Inspired by Courtney Kelley

Courtney Kelly had a fabulous "Ka-Pow!" card published on page 41 of Paper Crafts Handmade Cards. It's made to showcase using ready-made embellishments, and Courtney came up with such a fun design and layout!

While I cannot make a nice card with premade embellishments to save my life, I felt totally inspired by her layout and lifted it almost completely for today's Christmas card.

The poinsettias are made using daisy punches, layered, and yellowish green rhinestones. I had originally only used the large flower, but the design felt incomplete and just too plain, so I added the small one and like the way it moves your eye around the design.

I couldn't have made this card without being inspired by Courtney's fab card, so thanks so much Courtney!

And check out Courtney's blog HERE for some amazingly beautiful, hip, and trendy paper craft awesomeness!


Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (shadow), Papertrey sentiment
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white, SU real red
accessories: flower punches, rhinestones

Remember the Crimper?

The fall issue of Take Ten includes a spread of colorful, highly embellished cards that use corrugated cardboard. Seeing them made me want to break out my paper crimper and see what I could do with it.

You could say that I went in a COMPLETELY different direction than the inspiration cards.

You would be right.

To make this card, I ran a piece of Papertrey white through the crimper multiple times, rotating it 90 degrees each time. This repeat crimpling breaks down the paper fibers and gives you a pretty soft piece of paper. There won't be problems mailing this. The small leaf is from Martha Stewart, the larger leaf punch is either EK or Marvy. Not sure. Everything is glued. No dimensionals needed.

All-white cards need texture. And yes, texture plates and expensive machines are more stylish and versatile than the old-fashioned crimper, but I don't have texture plates and expensive machines.

I have a crimper.

And I'm not afraid to use it.

What are your favorite "old-fashioned" stamping tools?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Memories Soft Silver
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Fiskar's Paper Crimper, leaf punches

Horizontal Sketch by Lucy Abrams

I love figuring out how to make sketches work with just one layer. Jessica Witty's sketch on Monday was just one example. Today's sketch by Lucy Abrams in the new Papercrafts Card Ideas magazine made me put on my thinking cap and do some problem solving.

The sketch calls for a layered border treatment on the front right side of the card, with the sentiment in the sweet spot (lower right third). All the sample cards in the magazine use multiple layers and embellishments like ribbon and lace.

To eliminate layers, I punched the front flap of the card with my bracket border punch, stamped two different strips from Papertrey's Faux Ribbon set to create the border, and added the sentiment from Define Your Life, a cool SU definition set.

Several things were wrong with my first card, which I didn't photograph. Sorry about that. The white punched edge didn't stand out enough against the white inside of the card. Plus, the left side of the sentiment looked nekkid and unbalanced. I tried adding the bracket in blue, but stamped it a bit too close to the sentiment. Then, I added a strip of brilliant blue cardstock to the inside of the card. The cardstock was so solid and dense looking, but the stamped strip definitely looked, well, stamped. The contrast was visually jarring. Not exactly what I was going for.

On the corrected card, I masked a 1" strip on the inside flap of the card and sponged the Danube Blue ink on it. It looks just like the stamped strip now...a perfect match and it keeps the card a full-up ONE LAYER!

Here's the corrected card, lying flat on the table to show the contrast between the white punched border and the sponged inside flap..

Here's a top view, so you can see the inside strip of blue.

So even a sketch that appears to require multiple layers can be adapted to a single layer!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Faux Ribbon, SU Define Your Life
ink: Memento baby blue, tuxedo black, Danube blue
paper: PTI white
accessories: Fiskars bracket border punch, stamp positioner, post-it, sponge

Botanical Silhouettes, Erin Lincoln, and Variations

I sat down to use all the images from Botanical Silhouettes, the PTI anniversary set that my friend Linda sent me. This was the second card I made:

This card was inspired TOTALLY by a card in PTI's DT gallery made by the amazing Erin Lincoln. This turned out so well, I wondered.

what
would
happen
if
I
varied
Erin's
layout
with
the
other
stamps
in
the
set?

