CAS121 Folded Ribbon

So. It took a federal holiday to get me playing along with the Clean and Simple Challenge at SCS this week. I love this challenge, was even on its first design team over two years ago, yet I rarely have time on Mondays lately to play, and it just seems so after-the-fact to play later in the week. This week, I made the time. Go, me!

The challenge was to Fold and Scrunch Ribbon. Fold, yes. Scrunch? Homey don't scrunch. It looks untidy. Don't misunderstand. Scrunched is a look that works beautifully on cards made by people who are not a certain kind of retentive and obsessive compulsive. Check out this card by cookiebaker (Charlene) and this one by ReginaBD, and you'll see scrunching used to perfection by talented stampers who are clearly not mentally ill.

Homey, however, is mildly AR/OC. So homey don't scrunch.

Homey does fold, though. Oh, yes. Homey folds.

Homey also likes shimmer and pulled out her Smooch to liven up this monochromatic image from SU's Pocket Silhouettes. She popped the scallop oval on two layers of dimensionals, and the smooth oval on one.

That's a lot of popping and means this card will be hand-delivered or included in a package rather than simply mailed in an envelope. Because homey is AR/OC. Remember?

Check out the close-up. Homey's rockin' down to the rad shimmer.

Doesn't it annoy you when people refer to themselves in third person?

I would never do this.

Never.

Supplies
stamps: StampinUp Pocket Silhouettes
ink: Ancient Page calypso
paper: Mark's Finest 120lb white
accessories: SU oval punches, dimensionals, Smooch, Ribbon (Mark's Finest Papers)

Inspired Goodness...and a Way to Use Ribbon Scraps!

Today's post contains four cards of my own making and one card--the one that inspired my four--from Card Creations magazine. Like I've said before, this issue of Card Creations is stellar, superb, out of this world! *squeal*

I can't contain my glee. Especially when such super-cool ideas as the one Vera Yates shares in this card send me into spasms of creativity.

You see, just the day before I saw Vera's card, I looked at my very full jar of ribbon scraps and thought, "Huh. You need to do something with those."

Then Vera's card then led me to do this:

HELLO!!!!

I used my Fiskar's Shapecutter system to cut the heart and Scor-Tape to adhere the ribbon to the card base. The stamp is from October Afternoon. The only two tips I have are 1) make sure your ribbons don't extend beyond the popped-up mat and 2) put plenty of dimensional tape around the opening in the mat so it doesn't sag. Also, if you want to do the faux stitching or tie a ribbon around the mat, do these things BEFORE adhering the mat to your card with dimensionals.

Just sayin'.

Since I had the Fiskar's out, I tried a couple more shapes. This leaf has a lovely curve that allows the sentiment to nestle in so nicely, don't you think? The sentiment is from Papertrey's First Fruits.

And what comes after Thanksgiving? Christmas, of course! I did Vera's faux stitching on this card and really like the effect with this much larger image, which required a 5" x 7" card. It looks sort of country-ish and warm because of the stitching.

Finally, I decided to try a punched shape, but found the restrictions of punches (that you can't punch anywhere on the paper...just on the edges) a bit frustrating. This 4.25" square card uses a big flower punch from StampinUp and button from Papertrey.

If you're looking at a huge pile of ribbon scraps, give this a try! Obviously, if you have a die cut machine and some interesting dies, you'll have more options than I have. If you have a Fiskars, you can certainly have fun. Punches are a bit harder just because of the narrow margins, but they still work.

But please, if you have a pear die, don't go there. Just don't. *wink*

Ribbon Rush

I used to use ribbon on every card I made, so I bought every ribbon that looked remotely useful or pretty to me. About a year ago, my ribbon stash became quite unruly, so I cleaned it out mercilessly. Lots of the ribbons I had accummulated didn't match ANY of the cardstock I had and were simply taking up space. I compared each ribbon to a swatch of cardstock; if it didn't match any of my colors, I put it in a big bag. Our church preschool appreciated the donation, and I was left with a nice selection of ribbon I could actually use.

