Itty Bitty Birdie Card

Quick post late at night of an itty bitty birdie card that I just love.

Card size 3.75" x 4 7/8"

This little delight was made using a stitched rectangle die that Eva gave me and the coordinating die for the bird in flight from Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms.

Such a simple little card, but oh so sweet!

Sleep tight.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms
ink: Hero Arts robin's egg, Memories aqua, Archival black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dies, craft foam, glue

Hello, Birdie

After making yesterday's card with a colored card base (which was awesome), I wanted to make something more LateBlossom-y.

Score!

The Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms set is so pretty and so fun to play with right now, especially as we are completely in the throes of Ohio winter, which cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be 76 degrees and sunny; or 23 degrees and gray and windy; or 40 and thunderstorm-y.

The raised sentiment covers a boo-boo. The original hello was askew. There are no mistakes, only opportunities for embellishment.

Isn't askew a swell word? Askew. Say it out loud. Askew. Word nerd strikes again!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms
ink: Hero Arts robin's egg, wet cement, sand; Memories aqua; Archival coffee
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, coordinating dies, dimensionals

Gift Card Card

The awesome Joan B sent me a box of dies to play with, and I've been having so much fun! Today's card comes courtesy of Joan's gift.

I'm going to stick a gift card in here with temporary adhesive. A branch stamp from Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms set works perfectly on the flap of the die cut, and I adore the robin's egg ink that came with the Hero Arts monthly stamp kit. I hope it joins the regular Hero Arts ink line...it's just awesome.

I'm so grateful to Joan for the gift of these dies. They were all dies I wouldn't have bought for myself, yet I'm having so much fun!

Thank you, Joan!

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and gratitude,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms
ink: Hero Arts robin's egg, wet cement; Memories aqua
paper: Neenah 80lb solar white, StampinUp Baja breeze
accessories: Scor Tape, die (unknown)

Banners

Bobbieaz asked me to show how I make banners for cards. Banners like this:

Here's a close-up. 

So here's how I do it.

For a black banner with white embossing, I start with these supplies. For a white banner with colored ink, skip all the embossing, but otherwise follow the same process.

White embossing powder, white pigment ink (in this case StampinUp,
but any white pigment ink will do, and you can even use clear embossing
ink, but I have the white SU ink, so that's what I use), black card stock,
and whatever stamp you want.

Ooops. I forgot to use the Embossing Buddy. Don't worry if the black cardstock looks dusty after pouncing with the Buddy. It will come off later.

The Embossing Buddy keeps embossing powder from sticking
on the cardstock where you don't want it. 

After embossing, I clean the cardstock with a tissue to get the chalk off, and then I cut the sentiment out using an quilting ruler and craft knife. Watch your fingers!

Once the sentiment is cut out, with even margins on each side, I use the craft knife to notch the ends.

Well, after I took the photo, I realized this looked a bit ragged, so I trimmed it up cleanly, as you can see on the final card above. Probably ought to keep readers on my nose all the time while crafting now as my reliable close vision isn't so reliable anymore.

If you use a paper trimmer, it can be tricky to get everything centered. You might want to cut the strip and stamp after cutting, but then you have to be careful to stamp straight and centered. For me, it's always easier to stamp first, cut second, just because I'm comfortable using the quilting ruler and craft knife.

Have a lovely weekend! We are off to see our firstborn in a comedy show raising funds for hurricane relief. Should be fun!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (Feb Monthly kit), Papertrey sentiment
ink: StampinUp white craft ink, assorted pigment inks
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp black
accessories: rhinestones, dimensionals, embossing powder, heat gun, Embossing buddy, craft knife, quilting ruler, 

When You Can't Fit Everything In

This little stamped panel started life as a scrap, but I misjudged how everything would fit on it. So I moved the sentiment to the card base...and the result works!

Seven layers of white cardstock. I want credit for that! (The bird has two layers, in case you're wondering.)

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms, Clearly Besotted sentiment
ink: Hero Arts wet cement, charcoal, passion fruit; Memento grape jelly
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Stickles, coordinating die

Old School and New Stamps

In my first Hero Arts order of the year, I bought the Color Layering Birds and Blossoms set (with dies). Then, while watching one of Jennifer McGuire's videos, this uncontrollable urge came over me to buy the Hero Arts February kit, which includes a huge bird set and coordinating dies and three of the most wonderful colors of ink Hero Arts has come out with in a long time.