Yes, I've been reading weird poetry again. What of it?

Not really. I'm just feeling weird tonight. Perhaps I should try to write some weird poetry.

Anyway, I started playing with Erin's design (hope she doesn't mind) and couldn't stop because it was just sooooo inspiring. So I made this by stamping the dandelions and poufs into the stems.

And then this happened. Love how easily the flower stamp lines up with the grass stamp. I was skeptical at first, but it's seriously easy.

Finally, I made this. At first, I tried grounding the dandelion as I grounded the previous two plants. It looked, well, awkward. So I redid it like this and I like it so much better.

Hope you do, too!

Supplies
stamps: Botanical Silhouettes, Text Style
ink: Memento
paper: PTI
accessories: rhinestones

Inspiration Takes an Unusual Direction, Part 3 and a Word about Thick Embellishments

As I've said for the past two days, seeing some peat pot cards in Take Ten made me want to play with textures, but another part of the appeal of the inspiration cards was their use of different, unusual collage-type elements (buttons, twine, snaps, dymo label, etc.) in a very simple way. On my first card, I used the wooden heart and twine, on yesterday's card I tried to use buttons and papyrus with a bird punch.  Here's a much more successful attempt using the StampinUp bird punch.

This design is much more unified than yesterday's, which felt like too much stuff and somewhat disjointed. The musical acrylic piece (a RAK from Audrey...thank you!) relates to the bird in color and theme, the pearls are a tiny bit egg-like, and string belongs on a bird's nest.

The marbled paper is from a scrap left over from previous projects. The swirly soft-pink colors have a hint of gold shimmer (like the gold ink of the music on the acrylic piece) which is absolutely lovely in real life and complements the shimmer and color of the pearls as well. 

For those of you who, like me, rarely use big thick embellishments on cards, it really can be fun to play around with them on occasion. To duplicate the idea without the bulk, however, would be fairly easy if you have either musical patterned paper or a music stamp. Punch a circle of the music and use either a) a thin acrylic sticker over it (i.e., Page Pebbles) or b) Crystal Effects. That way, you could easily mail it in a standard envelope.

Or you can just say the heck with it and use a ridiculously thick embellishment. Whatever works for you.

Inspiration Takes an Unusual Direction, Part 2 and a Critique

Inspired by the rad texture of peat pot cards in Take Ten, I pulled out several different textured papers and played, just to see what would happen. Sometimes, as with yesterday's card, playing around works happily. Sometimes, well, it doesn't quite hit the mark.

Today's card uses papyrus, some lovely textured white cardstock from Marco's Papers, and some handmade inclusion paper that has rose petals, twigs, and leaves imbedded in it. It's also an example of good things taken just a bit too far. I'd like to share my analysis of what went wrong, particularly as it relates to adapting collage/shabby styles to clean-and-simple design.

I'm not fishing for compliments...just sharing my thoughts in the hope that they will help inspire you to play around and not to be afraid of making something you don't like.

I don't like this card nearly as much as yesterday's card mainly because it's not as visually simple. The punched bird has a lot going on with it...the petal on its wing and the twig on its body, combined with the handmade texture of the paper are a LOT to look at. Add the two differently toned buttons with twine, the rough natural edge of the papyrus, and the curly sentiment, and the card crosses the line from CAS to, well, I'm not sure what, but it's not exactly CAS, is it?

Also, the balance is off. The ivory bird and button need a third element to ground them visually, and I thought the white base would do that...but it doesn't. Perhaps it's because the papyrus panel is just a titch too big. Perhaps the layout itself is simply not effective. Perhaps the sentiment needs more visual weight. Whatever. It's a card that almost works but, in the end, doesn't.

I love all the individual elements of this card....I just should have limited how many I used and rearranged them a bit. This bird card shows how tempting it is to keep adding more stuff...and how in the interest of clean-and-simple design, more stuff often isn't better.

But you never know what will happen if you don't even try.

