One-Layer Wednesday 82: Swirly Fun

This week's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge is to use a swirl! I added an extra challenge to mine by using a swirl on a dude birthday card...super cool but not necessary. ;)

To keep the greens in the same tone, I off-stamped the bamboo ink from the definition stamp and swirl before stamping on the paper.

OLW82 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of cardstock folded in half. No other layers allowed.

2. Use at least one swirl stamp on your card.

3. Upload your card somewhere on the internet and link back to it using the InLinkz button on the sidebar of Simplicity. If you post on your blog, please link to the individual post, not your whole blog.

4. HAVE FUN!!!!!


Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (definition), Papertrey (Father Knows Best, tree; Grunge Me, swirl)
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey vintage cream
accessories: half pearls, corner rounder

Before and After: Color Contrast

Sometimes the mess in your craft space can lead to inspiration. This apricot appeal card base was already cut and lying on my table, as was the Think Big #7 set from Papertrey that came with my order on Monday. I looked in my orange embellishment drawer and saw a package of Hero Arts paper flowers...and this card was born.

Before

It's not the best card I've ever made. In fact, the more I looked at it, the less appealing that apricot was. At first, the lack of a mat bothered me, which made me wonder why sometimes mats look better and sometimes they don't. Which made me think of color contrast.

In the card above, the apricot isn't dark enough to provide adequate contrast to the white panel...there's simply not a stong enough break in color. Plus the giant orange brad in the center of the flower doesn't quite match the pumpkin pie ink or the flowers and just stands out like SU's ugly only orange color.

Which explains why the card above does not work and the card below does.

After

I wish I had a button dark enough to match the pumpkin pie exactly, but alas, I had to use a lighter shade. Please repeat after me: "I will not go out and buy more buttons. I will not go out and buy more buttons. I will not go out and buy more buttons."

Thank you.

At least the button is not that dreadful only orange color of the brad! Anyway, the flowers look a tad washed out in the picture but aren't in real life. I wish the flowers hadn't jumped into my cart a few months ago (it was a moment of weakness and they were on sale!). Fact is, I don't really enjoy using paper flowers...I just like looking at them, especially when other stampers use them so wonderfully. But they work for me on this card, so it wasn't a total waste of money.

Have a lovely weekend!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Think Big #7
ink: SU pumpkin pie
paper: SU apricot appeal, pumpkin pie; PTI white
accessories: Hero Arts paper flowers, giant brad, button, white DMC floss, glue dots

CASification of a Card by Michelle Woerner

CASification (if you're new to Simplicity) is my made-up word for "taking a gorgeous layered and embellished card, and simplifying it." Sometimes, when I encounter a particularly well-designed card, I just have to make it my own, and that's how I felt when I saw Michelle Woerner's card on page 12 of Take Ten's summer issue.

*swoon*

I totally love her design: balanced, fresh, and just begging me to make one myself.

Michelle (who's known as sf9erfan on SCS) doesn't have the exact card posted online, but she did make a whole set of similar cards and put them on her blog HERE. The card in Take Ten is almost identical to the first card on her post.

Here's my version:

As you can see, to simplify the design, I replaced Michelle's strips of patterned paper with a stamp (Text Style, Papertrey). It gives a ground to the circles, even though I'm not using ribbon or patterned paper at all. Instead of using patterned paper for my circles, I stamped two Hero Arts backgrounds in red and blue and punched them out. Then, I stamped the sentiment (Limitless Labels, Papertrey), added a Maya Road velvet flower with brad in place of Michelle's pretty yet bulky Prima flowers. Plus, I needed a spot of red near the flower since I hadn't used the ribbon...gotta complete that visual triangle of red! The red brad is a bit lumpy, but the whole thing is mailable with regular postage.

Michelle's version has an elegance the simplified version can't match (the rose and twine and ribbon and DP really are perfect on her card!). But her overall design...using three different circles and a red-white-blue color scheme and a background to anchor it all...is such an inspiration.

