Technique Tuesday & SOTM

Hello again! Today you get a 2-for-1 special. I'm going to post #2 for September's Stamp of the Month, and give you a Technique Tuesday all in one post. You're welcome. :o) First off, in case you weren't here yesterday, the Stamp of the Month for September is Gorgeous Grunge and here's my second card with it.

What do you think? I'm always trying to find an idea for a masculine birthday card, and I tend to go for the blue/brown combo for them. This card uses 3 stamp sets: Gorgeous Grunge (of course), Hardwood, and Remembering Your Birthday. I even used one of the Gorgeous Grunge splatter stamps to make "sprinkles" on the cupcake. :o) Here it is with the matching envelope. 

As with yesterday's card, I wanted to give this one a little dimension, so I popped the cupcake liner up with a Stampin' Dimensional, and I curved the sentiment banner with my fingers before strategically gluing it down. I just put adhesive where the banner goes under the circle and where it touches the card (under the word "thought"). You don't want to lift the banner up too much, or it may get squished in the mail. 

This sentiment has 2 parts, so the inside looks like this:

In case you can't read it, it says, "I remembered and thought...and then I forgot! Happy Belated Birthday."

Now for your Technique Tuesday. I've always had a hard time with background stamps. Even with using a soft mat under the paper, I often had areas of the stamp that just didn't get pressed onto the paper enough. Now, I usually do them upside down--with the stamp on the bottom, and the paper on top. Like this:

After inking the stamp and carefully laying the paper where I want it, I place a scrap sheet of paper on top and gently rub my hands all over the stamp. It's hard to take a picture while doing this, but I keep one hand still (to keep the paper from moving), and rub the other one all over, then switch and hold the other still so I don't miss any spots.

Lookie there! Nice even coverage all over the paper.

For the envelope, I folded my scrap paper to make a pocket to mask the envelope so that only the flap would get stamped. Then I turned this whole piece over and placed it on the stamp, just like the card front.

The scrap paper "pocket" did double duty as a mask so that I could sponge the edge of the flaps as well.

So, what do you think? We went from a very feminine card to a more masculine one. Like I said, this stamp set is pretty versatile. Tomorrow we're moving on to bright and cheery.

Till then...
God's love and blessings!