Christmas in July

I'm so far behind on Christmas cards and simply must get my act together!

Tonight's card uses an old, old, old PSX chickadee stamp and an old, old, old PSX snowflake background stamp. Of course, these are keeper stamps, so don't be emailing me asking if I'm selling them. Not. Going. To. Happen.

Here's a really simple treatment for a complex focal point image. Stamp the focal point in black, the background in gray, and add a few spots of color to match the theme...in this case pine green bling (colored with Bic/Sharpie markers). This is simple, easy to reproduce, and lets the beautiful image shine!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and ohmygoshhowdiditgettobeJulyalready!?!?!?

Blessings of the season to you!

Supplies
stamps: PSX
ink: VersaColor
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, Bic/Sharpies, dimensionals

Use-Your-Stamps Challenge: Flower Box

My stamps (except the photopolymer stamps stored in CD cases) are stored in white photo boxes. One box is labeled Flowers and contains these stamps:

My SU flower sets are in another box. For now, I'm working my way through the non-SU flower stamps, most of which are from Hero Arts, including today's cards.

I started with the Watercolor Flowers because I've had them the longest and will love them forever. These are the sort of classic images that never, ever go out of style. I colored them with markers or, when I didn't have markers, dew drop pads, then spritzed with Glimmer Mist. Such a pretty effect!

After staring at these for a few days, I decided to dress them up with a touch of bling and, after adding the bling decided they needed rounded bottom corners, too. Wish I had a good design explanation of why that seemed right, but I just heard Obiwan saying, "Use the force, Susan."

I honestly don't have a favorite between the two. The simple, completely flat first version has a wonderful crispness that makes me happy, but then, bling makes everything better, right?

Do you have a preference? If so, which do you prefer and why?

And tell us how your own Use-Your-Stamps Challenge is going!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Watercolor Margherite, Dahlia, Sunflower, Coneflower
ink: assorted
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Corner Chomper, rhinestones, assorted sharpies to color some of the rhinestones

Aren't Dolphins the Best?

Here's a quick card for tonight. It's pretty simple, unembellished, but pretty cool, nevertheless. Because it has a dolphin on it.

The dolphin was colored with gray Copics, and I didn't bother with shading, which made it a very quick and easy card indeed.

Supplies
stamps: CASual Friday, AMuse
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: dimensionals

OLW145 Spice Girls and New Stamps

Second post for today. Scroll down to see the post about my new car. Yay!



Well, better late than never....

Here's my card for the OLW that's almost over, #145 Spice Girls by Ardyth, a fun challenge! Sorry I'm so late. It's been a crazy week, what with George's sister visiting and us buying a new car.

I went to my husband's spice cabinet for this one. Yes, it's his spice cabinet. I don't cook. I reheat his cooking.

I pulled out poppy seeds and a bay leaf. The card with poppy seeds was hideous beyond belief (those little seeds clumped unattractively...probably a result of the humidity). The bay leaf, though, helped me create a textural--and rather masculine-ish--card.

The wood grain background (Hero Arts), the gold skeleton leaf, and the bay leaf certainly provide some interesting texture, and the colors work well for men or women.

If you haven't played yet, perhaps you'll see this before midnight Tuesday and jump on the challenge in the 11th hour! If you miss it, the next OLW challenge will be on Karen's blog.

And now for my newest stamps...

My first order from Clearly Besotted, along with the cute little card they included with the order. These are great quality, photopolymer stamps. Oh how I love the smell of photopolymer in the morning. At noon. At night. You'll be seeing stuff made with these beauties in the weeks to come!


Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Memories sand
paper: Papertrey
accessories: gold skeleton leaf and bay leaf, glue dot, glue stick

Adding Some Color and an Owl To My Life

In 2003, after George returned from Iraqi Freedom, we drove to Colorado to buy a Ford Expedition. But the dealer did the ol' bait-and-switch, so we ended up buying a Volkswagen Passat. In black.

The joy of my driving life for ten years...

I love this car. We've had it for ten years, and put 134,000 miles on it. I still wanted to keep it forever, but I stopped trusting it about the same time we moved to the new house. Finally, George and I decided it was time to let it go and get something new, something a bit bigger for our growing boys.

I decided it was time to add some color to my life.

May the next ten years be as wonderful...and a little more colorful!

Oh, yeah. Metallic deep red and new car smell. VW, I will always remember you fondly, but it's time for some shiny red Mazda in my life.

And have you ever noticed how the Mazda logo looks like an owl?

Hopefully, this symbolizes that we made a wise choice.

George rolled his eyes when I pointed this out last night while we were signing paperwork. Men are weird. A cute logo and a pretty color are two totally good reasons to buy a car.

And that is why I can't share a card this morning. Buying a car is stressful, exhausting, and takes a lot of time when done with a spouse who is a car geek.  Hopefully, I'll be able to share something made out of paper with you tomorrow.

Safe and colorful driving, everyone!

*sigh*

I must have mislabeled the paper, or perhaps the Gina K ivory isn't the same as the white, but when I tried to make some ivory-based one-layer cards with what I had labeled as Gina K, the Copic coloring bled through.

*sigh*

Gina K's white Deluxe card stock is impenetrable. You can color as much on it as you want, and it won't bleed through. It's AMAZING stuff, and I can't recommend it enough. But does anyone know if the ivory is supposed to be the same coated card as the white? Inquiring minds and all that.

Anyway, I ended up cutting out the frames of the stamped images and popping them onto new card bases. Easy fix, and looks sort of cool, so no worries. But, man, I hate bleed-through.

I colored these with assorted Bic, Sharpie, and Copic markers. The images are from an old, old, old Hero Arts set that I can't imagine ever parting with. It's just wonderful!

Some Random Stuff

1. Just picked up an issue of Pages magazine, a specialty pub from Cloth, Paper, Scissors. So many ideas floating around in my head for artist books. So many. I finally feel like the time is ripe for me to attempt clean-and-simple artist books. Besides, my poor Bind-It-All has been feeling neglected lately.

2. Mary asked me about why two instead of three elements work on this card. Yes, I harp on visual triangles and rules of thirds and the Importance of Three and Other Odd Numbers, but two can work really well under certain circumstances, too. I'm planning a discussion of that question. Not sure when it will get posted, but know that I am working on it!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts discontinued
ink: Memento
paper: Gina K Ivory (I think)
accessories: assorted alcohol markers, dimensionals

Bad Puns

I'm mellowing in my old age and no longer see red when faced with bad puns. In fact, I'm willing to use them on occasion.

This one is pushing my patience though. At least the whale image is adorable!

It's been a busy weekend, with a visit from my sister-in-law and three church services I have to attend for our new Stephen Minister commissioning and possibly buying a new car. I hope you are having a fun weekend full of good things to do and good people to do them with. Care to share what you're up to?

And yes, two sentences in a row ended with prepositions. To what is the world coming?

supplies
stamps: A Muse Life's a Breeze, Keep Swimmin'
ink: VersaColor black, Hero Arts Pool
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensionals