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

Simplicity Is Easy Sometimes

In case you hadn't noticed, the name of this blog is Simplicity. Simplicity means...well, it means keeping cardmaking clean and crisp in a back-to-basics, ya-don't-need-much-to-look-good sort of way.

Some stamps lend themselves to pure simplicity. Others take a little more imagination to get there. Two recent releases from Papertrey definitely fall in the first category. These are Harvest Berries and Beautiful Blessings. The ginko branches in Harvest Berries have a fabulous shape and several sizes, and the font of the sentiments and verses in Beautiful Blessings couldn't be cleaner, simpler.

Put the two sets together, and cards practically make themselves.

See what I mean?

That sentiment is my new mantra. "In every ordinary day there are a thousand miracles." Indeed.

And why not do the same with a Bible verse from the set?

And what if your verse is a bit larger? Just use the big ginko branch. It works.

A lot of the time, making a simple card isn't simple and definitely isn't easy. But this time, it's a walk in the ginko park.

Thank you, Papertrey, for such wonderful stamps!

What are your EASY stamps to work with?
Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Memento New Sprout, Rich Cocoa
paper: PTI
accessories: not a blessed one

Vertical Sketch by Jessica Witty

FINALLY, I had a chance to try some of the sketches in the magazine Papercrafts Card Ideas for Paper Crafters. The one by Jessica Witty on page 134 caught my eye, and I made a simple, one-layer card intended for a friend who is battling cancer.

The rainbow was created with a long-neglected shadow stamp from Hero Arts (discontinued), and the sentiment is from Papertrey's Beautiful Blessings. Inside, I stamped the verse "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (BTW, the orange isn't quite so bright in real life; it's Memento Canteloupe...darn Picasa!)

I love the image of the rainbow as an image of hope and God's faithfulness. What images do you enjoy using on cards for people battling illness? Do you stick with flowers or trees, or do you make the cards with images that the recipient will find funny, cute, serene...depending on the situation?

Stuff, Things, and a Card

First, let me remind you that I have stamps for sale, as well as a stack of random sheets of StampinUp cardstock (current and discontinued). Just go to this page to see what's there. Many thanks to those of you who have already purchased stamps from me.

Second, a few words of explanation about my Thanksgiving cards. You noticed that yesterday's card...my first official Thanksgiving card...was baby blue and black and didn't have the word Thanksgiving anywhere on it. My purpose for sending out Thanksgiving cards is to tell friends and family how much I love them and how grateful I am to have them in my life. This frees me up artistically a bit from sticking with fall colors or motifs, and makes thank you, thinking of you, blessings, etc. all very appropriate for the occasion. So I'm labelling these posts Gratitude Collection. Some will be more traditional Thanksgiving/harvest-themed cards, and some will not.

Third, I challenge you to create your own Gratitude Collection. Make a certain number of cards and send them out before Thanksgiving (which means you Canadians need to get crackin'!) to your own loved ones. It makes no difference if you live in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving; gratitude doesn't have to be an official holiday to take root in your heart. Think of Thanksgiving as a state of mind rather than a turkey-and-stuffing federal holiday. Have I preached enough? Are you converted? Are you going to share your love?

I'll shut up about Thanksgiving now.

Today's card uses two colors that have long been favorites of mine: Papertrey's Aqua Mist and Memento Pear Tart. The clean design suggested itself because of the tall, skinny sentiment from Beautiful Blessings, which contains all sorts of wonderfully inspiring Bible verses and inspirational sayings in a crisp, CAS font. As simple as this is, it took two failed attempts to get everything just right.

Isn't it lovely how the ginko branch descends from above just like our blessings?

In the comments, please feel free to share a blessing you're experiencing today. For me, right now, it's a wonderful dinner prepared by my honey-bunny.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Beautiful Blessings, Harvest Berries
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white, aqua mist
accessories: dimensionals

Harvest Berries and Thanksgiving

My Papertrey order this month included the set Harvest Berries, which is fabulous...and fabulously easy to work with.

Here's the first installment of my celebration of Thanksgiving. Some of you may already know my irritation with the fact that Thanksgiving gets lost between the hyper-commercialism of Halloween and Christmas. That's why I send so many Thanksgiving cards...so people know how grateful I am to have them in my life.

So expect to see a lot of cards with this theme.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Memento
paper: SU bashful blue, black; PTI white
accessories: dimensionals

Before and After: Color Contrast

Sometimes the mess in your craft space can lead to inspiration. This apricot appeal card base was already cut and lying on my table, as was the Think Big #7 set from Papertrey that came with my order on Monday. I looked in my orange embellishment drawer and saw a package of Hero Arts paper flowers...and this card was born.

Before

It's not the best card I've ever made. In fact, the more I looked at it, the less appealing that apricot was. At first, the lack of a mat bothered me, which made me wonder why sometimes mats look better and sometimes they don't. Which made me think of color contrast.

