Alphabet Art--Edited

Note: This is my second post today!

Those of you who read my other blog know I am a word nerd. Since words are made up of letters, I am also rather fond of the alphabet. The last card I remember making that featured the alphabet was this one. I like today's 5" x 7" card even better.

The idea for this card came from a picture of a wall with a random alphabet collage on it. I thought the picture was on Marta's Pinterest boards, but now I can't find it. Whatever. I wouldn't have made this card without seeing that picture, wherever in cyberspace it is.
I'm just not that clever. So thanks to some clever decorator, I made this card.

Edited to add: Thanks to reader Malyn, I can now give the link to the inspiration photo. Thanks, Malyn!

First, I pulled out a bunch of aphabet stamp sets. Sadly, this represents less than a third of my total alphabet sets. I know, I know. I have a problem. I. Don't. Care. Because if I didn't have such an awesome selection, I couldn't have made this card. So there.

Second, I said a prayer and started stamping. I wanted to put a word in my alphabet collage, and art seemed appropriate. Color is the only defining element for the word: art is in Bahama blue (Memento), and the rest of the letters are black, dark brown, and tan, which I tried to arrange as randomly as possible while still holding true to alphabet order.

Finally, I added punctuation because there was a little awkwardness in my random placement. The punctuation filled in the holes, so to speak, and made the whole composition more balanced.

I love punctuation.

Yes, I was an English teacher. Why do you ask?

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In other news, I just noticed that Simplicity has 499 followers. About a month ago, it passed 1,000 email subscribers. March 20th is my two-year blog anniversary.

Put these random facts together, and clearly we need to celebrate. Oh, yeah.

Just wait.

Supplies
stamps: a bunch, mostly StampinUp and Hero Arts, with a few Papertrey thrown in for fun
ink: Memento Bahama blue, black, rich cocoa; SU close to cocoa
paper: PTI white
accessories: none

An Unusual Christmas Card

This card is a joke...literally. Can you figure it out?

Look at the letters. There are 25. Which one is missing?

There's NO __! Say it out loud. Can you hear the joke? Scroll down....

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The idea for this card comes from old-fashioned printers' holiday cards. Printers set type to print alphabet sample sheets without the L and sent the sheets to other printers for Christmas. Several years ago at the Maryland Renaissance festival, I purchased a framed No L alphabet that was printed on a replica of the Guttenburg Press.

BTW, it was fascinating to see the craftsman, in period costume, print a sheet on the press. We are so spoiled with ink jet printers and laser printers and copy machines. Printing used to be hard work!

Writer/editor geeks like myself love all things typographical, so this card is destined for a writer/editor friend of mine who will TOTALLY get the joke and love it just like I do.

If you want to try your own No L alphabet, consider using your computer to design it and printing it off. As a general rule, I don't print things for my cards (a personal hang-up I don't expect anyone else to share), but it would be a great way to eliminate the tedious stamping required. Or just go find cool alphabet stickers like I did.

About the card: It's 5 x 7 to accommodate the large size of the alphabet square. The colors are old olive and pomegranite, which perfectly match the funky K & Company stickers. I had a selection of colors for most of the letters, so I tried to arrange the colors somewhat randomly. This is fun, but I'm going to try stamping instead to get all the same color and see how that works. Stamping all 25 letters might be a pain, though. I'll let you know!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: SU purely pomegranite
paper: PTI white, SU pomegranite and old olive
accessories: letter stickers (K & Co), ribbon, dimensionals

Monogram Card #2 Revisited

One of my husband's Air Force flight instructors once said, in a lovely Southern drawl, "It was a good idea that shouldn't have seen the light of day." That's how I'm starting to feel about the butterfly monogram card.

I tried popping the monogram up. Yuck...although to be fair, this might work if you positioned the butterflies specifically to do this. On my card, though, there were too many butterflies crowded under the popped monogram and it looked BAD. I'm just too lazy to try again. Sigh.

I tried using a giant SU monogram (Headline Alphabet) and it definitely made the monogram the center of attention, but it was, alas, too big. Sigh again.

Then I tried a tiny change to the original card, which I think is a little better.

I stamped and cut out a blue butterfly and positioned it a little below the monogram. I think it does draw more attention to the monogram, but I still think there are just too many butterflies. Oh, and I can't take the ribbon off this card because I used the stay-put ribbon technique so there's a big, ugly hole hidden under the knot.

I'm starting to hate this card, which is a shame, because it's really not that bad. Sigh.

Then, I saw Harriet's variation on the card, put her idea together with the gist of Monogram Card #3, and Bob's your uncle:



What does "Bob's your uncle" really mean? I don't know, but it seemed suitable here. I am finally happy with my butterfly monogram card. It's random in the same tidy way as Monogram #3, the monogram stands out sufficiently, and, well, who DOESN'T like bling?

Thanks, Harriet, for the inspiration!

Monogram Card #3, My Favorite

YES! This card makes me so, so happy on every level and in every way!!! It's simple and flat and very clean, and it allowed me to use some of the many alphabet stamp sets I hoard. It's modern and fun and simple.

Did I already say simple? Sorry, but simple is important on a blog called Simplicity.

The idea for this card came to me in a flash of inspiration. I was thinking about Ali Edwards, and how she uses her initials graphically on her scrapbook pages and blog. I thought about her love of type, of my printer's type tray that's leaning on my craft room wall awaiting some inspiration for altering because Ali did one, and all the little slots in it for holding different sized letters. Then I thought of how many stamp alphabets I have (around 40...it's an obsession) and how rarely I have used them since I've made a grand total of 4 scrapbook pages in the last year.

And suddenly, I saw this card in my head. It turned out exactly like I wanted. Happy sigh.

Design-wise, there is a lot I like in this. Clean white space (that happens to be green but whatever) balances the busy letters confined to a tidy matted strip. The repeated curvy S shapes contrast nicely with the straight lines of the stamped panel, matte, and card. Curves love angles.

I don't know why. They just do.

The biggest S is brown, like the matte, and all the others are shades of green that give an illusion of dimension to a really flat card. Since they are all the same letter, it's not visually chaotic. Your eye quickly "gets" that they are all the same and just enjoys the movement.

Well, I hope your eye enjoys it. Mine sure does.

I'm still ruminating on Monogram Card #2. Has anyone else played with that idea? I'm thinking the monograms need to be bigger (not a problem for Alpha Stamp Girl!) or maybe even chipboard for dimension. That card looks a bit flat to me (and to some of you). We'll come back to that one for sure.

J O Y

While under the inspirational influence of the PaperCrafts article "Graphically Speaking," I made this Christmas card, which would be super easy to mass produce. Placement of the letters is a snap if you have a large gridded acrylic block and can stamp all three letters at the same time. This card isn't a standard height...not sure how short it is, 'cause I eyeballed it to make the word and gems feel balanced. I wanted to leave it as a white-base OLC, but it really was too plain, so I scalloped the bottom and added a red border, which helped spruce it up without being fussy.

Hope you like it!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts alphabet
paper: PTI white, SU real red
ink: real red
accessories: Hero Arts rhinestones, SU scallop border punch