Inspiration Takes an Unusual Direction

A set of cards in Take Ten was made with peat pots...you know, those inexpensive pots for growing plants. Now, I kill pretty much any plant I touch, so no peat pots hang around my house. But I loved the pot texture as well as the white space of the layouts in the magazine, so I decided to see what sorts of exotic papers I had that might add some texture and fun to similar layouts.

Here's the first card I made, which shows off the lovely reedy texture and golden color of papyrus:

I punched the label shape (EK Success) out of papyrus and stamped the sentiment in VersaColor burgundy ink. Sometimes, dye inks will bleed on papyrus so I made sure to use the nice, thick VersaColor. The papyrus is attached to the card base with scor-tape. Then, I took a small wooden heart and tapped the Memento rhubarb dewdrop pad on it, stopping short of complete coverage to give a bit of a weathered look to it. That looked too plain, so I glued a small knot of Papertrey's dark twine to it...a love knot.

Oh how I love this card! Methinks I'll give it to my hubby for our 25th wedding anniversary next week.

I'll show you a few more of my cards inspired by the peat pots over the next few days. In the meantime, why not look through your own paper stash for unusually textured pieces in natural colors to play with?

Inspired by Beth Opel

Remember Wednesday is OLW day on Jennifer's Blog!

Yet another card maker inspired me through Card Creations magazine. This time, it's Beth Opel's fabulously colorful and clean get well card that uses three strips of designer paper and three brads. How cool is this?!?!?!

I sifted through my much-neglected designer paper and didn't find anything comparable to Beth's strips. But I DID find this funky polygon paper in a soft pink and browns, which meant a different color scheme...softer and girly but still a bit graphic. My stash of stamps also didn't have a comparable sentiment, so a little simple repetition gives a similar effect. I used brown half-pearls in place of brads.

My ribbon stash had some fun, bright colors, so I wondered what would happen if I used a landscape-oriented card and ran ribbons all the way across. [Note: the ribbon is attached with Scor-Tape and trimmed flush to the sides of the card.] Moving the sentiment up and to the right still balances the rhinestones across the wider space. Another way of unifying this design was to stamp the sentiment in the same color as the bottom ribbon. Black would have looked out of place here.

Finally, I remembered my Papertrey polka dot paper and paired it with this fun sentiment from Hero Arts. No need for brads or rhinestones, which would have been too much. Oh how I love the flatness of this card...yet the colors really make it fun and interesting!

I really hope these inspiration posts are helping those of you who are intimidated by adapting other cardmaker's designs feel better about the whole process. If you loosen up and play around, it's really not that hard to use someone else's cool idea as a jumping off point for your own variations. Too many times, beginners or stampers who think they aren't creative feel they have to copy cards exactly. In fact, varying ideas with what you already have on hand is lots of fun!!!

Inspired by Lindsay Amrhein and a Link to a Lattice Tutorial

This adorable kraft-base card by Lindsay Amrhein appears in the latest issue of Card Creations, which is my favorite issue EVER. It's loaded with tons of clean and simple inspiration.

Lindsay paper pieced her sweet bowl of cherries using turquoise and red designer papers, and I loved those colors against the kraft.

I kept the colors (though my turquoise is a lighter aqua) and rather than piecing, I opted for the much easier punching. At first, I was going to punch circles for the flower centers, but then I remembered these giant brads, so I used them instead. The three brads form a visual triangle around the sentiment, and the top large flower and bottom small flower are popped up on dimensionals. Lindsay rounded all four corners, which makes sense given the curves of her focal point, but I felt the pointy flowers on my version needed at least some pointy corners. Rounding the opposite corners gives a nice dynamic feel to an otherwise static design.

Scor-Pal Tutorial: For those of you who asked for a tutorial on yesterday's embossing, please thank blog reader Susan who linked to an awesome Gina K tutorial on the subject. Gina's tutorial shows a much tighter lattice than the one on my baby card, for which the lines were scored at one-inch intervals. I used a Scor-Pal (12") rather than the smaller Scor-Buddy. Also, my card is one layer, so I began with a 4.25" x 11" card base and scored at 3.5 and 5.5 inches...the 5.5" score was the fold for the card, and the 3.5" score, which is covered by ribbon on my card, gave me a guide for scoring the lattice on the lower two-thirds of the card.