Since then, I've been very selective about the ribbons I buy, but one consequence of this has been to make my ribbon stash sort of boring: mostly grosgrain, a few sheer and satin, very little else. And lately, I've hardly used ribbon at all.

Every now and then, I come across a funky ribbon that has colors that match SU or PTI or inks I have, and those ribbons jump all by themselves into my cart. IT'S NOT MY FAULT! But now that my ribbon stash is growing again, I need to USE it. So here goes:

The light side of the ribbon is on top, to simulate snow over grass. The pointy effect of the ribbon echoes the pointy Christmas tree and the "W" of "wishes." I experimented with three shades of green ink, one for each section of the tree, but I just didn't have the right shades to match the ribbon well. I did use a lighter green gemstone to top the tree, and darker green gems below. (Wouldn't it be cool if I had three shades of green gemstones? Sigh. Guess we can't have everything.) It's a 4.25-inch square card, which seems to be a good proportional size for these trees from PTI's Merry and Bright set.

What are your feelings about ribbon? How do you decide what to buy? Have you tried silk ribbon yet? If so, did you love it or not so much? Where do you buy your ribbon?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Supplies
stamps: PTI Merry and Bright
cardstock: PTI white (of course)
ink: can't remember, but the sentiment looks like VersaColor Tea Leaves
accessories: gemstones, dimensionals, ribbon

One-Hole Knot Tutorial by LeAnne

Several people have asked about the stay-put ribbon I used on my pesky Monogram Card #2. Here's the scoop. The advantages to the stay-put, one-hole knot ribbons are:

1) they stay put and don't move around as you move cards in and out of envelopes, and

2) they are flatter than regular ribbon knots, which makes them easier to mail.

The only disadvantage: if you decide you don't want a ribbon on your card after all, you're just out of luck. There's a HOLE needed in the one-hole knot technique. Once you punch a hole, it's there forever. You have to be COMMITTED to the ribbon.

Or you can accept that it's just paper and if you screw it up, the world won't come to an end. It can help to say this out loud to yourself. I do.

I learned this knot technique from LeAnne Pugliese's blog HERE. Her tutorial is wonderful (as is the rest of her blog). This technique is pretty slick, and once you've done it a time or two, it's easy.

Happy knotting!

Crisp Vintage

I've already written about my distress over distressing. I totally enjoy seeing other people's distressed, shabby chic, inked, and torn cards. In fact, click on over to Joan's blog today and see a wonderful example of CHF's weathered backgrounder in action. But alas, whenever I personally venture into distressed waters, I feel bad for my paper.

This doesn't keep me from loving SU's Letters to Friends set. It was retired long ago, but the vintage feel of the stamps, not to mention the stamp of a fountain pen (did I mention I collect fountain pens and *gasp* USE them?), makes me swoon. Using vintage stamps in a crisp and CAS way, however, is a challenge.

Today's card takes advantage of a very crisp color scheme and plain satin ribbon to showcase a vintage image. Hope you like it!

Supplies
stamps: SU Letters from Friends, Hero Arts Italian writing
cardstock: cool caribbean, basic black, PTI white
ink: Palette noir, SU cool caribbean
accessories: black satin ribbon, dimensionals

Fall Elegance with Pretty Brown Ribbon

You must be getting sick of my obsession with Fall Elegance by now, but I really can't control myself with this set...it's too, too pretty and easy to work with! Seriously, go buy it right now. You'll thank me for it! And see how lovely it is with the flourish from Silent Night? Throw that one in your shopping cart, too!

And no, PTI does not pay me for all these exclamation points and my subtle advertising either.

