Gift Set with Stickles

I wanted to make a small gift set for my cousin for her birthday, AND I wanted to use black Stickles, sent to me by Christine, who has given my loose glitter a loving home.

These simple CAS cards resulted.

I love Floral Frenzy from Papertrey...it's an older set, but perfectly designed! And I checked; it's not in the vault.

My Stickles bottles are definitely on the keeper list of my Use My Hoard Challenge.

Have a delightful weekend!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Floral Frenzy
ink: Hero Arts bubble gum, Memento tuxedo black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Black Stickles

The Essential Glue Pad Review and Using My Hoard: Flock

Some of you were eager to hear my report on the Essential Glue Pad when you saw it pictured in my recent order. This is my second pad...the first dried up and became unusable.

The fact I bought another indicates that I think they are worth having...conditionally.

The EGP won't hold loose glitter very well, at least in my experience. Rubbing with fingers is enough to pull most of the glitter off, even after the glue is completely dry. But I don't have loose glitter anymore because I mailed it to Christine, who mailed me her stash of Stickles.

We are both happier! I actually used some of the Stickles she sent me on tomorrow's cards. Yay!! Thanks for the trade, Christine!

Truth be told, I bought a second EGP for flock and only for flock. I like the stuff, and the EGP holds it fairly well. Of course the flock won't stand up to vigorous rubbing, but it's good enough for everyday use on a card.

Here's how to use it.

1. Coat the Essential Glue Pad with the glue. I add a bit every time I use it, but the first application is the thickest. Don't overload the pad. It isn't necessary.

2. Press the stamp into the pad until it's well coated. It should look thickly applied on the stamp, not smooth and even like ink. Then press the stamp onto the paper.

3. Sprinkle the flock all over the stamped image. Use your fingers to press the flock firmly into the glue.

4. Shake the excess flock off the paper. Don't worry if a few stragglers are hanging off the edge of the image, as on the descender of the "g" below. If you touch the flock while the glue is still wet, you'll really mess it up. Ask me how I know this. *sigh*

5. Set the paper aside until fully dry...I give it at least a few hours. You may then gently rub off any stragglers. If you shake the excess flock onto a scrap of copy paper, you can then return it to the bottle.

Sorry the lighting on the photo is so uneven. I'm experimenting with my make-shift light box (boy, is it a primitive affair!) and though I have two Ott light table lamps shining down on this, one lamp gives more light than the other. Weird, as they have the exact same bulbs.

Anywho, I like flock, and I particularly like it with this stamp...a warm, fuzzy hug for someone I love!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Big Hugs
ink: none
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Essential glue pad, flock (Doodlebug), scrap paper for collecting the excess flock

Out of Season

I'm glad so many of you enjoyed yesterday's rather, ahem, crazy post. Some days are just like that...ADD rabbit trails and earworms.

Have you noticed how Target already has swimsuits out? Seriously? We're currently getting four inches of snow and have a low of 12 degrees tonight. Out of season, indeed.

This tendency to do things out of season can be good, though, and can keep you from going crazy by reminding you that the seasons DO pass! My favorite season is fall, so when I saw this color combo on Pinterest, I knew I needed to make a Thanksgiving card with it, even though it's winter and Thanksgiving is so very far away.

I even kinda sorta kept the style of the original piece, which is really lovely.

There's a lot going on here, especially for me. But I love these colors, and it's hard for me to work with so many in a CAS design. They're just so pleasing to the eye! And I never would have put them together without the inspiration piece.

And yes, this was my second attempt at getting that random stamping so nicely balanced. First attempt was appalling.

Thanksgiving Blessings to each of you.


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Autumn Adornments (sentiment), Embellished Elegance
ink: various
paper: Papertrey
accessories: none

Peace and Joy in March

Well, March sure roared into Ohio like a lion on steroids. Snow, snow, freezing rain, snow, fog, freezing rain. Forecast calls for another 4-8 inches of snow on Thursday.

Brrrr.

I ordered this Hero Arts stamp because it, like the postage set from yesterday's post, was on sale at JoAnn's. It's pretty close to another winter scene stamp in my stash, but it's a bit smaller, and that means bigger white borders, which makes me happy because, you know, I like big borders and I cannot lie....

I'm sorry. That was uncalled for.

But my 12-year-old keeps singing that song (about butts, not borders) and asking me why he can't sing it at school. For the same reason he can't call blue gemstones "blubies" at school and he can't call his friend Sophie "foxy" ever or anywhere, no matter that Manny calls Queen Latifah "foxy" in Ice Age 2.

Because it's inappropriate.

Autism causes my son to repeat movie lines or bits of music over and over and over (which is why I will be singing the songs from Blue's Clues in the dementia ward of the nursing home because ohmygosh, here's the mail it never fails it makes me want to wag my tail....). Autism also makes him ask the same questions over and over and over because it's comforting when the answer doesn't change.

It's lots of fun when the movie lines or music or questions are socially inappropriate, don't you think? Sure you do because you said "blubies" out loud several times, and it is fun to say! Inappropriate, of course, but how correct is it that we call red gemstones "rubies" and blue ones "sapphires"? That can't be right!!!

"Excuse me, ma'am, but how big are your blubies?"

Oh, I did it again. So sorry.

This is a stamping blog so perhaps I should say something about stamping this pretty card with its big white  border.

