CraftyJC Challenge: Creative Simplicity

At the end of August, I received a lovely email from Jaya Christina, a paper crafter in India who has a beautiful blog full of clean-and-simple goodness. She explained how difficult and expensive it is for Indian crafters to get supplies. This is a common problem for crafters outside the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. I've had people in Australia, Spain, Brazil, Colombia, and Egypt tell me how tough it is for them to keep up with crafting trends and to get supplies.

We who can get everything a crafter might want--easily and affordably--have no idea how truly blessed we are.

Or are we really that blessed?

Think about all I've written lately about having so much stuff that it stifles my creativity, weighs me down. Jaya believes having limited access to supplies makes Indian crafters more creative, and I believe it. They do more with less, and they do it beautifully.

Jaya has a challenge called the CraftyJC Challenge, which "encourages and appreciates creativity--not just using fancy or expensive materials." When she asked if I would participate in this month's theme of Simplicity, I jumped at the chance to participate in an international celebration of simplicity.

Here's my card for the challenge.

It doesn't get much simpler than this. I used stamps from Hero Arts, stamped in Memento black ink and colored with three shades of Sharpie Markers. The bottom corners were rounded. I contemplated adding more (glitter, perhaps, or some Smooch), but decided this was perfect just the way it is.

Simplicity is beautiful.

I made a thank you card because I want to thank the world stamping community for providing so much inspiration. Few people in my "real" life stamp, yet I have so many stamping friends all over the world courtesy of the Internet. People take the time to share their arts and crafts with the world, and what an inspiration and gift to us all that generosity is! Thank you, Jaya, for giving us all the opportunity to connect and share.

See what you can do with less, and join Jaya and other Indian crafters in their Simplicity challenge. What a great World Card Making Day activity!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: sharpie markers, corner chomper

Halloween Week: Day 3...Plus an Announcement You Don't Want to Miss

Today's card is destined for my nephew Grady, who is a round, roly-poly almost three-year-old.

Here's Grady just a few weeks ago.

Can you see the resemblance?

This is the same kid whom I asked you to pray for a few years ago when he was born prematurely. Remember when he looked like this?

Amazing what almost three years can do to a little human, eh?

As for the card, it's pretty self-explanatory. The jack-o'-lantern stamp is from A Muse, a set I bought before they went direct sales, but it's in the catalog, too. The punch is Fiskar's. I used pumpkin pie for the pumpkin (that's seems obvious, doesn't it?), old olive for the leaf, and artichoke for the stem. The sentiment is from Hero Arts October clear set.

The last time I sent a card to Grady, he carried it around for a few days without destroying it. I can't imagine a higher compliment from a toddler, can you?

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!

One-Layer Wednesday is BACK!!!! As of Wednesday sometime (whenever Jennifer gets her post up), the OLW will be ON!!!!!!!!!

*SQUEAL*

AND THERE'S SOMETHING REALLY COOL that Jennifer has to share. CHECK IT OUT!!!

Was that enough bold shouting and exclamation points for you? Sometimes it's so much fun to be egregious.

Vertical Sketch by Jessica Witty

FINALLY, I had a chance to try some of the sketches in the magazine Papercrafts Card Ideas for Paper Crafters. The one by Jessica Witty on page 134 caught my eye, and I made a simple, one-layer card intended for a friend who is battling cancer.

The rainbow was created with a long-neglected shadow stamp from Hero Arts (discontinued), and the sentiment is from Papertrey's Beautiful Blessings. Inside, I stamped the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (BTW, the orange isn't quite so bright in real life; it's Memento Canteloupe...darn Picasa!)

I love the image of the rainbow as an image of hope and God's faithfulness. What images do you enjoy using on cards for people battling illness? Do you stick with flowers or trees, or do you make the cards with images that the recipient will find funny, cute, serene...depending on the situation?

Royal Christmas and a Question

I'm exhausted.

Early wake-up for the 6th-grade bus. First day of school. Son's birthday. For which I did all the shopping and wrapping today. For which I redecorated his room today. For which I am eternally grateful because he's one awesome little kid who deserves an awesome room.

And I'm exhausted.

Today's card takes its color scheme from the color of royalty--purple--to portray the King of King's birth in a very humble stable. There's a bit of bling on the star that's hard to see in the photo, but it totally makes this card.

Now, for the question. Someone emailed me about the mistaken placement of the wise men at the nativity. Technically, yes, the wise men didn't visit Jesus until much later. But this anachronism never bothers me because the symbolism trumps the facts for this English major. Kings and shepherds bowed down to worship a baby born in a manger. I like the balance in that iconic imagery, mainly because it speaks to the spirit of the occasion perfectly.