Supplies
stamps: PTI Fall Elegance, Silent Night
paper: PTI white
ink: VersaColor burgundy and pinecone
accessories: ribbon (blog candy from Ali Manning!), dimensionals

Two Subtle Christmas Cards

Yesterday's post was a subtle Thanksgiving card, and today I have two subtle Christmas cards.






These two cards are super simple and easy to mass produce. The first shows nontraditional Christmas colors and some very sweet sheer-and-satin ribbon I bought at Michael's. The second is a tad more traditional, using light shades of green and a white on white layout.

Hope you like the cards and are enjoying your weekend. I sure am...I'm visiting my sister, niece, and nephew on the east coast!

Supplies
Pink Card
stamps: Snow Swirled
paper: PTI white
ink: Versacolor pixie pink, SU close to cocoa
accessories: ribbon

Green Card
stamps: Sleigh Bells Ring, sentiment from a PTI set whose name escapes me
paper: PTI white
ink: Versacolor sage, close to cocoa
accessories: dimensionals, ribbon

Using Ribbon Scraps

After accumulating a huge number of small scraps of ribbon, I decided to use a bunch on some easy cards. I believe this idea first came to me from the Hero Arts catalog...it's a technique the folks at Hero Arts use frequently. I adore their catalog as it's full of fun ideas like this.



I sorted the scraps by color, then used either a monochromatic scheme or mixed and matched. The sentiments on all five cards are from Hero Arts as well.



I made about a dozen cards total (duplicates of these) and slashed my small-scrap ribbon stash by about half. These went together very quickly, too.



I used a coordinating colored pen to doodle a border around each sentiment since they looked a bit plain without matting.



Hope you enjoy these!

Supplies
cardstock: PTI white and kraft
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Palette noir and dark chocolate
accessories: various pens, dimensionals, ribbon scraps

CAS12 Challenge: Little Bits of Ribbon

This week's Clean and Simple Challenge is to use little bits of ribbon as tabs or flags on a CAS card. Here's my sample card. The focal image is a detatchable bookmark for my niece, who loves to read (so it's not as bossy as it appears, LOL!). This fun color combination was inspired by the April issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. So fun and spring-y!

I did a whole color series of this card:



This was my favorite by a nose, just because the colors are so warm and friendly. The other combinations included cameo and turquoise; passion pink and green galore; and pumpkin and brocade blue on a cream base. Obviously, these three use complementary colors and have more color punch, which makes them cheerier, I suppose. I was limited by the colors of ribbon I had on hand. This little experiment made me want to order more ribbon in all the SU colors. Yikes!

Three Little Words and Unmoving Knot Tutorial

The StampinUp! set Three Little Words is so pretty and versatile. It would be perfect if only it weren't double-mounted. I had to have it anyway because the "T" of the word "three" looks like a medieval illuminated letter, and I wrote my thesis on Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was my destiny to own this stamp set.

I love how this card turned out because it's so perfectly clean and simple! First, I stamped the sentiment in black Palette ink on PTI's white cardstock (card is 4.25" square). The ornate "T" is stamped on a scrap of black cardstock with SU craft white, embossed in white, and cut out. Cutting it out was a pain but very much worth it. I popped the "T" up on dimensionals.

The black ribbon comes from Michael's. The sheer and satin combination works well with the ornate image, and I attached it using a really cool technique I read about on a blog. If anyone knows which blog, please tell me so I can give credit where credit is due. I NEVER couldn't have figured this technique out for myself, but it is so cool!

First, I punched a hole where I wanted the knot to be. Then, I laid the ribbon on the top of the card, wrapped both ends around to the inside and brought the ends up through the hole, one end on either side of the ribbon on the front of the card. Pull the ribbon tight, tie once, and you're done! The ribbon won't move now, and the knot is smaller than usual so it's easier to sneak it through the mail without the extra postage for lumpy envelopes. How cool is that?!?!

The set comes with a variety of three-little-word sentiments. I'll pick one when I decide to send the card. I like keeping my options open!


Thanks for looking!