OLW63: We're Back, Baby!

This week's OLW is to make a one-layer baby card...and there's a give-away, too! Check out Jennifer's blog post here for details of the A Muse product pile that she and Krystie Lee are giving away to a random particpant in the OLW63 challenge. Oh, my.

Now, I wish I had some appropriate A Muse stamps for this challenge, but mine are all ocean/beach/dude stamps, a deficit I will be correcting on my next order.

Instead, I decided to get back to my roots in stamping with a very old stamp and a little heat embossing. This congratulations stamp is from PSX (which sadly went out of business years ago). It's also one of my earliest stamp purchases. I used ColorBox pigment inks and PSX silver pearl embossing powder (which joined my stash before 2003...that stuff lasts forever!).

The boy card was stamped in Royal Blue ink. The silver pearl embossing powder softened the blue to a lovely shade appropriate for a baby card.

I tried the silver pearl over a dark red, but that didn't give me the soft pink I wanted, so I used a pink ink, which came out lighter once embossed.

Photographing the EP up close proved difficult, but you can get some idea from this shot how the pearly sheen of the embossing looks. Look at the mid-ground of the photo for the most accurate effect.

I hope you'll play along with the OLW63! Click on over to Jennifer's blog for details and to link to your entry!
supplies
stamps: PSX
ink: ColorBox
paper: PTI white
accessories: Silver pearl embossing powder (PSX), heat gun, Corner Chomper

Just a Note Variations on a Set: The Love Series

My new resolution is to use every set I own in four different layouts, so I pulled out Just a Note from Hero Arts for some fun office-supply themed cards. And then I proceeded to make this series of Love Notes, all using one layout. Please also note the use of 2.5 sheets of pretty in pink cardstock. GO, ME!

Whimsical Love

Elegant Love

Sweet, Yet Vaguely Obessive-Compulsive,  Love

Swirly Love

Directional Love

All the cards are top-fold, except the last. The arrow sort of required the card to open in the direction the arrow pointed, now, didn't it?

Which one is your favorite? I think mine is Swirly Love.

I didn't keep track of all the random hearts and sentiments I used. If you HAVE to know what one of them is, I'll try and figure it out. The notebook paper, however, is from the Just a Note set. I used a 1/8" circle punch to punch the holes, and popped each note on dimensionals.

Anyway, I have three more cards with this set to show you on Thursday. Tomorrow is, of course, One-Layer Wednesday. Hope you had a chance to play with Jennifer's OLW challenge last week!

A Friendship Give-Away: Paying It Forward

First of all, I want to thank Beth for naming me the Featured Stamper this week over at Splitcoast. Yippy!!!! I feel so honored and humbled and blown away by all the cards in the FS gallery!

Second, as I mentioned last week, kind reader Marty sent me a Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper, which is a super-fantabulous contraption that rounds corners with 1/4" and 1/2" diameters. She also sent me the sentiment about friendship below.

I paired it with an envelope stamp from Just a Note, a clear set from Hero Arts, and a fun heart-shaped rhinestone I picked up at Michael's. And of course I chomped the corners using the 1/4" side. I placed the envelope at the end of the quotation so that the quotation would remain the focal point, with the envelope as an accent.

Now, for Christmas I bought myself a 1/4" Round-It-All, mainly to round corners on book covers made with mat board. The Crop-A-Dile renders my Round-It-All redundant, so I'd like to give the Round-It-All away as "a little mulch" for our friendship here on Simplicity.

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me A) how cute my card is, and B) an example of something you have done to provide mulch for one of your friendships.

Comments will close at 9:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, May 4. This drawing is open to everyone, regardless of country.

OLW49 New Rubber and Pink and Green

Jennifer's OLW this week is to use a stamp that's not seen ink AND the colors pink and green. Well, this wonderful little church stamp from A Muse had never seen ink, and you might not believe it, but the church has pink (pretty in pink tinted windows) and green (mellow moss door and sentiment) on it, as well as sahara sand for the stones. It's colored with an aqua painter and SU classic inks on PTI white cardstock.

I envisioned it as a baptism card for a baby girl. Or a wedding card. Seems like it would work for either occasion.

I may not be done with this challenge yet. Still have four more uninked rubber stamps from A Muse (ordered from their online store clearance and got them for $2 a piece! go, me!).

Supplies
stamps: A Muse chapel, Papertrey Sign Language sentiment
ink: Palette noir; SU mellow moss, pretty in pink, sahara sand
paper: Papertrey
accessories: aqua painter, scallop scissors to round the corners

Caribbean Birthday

FYI:

CAS = Clean and Simple
OLW = One-Layer Wednesday Challenge
OLC = One-Layer Card
PTI = Papertrey Ink (an awesome stamp company)
SU = StampinUp (another awesome stamp company)

I hope this clarifies some confusion as I occasionally forget to explain my shorthand.

And now on to today's card. I wanted to use an older, neglected stamp, and found this Stampabilities medallion that I've had for centuries. You've seen this layout before from me (and no doubt elsewhere since it's not original to me), but it's one of my favorites.

