A Bunch of Thank-You Cards with BetterPress

A few weeks ago, my Aunt Sylvia asked me to make her some thank-you cards. I felt this was the perfect opportunity to get my neglected BetterPress out and play. Woohoo!

Here are a few of the results.

So much fun! The BetterPress paper is thick and soft and oh so touchable, and it takes the impressions of the plates beautifully. I’ve tried using my beloved Papertrey white card stock, but the results are not so good. The butterfly card uses Hero Arts ombre ink in Sylvia’s favorite colors, and it performed well. The background plate cards use Archival inks, and the leaf card uses BetterPress inks.

Overall, I’m glad I bit on the BetterPress and appreciate its ease of use. 

What new product have you used recently that is making you happy?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan

A Random Assortment of Cards

Life is good, and I have a few cards to share.

My artist mom’s birthday card. Her favorite color is blue.

A Christmas card that looks better IRL than in the photo.

Using an ancient poinsettia stamp from Papertrey.

A fun fall grid card…makes me want a PSL!

Funky and subtle at the same time.

Went to a beautiful wedding today. The bride and groom are older, and it was simply delightful to see them forming a new family. Their golden retriever attended the reception, so of course I was smitten.🥰 

Wishing cooler weather and some rain for our Midwest US area, and whatever weather you want for yourselves!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan

Big Flowers and a Crazy Week

Today’s card spotlights some lovely flower dies from Poppy Stamps and branch dies from Simon Says. The sentiment is from Simon Says. Love the scale of the whole card! And the rhinestones are iridescent and oh so gorgeous. 

The flowers are sponged with distress inks and arranged in a triangle. 

And now for this week….

It was a week of overlapping things. Because of COVID, I had to reschedule many routine follow-up appointments, and they all ended up being this week since school starts for me on Monday. Among the appointments was a routine mammogram on Wednesday. Thursday, while I was driving to the base hospital for two more appointments, the call came in that we needed to repeat imaging on the left breast. Well, crap. That triggered me hugely, but today’s repeat proved that what the radiologist saw was just an artifact and nothing to be concerned about. Whew. 

Needless to say, I’m having an extra glass of wine tonight. And praying for one week of my life without a crisis of some sort. Pretty please with sugar on top!

I sure hope that your week was better!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan

Three for One Feathers and a Challenge

Quick COVID update: I finally tested negative Sunday night. Yippeeee! I’d forgotten how irritating masks are.

Today’s post spotlights a Tim Holtz feather die. I decided to explore my specialty paper file box and play around. After much trial and error, I present you with three cards, six feathers, and one very satisfied card maker. 

First up, some gorgeous, iridescent marbled paper I’ve had for over 20 years. Add some dark green velvet paper for the top feather, and then a gold wax seal and gold cord for embellishment. Couldn’t decide where to put a sentiment, so I didn’t.

Next, we see some textured blue paper and some rather thick mulberry paper that came with a gift from a friend about ten years ago. A “hope” charm combined with pearls, DMC floss, some pearls, and a birch-bark background finish the piece. 

And finally, we have some gorgeous patterned vellum and a marigold inclusion paper. The creamy pearls came from a reader probably 15 years ago, and the grass stamp is from Papertrey. 

What a great layered die, and what fun to dig out pretty papers I’ve not used in quite a while!

What do you want to play with from your stash that’s gone largely unused for a while? Pick a supply or technique and run with it!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan 

Hero Arts for the Win!

During the recent sale on Hero Arts at Simon Says, I purchased several of their fancy dies to experiment with.  I love all things owl (read our family’s story of rescuing a barred owl here and here and here). This little peekaboo owl is just darling…and gave me an excuse to use my birch tree bark embossing folder.

There are white spatters on the night sky, and I shaded the owl with Copics.

Not a huge fan of my shading under the owl’s wing, but live and learn. For a first effort, I was quite pleased!

Covid continues, but I am finally improving a bit, which is very welcome. 

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan 

Working the Processes

Years ago, I put a process in place for integrating new products into my stash. I keep a basket for all new products, and I can’t put the new stuff away until I’ve used it. Generally speaking, the process works well to keep me from getting too far ahead in my buying. 

For the past year, though, the basket has gotten fuller and fuller…and I kept buying and buying. Not egregiously, of course, but a little here, a little there, into the basket to sit. 

Last week, I set an intention to empty the basket. As of today, there’s very little left. Having Covid, it turns out, is good for crafting. 

Today’s card was one of many resulting from that intention. These flower dies from Simon Says are soooooo pretty! I used distress inks to ink the white die cuts, Copics to color-match the rhinestones, and a Tim Holtz 3D embossing folder to add texture to the background. 

The process of healing from Covid is running its course slowly this time, but I’m starting to feel better. I re-tested Tuesday morning, and the test was still aggressively positive. Whatever. The guidelines are indecipherable as far as contagion is concerned. Some sources say you’re good 5-7 days after symptoms start, others say you can be contagious up to 20 days after symptoms start. Still others say that 24 hrs after your fever breaks, you’re good to go. One website said that the darker the line on the test, the more contagious you are, so I continue to isolate and mask up at home. 

Therefore, I’ve had plenty of time to craft. So yay! Many more posts to come!

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and Kleenex, 

Susan

Using Copics the Easiest Way Possible and Hoarding Pins

Y’all know I’m no Copic expert, but a new set from Simon Says called Friendship Leafy Cluster was tailor-made for coloring with Copics the easy way. 

The overlapping outlines of the leaves let you play around with different shades without the pesky difficulty of, you know, actually shading anything. Just fill in each space with light, medium, and dark colors, with the overlaps being the darkest shades. 

These coloring projects were easy, soothing, and stress-free. And blingy. Gotta love the bling. I used monochromatic choices, but you could make rainbows or whatever. 

So let’s talk about Pinterest for a minute. Electronic image hoarding is a thing, and I’m a fan. It doesn’t cost anything (except the effort of ignoring ads), and you can start a new board anytime you want. 

I recently started a new board called Card Design, which is making me happy. It’s centered on the idea, funnily enough, of card designs I want to make. That’s key. Not card designs I like, but ones I want to try to adapt to my style. I’ve made quite a few cards that make me happy since focusing on design: layout, background techniques, die cuts, embossing folders, color choices, etc. Studying this board has given me a bit of much-needed focus. 

If you, too, hoard electronic images, why not check out Card Design, and start a card design board of your own. Name it something more interesting than Card Design, though. That’s sort of boring.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan