Light Blue and Cantaloupe Make an Awesome Pair

Yes, pair. Most assuredly NOT pear.

*wink*

We're continuing the idea of solid block flowers with this Hero Arts sentiment which, by the way, is an old, wood-mounted stamp that was discontinued long ago. Sorry about that.

These flowers are also from Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms. See, Sue. You really do need this set.

The flowers are arranged in a visual triangle, very much on purpose. The triangle keeps the focus on the sentiment while adding balance and unity to the design. The sentiment is stamped in SU Pumpkin Pie (oh how I love that color!), the flowers in Memento Baby Blue, and their centers in Memento Cantaloupe. In retrospect, I wish I'd layered the white panel in a thin mat of Pumpkin Pie, but when retrospect occurs after adhering the panel, it must stay in retrospect.

All aspects of retrospect leave the prospects looking suspect.

That makes no sense, but it was fun to type.

Tomorrow we're back to Christmas. That Hero Arts clear set I got last week totally captured my attention. LOVE it!

Determined to Persevere

Okay, so as I showed yesterday, that big Hero Arts sentiment was a challenge. I knew I had to make a decent card with it or how else could I look at myself in the mirror?

Yeah. I'm weird that way.

I realized that outline flower stamps wouldn't work (at least for me...feel free to prove me wrong), so I started looking at my block flower stamps. My favorite flower stamp set ever is Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms. If I could only have one flower set, this would be it. Maybe. Well. Sort of. Wouldn't it be horrible if we could only have one? What would be the point?

Where was I?

Oh, yes. I pulled out Beautiful Blooms and made this:

That's much better than yesterday's painful-to-look-at efforts. I tried to mount the stamped panel on an apricot appeal base, but it just didn't work. Tomorrow, I'll show you a similar card with a colored card base that works beautifully because it's a complementary color scheme.

Awww, I'm such a tease.

Happy Sunday.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts, Papertrey
ink: Memento
paper: white
accessories: dimensionals, button, DMC floss, glue dot

Quirky Technique Yields Pretty, Shimmery Results

Some techniques are just too complicated and/or messy for me. Stamping acrylic blocks to create backgrounds, however, is relatively easy and makes only a limited mess. Vicki Dutcher's blog post here inspired me to give it a try, although I didn't follow her directions exactly.

Call me a rebel.

Acrylic Block Stamping Tutorial for Twinkling H2Os

In concept, this basic technique is easy. Ink up your acrylic block using some coloring medium (Vicki suggests watercolor crayons, which certainly yielded lovely results on her card), spritz with water, and stamp. But it's also unpredictable, and you might waste some paper getting the effect you want. Repeat the mantra "it's only paper" as needed. My tutorial focuses on shimmery results with Twinkling H2Os.

1. Paint your acrylic block with Twinkling H2Os. I imagine each medium has its own persnickety quirks, but a wet medium like Twinkling H2Os will bead up on the block and look nothing like what it will look like on paper. The idea is to make sure you have enough liquid on the block that the paint pigment will spread around attractively under the pressure of the block.

2. After spreading a bunch of paint on the block with a brush, spritz the block with water and stamp it onto heavy cardstock or watercolor paper. 

3. Keep the block resting on the paper for a few seconds so the paper absorbs the pigment. If you lift the block too early, the pigment will pool into veins...think about what happens when kids fingerpaint and lift their hands off the paper. Of course, the veining might be a very cool look, depending on what you're doing. 

Troubleshooting and Suggestions

1. Experiment first, and keep an open mind. This is a technique for which an attitude of play is essential. Loosen up and enjoy the process because you might get something amazing when you least expect it. Also, you might punch shapes or images out of backgrounds that don't quite work as backgrounds.

2. Too little water on the block, and the pigment will look spotty and dark and, well, diseased. At least, that's the look I got. Too much water, and it'll look more like my card above. The color I used on this was actually a fairly deep goldish red, and because of the amount of water, I got shimmery, watery mauve, which led me to use the dream sentiment. The best "artistic" results, I think, come from a little less water, which I'll show you on tomorrow's card.

3. One variation to consider might be using regular watercolor or acrylic paint, ink or reinkers and spritzing with Glimmer Mist to add shimmer. Smooch would be another source of shimmer: just pour a bit onto a plastic plate, thin a bit with a wet brush, apply to the block, and stamp. Clean the block quickly, though, as the Smooch might stain. Stains on blocks come of (usually) with a little rubbing alcohol.

4. Paper matters here. Depending on how much water you use, you might need watercolor paper. I used heavy cardstock (PTI's vintage cream), and it buckled a bit.

Now, go forth and have fun! 

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Happy Trails
ink: Versacolor
paper: PTI vintage cream
accessories: Twinkling H2Os, brush, acrylic block

Gracious Vases...Part 2

As promised, today I'm showing my latest attempt at coloring with markers. Before I get to the card, however, let's talk about the markers.

Y'all know that I'm not a big colorer. The drive to keep things simple lives strong in me, and coloring isn't simple. It takes practice, skill, and time...much more time than inking a block image up and stamping it and being d-o-n-e, done.

Not coloring much hasn't kept me from experimenting with and buying just about every coloring medium known to stamping. I have watercolor pencils and crayons, Prismacolor pencils, Twinkling H2Os, chalks, SU reinkers, SU markers, Memento markers, and Bic and Sharpie markers. I can honestly say I've not gotten my money's worth out of any of these, but at least most of them don't go bad, so eventually, if I live to be a hundred, I might actually use some of them half up.

Can you say "conspicuous consumption"?

Knew you could.

Anyway, I deliberately didn't buy Copics, figuring Bics and Sharpies were adequate to my very simple need, and until Wednesday, I only had seven Copics: six of them I'd won as blog candy, and the seventh was the light cool gray I bought with the expectation of outlining images. All the cool stampers outline, you know.

There's a reason you've never seen an image with a marker by me. Seriously.

Anyway (again), when I started coloring the outline vases from Gracious Vases, I discovered that they look really nifty with monochromatic shading. Which made me go through all my markers to see what colors I could use. Which made me realize that the Bic and Sharpie markers are sadly lacking in light colors. Which made me want to supplement my stash with some light Copics.

In addition, the cap colors on the Bics and Sharpies aren't entirely accurate. Which was annoying when colors didn't turn out like I wanted. Which made me get all AR/OC at 11:00 Tuesday night. Which made me make a chart so I'd really know what sort of monochromatic shading I could do. Which made me really tired the next day. Which weakened my resolve to stay away from Copics. Which made me spend an undisclosed amount of money at Marco's Paper and Hobby Lobby.

Hey, I used a coupon at Hobby Lobby.

Oh, Lordy. I'm so very crazy.

So here's the chart. I stamped a bunch of the vases on a spare sheet of paper and then colored them all in. The ones I liked, I cut out and glued onto this chart. That way, I didn't have to be neat coloring (you try staying in the lines after midnight while completely manic!) and those combos that didn't work too well could easily get pitched in the trash.

Now, finally--I'm sure you thought I'd never shut up and get here--the card:

The shelf is a ribbon stamp from Faux Ribbon (Papertrey), and the sentiment is from some set by StampinUp. The colors make me think of the 1970s. The vases are stamped on scrap paper, colored, and cut out...because I ran out of Gina K cardstock and couldn't color on a one-layer card without the marker bleeding through.

Yes, I got my shipment of Gina K cardstock yesterday so I can once again make one-layer cards colored with markers.

The end.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Gracious Vases, Faux Ribbon; SU sentiment
ink: Palette dark chocolate
paper: PTI vintage cream
accessories: Bic/Sharpie markers

Postage Stamp Punch Meets Hero Arts Designer Alphabet

Today's card made me so very happy, but then, soft, beachy colors always make me happy. So does using a tool that has languished in my stash, in this case the postage stamp punch. Can't remember using it before, although my memory isn't what it used to be. Or perhaps I just have too many supplies to keep mental track of them all.

Whatever.

Design Discussion: This is a super way to spotlight small accent stamps that come with alphabets. The tiny sentiment is from an old, discontinued Hero Arts set. I arranged the colors very deliberately, giving the darkest color to the sentiment (those letters are pretty thin and needed the deeper color), and balancing the two blues diagonally and the two greens (well, baja is greenish blue) on the other diagonal. The butterfly is flying into the composition.

Jennifer has posted the OLW for this week, and it's awesome: Clouds! Click on over for the full scoop and to link up your creation!

