Spectrum Pads and Bling: A Match Made in Heaven

Unless you're new to Simplicity, you probably know I love the Kaleidacolor spectrum ink pads almost as much as I love bling. Today's cards allow me to use both with joyful abandon.

Well...as much "joyful abandon" as one can express while still leaving tons of glorious white space. But you know what I mean.

To match the bling with so many different ink colors was easy. I just used clear rhinestones and colored them with Sharpie and Bic markers. You can blend the markers on the rhinestones to get close to exact matches. Just keep adding color until you get there.

I keep a sheet of clear rhinestones for just this purpose. Occasionally, I'll color bling and then decide not to use it. No worries. I'll use them all eventually. But you can see the smaller rhinestones on this sheet are colored to match the inks on the card. I transfer the bling to the card using a craft knife for exact placement.

So don't fret if you don't have the right color of rhinestone for your project. Just pull out those nice, inexpensive Sharpie and Bic markers and color away!

Footnote: Copics work well for this, too, but most of my Copics are light shades to match the darker, brighter Sharpies and Bics--the cheap stamper's alternative to buying dozens of expensive Copics. Light shades don't show up on the rhinestones well at all. I generally find that the dark markers give the best colors.

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted, I think (will double check when I get home from vacation)
ink: Kaleidacolor, Memento black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, assorted Bic and Sharpie markers

Life Is Good

Life is good.

The surf boards are stamped in Hero Arts inks, and the sentiment is stamped in Memento Luxe tuxedo black for extra density of color. Given the opacity of the pigment ink, Memento Luxe holds up much better than regular Memento ink when stamped over a darker or brighter dye ink, as here it's stamped over Hero Arts Ocean.

I added the two sequins to draw the eye to the sentiment. Before I added the sequins, my eye stopped at the ocean-colored board. The sequins unify the whole design better and draw the eye to the sentiment.

Sometimes, embellishments, like life, are good.

Sometimes, simple is good.

I hope this post finds your life good.

Supplies
stamps: Echo Park Paper
ink: Memento Luxe, Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: sequins

Hello, Sunshine

FYI--Regarding yesterday's post about conditioning stamps...I was very satisfied with the MFT stamps. Only the bold font images needed a little light rubbing with an eraser, just as one would expect. The Echo Park Paper stamps were the ones that gave me trouble, and once I broke the code on them and went the extra mile with cleaner and rubbing, they work just fine, and I really like the images.  I will report the problem with them to Echo Park. Thanks for all your input!

We're enjoying lovely weather in northern Minnesota...sunny and highs in the 70s. The water is a tad chilly for this southern wimp, but the kids have enjoyed it.

Obviously, we're not in a tropical paradise, but I love today's card with its stylized scene of just that.

The beach and water were made using an old, discontinued Hero Arts stamp from a set of fun shapes. I inked part of the stamp in brown and part in blue to create the idea of a beach, using the bigger side for sand because that big umbrella would have looked dorky sticking up out of that little hump. I like how this card layout balanced both weight and color.

I don't like the missing comma in the sentiment. Alas!

Supplies
stamps: Echo Park Paper, Gina K (sentiment), Hero Arts (shadow)
ink: Memento, Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: none

Extreme Clear-Stamp Conditioning...Ick

ETA...The My Favorite Things set worked just fine with a little normal conditioning with an eraser for the bolder fonts, and the lighter lines work fine without any conditioning at all. I want to be clear that I'm very satisfied with them.

The Echo Park stamps work great after I went the extra mile conditioning them, and both sets are grand additions to my hoard collection.

Recently, I purchased a couple of clear stamp sets at a brick-and-mortar scrapbooking store. Both were new companies for me...Echo Park Paper and My Favorite Things.

The Echo Park Paper set definitely required conditioning. The first time I inked one of the stamps, it didn't take ink well. This isn't unusual, as the manufacturing process can leave a residue on clear stamps that can be removed easily with an eraser and quick cleaning with a damp washcloth to remove all the eraser nubbins.

Normally, this doesn't bother me much. I whipped out my white eraser and went to work, but the results were unlike any I'd experienced before. The eraser simply smeared the residue around in a very sticky mess instead of removing it.

I tried wiping this on a wet washcloth, and all that accomplished was to smear the sticky mess around.

Finally, I sprayed Ultimate Stamp Cleaner directly on the stamp to thoroughly wet it, let it sit a bit, and wiped it off with a clean, damp washcloth. The results were satisfactory.

Every stamp in the set required this treatment to get clean, and by the end I'd used about a quarter of my bottle of stamp cleaner. The MFT set didn't cause this much of a problem, and it left me wondering, "Has anyone else has experienced this level of icky sticky mess when conditioning stamps?" I really like the set...it's very summery and fun, and I've made some cute cards with it now that it's all clean. But I wonder what would cause such a problem. Any ideas?

And here's a card that pretty much sums up my Tuesday on Lake Vermilion. Or it would sum up the day if the surf board were a kayak. Not much surf here in Minnesota.

