I Hit the Brick Wall

When I saw the challenge at Stamp Ink Paper was Card Maker's Choice, I immediately knew I wanted to use my brick wall embossing folder.  I was so excited to get this as it was on back order for quite a while and I had visions of all the wonderful cards I could make with it.  I pulled it out and just stared at it, what happened to all of the fabulous ideas???  At one point I entertained the idea of a freight train blasting through the bricks with scattered brick debris and everything.  I thought it could be pretty cool if I could pull it off.  I stamped the train and the scale was all off, just one of these bricks would crush the train.

I imagined a new path where some of the bricks would appear to have fallen off the wall but the overall plan was still pretty sketchy.  I decided to just dive in with the coloring of the bricks.  I inked up the embossing folder with Sahara Sand and also used Sahara Sand card stock.  I sponged on a number of colors in an attempt to mimic a brick wall.  I cut away some of the bricks and mounted the embossed piece to some more Sahara Sand stamped with speckles to look like concrete.  I added a few brick pieces back in.  Now what?  I needed a masculine birthday card so I selected a birthday sentiment I thought was in keeping with the brick. I still needed some type of image or embellishment.  I looked through my stamp images of tools but nothing seemed right.  I did consider a hammer image as I thought it could be a bit like the old "Don't Break the Ice" game with the missing bricks.  Does anyone else remember that game?  Then I remembered a little die of a garden hand shovel and thought it looked a bit like some of Glen's concrete tools.  It was cut with some silver foil paper and a bit of Soft Suede for the handle.  Whew, finally done and the card is growing on me.

Happy Stamping,

Dana