Evolution of a Drab Idea

As you may or may not know, I love Barnes and Noble Booksellers. They have books and mochas, two things guaranteed to make me happy. So when I brought home this bag a few weeks ago, the thought popped into my noggin that perhaps, just perhaps, there was a way to make a card using a background stamp inspired by it. As I said on yesterday's post, I need to use my background stamps to justify buying more.


My noggin is completely stupid sometimes. What I was thinking? Woodcut designs are not exactly clean and simple, more like rustic and rough. After murdering many sheets of white cardstock, I had this drab little number:



I ask you, does this look like LateBlossom?

Yeah, I didn't think so, either.

Sigh.

Not unlike a bulldog, I wouldn't let this idea go and drooled on killed some more cardstock until this happened:


Still not exactly a LateBlossom card, but at least it's not drab. Mr. Petroglyph Lizard looks lonely on his frayed blankie, doesn't he? So I decided the miss you sentiment would fit. The two gemstones are just there to balance the sentiment and really should be brads because neither woodcuts nor petroglyphs bling much.

But they WISH they could bling.

You know they do.

Supplies
stamps: various
ink: always artichoke, apricot appeal, pumpkin pie
cardstock: PTI white
accessories: Post-It notes for masks, rhinestones

True Friends

After trolling the Hero Arts catalog for inspiration, I came up with this:



Don't laugh, but this fun card arose from a desire to use background stamps more, in order to justify ordering the two I want from the Hero catty. Seriously. Tomorrow's card is another in that effort.

See the games I play with myself? So sad.

Anywho, the set is Kindred Spirits from SU and isn't really a background stamp, per se. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. I really like how this turned out, and hope you do, too!

Supplies
stamps: SU Kindred Spirits, Hero Arts
paper: gable green, basic black, white
ink: Memories soft green, Palette Noir
accessories: gingham ribbon, dimensionals

Ink Makes a Difference--Enabling Alert

Seeing the coffee cup stamps in the new Hero Arts Catalog sent me to my stash for similar stamps. I pulled out PTI's Warm Happiness and Faux Ribbon and started playing.

The first card I made actually had a colored base (I'll show it later this week), but I wanted to make a one-layer version of it. Here's my first attempt at one layer, which we can all agree has some areas for improvement:



The layout is nice and balanced, and I love how the ribbon stamp grounds the design, but notice how spotty the ink looks. I used SU cool caribbean and close to cocoa. Often I DO get good results with clear stamps and SU classic ink, but not this time. Not sure how that unevenness got into the bottom of the wide brown ribbon line. Also, the cool caribbean is so light that I couldn't really see well to line up the scalloped edge with the flat ribbon stamp, so there is a gap between the two on the left side.

On a heavily embellished card, such a gap might not be noticeable. But on a one-layer card, YIKES!

Simplicity Tip: The ONLY way to use these long, thin ribbon stamps is to use a gridded acrylic block. Lay the stamp face down on your worktop, and lower the gridded block onto the stamp. This way, you can use the lines on the block to line everything up straight. As the above card shows, this technique is not full-proof, but it will work most of the time.

It was worth the effort to try again with different ink. The second version uses VersaColor ink, which is thick and creamy and gives lovely impressions with clear stamps. I used a darker shade of teal (lagoon blue) so I could see the scalloped stamp as I put it down.



As you can see, my aim was much better this time with the scallops, and the colors are much richer and cleaner. The coffee cup is popped on dimensionals. I cut off the handle to give the cup cleaner lines, more like the coffee cup stamps in the Hero catalog. (And also because I'm lazy and it's tedious and hard cutting out the hole in the handle. Just keepin' it real on the ol' blog!)

Another difference between the two cards is how I stamped the steam. For the first, I stamped the very bottom of the steam stamp ON the coffee cup before popping it on the card, and on the second, I didn't. I simply can't make up my mind which version I like better, or even if it makes a difference.

The purpose of this post is to make you feel good about buying different types of ink for different purposes. I find the little cubes and dew drops are a very cost-effective way of getting lots of colors of different inks for different purposes. Of course, make sure you want to DO the different purposes before you invest in the ink, and you can always start small, with just a few pads, to experiment. For instance, I haven't bought any distress inks because I HARDLY EVER DISTRESS ANYTHING.