For those of you who aren't using your Scor-Pal for more than folding cards, DON'T WORRY. That's what I use it for 99% of the time, too. It's worth every penny even if that's all you ever do with it!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink's Green Thumb
paper: Mark's Finest Kraft, PTI's polka dot paper
ink: Memento
accessories: brads, dimensionals, Corner Chomper

CASEing Kelley Eubanks

As soon as I saw this card in the new issue of Papercrafts, I knew I had to CASE it. It's not often I want to actually copy a card I see, but Kelley Eubanks spoke to me with her fun, crisp, clean-and-simple, one-layer card. I just couldn't think of any way to improve upon it!

I started with the butterfly from Kind Thoughts (SU), a sentiment from Hero Arts, and three rhinestones. Oh I'm so happy!

Then, I decided to try a more vintage image from Letters from Friends (SU) and a lighter sentiment from Clear and Simple Stamps. I'm so happy again!!!!

On a design note, I deliberately left the bottom corners square on the second card...the image didn't seem to invite rounded corners, while the butterfly certainly did.

Kelley is an amazing CAS stamper, and I thank her for giving us this fabulously flexible layout (I never would have thought to put bling underneath like that) and a fresh color combination. If you get a chance this week, play around with her idea. It's truly fabulous, and you can take it in so many different directions.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Supplies
stamps: SU, Hero Arts, Clear and Simple Stamps
ink: SU real red, Memento black
paper: Mark's Finest Papers
accessories: rhinestones, corner rounder

Another Pinterest Card

Here's yet another of the cards I made inspired by Marta's Pinterest boards. I loved this kid's room, especially the colors, chairs, and carpet.

The striped table cloth was made with Papertrey's Faux Ribbon set, and the lamp is from Hero Arts. The sentiment comes from Papertrey's Paper Tray set. The colors are Memento inks.

And of course I blinged. Or blung. Did we decide which was correct? I'm all insecure since my matte/mat blunder.

Simplicity Tip: To align the lamps, which are wood-mounted rubber, I put a 6" quilt ruler across the top of the card and centered it so the number 3 was in the exact middle. Then I made a little mark where I wanted the central lamp base to go. Using a stamp postitioner, I stamped the central lamp. Then, it was easy enough to use the positioner to align the right and left lamps by eyeball. Of coures, I erased the pencil mark when I was done. Memento ink dries quickly...but don't rush the erasing. You'll get mad and say bad words when you ruin a finished card.

Happy Inspiration

This card was inspired by Marta's Pinterest board picture here. The yellow and white made me so happy!

I used a large background from Hero Arts, masking the bottom of the card. The sentiment is also from Hero's Sending Smiles clear set. Then I blinged it up just for fun.

My husband liked this card, but he thought it had bugs on it. Happy bugs. I don't see bugs, but at least he liked it.

-------------------

On a more serious note, I want to offer my prayers up for all affected by the earthquake off Japan. Between that and all the flooding and earthquake that affected New Zealand and Australia, it's been a bad time for that whole half of the world.  If any of you have specific prayer requests, please leave them in the comments.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: summer sun (SU)
paper: PTI white
accessories: stitched ribbon, rhinestones, scor-tape

Christmas Inspiration, Part 2

NOTE: I'll select a winner for Monday's give-away on Sunday, so get your comment in before midnight Saturday! The comments have been absolutely amazing...so many ideas!



For part 1 of this series, please click here.

Since it's been a while since Part 1, here's the picture of the inspiration from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Christmas Ideas magazine:

Today, we're focusing on the polka dot wrapping paper. I reversed the colors (from white dots on green paper to green dots on white paper), and loved the fun results!

The sentiment is from Mark's Finest Papers' set Greetings of the Season. The dots are PTI's Polka Dot background set (the first one, since I don't have the second!). The floss is dark brown and matches the ink of the sentiment much better IRL than in the picture.

