RAK: You Are Neat

My friend Lisa over at Flat Fish Paper Arts sent me a card that speaks to me. OMGosh, I may need to buy a label maker!

How totally cool is this? She got the idea from a card she saw on Etsy, and thought of me, though I can't imagine why. *snort* If you have a label maker, why not make one for your closest AR/OC friend. He or she will love it just like I do!

Lisa is such a sweet online friend. She's an urban bee keeper who sent me a jar of honey for my Honey, who eats honey-and-peanut-butter sandwiches in preparation for his Ironman races. See why she's sweet? Check out her BLOG for more pictures of her art and her adorable new puppy, Annie.

Thanks so much, Lisa!

PS I'm considering selling off a bunch of stamps to make room (and money!) for more. Would anyone be interested if I posted them here? Otherwise, I'm taking them to a brick-and-mortar ebay seller.

Just Call Me a User

How many of you are guilty of doing the following? You buy some really cool embellishment and hoard it, without using it, for months or years. Then you discover it hiding in a drawer one day and ask yourself, "Huh, why did I buy this?"

If you say, "Oh, no! I never do this!" what in the heck are you doing here? Go away and don't come back until you spend several hundred dollars on crap you will never use. Then, the rest of us will happily be your friends. Because you will be one of us.

I found these hot pink gemstone flowers in my tin of pink bling a few days ago and thought, "Huh, why did I buy these?" Instead of putting them back, I decided to USE THEM ALL UP! AT ONE TIME!

Are you shocked? I sure was. I feel like such a radical. Here are the happy results.


This sentiment always appealed to me as a military spouse who lived in nine states in 17 years. Bloom where you're planted, indeed.

Yes, I know this is essentially the same card as the Bloom card, but hey, it's pretty, don't you think?

Awwww. Look at all that white space.

I blinged (or blang) seven times on one card. Is that legal? It's more fun if it isn't.

The stamps are both from Papertrey: Turning a New Leaf and Spiral Bouquet. The sentiments in Spiral Bouquet are large and complement Turning a New Leaf beautifully, don't you think? The ink is Brilliance Iridescent Lime, which is so shimmery, and Palette Noir, which is so, um, noir and makes a nice contrast to the perky colors of the leaves and gemstones.

So there. We CAN use our stash, use it all up, and feel good about it at the same time. I challenge you to go forth and use something that's been hanging out in your stash for a while. Use it all up. And then tell us about it. Because the rest of us are nosey nellies and we want to see you break the law of hoarding.

Trust me. It's fun.

When Everything Goes Sideways

This card did not turn out as expected. At all. Sometimes, everything just goes sideways and you just have to throw the card away. Sometimes, as here, you can salvage a decent card anyway.

I started with a heart punched out of a sticky-tape sheet, which I adhered to white cardstock and punched out a second time before peeling the other side off and adding pink Doodlebug glitter. By backing the heart with cardstock, I could pop it up. The popping part actually worked.

Let me just go on record as saying that sticky-tape sheets are awesome...until they turn yellow. The first one I tried had turned on me. Pink glitter over yellowed sticky tape looks vile. Urgh. Fortunately, I had a fresh sheet of another brand. I've also noticed that page pebbles turn yellow eventually, too. Sigh. If anyone knows of a brand that doesn't yellow, please, please, please tell me.

This card, as planned, was going to have a pink base. Didn't work. It was also going to have black gingham ribbon. Looked weird. Finally, it was just pink. Whatever.



While it's nowhere near what I had in mind, I'll take it because what I had in mind--what looked lovely in my mind--didn't translate to reality. Happens all the time, and it. is. o. kay.

Funny Kid Story: A few years ago, we bought the DVD for the movie Sideways . Nick, our firstborn, was about 6 or 7. He was fascinated with the fact the movie was rated R and he wasn't allowed to watch it. Anyway, we were driving back from vacation in North Carolina. He was getting bored and started horsing around in the back seat. "Mom, guess what! I'm Rated R!" I glanced back and saw him lying sideways over the arm rest. "See! I'm Sideways. Get it?"

That's my boy.

Ribbon Scraps

What can you do with this?



Perhaps something pink like this:



Or bold and bright like this:



Or green:



To make these, I used a 1"-high strip of heavy white cardstock, wide red sticky tape, and 2" strips of ribbon. After laying them out in a pleasing pattern, I wrapped each ribbon around the strip, with the ends stuck to the tape on back. Then, I put another strip of tape on the card base below the sentiment, and stuck the whole ribbon panel right on the card.

It's easy, versatile, and thrifty. What's not to like!?!? Okay, some of my combinations turned out a bit weird or just didn't photograph well, but I made 8 cards in about half an hour and used up more than half my ribbon scraps. I'd say that's a good use of time and supplies!

