Look, Ma! No Stamps!

About a year ago, I bought a set of red rhinestone alphabet stickers. And in the drawer they sat...until two days ago.

I could probably eek one more word out of them, but my enthusiasm ebbed after these three. It's extremely difficult to get the letters down right, and they are not all the same size, either, which makes the words look a little odd to my obsessive-compulsive neat-freak eyes.

Nevertheless, bling is bling, and who doesn't love it?

I rounded the corners because the cards looked a little unfinished with poiny corners. Rounded corners do look much better.

Nothing is worse than rounding corners and having the card look worse. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often.

I can't wait to share with you my visit with Jonah and his mother Molly. Just need to get permission to use one of Molly's photos. Keep those cards coming, folks!

Supplies
stamps: NONE!
ink: NONE!
paper: SOME! (PTI white, if you must know)
accessories: red rhinestone alphabet stickers, heart punch, corner chomper

Custom Christmas Card

If you're reading this in email, please note that this is the second post of the day. Scroll down to see a couple of important announcements!

Every now and then, I find a product or stamp that is perfect for someone I know in real life. When I found wood veneer paper at Michael's, I knew instantly that it was perfect for my aunt Linda, who has amazing woodworking skillz.

5" x 7"

 It's kind of a cool story, so let me share. My grandfather was seriously handy, and he had an extensive workshop in a detatched garage behind his house. After he died, my aunt would sit in his workshop because she felt so close to him there. Finally, one day, she asked my grandmother if she could have his woodworking tools. Of course my grandmother said yes, so Linda moved all the tools into her basement and took a bunch of classes at the community college.

She now makes museum-quality furniture.

My boys have the very best rocking horse in the world.

Anyway, this is my aunt's Christmas card, which uses two shades of the wood paper and an awesome Christmas tree punch. The trees are so big I had to use a larger card base...5"x7".

Do you ever make custom Christmas cards for people? If so, what product or stamp makes you think of them?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Peaceful Poinsettia
ink: Memento
paper: wood veneer (Michael's), Papertrey white
accessories: star and tree punches

Three Very Important Announcements

Today, I have three very important announcements.

Okay, two important announcements and one major whine. But whatever.

Announcement #1

The One-Layer Wednesday challenge is about to get a facelift. The team and I are working on a fresh new approach to it that will, hopefully, be as exciting to you as it is for us! In the meantime, the challenge will be on hiatus until January 1.

Announcement #2

I'm going to drop off cards at Jonah's house this afternoon! Yippy! Can't wait to meet the little guy in person! I have 47 cards, two packages, and a large envelope from a kindergarten class in Tennessee to deliver. Bet it will take a while for Molly, Ben, and Jonah to open them all.

More cards are coming in each day, so I will continue making drops at their house as long as you are willing to send them to me. The address to send them to is Jonah, c/o Susan Raihala, 7430 Waterway Dr., Waynesville, OH 45068. Feel free to join our merry band of Happy Mail Elves any time!

Major Whine

I've been trying to load pictures into blogger all the durn day and my computer keeps locking up. I've tried rebooting, using HTML view, all sorts of stuff. Nothing works. I'll keep trying, but if you don't get a post with a picture today, just imagine my avatar with a big black-and-blue bruise on the forehead from banging my head on my desk. Grrr.

Inspired Steps Toward REALLY Clean and Simple

The winter issue of Take Ten magazine is pretty good! (Wow, it's been a long time since I've said that, hasn't it?) There are more CAS cards than usual, at least to my discerning eye, and I'm finding a lot of inspiration this time around.

The first card I felt inspired by was submitted by Anne Jones, and here it is:

Card by Anne Jones, Published in Take Ten, Winter 2013

Anne's card has some wonderful design going on. It's beautifully unified in theme and colors, it takes advantage of the rule of thirds, and it creates a background with a fab combination of light, curvy script in horizontal lines contrasting perfectly with strong vertical lines.

My plan to CASify (or clean-and-simplify) her design was to shrink her card onto a smaller panel and mat it on a large frame of white. My theme was chosen for Operation Write Home...their upcoming deadline for Valentines is the end of December, and they can always use Miss You cards. Here's my first attempt.

What I kept: 1) the contrasting backgrounds of script and a strong geometric shape (squares because I didn't have stripes), 2) string accent on a solid border, 3) single color plus a neutral (red and black rather than yellow and brown).

What I changed: 1) orientation from vertical to horizontal, 2) centering one main image rather than offsetting the main focal point and a second accent piece (because I didn't have a secondary piece and I didn't think a simple knot would have balanced the big heart well on that black ribbon).

My version is just not quite as successful as Anne's original card (though I don't think it's exactly bad). The scale of everything just isn't quite right. The stamped panel looks too busy with the squares (Anne's stripes are ever so much better!), and the centered hearts are too...centered. The sentiment is a bit too formal for the distressed checkered background, too.

Of course, I had to try again. And of course my approach was to CASify further.

Well, that's one way to do it! Taking away all the patterned stamping certainly is cleaner and simpler, but notice how I returned to Anne's original layout by off-setting the hearts and even setting them at an angle rather than straight. Anne's sunflowers are heaped...not in a tidy OCD arrangement.

Changing the thread from a solid to black-and-white baker's twine ups the punch of the card considerably, giving a bit of pattern without too much busyness on my smaller panel. I also added an extra heart (BLING!) to build up the focal point more like Anne's original does with those lovely sunflowers piled on each other.