Thanks, Michelle! 

Papertrey Gracious Vases...Part 1

Oh. My. Goodness. This set.... This set....

Did Maile Belles design it for lil ol' me?

Because it fits me like a glove. Or my skinny capri jeans.

I love those skinny capri jeans, people.

And this stamp set. See.

I can make girly, gingham, sweet cards like the one above. Or simple dude cards like the one below.

I turned that solid vase sideways and made a border of it. And used browns. Dude. DUDE!!!!

I've got more. Lots more. I even colored.

And had so much fun I went out and added a few more Copics to my marker collection. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Happy Sunday!

PS If you enjoy reading fiction and haven't read The Help yet, please consider picking it up. I don't think I've had a novel touch me this deeply in a long time and sure hope they don't botch it with the movie.

A Muse Hey, Man

One of the A Muse sets I bought was Hey, Man. Actually, the real title is Hey, Man! with an egregious exclamation point, but you all know how I feel about those. Marketers really should not do that. Only bloggers are allowed. And people commenting on blogs. Oh how I love when you're so happy you have to hold down the exclamation key!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Hey, Man has this groovy television set in it. Not sure a guy card should have pearls on it, but hey, man, orange pearls work for you. Dude!!!!!!!!!!!

How-To Chatter: The sentiment is from an old, old, old Hero Arts set...I have a whole bunch this size that happen to fit perfectly into the tv screen. YEEE-Haaa! I colored this with markers and without shading because it's too small for my meager shading skills. The line was drawn with a pen and ruler. That's about it.
A few bits of news...

1. I'm going to post some SU stamp sets for sale soon. I'm also selling two stacks of assorted SU cardstock (about 90 sheets per stack) because I figured I'd have to live to be 250 years old to use up all that I have. Please buy them so I need not feel guilty about buying new stuff.

2. Stampin'Treasures is still open for business and has bunch of product--especially Hero Arts--on serious discount. Yes, I placed an order, and no, they are not paying me to promote their sale. I'm just telling you because I love you and can't help myself.

3. And for something entirely non-stamp related...my golden retriever, who embodies the word enthusiasm in canine form, has to take doggy downers while she recovers from her knee surgery. Every time she starts to behave like her normal self (that is to say, when she starts behaving like Tigger...bouncy, jouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!), I have to push a pill down her throat. It's the saddest thing I've ever done. Well, that's not true. Saying goodbye to people is the saddest thing, saying goodbye to dogs is the second saddest, drugging my dog so she doesn't injure herself by being perky is the third saddest. PLUS, the recovery is really slow...three whole months. And at the end of three months, we get to do it all again on the other knee.

I feel like I'm taking her downers. Woe is the Daisy. Woe is me.

I'll shut up now. Thank you for listening.

On the Fence

In keeping with yesterday's post about the joy of new stuff, I recently purchased a few new punches at Michael's, including this fab Martha Stewart fence border punch. The first version of this card used a kraft card base. It looked dreadful. Oh how I wish I had the gift of kraft. Alas, plain ol' white tends to work better for me. Especially when I stamp Memento Pear Tart on it. *swoon*

I'll bet there's no one else in the world who thinks that the name "pear tart" makes reference to ANYTHING but a fruity dessert. Am I right?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Through the Trees, Paper Tray
ink: Memento
paper: PTI
accessories: MS fence border punch, rhinestones

Musings on New Product and Variations on a Set: Dot Spot Again

Two comments on yesterday's post really stood out for me. Take a gander:

Marty: "good news and bad news. good news...i LOVE these cards. bad news...i need BOTH of these sets and that is going to mess with my "no more ordering new stamps till i use the ones i already have" project."

Yoona: "My initial reaction: I wish I had those sets. My better judgement: Susan, you are actually showing me that I should and could use what I have to make totally different cards. And that's truly CREATING!"