Thursday afternoon, I will post my first batch of stuff for sale, including the SU paper stacks and some SU stamp sets. I've got some other stamps (lots of Hero Arts) to organize for sale as well.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: SU celery, marina mist, baja breeze, bashful blue
paper: SU celery, marina mist, baja breeze, bashful blue; white
accessories: postage stamp punch

One Layout, Two Ways, and Some Miscellaneous Chatter

Today's cards use Happy Trails, a recent release from Papertrey. There are a lot of different images in this set, and I think it's going to be hugely fun and versatile.

I started making a whole set of this one-layer card, just varying the colors.

Then, I wondered how it would look on a colored card base. I pulled out my Fiskar's label template and shape cutter UFO thingamabob and went to work trying to use up some colored card bases I'd already cut. That's why the blue of the card below is softer than the dark blue ink above (it's not your computer screen...it really is different).

So which do you prefer: one layer or two? I am totally on the fence. They both work for me.

Now, on the issue of photos and x's and weird looking computer screens....

1. If you ever have a problem viewing a web page (i.e., there are red x's where photos belong), try clicking the torn page icon next to the url box at the top of Internet Explorer. It might fix your problem. Thanks to Lorrinda for sharing this bit of enlightenment.

2. I'm loading the pictures into Blogger's edit mode, and that SEEMS to have fixed the problem for most of you. If you are still having trouble, it's likely your email program's security settings blocking the photos.

3. In the next few days, I'm going to post some pictures on my other blog of our hike yesterday in the Hocking Hills of Ohio. If you live anywhere around here and haven't been, get off your butt and go. The Old Man's Cave hike is totally amazing, and as with so many natural wonders, photos can't do it justice--although George got some good ones. Water sculpts rock in beautiful ways, and these hills are an awe-inspiring example of water's artistry.

Stress Reduction, Colored Card Bases, and Pursuit of Missing Photos

First up, my new favorite toy in my craft room:

A stress-reduction sound machine. My favorite setting right now is Ocean. I bought this beauty on Monday, when my children were driving me up the wall with their bickering and whining. Summer's not half-over, folks, and now I'm so much calmer after spending a half hour in my craft room drowning out the bickering and Pokemon battle noises with this lifesaver. If you need one, I highly recommend you run to Target and get one.

Today's cards are on colored card bases and use my new Mehndi Medallion set from Papertrey. What a very cool set. Yippy!!!! Or should I say, "Ohmmmm." Yeah, that works better, doesn't it?

The pink card above uses the large, medium, and small medallions, although there are a few extra-small ones in the set that I haven't used yet. The inks are Memento, and the papers are SU's pretty in pink and chocolate chip, with a random white popped on dimensionals. The sentiment is from Clear and Simple Stamps.

The baja breeze (SU ink and cardstock) card is cleaner than the first, using just the large medallion, and has a slightly smaller white panel. The sentiment is another from Clear and Simple Stamps.

Okay, the mystery of the missing photos deepens. A number of you have had problems, and a few have figured them out. Others are still as baffled as I am; certainly the feed shows normally for me in both Google Reader and in my email, so why in the world wouldn't it show normally for everyone? It's a mystery.

Here's what I've learned...any one of which or all of which or none of which might be true for you. The answer could be something completely different, which is entirely possible because I am VERY much out of my element with tech stuff.

1. Some email programs have security settings that block photos from downloading automatically. I use Windows Mail and I get a bar across the top of emails asking if I want to download pictures. I click the bar, and the photos appear. For other programs (or different settings in Windows Mail), if you right click on the photo box, a drop-down menu might appear offering you the option of downloading photos. If neither of these work, check your security settings to see if there's some other way to get photos. At least two people have fixed the problem this way.

2. Some of you just started experiencing problems in the past week or so. I assure you I am doing nothing differently, so the mystery thickens. One reader suggested using Edit mode to add photos to the post, so I added the sound machine photo in Compose Mode and the card photos in Edit Mode as a test. If you have been experiencing this problem, PLEASE LET ME KNOW if you can see any photos on this post and tell me which ones. If this is the problem, clearly there's a code difference in how they load, and perhaps there was a browser or Blogger or Feedburner change that's invisible to me but affects the way the photos show depending on the code.

I read all the code on the photos on this post (what the heck does it all mean?!?!), and it's definitely different depending on the mode in which the photo was loaded.