So here's today's question: Are you bothered by inaccuracies in holiday images, such as wise men at the manger or 8-pointed snowflakes? Why or why not?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Greatest Gift
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: dimensionals, purple rhinestone

I Sponged!

My father-in-law spent last weekend in the hospital. Everything is looking far less scary right now, but this is the get well card I sent him yesterday.

Yes, I sponged.

The resist technique is lovely, plus it's relatively easy to make a masculine card with it.

How-To Tips: The stamped panel (white cardstock) was cut to size first. Then, I stamped the sentiment in Memento rich cocoa, followed by the ferns randomly around it with VersaMark ink, which was then embossed with clear embossing powder. Sponging was done with a variety of green inks (SU celery and olive and true thyme...yeah, I've still got that old pad lying around!) using both a swirl and a blot motion with the sponge. I wanted a smoothish background with hints of textured speckle, and it turned out just as I wanted it to! Finally, there's a bit of Memento rich cocoa added to the edges with the sponge for just a bit more definition.

What do you think? CAS sponging. It can be done!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: SU celery, olive, thyme; Memento rich cocoa; VersaMark
paper: white, SU river rock
accessories: sponge, dimensionals, embossing powder, heat gun

One-Layer Christmas

Hero Arts' new set Greatest Gift is awesomely easy to use and perfect for the clean-and-simple stamper who wants to make explicitly Christian Christmas cards. The sentiments are all faith-based, and the images are silhouettes of the nativity.

My first instinct with this set is to emboss it in gold or silver, but for some reason, when I contemplated making this layout, black and white came to mind. It just feels right, somehow. And those three clear gemstones make me so very happy. It's rather bold, don't you think?

This would be an easy one to mass produce, if you go for that sort of thing, LOL!

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? Would you even consider using black and white for Christmas?

Light Blue and Cantaloupe Make an Awesome Pair

Yes, pair. Most assuredly NOT pear.

*wink*

We're continuing the idea of solid block flowers with this Hero Arts sentiment which, by the way, is an old, wood-mounted stamp that was discontinued long ago. Sorry about that.

These flowers are also from Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms. See, Sue. You really do need this set.

The flowers are arranged in a visual triangle, very much on purpose. The triangle keeps the focus on the sentiment while adding balance and unity to the design. The sentiment is stamped in SU Pumpkin Pie (oh how I love that color!), the flowers in Memento Baby Blue, and their centers in Memento Cantaloupe. In retrospect, I wish I'd layered the white panel in a thin mat of Pumpkin Pie, but when retrospect occurs after adhering the panel, it must stay in retrospect.

All aspects of retrospect leave the prospects looking suspect.

That makes no sense, but it was fun to type.

Tomorrow we're back to Christmas. That Hero Arts clear set I got last week totally captured my attention. LOVE it!

Determined to Persevere

Okay, so as I showed yesterday, that big Hero Arts sentiment was a challenge. I knew I had to make a decent card with it or how else could I look at myself in the mirror?

Yeah. I'm weird that way.

I realized that outline flower stamps wouldn't work (at least for me...feel free to prove me wrong), so I started looking at my block flower stamps. My favorite flower stamp set ever is Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms. If I could only have one flower set, this would be it. Maybe. Well. Sort of. Wouldn't it be horrible if we could only have one? What would be the point?

Where was I?

Oh, yes. I pulled out Beautiful Blooms and made this:

That's much better than yesterday's painful-to-look-at efforts. I tried to mount the stamped panel on an apricot appeal base, but it just didn't work. Tomorrow, I'll show you a similar card with a colored card base that works beautifully because it's a complementary color scheme.

Awww, I'm such a tease.

Happy Sunday.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts, Papertrey
ink: Memento
paper: white
accessories: dimensionals, button, DMC floss, glue dot

In Memory of my Vacation

The first (and only!) card I've made since returning from vacation was inspired by that vacation, which was to northern Minnesota. A resort on Lake Vermilion, to be precise.

Before I show the card, however, take a look at my order from Creative Play. I ordered on Monday, and it arrived today, with a bit of Flowersoft Silk Ribbon thrown in gratis. How fun! Quick service and a little pressie!

It seemed appropriate to use one of the stamps for my vacation card. Obviously the Christmas set wouldn't quite work, so I used the woodgrain background (Hero Arts) to simulate...

water.

