Vintage Christmas Wishes: Clean and Simple

Today's card was inspired by a scrapbook page on Pinterest that I can't locate. But it gave me the idea to stamp the text across three inchies to create some unity. The inspiration piece had text under the three small squares, but I opted for a long card with the sentiment on the inside.

Here's a close-up so you can see how that text stamp brings everything together.

It's always so fun using an artsy set on a clean-and-simple card. All that white space makes me happy!

Do you ever play around with stamps that aren't your ordinary style?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Vintage Christmas Wishes
ink: Hero Arts soft olive, Archival black
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp old olive
accessories: 1" punch, dimensionals

A Guy's Christmas Card

One of my nephews, who's a grown manly man and diesel engine mechanic with lots of tatoos, complained because I sent him a store-bought card I thought he'd like better than any I'd made. This backfired spectacularly. He said it hurt his feelings not to get a handmade card from his Aunt Susan and clearly I didn't love him.

I hope he feels the love with this manly Christmas card. Note the absence of bling, the presence of a large amount of brown, and manly branches and pine cones.

Because his Aunt Susan loves him very much and never meant to hurt his feelings. 

Sometimes, the biggest, toughest guys are also the most sensitive.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Peaceful Pinecones, Happiest of Holidays
ink: Archival and Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp brown
accessories: none

Getting a Head Start on Birthday Cards for 2018

Y'all. It's nearly the end of 2017. We're five-sixths the way through. I'd like to file a complaint with whoever sets the pace of time because, dang, it's going way too fast.

So I decided to start on birthday cards for 2018. After randomly pulling Fine Feathers from Waltzingmouse from my stash, I made this card for my uncle, who was a biology professor and ornithologist before retiring. He has a fall birthday and recently sent me an email thanking me for acknowledging that he's not dead yet. He's pretty funny and deserves a fine feather card!

The ink pad is Hero Arts ombre autumn, which is sooooo pretty! The diagonal line of the bling and feather adds movement to the very stable horizontal, strong sentiment. The clean design makes my heart go pitter-patter.

I hope it has the same effect on you.

Happy sigh.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey sentiment, Waltzingmouse Fine Feather
ink: Hero Arts ombre autumn, Memento Luxe espresso truffle
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones

Thanks, Maureen!

I received a package yesterday from Maureen F. She donated over 40 amazing cards to Karen's Card Shop! They are all fabulous!

I've packaged them up and will put some out on the rack tomorrow morning. I have no doubt these beauties will sell very quickly.

Thank you, Maureen, for sharing your generosity and amazing card-making talent with my church.

And thanks to Patti, Joan, Lisa, Shannon, Cheryl, Peg, Marcia, Eva, and all the others who have contributed since the shop opened.

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

A Couple of Thank-You Cards and a Question

One of our church members who was going in for surgery bought ALL the thank-you cards in Karen's Card Shop. I went to work trying to restock (as you might have noticed in the past two posts), and these two very simple but sure-to-sell cards are among my favorites.

Both flower stamps are from Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms II, and the sentiments are from a recent Hero Arts set called Thank You Messages, which is extremely useful.

Whenever you find yourself in need of a lot of cards quickly, go super simple!

Now for the question. I find myself rather burned out on my old Christmas stamps and haven't looked at this year's new releases. Are there any companies or sets you'd recommend I consider?

This inquiring mind feels overwhelmed by too much choice.

Thank you in advance!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Beautiful Blooms II, Hero Arts Thank You Messages
ink: various
paper: Papertrey
accessories: scissors, dimensionals, half pearl

A Little Geometry

Having fun with simple, back-to-basics design: a one-layer card with punched flowers, black gems, and a sentiment.

Let us give thanks for the visual triangle...a basic design principle that is awesome! If a design is looking a little off, try arranging three elements in a visual triangle. Don't use a right, equilateral, or isosceles triangles; do use obtuse or acute triangles. Their irregularity is much more interesting.

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

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Gathered Garden
ink: Archival black and vibrant fuchsia
paper: Papertrey white, a random bright pink
accessories: daisy punch, glue pen, black rhinestones

Same Layout + Two Looks = Slump Ended

While poking around on Pinterest, I came across this card by Cristina and knew I could make a couple of thank-you cards for Karen's Card Shop using her fabulous layout. I decided to challenge myself to create two very different looks out of it.

I think I succeeded.

The first version uses warm, cheerful colors and Papertrey's Embellished Elegance, which is a bit whimsical but organic. I also blinged it up. So much fun!

The second version changes the colors to blue and green (my favorite color combination!) and uses Papertrey's Grunge Me. It's so modern and geometric!

Taking an idea/layout/theme and seeing how I can vary it gives me a creative thrill. These two cards came at the end of a long, hard slog of finding my mojo again. I need to remember how much fun this variation-on-some-fabby-inspiration is the next time I find myself in a creative dry spell.

What do you do when you're in a slump? Other than clean your craft space. I did that. For once, it didn't work.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: various dye inks (mostly Archival and Hero Arts)
paper: Papertrey 
accessories: rhinestones, silver metallic marker (Prisma), ruler, mask