Owl Mail

Am I a genius or what?!!?? This card makes me soooo happy all grammar and style rules have flown the coop and been replaced by teenager enthusiasm and cliches.

Why do I love this card? It's clean, it's simple, it's cute, it uses three different stamp sets, and the "obsolete" tool of deco scissors.

Did I mention it's cute?

Yeah, I did!

Simplicity Tip: I punched out the stamped panel with a straight square punch, and THEN trimmed with the deco scissors. This made the cuts straigher, and took less time than drawing a pencil square and cutting/erasing.

Supplies
stamps: SU Forest Friends, PTI Wise Owl and Simple Alphabet
cardstock: PTI white, SU purely pomegranite
ink: purely pomegranite, chocolate chip
accessories: dimensionals, "Stamp" deco scissors, square punch

Snowperson Card Make-Over

Before:




After:


Changes:
I changed the color scheme to a monochromatic blue to create better color balance. The glitter is Stickles Frosted Lace, used on the two hat pom-poms, the star, and the scallops. I popped the star, since it's on white now and I thought it needed to be popped to have more presence.

Verdict:
The blue version is more balanced and harmonious.

What do you think?

Snowpersons in July

I felt a momentary impulse toward political correctness when I typed the title to this post and replaced snowmen with snowpersons. Does anyone else in the world think about these sorts of things?

Anyway, today we're looking at two different snowperson cards made with basically the same layout. One works much better than the other, but I'll be darned if I care because this snowperson stamp from Hero Arts is so wonderfully, perfectly adorable that it could be stamped on my forehead and it would make me happy.

First, the card that works. Isn't it cute? The glittery snow is adhered with a sheet of red tape that I cut to fit on the card. I cut the hills freehand with a craft knife. Getting that piece stuck down in the right place first time was tough.



After I got the snow base and the cutout snowmen attached, I stamped the sentiment and it looked HORRIBLE. No worries...there are no mistakes in stamping, only opportunities for embellishment. Hence the popped panel (took four attempts to get that senmtiment stamped nicely) and couple of rhinestones.

Simplicity Tip: You should know that I hate working with loose glitter. The AR/OCD side of my personality gets highly annoyed with glitter that doesn't stay where I want it, and I've experimented (and spent money on) every known adhesive in an ink pad, bottle, pen, roll, etc. The red tape (in sheets or rolls) holds loose glitter better than any other product I've used. Very little rubs off if you smoosh the glitter into it and thump the excess off firmly. But it's hard to punch and a pain to freehand cut (you CAN stamp on the backing and cut out an image and piece the adhesive onto your image, but I'll not be responsible for the foul language you'll mutter as you do so). The glitter on the two hats is attached with a Quickie Glue Pen, which is the second-best adhesive for glitter I've worked with and the only option for putting a bit of bling on only a part of a stamped image.



Now the card that doesn't quite work. It's just not balanced. That star, made of summer sun cardstock, is too, too powerful for the rest of the card, and the snow, which is just a white cs panel punched with SU's scallop border punch, lacks color to balance it. A great idea, I think, but not on this card after I added that yellow star. To balance this card, I really ought to put some yellow rhinestones on the snow scallops, but as anyone who's experienced snow knows, yellow snow is not socially acceptable. Ewwww. Conclusion: I should have left the star off.

Oh, well, it's still a cute card. Aren't those snowpersons just the cutest?

Supplies
cardstock: PTI white, SU summer sun
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Palette Noir
accessories: Bic Mark-Its, rhinestones, star punch, sheet adhesive, Quickie Glue Pen, dimensionals

Simple Set with Amber Bling

In my effort to use every image stamp in my collection, I've had to stretch myself to use the odd little pieces in the Papertrey sets which I had hitherto avoided. This set of cards uses the little stamps from Everyday Blessings to make borders for the various sentiments in that set. The gemstones are amber colored and look so nice with the Hint of Pesto ink. I used the grid acrylic block from PTI to line everything up for the repeat stamping.

Simplicity Tip: When repeat stamping like this, it's hard to line stuff up so the repeats look even at both ends. Look at the borders of the first two cards to see what I mean: the first is uneven, the second is even on the card and looks better. To do this easily, just cut the card down to fit the stamping AFTER you stamp the border. Don't stamp the sentiment before cutting, as this will throw off the balance of the card. (Ask how I know this....) These cards are various sizes to accommodate the repeats evenly. Of course, you only need this tip if you are AR/OC like me. Otherwise, don't worry about repeat stamping being even. Really, it doesn't matter to normal people.










Supplies

cardstock: PTI white
stamps: PTI Everyday Blessings
ink: Versamagic Hint of Pesto and dark brown
accessories: gemstones

A Happy Heart

Here is a simple little card using a soon-to-be-retired StampinUp set called Wild About You and heart stamp from some other company. Hope you like it!

I will be unplugged for the next five days but want you to know that your comments and support of Simplicity are much appreciated. I'll be back next week with a really cool set of cards I'm so excited to share with you!

Supplies
stamps: Wild about You, unknown heart, sentiment from Hero Arts
ink: Brilliance
paper: PTI white
accessories: silver metallic pen, dimensionals, black pen

Card for a Friend

This layout is classic CAS...and a perfect way to showcase a lovely flower. I stamped this one in palette noir ink, colored it with Bic Mark-It markers (the poor girl's Copics, LOL!), and cut it out. The sentiment was stamped on a scrap I had, and I popped the flower on dimensionals and added the gemstone. Done.

Hope you like it!

Supplies
stamps: PTI Friends 'til the End, Green Thumb
paper: PTI white, aqua mist
ink: Palette Noir
accessories: Bic Mark-Its, dimensionals, gemstone

Father's Day Card

I want it noted that I ACTUALLY USED a piece of Hodgepodge Hardware on this Father's Day card for my wonderful husband. JulieHRR laughed at me in the SCS forum a while back (a l-o-n-g while back, LOL!) when I stated I would eventually use my Hodgepodge and wasn't really hoarding it. I think this is proof I was right.

Sort of.

Supplies
stamps: PTI Pond Life
cardstock: PTI natural; SU artichoke, night of navy
ink: SU artichoke, night of navy, chocolate chip, close to cocoa
accessories: Hodgepodge Hardware, ribbon