Bunches of Thanks!

Wow. Thanks to all of you who commented on my crafting space post! Y'all are so sweet to take time to help me out with that earth-shatteringly important problem, and your suggestions have me thinking in some very constructive directions. I find it very interesting how there's no real consensus with the choices...which confirms for me that there really isn't a "bad" choice...which makes the choosing so much harder! Will keep you updated on the situation as it develops.

Another huge shout out to Regina B. Regina decided to help me out with my Christmas card shortage and sent me a mailing envelope full of her beautiful stamped creations. Oh, my gosh! They are so very lovely, and I'm going to photograph them and post them before I send them out. Thank you, Regina. Your kindness has saved a bunch of people from store-bought cards!

My third thanks is to Papertrey Ink for making such fun stamps. I've been playing with my latest order and having so much fun NOT making Christmas cards. My sister wants a bunch of multi-purpose cards for her Christmas present, so most of the cards I'll be showing for the next few weeks will go to her.

Up first are two cards made with the same stamp sets and layout, both of which show the problems with lining up border stamps like those in PTI's Background Basics: Circles set. The stamp I used has three rows of small, open circles. For this design, a single image of the stamp is just too thin to balance nicely on the card, so I tried lining it up and stamping twice.

On the first card, the two images were stamped a little too close together, so there's an unattractive line down the center.

The second card shows what happens when the second image is just the tiniest bit little crooked.

I loved the idea of the two cards above...coloring random dots in a monochromatic scheme gives the cards so much movement and graphic whimsy. But the difficulty getting a smooth seam between the two images got frustrating, so I changed stamps and went with a single border image of larger circles. The larger circles are cleaner, less busy, and infinitely easier to stamp.

Then, I decided to see if aligning a different stamp from the set would be easier. This stamp is much easier to work with than the rows of small circles, and the spectrum shades of blue look so fresh and fun!

This whole stamp set simple screams graphic design, and tomorrow's card continues using it in that way. But I want to put my creative cap on and play around with these as elements in scenes. Circles...bubbles...underwater elements...stones...ground...strips used to make flowers...punched elements...hmmm. Lots of possibilities.