Striking Color Combinations

With clean-and-simple design, striking color combinations are often the key design element that helps distinguish a basic, common design and make it more interesting. Let's face it: there are not a lot of ways to pleasingly organize images on a CAS card. By using exciting or unexpected color combinations, a card maker can keep things simple...yet interesting as well.

Such is the case with today's card, which combines a light pink (lighter than the photo indicates), dark red, and dark gray. It's a fun combination to use on a snowflake card!

Did you know that there is such a thing as pink snow, red snow, or blood snow? The coloring is caused by algae growth. Weird, eh?

I prefer thinking these pink and red flakes are just whimsical!

The snowflakes are arranged in a triangle, which is emphasized by the addition of bling in three sizes. This card was originally a standard 4.25" x 5.5" size, but it looked odd, so I trimmed it down to 4.25" square. The asymmetry of the design looks lovely on a square card.

Every winter, I find myself needing cards that aren't holiday cards, so I decided to make a few using the Hero Arts set Winter Wishes (and an additional small snowflake from Hero Arts CL469). What a nice surprise for someone who's not expecting a card!

Do you make seasonal cards that are unrelated to holidays? Why or why not?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento Luxe angel pink, rhubarb stalk, London fog
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones

A Dog and More Birthday Cards

I've already shared the following on Facebook and my Questioning blog, but I wanted to share it here because it makes me smile. Every. Single. Time.

My husband did RAIN--the Ride Across Indiana--on Saturday, so he was gone Friday night. When I went to sleep, Daisy was curled up at the foot of the bed, but when I woke up, I felt a paw pushing on my shoulder. When I rolled over, I saw this:

"Oh, hi."

This dog leads a very rough life. Don't you feel sorry for her? Sure you do.


Anywho, I must concede defeat in yesterday's post. Most of you preferred the second card to the first, and as I stared at them, I realized that my photo angle must have changed how I perceived the second card (I said it looked squished). The AR/OC in me likes the first card because of the centered sentiment, but the designer understands the sweet spot is pretty powerful.

Now, onto today's cards.

For today's cards, I simply continued the idea of yesterday's cards, but used different sentiments and images in the fabulous It's Your Birthday set from Clearly Besotted.

I really like the balloon card, but the candle card...not so much. I think the strong verticals of the font look way more better with the curvy lines of the balloon.

Way more better. That's what my grandmother used to say. She also used to say, "It don't make me no never mind." That means, "It doesn't matter to me." I love Southernisms.

And now, to bed.

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted
ink: Memento Luxe, VersaMagic
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: nary a one

Updates and Birthday Cards

1. Several of you have asked for updates on Jonah. He will be having two minor surgeries in the near future, one to remove his port and the other to remove the birthmark over his left eye. His mother Molly posted this on Facebook on Friday:

"Jonah had his monthly follow-up visit today. There are no concerns and everything is on-target for his surgeries next week.

"The oncologist is pleased with Jonah's progress. Jonah has gained a full pound since his last visit a month ago and he is making steady improvement in his walk & balance.

"There was a bit of rough going with the finger-stick to get Jonah's labs. We did some DEEP breathing and got it done. We all agreed that NO ONE likes to be "pinched" in the finger for... labs and that it's okay not to like it...and that it still must be done before we can go home; and that's kind of rotten. When it was all over, the first thing Jonah told the oncologist as he was walking in the room was, 'Well, it was a little rough in here....'

"From here on out, our visits will be every 3 months as a follow-on to Jonah's scans. We'll keep this schedule for the next 3 years. Jonah's first set of scans (Chest X-ray and Ultrasound) is in August.
But...first things first: the surgery to remove his port. Jonah is SO excited! He told the nurse, doctor and tech all about his exciting news: 'Next week, I'm getting my port out and once it's out I'm going to have a party to celebrate! You are all invited....'

"So happy for you, Peanut! So happy."

She also posted this picture of him recently.

Many thanks to all of you who sent cards and packages for Jonah and his family. He really enjoyed all the wonderful cards, and y'all sent so much that he had a pretty steady stream, opening a few a day in keeping with his 4/5-year-old attention span. I have the best readers in the world! On behalf of Molly, Ben, and Jonah, thank you all so much!!!