Thanks so much for all your patience and help in getting this problem solved.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

One of my biggest challenges in crafting is to loosen up and have fun. Ninety-nine percent of everything I make is tightly controlled, carefully planned, and precise. But as Betsy's acrylic block proves, loosening up and not fretting over a smudge here or there has its distinct advantages.

When I bought the Grunge Me set from Papertrey, I immediately sat down and made half a dozen cards that are what you expect from me: neat and tidy with lots of white space and fun color combinations. I'll share those later, of course. But then, I made this:

It made me smile. It's loose, happy, and fun. But something about it didn't feel right. The colors are some of my favorites...SU pumpkin pie, Memento canteloupe, and rich cocoa...but the warm scheme seemed a bit off considering the sentiment. The "paint" looks like earth, terra cotta, dust.

So I reached for SU marina mist and baja breeze and Memento black and tried again.

Oh. My. Gosh.

The cool, water colors on the crisp white are perfect. Just perfect.

Now, if you look closely, you'll see some order in the chaos. For instance, I stamped the big spatter three times in full-up marina mist in a triangle arrangement. The small spatter is also stamped three times full strength in baja breeze. Then I filled in all the holes with off-stamped, lighter images.

See, this AR/OC tiger won't change her stripes.

But she might spatter some ink around every now and then.

Breezy Life

My new A Muse stamps have been fun! What neat sets they have...very fun and versatile and perfect for clean-and-simple cards.

The idea for today's card came from some of the dies I've seen for chevrons and banners. Since I don't have a die cut machine, I wondered what I could make with my cheapo deco scissors. The wavy strips were made with wavy deco scissors and were not as hard to make as I thought, thought surely it's a bit more effort than a die would be. Also, I wanted the card to have both the peaceful stasis of the beach chair and the movement of wind and waves. I think I got that.

How-To Tips: Cut your strips longer than you want so you can trim them in alignment with each other, as I have done here. Always remember when using deco scissors: DO NOT CLOSE THE SCISSORS COMPLETELY! This creates unsightly divets. Instead, work in short segments, carefully aligning the blades with what has already been cut.

Chit Chat: I'm hoping to get back into my craft room Thursday. It feels like FOREVER, and in truth it's been NINE days. Just call me Ferris Bueller. I currently have over 500 unread blog posts in my Google Reader, a trashed house, and golden furry dust bunnies that are starting to attain sentience. Clearly, I need to catch up on stuff. I'm going to shake it up, baby. But right now, I just want to go to sleep.

Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?

Supplies
stamps: A Muse
ink: Marina Mist, River Rock
paper: SU river rock, marina mist, bashful blue; PTI white
accessories: corner chomper, wavy deco scissors, dimensionals, glue pen, half pearls

Variations on a Set: Hero Arts Just a Note Last Card

I hope all the moms out there had a lovely Mother's Day! Looks like I'm getting a new water heater for my gift. Ours died on Saturday (moment of silence, please).

Thank goodness we're members of the YMCA so I can have hot showers until it can be replaced.

Fortunately, I don't need hot water to stamp. Today's card is the last of my Variations on the Hero Arts set Just a Note. I went for a totally different look, with a chocolate chip card base...LOVE IT!!!!

How-To Tips: There are tiny brown pearls on the envelope fastener, and the envelope is popped on dimensionals over the rulers, which are there to anchor the envelope visually. I masked the just out of the sentiment so it would fit on the lower envelope flap. Inside, I lined the card with cream cardstock so I wouldn't have to use a white pen to write in it.

Why is it that white pens ALWAYS dry up in the middle of writing on a dark card base? This will be one of my questions for St Peter. I'm not going through the pearly gates until I get an answer!

Coming Up This Week: Oh how I'm in love with Card Creations Volume 9 from Papercrafts Magazine. In. Love. People. We simply must discuss it. Also, I have a new Variations set that is oh so cool, to be released on Tuesday at Mark's Finest, with a patriotic theme. I'm feeling very patriotic these days, and have four cards to share!

But wait!

That's not all!

At no extra cost, I'm adding some tabbed pages to the blog and will happily take suggestions for what you'd like to see on them. I'm going to do a Favorite Supplies page to help newbies, and an FAQ page. Other suggestions? Also, does anyone care about the Labels on posts, or do you all use the Search box when you want something? I'm hating the labels lately and wanting to ditch them from the sidebar, but if you like them, I'll leave them.

Are you thinking, "Gee, is she ever going to shut up?"

Yes. Yes, I am.

