The Neon Trend

The whole neon trend has been around for a while, and here I am, bein' all trendy.

Notice that there are two main images, each representing a "friend", and I created a visual triangle with the bling, even though there are four of them. Also note that the green asterisk is on top but the green bling is on the bottom near the sentiment. That ol' switcheroo was on purpose, and I rather like it.

This card makes me think of the 70's and elementary school and my embroidered bell-bottom jeans.

Darn it. Now I feel old.

So much for trendy. Unless old is the new young. That's a nice little delusion to live with, don't you think?

Yes, I'm tired and going to bed. Good night.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Hero Arts neon cubes
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: rhinestones, Sharpies to color the rhinestones, corner rounder

This, This, This, This, That, and the Other (Oxford Comma Included)

1. For any of you having problems loading photos in Blogger, try switching from Compose mode to HTML mode for editing. The photos should upload fine in HTML. My issues are now resolved, though, and I can upload in Compose mode, so this seems like a temporary glitch. Thanks again to Carol for the tip.

2. Reader jkbrochad asked an interesting question on my last post here. Here's what she said:

"I am thinking of selling some of my cards. Like you, I LOVE clean. I LOVE simple. My friend is selling hers for $3 a card and can't keep up with demand. She does lots of layers. Lots of embellishments. AND bling! I am wondering if I should my cards for less than that because they are less work. What do you think? (We are selling our cards side by side in the same venue)"

 

Several other readers encouraged her not to undervalue her cards, and I agree. Upscale card stores (Papyrus, Crane) sell super-CAS cards at a premium, so why shouldn't we? Good design is good design. I've always believed that using high-quality materials and doing CAS perfectly results in a product that is every bit as valuable as a highly-embellished card. Not all buyers will see it that way, but a lot of them will, and if anyone gives you attitude, give them my email address. I'll educate them.

 

3. For the record, I am extremely committed to the clean-and-simple style of card-making and cannot envision a day when that will change. I preferred that style for years before I even thought about making my own cards. White space has always made my heart happy.

 

I stopped apologizing a long time ago for not making cards that take days to create...for not waiting for modeling paste to dry or twirling paper for quilling techniques or hammering flowers to print on paper. All those techniques can yield beautiful results, and I profoundly admire the crafters and artists who do them well.

But they don't make me happy. Believe me. I tried.

 

Taste is taste. It's subjective, highly variable, and incredibly diverse. Never, ever apologize for loving what you love. If you are like Tanis and dozens of other readers of this very simple blog and want to layer and embellish up a storm, go for it with gusto! If you want to make simple cards as well and perfectly as you can, just do it. If you want to make all sorts of different styles, do it all.

 

And if you ever feel like sending me a card, send me something you loved making, something that  made you giggle like a school-girl with glee, whatever your style. I will love it and appreciate it, too. Because this hobby is just about the best thing since cave painting, and I think we all ought to support and encourage and celebrate each other no matter our differences of taste or skill level.

And that's all I have to say about that.

4. I'll be posting a couple of boxes of stamps for sale on Wednesday.

5. The OLW challenge this week is on Ardyth's blog. It's awesome!!!

  

6. Here's your periodic reminder about the Use-Your-Stamps Challenge! Today's cards all use stamps from an old Hero Arts set in the simplest of ways.

 

Water drops on leaf

 Orange You Happy?

Bling for Bling's Sake

 

 

I varied the last one just because I could. No real reason to do so. I love these leaf/tree images and the wood-block print feel of them. Blinged up, they make me smile.

I hope you're smiling, too!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: bling, corner rounder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clean and Simple Epitomized

This card represents everything I love about clean-and-simple style.

Here's what I love about it:

1. Fresh, bright colors of lime and aqua...pure yummy
2. A single tiny bling
3. Punctuation used as decoration...asterisk flowers ROCK!
4. Clean and very readable combo of classic serif and sans serif fonts
5. All that glorious white space
6. The fact that it takes so many words to describe what I love when the art itself is so very, very un-wordy

Never, ever underestimate the power of this very basic, very clean, very easy layout. And never, ever assume that because it's easy, it's not worth your effort.

