New Stuff, a Card, an Excuse, and a Give-Away

The new Hero Arts Catalog just arrived at my house, along with the following goodies:

Then, yesterday, I just HAD to go to Marco's Paper to pick up more white envelopes, and while I was there, the following items jumped into my basket.

When I got home, I deeply regretted not spending $15 on the ScorMat thingie. May go back next week and get it and the soft green Smooch I put back because buying five bottles of Smooch at once seemed undisciplined. Only buying four is sooooo much better....


On top of the above goodness, blogger Audrie sent me a package of goodness in December. Check out that adorable SU punch, the cherry cobbler ribbon and pompom trim, and the sheer quantity of perfectly tiny and wonderful embellishments!

As if a new house and new craft space weren't enough blessing. All this goodness to play with, too! I decided to try to use at least some of Audrie's package right away, and the gorgeously rustic wood buttons she sent seemed a natural first choice.

Now for the excuse. A surprising number of you have asked for pictures of my craft space. It's still a mess, although at least I can work in it. But showing it to you in its current state would feel like showing you my dirty laundry. Ewww. Soon, I will have it worked out and will share.

And now for the give-away. You may have noticed that Audrie sent me some Cuttlebug border folders. Since I am standing firm on my "no expensive machines that require lots of accessories" resolution, I can't use them. If you would like them, please leave a comment saying so. I will choose one random person who's commented by Sunday night, midnight EST to receive them.

Of course, you may still comment if you DON'T want the folders. I love comments. They are like a mug of hot chocolate on a cold, windy, snowy day, such as we're having right now. They make me feel all warm inside. Please know that I truly, deeply appreciate your comments, emails, and readership of my blogs.

Supply
stamps: Hero Arts To/From Petals
ink: various
paper: PTI natural
accessories: buttons, twine

Staggering Images in a Triangle

If you've been reading Simplicity for a while, you know about the rule of threes and visual triangles. Three things are more interesting, generally, than two, and if you can arrange those three things in a triangle, boy howdy you've got something. But how do you balance the triangle?

Try something like this.

These heart stamps come from a very old Stampin'Up set. The tallest is in the middle (slightly to the left of center on the card) and was stamped first. Then, the left heart was stamped slightly below the midline of the background area so it spills outside the background slightly. Finally, the third smallest heart goes even lower down the background, which leaves the perfect space for the sentiment and adds some visual weight to the right to balance the fat heart on the left.

The leaves on the stems are arranged with the same placement, with the largest leaf in the middle and the two smaller leaves lower down. There is a LOT of pattern happening on this card, and the very stable arrangement of images surrounded by a crisp, white frame, keeps it from looking chaotic.

Yesterday, I received my first order of the year from Hero Arts. I used Creative Play, and let me tell you, my package arrived in record time after they called to confirm my address since it's new construction and their PO program didn't have the address listed. They even included a free Sakura stardust pen! I'll get a chance this afternoon to unwind in my craft room with the new goodies after two potentially stressful meetings today. New goodies!!! Yee-ha!!!!!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (background), SU (hearts, discontinued), Papertrey (sentiment Love Birds)
ink: Memento Angel Pink, Tuxedo Black; SU Real Red
paper: Papertrey
accessories: none

One-Layer Wednesday 74: Red and Pink

This week's One-Layer Wednesday challenge is to use red and pink...and ONLY red and pink...on a white card base.

Like this:

Any shades of red and pink will do, so feel free to use Bravo Burgundy or another dark red as a substitute for black or brown (as I did on yesterday's card).

Also, your card need NOT be a Valentine's Day card. Some people don't like Valentine's Day. I get that.

OLW74 Rules

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

2. Use any shades of red and pink ink. No other colors allowed.

3. Wow. I sound like a dictator.

4. Upload your creation somewhere online, and then link back to it using the InLinkz button on the sidebar of Simplicity.

5. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!

Supplies
stamps: Inkadinkado (birds), Papertrey (Love Birds, hearts)
ink: SU real red, regal rose
paper: PTI white
accessories: half pearls, Corner Chomper

Using Stuff

What is it about the new year that leads us to make resolutions to improve ourselves? I try to stick to choosing a Word for the Year, but resolutions sneak in, and one of mine is to start over again using every stamp I own (excluding sentiments, of course). This idea snuck into my brain as I was organizing my new craft room and won't go away. Guess I'm stuck with it.

At least it's a happier resolution than using all my colored card stock. GACK!

One storage drawer that's particularly full is my large background drawer. I love large backgrounds but don't use them enough at all. So here goes.