Variations on a Set: Hero Arts Just a Note

Will be announcing the winner of the Zutter Round-It-All on Friday!

I've decided for simplicity's sake (*wink*), I'm going to title posts that show my resolution to make four cards from every set with Variations on a Set. I won't post all four variations on one post, though. Gotta spread them out a bit! But you can expect all four cards for a set to be posted within the same week, usually in two posts (two cards per post).

What I hope YOU get out of this resolution are ideas for using sets YOU own with more versatility. I've already completed four sets for this resolution, and it's really interesting to think about them from this angle. I highly recommend you give it a try!

Both of today's cards are one layer and both are colored with markers, but they are different layouts. First up, I LOVE the pencil stamp in this set, and I used it in a similar way to the line stamp on my blinged birthday card.

Next up is an arrow note. Obviously, the dominant design here is the visual triangle. Now that I'm looking at it on my screen, I REALLY wish I'd made the top arrow point down. Duh. That would make so much more sense. Oh, well.

Happy Friday, everyone.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Just a Note clear set
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white (pencils), PTI cream (arrows)
accessories: Memento Markers

Chatter and a Card

Chatter

Someone asked what flower punch I used on the second card on this card. It's from StampinUp.

Someone else who shall remain nameless (okay, it was Marty!) sent me a RAK. The package included a stamp I almost bought a month ago but didn't because a little voice whispered in my ear that someone really nice would send it to me soon. You'll see it on a card soon. Marty also sent me a Crop-A-Dile corner rounder that is absolutely the coolest corner rounder ever! Be still, my heart. I don't deserve friends-I've-never-even-met-in-real-life who are this kind and generous!

Someone else entirely asked about my stamp index, which I referred to in a recent post. This subject--my stamp index--is a source of grave frustration to me. I've had four iterations of index since I started stamping. Not one has met all my needs.

Below is a picture of the THREE binders that housed my Version 4.0 index. The pink binder houses Papertrey stamp images. The brown binder contains Mark's Finest and StampinUp images, as well as a punch index. The green binder holds Hero Arts images, as well as images from miscellaneous companies. 

Three binders. They are pretty colors, but three binders are two too many and not easily portable. One thing I love to do with my index is take it with me when I travel. Plus, dividing everything by manufacturer seems artificial, especially when today's card is so very representative of how I work: mix and match. So I'm reworking the index and will share the new one when I'm done, which at the rate I'm going should be sometime in the year 2020.

I have a lot of stamps.

Still, it won't really take until 2020 to finish because I'm obsessive.

But you knew that.

Didn't you?

Sure you did.

A Card

As you can see, I combined a sentiment from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages with a flower stamp from StampinUp's Happy Harmony set, thus proving my point about the silliness of segregating stamps in my index.

The ground on this is washi tape, and I--SURPRISE--actually like the tape on this card, which was vaguely inspired by a card I received from Krystie Lee. Her card is much prettier, but as I have it and will not show it to you, my card will not suffer in comparison...unless you scroll down her blog and find an aqua, orange, and celery one-layer card with a button on one flower and a sheer white ribbon around the bottom.

Her card, however, has no bling.

So there.

Memento Inks and MFP White Cardstock: Lovin' Them

First, I'll remind you that the OLW this week is over on Jennifer's blog. It's a good one so check it out!

Now, while I'm seeking to purge colored cardstock, I've stayed true to my love of the white card base and have expanded my white cardstock selection to include White Storm 100lb from Mark's Finest Papers. Now in addition to PTI white (thick cardstock with a bit of tooth) and Gina K white (perfect for one-layer Bic/Sharpie/Copic colored cards), I'm lovin' MFP's, which is lighter than PTI's (easier to fold, but not as thin as SU whisper white so a lovely card base for one layer). It also takes ink beautifully.

See?

Okay, so perhaps this distressed sentiment stamp from Hero Arts isn't exactly the best to show how nicely this paper takes ink, but really. It does. The blues are from Memento...an ink I'm lovin' so much. I liked the gradient blue look so much that I decided to try sunny colors. Gives the card a completely different feel, doesn't it?

So then, I just got nutty playing with color. Oh how fun this was!

Look through your stash and see what largish sentiments you have that could work with this idea. So easy and quick, yet so very, very cool!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (discontinued clear set)
ink: various Memento
paper: Mark's Finest
accessories: gridded acrylic block...a must in this case!