Someone really ought to do something about Jennifer. She's far too powerful an influence with her talent and all.  Perhaps we should bill her for the impulse purchases we make because she makes everything look so easy. It's all her fault, really. Other suggestions?

Anyway, last weekend, I sat and stared at the two sets of stamps wondering what the heck to do with them. An old-school idea popped into my head, and I ran with it.

These stamps were inked with markers, spritzed with water, and stamped on watercolor paper. So easy, so soft, so pretty!

I blended colors of Memento markers on the stamps: Bahama blue and Danube blue on the bird, London fog and rich cocoa on the branch, and Lulu lavender and grape jelly on the blossoms. Then I added bling for a little shine, and a black half pearl for the birdie's eye.

Yay for Old School!!!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts 
ink: Archival black
paper: Tim Holtz watercolor, Papertrey white cardstock
accessories: Memento markers, water spritzer, rhinestones

Need a Hand?

I've got eight.

How I love this octopus! My favorite character in Finding Dory was Hank the octopus (although the sea otters were pretty cute...not enough screen time, though). Anyway, this color-layering octopus from Hero Arts looks fashionable in Memento Lulu lavender and Hero Arts grape soda. The watery background is a swish from an old, old Hero Arts set and is stamped in Ancient Page Neptune ink, which is a fabulously pale blue-green.

The bling was made to match using a Sharpie. Love that.

There seems to be an inverse relationship between getting new stuff and my ability to create blog-worthy cards. The more new stuff I have, the less creative I am. The last week has produced a bunch of pretty trash.

Perhaps there's a lesson in this, but I'm willfully ignoring it.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Ancient Page Neptune, Hero Arts grape soda, Archival watering can, Memento Lulu lavender
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Sharpie, rhinestones, coordinating die

Ocean Spring and Other News

After years of searching for the perfect underwater set, two Hero Arts sets made my heart go all pitter-patter: Color Layering Octopus and Color Layering Seahorse. Today's card highlights the former, with a sentiment from the latter.

That seaweed stamp and die are so. incredibly. awesome! I love how the holes in the die allow such pretty shadows to create some wonderful dimension on a card.

To keep the design from being too busy, the stamped water background is partial...just a hint that it's an underwater scene. Also, the corners are rounded because pointy corners looked harsh.

How's that for a technical reason for a design choice?

It's also fun that the spring flower color scheme is being used for an aquatic scene; it gives the card such a fresh and happy tone.

Someone recently asked for an update on the dogs. This photo pretty much says it all. Cooper is clearly a much-neglected and abused pup, seeing as how small he is for seven months old. He wants me to tell you that he doesn't get enough treats, and his big sister beats up on him all the time because he's so runty and weak.

Cooper, 7 months, and Daisy, 7 years

Actually, Daisy is the injured one. She rubbed a sore on her nose somehow but is recovering nicely.

She was such a love when they went to the groomer for Cooper's virgin grooming. She tried to teach Cooper how to get into the wire crates and got separation anxiety when they took him to the other room for his bath. Cooper wasn't happy with the wire crates (he sleeps in a molded plastic airline crate) or with the blow dryer (he pooped on the grooming table). Good times for Ms. April the Groomer. Otherwise, he did great, but April's assistant will be my first suspect if Daisy gets kidnapped. He loves her.

Honestly, who doesn't love Daisy? She's furry golden sunshine!

Cooper is more like furry white energy. He's an imp. Last week, I was standing near the door, and he ran to me, jumped straight up, and licked my lips. Ewww.

This is the look he shot me when his butt slid off the ottoman.

"Do I get a treat for that trick?"

No. Gravity and lack of coordination won't get you a treat.

"See? I'm so abused!"

Entitled furball.

This weekend was the Special Olympics bowling tournament, and our son Jack got his first blue ribbon after about five or six years of bowling! He was overjoyed and told me that he'll have his name called out during the announcements at school on Tuesday. So yay, Jack!

Jack bowls for a blue ribbon!