Next up, I wanted to play off the pine boughs of the tree, but all the pine bough stamps I own are too realistic...I wanted a stylized look like the poinsettias and reindeer on the mantle in the inspiration picture. Of course, I recently bought the Martha Stewart pine border punch on sale with some birthday money, and it was PERFECT for getting the natural appeal of the inspiration with a clean and simple style!

That sentiment is from Swirl Christmas, a Hero Arts set. Its rustic yet festive font struck just the right tone for the inspiration.

Finally, I used a single white poinsettia on kraft to capture the soft and natural atmosphere of the inspiration stocking...the fuzzy flower soft was perfect to soften the crisp white since I don't have felt for the flower.

I hope this has showed how you can focus your attention of little details of an inspiration and run with them on a card.

Up next week...emergency quick Christmas card and gift ideas for crafters in a time crunch! Also, some cards that have

NOTHING

WHATSOEVER

TO DO

WITH

CHRISTMAS!

Your're welcome. *wink*

Christmas Inspiration, Part 1

First of all, thank you for your encouraging comments on my Random Thoughts post. Seriously, by midafternoon I was back to normal and stamping up a storm. I made 18 Christmas cards in 50 minutes. Of course, they were mass production of one of my gray and red one-layer cards, but still. I now have 100 cards ready to send. Another 20 or so, and I'm good to go.

Several people have said they have a hard time dealing with inspiration challenges because they just aren't sure what to do or where to start. Let's take a look at how non-stamping magazines can inspire cards. Here's the inspiration page from Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Christmas Ideas magazine.

When there's so much on the page, it's best to focus on one small detail that stands out for you. In this case, the focus for today's card is the white poinsettia wreaths on the mantle:

Isn't that PERFECT for a punched wreath! This is a pretty literal interpretation, using a small flower punch (each poinsettia is made of two flowers layered with a gemstone in the center). The sentiment was white-embossed.

For the card, the original inspiration wreath has been taken completely out of context and given space to breathe. So simple, so clean, so EASY. And I never would have thought about this particular arrangement without seeing that poinsettia wreath on the mantle in the picture.

Supplies
stamps: Anna Griffin
ink: SU white craft ink
paper: SU celery
accessories: white embossing powder, flower punch, glue pen, olive gemstones

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

Inspiration Week: Day 5

To conclude our Inspiration Week, we're going to talk about product. Often, a card idea can originate with a really cool embellishment, which is why walking the aisles of big craft stores can be such an adventure. SO MUCH GOODNESS! SO MUCH TEMPTATION!

My recommendation (for what it's worth) is to be very careful when buying random embellishments. It's terrifyingly easy to over-buy. But when something speaks to your soul, don't hesitate.

When I saw these gold skeleton leaves at Michael's, my soul took control of my hand, which reached out and threw a package in the cart. I had no idea at the time what I would do with them, but I knew I could make something beautiful.

This card is really all about the product. The Strathmore watercolor card (which has a matching envelope...be still, my heart!) draws attention to itself with the gorgeous edging and texture without my doing a thing. The leaves and their attendant bling give the card shine, sparkle, and texture. All I did was stamp the sentiment (Hero Arts) in real red and glue everything else down.

A few carefully-chosen products can carry a clean-and-simple card beautifully.

Give-Away

Today's give-away consists of various embellishments I culled from my stash, all things that I've used in the past few months that inspired me to make art. I hope they will inspire some random lucky winner. To enter, just answer the following question in the comments of this post: what products most inspire your creativity?

Today's give-away is open to everyone, and just a reminder, the deadline for comments on all five Inspiration Week posts is 12:00 Eastern Time, Saturday, September 25th. The winners will be announced on Sunday.

Inspiration Week: Day 4

Inspiration is all around us, if we open our eyes to see. I've already mentioned this week that I keep a little notebook in my purse to write down ideas I encounter as I go through daily life...my brain is a very busy place, and if I don't write things down those things disappear forever or until I happen to bump into them again, an act of serendipity I'm unwilling to trust. So I write things down, sketch them out using my primitive drawing ability that only I can understand.