Geeking out with Colored Cardstock

Seeing the yummy, yummy colors of cardstock in the A Muse catalog made me feel really bad. I have a ton of cardstock already...more cardstock than a woman could use up in a decade of obsession.

Also, let me point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the cardstock I've collected. I only have top-quality cardstock. Period. I learned years ago that cheap cardstock makes cheap-looking cards. I'm just falling victim to the powerful force of wanting something cool that I don't have. Don't judge me. You're guilty of it, too.

Anyway, I decided that if I really want to buy and use some of those fab new-to-me cardstocks in this lifetime, I need to start using the colored cardstock that I have. And of course, given my mental tendencies, I have to overthink it and try to come up with a system, a formula, a foreign policy of sorts for embracing a supply that, let's face it, I've neglected for years.

The result of this overthinking is Susan's First Theory of Using Colored Cardstock on CAS Cards.

I told you I was geeking out in the title of this post.

So, what's the CASest thing you can do with color? Monochromatic schemes, of course. So the First Theory states that the card base should be a light shade, the matte should be a darker shade of the same color, and the stamped panel should be white. The stamping should be simple, with a sentiment stamped in either dark brown or black, depending on what looks best with the color you choose.

Sort of like this.

 Bling optional.

Not really. Bling is necessary.

I made four of these in record time. Well, I made two with this sentiment and two with a Thank you sentiment because I just had to vary them somehow.

You'll be seeing more examples of the First Theory in the coming weeks. Because seriously, I'm geeking. I expect I'll also have to come up with a Second Theory eventually...because otherwise what's the point of having a first theory?

Happy Wednesday!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Mark's Finest, Papertrey
accessories: dimensionals, rhinestone

Smiles for Four Seasons

Hero Arts made a four-stamp set of trees in each season a long time ago. I bought the set in my first year of stamping, and it was discontinued not much later. The new 2011 catalog resurrects the old images as cling stamps. So for once, I can use my really old stamps, and you can go buy them without resorting to eBay.

If you want. I wouldn't want to pressure you or anything.

This card was super easy to make, and I love this layout of an image (or, in this case, four images in a square) filling the bottom two-thirds of the card and a sentiment above and justified right. The sentiment is from a current Hero Arts clear set called Sending Smiles. It's my new favorite sentiment set because it includes five different sentiments for the outside of the cards AND five coordinating sentiments for the inside of cards. Brilliant!

Please don't hate me because I enable you. People enable me all the time, so I'm just paying it forward. It's really not my fault.

Full Disclosure: I haven't used the website Creative Play yet. They carry lots of Hero Arts, so I'm giving them a try as a replacement for Stampin' Treasures. I'm still mourning Stampin' Treasures. Oh, Diane, I miss you!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: dimensionals, square punch

More Masking

Yesterday's card kept all the action inside the masked area, and today's card shows how you can spill over that masked line to add interest to a one-layer card. This monochromatic card uses a text background from Dawn Houser/Inkadinkado, SU's Stem Silhouettes, and a sentiment from Hero Arts. The bling is positioned in a visual triangle.

After making the green card, I decided to try pink with a different background. I like the green one better, but thought I'd share this one for those of you who love pink. This marbled background stamp is from Judikins, and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Supplies
stamps: listed above
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: rhinestones

Update on a Two-Year-Old Resolution

Two years ago, I resolved to use every image stamp I own. Note the specification of image stamp. I have a bazillion sentiment stamps that came in sets, and many of these sentiments serve no earthly purpose whatsoever. ("Enjoy the happy moments in life." Really?)

So I've been quietly chugging away at using all my images on cards, and while I'm not quite finished, I'm almost there. It's been very enlightening. I learned that some stamps are easier for me to use than others either because they fit my style or a particular size or I simply like them better. This knowledge has changed the way I buy new stamps. I'm pickier and don't just buy stuff because "oh, I don't have anything like that!"

When Hero Arts' new catalog came out, I experienced the usual joy, joy, joy at seeing new stuff. I also realized that I needed to be very careful not to add new stamps to my collection just because they were different. I now ask, "Will this stamp or set fit my style, be easy to work with, give me not just more options but more options that make me happy?"

The following set seemed to meet all my requirements.

And, oh happy day! It did.

