February Is the Month of Love

And so I'm starting it off with a Valentine that uses a totally cool embellishment Audrie sent me...the tiny key charm!

The heart with the key hole is from a Martha Stewart punch, and the text heart stamp is from StampinUp. I layered the punched heart using tiny dimensionals. The key is attached with a couple of small glue dots. I used a craft knife to tuck the edges of the glue dots under the key, so they barely show.

OLW77
Jennifer will be posting the OLW for this week. Thank goodness she's back and I don't have to do the odd numbers anymore! I will comment on all the cards for OLW75 and OLW76. Sorry it's taking so long.

Grab Bag Update
All but one of the large papercrafting grab bags are gone. All the scrapbooking bags are still available. Don't think that just because they have a small album or two that you have to use all the stuff for scrapbooking. There are plenty of stamps, card stock, ink, and embellishments in those boxes as well! For instructions on ordering, please go to the For Sale tab.

Use-My-Stamps Resolution and a New Inventory Plan
As I announced in January, my new crafting resolution is to use every image stamp I own. Again. Someone asked how I was going to keep track of which stamps I had used, and I realized that I didn't have a good answer for that. The first time around, I simply checked the stamps off in my stamp inventory, but as that inventory is hopelessly out of date and completely useless now, I didn't know how to track everything.

Soooo, now that I've purged a whole bunch of stamps, I decided it was time to do a new inventory, this one based on how I organize my stamps. I'll do a post soon with photographs of the new stamp storage categories and an explanation of the process for doing the inventory WITHOUT giving myself stamper's elbow. It'll be slow but methodical!



Supplies
stamps: SU (not sure of the set, though...I broke it up!)
ink: SU real red
paper: SU real red, PTI white
accessories: Corner Chomper, key charm (thanks, Audrie!), Martha Stewart punch

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

The Return of the Colored Card Base

Yes, I have fallen off the use-all-my-colored-cardstock wagon. Sheesh. Just wait until you see tomorrow's post. White cardstock EVERYWHERE!

So I thought today I'd share the one colored-base card I've made in weeks. I like it. Lots.

This wasn't inspired by a single card but rather by a number of cards I've noticed in magazines lately that use the SU Top Note die (or similar) going off the edge of the card.

I, of course, do not have the Top Note die or any other die, seeing as I don't have a die cut machine, but a fun template for my Fiskar's Shape Cutter provided and clean and curvy substitute. This card uses product from four of my favorite companies: cardstock from SU and MFP, ribbon from MFP, sentiment from Hero Arts, and Dot Spot flower from Papertrey.

A Few Pieces of Business

1. I haven't forgotten about sharing my stamp index with you. I've just stalled in creating it. I will also do a quick tutorial on lining a punched border with colored cardstock and on modifying the PTI Framed stamps to accommodate wider sentiments. If there's anything else I've promised and haven't delivered or that you just want to see or know, pester me until I do it.

2. I've started a tab for my favorite products. It covers stamps right now, but I'll be adding a segment on cardstock, soon.

3. Y'all are the absolute best blog readers ever. I thank you for your support.

Geeking out with Colored Cardstock

Seeing the yummy, yummy colors of cardstock in the A Muse catalog made me feel really bad. I have a ton of cardstock already...more cardstock than a woman could use up in a decade of obsession.

Also, let me point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the cardstock I've collected. I only have top-quality cardstock. Period. I learned years ago that cheap cardstock makes cheap-looking cards. I'm just falling victim to the powerful force of wanting something cool that I don't have. Don't judge me. You're guilty of it, too.

Anyway, I decided that if I really want to buy and use some of those fab new-to-me cardstocks in this lifetime, I need to start using the colored cardstock that I have. And of course, given my mental tendencies, I have to overthink it and try to come up with a system, a formula, a foreign policy of sorts for embracing a supply that, let's face it, I've neglected for years.

The result of this overthinking is Susan's First Theory of Using Colored Cardstock on CAS Cards.

I told you I was geeking out in the title of this post.

So, what's the CASest thing you can do with color? Monochromatic schemes, of course. So the First Theory states that the card base should be a light shade, the matte should be a darker shade of the same color, and the stamped panel should be white. The stamping should be simple, with a sentiment stamped in either dark brown or black, depending on what looks best with the color you choose.

Sort of like this.

 Bling optional.

Not really. Bling is necessary.

I made four of these in record time. Well, I made two with this sentiment and two with a Thank you sentiment because I just had to vary them somehow.

You'll be seeing more examples of the First Theory in the coming weeks. Because seriously, I'm geeking. I expect I'll also have to come up with a Second Theory eventually...because otherwise what's the point of having a first theory?

Happy Wednesday!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memento
paper: Mark's Finest, Papertrey
accessories: dimensionals, rhinestone

Using Stuff: Colored Vellum

Today's card is flawed, but I have several reasons for showing it anyway. Well, reasons other than it's absolutely the only card I have photographed and ready to show you. It was this or nothing.

But today's card taught me several things. First, be careful what ink you use when you use colored pencils. I used Memento ink for this and when I was about half-way through coloring, I was shocked to find it smeared. Oh my. Not expecting that. Has anyone else had this problem?

Second, the light pink prisma colored pencil does not work well. This was my first time using it, and I now understand why people have complained about Prisma pencils. It wouldn't smooth out with a blender pencil at all, so the pink areas look sort of diseased. Perhaps using odorless mineral spirits would work, but I will not buy them. Sigh.

Third, blue vellum makes AWESOME water. I have had this sheet of blue vellum for at least eight years. You read that right: eight years. As part of my resolution to use or ditch old supplies, I decided to try it with the Martha Stewart wave border punch and see what happened. I LOVE this and will likely use the entire gawgeous sheet making ocean cards. But I won't use that pink prisma again.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (whale is from Oceans of Joy, sentiment is from a discontinued WM set)
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white, blue vellum
accessories: Prisma color pencils