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

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.

One-Layer Wednesday 56: Father's Day

Before we start the OLW discussion, I just want to thank you for your fun comments on yesterday's post. I was howling at the "horny" misunderstanding and especially at Lu C's comment. OMGosh, the pear jokes never get old, do they? *giggle*

Okay, back to business!

This week's OLW challenge is to make a card for a special father in your life...your own, your children's, or a father figure who is special to you.

This card will go to my uncle Darius. He and my grandfather walked me down the aisle at my wedding. Darius taught me how to turn a cartwheel, do a penny drop on uneven parallel bars, and swim. He also grills a mean steak. He's been a godly, strong, stable, solid influence in my life, and he taught me how to climb trees, so Papertrey's tree from Father Knows Best seemed perfect for his card.

How-To Tips: This card is deceptively complex. First, I used the square frame from Papertrey's Framed, but altered it by expanding the opening for the sentiment using a ruler and post-it note. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. Then, I stamped the tree in Memento Bamboo and Rich Cocoa on PTI's natural cardstock. The tree looked, well, boring, so I used colored pencils (Prisma olive and sepia) and a clear blender pencil to add shading and interest. LOVE this easy technique for enlivening simple block images, and if you'd like, I'll do a tutorial on it.

OLW Rules

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

2. Make a Father's Day card (for a father or special father-figure in your life). Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3. Upload your card somewhere online and link back to it using the InLinkz button on the sidebar of Simplicity.

4. The most important rule of all: HAVE FUN!!!!!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Father Knows Best, Framed; Hero Arts sentiment
ink: Memento
paper: PTI natural
accessories: post-it, ruler, prisma pencils, clear blender pencil

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)

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

NOT a Christmas Card

Nope. Not a Christmas card. This is a Christmas PRESENT. And there's nothing particularly Christmas-y about it, is there?

These are going to my father-in-law, who lives out west. The Bold and Free set by Mark's Finest Papers gave the perfect image for him. The feather is stamped in Memento dark brown and the pen is a Zig writer in dark brown. I accented the envelopes with the little feather in the set. The whole sheebang will go into a clear card box from Papertrey.

This set of single-panel notecards was made the old-fashioned way...I drew the lines using a template as I show in this tutorial HERE. It's a super-easy way to make a fast and extremely economical gift. I'm about to get jiggy with making a bunch of these for Christmas. It's so easy to vary the stamp image to customize the set for any loved one!

Trying to Use Some Colored Cardstock

As part of my "you have too much colored cardstock to order more from SU's new colors" guilt-fest, I decided to make some cards with colored cardstock. The idea was to use up some of my stash so I can order more without guilt.

It didn't work. My effort made no noticeable difference in my stash and involved working WAY outside my comfort zone. All three cards I'm posting today are basically CASE'd from Ashley C. Newell's card on page 36 of Stamp It! (the Display until April 2010 issue). Her version is prettier than any of mine turned out, but then, she used prettier stamps and some yummy satin ribbon.

First up is Hero Arts in turquoise and kraft paper. It's amazing how wrong this feels to me. WHERE IS THE WHITE CARDSTOCK?!?!?! Sigh. I miss it.


Next up is Papertrey in celery and wasabi and kraft. I'm thrilled wasabi is now a permanent color in SU's revamped color families. I love it paired with, you guessed it, white. Heavy sigh.


Last up is another card with Hero Arts on apricot appeal and pumpkin pie and kraft. Of the three, this one is my favorite, even if I do think it would look way better on white cardstock. Those butterflies can do no wrong and begged, absolutely BEGGED, for bling. Who am I to refuse them?


So, I used some colored cardstock, and then immediately made about twenty one-layer cards with white cardstock to cleanse my palate. For those of you who have asked me to use more colored card bases, now you know why I don't do it more often.

LateBlossom likes white. Sometimes I get completely crazy and use ivory or kraft. But colored cardstock? It's like trying to speak a foreign language I never learned. Something gets lost in translation.

Check out Ashley's original in Stamp It! It's totally lovely. She speaks colored cardstock fluently.

Miss You Sailboat and Lustful Thoughts on Cardstock

Today's card came out of a desire to use every image stamp in Masculine Motifs before I buy another PTI set. The sailboat was the last image I used. (You'll see some of the other cards next week.) And yes, the waterline was made with deckled scissors...you know, those totally uncool and much maligned cheap scissors. Score one for old-school tools.


Design Thoughts: I wanted to challenge myself to make a card using dark cardstock, the reasons for which I will discuss below. This scrap of SU's night of navy works beautifully with the Memento London Fog ink, but it was a tad dark. So I wrapped the silver cord around to break up the dark space, popped the whole stamped piece on a white card that I cut down to give an even matte for the stamped panel; the panel is 3.25" x 3", the card is 4.5" x 4.25", giving a 5/8" matte all around. The boat is moving away from the miss you sentiment to reinforce the idea of someone having sailed away.

Not sure why I knotted the cord under the sailboat. I actually think the knot would look better under the sentiment. But I still like this card a lot and am pretty proud of myself for using that scrap of really dark cardstock.

Lustful Thoughts about Cardstock: I have tons of the stuff. Most of SU's old colors that I bought in the 24-sheet packs. A huge selection of 12" x 12" cardstock for scrapbooking. A couple packs of PTI's colored cardstock assortment. A two-inch thick pile of various cardstock from Mark's Finest Papers.

