Lantern - Frantic Stamper

Good morning and happy Monday!  I'm super excited to share some more Christmas creations with you from the using the new October Frantic Stamper Release.  There are SO many fun products in this release and I was super excited to get to work on my cards but I found that my card making mojo had deserted me.  Have you ever felt that way.  It didn't happen with this release either, I had been struggling for almost a month.  I can't even count the number of half finished cards on my desk or in the trash.  It was frustrating.  I knew I had to try to push through so I started playing with this little Hanging Lantern Die.  It was small and harmless, right?  :)

I flipped it around in my hand and started by cutting it out but only partially on black cardstock.  I cut the cardstock so it looked like the lantern was hanging on a building or wall.  I had to admit, I liked how it looked so I set it on a card front and wondered where to go from there.  Well, it's a light...so add light, right?  I thought about adding colored vellum or even just cardstock to get the yellow light I was looking for but I knew the best option was to use ink blending to get that illuminated look.  I'm going to tell you right here and right now...I'm a TERRIBLE ink blender!  I always hate what I create and it always looks blotchy to me.  It's just not a technique I use often because I don't feel like I do it well.  I gave it a try though and it worked!  The Hanging Lantern Die covered my blotched spots perfectly making it look like I knew what I was doing.  So, I had a card I liked by no sentiment.  I toyed around for awhile and then cut the Slender Peace from yellow cardstock and actually inked a bit around the edges...crazy, I know!  The slender sentiment looked great with the slender lines of my lantern and I was happy.  Then I found a sentiment strip in an older set of sentiments that I knew would be a perfect addition to my sentiment.  It was the right color and fit just right.  Finally, I liked a card I had made and I could totally feel my inspiration coming back to me.  Here's a closer look at the card that got me going again:

I guess you just never know where inspiration will strike and I'm super excited with what came of it.  I hope you'll keep checking back here to see more of my cards and that you'll check out the new Frantic Stamper October Release.  Thanks for visiting with me today!  Have a great day.