Inspired by Chelsea Edwards: Day 2, or How to Cheat at Collage

To see Chelsea's original card that inspired this series of cards with little collages surrounded by white space, please visit yesterday's post.

The Basic Gray Indian Summer paper has several sheets that are complex with layered images, bright colors, and fun shapes. . No work needed, other than to select an area of the designer paper that looks particularly appealing.

How much easier can it get? Not much. Yet it's pretty. Simple. Quick. Easy to mass produce, if you go in for that sort of thing.

Today's post was a cheat, but tomorrow's post will show a LOT more work.

Which, let's face it, isn't hard to do given how little work went into the above card.

Seriously.

Inspired by Chelsea Edwards: Day 1

I thought it would be fun to share multiple card variations inspired by an idea from a published card, so I settled on this fab card from Chelsea Edwards in the fall issue of Take Ten.

Card by Chelsea Edwards, Take Ten, Fall 2011

Chelsea's card not only caught my eye because of all the lovely white space, but because the complex little collage of patterned paper looked so fresh framed by all that white space. I decided to experiment with multiple variations on that look, moving things around and changing colors and papers and such, and here's my first effort.

Notice that my white space is pink, but really it's still white space, no matter the color. The dark papers from Basic Gray's Indian Summer collection looked a tad odd against a white backdrop, but they still pop in a fresh way against this very soft pink. The sentiment, from PTI's Birthday Basics set, is stamped in SU pomegranate ink. The collage, which measures 1 3/4" x 3", is wrapped in PTI twine and attached to the base with dimensionals.

This card is going to a dear friend of mine who has a birthday this month...love how it's autumnal without being orange. How cool is it that you can mix and match all sorts of different patterned papers to change the look and feel of the little collage completely?

Pretty cool, I say!

52 Weeks of Mail Check-In

So, how many of you are doing the 52 Weeks of Mail Challenge?

We're in week 3, and I've sent 13 cards.

I always was an over-achiever.

It's never too late to start. After all, what is the point of making all these cards if we're not going to send them to someone?

Besides, it's time for those of you who took on the Gratitude Challenge to start sending those Thanksgiving cards to your friends and family. Why not spread them out over the whole month of November?

And you know, if you live in Canada, we Americans won't mind at all if you do the Gratitude Challenge on our schedule. After all, your Thanksgiving is so very early (as it should be that far north!), and you may simply need more time to make cards for it.

Besides, if you so desire, you could send ME (and your other American friends, of course) a Thanksgiving card.

I love snail mail.

*hint, hint*

Today's card uses one of my new A Muse sets. I copied a layout I'd already copied from a card published by Ryann Salamon. These stamps really are scaled just a bit too big to work for this layout, but all those floaty images falling to the bottom of the card seem to echo my life at the moment. And like the card says, I'm trying to enjoy the harvest of blessings rather than completely freak out over it.

It's not working. *sigh*

Enough of my melodramatic whining. Please tell me about your progress in the 52 Weeks Challenge and/or Gratitude Challenge. I'd love to hear how you're doing!

Feeling Silly...

I just received an email from Memory Box.

The title of the email is "New Video - Painted Pears!"

Oh. My. I'm helpless.

First, let me say that Dave Brethauer is my hero, and not just because his company turned one of my ideas into a penguin stamp. He's amazingly talented, and I own one of his books which is completely fabulous.

The new video is a bit long, and I didn't make it much past Dave's awesome line "We're going to be doing pears today" for the obvious reason that my mind is in the English-major gutter. But the technique he's demonstrating is beautiful anyway, despite the pears, so if you've never painted with Twinkling H2Os on a solid block stamp, I'm sure it's worth watching.

Just please don't do pears. 

Or if you do, please don't tell me about it.

You really should keep that sort of thing to yourself.


BTW, if you're new to Simplicity and haven't been corrupted by my feelings about pears, please read this post.

One-Layer Wednesday 70: Red and White

Thank you for your patience regarding this week's One-Layer Wednesday, which is actually being posted on Friday.

The challenge this week is a color challenge: use either red and white or red and cream on a one-layer card. My card is a holiday card, but that is NOT a requirement of the challenge. Whatever your theme, just use red and white/cream exclusively.

6.25" x 4.5" premade card

OLW70 Rules

1. A one-layer card is defined as a single layer of cardstock folded in half. No other layers allowed.

2. Make a card that uses only the colors red and white OR red and cream. The theme of the card is up to you, but it's certainly an excellent challenge to get started on your holiday cards if you haven't already. ;-)

3. Upload your card on the internet and then link to it using the InLinkz button on the sidebar of Simplicity. If you upload at SplitcoastStampers, please use the keyword OLW70.

4. The most important rule of all: HAVE FUN!

Supplies
stamps: A Muse
ink: SU real red
paper: Marco's Paper pre-made cards
accessories: red nail heads

Taking a Little Blogging Vacation

Don't Panic!

Nothing is wrong, nothing is tragic, nothing is falling apart. I just need to breathe a bit. I'll be back when I can, hopefully with a One-Layer Wednesday challenge, but maybe not until Thursday or Friday. Have a lovely week!

Blessings to You and the Value of Cheap Copy Paper

Do you have any sets with stamps that you're just not sure how to use? My stampin' friend Sue Berker recently posted about this very dilemma, and she solved it by checking out the PTI gallery (which I've done before myself.) The other day, however, I had First Fruits from Papertrey out on my desk and realized that the wheat flourish-bracket-y stamp intimidated me.

Well, it's just plain silly to let a lil' ol' stamp intimidate me, so I pulled out a piece of copy paper and played around a bit. This is a very easy way to cut loose and experiment with those stamps that are blocking your creativity. This simple one-layer card is what I came up with.

Keeping it simple, I used the stamp to frame a sentiment. Nothing cosmic, but I like the results. Unfortunately, I didn't get it vertically centered quite right, so I trimmed 1/4" of the bottom off the card, rounded the corners, and there you go. The "to you" stamp is from Gracious Vases, while the "blessings" is from First Fruits.

Have you ever just played with a stamp on cheap copy paper or cardstock to get a feel for what it can do?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: SU more mustard, Memento rich cocoa
paper: PTI vintage cream
accessories: not a blessed one