But mostly, I use PTI's neutrals, mainly white, because my style doesn't gravitate toward colored card bases. It's going to take me FOREVER to use all that colored cardstock if today's card is any measure of my happiness with using it.

Colored cardstock does, however, come in handly as backdrops for photos.

So why do I want to buy six of the new colors from SU? Ink and paper. My life will be incomplete without them!

I only want maybe five sheets of each, not an entire pack. My demo will likely sell them to me by the sheet because she totally rocks. But really, I don't need more colors of ink or cardstock. I am amply blessed with a huge collection of both.

Sigh. Common sense tells me one thing. My paper lust tells me another. Which will win?

Only time will tell.

Coming Up Tomorrow: The first day of Mark's Finest Papers Blog Hop! Yeah! My first blog hop! I can't wait to show you the fun stuff I did with this month's release sets. They will be available TOMORROW for purchase PLUS if you participate in the hop, you could win a FREE SET from next month's release (which I have seen and it's fantastic)! How totally cool is that?!?!

Happy day, everyone. Make it a great Monday. The Spirit of Furry Golden Sunshine commands it, so who am I to argue?

Hmmmm....

I've decided that a very tiny and unattractive part of me really envies peebsmama at SCS for her LOVE of making masculine cards. Dang, she pulls them off beautfully. I, on the other hand, dread making birthday cards for DH, my cousins' hubbies, and my uncles. Dudes are weird. Just sayin'.

My seven-year-old nephew, however, is one of my biggest fans who loves everything I make. Some little dudes have excellent taste.

Another conflicted part of me is incredibly bipolar about office supplies. I have adored them since high school, used them gleefully and wastefully for real-world applications, a conspicuous consumer of all things sold at Office Depot. But now that I "do" papercrafts, I am at a loss when it comes to using office supplies in my art and mostly just hoard them. Like the stamp in yesterday's Blue Madonna card, I think it's going to take years to figure them out.

I'm pumped, I'm determined, I'm excited about this challenge, and I'm off to a slow start with today's card, which I made for the CAS28 Masculine Card challenge a few weeks back. Not sure why I don't like it. Feel free to enlighten me. It's not a bad card, I think. That little paper clip from Tim Holtz is da bomb, after all.

Perhaps I should have incorporated more color...it does look a bit, well, drab and flat. Maybe I should have inked the edges, distressed something (Oh, how I hate distressing things...I like making things happy, making them feel good about themselves, making them feel crisp and clean, not dirty and wrinkled and distressed.)

Maybe I'm the weird one, and dudes aren't so weird after all.

Supplies
stamps: assorted SU stamps
cardstock: close to cocoa
ink: close to cocoa
accessories: manilla folder, paper clip, dimensionals

A Card Set for Guys

This set uses the same masking and stippled background treatment that I used in this card. I stamped some of the leaves with full ink, and off-stamped others to add some depth. I wrote the labels in pencil, thus proving that my handwriting is terribly unartistic. Oh, well. I like the cards anyway, and they were easy, quick, and perfect for mass production...if you do that sort of thing. *wink*

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
cardstock: PTI white
ink: Memories soft wheat, hunter green
accessories: pencil, post-it notes

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

Clean and Simple Challenge #14

This week's CAS challenge will be announced shortly. Here's one of my cards for it. The challenge is quite versatile, so over the next few days, I'll be posting other cards that look quite different from this one. I really tried to stretch out of my usual comfort zone on a few of them. Can't wait to see what you think of the results!

This card is well within my comfort zone, though. It's one layer, with the scene grounded by a fun Hero Arts shadow stamp. It looks a tad nekkid in the upper right for some reason, but every time I tried to add anything, the rest of the card looked odd. I decided to leave well enough alone, and really like it. Hope you do, too!

Supplies: stamps: Papertrey Father Knows Best and Hero Arts shadow; cardstock: Papertrey white; inks: various chalk inks; dimensionals.

Dude!

Making guy cards is hard. At least for me. It seems most paper crafting products are designed to appeal to estrogen producers rather than testosterone producers. Yet we women have men in our lives who don't really appreciate flowers or pink or yummy satin ribbon on their cards. This hormone divide is pronounced in my house, given that my DH spent years flying bombers in USAF and then started doing Ironman triathlons because he's, well, insane.

Here's a conversation between DH and me last night.

Me: I'm taking care of my Mother's Day present. You can just get me a card.

DH: [relieved] Okay. Can I make your card?

Me: As long as you don't use the B-1 stamp again.

DH: Come on! That's the perfect stamp for Mother's Day.

Me: No.

See what I mean?

This card makes me happy because I think I hit "dude" right on the money. It's got dude colors, dude embellishments, and a non-flowery main image. I combined three sets here: the main image is from Trendy Trees by SU!, the sentiment is from Floral Frenzy by PTI, and the leaves on the rectangular panel are from Father Knows Best, also by PTI. I cut the ovals with Creative Memories oval cutter system (love it!). The inks are chalk (either Versamagic or Colorbox, can't remember 'cause I use both interchangeably) and I used the Rock and Roll technique to ink the leaves on the main image. The background leaves are stamped in certainly celery on SU celery cs. The dark green cs is always artichoke and the kraft cs is from PTI.

Hope you like it!