How-To Tips: Stamp the medallions on scrap paper and cut them out with a clear quilt ruler and craft knife. This is MUCH easier than trying to stamp on small squares with a wood-mounted rubber stamp...and much neater than trying to cut them out by hand. To place them on the card, arrange them where you want them and then carefully lift them, one at a time, and glue them into place. I think these are spaced a little too far apart, but it doesn't bother me enough to remake the card. I'm just happy to use an old stamp and the utterly fabulous Cool Caribbean.

Many thanks to my friend Patti for sending me the re-inker that made this card possible!

Supplies
stamps: Stampabilities, Papertrey
ink: Cool Caribbean (SU), Memento black
paper: Cool Caribbean, white
accessories: black pearls

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

Inscribed

I decided before my new Papertrey set arrives I need to clear out the new stamp basket. In it was this sentiment stamp I picked up on sale at Hobby Lobby. I loved the message but wasn't sure what image to pair it with.

Then I remembered this pen from Letters to Friends, an old StampinUp vintage set that I simply can't part with, even if it's vintage. You see, I used to collect fountain pens and still use them occasionally when I think to put ink in them.

So I settled on this very simple layout using softer colors for the pen and crisp black for the sentiment.

We are each of us inscribed on the palm of his hand. Which is rather a comforting thought, don't you think?

Supplies
stamps: Stampabilities, StampinUp
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: stamp postitioner

OLW33 Home Decor

This week's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge is Home Decor! if  you have a stamp of furniture or other home decor elements (picture frames, vases, etc.) use it, or, if you don't have such a stamp, use an element of your actual home decor as inspiration (in that case please take a picture of the inspiration piece as well).

I got carried away with color variations (love those Memento inks!), but all four of these are basically the same card. I just can't pick a favorite, so I'm showing them all!

These cards all use the A Muse large oval for the table top, a Hero Arts lamp from the Decorative Lamp set, and a sentiment from Papertrey's Round and Round Anniversary set. Oh, and a single small rhinestone. Just because.

Inking the lamp with two colors was easy with the Memento Dew Drop ink pads. It's pretty easy to control the ink placement with those little darlings!

OLW33 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single piece of cardstock folded in half.

2. If you have one, use a home decor stamp, such as a piece of furniture, vase, or light fixture. If you don't have such a stamp, go shopping (you have my permission!) OR use a piece of your own home decor to inspire your card. If you use an inspiration piece, please include a photo of it on your blog post. Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3. Upload your card somewhere online and link to it using the OLW33 InLinkz button on the sidebar of Simplicity.

4. The most important rule of all: HAVE FUN!

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

Photography by Lateblossom

Disclaimer: I am not a photographer. At least not in the sense that my husband is a photographer...he's good and uses a Nikon D-90 SLR and keeps it set on manual and knows what all those knobs and symbols and settings actually mean. I don't use Photoshop, I don't have a light tent, and my camera is a digital point-and-shoot. But I think my photos look good enough for government work, so if you're interested, here's how I do it.

What I Have:

1. Nikon Cool-Pix 10.0 Megapixels, 5X optical zoom

2. Table-top Ott Light, which gives full-spectrum light for (mostly) true colors

3. Two pieces of cardstock in a color to compliment the card being photographed

4. Picasa 3 photo-editing software, downloaded for free HERE


What I Do:

1. Select cardstock to match the card I'm photographing.

2. Set up the cardstock, Ott light, and card as shown in this photograph:

This is what a low-budget set looks like.

3. Make sure the camera is set to Macro (the Tulip icon). This setting allows you to take close-up pictures that are much clearer than if you leave the camera on the default setting. Also, make sure the flash is suppressed (the icon of the slash through the lightning bolt). The flash creates harsh shadows that are hard to edit out, and the Ott light gives plenty of light when aimed at the card as shown.

4. Snap the photo. I rarely zoom all the way into the card. Here's the unedited photo for this card.

5. Download the photo to your computer and open it in Picasa to the Edit function.

6. First, crop your photo so there's a pleasing margin around it. Cropping is the first option under the "Basic Fixes" tab to the left of the photo.

7. Then, click on the "Auto Contrast" function (also under the "Basic Fixes" tab). About half the time, this will give you fine results with no further tinkering. The other half of the time, you'll need to undo the "Auto Contrast" because it will make the card look over-exposed or too dark. If that's the case, click the "Undo Auto Contrast" button and then click the "Tuning" tab.

8. Under "Tuning," you can slide bars for fill light, high lights, shadows, and color temperature. I just dink around with each until the photo looks bright and the colors are as accurate to real life as I can make them.

9. Once everything is as good as it's going to get, I export the photo to a folder I titled Resized Photos. (To Export, just click the Export button under the photo.) When you use the Export function in Picasa, a box called Export to Folder pops up that allows you to choose the folder to export to and gives you the option of resizing. I size mine to 640 pixels, which seems to give good clarity on the blog without being so big that it takes forever to upload. The Export to Folder box also has a watermark option. This is NOT a fancy watermark function. I just add a simple "copyright Susan Raihala" line. (Watermarks are a whole 'nuther kettle of fish!)