Yep. Have you ever noticed that woodgrain looks like ripples on a pond or lake? Mother Nature is amazing, isn't she? And I saw first-hand this effect while kayaking early one morning as escort to my insane husband who swam across the bay, around an island, and back to the resort...about 1.5 miles. In a wetsuit. He could have been run over by a boat, hence the kayak escort.

I definitely had the better gig.

Anyway, back to the card. The water is represented by the woodgrain stamp, the relaxation of the vacation by the flip-flops, and the sentiment because it's true. The punched label is curvy and reminds me of hearts for some reason, and I hearted my vacation.

As for the woodgrain stamp, it works like a dream. I tried it on my stamp pad (sort of like a giant, extra-thick mouse pad) and it worked great with just pressure! Most big backgrounds require me to stand on them to get a good image. Have I ever showed you how I do that? Basically, I have a 1-foot square piece of good-one-side plywood, protected by copy paper. Ugly, but useful. And cheap. It slides under the baker's rack next to my desk so I can pull it out as needed.

But I didn't need it this time because that woodgrain background stamps beautifully!

Remember to check the For Sale Tab to see what stamps I have for sale.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (background), Papertrey (Day at the Beach)
ink: Memento
paper: PTI kraft, SU bashful blue, MFP white
accessories: dimensionals, label punch, rhinestones

Washed Out

Some of my favorite color schemes don't photograph well. They are subtle, soft, natural, soothing, dreamy combinations...washed-out, subdued colors that lend a peaceful, calm tone to a card, and can invoke memories of times gone by.

Part of me wishes I'd win the lottery so I could travel the world and see those landmarks and museums I can only read about. My only international trips have been to British Columbia (Mother Nature at her finest) and a one-week high-school trip to Great Britain (but Big Ben was decorated with scaffolding at the time).

When I bought this stamp from Hero Arts, I wondered why it appealed to me so strongly. It's not exactly a practical stamp for me. But it speaks to my longing to travel, my desire to see the past in the present, to catch a glimpse, however weathered and worn, of another world. Travel--just the thought of it--makes me nostalgic for places I've never been.

Mellow moss, kraft, and ivory. They many not photograph in the most exciting way, but they convey how I feel about my journey: dreamy, hopeful, realistic, nostalgic. And yes, I'm enjoying my journey. Enormously.

If you could travel to one place you've never been on this blue and green marble in space, where would you go? For me, it might be Rome. I loved the layering of history I saw in London, and I imagine it's even more amazing to stand on a spot and see 2,500 years of human history stratified in one place. But ask me again in another moment, and I'll likely give a different answer. This world has more than enough amazement for many lives. We only get one life (unless, of course, you're Buddhist), and we might as well enjoy our journey through it.

Now it's your turn. Where would you go?

P.S. I will be taking a little blogging vacation this weekend. Be back on Monday!

Freaking Out in August

I hate August.

First of all, it's hot. As if July wasn't bad enough this year.

Second, the mad rush of back-to-school creates total chaos in our house. September is always so much calmer. So much more peaceful. So much quieter. And September is the prelude to my favorite season of the year: autumn. Oh how I love autumn! Pumpkins! Mums! Turning leaves! Crisp blue sky! Cool breezes! Corn mazes! Apple fritters from Hidden Valley Farm! 

August, however, does not deserve so many exclamation points.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. Third, it's August 1st, and I have only made 10 Christmas cards. Last year by now I had probably 100 cards. I need at least 120.

I'm  FREAKING OUT, people!

So expect to start seeing a number of Christmas cards here on my blog. I don't do mass production, and I have a ton of Christmas stamps, so I can get all sorts of jiggy with Christmas cards. Of course my favorites are the simplest ones. Like this.

Uh, huh. Oh yeah. Blue, baby.

So do tell. How many Christmas/Holiday/Solstice/Whateveryouwanttocallthem cards have you made for this December? How many do you need? Do you mass produce, make small batches, or make one-of-a-kind cards?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Swirl Christmas, Papertrey Ink Signature Christmas
ink: Memento Blue Danube
paper: PTI white
accessories: rhinestones, because bling is good  

CASification of a Card by Michelle Woerner

CASification (if you're new to Simplicity) is my made-up word for "taking a gorgeous layered and embellished card, and simplifying it." Sometimes, when I encounter a particularly well-designed card, I just have to make it my own, and that's how I felt when I saw Michelle Woerner's card on page 12 of Take Ten's summer issue.

*swoon*

I totally love her design: balanced, fresh, and just begging me to make one myself.

Michelle (who's known as sf9erfan on SCS) doesn't have the exact card posted online, but she did make a whole set of similar cards and put them on her blog HERE. The card in Take Ten is almost identical to the first card on her post.