2. It's so cool that many of you have started following Simplicity on either Bloglovin' or Facebook! If you get a chance, let me know if/when you start receiving your email subscriptions again.

3. I recently placed a rather largish order at Clearly Besotted, a stamp company in the UK that designs stamps just for my style. One set, It's Your Birthday, beckoned, and I HAD to use all the image stamps in it so it could join the other stamps in my collection. I do so hate to leave new stamps languishing in their sad, lonely little basket on my desk.

Here are the first couple of cards I made with it!

I love, love, love that Happy Birthday sentiment. It's such a great font combination, and stamping it in Memento Luxe tuxedo black gives it such a lovely, dense weight on the card that stands up to a bright and colorful image.

Notice that the arrangement is basically the same for each card, but the placement is different. The first card puts the sentiment just below the center of the card, while the second takes advantage of the lower-right "sweet" spot.

I varied the placement to see which looked better. Interestingly, in real life, I couldn't pick a favorite of the two at all, but when I saw them on the computer screen, the first one looked more balanced. The second seems a little squished in the corner. Funny how seeing something in real life and on a computer screen different gives you really different perspectives.

Which do you prefer? Why?

Supplies
stamps: Clearly Besotted It's Your Birthday
ink: Memento Luxe
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestone
 

Minimalist Monday Thanks

When time's a crunch, minimalism is a stamper's best friend. Back in May, I needed to make thank-you cards for Jack's teachers and aides. I had purchased gifts for them, packaged simply but cutely, but I still needed cards, and the deadline snuck up on me.

Here's what I came up with in a pinch:

The stamps are from an old, limited-edition Thank You set from Clear and Simple Stamps. I just varied the colors of the "Thanks" stamp, made two of each color, rounded corners, and called it good.

Lots of tears shed as I wrote these thank-you notes. My younger son Jack was in Mrs. Kneeland's intervention class for two years (4th and 5th grades), and one of the aides was with him for both years. He also had to say good-bye to the OT who has been with him since kindergarten. These ladies have been with Jack through his hardest two years in school, and honestly, they are simply the best teacher, aide, and therapist imaginable.

Dang, I'm getting choked up. Y'all should have seen Jack's developmental pediatrician singing his praises a few weeks ago at his regular 6-month appointment. Six months ago, things were not so good. He's come so far, and against a lot of odds. He couldn't have done it without the amazing insight, knowledge, and patience of Mrs. Kneeland, Mrs. Garcia, and Mrs. Gleason. Love those ladies so much!

We'll still see Mrs. Kneeland as Jack plans to continue Special Olympics bowling, and Mrs. K is the coordinator. Yay!

Next year, he will be in a new building for school, exclusively for 6th grade. Love that our district gives the sixth grade a safe space to make that difficult transition between elementary school and junior high. I'm hopeful that he can continue with as much inclusion as possible, and that he enjoys being in the band playing trumpet. We're trying to prepare him with summer trumpet lessons, and he's having a blast! 

Anyway, the cards were simple, and the sentiments written inside were heartfelt.

Whom have you needed to thank lately?

Supplies
stamps: Clear and Simple Stamps
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: not a single one

Old School Tools and OWH Love

I may have decided to opt out of the whole die-cut machine investment so many stampers embrace, but years ago, my husband bought me the space-ship thingy from Fiskars, so I am not completely without the ability to cut a (very) limited number of shapes with a device.

I have a small stack of templates for the Fiskars ShapeCutter, and the hearts are among the most used of those templates.

Operation Write Home regularly requests love-themed cards for the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who are deployed. These men and women want to send lots of love home to their families, so I try to make a significant proportion of the cards I send love-themed.

My recent purchase of Hero Arts' Oh, Snap set was largely intended for Operation Write Home, and here are two cards showcasing a nice, big sentiment from that set.

First up, white-on-white layers of hearts frame and accent the sentiment. I love this in its simplicity, but I recognize that many people might feel it is too plain. On the negative side for me, though...that red (Memento Love Letter) just isn't my favorite.

My second card kicks up the interest with a bold color combination and an interesting border to anchor the single large heart. The Red Royal and Soft Gray from Hero Arts compliment each other perfectly, and the arrow border (with two rows going in different directions) gives a sense of movement to the design.