Clean done right is always worth your effort!

Assuming, of course, you like it. If you prefer complexity, layer and embellish to your heart's content. The world is big enough to handle all our styles.

But this is mine.

Clean and simple.

Be still, my heart!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts asterisk (discontinued), Papertrey Faux Ribbon (sentiment)
ink: VersaMagic
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestone

Inspired by my Mother-in-Law

Many thanks to Carol Cel who pointed me in the right direction to work around the problem of uploading photos and allowing me to finish this post! Thanks so much, Carol!

When we met my husband's family in Minnesota last week, my mother-in-law gave me this make-up bag she made:

Isn't it too pretty to use?!?! I just love the colors and blend of prints and the color blocking and really everything about it. Quilting is an art form I simply have no ability or desire to do (sewing machines make me break out in hives), but I just love the results of other people's work!

And yes, I did use it but kept it nice and safe.

Anyway, when I got home, I decided to try to make a card inspired by my MIL's beautiful work.

These are the supplies I gathered:

And here's the final card:

You'll note that in the finished card, some of the items gathered for the project don't show up, such as the salmon card and the musical background. I added PTI's Harvest Berries, too. It's hard to see the tone-on-tone of the poppy-red block, but I used the small-scale branch from Harvest Berries on it.

The Process: Basically, I played around stamping strips of various backgrounds on various card stock, cut them out, and played with arranging them in a row. This involved lots of tweaking of size of the blocks to fit the scale of the card (standard 4.25"x5.5"). The card took a LOT longer to make than I usually take...about an hour and a half. But I was in the zone and barely noticed the passage of time.

Confession: After making this card, which is a clearly bit different from my usual style, I made about a dozen different cards that are all one layer, on white card, and just about as simple and quick as simple and quick can be. While it is fun and creatively invigorating to play around with other styles and techniques, it's also extremely comforting to return to being "youself." So expect a super-CAS series of post in the days to come!

Supplies
stamps: a lot of different ones!
ink: VersaColor, VersaMagic
paper: PTI various colors
accessories: glue, quilting ruler, craft knife

Problems with Blogger, Anyone?

I'm having trouble uploading photos from my computer to Blogger, which is frustrating because I'm half-way through a really cool inspiration post...and I can't get the photos uploaded!!! Grr. I've restarted my computer twice, and no joy.

Anyone else having a problem with this?

OLW150 Life's a Beach

Second post of the day. Please scroll down for the first post.


Karen's got the OLW this week, and it's a fun one. Life's a Beach!!!! Make a one-layer card that is beach-inspired.

Here are a couple of cards that I actually colored with Copics.

It's hard to tell, but there's a blush of pink on both shells.

Now click on over to the OLW150 Challenge and play along!!!!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (discontinued)
ink: Memento tuxedo black
paper: GinaK Deluxe  white
accessories: Copic markers

Moving on...Sort of

Well, today's post uses a background stamp, but it's punched out, which I've already covered in a Using Background Stamps post, so let's move on to discussing how cool these colors are.

Aquatic splash, turquoise gem, and ocean depth are colors from VersaMagic, a line of chalk inks. Love, love, love them! Especially in the dew drop size pads. The background stamp is from Hero Arts (discontinued, of course). It's small, about 2" x 2.5", so punching these 7/8" circles out of them was easy.

The soothing aquatic colors all lined up in a tidy row of circles fit the sentiment, but the swirls give a sense of movement that is a bit chaotic, acknowledging that "it will be okay" but "right now is sort of crazy."

This card is for any of my readers who feel like things are chaotic right now.

It will be okay.

It just will.


supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (background), Clearly Besotted (sentiment)
ink: VersaMagic
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: 7/8" circle punch, dimensionals