Row of Houses

I really enjoy the fact that Hero Arts consistently puts out block stamps that are interesting and easy to use, like this row of houses.

I chose this color scheme with the military in mind. Gray is how the world looks when you're away from family. Yellow is, of course, the color of hope to welcome and be welcomed home. It was super easy to ink up the gray houses, then stamp the yellow house on scrap, cut it out, and pop it up. I lined up the sentiment to start right under the yellow house.

I have a friend who is the head of the spouses' group for a B-1 bomber squadron that  is deployed right now. The stress and anxiety of being a single parent while your spouse is overseas is considerable (believe me, I know!), so I'm sending this card to her. If you know someone in the military, please take time to thank them for their service.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: dimensionals  

Thoughts about Baby Cards

I have some issues with baby-themed stuff. The last time I gave a baby shower (years ago before I realized how creative I could be), I had the hardest time finding store-bought decorations. Everything was so sappily sweet, and pastel without a touch of black to anchor it, and that green! Ohmygosh that horrid, icky, sickly green!!!! There was nothing in party stores that didn't have that ugly green!!!

Sorry. I got a little carried away there.

Most baby stamp sets leave me feeling bleh. Most are too cutesy for me, or outlines that require coloring of some kind, or cartoonish (and, therefore, not for me).  My favorite in the SU catalog in the past 8 years was one for $32 (can't remember its name) and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much for a set when most of my friends are finished having babies.

So when a friend mentioned in her Christmas letter that she's having fifth--happy surprise!--child, I knew I had to make a baby card. I'll send the baby gift with the grid card on this post because, knowing my friend as I do, I think she'll absolutely adore the tidy grid (she's an accountant) and happy colors.

But I actually made a bunch more baby cards, and these were my favorites.

These stamps are from Papertrey's Everyday Classics set, which is an anniversary set not available for sale from Papertrey. But it's easy enough to cobble together this look from other stamps. A simple sentiment and a simple star popped up in a fun, bright color. That's it.

And don't worry. I'm not going to start photographing my cards on dark gray foam core. This was just an experiment. I need something bigger than two sheets of cardstock to photograph more than one card at a time and was trying out different things from my stash.  This looked better than the white matte board base, but not by much. Must keep thinking on this. Any suggestions?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Everyday Classics
ink: Memento
paper: PTI cardstock
accessories: dimensionals, scissors

Another OLW38 Card...This Time, Things Are Fishy

I just had to try my hand at the CAS38 Sketch challenge again. And since so many of you also wanted to see more cards for children, well, this fish set from Hero Arts seemed appropriate!

The images were colored with Prisma colored pencils, with just a hint of shading for added interest. I wanted to put glitter on the card, but it's destined to go to the troops, who don't need to deal with glitter. So I settled for bling. I thought it would be a cool card for a soldier to send to his/her child as an invitation to email them or write them with all they had been doing. A lot of the soldiers do have access to email, and what a treat it would be to get one from your child!

Do you ever wonder what I do with all these cards I make? Well, I sent 175 cards just the other day to a Sue Salsburg, who sends them to the America troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also recommend Operation Write Home to anyone interested in supporting the troops. It's an amazing effort that does amazing things for morale overseas. But please don't use glitter. For obvious reasons, glitter, camoflage, and bright sunlight are not a good combination.


I'm still chuckling over the fact that Karen C and I came up with basically the same idea for our Love Birds cards for this challenge. There are some awesome cards already posted for the challenge. Go check them out on Jennifer's blog and get inspired!

Going Grid Again

If you've been reading Simplicity for a while, you know I love grids. As in irrational, uncontrollable, passionate love. They are just so...tidy.

First up, a blue get well card.

I stamped two of each image (from Hero Arts), punched out 1" squares, and popped the swirls. Arranging these is easier if you use a quilting ruler for spacing. Put them all on the card where they belong, then carefully attach each one (glued first, then popped). The card is 4.25".

And now for the exact same idea but with a totally different, fun, and citrus feel:

This one was made with a variety of stamps from Hero and Papertrey. After I'd made the squares, I thought they would make a fun, gender-neutral baby card. I found out last week that a girlfriend with four children is having a fifth in March. This card is for her baby, whatever he/she may be.

Isn't it annoying when people won't find out the sex of their babies? Oh, they have the right to make whatever choice they want, and I truly understand why people make that choice. But dang, it's annoying.

Anyway, back to the card. I didn't pop any of these because there's quite enough going on without popping.

Oh, joy! I'm feeling so tidy!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts, Papertrey
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensionals, quilting ruler (to help with placement)

OLW38 Let's Get Sketchy!--Edited!

Edited to add: Go check out the other cards for this challenge and you'll see that Karen C. and I think exactly alike!

This week's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge is a a fun one...a sketch that is AWESOME! I had my brand-new Love Birds set from Papertrey out on my desk and thought, WHOA!!! That's perfect!

And it was!

I can't wait to see what everyone else does with it. There are just so many possibilities, so put on your thinking caps and get to stampin'!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink Love Birds
ink: Memento black, SU real red
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: gridded acrylic block to line stuff up

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