Hope you're having a beautiful day, too.

Supplies
stamps: Echo Park Paper
ink: Memento, Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestones, dimensionals, scissors

Washi Tape: Part 4

Parts 1-3 in this series have focused on using washi tape on the card base. Today's cards raise the washi tape to a, ahem, higher level.

These two washi rolls are adorable together...the thin row of hearts over the wider pink-and-red "LOVE" makes a wonderful border. The card, however, lacked a little something, so I added a couple of red heart-shaped rhinestones. Perfect!

Stars and stripes--even if they aren't horizontal--combine for a perfect Operation Write Home card.

Coordinating tapes don't have to be set side-by-side. At right angles works just as well. The solid green tape, however, seemed a bit blah with the stripes, so I added the bling. Of course.

And finally, what if you have a great sentiment that just one washi tape can accent perfectly. No need to go overboard, right? Just be simple.

I love simple.

Simple is good.

Happy washi-ing!

(If you want to know any of these supplies, I'll be happy to share them with you when I get home from vacation. Just let me know.)

A Break for Father's Day Cards and First-World Whining

I am on vacation in the wilds of northern Minnesota (really, a resort on Lake Vermilion...beautiful cabin, loons floating on the water, eagles flying overhead...a rough life), and after three days, I finally have internet access. (Yes, I'd scheduled the past two posts ahead of time.) Anyway, the internet here is as slow as molasses in winter, but it's internet access. I'm not sure how trustworthy this service is. The past two days rained, and apparently that killed the Wi-Fi. Six humans trapped in a cabin without Wi-Fi or cell phone service.

The horror. The horror.

Kurtz had NO IDEA WHAT SUFFERING WAS!

Whatever. (Name that literary reference!)

I'm going to (hopefully, God willing and the creek don't rise) post my final entry in the washi tape series tomorrow, but for now, I want to talk about Father's Day, because I couldn't yesterday, and what a bummer that was.

I have mixed feelings about Father's Day, as do all children of fathers who were not exactly Ward Cleaver. My usual response to the day is to focus on those men who were LIKE fathers for me, who were and are wonderful, positive, loving, supportive men. My uncle Darius, my grandfather D.L., my father-in-law Roger...and a variety of male teachers who went above and beyond in the setting-an-example-of-good-men department.

On Father's Day, I am incredibly thankful for these men in my life, but mostly, I'm thankful for my husband, the father of my own children, who are more important to me than myself. He's pretty awesome in the dad department (and no slouch in the husband department, either). So I made him a Father's Day card inspired by the view off our back deck because it's his happiest place in the wonderful home he's provided for us.

The design focuses on the tree with giant leaves in two shades of green and a single red bird (evocative of our cardinal Louis, who is stupid beyond the usual bird brain and constantly tries to head-butt his way through our windows). 

And while we're on the topic of Father's Day cards, here's the one I made for my husband to send to his father, who is a fan of petroglyphs and all things southwestern.

And here's a close-up of the marvelous shimmer of the Brilliance rust ink. I outlined the rectangles with copper metallic marker since without it they looked a little blah. The results are fabulous, I think.

I hope you had a lovely Father's Day. For those of you who have great fathers still alive, know you are blessed. For those of you who have great fathers who have passed on, know that I prayed for you on Father's Day. And for those whose fathers are not or were not Ward Cleaver, know that you are not alone and it's all going to be okay.

Supplies for Tree Card
stamps:  Papertrey
ink: Memento and Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: green grosgrain ribbon, leather circle punch

Supplies for Southwest Card
stamps: Stampabilities, PSX, Hero Arts
ink: Brilliance, Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: dimensionals, copper metallic pen, straight metal ruler

Washi Tape: Part 3

Yesterday's washi card showed how the tape can be used to create a tidy border, and today's cards show how it can be used to ground a design element...in these cases, a punched label.

The strip of tape connects the card base and the tag in a colorful, interesting way, although I do love the purist white-on-white look myself.

Note that you could always use a piece of designer paper to achieve the same effect.

In other news...

Today--Flag Day--is our 28th wedding anniversary. I feel like I'm 32 years old, which means I married George when I was four. That sounds about right. Time is very relative, isn't it?

Many thanks to Patti M., who sent us a gorgeous anniversary card that I'll share soon.

We're on vacation now in northern Minnesota...the land of a thousand lakes...with George's sister and her husband. In July, we're joining my sister and her family for their "stay"-cation in Maryland. Then, in August, I'm going to Pittsburg by myself for Stephen Ministry Leadership Training. Finally, the weekend after Labor Day, George and I are going to Madison for Ironman Wisconsin, again joining up with his sister and her husband. The guys will do the race. Angela and I will drink mimosas for breakfast and drink wine with dinner while they sweat and suffer their way through 140.6 miles. Good times.

It's going to be a busy summer! I'd love to hear where you are going for your vacation. Please share!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments
ink: VersaColor
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: washi tape, rhinestones, EK Success label punch, dimensionals