, Mr. Ellie Pooh paper
• Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Versamark, silver paint pen
• Accessories: Silver EP, Starry Night Stickles, Paper piercer