Ants at a Picnic

This card started out with just the dusty rose-colored card, a 9x9 piece. I cut it down to 8.5 x 5.5, as if it were half of a letter-sized piece. That way it will fit into my purchased envelopes. Then I dug through the pile of embellishments on my table (remember the "Oversized Stickers). I found these checked tablecloth border stickers and I immediately thought "picnic". Of course what's a picnic without ants? I just happen to have an ant paper punch (imagine that!), so I grabbed some black card and punched out an odd number of ants. For some reason, an odd number of items always looks better on a page than an even number.

Then I picked a funky alpha stamp from Close to my Heart and stamped and matted. I used their Barn Red ink, which came out a little browner than I expected, but it matches really well now that it's dried all the way. I've noticed with some Close to my Heart inks that, although they appear dry soon after stamping, the color seems to change slightly over time. Also, if you apply paper glaze or glitter glaze on the fresh ink, it lifts up a yellowish tinge into the glaze. So it's best to let the ink dry longer before glazing.

I was challenged when it came to picking a saying for the inside. I didn't want to be specific to the picnic theme, and I search for quotes involving ants, but didn't find anything appropriate. "It's not a picnic without ants" is cute, but no. And this quote from The Family Guy - "You're an ant in the picnic of life" - definitely not. So I settled with "Don't let anything spoil your day".

When I made the tag, I followed them theme and used a piece of barn red ribbon for the tassle, securing it with a snap attached with the Crop-A-Dile setter. It is an awesome tool. I could never have punched holes in ribbon without it, not even with a leather punch.