Here's my version:

As you can see, to simplify the design, I replaced Michelle's strips of patterned paper with a stamp (Text Style, Papertrey). It gives a ground to the circles, even though I'm not using ribbon or patterned paper at all. Instead of using patterned paper for my circles, I stamped two Hero Arts backgrounds in red and blue and punched them out. Then, I stamped the sentiment (Limitless Labels, Papertrey), added a Maya Road velvet flower with brad in place of Michelle's pretty yet bulky Prima flowers. Plus, I needed a spot of red near the flower since I hadn't used the ribbon...gotta complete that visual triangle of red! The red brad is a bit lumpy, but the whole thing is mailable with regular postage.

Michelle's version has an elegance the simplified version can't match (the rose and twine and ribbon and DP really are perfect on her card!). But her overall design...using three different circles and a red-white-blue color scheme and a background to anchor it all...is such an inspiration.

Thanks, Michelle! 

Christmas Tags in July

Can I confess something? I ordered the Mehndi Medallions set from Papertrey for one reason and one reason only: to make Christmas tags.

These tags are old, old, old from StampinUp. Remember when SU had the tag sets? You know, 12x12 pages of die cut shapes (tags, library pockets, slides, etc.) that you could punch out and use? Yeah, sounded like a great idea, but mine just sat, largely unused. I eventually threw a bunch of them away in frustration, but I kept these fairly standard tags with the expectation of using them for the holidays but just never got around to it. Until now.

This weekend, see if there's something lying around your craft room unused...just waiting to be given a purpose. Then use it. Use it up. The world won't end, and you just might get a head start on your Christmas gift packaging!

Don't forget to check out the sets I've already posted for sale. And Darla, please send me an email with a valid address.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey mehndi medallions; Hero Arts sentiment
ink: Memento
paper: SU die cuts
accessories: DMC floss

Postage Stamp Punch Meets Hero Arts Designer Alphabet

Today's card made me so very happy, but then, soft, beachy colors always make me happy. So does using a tool that has languished in my stash, in this case the postage stamp punch. Can't remember using it before, although my memory isn't what it used to be. Or perhaps I just have too many supplies to keep mental track of them all.

Whatever.

Design Discussion: This is a super way to spotlight small accent stamps that come with alphabets. The tiny sentiment is from an old, discontinued Hero Arts set. I arranged the colors very deliberately, giving the darkest color to the sentiment (those letters are pretty thin and needed the deeper color), and balancing the two blues diagonally and the two greens (well, baja is greenish blue) on the other diagonal. The butterfly is flying into the composition.

Jennifer has posted the OLW for this week, and it's awesome: Clouds! Click on over for the full scoop and to link up your creation!

Thursday afternoon, I will post my first batch of stuff for sale, including the SU paper stacks and some SU stamp sets. I've got some other stamps (lots of Hero Arts) to organize for sale as well.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: SU celery, marina mist, baja breeze, bashful blue
paper: SU celery, marina mist, baja breeze, bashful blue; white
accessories: postage stamp punch

A Muse Hey, Man

One of the A Muse sets I bought was Hey, Man. Actually, the real title is Hey, Man! with an egregious exclamation point, but you all know how I feel about those. Marketers really should not do that. Only bloggers are allowed. And people commenting on blogs. Oh how I love when you're so happy you have to hold down the exclamation key!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Hey, Man has this groovy television set in it. Not sure a guy card should have pearls on it, but hey, man, orange pearls work for you. Dude!!!!!!!!!!!

How-To Chatter: The sentiment is from an old, old, old Hero Arts set...I have a whole bunch this size that happen to fit perfectly into the tv screen. YEEE-Haaa! I colored this with markers and without shading because it's too small for my meager shading skills. The line was drawn with a pen and ruler. That's about it.
A few bits of news...

1. I'm going to post some SU stamp sets for sale soon. I'm also selling two stacks of assorted SU cardstock (about 90 sheets per stack) because I figured I'd have to live to be 250 years old to use up all that I have. Please buy them so I need not feel guilty about buying new stuff.

2. Stampin'Treasures is still open for business and has bunch of product--especially Hero Arts--on serious discount. Yes, I placed an order, and no, they are not paying me to promote their sale. I'm just telling you because I love you and can't help myself.

3. And for something entirely non-stamp related...my golden retriever, who embodies the word enthusiasm in canine form, has to take doggy downers while she recovers from her knee surgery. Every time she starts to behave like her normal self (that is to say, when she starts behaving like Tigger...bouncy, jouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!), I have to push a pill down her throat. It's the saddest thing I've ever done. Well, that's not true. Saying goodbye to people is the saddest thing, saying goodbye to dogs is the second saddest, drugging my dog so she doesn't injure herself by being perky is the third saddest. PLUS, the recovery is really slow...three whole months. And at the end of three months, we get to do it all again on the other knee.

