Thursday, June 22, 2017

Peace & Love; Lost & Found

There's a story behind today's card. But before we get to that, I must credit THIS PIN which inspired my card's layout. (Check out Lisa Addesa's blog post here.) Isn't Lisa's original beautiful, with its soft colors and clever use of negative space of the die cut? Perfect!

Well, I don't have a die or punch that would achieve the same effect, so I simply lifted the layout and made a holiday card instead. The snowflakes and hearts seemed the perfect accents for the sentiment, don't you think? You could play around with tiny stamps of all sorts to duplicate this lovely, versatile layout!




Now, as you might imagine, to gather that many small snowflake stamps, I had to raid several different sets. Having only one small acrylic block, it was a chore to switch out the tiny stamps over and over to get a good distribution of flakes, hearts, and dots. Keeping track of everything was a challenge, and when I finished the card, I realized that one of the tiniest snowflake stamps was missing.

ARRRGGHHH!!!!

I searched my craft table high and low, and was so agitated that my husband and older son came to help. All three of us were searching and searching and searching for this tiny, clear stamp.

Then, my younger son, Jack, who has autism and is particularly observant, walks down the stairs to find Nick digging through my trash, George on his hands and knees running hands over the carpet, and me sifting through piles of stamp sets on my desk.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Looking for a tiny stamp," I exclaimed in frustration.

He calmly asked, "What's that thing in your hair, Mom?"

The stamp. It was the stamp.

How it got trapped in my hair is a mystery, but bless Jack for finding it! Who knows where the thing would have ended up had it fallen out away from my craft area, never to be seen again?!?!




Mercy, grace, snowflakes, and hearts,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts sentiment, various snowflakes
ink: Hero Arts pool, red royal, charcoal
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones
 

11 comments:

  1. Your card is stunning. I can only imagine the time & patience it took to create. Do you think Jack could help me find my "Boo" stamp that I lost? :)

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  3. Thank goodness for that extra pair of eyes. I have one stamp sitting out that I don't know which stamp set it goes to. Sooner or later I will pull a set out and see that it's missing that stamp. I found one just last week that had a missing stamp that I had stuck on my monitor base for the last 6 months or so until I found its home. BTW, I love that card. :)

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  4. A unique card in both style and colors. LOVE!
    Lu C

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  5. love the card and the original one that inspired it

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  6. Love your take on Lisa's card! I've been a fan of hers for years and can't believe she hasn't been snatched up by SSS as a full time designer yet! She's been a guest designer for a month before but she uses their stuff so much, and so well, I don't understand why she's not on their payroll. I certainly hope they're at least sending her product!!! Anyway, she's a CAS genius and her blog is a wealth of inspiration, though she's big on dies... and paint chips ;-) But like you have shown, a good design can be tweaked to the supplies in your own stash!!! I am able to save myself from buying all the dies by using my Silhouette to mimic most designs or layouts. Thank goodness or folks like Lisa and Jennifer McGuire would have me in debt wanting to play with all the cool dies they own! I will have to think to try stamped images in place of die cuts next time!!! BTW, have you ever read her other blog, Noah... His Journey? It hasn't been updated in a few years but you would find it very interesting.

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  7. Isn't it amazing how those little devils can disappear? I have lost more than one on the floor to be found days later. I lost one of my small snowflake stamps down the drain (I wash them in my laundry tub). I immediately wrote 'drain strainer' on my shopping list. I now make sure that little mesh basket is in the drain before rinsing any of my stamps, no matter the size.
    I love both of these cards, especially that you were able to take her design and make it work for you. I'm not a C&S person, but I can still appreciate how others make it work so well. TFS

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  8. I love this card! And the inspiration card! I will be checking out her blog later. I might just have to make a few si liar cards for my Christmas cards this year. If I can steal the time from the rest of my life; the work of having to change out so many smaller stamps can be enjoyable and almost meditative for me. I'd much rather do that then spend time on lots of coloring. TFS

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  9. Hooray for Jack! That kind of thing happens to me often and it can be maddening because you know it couldn't have walked off on it's own - haha!

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  10. Simple & beautiful way to use little stamps. . . and a wonderful story of how it was made. Hugs. :)

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  11. Such a beautiful card! The red hearts and dots play so well with the blue snowflakes. Love your CASE of the undulating layout. Glad your son found your stamp for you!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!