Viva Las Vegas and Recessionary Card Making

(excuse the photography below, I had to shoot into the sun to get him in the pic)

I know, I've been a bad blogger. But, I had good reason! I went to Las Vegas for a little under a week with my most of my mom's side of the family. It was certainly entertaining. We saw shows, hung out and had a lot of fun. We also exchanged Hanukkah gifts.

I wanted to make cute themed thank you notes for my aunts, uncles and grandparents. But, alas due to the recession buying some new Vegas themed stamps seemed frivolous. So, I decided to do what us stampers do best...get creative!!! The concept started with some ancient foam stamps from Making Memories. Those babies had to be 5 years old. I took the 7 out and inked it up with Not Quite Navy, stamping three times on a piece of 5.25"x 4" paper. Then I took my grey EK Sucess marker (another old product in my stash) and my handy dandy ruler, dividing the paper (starting in the middle) into three 1.5" columns.

Next, I stamped my medium star from the Little Paper Shop set Basic Shapes (Love this set!) in More Mustard. Then, I worked on the other options per slot. I took and old cherry stamp and inked in Ruby Red and Old Olive. Lastly I used the flourish from Basic Shapes in Pumpkin Pie for the remaining slots. I shaded the sides with Old Linen from Distress Inks.

For the inside, I used my Little Paper Shop set A-Z for the inside sentiment. I love clear stamps for letters because they're super easy to line up straight on a clear acyrlic block. It's hard to see in the picture because I my dog seemed to want to get in the picture but the sentiment says "I'm Lucky To Have You" with stars from the Basic Shapes set.

Ok, so it was a little more intensive then my usual quick and easy stamps, but it was CHEAP! I made a totally themed card without buying a thing!!!

Do you find yourself doing recessionary card making? Let us know how!

Happy Stamping!
Elyssa