The change in sentiment allowed me space to add the bling, but it also adds interest because the whimsical arrangement of the four letters is looser and much more interesting than the very traditional Miss You sentiment.

Overall, I'm extraordinarily pleased with the final card. It definitely says, "LateBlossom made me!" But I never could have gotten there without Anne's card as inspiration.

Try something similar yourself. Either take a simple card and complicate it, or take a complicated card and simplify it. Feel your way to a balanced result that reflects your style as inspired by the original.

It's fun!

Supplies
I'm just too gosh dern tired right now, but if you want to know I'll tell you. All the stamps are from Papertrey. Off to the land of Nod.

Simplicity Christmas Tree Trimming

Yesterday, the day after a snow storm, we went out in the snow and sunshine of Ohio to cut down our tree. Unfortunately, the tree farm had already cut all the Canadian firs we prefer, so we chose a beautiful one from the barn.

George was disappointed he didn't get to lie on the ground in the snow and saw it down himeslf.

But the tree was covered in ice, so it's been dripping onto towels all night and hopefully will be dry enough to trim this evening.

In the meantime, I've mostly finished all the other decorating, including putting up my artificial tree in the basement living space. Our main tree upstairs has no theme. Its ornaments come from all over the world: some are handmade, some are mass-produced, some are kinda ugly but sentimental anyway, some are pretty and have no meaning at all, some are from our grandparents, some were made by our children, some are patriotic, and there's at least one from every state we've lived in (nine in all).

Eclectic Family History. That's our theme.

In the basement, however, within full sight of my craft desk for maximum inspiration and festivity, is a tree trimmed in paper ornaments. Shocking as it might sound, I have made a lot of paper ornaments over the years, including a whole series of miniature books. They've been scattered on our regular tree in the past, but this year I'm putting them all in one place.

And I have made a few more.

These three ornaments use an old Hampton Arts Da Vinci alphabet set, a square punch, and dimensionals from SU. Easy and fun!

Blogger's giving me fits about uploading photos, but eventually, I will include pictures of the trees.

Do you have multiple trees? Do you have a theme for your tree/trees, or is your theme like ours...Eclectic Family History?

Supplies
stamps: Hampton Arts discontinued
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: square punch, 1/8" circle punch, dimensionals, ribbon

Two Ovals Get Grounded

Today's cards demonstrate the effect of grounding...that is, anchoring a design element to the card. It's not always necessary, in my opinion, to ground every element every time...some of my favorite layouts involve an image floating in vast, glorious white space. But generally, good designs ground their elements.

Take a look-see at the two cards:

First, note how large the sentiment is on the first card. There's very little white space on that oval, so the grounding boughs need to be balanced to that idea. They carry good visual weight on the card. Also, the asymmetry of the pine cones adds interest and moves the eye from upper left to lower right...a natural movement that fits into how we read the sentiment in between!

Now, consider all that white space on the second card. The oval is smaller than on the first card, and the sentiment doesn't carry much visual weight, even if its color scheme is punchy. The holly sprigs (made from green velvet paper...not quite as dark as the photo implies) are spiky/curvy like the letters and leave plenty of white space on the card. Your eye is kept very tightly on the smaller focal point, without a lot of movement at all.

I like both of these cards and think both have solid design in them, although (surprise!) the second makes me happier with all that glorious white space.

Which do you prefer and why?


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey various
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: Creative Memories oval cutter, dimensionals, holly punch

Update on Jonah's Cards

Well, Blogger's not letting me add pictures at this time, so today's card post will be late. But several of you have asked about the cards for Jonah, and I thought I'd update you.

So far, I have received 37 pieces of mail for Jonah and his family. (You can keep track of what's coming in on this PAGE of my blog.)

All that mail is in my dining room right now in an adorable gift bag for delivery. I'd planned on taking them to him today, but today is his chemo day, so delivery day will be Monday or Tuesday. By then, who knows how many pieces there will be? I got 8 pieces yesterday!

Requests for my address are still coming in. Email me at susanraihala at roadrunner dot com if you want it! I've had requests from South Africa, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, France, Canada, and who knows how many other countries that weren't obvious from the email addresses!

Several people have expressed a desire to continue sending cards after Christmas. I will deliver cards as long as they are coming in, so don't worry about that.

As for Jonah, he's in the middle of chemo, and for those of you who've been there, done that, you know it's not fun. He's holding up extraordinarily well but has some pain and complications. If you want to follow his progress, I encourage you to check out his Facebook page. His mother, Molly, is keeping everyone updated on his progress and also uses this Facebook page to make specific prayer requests.

Jonah's Facebook Page

Jonah will be receiving some scans today to see if there are tumors developing elsewhere in his body. He's considered at stage 3 with Wilms Tumor, with some lymph node involvement.

I hate cancer. It's scary, it hurts, the treatment is horrible, and it throws families into a terrible storm of fear and worry. There's so little we non-medical folks can do to help those fighting it. Thanks to Jonah's grandmother Jane, we learned about Jonah's situation, and thanks to Molly, we can do our little part to bring some love and light to a family in a very dark time.

My heart overflows with gratitude that so many of you have chosen to participate in this card drive, and I know that many of you are involved in helping others who are suffering or might even be fighting this terrible thing yourself.

Some of you are Chemo Angels. Chemo Angels send cards and encouragement to people undergoing chemo treatment. You can learn more about this wonderful organization at their website: Chemo Angels. What a perfect fit for stampers!

Thank you all for being the best readers a blogger could have.