Despite the fact that these two comments are polar opposites in meaning, they both reflect what I consider to be an essential truth about papercrafting: new product is both everything and nothing.

Whatever do I mean? Well, on the one hand, very little in papercrafting is as inspiring and satisfying as getting a cardboard box of new product on your doorstep. New product, if we have the discipline to use it rather than just collect it, is fun and necessary to keep us excited about what we're doing. It's like the rush we get when we buy new clothes...we feel pretty and hip and happy when we put them on. What a lift that is to our ego and sense of style! After a while, however, clothes stop being so wonderful and fresh. They start to look dated or shabby or ill-fitting. We get bored with them and start looking for something new, and the whole process starts over again.

On the other hand, creativity doesn't really need new product. Instead, seeing new product can make us look at our old product differently. What do I have on hand that would work in a similar way to the new stuff out there? How can I take something old and languishing and make it look fresh and new with a new color combo, embellishment, or layout? That's the essence of my Variations on a Set strategy: pull out old stuff and play around with it in fresh new ways.

My purchasing has slowed down considerably in the past two years. Partly, this slowdown is the result of my having accumulated a stash of stuff so big it stands as a lasting tribute to my obsessive nature. When you already have a bazzilion flower stamps, it's hard to keep buying more and feel fiscally and morally responsible at the same time.

But when too much time lapses between purchases, I find myself getting bored and creatively stale. It's time for an infusion of fun new things to stimulate my creativity.

The key, I think, is balance. After a couple of days playing with my new A Muse stamps, for instance, I found myself pulling out some paper that I haven't messed with in over a year and doing something completely different with it, something inspired by a set of cards in a magazine. The creative flourish that resulted will show up here, soon!

I guess the point behind these musings is to enjoy new stuff but don't forget about what you already have.

Now that I've typed that, it sounds pretty trivial. But I still think it's important.

Anyway, today's card using Papertrey's Dot Spot (an old set for me) really made me happy, mainly because it could be sent to a guy even though it has bling on it. The dark colors (Memento Rhubarb and Danube) work pretty well with all the white space, I think. Plus, the design is stable, solid, balanced, symmetrical, and somehow oddly serious. Just like guys can be.

How-To Tips: To line up the dot circles perfectly, use a gridded acrylic block. Stamp the center circle first, then the two smaller circles, and finally the outside blue circles. The sentiment is a horizontal one, so I stamped the Birthday first, then the Happy over it, also using the gridded block to get everything nice and straight and centered.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Birthday Basics, Dot Spot
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestones, corner chomper

Variations on a Set: Dot Spot Goes Pastel

Yesterday's cards used Dot Spot by Papertrey in bright, bold colors. But the set is equally at home in soft and subtle colors.

For the first card, I layered white on white and combined Everyday Button Bits with Dot Spot again, this time to make a little flower garden. The sentiment is from Birthday Basics, also from PTI.

The second card uses some very simple layering of three different circles from Dot Spot, with the top two layers popped up on dimensionals.

Simple Tip: Most of you probably already know this, but those who don't...prepare to be amazed! When you don't have the right color bling, use a Bic, Sharpie, or Copic marker to color clear bling to match whatever you need! That's what I had to do with the purple bling on both of these cards.

Now, aren't you going to stock up on clear bling next time you're at Michael's?

Supplies
stamps: Dot Spot, Birthday Basics, Everyday Button Bits
ink: Memento
paper: white
accessories: rhinestones, Bic marker, corner chomper, circle punches, dimensionals

Variations on a Set: A Wreath for All Seasons, Part 2

I went square with the berry wreath and got jiggy with my Smooch!

First, I stamped the vine part of the wreath in rich cocoa Memento ink, then the berries in angel pink. Then, using my hot pink Smooch, I added shimmery dots over the angel pink. LOVE the shimmery effect and how it makes the wreath look so much more dimensional and interesting.