But I have dozens of VersaColor cubes, VersaMagic dew drops, and Brilliance dew drops. These work great every time with my growing collection of clear stamps, and because I often make OLC's with no colored cardstock, the issue of matching ink and paper doesn't often come up. When I need to be all matchy-matchy, I use SU.

Thank you for reading this long and rambling post. Hopefully, I've enabled you in a good way!

Another Resource for Sending Cards for the Troops

I always try to include some missing you cards in my boxes for the troops. This simple card struck me as particularly good for a guy.



The tree line stamp is from PSX, whose lovely images live on even though the company went out of business years ago. It doesn't show in the picture, but I lined the inside with white paper so a note can be written and read easily. This is standard practice for dark-based note cards.

This card went out in a big box of over 100 cards on Thursday to Sue Salsburg. Her contacts "over there" really appreciate getting cards to send home. Sometimes, they send Sue pictures attached to their thank-you emails, which she forwards on to those who send her cards, so if you send cards to her, make sure you include a note with your email address! Her mailing information is:

Sue Salsburg
11637 Elton Rd.
Navarre, OH 44662

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I'm working on my list of New Year's Resolutions. The crafting ones include more scrapbooking and continuing 2009's resolution to use all my image stamps. One more set got used yesterday! What are your crafting resolutions for 2010? Trolling for ideas here!

Happy New Year

Welcome, 2010!

Before we get started on the new year, I think it respectful to look back on 2009 and acknowledge its victories. I don't like talking about failures. They happen, even to a really good year, but we don't need to dwell on them, now, do we?

1. As Ali Edwards recommended (not to me personally, mind you, but to the world on her blog), I chose a word for 2009 as my theme. It was FEARLESS. Be very, very careful what word you choose for your year. You just never know what might happen!

2. A few weeks later, I started a thread on SCS that celebrated Clean and Simple by putting all my neuroses and insecurities about my stamping out there for everyone to see. Clicking the post button for that thread was SCARY, but I did it anyway. So glad I did.

3. After that, several people asked me to start a weekly CAS Favorites thread. So glad I did it.

4. A few weeks after that, Miss Boo at SCS, who is very active in the challenges there, sent me a PM saying she wanted to try a weekly CAS challenge. Would I be on the design team? Me? On a design team? AAAACCCKKKK! But I said yes anyway. So glad I did.

5. A few people at SCS asked me to start a stamping blog. Easily influenced by even the slightest peer pressure, I took the plunge in March. I'd already started two other blogs, but this one terrified me. What if people realized I was just a poseur, a no-talent imitator, an AR/OCD freak?

6. After the initial shock of cold water from that plunge, I got used to the idea and realized, as I had with the thread in January, that I DID have something to share that was useful to other people. And if I poked fun at my mild AR/OCD tendencies, well, all the better.

7. I fearlessly climbed on the neologism bandwagon by coining the term CASification, or the verb form, to CASify. Taking highly embellished cards and converting them to CAS shows just how connected all card art is: CAS and highly embellished styles are just different sides of the same good design coin. No posing needed.

8. Stamping goddess Jennifer McGuire tweeted about Simplicity. Twice. The Queen of CAS herself, Julie Ebersole, occasionally comments on Simplicity. I'm a celebrity, once removed! *snort*

9. Blog it, and they will come. My subscriber count and Google followers keep growing. I don't feel at all responsible for this. It's the message, not me. ANYONE could do what I do, if they obsessed about it like I do. I'm no crafting genius. (Sorry, Marty! You're so sweet to say so, though!) I'm just a hard worker who is fearless enough to blog about it.

10. It's all your fault. When I first started, I posted sporadically. Now I post almost every day because of you. You embrace the message that Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication. You read my blatherings and view my cards, and you take precious time out of your lives to comment, to link to Simplicity from your blogs or various forums, to share it with friends. That spreads the message and widens the circle of CAS appreciation.