Mercy, grace, peace, love, fur, and blue ribbons,
Susan


Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Octopus and Seahorse; Papertrey Ombre Backgrounds
ink: Memento grape jelly; Hero Arts soft pool, butter bar, charcoal; Ranger electric lime
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: coordinating dies, dimensionals, rhinestones, Sharpies for coloring the rhinestones, corner rounder

New Stuff

Here's my order from Hero Arts. So much goodness in this, and I've already started making stuff.

Dies
Half of these die sets go with stamps I already own, including Color Layering Octopus and Happy As A. The alphabet is very small and inexpensive so I thought it perfect for experimenting with an alpha set to see if I would use a larger set. I've been limited to a few heart punches and wanted that basic shape in the infinity dies to see how I will use them. If they work out okay for me, I'll definitely get some more of the infinity dies. Those are potentially very useful.

Stamps
The color layering branches set (with dies) is just so pretty, and I love, love, love the tiny birds in it. The birthday balloon animal set fills a need for some more birthday sets. (I make so many for Karen's Card Shop.) And finally, the flower set seemed funky and fun, but after playing with it a bit, I'm struggling. Oh, well. I'll figure something out.

Handmade Watercolor Paper
Jennifer McGuire sang its praises, and I bit.

Sequins
So many stampers make these look great. Why not?

Ink
For years, I hardly ever used purple. Lately, it's been more appealing to me, so another shade in my ink collection will get used. For the record, I still loathe fairy vomit (also known as Orchid Opulence).


What have you bought lately that you're lovin'?

More Yana Inspiration

Yana Smakula's card inspired more than just yesterday's post. It inspired these four cards...color variations that were so much fun.

The first three color variations use bling...because no matter how much I used during the Bling series, I still have gobs left. The last one uses half pearls, because I found them in my green embellishment drawer and realized they would make a lovely minty card.

You'll note that the size of the stamped panel changes throughout the series. That's because I had different pieces of cardstock scraps. Use what you have. Not sure which I prefer...perhaps the 1/4" mat. The 1/8" mat seems a bit small.

Several things make this design work well. First is the clean classic design of the wreath stamp and font of the sentiment. Soft curves and pokey serifs create a pleasing tension.

Second is the shine. Because bling/pearls are so pretty!

Third is the harmony of monochromatic pastel color schemes with a touch of black. Black works so well with pastels.

Thank you, Yana, for your lovely card with the heart-shaped wreath. I don't have that stamp, but this one was a perfectly nice substitute!

Which color do you like the best?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey A Wreath for All Seasons, Keep It Simple Birthday
paper: Papertrey
ink: various dye inks
accessories: rhinestones, pearls

Best-laid Plans: The Forgotten Valentine

A day late and dollar short.

I made this card a month ago to send to my sister. As organized as I aspire to be, I'm just not. Not only did I NOT send this card, I didn't photograph it either...until today when I found it in a stack of stuff. I really do like this card so much!

It's so much fun playing around with stamp collages like this...and this one was inspired a bit by Yana Smakula's card here. In fact, Yana's fabulous card inspired tomorrow's cards as well.

Yana is amazing.

And my sister will totally understand that I am not. 

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: various dye inks
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: heart rhinestones

Well, I Tried

We can't all be Sandy Allnock. But I tried.

Proper shading of big flowers is really, really hard. For me. Sandy sure makes it look easy, though.

Let's focus on the fact that the card is colorful, and the black banner with white embossing is totally awesome. 

And bling. Gotta love the bling.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan

Supplies

stamps: Altenew

ink: Memento black, embossing ink

paper: Gina K 

accessories: Copic markers, craft foam, glue, rhinestones

Birthday Butterflies

After obsessing on Hero Arts' Wonderful set, I made this very crisp, elegant, sweet card using all old stuff.

Because using too much new stuff makes all those old stuff feel sad and useless. Right?

I love all those layers of white card stock. Sadly, I've usually already stamped the main panel on Papertrey Stampers Select white cardstock when it becomes obvious that many mats would look awesome. The best way to make these layered cards is with Neenah Solar White cardstock in the 110# for the base and 80# for all the layering. That way, they aren't too bulky. The Neenah and Papertrey are different whites, so once you're committed to the Papertrey, you can't just layer with the Neenah.