Take a closer look!

This weekend in America, we're celebrating Memorial Day Monday. We have parades and picnics and ceremonies honoring those who have died in service to our country. But there are people all over the world who have put on a uniform and fought--and died--so others can live in freedom. Let us honor their memory not just Monday but every day.

Thinking Out of the Frame

When playing around with Papertrey's Framed, I decided to see if I could do something that used the frame stamp as something other than, well, a frame. Combined with Signature Greetings, Framed looks a little different here, doesn't it?

I stamped the sentiment first (in black) and then used the frame to create these off-the-edge boxes.

The Framed mini-tutorial is coming up tomorrow, along with a few more cards using Framed. It's taken me a while to hit my stride with this set, but I think it's grown on me!

Have a lovely Sunday!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Framed, Signature Greetings
paper: PTI white
ink: Memento
accessories: giant gridded acrylic block (Martha Stewart)

The Great Cover-Up

Often my experimenting goes awry. Sometimes, the results are not salvageable. Mostly, however, I can save the card if I think about it hard enough.

Today's card was salvaged in a great cover-up. Go, me!!!

I tried using washi tape as the ground for these trees from SU's Trendy Trees set. It just didn't look right, so I pulled it up. I'd always pulled up washi tape without a problem, but this time, it pulled the top layer of the paper with it. Darn it all.

So I cut a piece of old olive cardstock and drew a pencil line on it. Then, I cut along the line using mini-scallop scissors, being careful to line up the scallops with each cut. (Remember when using deco scissors to NEVER, EVER, under any circumstances close the scissors completely before you cut all the way across. It messes up the cut!)

I glued the old olive strip onto the card, effectively covering up the disaster. No one will ever know.

Well, no one would know if I hadn't just told the entire Internet.

I decided the green was too heavy, so I layered white twill on it to lighten it up. Rounded corners on the bottom further lighten the green and echo the rounded foliage of the trees and the scallop edge.

And THAT is how you cover up a mistake, save some pretty two-step stamping, and make someone's birthday cheerier.

Someone once said that there are no mistakes in stamping, only opportunities for embellishment. More often than not, that someone is right.

CAS113 Color Challenge--Edited

The new CAS challenge at Splitcoast is to make a card with soft aqua, soft yellow, and white. LOVE this combination!

I've been playing with some Snow Storm white cardstock sent to me by Mark's Finest Papers. It's smooth like SU whisper white but feels heavier. It's definitely lighter than PTI's stamper's select white, but it holds up to making a card base very nicely, as you can see on this card. I'm going to order some of the Heavy Snow Storm white to check it out, too.

If you're a CAS stamper, you can never have too much white cardstock!

Thanks to everyone who left comments on Monday's post. It's fun and uplifting to read other people's responses to the doldrums. I think I will get rid of a bunch of paper...or at least clear it out of my craft room.

Also, for those of you who won blog candy during Little Things Week, the packages were mailed Monday for everyone except the Day 7 winners (still waiting on the dimensionals from SU). If you don't receive your package in a reasonable time (it's coming from Ohio), please let me know.


Edited to Add: Ooops! I incorrectly attributed the SU branch stamp. It's from Garden Silhouettes instead of Stem Silhouettes. Sorry about that!
Supplies
stamps: SU Garden Silhouettes, Anna Griffin sentiment
ink: cool caribbean, so saffron
paper: Mark's Finest white, SU cool caribbean
accessories: dimensionals, Martha Stewart bird punch

Can You Bling a Dude Card?

I think so.

Happy Monday!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (fern), Papertrey Birthday Basics
ink: Memento Bamboo
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: ribbon, rhinestones

Happy Birthday, Reenee!!!

Today, I am honored to participate in a Clear and Simple Stamps Blog Hop celebrating owner Reenee's birthday. All this was planned by Nicki (the other owner of CSS) on the sly, and it's so exciting to be in on the surprise. I do love a surprise party!

