One-Layer Simplicity #27: Fruit Smoothie

The May One-Layer Simplicity Challenge is hosted by Heather Telford, and her theme is "Fruit Smoothie"! Make a card that features fruit or that uses inks with fruit-themed names.

How much fun is this!??!!!

My card fills a hard-to-fill need in my cardmaking: a birthday card for my father-in-law. He loves wine, so a grape-themed card works perfectly!

The grapes and vine are from Papertrey's Fruitful set, and the sentiment is from one of their sentiment sets (not sure of the name). The inks are from Kaleidacolor's Vineyard pad...the dark purple and the lighter green. Since all the stamps were fairly narrow, I could ink them on the Vineyard pad.

I also stamped an envelope. Clean-and-simple is all in the details.

Click on over to the One-Layer Simplicity Challenge and play along with Heather's fun Fruit Smoothie challenge!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Kaleidacolor
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: corner rounder

How to Make a Sixteenth-Inch Mat

There've been lots of questions via email and comments about how to make a tidy 1/16" mat, so here's a visual guide of how I do it.

Supplies: panel to be matted, card stock for the mat, quilting ruler,
self-healing cutting mat, craft knife with sharp blade

WARNING: Precise cutting with a regular paper trimmer is great...as long as your trimmer is perfectly angled and marked. If it's even slightly off, things will never line up right. I prefer the control of using a quilting ruler and craft knife. If you've never used these tools before, BE CAREFUL. It's easy to slice your fingers, so always make sure they are firmly on the quilting ruler and not hanging over the edge as you cut. You have been warned!

Measure the panel you want to mat. As you can see, this panel
is exactly 3 inches by 1.75 inches.

Position the cardstock for the mat under the ruler at precisely
1/8" larger than the panel you want to mat. Use the grid lines
on the ruler to make sure everything is at right angles.

Cut the mat using the craft knife. Since I'm right-handed, the blade is in my
right hand, and all the fingers of my left hand are on the ruler
pressing down firmly to keep it from sliding around on the paper.

Check to make sure everything lines up BEFORE gluing the panel
to the mat. Sometimes, as careful and experienced as I am at this,
I mis-measure and have to re-cut. 

Here's the finished card. Yay!

To make the stamped panel, I punched the heart out of a post-it note and angled it onto my panel. After sponging Brilliance poppy ink through the mask, I removed the post-it and stamped the sentiment in Memento Luxe black. I love how the heart looks velvet-textured, almost like it's been flocked. But it's just ink.

Hopefully, the pictures clarify the process, but if anyone still has questions, please ask in the comments, and I'll do my best to answer!

Supplies
stamps: Concord & 9th Map Love
ink: Brilliance poppy, Memento Luxe black
paper: StampinUp black, Papertrey white
accessories: post-its, heart punch (EK Success), sponge

More Business Inspiration

Today's "business card" design wasn't inspired by a specific pin (at least, not one that I can find), but it's clearly influenced by all my business cards I've been soaking up on Pinterest. (Surely there is one with a pastel background and bold, black name on it somewhere!)

The idea popped into my head as I rifled through a stack of stamps and saw the map of the world and the large-ish sentiment in Concord & 9th's Map Love set.

A card was born.

The black and Memento pear tart are such a striking, dramatic color combination.  This will be going into my hub's lunch box on Friday. Just because.

Supplies
stamps: Concord & 9th Map Love
ink: Memento pear tart, Memento Luxe black
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp black
accessories: none

Colored Cardstock! And a Question

Okay, so it's just a little bit of a mat of colored cardstock, but still. I want full credit!

Today's card was inspired by THIS BUSINESS CARD on my Pure Inspiration Board on Pinterest. The interpretation, as with yesterday's card, is rather literal. I love that there's plenty of strong color, but also plenty of fresh white space, too, both on the card base and within the stamped panel as well.

The thin mat is only 1/16" but it gives a great frame of color. A wider mat would overwhelm the card, I think.