Hmmm....

Errrr....

I got nothing.

Check back tomorrow. Maybe then my brain will be thawed. I sure hope so, because right now that earworm of a song is all I can think of.

Peace and joy to you.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts, Papertrey Peaceful Pinecone
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: silver metallic marker, dimensionals

Adaptation...for the Cost of Postage

Y'all know I enjoy looking at vintage/shabby chic designs...looking but not making. There's so much wonderful beauty and inspiration in those rich, layered, embellished styles. And that's why I've always loved Hero Arts postage stamp sets. Like this one.

Of course, using them effectively in my simple style presents a challenge, which is why I've been reluctant to spend money on them. Until they went of massive sale at JoAnn's.

Of course!

So I started playing around with them and am embarrassed to admit how much paper I wasted finding which inks work best with them and how I might use them CAS style.

It took a while to crack the code, but I finally realized that the jagged borders on the stamps were getting in my way...they're just too irregular for my particular brand of CAS. That's when I broke out these delightfully old-school scissors:

After trimming the jagged borders off the stamped images for London and Paris, I made these two cards.

LOVE!!! The scissors give a larger stamp edge for the mat of white on white. It's subtle, but cleaner. London is stamped in Memento espresso truffle, which looks better to my eye than the grey flannel I used on Paris. While smiling happily at these two cards, I wondered what would happen if I kicked these up a notch and added color. Some ink pads were too juicy and made runny images, some pads were too dry and left blotchy images, and some pads were juuuuuust right.

Like I said, I wasted a lot of paper playing around. Here are my favorite results:

Greece gets Memento Bahama Blue.

Love the dimensionals here.

Stonehenge in SU Old Olive

The Pyramids in Memento potter's clay...not quite as crisp
as I'd like it to be, but that's okay.

Italy gets the Memento rhubarb stalk treatment. Love this!
Though I do wish someone would straighten the leaning
Tower of Pisa. Seriously, doesn't that bother you?

The Great Wall goes with Ancient Page Henna. This image
is hard to work with...the level of detail is blurry on the stamp
itself, so the tower within the wall looks like a blob without
clear definition. Not my favorite.

To cut out the images, I used my quilting ruler and craft knife. If you haven't done this before, just remember to keep your fingers away from the knife when you slide it down the edge of the ruler! This has been my preferred trimming method for over 12 years now, but I still remind myself to be careful every time.

Now that I've typed that for the whole interwebs to see, I'm bound to cut off a fingertip. *sigh*

Anyway, I'm so glad these stamps were on sale because they were so much fun to play with! I can see framed art with the whole set of stamps, cards with a selection of stamps (esp. long, thin cards!), and all sorts of fun with colors.

PLUS, I used a pair of my deco scissors, which are definitely keepers on the Use My Hoard Challenge.

Yay, me!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: various listed above
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: deco stamp scissors, dimensionals, glue

I'm an Idiot Sometimes, Pretending to be "Loose" with Limited Success, and Always Happy with OLS

I'm an idiot sometimes. Bet you are, too. 'Cause I know I am not alone.

Here are the goodies I ordered recently:

See that Delicata pad? Oh, yeah, I ordered one just about two months ago and totally forgot. I'm not that old, people! Now I have two. Yay! Whatever.

Anyway, I'm having fun playing with these new goodies and will have stuff to show you later this week.

*awkward non sequitur*

Have you noticed on Pinterest the number of cool crafty things with unevenly-typed quotations or sentiments? That sort of "loose" style appeals to me so much, but I have a hard time pulling it off, as today's cards demonstrate!

Feel free to laugh at me. I'm laughing at me, too.

This card is for my sister, who loves this quote from The Adventures of Buckaroo Bansai across the 8th Dimension. She could use a laugh about now, and boy will she!

And this card is for my husband. He never gives me candy, but he does pour wine for me.

Can you believe I don't currently have any candy stamps or wine bottle stamps? I must correct this immediately.

And now for the happy. Here's my card for the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge #14: Words, Words, Words. Feel free to click on over and play along!

To make this collage, I started with the giant happy in the bottom right corner, and then kept adding. I LOVE this card. It's so pinky-purple-y, and HAPPY! What a great way to use those word stamps!

Supplies
stamps: Various
ink: Hero Arts and Memento and Ancient Page
paper: Papertrey
accessories: gridded acrylic block

OLS14 Words, Words, Words

The March One-Layer Simplicity #14 Challenge is hosted by me, so I'm going all literary with a Words, Words, Words challenge...to use only word stamps on a card.

I got the idea from Shakespeare. He and I are best buds, you know. "To be, or not to be...," and all that jazz, sonnet, blank verse, rhyming couplet.

You get the picture.

Anyway, you can click over to the challenge blog for my word collage card, but here on Simplicity, I wanted to post a super-CAS word card in honor of the DT at OLS.

I just realized that I used to tease my husband for all the military acronyms he used. We stampers rock them, too.

I want to publicly thank Ardyth, Heather, Cheryl, and Karen for being such a great team, so supportive on the OLS blog and elsewhere for the CAS style. CAS is not everyone's cup of tea, coffee, or whiskey, but these ladies make it awesome.

So thank you, team OLS!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Keep It Simple Thank You
ink: Memento, Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: not a one