This little set of cards also demonstrates a new addendum to the old resolution. I now have to use each image in a set BEFORE I can store that set with the rest of my stamps. I have a little bin to keep new arrivals in until they earn a right to sit with the more experienced stamps. I'm happy to say that this set made the grade and has happily joined the rest of my Hero clear sets. It's making friends and looking forward to years of use.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts, AMuse ovals
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: post-it notes for masks

New Goodness

*Squeal!*

I received my Stampin'Treasures order in record time (ordered Tuesday, got it Thursday!). I took a picture of all the Hero Arts goodness I got. Oh how I can't wait to play with these!

In the meantime, I'm going to share a card I found and can't remember posting before (maybe I have and simply can't remember...wouldn't be the first time I forgot something). But it's so pretty and simple and made with a Hero Arts sentiment, so it seemed fitting to post it along with the picture above.

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Here's a reminder about OLW27. The give-away ends at midnight tomorrow night, so get your cards posted in time!!!

Tomorrow kicks off the new release of the Mark's Finest Papers November stamp sets. There are six of them this month...a nice mix of holiday and other sets. I'm looking forward to the hop and hope you enjoy all the stuff I made for it!

One More Twinkling Card

Note: For those who read Simplicity in your email, you may need to scroll down for yesterday's post. I had problems earlier in the week with scheduling (NOT my fault!) but Saturday's was scheduled to post at the wrong time (entirely my fault). My apologies for being a dork.

Our town trick-or-treated last night. I wore a costume to a costume party. There is, however, no photographic evidence. I like it that way.

Halloween and the last week have kicked my butt. I'm whipped. Rode hard and put up wet. Drained to the last drop.

May I please have some cheese to go with that whine? Or perhaps just another fun-size Almond Joy?

Anyway, here's another (and the last for a while...I think) of the Twinkling H2O cards that came out of my last frenzy of play.

I love this bird-in-a-tree stamp from Penny Black. It's a tree. What's not to love? NOTHING. The sentiment is from PTI's Mixed Messages. I highlighted the berries or whatever you want to call them with a Sakura Stardust pen. Hopefully you can see that on the picture. It's just a little extra shimmer.

Can you have too much shimmer?

That was a rhetorical question.

Supplies
stamps: Penny Black, PTI
ink: Palette dark chocolate
paper: PTI aqua (whatever it's called), SU chocolate chip, Arches hot-press watercolor paper
accessories: Twinkling H2Os, Stardust pen

Proportional Matting

Question from Yesterday: DonnaK asked where I buy Twinkling H2Os. I bought mine at Marco's Paper, a brick and mortar store in the Dayton area. But you can find them at the big craft stores (Michael's, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's) and buy with a coupon!

Now on to today's post, which hopefully Blogger will post in a timely fashion....

Today's Tip is one of those that, on the one hand, seems like a no-brainer, but, on the other hand, makes life so much easier!

After getting sick of doing the same math over and over, I made a simple, handwritten index card, which I posted on my bulletin board right over my workspace, with a list of dimensions for cutting stamped panels to matte evenly on a standard 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" card. It lists the sizes for cutting panels in quarter-inch increments. (Those of you who live in countries where "standard" is different can easily adapt this idea for yourselves.)

I typed it up for those of you using American measures. Hopefully, you can save it and print it for your own use.

If I cut a 4 1/4" x 3" stamped, panel, for instance, all I have to do is move up a quarter inch to get the measurements for a 1/8" matte all the way around the stamped panel. For a thinner 1/16" matte (as on yesterday's card), it's easy enough to just add 1/8" to the dimensions of the stamped panel.

I hope this makes sense.

And here is a happy CAS card that utilized this little chart.

Design Discussion: Please note how I rooted the flowers in the open space provided by the sentiment. I just love the way that looks!!!!
Supplies
stamps: Shady Tree Studio
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white, SU brilliant blue
accessories: dimensionals.

Personal News: My son Jack, who has high-functioning autism, was released from private occupational therapy Wednesday! After four years, he's finally functionally appropriate for fine motor and hand-eye coordination! YIPPYYYYY! He continues to receive OT through our school district, but this is a wonderful milestone for him to meet...and one less regular therapy session to cart him to! His developmental pediatrician saw Jack yesterday and is blown away by his progress. Jack truly has blossomed in the past six months. He's even one of the best readers in his regular 2nd grade class! Needless to say, we're on Cloud 9 around here right now, and I just had to share!!!