But that's okay. It's recorded, and I can come back to it easily. Inspiration is largely private and personal. Where one person sees a really cool card, another may only see, let's say, a set of hotel toiletries:


These were in the bathroom of our hotel room in Madison. Aren't they pretty!?!? The colors and crisp, clean design caught my eye immediately, so I snagged them to take home to my craft room. No need to write them in a notebook.

After a number of failed efforts at duplicating this super-simple design that left me banging my head on the table in despair (don't let anyone tell you CAS is easy...it's NOT), I finally hit gold by using a limited edition Thank You set from Clear and Simple Stamps. BTW, I felt entirely justified in having a bazillion stamps while trying to figure this card out.


I love words (*snort*) so making cards with just words really appealed to me. But the sentiment I chose to put under the large Thank You (because the length of the line worked best) says from the heart. So I added a heart to the envelope flap. Because I could. (Note that these little cards are 4.75" x 3", to fit into the envelopes I already had.)

The second inspiration piece today was a photo in a decorating magazine. I really loved the color combination here, a sort of orangy reddish shade plus a very clear green (left to my own devices, I would have paired that orange-red with olive green...so NOT original or fresh!).


Adding cream and two shades of brown means this card has five colors on it. FIVE. Ordinarily, using five colors on a card would make me break out in hives, but with inspiration like this bedroom decor, it really was quite easy.


The stamps here are PTI's Floral Frenzy, which has this wonderful two-part sentiment, so I also stamped the inside of my card. I really need to start paying more attention to the inside of cards.



Today's Give-Away

Today is the grand opening of Shady Tree Studio. Nancy used to work at Cornish Heritage Farms, and when it closed, she felt the push to start her own company. Happy Day for all of us!!!!

I'll be placing an order today for Naturally Imagined (how appropriate!) to get started with Nancy's line. I love the look of that set and how easy it is to color...no large empty spaces to fret about blending. Plus, the sentiments are wonderful.

I'll also give a $15 gift certificate to Shady Tree Studio to one random lucky person who comments on this post by answering this question: Where, outside of nature and the world of papercrafting, do you like to look for inspiration for your stamping?

One-Layer Wednesday Meets Inspiration Week: Day 3

Wow, today is a two-for-one! A challenge and a give-away! And no, you don't have to do the challenge to have a chance to win the give-away.

Today's One-Layer Wednesday Challenge is to be inspired by NATURE! Many of you have already commented that nature is a big part of your inspiration. Well, here's your chance to express that inspiration in ONE LAYER!

My card set me to giggling with glee as soon as I made it. Y'all know how much I love autumn (or fall as we always called it in the South). Autumnal colors look dreadful on me, and I always avoided them in my clothing but was secretly jealous of my sister who could wear food shades like pumpkin or mustard and look awesome. She's also tall and skinny. As you can imagine, I had issues growing up.

Since I started papercrafting, though, I adore using the rich and warm colors of my favorite time of the year, and any excuse to use a tree stamp is welcome. PTI's Falling Leaves is simply perfect for creating a little fall scene. See that cute little branch sticking in on the right? See the missing leaf? See how it's fallen to the sentiment, almost like a punctuation mark? See how it hints at a lovely triangle of pumpkin pie ink on the card?

See? See? See?



*giggle*

You all have no idea how it's killed me to wait for the OLW to post this card. I made it over a week ago!

Okay, okay, I'll get myself under control here. Back to business.

OLW21 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single piece of cardstock folded in half.

2. Make a card that is inspired by nature. Remember to keep embellishments to a minimum.

3. Please share your creation by posting your card online and then using the InLinkz button in the sidebar of Simplicity to link to it.