Visually, the second card is definitely more interesting than the first, but I do love the quiet layering of the first card.

What do you think?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento and Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Fiskars shape cutter and template, dimensionals

Using Your Smooch: Part 7, The Finale

We're down to the last two cards of my Smooch Fest...one that uses tiny strips, and one that returns us to where we began, with dots.

When I thought I was running out of energy with my Smooch cards, I still had a couple of random pieces hanging out on my desk, shimmering up at me expectantly. Just as I was about to throw them in the trash, I had a brainstorm and made this interestingly geometric card instead!

Love this! The variation in color, line length, and line height make this very simple card so interesting visually. The sentiment (Clearly Besotted's A Little Sentiment set) is placed in the center of the card, and the lines flow around it and draw attention to it. Justified left, ragged right imply that maybe there's some other text covered and/or censored under the orange lines. It's just cool!

The second card is actually one of the first I made in the Smooch Fest...I simply forgot to post it at the beginning of the series. But I love it and wanted to share it with you, so here it is.

The set called Turning a New Leaf from Papertrey has some excellent leaves in it, and when I saw this ferny-looking branch, I thought, huh, don't ferns have little white dots of whatever on the underside of the leaves? (I never took botany, but a quick google search reveals they are spores for fern reproduction.) With that image in mind, I used the white shimmery Smooch to add dots to the green leaves.

Card size: 3 1/4" x 6 1/4"

When you add Smooch over ink, remember that the ink needs to be waterproof, or it will bleed unattractively into the Smooch. In this case, I used Memento cottage ivy. The sentiment is SU river rock, which isn't waterproof but didn't get dots, so it didn't matter, now, did it?

The contrast between today's two cards is interesting. The first is so linear and geometric, right down to the sans serif font of the sentiment. The second is much more organic and natural (in a stylized way, of course, but still...curvy) with a loose, handwritten-look sentiment. Both have loads of glorious white space and a very crisp feel.

Happy sigh!

So, now I've thrown a lot of different ideas at you regarding Smooch, the shimmery ink in a bottle. I hope you've found at least a few ideas you want to try. Reader Cynthia posted a comment suggesting I try to make marbled paper out of Smooch...because it FLOATS on water! The last time I tried marbling paper was over a decade ago, and I still cringe when I remember the mess that ended up in the trash.

But it's only paper...and maybe worth a try, seeing as I still have plenty of Smooch left to play with!

Using Your Smooch: Part 6, More with Inkblots

I sincerely hope you're not sick of Smooch, and I want to remind you up front on this post that almost all these cards and techniques can be done without Smooch by substituting other inks or paints you might very well have on hand.

Of course, I won't judge you if you run right out and buy all the Smooch you can find, but it's not necessary that you do so. Unless it is. In which case, you have my permission.

My point with all these smoochy cards is that you can and likely should use--well and truly use--your supplies, whatever they are. If you're like me, you probably have a plethora of products that languish, lonely and abandoned, in plastic drawers and bins. These products are sad. You should take them out and play with them, make them happy, tell them that they are loved.

That's what I am doing. And it's loads of fun!

Now, onto more inkblot/Rorschach test cards. Yesterday, I posted three cards with largish parts of the inkblot I made. Today, I'm posting three cards made with punched shapes from the scraps left over by the first three cards.

Needless to say, with my love of "less is more," today's cards make my CAS-lovin' heart sing ditties and dance a jig.

The first card showcases a 3/4" square punch and Corner Chomper combined with one blingity-bling and a very British sentiment from the British company Clearly Besotted. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Great Britain? Well, I do.

The second card repeats a branch punch from EK Success and uses lots of festive bling in two shades of red and three sizes. The sweet, tiny, handwritten sentiment comes from Papertrey's Signature Christmas set.

The third card uses a 1/4" square punch. It's almost impossible to get these tiny squares lined up perfectly straight, so I didn't try. They are deliberately a little wonky to add some movement and interest to a very orderly, static design. The sentiment comes from Clearly Besotted's A Little Sentimental set.

That's my favorite new sentiment set.

And that's all I have to say about punching shapes from scraps.

For now.

You never know when it'll burst out of me again. Like the alien from Sigourney Weaver's stomach. Only prettier.

I hope.