The Birthday Hop has lots of cards by awesome designers! There are prizes! Please see the details below!

I guess that last sentence didn't need an exclamation point, but it looked lonely without one.

Anyway... Happy Birthday, Reenee!

My clean and simple card uses two Clear and Simple Stamps sets: Kind Deeds (the silhouette) and Banner of News (the banner and sentiment). I used Memento Grape Jelly to stamp the silhouette and banner, and Tuxedo Black for the sentiment. The banner is popped on dimensionals.

Blog Hop Details

You should have arrived here from Jen Tapler's blog, and from here, click over to visit Sarah Martina. The complete hop list is below if you need to start at the beginning. Make sure you go to the CSS's Facebook Page and/or their Blog (links below) and leave a birthday greeting for Reenee to qualify for a PRIZE.

BLOG HOP PRIZE:
Two surprise packages of CSS goodies made up of some of Reenee's favorite products! Each package will be valued at $50. In order to qualify for the prize, participants must leave a birthday wish for Reenee on the Facebook and/or Clear and Simple Stamps blogpost. They will pick {2} winners - one winner from FB and one winner from the CSS Blog.

COUPON CODE:
For Tuesday, March 8th, 2011, only, you can use a 15% off coupon good for shopping at CSS. Just enter birthday15 in order to receive the discount. This coupon will not be valid with other offers and is good for one day only. I'm totally using this!

BLOG HOP ORDER:
Clear and Simple Stamps
Kim Howard
Cristina Kowalczyk
Heather Pulvirenti Jen Tapler
Susan Raihala You Are Here
Sarah Martina
Dana Grothaus
Beth Matson
Tracy Schultz
Viola Mahr
Ryann Salamon
Simone Pursiful Sue Berker Eva Dobilas
Ayana Posadas
Maria Levine
Stephany Zerbe
Ashley Newell
Regina Mangum
Lori Tecler
Clear and Simple Stamps {FB}

HAPPY HOPPIN'

Caribbean Birthday

FYI:

CAS = Clean and Simple
OLW = One-Layer Wednesday Challenge
OLC = One-Layer Card
PTI = Papertrey Ink (an awesome stamp company)
SU = StampinUp (another awesome stamp company)

I hope this clarifies some confusion as I occasionally forget to explain my shorthand.

And now on to today's card. I wanted to use an older, neglected stamp, and found this Stampabilities medallion that I've had for centuries. You've seen this layout before from me (and no doubt elsewhere since it's not original to me), but it's one of my favorites.

How-To Tips: Stamp the medallions on scrap paper and cut them out with a clear quilt ruler and craft knife. This is MUCH easier than trying to stamp on small squares with a wood-mounted rubber stamp...and much neater than trying to cut them out by hand. To place them on the card, arrange them where you want them and then carefully lift them, one at a time, and glue them into place. I think these are spaced a little too far apart, but it doesn't bother me enough to remake the card. I'm just happy to use an old stamp and the utterly fabulous Cool Caribbean.

Many thanks to my friend Patti for sending me the re-inker that made this card possible!

Supplies
stamps: Stampabilities, Papertrey
ink: Cool Caribbean (SU), Memento black
paper: Cool Caribbean, white
accessories: black pearls

Birthday Cards for Children

I pulled out Oh Boy, a clear set from Clear and Simple Stamps, to make some birthday cards for children. The focal images on these three cards are from that set.

First up, a train. So cute! I used the birthday sentiment from Papertrey's Birthday Basics set to ground the train, a variety of markers to color it, and a pair of brown brads to balance the image (echoing the wheels) and the sentiment with a visual triangle. Don't you love the smoke coming from the funnel? Too cute!

Next up, a puppy. This is my favorite image in the set...so very cute, and easy to color, especially if you leave him mostly white, LOL! I stamped the pup and masked it, then stamped the swish, which is from Hero Arts
(Friendship Messages, I think is the name of the discontinued set). The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mixed Messages.

