Simon Says Stamp "Back to School" Challenge

Hey everyone! I really stepped out of my comfort zone for this card. I'm unsure how I feel about the outcome, but I'm proud I stretched my creativity! I made this card for this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. The theme is "back to school." Now, I don't have any kids, so back to school time was not on my radar. Since I just started card making this year, I haven't even had the occasion to give a back to school card to anyone.

I don't even have any little kid or people stamps that I could throw together into some semblance of a school scene! So I initially said, "well, I'm going to have to sit this challenge out." Somewhere during a Hulu binge, the idea for a chalkboard just hit me over the head like a ton of bricks! I also thought maybe I could use white embossing powder to emulate chalk. I am not a distress-er y'all! I have no idea how to make things look "natural;" I'm always trying to making things look supernaturally uniform. 😂I finally said to heck with it and tried an experimental run. My fist thought was to pat down some Versamark, but I realize it would just completely adhere the embossing powder, and I'd get big white squares. Not the look! So I just sprinkled some embossing powder around without anything to adhere it to, but knowing how embossing powder likes to stick with static I thought it might work. I was pretty surprised with the outcome!

I wasn't really sure what to put on the chalkboard, so I decided to use my We R Memory Keepers alpha punch board to make up a little "ABC" to look like it was written in chalk. I distressed the edges with "black soot" Distress Oxide ink to try to make it looked like it was chalk lettering kind of wiped away/messed up. For the wooden frame of the chalkboard, I re-used the face of a woodgrain envelope I was hand-lettering "Christi" onto but ended up writing "Chisti." LOL. But shh, that'll be our little secret. 😜

I was vaguely thinking of trying to find something pencil-y or chalkboard eraser-y in my stamp or die stash, and while I was searching, I saw the little studious kitties from the Mama Elephant Little Cat Agenda set and knew straight away those were going on the card! I colored a little trio of tabbies using Copic markers in primary colors to up the school-like feel. Then I die cut them and sent them on their merry way as chalkboard decor! 😂

And that's it for this week's SSSW challenge. Thanks for stopping by and reading, and make sure to subscribe to my posts if you never want to miss one. 💖