THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO CONQUER CAR RIDING STRESS

I am the first to admit it: I HATE RIDING IN THE CAR. No, it's not that I get carsick or anything horrible like that. 

It's just that, almost as soon as I settle in for a car trip longer than 15 minutes, I may just as well say to my husband, "Good Night." And I'm out for the duration of the ride. Not a very pleasant and lively companion in the car. 

Sometimes I'll scan through a magazine, figuring I can visit while I'm doing that. But . . . after three pages -- or if I try REALLY hard, five pages -- I am out like a light. Even sitting straight up. I don't need to be comfortable to fall asleep in the car.

This past 4th of July Weekend, my husband and I were heading down to Madison to spend the three days with our family. 

But, for this trip, I came well-prepared. Yes, I had the required magazines in my bag. But, the night before, I stamped a whole garden of Blended Blooms (page 115 in the Big Catalog) on scraps of old retired Designer Series Papers. I didn't count how many I was stamping. I just kept finding good candidates and kept on stamping until I thought I had enough to last the trip. 

After about five hours of work (and I'm so proud to say that I slept nary a wink!), I have 60 Blended Blooms, all cut out and ready for the next step to use on cards!

My original intent was to make layered flowers, so I stamped three flowers on each of the DSP designs. 

Some of them, once they were cut out, beg to just be left alone. 

No layering required. 

For example, look at this little darling:

And THIS little cutie -- subtle but adorable with its delicate yellow design.

Some turned out to be fairly sophisticated-looking:

Some I'm not so sure about. 

I thought the adorable little paisley design would work well. 

Now, I don't know.

A few of the papers have a multi-toned effect in the same colors, and look quite beautiful:

I love the subtlety against the startling blue:

Now, these darker ones just may find themselves in my circular file. 

When I initially saw these really old papers, I thought they would be rich as flowers. 

But they are so dark and busy that the stamping details are almost lost. 

Maybe these would be good candidates for layering.

Or, like I said, maybe they would be good candidates for the circular file.

We'll see.

My next step is to decide which ones WILL be layered, and cut up some of the excess flowers for the various layers, popping them up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

THEN, the toughest job: to stamp and cut out the centers. 

I will keep you updated over the coming weeks as I make progress on this humongous project.

In the meantime, I am happy to report that I have discovered a most effective way to conquer my car riding stress -- and STAY AWAKE -- and get something accomplished!

Now, let's start a little conversation here. Are any of you terrible travelers like I am? How to you deal with the ordeal? (Cute, huh?) I know that doing close work like this in the car WOULD make some of you sick, or at least give you a headache. Me? I'm so in heaven when I'm cutting up paper that the time simply flies! 

SHARE YOUR STORIES WITH US!

Conquering

Smiles.