4. Most important of all...HAVE FUN!

Give-Away

Please share what inspires you most in nature in the comments. If you live in the U.S., you'll have a chance at winning a big ol' stack of paper. Yes. Paper. The most natural of the supplies for our hobby. Check out the gorgeousness! Thirty-four colors of StampinUp cardstock, three sheets of each, 102 sheets total. And yes, it's the real thing, even if I refuse to use the egregious exclamation point. Only I am allowed to use egregious exclamation points on this blog.



If you live outside the U.S., feel free to comment and just list your country (or say "not for the drawing" if you're shy or already have too much paper, like I do) so I'll know not to count you for the give-away.

And FYI, tomorrow's give-away will be open to everyone once again. Yippy!

Remember, if you read Simplicity in your email, click on the post title to go to the actual blog to leave a comment. Emailed responses will not count for the drawing.

Inspiration Week: Day 2

Today's inspiration focus is on stamps. With all the wonderful stamp companies out there, we are so fortunate to have about a gazillion stamps to choose from. This is both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes it's just hard to narrow down the choices...or keep our purchases reasonable because of all the deliciousness out there.

After studying the SU catalog closely, I decided to buy the new butterfly set that is basically an add-on to Flight of the Butterfly. I have and love the first set, but the text, houndstooth, and flourishy butterflies called to me. Plus, I wanted the coordinating punch. As soon as my goodies arrived, I dove right in to see what I could do with them.

In this case, I let the inspiration come from the flourishy butterfly itself. It's so pretty and soft and curvy, and I wanted to showcase it for max impact. As you'll see later, it makes a delightful one-layer card, but here, I wanted to create a bit of a frame for it to spill over. I also wanted to use that GAWGEOUS sentiment, which reminds me of the sentiments in Happy Harmony, one of my fave SU sets ever.

The matte frame helps the sentiment and butterfly relate to each other visually, and the crisp lines and high contrast of the colored mattes contrast nicely with the curves of the butterfly and sentiment. Remember, lines love curves, and curves love lines. I did briefly flirt with the idea of using the ticket punch on the corners but restrained myself. I'm so glad I did.


The brown pearls on the butterfly echo the brown of the sentiment, too, adding a bit more unity to card.


When you get a pretty stamp, ask yourself, "What is the LEAST I can do to make this stamp shine?" Often, it's really not very much at all.

Today's Give-Away: Another stamp set from Mark's Finest Papers, loaded with stamps to inspire! Just like yesterday's, this give-away is open to everyone. The deadline for entering all of the Inspiration Week Drawings will be Saturday, September 25, at noon Eastern time. The winners for all the give-aways will be announced on Sunday.

Today's Question: What stamps inspire you the most? Is it a particular theme (nature, vintage, cutesy, Christmas), image (frogs, leaves, kids without mouths, backgrounds), or brand?

Glitter Paper...Makes Me Haaaappyyyyyyy

Just like sunshine on my shoulders, this glitter paper I picked up at Hobby Lobby makes me happy. Last year, I made Christmas ornaments with it, and now a card, the layout of which is taken from Tiffany Johnson's card in Papercrafts Go-To Sketches, page 51.


I did have to move the sentiment. (Tiffany put her sentiment on the circle, but her circle doesn't have a huge snowflake punched out of it....)

Hey, I bet y'all thought I'd forgotten about my resolution to use as many of the Go-To Sketches as possible on my Christmas cards this year. More upcoming, but I'm finding some of the sketches require massive overhaul to be made clean and simple. That's okay, though. It's a challenge.

I love a good challenge. And it just might help me stop seeing the dog who isn't here.

But I doubt that.

Thanks to all of you who gave me input on how to make the blog a place you really enjoy visiting. You've given me some good things to think about and ideas for future posts.

For those who haven't put their own 2 cents in, please feel free to share your answers to these questions: What can I do to make Simplicity more inspiring to you? What would you like to see more or less of here?

Supplies
stamps: PTI Perfect Poinsettia
ink: Palette Noir
paper: glittery paper from Hobby Lobby, PTI white
accessories: Martha Stewart snowflake and border punches, Marvy circle punches, ribbon, half-pearl, dimensionals