Finally, a paper airplane. I colored it with two shades of red Copics (remember, I won three red Copics from Sue Berker's blog...very cool!). The sentiment is from the Oh Boy set.

I love this set for children's birthday cards!

Dee asked me what I do inside cards, and the answer is, usually, not much. I enjoy writing notes and leave myself plenty of space, but for birthday cards, I always add a stamped sentiment to the inside, usually one from Papertrey's Birthday Basics. I'd really like to start adding a little something to the insides of cards...perhaps a little image to coordinate with the outside of the card. We shall see.

I'm blown away by the sheer number of comments on the Give-Away post, and have loved reading what y'all have to say! Thanks so much to all of you who have commented. Remember if you haven't commented yet, you have until Sunday night at midnight.

Daisy Birthday

This stamp is from an very old set from Hero Arts, one of the first I bought, I think, although my memory isn't the best for stamps. They all sort of blur from those early years when I was definitely in "see it, buy it" mode.

The base is either SU summer sun or maybe morning marigold (I've never been able to keep those two straight), for all y'all who wanted to see more colored card bases. How's that for in-your-face color? Actually, I really like it, and it's not nearly as eye-watering as I thought it would be.

Design Tips: I've made a lot of colored card bases lately, and I find the only ones I really love right now are this basic layout: base, contrasting matte, white stamped panel. It's one I've seen very frequently in the Hero Arts catalogs over the years. This layout has lots of advantages. First, there is nothing distracting from the strong focal point and sentiment; it really highlights the stamping. Second, you can move the image around the card. Here, I'm taking advantage of the rule of thirds by placing the line of the top third of the stamped panel over the line of the top third of the card. (You might need to read that sentence twice to absorb it. It's awkward. I'm sorry.) The amount of yellow cardstock on three sides of the panel is the same, while there's extra on the bottom. By sticking to the thirds, the card is more interesting as well as super-balanced.

When using a fairly basic layout like this, it's a good idea to use some sort of unexpected element, either in the arrangement of the stamped images (not useful here since the image and sentiment are on the same stamp) or in the embellishing. Here, I used glitter (Yellow Stickles) on the flower centers...not hugely original, but it lends a very nice sparkle to the bright colors of the card.

Scrapbooking: I'm still not sure when I'll start scrapbooking again, so don't hold your breath. But It seems many of you were interested in seeing scrapbook pages occasionally, so it'll be in the future as a small part of Simplicity.

Update: I told you all about my friend Mary Grimes, who is a mother of three small children battling colon cancer. Mary had surgery Wednesday, and they didn't find the metastasis they expected. Yeah! She's not clear yet, and has had a horrible long surgery and a 90-minute chemo "bath" while she was on the operating table, followed by another "look and see" surgery Thursday. So continued prayers are definitely in order.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white, SU black, summer sun or morning marigold
accessories: dimensionals, Bic Mark-It Markers, Stickles 

More Rectangles and a Before and After

So, a LOT of you really liked the Fun with Rectangles post, so I thought I'd start this week off with a couple of different takes on those happy floral birthday cards. Let's start with a festive flourish for Christmas. This card uses Papertrey Ink's Silent Night set.

Design Discussion: I made sure the flourishes didn't "match up" across the rectangles on this one. At first, they did, and it looked, well, boring. Static. Flat. Well, the stamping still looks flat, but there's enough movement to the flourishes that it doesn't matter. Having them not match up keeps a very simple card interesting. Go figure.

Now, this next card is the BEFORE version. My thinking here was to turn the original layout and make the rectangles uneven and asymmetrical...because I have an old and discontinued set from Hero Arts (Woodland Leaves and Grasses) and thought it would make a great guy birthday card. Problem was, I thought that the yellow-gold of the ink for the grass was a lot more yellow than the reddish-orange of the leaves in the upper right panel. Instead, they came out wayyyy too close to each other to allow for a green panel on bottom. The colors are just off.