Who knew there were so many shades of white? Well, there are. And I do prefer Papertrey's white by a slim margin so it's my go-to white. The Neenah is excellent, though, and if you want to keep things as simple as possible, you could do worse than using it exclusively.

Don't you love that font? So feminine and fresh looking!

To calculate the sizes for this matting, take the measurements of the stamped panel and add 1/8" for the first thin mat, add 5/8" for the wider mat, and add 3/4" for the bottom mat. Note that those numbers are all added to the stamped panel dimensions, not added on to each other. So if your stamped panel is 2" x 3.25", the largest mat will be 2 3/4" x 4".

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and if you're thinking of giving up something for Lent, you could do much worse than this list from Pope Francis. I think it will be much harder than just giving up chocolate.

If you observe Lent, do you give up something for Lent? If so, what? Inquiring minds....


Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Simon Says Stamp It's Your Birthday!
ink: Archival black, Hero Arts raspberry jam
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punches, rhinestones, glue pen

Wonderful, Part 5

Well, that was interesting.

We upgraded our modem and lost WiFi for a day. You don't realize how dependent you are on technology until you can't use it.

Everything is working properly again (and much faster, so YAY!), and here I am with our fifth and final Wonderful post. These five posts all show cards using the Wonderful Stamp & Cut set from Hero Arts, the point being that a well-designed sentiment set can produce a lot of different styles and uses.

Of course, I made all five cards, so they all look like LateBlossom cards, but imagine what you could do with this set to make it YOUR own, with your style and your purposes!

Today's card harkens back to a simpler time (before WiFi outages) when the wonderful Louis Armstrong sang What a Wonderful World. I love that man's smile. Would that we all could give such wonderful smiles more often. It's one of my favorite songs.

When I realized the Wonderful stamp set had the words What a Wonderful World in it, I decided to make a card honoring the song. It's a little busy for me, but still crisp and clean...and full of meaning.

Trees of green; red roses, too; clouds of white. I tried to work skies of blue in there, but it looked dreadful. Perhaps one of you will take the idea and make it work.

The die-cut word wonderful is stacked three deep for extra dimension. With just two layers, it didn't stand out enough given the height of the craft foam that's lifting the stamped rectangles. The white-on-white worked better for me than any colors did.

As you might imagine, this card took longer than usual to finish and required a lot of tinkering. Even finding the right stamps took surprisingly long as I had to rescue the rose from cold storage. Still, it's such a fun way to commemorate a song--and singer--who make my world a little more wonderful.

Thank you, Mr. Armstrong. Thank you very much.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Wonderful, Flower Garden; Papertrey Father Knows Best
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Hero Arts charcoal, green, red royal
accessories: craft foam. cloud punches (Fiskars), glue, coordinating die

Wonderful, Part 4

We all have at least one friend who is particularly wonderful in every way possible. These friends know how to listen, to tell us the truth in love, to make us laugh when we're down, and to love us at our worst...and best.

They are full-spectrum friends. And this card will go to one of mine.

If you go to my first Wonderful card, you'll see the exact same product used (the Arteza brush pens) but in a very different way. On that first card I scribbled ink from the pens onto an acrylic block and used a wet brush to blend those bright, bold colors into pretty pastels.

Today's card used the Arteza pens full strength directly on the paper to create a bold background spectrum to die cut. This was embarrassingly easy to accomplish...which always satisfies. Note how bright and bold and happy those colors are!

The stars (all from the Wonderful set) were inked with various Kaleidacolor pads and sprinkled around the sentiment.

Wonderful! Note how different the look is here to the previous three cards. All those were two-layer cards plus the die cut. Here, we have a simple one-layer card that lets all the fabulous, bright color do the work. The versatility and flexibility of this amazing set from Hero Arts is proved again!

One more card to go!

Mercy, grace, peace and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Wonderful
ink: Archival black, various Kaleidacolor inks
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Arteza brush pens, coordinating die

Wonderful, Part 3

Reader Shannon asked for me to do a series on washi tape because she has quite the hoard of it. We'll, sadly, washi is one of those things I have tons of and rarely use...although it is handy for holding down dies. But I thought of Shannon when I made today's wonderful Christmas card.

Yesterday's wonderful card also used the wonderful die very simply (cut from plain card stock with no stamping or additional embellishment) so that the background created all the energy in the card. Today, however, the fabulously festive red wonderful carries the visual focus.

Color drives the eye. Strong color like this real red from StampinUp really drives the eye.

The washi tape border is bold and simple at the same time, creating a strong vertical to balance the strong horizontal of the sentiment. To make wonderful stand out a bit more, I made two layers of it.

I can't remember ever making a card like this, with a popped panel spanning the whole card vertically and leaving a small border along one side. But it's certainly a fun design and works so well with this set and the bold washi border. Lots of contrast in this card!

Anyway, Shannon, I'm afraid my washi expertise is, well, non-existent, and I encourage you to go to Julie Ebersole's blog Paper Trufflez. She's got lots of ideas for washi. Do a search and be amazed by her awesomeness.

I'm small fry compared to her.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Wonderful
ink: Hero Arts forever green
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: craft foam, glue, washi tape

Wonderful, Part 2

Eeep! My new order from Hero Arts arrived today. I'll share a picture of the goodness soon. Oh, my. So much fun stuff to play with!

Today, we're looking at a totally different use of the Wonderful Stamp & Cut set from Hero Arts. Yesterday, we saw what happens when you white emboss the wonderful word outline stamp and create blended colors with Arteza markers and a paint brush.

Today, we're exploring a gorgeous distress ink background and simple die-cut word. I'm getting all technique-y on you!

The background was inked up with crushed olive, peeled paint, fired brick, and spiced marmalade distress inks, and then I repeatedly stamped two different Stampa Rosa leaves that were spritzed with water. The distress inks respond beautifully to water, and I love how the leaves look sort of ghostly. The effect is lovely.

The card base and die cut are Papertrey's rustic white cardstock. I ordered it accidentally, meaning to get the rustic cream instead. I won't make that mistake again but feel compelled to use the rustic white. It's a little too white, and I think the rustic cream would look better here, but we work with what we have, right?

Of course.

Anyway, this fabulous stamp-and-die set moved from yesterday's spring-like card to today's autumnal splendor with no trouble whatsoever. Which is really the point behind this series. When a stamp set is this well-designed, it can be hugely versatile.

I wonder what tomorrow's wonderful will bring!?!?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Wonderful, Stampa Rosa (PSX) leaves
ink: Distress crushed olive, peeled paint, fired brick, spiced marmalade; Archival potting soil
paper: Papertrey rustic white
accessories: mini inking tools, coordinating die, water spritzer

Wonderful, Part 1

In my early days of stamping, I hated buying sentiments. Not sure why. It doesn't really make sense. But then, despite trying so very hard, I'm not always sensible.

These days, sentiment sets are serving me well, and I particularly like Hero Arts stamp and cut sentiment sets, which include a die for a big word (blessings, wonderful, etc.), coordinating stamps of the big word, and a bunch of small word stamps to go with the big word. They also include a few small accent images, but nothing that could outshine the big word as focal point.

These sets are AMAZINGLY versatile.

For the next few days, we're going to explore the Wonderful Stamp & Cut set, which is simply wonderful.

First up, Wonderful You. Because of all the white space and the pastel colors, it was super tough to photograph. It's absolutely gorgeous in real life. The watercolor paper (thanks, Linda E.!) adds a lovely texture, and the watercolor itself reminds me of the Nature's Sketchbook cards by Marjolein Bastin at Hallmark.

To make the card, I embossed the outline stamp wonderful in white on the watercolor paper. The watercolor comes from Memento markers scribbled onto an acrylic block (so easy!). I filled a few letters with plain water, then added the color in drops that spread around through the water. Then I repeated the process across the word. The embossing held everything in.

After the watercolor dried, I die cut the word and then an extra for layering. By gluing the plain die cut word under the watercolor word, I got more dimension, which is so important with such a simple, simple card. Many thanks to those of you who shared that tip with me when Eva gave me the Cuttlebug!

The envelope is stamped with a Hero Arts watercolor flower stamp. I inked it with the markers, spritzed and stamped once on scrap paper, and then spritzed and stamped on the envelope. That softened the colors, which were quite strong straight from the marker.

