Masculine birthday and how I choose my stamps

 

I'm not sure if I should describe myself as "cheap" or frugal. I wear clothes until they get holes, shoes until  the soles fall off and even my pot and pans need to give me a decent amount of service before I decide to replace them (or should I say when my family decides to replace them for me). The same rule applies to my stamps.

Before I purchase a stamp set this is what I consider:

 

* Is the stamp set versatile so that I could make a lot of different creations with it?

* Can I use them all year long?

*Does it have coordinating die cuts (I'm into that now)?

 

 

I must tell you that even some of the holiday sets could easily be used during the year. The long gone Ornamental Pine would make a great masculine card all year long and just cannot wait to use Happy Scenes in the upcoming months.

So this brings me to the wonderful set of Vintage Leaves. When you first look at it, the set screams FALL, as it should. Most of us stamp the most wonderful colors of fall with it. However, when I did get that set, that was not my sole purpose. I really wanted to use it more than just a fall set and today I did just that. The plan is to make many more every day greeting cards i with it because being versatile (as I mentioned) is important to me.

On top of that I decided to make my own background stamp. No, please, stop, don't give me any credit for coming up with the idea because as always I found it on Pintrest where all the brilliant people of the world post their amazing creations. I could have used Gorgeous Grunge and that would have worked just fine but you know me, gotta try something new.

You just wrap twine around a clear block and you stamp with it.
Just like that!