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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

OLW132, or OMG I HEART STAMPING!!!!

You know, there are a lot of things I love about stamping.

I love stamps. I love hoarding owning lots of stamps. I love color. I love ink. I love white space. I love paper. Especially white paper. I love gadgets like punches and craft knives and metal rulers and awls and corner rounders and scissors and trimmers and embossing guns. I love design and the rules thereof. I love stamps. Oh, wait. I already said that. I love organizing stamps. I love people who love stamping. I love stamping things for the people I love and for perfect strangers whom I love because the Bible tells me to love my neighbor and everyone's my neighbor.

Basically, there's a lot to love about stamping.

But Heather's OLW132 challenge reminds me of one of my most favoritest things to do with stamps...be inspired by the stuff around me.

Her challenge is to be inspired by packaging.

Now, I know a lot of you don't love inspiration challenges. I get emails occasionally from people who say they are too hard. These stampers are intimidated by inspiration challenges because they don't know how closely their card should resemble the inspiration piece. They don't know what they can change to make the inspiration piece work with their supplies. They worry about breaking the rules.

These people worry entirely too much.

If you're worried about doing Heather's challenge, STOP RIGHT NOW. Don't worry. Be happy. Play with your stamps. See what happens.

You can turn this:




into this:



Or this:




into this:

For when I run out of time this December and
need 50 more cards quick!


You might even take the ugliest packaging you can find (a compressed air canister!) and make something pretty from it.

Card trimmed to cut off a mistake...because
mistakes are just opportunities
to do something cool!


You just never know what will happen when you let yourself go and play with inspiration.

Give it a try.

Go on.

You can do it.

Yes, you can.

supplies
stamps: Papertrey Square Prints, Signature Greetings, Holly Jolly, Text Style, Botanical Silhouettes
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestones, silver embossing powder, embossing ink, heat gun
at

32 comments:

  1. SusieMarch 20, 2013 at 6:23 PM

    Pure awesomeness. Amazing work.

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  2. G PeplowMarch 20, 2013 at 6:37 PM

    Wonderful insight Susan, I love these!! Gay x

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  3. Virginia L.March 20, 2013 at 6:47 PM

    Beautifully written and illustrated with your gorgeous one layer wonders! Love everything about this post, Susan!

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  4. KathykMarch 20, 2013 at 6:53 PM

    Hear Hear!!! And your makes are fabulous too

    Kathyk

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  5. ArdythMarch 20, 2013 at 7:02 PM

    LOVE the first one - those colours make me smile for sure! I was getting stumped because all the packaging is so NOT CAS, but now I've got some ideas.

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  6. June KMarch 20, 2013 at 7:03 PM

    All these are such cool cards, Susan. Love them all.

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  7. Joan BMarch 20, 2013 at 7:53 PM

    each one is great!!

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  8. AnonymousMarch 20, 2013 at 8:40 PM

    I love the glue stick inspiration card; how very clever. When I was looking for inspiration last night my husband pulled out the steel cut oats bag and suggested that. I said it wasn't pretty enough. I guess I should go back and look at the oats bag in a new light!

    Thank you once again for your clever, happy, pretty cards.
    Heather

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  9. dianaMarch 20, 2013 at 8:57 PM

    Thanks for the ideas & the advice to just give it a try. ;-)

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  10. martyMarch 20, 2013 at 11:28 PM

    woo.hoo!!
    LOVE your cards.
    you are a clever, clever girl!
    these cards are excellent.
    thanks for the inspiration, and the permission to have fun!
    marty ferraro

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  11. Janet a.k.a. swanlady21March 21, 2013 at 1:07 AM

    Well - Just blow me away! Love your examples. You really know how to inspire us.

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  12. CathyMarch 21, 2013 at 3:44 AM

    Thank you Susan for your inspiration! Cathy

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  13. TaniaMarch 21, 2013 at 4:25 AM

    Thanks Susan. I admit I'm someone who is intimidated by inspiration challenges. You've given me a new perspective!