Supplies
stamps: PTI Simple Little Things, St. Pat's sentiment unknown
ink: Palette noir, Versacolor evergreen
paper: PTI white
accessories: ribbon scraps, red sticky tape

StampinUp's Font of You

Font of You had to come live with me, despite its entirely stupid name. First, I love type, even if using it on CAS cards is very challenging. Second, this set is just so innovative and cool and creative, despite its entirely stupid name. (I said that already, didn't I?) I HAD to get it.

But it's very hard to use. Sigh.

The bracket border punch I bought recently (because of Ann) seemed appropriate with Font of You, especially with the umbrella. Both cards use essentially the same layout, with the border opposite the sentiment. The colors are from this year's in colors, which I only have the markers for. Never doing THAT again.


For the second card, I wish I'd made the Thanks Dusty Durango to match the border and flowers. As it is, the emphasis is thrown on the very much. Oh, well.

Supplies

stamps: SU Font of You, Clear and Simple Stamps Thank You

ink: dusty durango, bermuda bay, soft suede (all markers)

paper: PTI white, dusty durango, bermuda bay

accessories: bracket border punch, dimensionals

CAS54 Wishing for Spring

Before I get to this week's CAS Challenge, I have two bits of business to communicate.

1. To those who do not live in the U.S. and thus must pay outrageous shipping for Papertrey: I pity you. Deeply and sincerely. We can only hope that PTI will grow large enough to open stores overseas (and in Canada, which isn't overseas but might as well be 'cause I spent over $30 shipping a package of blog candy there once). But the insanity of international business law isn't something I would wish on any company I love. Sigh.

2. If you haven't checked out the CAS Design Team selection this time around, click the link after you read my post. The Olympic theme is pretty exciting! Lots of awesomely CAS applicants (as usual!) and I'm so glad I'm not making any decisions this time.

Back to the post at hand. CAS54 couldn't have come at a better time...as we received our third winter storm in two weeks. Sigh. I want spring.

Using spring colors on one-layer cards with Everyday Button Bits (PTI) made me very, very happy today. The first two here use BUTTONS! Yes! Finally tapping into the stash I amassed when I participated in Krystie Lee's PTI button share.


The sentiments include a single word enlarged and in a cursive font, which makes it easy to include a dash of color in the sentiment. That's such a great way to help unify a card.


I'm not sure how I feel about rounding just two corners on the blue balloon card. What do you think?

The final card (actually the first I made) totally makes me smile. No buttons. Plus, it combines Everyday Button Bits with Honey Bees...two PTI sets, one lovely card! Putting some black with the pastels helps anchor them and really pops nicely, doesn't it?



Supplies for Balloon Cards
stamps: Everyday Button Bits
ink: VersaMagic sahara sand, sea breeze, pink petunia
paper: PTI white
accessories: buttons, twine

Supplies for Floral Card
stamps: Everyday Button Bits, Honey Bees
ink: VersaMagic mango madness, aloe vera; Palette noir
paper: PTI white
accessories: black half-pearls, gingham ribbon

CASE-ing Rose Ann--Edited

As soon as I saw Rose Ann's one-layer friend card last Friday, I knew I HAD to make my own version of it. The colors and clean lines really called to me. The closest I could get was using PTI's Friends 'Til the End, rather than In Bloom, which she used. Here's my best attempt.

I prefer Rose Ann's, but mine is fine, too. Instead of enbossed lines around the edges, I used a large clear gem in the center of my flower because that hole in the middle (which her flower does not have) really bothered me. My sentiment also doesn't quite balance as well as Rose Ann's does. But that's okay. I got close, and it makes me very happy!

Thanks for the inspiration, Rose Ann!

Edited to add: I did place an order this morning at Papertrey. The only stamp set I bought was Dot Spot, though. It struck me immediately as incredibly easy to use and versatile, and even a good set for scrapbook backgrounds for boy pages...which makes it extra appealing. I'm mighty tempted by the Asian set and the violet set, but want to wait and see how my initial love of them plays out.

The rest of my order was paper (a couple of sample packs of the colored cardstock, three packs of white [I wish I'd made that 4]), the cream twine, and three packs of the clear card boxes.

Here are my feelings about Papertrey. What a quality company with GREAT ideas! They take coordinating product to a whole new level. The plan to release a flower set for each month of the year is brilliant, although I won't be investing $180 in outline flower images. I can't wait for pansies and daisies, though. They are my all-time favorite flowers. Packaging products like the clear card boxes and templates are genius (and affordable). The monthly releases are exciting but hard on the wallet. I've gotten to the point in my stamp collecting where impulse purchases are very, very rare. I love that things don't get discontinued (at least not yet) at Papertrey, and that makes me feel like I can be more sensible and take time with purchases. Still, because I want to be Nichole when I grow up, there are often sets that scream at me to buy immediately, such as Through the Trees, Turning a New Leaf, and Dot Spot. Not once have I regretted those impulse buys.

I guess you could say I'm a Papertrey fan!

Supplies
stamps: PTI Friends 'Til the End
ink: Palette Noir, VersaColor Split Pea
paper: PTI white
accessories: gemstone