I feel like I'm taking her downers. Woe is the Daisy. Woe is me.

I'll shut up now. Thank you for listening.

Bamboo and Dragonflies

Hero Arts has been a tad neglected here of late, so I'm showing an Asian-themed card using Hero Arts bamboo and sentiment stamps and my (relatively) new dragonfly punch.

The color scheme is actually prettier in real life...issues with contrast in Picasa made it impossible for me to edit it to be more accurate. The red is Cherry Cobbler from SU (so it's not as dark as the photo makes it look but still a nice, rich red). The gray is Memento London Fog.

Have a lovely weekend!

Fourth of July

After being married to the Air Force for twenty years, I have quite a fondness for emotional patriotic displays of the red, white, and blue. It's been many years since I spent much time around 5:00 pm on a military base, but recently, I was leaving the hospital at Wright Patterson AFB after an appointment for my son. We had just climbed in the car when the loudspeakers started broadcasting the National Anthem. Seeing all the uniformed people on the sidewalks stop, turn to the nearest flag, and salute brought a tear to my eye. I rolled down the windows of the car and had my son cover his heart while we sat respectfully with all the others in their cars across the whole base.

When we lived on Wurtsmith AFB in the early 1990s, this happened to me all the time.

And every time, it makes me proud to be an American.

We're coming up on July 4th, that fateful anniversary of the founding of our nation, and I wanted to make a couple of cards to celebrate the date.

I made this card using the Headline Numbers set from StampinUp, the th from another SU alphabet, and the July from the Hero Arts clear set called July. The little row of four rhinestones completes the visual triangle of blue and reinforces the giant red number.

The stamp here is from the Hero Arts July set and is all one stamp. I masked each part and stamped the colors separately.  Here, I used just three rhinestones to echo the three stars.

Last year, I read a book called Signing Their Lives Away, a fascinating and casually readable book written my friends of my sister. Each chapter dishes up the sometimes sordid, controversial, or tragic story of a signer of the Declaration of Independence (which wasn't signed by anyone but John Hancock and Charles Thomson on July 4th). I highly recommend it if you're looking for some riveting and decidedly unstodgy history on our founding fathers. I plan on reading it again with my elder son this year!

The Return of the Colored Card Base

Yes, I have fallen off the use-all-my-colored-cardstock wagon. Sheesh. Just wait until you see tomorrow's post. White cardstock EVERYWHERE!

So I thought today I'd share the one colored-base card I've made in weeks. I like it. Lots.

This wasn't inspired by a single card but rather by a number of cards I've noticed in magazines lately that use the SU Top Note die (or similar) going off the edge of the card.

I, of course, do not have the Top Note die or any other die, seeing as I don't have a die cut machine, but a fun template for my Fiskar's Shape Cutter provided and clean and curvy substitute. This card uses product from four of my favorite companies: cardstock from SU and MFP, ribbon from MFP, sentiment from Hero Arts, and Dot Spot flower from Papertrey.

A Few Pieces of Business

1. I haven't forgotten about sharing my stamp index with you. I've just stalled in creating it. I will also do a quick tutorial on lining a punched border with colored cardstock and on modifying the PTI Framed stamps to accommodate wider sentiments. If there's anything else I've promised and haven't delivered or that you just want to see or know, pester me until I do it.

2. I've started a tab for my favorite products. It covers stamps right now, but I'll be adding a segment on cardstock, soon.

3. Y'all are the absolute best blog readers ever. I thank you for your support.

OLW55 Again

Here's another card for the OLW55 Challenge: Cats and Dogs.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (dog and sentiment), SU Oh, So Lovely (background)
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: rhinestones

OLW55: Cats and Dogs

This week's OLW challenge, hosted by Jennifer, is to make a one-layer card with a cat or dog. Oh how I love this kitty from Hero Arts and she just popped right into my mind as soon as I saw the challenge!

Click over to Jennifer's Blog to play along with the OLW this week!

Also, please note that Blogger and Google are having serious issues with commenting. I'm completely unable to comment on Blogspot blogs right now using my Google profile. Hopefully, Blogspot will have this fixed soon. It figures: I finally have time to comment on the OLW54 cards, and comments aren't working.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: markers, tiny black pearls
I had to trim this card down to roughly 5" x 3 5/8" because I stamped the row of hearts a little too high.