I first tried to use a StampinUp pretty in pink card base, but the pretty in pink ink looked so dark on it and the resulting base looked a mess. Does anyone else have this problem? I've noticed that bashful blue ink is also getting darker with the years. I remember when these pastels were, well, pastel. Now, they look mid-range to me. Is it just my eyes?

Anyway, I flexed to Memento Angel Pink and a white base, and got a nice, subtle pink woodgrain never found in nature but still quite light and lovely. I stamped the lovebirds in SU real red (the best red EVER) and the sentiment in Bravo Burgundy. I'd made another card with pink and red and a black sentiment, and the black looked harsh, for some reason. Bravo Burgundy is so dark it can easily substitute for black but softens the harshness with its monochromatic effect.

Now for an informal challenge...what do you have in your stash that you need to use? Do you have jars full of buttons or ribbon? Spindles of baker's twine? Drawers full of little-used stamps? Shelves stacked with card stock? Have you resolved to use stuff this year?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (woodgrain background), Papertrey (sentiment, Love Birds), Inkadinkado (love birds)
ink: Memento, SU
paper: PTI white, SU real red
accessories: dimensionals

The New Normal

I have no idea what the New Normal is, but at least I got to make a few cards this weekend, which feels normal to me. I will resume the One-Layer Wednesday this week, too, making one more step toward the New Normal.

Sadly, I had to make a sympathy card yesterday. Patrick Haikal, who was married to one of George's cousins, died this weekend of cancer. He was just 38 years old. I really hate cancer.

The first version of this card is simplicity itself. The background shadow stamp uses VersaColor Atlantic ink, and the flowers and sentiment use Ocean Depths (I think) from VersaMagic. Blues seem to fit the mood of a sympathy card, don't you think? I masked the bottom of the shadow stamp to stamp the flowers.

After photographing this, I decided to add a few pearls.

Can't decide which I prefer. I think I like them both equally. Which do you prefer?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (shadow), SU
paper: PTI white
ink: Versamagic, Versacolor
accessories: pearls

A Special Birthday--Edited

A few days ago, Vgrrrl posted a request on FB for people to send birthday cards to a very special little boy named Cole. Cole has A.L.L., the same aggressive cancer that took little Lincoln Hammett from my church family. Cole's family discontinued treatment in October, and doctors expected he would be in heaven by Christmas. Yet he is looking forward to his 5th birthday on January 9th. I love it when the doctors are wrong.

So I sent Cole this card, my first card made in my new, completely unorganized craft room. I was so happy to find anything at all as I worked! Minimalism has its advantages at times like this.

Kid cards always intimidate me. I originally planned to put the stamped panel on a brilliant blue card base but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Baker's twine, to me, is just so gosh-darn happy.

I hope Cole's birthday is the best ever. It's already given his parents a wonderful gift of time.

If you want to send a quick card, too, here's the address.

Cole Dieckman

PO Box 9
Joy, IL 61260

Edited to add...Here's a link to Cole's story.


Supplies
stamps: A Muse
ink: memento
paper: SU real red, PIT white
accessories: baker's twine, dimensionals, memento red marker

I'm Back!

We had our cable/internet connected this evening, and I'm in heaven. It's been over a week since I indulged in Pinterest. Can you imagine the hardship?

My craft room got all moved today, and I hope, hope, hope to make something tomorrow. There's still some cleaning at the old house and phone calls to plumbers to make and rugs to buy. In the meantime, I give you my last card made with the Modern Basics set...for the time being, of course. This set is my new favorite. And that's saying something.

4.25" square

This bit of simplicity became an entire set in different colors...because it's just so darn cute and square!

Happy New Year, and thank you so much for your good wishes and patience. Y'all are the best!

Someone asked if moving ten minutes away was easier than moving far away. The answer is, in my experience, sort of. But my muscles are a LOT more sore than when the military moved us, that's for sure. When we moved cross country, the packers put everything in boxes and when we got to the new place, we had to unpack all that stuff. This time, we're moving whole drawers full of stuff. My craft room took four trips in my station wagon and about an hour to arrange.  I just shifted whole drawer units without worrying about anything. That was WAY easier than having to unpack every bottle of reinker from its zip baggy, get all my punches unwrapped and reorganized, etc.

Oh, and I have too many books. Now I understand why the military movers always hated us. When we moved to our last house, we had 109 boxes of books. Now, we have more. Dang, those things are heavy. We've used about 50 banker's boxes to haul the first batch over, and will empty them and re-use them until all the books are moved. So glad we're not in a hurry!