In the card above, the apricot isn't dark enough to provide adequate contrast to the white panel...there's simply not a stong enough break in color. Plus the giant orange brad in the center of the flower doesn't quite match the pumpkin pie ink or the flowers and just stands out like SU's ugly only orange color.

Which explains why the card above does not work and the card below does.

After

I wish I had a button dark enough to match the pumpkin pie exactly, but alas, I had to use a lighter shade. Please repeat after me: "I will not go out and buy more buttons. I will not go out and buy more buttons. I will not go out and buy more buttons."

Thank you.

At least the button is not that dreadful only orange color of the brad! Anyway, the flowers look a tad washed out in the picture but aren't in real life. I wish the flowers hadn't jumped into my cart a few months ago (it was a moment of weakness and they were on sale!). Fact is, I don't really enjoy using paper flowers...I just like looking at them, especially when other stampers use them so wonderfully. But they work for me on this card, so it wasn't a total waste of money.

Have a lovely weekend!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Think Big #7
ink: SU pumpkin pie
paper: SU apricot appeal, pumpkin pie; PTI white
accessories: Hero Arts paper flowers, giant brad, button, white DMC floss, glue dots

Pet Sympathy and Tips on Stamping Solid Block Stamps

Some people are not pet people. When my husband's boss--a perfectly nice person in all other respects--found out we had to pay big bucks to get Daisy's knees fixed, he asked why we didn't just get another dog.

Like I said, some people are not pet people. This card is not for those people. In fact, it's for my aunt and uncle, two pet people if there ever were any, who recently had to put two elderly dogs to sleep within two weeks of each other.

*sob*

For those of you who have followed my other blog for a while, you know how devastated we were when our golden retriever Hoover passed away from cancer last year. I remember how comforting it was to receive cards from so many of you, and even though I've sent pet sympathy cards before, this time I truly know how comforting and appreciated they can be.

These stamps are from a mini set from Papertrey Ink. That single paw print says it all, I think.

Stamping Solid Block Stamps

Several people have asked how I got such a good image of the silhouette stamps from Hero Arts' Greatest Gift set on yesterday's card. Here are some tips for getting good images with solid stamps.

1. Experiment when the stamps are new. Sometimes, clear and rubber stamps have a residue on their surface that makes even thicker inks like Memento bead on their surface. A simple white eraser can remove the residue and make the surface accept the ink better. Rub vigorously with the white eraser; then clean the stamp well. Rubber stamps generally will work nicely with any quality-brand ink after conditioning.

2. On the other hand, some inks just won't work well with clear stamps, no matter how you condition the stamp. Clear stamps work best with thicker inks: Brilliance, VersaColor, VersaMagic, VersaFine, Colorbox pigment, and SU craft ink all work well with clear stamps, although I don't like the blacks for any of those brands. (My favorite blacks are Palette noir and Memento tuxedo black. The Palette stains, though, which isn't a problem for me but some people don't like that. Lots of people like VersaFine black as well, but it has not become my go-to black.)

3. If you're having trouble with SU classic ink beading on stamps, ink the stamp in VersaMark ink (which is clear) and then SU ink. It works great!

4. If you stamp a block image in black ink, and it's blotchy, you can take a black marker and fill it in. I had to do that with the shepherds on the left of this card because I didn't condition the stamp before using it, and as that was the last thing I stamped on that scene, I was pretty miffed at myself for not having checked the stamp first. But I pulled out a black marker, filled in the blotches, and no one is the wiser.

Or no one was.

Until I just told the entire internet.

This filling-in tip hasn't worked with other colors, even when I have the matching brand marker. Not sure why, but for me the corrected image always looks doctored in any color other than black.

5. Don't underestimate the ickiness of a poorly inked pad. If you're not getting good results, the problem may very well be the pad. Pads can be over-inked or under-inked, either of which can cause problems. If a pad is over-inked, take a clean paper towel (Bounty is best because it doesn't leave lint) and blot the pad until it works well. If the pad is under-inked, either buy a reinker and add ink, or buy a new pad.

6. If you're still having issues, the problem may be the paper. Which leads me to harp on the fact that buying quality paper is critical if you want to make quality cards. The cheap stuff from Michael's or Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's is, well, cheap. There are LOTS of high-quality cardstocks out there, and if you want to know my preferences, I'll be adding my findings to my Favorite Products tab in the next week or two.

And that's all I know about stamping solid block images.

BTW, I thought I'd already posted my musings on paper on the Favorite Products tab, but apparently not. Where is my head? I've forgotten where I put it. Anyway, I did a search and found an old post from 2009 on cardstock that is out of date for my paper-use habits, which have evolved a bit since then. I have some to add to the list, so don't take that old post as the Cardstock Policy According to LateBlossom.

I don't have a Cardstock Policy unless is it to try what looks good, keep what does, and collect as much as possible before I die so I win.

I imagine a lot of you can relate.

Also, thank you all for your comments on my question about holiday stamps. It was a very interesting discussion!

Sorry this post is so long.

Shutting up now. 

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink
paper: PTI kraft and white, SU chocolate chip
ink: Memento 
accessories: dimensionals