When I Grow Up - Police Officer

Hannah Rubenstahl, the crafter at www.FancifulSpaces.com, is a mother to a lovely 5-year-old girl and wife to an amazingly supportive husband. She is a life-long crafter who has recently begun to focus on and hone her talents in the world of card crafting. Using the skills she learned as a scenic artist and in her formal education in technical theater, she comes to the world of paper crafting with unique experience and perspective. When not crafting or playing Paw Patrol with her daughter, she can frequently be found playing board games and watching Star Trek.  

When I Grow Up - Police Officer

Hi there! Welcome to Fanciful Spaces, if you’re new here. 😉 I was given the beautiful, and amazing, opportunity to create a few cards for Brutus Monroe before the stamp sets were even released yet. The “When I Grow Up” line that they produce is very near and dear to my heart!

I have a 5-year-old daughter, she is our one and only, and I REALLY wanted a daughter. If we’d have had a boy first we probably would have tried again for a girl. I had visions of ballerinas and dancing when I dreamt of having a girl, pink and all that frufru stuff. Boy, I wasn’t expecting her to be a dirt-covered little angel, but that is what I got!

My daughter isn’t the typical doll playing girl. In fact, dolls aren’t high on her list of toys she likes to play with. She discovered the world of balance bike BMX racing and our life hasn’t been the same since! This is my kiddo, she’d rather be covered in dirt than have a tea party.

We have also been blessed that one of the role models in her life is her uncle who is a police officer. We don’t live near them, but we talk about him a lot and how tough his job is. We discuss the sacrifices he and his family make to protect the community they live in. Working in a major metropolitan city here in Ohio, we know he sees and does a lot of things that we couldn’t/wouldn’t be able to deal with. I had my daughter, and his daughter, in mind when I worked on this card.

I love the quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beautify of their dreams.” What a fitting and lovely quote to inspire any person to create their own ending!

I started by stamping the girl in Versamark black ink, heat setting her, then painting her with Zig Clean Color Markers. Then I stamped her out again to mask her off, using StazOn and Post-It Tape, and fussy cut her out.

Using Distress Inks I heavily dusted the left side in blue, when it was the color I wanted I masked out a straight line, applied Versamark Watermark Ink and clear embossing powder. Once that was heat set, I played more with Distress Inks, blending blues, sprinkling water on it, and finally vignetting with Black Soot Distress Inks.

I stamped the quote on some Brutus Monroe Raven cardstock and used my FAVORITE embossing powder “Penny” on it. Finally, I die cut that out and adhered that to my card panel.

I love that this line of stamps features girls wishing that they could truly be anything they want to be when they grow up. Little girls of all ages need to be able to find themselves reflected in whatever their dreams may be. It is so important to support not only “gender appropriate” visions but to also provide glimpses that they can be so much more than what society tells them they can be!

As a mom with a growing daughter, I simply can’t thank Christopher Alan of Brutus Monroe enough for providing the world with these sets! He has changed and touched this family’s life and for that, I will forever be grateful to him!