10. Click "export" and your photo is ready to upload to your blog or to SCS or to wherever in the World Wide Web you want to upload it. Here's the final result:

This card, which I LOVE!, was embossed with gold EP on cold-press watercolor paper and painted using Douglas Fir Twinkling H2Os. The stamp, by Rubber Stampede (c 2003), is lovely embossed and left alone, but the colors and shimmer of the Twinkling H2Os really make it festive.

I hope this tutorial helps those of you struggling to get decent photos. For those who want outstanding photos (and not just of cards), I encourage you to study Pioneer Woman's photography blog. That woman has the magic touch for Photoshop, plus you get to see her photos of ranch life. It's enough to make this city slicker want to run away from home and become a cowgirl.

OLW24 Hosted by Jennifer Styles!

Jennifer Styles is hosting the OLW this week, and I took a few minutes to play along. Literally just a few minutes, because for once, a card popped into my head and all I had to do was make it. The challenge is to make a winter holiday card without using a white, cream, red, or green base.

I confess I had to make this card twice, because my first choice of ink colors didn't quite work with the blush blossom cardstock. Is your blush blossom ink more orange than blush? Well, mine is. So I tried again with the VersaColor cinnamon and old rose, and BINGO!

Design Discussion: These stamps are from Art Impressions. I picked them up years ago for 90% off at a scrapbook store going-out-of-business sale. I've tried to make things with them a few times, but nothing really worked like I wanted it to. This time, it came together so easily! One layer, visual triangle of snowflakes (which I had to use a positioner for because the flake is crooked on the wood block and it bothered me), monochromatic color scheme, bling: these all worked for me!

Note: This also works for the Hope You Can Cling To challenge at SCS. Many thanks to Lydia for telling me about it!

Musical Christmas

Wow, I'm taking a trip down memory lane with this card. The Merry Christmas border stamp is one of my very early stamp purchases at Hobby Lobby. The OLW border stamp challenge got me looking at all my border stamps...even the really old ones! Can't think of a single thing to do with this stamp that's one layer, but two layers sure are pretty!



Supplies
stamp: Stampabilities (copyright 2003, HR1012, We Wish You a Merry Christmas)
ink: Palette noir
paper: SU real red, PTI white
accessories: ribbon, glue dots, Bow Easy, dimensionals

Trying a Trend

I had to try the whole doily trend for myself, just because I happened to be on the cake decorating aisle at Michael's and saw--SURPRISE--little doilies. They seemed like a good idea at the time.


This card doesn't really scream LateBlossom style, but I like it anyway. It uses an old PSX thank you stamp and some of my considerable stash of light blue pearls that have languished for too long. I do think the sentiment would look better if it were stamped in navy or dark gray rather than black, though. The black seems a tad stark.

How-To Tips: I used a circle of white cardstock to give some support under the center of the doily, which is really quite flimsy. Since I didn't glue down the lacy edges of the doily, it sort of curls off the card...an effect that I really like. The ribbon helps anchor the doily on the card; without it, the doily seemed sort of floaty. The card is 5" square, which fits into some standard square envies I picked up at Marco's.

It's more than one layer, so not appropriate for an OLW challenge, but I challenge you to look for opportunities to try trendy things outside your comfort zone whenever you can, especially when it doesn't cost much to do so. I'm not going to be slapping a doily on any ol' thing in the future, but it certainly was fun to play with them!

Supplies
stamps: PSX
ink: black
paper: SU bashful blue, white
accessories: small doily, light blue half-pearls, circle cutter, ribbon

Giddy, I Tell Ya!

About three years ago, I bought a set of photopolymer stamps at my LSS by October Afternoon called Love Notes. I intended the set for scrapbook pages and stored it with my small collection of stamps that I really only thought I'd use on pages, not cards. Fact is, I can't remember ever using this set before.

Well, yesterday, I pulled out that sadly neglected set and made this:


I'm GIDDY! And just look at that colored card base. Go, me!!!!!!

Design Discussion: White space doesn't have to be white. All that empty blue space is really white space. Really.

Supplies
stamps: October Afternoon
ink: Memories soft stone, SU real red
paper: SU bashful blue, PTI white
accessories: dimensionals, small hole punch

CAS39 Sketch Challenge

I FINALLY got to make a card for the CAS39 Sketch Challenge. Took all week...it's been a weird one. Really weird.

This card is super simple and fun, with Green Galore instead of the usual Christmas green. I simply don't like Glorious Green and usually substitute Garden Green for Glorious. Green Galore, however, makes me happier, especially with Real Red.

Penny Black's holly is so fun, and the ticket punch gives subtle (or perhaps not so subtle!) reinforcement of the signature holly shape.

Hope you like it!

Supplies
stamps: Penny Black, PTI Signature Christmas
ink: real red, Palette Noir, Bic Mark-It markers
paper: PTI white, SU green galore
accessories: ticket punch, ribbon, dimensionals, red gemstones