I'm not sure what 2010's word will be yet, but THANKFUL is a top contender. Thank you for encouraging me to be fearless. I'm so glad I was.

They Have It ALL WRONG!--Edited

Edited to add: The Hero Arts set used for these cards is called Woodland Leaves and Grasses. It is discontinued.

In line at Barnes and Noble cafe last week, I saw a magazine with the headline "From Simple to Spectacular."

As you might imagine, this sentiment frosted my shorts. I exclaimed angrily, "Simple IS spectacular!" in my outside voice, and the cafe employee asked, "Excuse me?"

"Oh, nothing," I replied, realizing this nice coffee man would think I was completely bonkers if I gave way to a rant about simplicity and might start shorting the espresso in my mocha (he already knows my usual order by heart). Clearly this strange woman talking to herself in public must have already had enough caffeine....

Anyway, I've been stewing over this headline ever since. Simplicity IS spectacular, and I knew you all would understand, seeing as you voluntarily visit a blog called Simplicity in the first place. Thank you for being my friends.

Today's cards are a very deliberate, in-their-face, so-there! comment on the idea that simple is anything other than spectacular. I know those complicated snobs are quivering in their boots now.

Today's simply spectacular cards are brought to you courtesy of a happy marriage between Hero Arts and Papertrey. I used every stamp in the Hero leaf set (one more set down in the USE MY STAMPS resolution), and the Out on a Limb sentiments were the perfect accompaniment.

I also pulled out my watercolor crayons and water spritzer, neither of which has seen use in AGES. I used an olive green and blue that's close to not quite navy. Each image is delightfully unpredictable, but that's the charm of watercolor crayons. Watercolor crayons are perfect for simple stamping because the color variations and softness they give to an image create a strong focal point for a one-layer card.

While these crayons tend to work best on more solid images, especially ones that are somewhat distressed like these leaves, you can also use them on outline images for interesting effect as well.

Simplicity Tip: Use watercolor crayons to color directly on the rubber, blending multiple colors if you want. Spritz with water and let sit for a bit while the pigment dissolves. Then, stamp on heavy paper. You can spritz and stamp again, or dry the stamp and add more color. No two images will turn out the same, and you just never know what you'll get. Mostly, the images will be perfectly imperfect. Embrace the variations, play with different shading and colors, become one with the crayons.... Uh, sorry. I got carried away. Just have fun.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (Woodland Leaves and Grasses), Papertrey (out on a limb)
ink: various shades of VersaColor to coordinate with whatever color came out of the crayons
paper: PTI white
accessories: watercolor crayons (I bought my big set at Dick Blick), water spritzer

Cards for Dudes

One of my favorite cards ever has just three rectangles of different shades of blue cardstock on a white card base. On the bottom rectangle, I stamped, "Feeling blue?"

As I was contemplating guy birthday cards, I went looking through my scrapbooking paper (not coordinated with inks) and found a stack of 6x6 square metallic, shimmery cardstock I bought in a sample pack on sale from Marco's. I'd done a few things with it, but basically, metallic cardstock baffles me. Everything I make with it looks artificial and forced, if that makes sense.

Not Monday, though.

As soon as I saw the bronze, gold, and copper cardstocks laid out together, I thought, "DUDE!" Here's the first card I made.

It has issues. The bars are a bit too narrow. The stamped sentiment is a bit too hard to see. The base should be cream rather than white. But the overall effect screams sophisticated guy, don't you think? And isn't that art deco sentiment da bomb? It's from an old My Sentiments Exactly set that has more cutsy images for birthdays that I don't like. But the sentiments are really good!

So I played with the idea and borrowed (again) this sketch from wiggydl (aka Donelda), changing the base to PTI vintage cream and stamping the sentiment in Brilliance Galaxy Gold to match the gold square.


Yes! And then I went with larger rectangles and stamping the sentiment on the cream background above them in a copper Colorbox Pigment ink to match the bottom block.


Sigh. I ran out of gold cardstock after making 5 cards. But what an easy and sophisticated way to let the shimmery cardstock speak for itself.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions for stamp sets for kids. I have some promising leads and will make a decision soon. Don't you just love getting cash for Christmas? Yeah....