Before

So if fixed it.

After

Now all the colors are in the orange-red family and harmony is once again restored. Not bad for a guy card, eh?

Supplies
Merry Christmas
stamps: Papertrey Silent Night
paper: PTI white
ink: Memento
accessories: dimensionals

Happy Birthday
stamps: Hero Arts
paper: PTI vintage cream
ink: various Ancient Page and Memento
accessories: dimensionals

Fun with Rectangles

I've been thinking a lot lately about my favorite design tricks, and my conclusion from all this thinking is that using shapes (squares, rectangles, or circles) as key design elements makes me very happy. You can arrange them in tidy grids or rows, you can get whimsically asymmetrical with them, you can pop or not pop them, or you can use one all by its lonesome for big impact.

So, when I decided I needed some birthday cards, I pulled out SU's Stem Silhouettes and Garden Silhouettes and played around with putting the images on shapes.. These two cards are what happened.

*squeal*

Same thing, different colors:

The rectangles are 2 1/8" x 1 1/2" and are, of course, popped up on dimensionals. I stamped each image in a light color first, then overstamped (but off-set) again with a darker shade of the same color. Really, you could just use a dark ink, stamp once, huff on the stamp, then stamp it again. But I had the ink colors so I used them. I stamped the sentiment justified right in gray because black looked wayyyyy too stark and dark. All inks are Memento.

I thoroughly enjoy experimenting and playing around and trying out new things, new products, new styles. But this crisp, clean, colorfully white look is more me than any other.

Up tomorrow, a Christmas card with circles...oh how I love my punches!

Supplies
stamps: SU Stem Silhouettes, Garden Silhouettes, PTI Birthday Basics
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: dimensionals

Knock on Wood

Last week was a big week for new stuff.

First, Mark's Finest sent me a huge selection of their new papers, charms, a bottle of gold Smooch, and a pad of Basic Gray fall paper (I've already made a batch of cards with that...yes, I used DP on cards and I didn't even swear once!).

Second, I received a RAK from girlgeek101 and Janet that included some super duper bling, gorgeous decorated pebbles, and a pack of Glimmer Mist (three colors and pearl!). Y'all are soooo sweet and generous and kind!

Third, Nancy at Shady Tree sent me my order and included a free set in the package, too!

Fourth, the new issue of Papercrafts appeared in my mailbox. 

Fifth, I went to Michael's. Didn't spend much, but got some pretty cool new stuff, including a MS bow punch and the product highlighted in today's card.

But let's back up a bit first. Last year for Christmas, I received this store-bought card from my aunt and uncle.

Isn't it wonderful?!?! It's even more wonderful when you consider that my aunt is a master wood-worker. She builds furniture...museum-quality furniture. And somehow, she still has all her fingers. Knock on wood.

So when I saw a sheet of cherry wood at Michael's (on sale, no less!), I knew I would have to make a card for her. So I did.

I was born on her birthday, and she's always said I was the best birthday present Mom ever gave her. Isn't that special? Well, it makes me feel loved. We all need to feel loved, and I sure hope my aunt does when she gets this card next month.

How-To Tips: The wood veneer is backed with paper to give it stability and punches beautifully, but the paper backing is slick (I thought at first it was adhesive backing, but apparently not...bummer). To glue it, I needed to use Scotch brand liquid tacky glue because the glue pen didn't work at all. The dark centers of the flowers were stamped circles (VersaColor Pinecone) on the wood, then punched out. I drew the lines with a Zig marker and L ruler, and the birthday stamp is from PTI's Mega Mixed Messages.

Supplies
stamps: PTI, Hero Arts (circles)
ink: VersaColor
paper: PTI white, cherry wood
accessories: circle punches, flower punches, L ruler, Zig marker