The colored cardstock is Papertrey's terracotta tile, which seems to be a perfect match for the Ancient Page henna ink (the darker red on the stamped panel). My henna ink pad is drying out after 13 years (so no complaints there!) but I can't find a replacement or a reinker for it anywhere. So here's the question:

Have you used the Papertrey terracotta tile ink? Is it a nice dye ink? Does it stamp well? Does it match the terracotta tile paper?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Spring Hello by Lia, Papertrey Faux Ribbon (sentiment), Simon Says Envelope Sentiments
ink: Ancient Page henna; Hero Arts dark quartz, moss; Memento Luxe espresso truffle
paper: Papertrey white, terracotta tile
accessories: envelope

Bonkers for Business Cards

I spent a very fruitful few hours today being inspired by business cards on Pinterest. Oh. My. Goodness. You'll be seeing these fruits of my labors over the next few days. Later this week, I'll post about organization and such, and will share some fabulous ideas y'all have for that irksome subject.

But to today's business-card inspired greeting card. Check out the FOUR layers of cardstock here. The only way I can do this is to use white, you know. It's a rule. 

My thank-you card was inspired by THIS PIN. As you can see, it's a pretty literal interpretation. Aside from the layout (which is grand), the color combo on the original struck me as so very pretty I just had to try it.

The simplicity of the "business card" looked sadly blah on a plain card base, hence the layers of mats. Nothing is popped up with craft foam, so the card is nice and flat and easy to mail.

Be sure to check out tomorrow's card...it has colored card stock on it. How SHOCKING!

*giggle*

Supplies
stamps: Mama Elephant (Freestyle Florals), Gina K (sentiment)
ink: Brilliance pearlescent olive, Memento Luxe espresso truffle
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: none 

More Art

Playing around with the Jumbo Abstract Art set from My Favorite things...lots of fun!

The card and envelope combo repeats a color combination from an Inspiration Challenge post I did a few weeks ago, but using a couple of new ink pads: Hero Arts hybrid tangerine and mulled wine.

I haven't conditioned these stamps yet, but the blotchiness of the ink works with the whole concept, so I'm not fussed. The inks are really lovely, rich colors.

The sentiment comes from a Hero Arts set called Create by Lia. The lines on the envelope are from Simon Says Stamp's Envelope Sentiments.

Yesterday's card is going to my mother, but today's will go to one of my Stephen Ministry friends who is also a counselor and art therapist.

My son Nick just wrapped up his role as The Cop in the high school musical Footloose. He's the guy in the middle with the striped shirt, sitting next to the lead, whom he chews out a few scenes later. So proud of my son and all the cast, crew, and musicians. It's amazing what a whole bunch of high school students, parent volunteers, musicians, and teachers can accomplish. Everybody cut footloose!

Supplies
stamps: MFT, Hero Arts, Simon Says
ink: Hero Arts, Memento Luxe black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: envelope, corner rounder

Art

Everyday life, with its abundance of humdrum chores and mindless routine, can accumulate a great deal of dust. Creative outlets wash away that dust, give us fresh air to breath, energy to learn and grow and thrive. 

With a coordinating envelope, this card will be an extra-special piece of mail that is "definitely not junk mail."

The card was made with a Kaleidacolor ink pad and the long stamp from Jumbo Abstract Art by My Favorite Things. The inked stamp received a heavy several spritzes from Tattered Angels Dazzling Diamonds spray for a bit of shimmer and watercolor-y blending. The sentiment stands out in Memento Luxe tuxedo black.

I love how the aquatic colors of the Kaleidacolor and the subtle shimmer add to the idea of washing away dust.

I'm trying to do more "follow-through" with envelopes and such, so I stamped the flap of the envelope with a couple of much smaller stamps from the Jumbo Abstract Art set.  They are also shimmery from the Dazzling Diamonds. Love it!

Thanks for the input on my last post. Y'all have given me some great ideas for organizing and thoughts regarding whether to create an index or not. Updates to follow. 

Supplies

stamps: My Favorite Things Jumbo Abstract Art, Inkadinkado Picasso sentiment, Simon Says Stamp Envelope Sentiments

ink: Kaleidacolor, Memento Luxe

paper: Papertrey

accessories: Dazzling Diamonds glimmer mist, envelope