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  14. Autumn MistMarch 21, 2013 at 4:41 AM

    Wow! And thankyou, because I struggle with this too...

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  15. MichelleMarch 21, 2013 at 5:20 AM

    :-) I love stamping, too! I love your cards. I especially love the "smile" card. Wonderful!

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  16. TammyMarch 21, 2013 at 6:37 AM

    love, love , love them all. I think maybe now I "get" it. Thank you

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  17. jintyoo7March 21, 2013 at 8:50 AM

    Wonderful :)

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  18. KristenMarch 21, 2013 at 9:10 AM

    Great post and cards. I think sometimes we worry too much about our cards and forget it is a captured moment in time and to be fluid. love the examples. Hoping I can get inky again soon!

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  19. Suzanne RussellMarch 21, 2013 at 9:24 AM

    I love each of these awesome cards-the "Thinking of You" is my favorite. I'm one of those who worries too much, so thanks for the additional inspiration today. I think this is your best blog post ever!

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  20. Kristie GouletMarch 21, 2013 at 9:25 AM

    Very creative! I especially LOVE the first one!

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  21. Happy DanceMarch 21, 2013 at 9:28 AM

    I love that you love everything about stamping/cardmaking. And I love how you've taken ordinary items and made them into something extraordinary! I've been looking at my body wash label and you've really given me the courage to use that inspiration. Hey! Wait! YOU ARE inspiration! Bev

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  22. Sheila HMarch 21, 2013 at 10:23 AM

    I am in awe of your cards! You've taken mundane objects and created spectacular CAS cards. I'm going to try to think out of the box more. Thanks for the inspiration.

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  23. Marlena M.March 21, 2013 at 11:09 AM

    I love each and every one~

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  24. MaryMarch 21, 2013 at 11:09 AM

    I love today's post. What you said made me smile and laugh a little and then we get three amazing cards!!!!!!
    ( egregious exclamation points seemed to fit here ).

    Really some of the best examples I've ever seen of translating a "non-paper crafting piece" such as packaging into a paper crafted piece like a card. So cool. :-)

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  25. Susie W.March 21, 2013 at 12:41 PM

    OMG. I love everything about this post Susan! I can relate to so many of the things you talked about. I have conquered my fear of inspiration challenges though. Now they're a lot of fun!
    It was so much fun to see what inspired these cards!

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  26. MarieMarch 21, 2013 at 1:40 PM

    Hi Susan, I have not commented in months. I am still reading. I'm still out here lurking. Just so crazy busy at work and home; that just reading blogs is a challenge. Commenting is almost impossible. BUT, today's post is outstanding. And I just had to tell you that.

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  27. KellyRaeMarch 21, 2013 at 3:14 PM

    OMG is right! I saw that challenge and thought how hard it would be, and then you post these amazing cards. Love them all. TFS!

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  28. UnknownMarch 21, 2013 at 4:40 PM

    Great post, Susan! These are all fantastic examples. I'm partial to the first one. Love the colors.

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  29. kanatanewfMarch 21, 2013 at 7:30 PM

    Beautiful! Once again pinning a couple of these to my card making inspiration board.

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  30. AnonymousMarch 23, 2013 at 4:06 PM

    Thank you ... I've been looking for nice packaging to inspire me ... now I'll look at ordinary stuff in a new light! These are just stunning! Anita :)

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  31. UnknownApril 6, 2013 at 3:04 PM

    My problem isn't the inspiration part; I'm sometimes overly observant to the point of overload. My problem is finding the time to actually put some of that inspiration on paper. It's one of the reasons I love reading blogs. You've done that part for me. Maybe if I spent less time reading blogs I'd have more time to create. What a concept.

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  32. LindseyApril 9, 2013 at 11:53 PM

    Awesome. Love your inspiration.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!