Perhaps the most wonderful thing about this set is the variety of looks you can get with simple die cut words. You'll see how different with tomorrow's card!

These are well worth the money. I love that the font is classic...nothing showy or trendy or hard to read.

And that's all I have to say about that. For all in the path of the snowstorm about to hit us, keep warm and safe!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Wonderful
ink: Hero Arts charcoal
paper: Papertrey white cardstock, Jack Richieson 135# watercolor paper (which is really white!)
accessories: white embossing powder, tiny watercolor brush, Memento markers (Danube blue, Bahama blue, pear tart, bamboo leaves), acrylic block used as a palette 

Color Combo Pin Frenzy

Do you ever find yourself getting into a pinning frenzy: your Pinterest feed fills with all sorts of good things, and you simply must pin every one of them?

For some reason (most likely some deviously manipulative algorithm by the crack dealers code writers at Pinterest), my feed has been flooded with the most amazing color combinations lately. If you want to check out my board titled Color My World, beware! You might feel the need to indulge a pinning frenzy of your own.

Inspired by this color combination with orange, red, and shades of gray, I made today's card.

The gray tree is stamped with Delicata silver. I'd stamped a version in Hero Arts soft granite and tried painting it with Wink of Stella, but the result was a disaster. I really wanted to add just a little shimmer to the tree, so Delicata's silver called to me. The result is lovely, I think.

Second time's the charm.

The take-away from this card is that you don't have to use a lot of color from those gorgeous combinations to make a striking card. Good neutrals and a few pops of color can make a clean-and-beautiful combination!

Do you have a Pinterest board dedicated to color? How often do you use it for inspiration? 

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Through the Trees, Hero Arts Thank You Messages
ink: Hero Arts orange soda, red royal, charcoal; Delicata silver
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: craft foam, glue

A Little Love for Monday

What the world needs now is Love, sweet Love.

Oh, my. The world needs it. This came across my Facebook feed on Friday. Brother King is still preaching.

We're about to have a holiday that celebrates a rather cheesy version of love...all hearts and valentines and chocolate. Don't get me wrong. We all need a little cheese in our lives. It goes well with wine. Enjoy it! Celebrate it!

Real love, however, the kind that Dr. King is talking about, is strong and true and can take you to some really, really hard places. You will never, ever regret those places.

Sometimes we regret the chocolate.

I made two cards for my sons for Valentine's Day. I'll give them some chocolate and these cards, with cute words of love. But oh, my. They are my heart walking around outside my body. And I hope I'm sending them out into the world knowing how loved they are and how their love for others can change the world. They changed mine.

That seems like an awful lot for a small pink-and-black card to convey.

God is love. Go be God's hands and ears and heart in the world. Move against wrong. Unlock that door to the ultimate reality of goodness and mercy and grace and peace and, yes, love.

Mercy, grace, peace, and most of all love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Can't remember, but either Papertrey or Hero Arts. Probably.
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Memento black, rose bud
accessories: Memento marker

Pretty Pearls

When I saw Renee Zarate's card in Stampers' Sampler, I knew I needed to CASify it. (That's clean-and-simplify, for those who don't know my personal lingo.) CASifying involves taking an idea from a more embellished card and making it clean and simple. Sometimes the idea becomes VERY clean and simple.

Card by Renee Zarata in winter 2018 issue of Stampers' Sampler

What caught my eye? Well, this is such a pretty card...I love the softness of it and the creative touches of winged heart, the use of words, and the use of BLING. That fabulous heart with the bling on it...that's what I wanted to base my card on. Oh, my. What a great idea!

So this is what I made.

My heart punches are astonishingly symmetrical, so I couldn't go artsy and asymmetrical like Renee did, but that suited my CAS-lovin' heart perfectly. I added movement with the swishy banner (StampinUp die) and the curve of pearls.

I was so happy to use up almost all those pearls, which have languished in my stash for YEARS. Now they have a home, a purpose, meaning. Yay, pearls!

Have a pearlescent weekend, everyone!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: can't remember
ink: Archival ink
paper: Papertrey white, kraft
accessories: pearls (self-adhesive), StampinUp banner die, dimensionals, heart punch (EK Success)