Rockin' the Visual Triangle

Scroll down to see the winner of the OLW-Waltzingmouse give-away!


Next time someone asks me to explain what visual triangles are, I'm going to refer them to this post.

A picture is worth a thousand words....

But of course I have a few words. Note that the triangle is not an equilateral triangle. Equilateral triangles tend to look too...mathematical. (I was an English major; you do the math.) Generally you should have a nice long hypotenuse and one fairly short side on your triangle. That unevenness is pleasing to the eye.

Tomorrow (Thursday) morning, I'm going to Moms and Doughnuts with my younger son. It used to be call Moms and Muffins, but the Moms protested that the Dads got Dads and Doughnuts, which is way cooler and tastier. So now it's Moms and Doughnuts, which isn't alliterative but sure tastes better.

While all the other moms and children will be eating doughnuts courtesy of our very nice PTO, I have to bring my son's doughnut because he has autism and ohmygosh don't even try to feed him a doughnut that isn't his doughnut because he won't eat it. No, sir. Not gonna do it and nobody's gonna make him.

I'm going to organize three of our six Krispy Kreme chocolate glazed doughnuts in a visual triangle on the cafeteria table and then eat all three. Because that will help me lose the twenty pounds I need to lose, right?

Of course. Visual triangles solve everything!

Supplies
stamps: CASual Friday Wish Big, Papertrey Birthday Basics
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: purple rhinestones

And the Winner Is...

OLW138 Entry Number 4, Gillian R!!! Congratulations, Gillian!

You can see Gillian's beautiful spring entry on her blog HERE.

I think it's ironic that, due to an ordering snafu (entirely my fault), I ended up with two of the sets from Waltzingmouse, which shipped from Ireland, and now I'm mailing one of the sets back to the Isles (not Ireland, but close by) where Gillian lives. The stamping world is really a very small (and extremely nice) place in many, many ways!

I want to thank Claire at Waltzingmouse for allowing me to give the extra set away on the OLW, and I want to thank all of you who entered the give-away. I hope you had fun, and I hope you all will check out Waltzingmouse Stamps (if you're not already a customer). They make awesome quality, gorgeously designed stamps, shipping is fast as can be (even to the States), and customer service is over-the-top nice.

Now click on over to Cheryl's blog and dive right in to the OLW139 Challenge!

I'm Here for You

First of all, this week's One-Layer Wednesday challenge will be on Cheryl's blog. We're so glad to have Cheryl back in the saddle for this one. YAY!

Second, I'll be announcing the winner of the OLW-Waltzingmouse give-away tomorrow!

Third, Technique Tuesday's One of a Kind set has this wonderfully simple, stylized wheat stamp (at least, that's what I think it is but I'm no botanist). I wanted to make a cheery, glittery orange card with it. This is super easy, would be great to mass produce with a variety of sentiments and colors, and uses baker's twine, which makes me happy all by itself.

Supplies
stamps: Technique Tuesday One of a Kind
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: Stickles, baker's twine, small glue dot

Thank U

A Public Service Announcement...
I have received a number of questions about my friend Joan, whose blog has disappeared. Here is an official statement from her: "I am fine. I had a note on my blog about taking it down but obviously removed the blog too quickly and I am sorry about that. I appreciate everyone's thoughts. I am busy working and trying to adjust to all the changes in my life.  It's all good." While I and lots of other people are sorry to see her disappear from the blogosphere, we can surely offer up our best wishes to her as she has fun with all the positive changes in her life!

Back to Regularly Scheduled Programming...
I am perpetually torn by texting shortcuts. On the one hand, they are convenient. On the other, if what we have to say is important, isn't it worth saying correctly? When I text with my husband, I spell out "okay" and use apostrophes, even though it means extra taps on my iPhone screen.

Did you see how I casually let drop that I have an iPhone? Smooth, eh. You're impressed, right? That's why I got it...to impress people.

Or maybe I got it because it was free with my usage plan and I like free stuff.

Whatever the reason, I've discovered the delights of texting, but cannot bring myself to abbreviate or use shorthand. The new-to-me set Wish Big from CASual Fridays has a graphically fabulous 'Thank U" stamp, however, that I didn't hesitate to use on these two cards. Isn't it wonderful?

Completely flat, one-layer cards with kicky color combos and mod layouts. What could be better than that?

Well, a free iPhone would be better, for sure. But still. The cards are swell, aren't they?

Supplies
stamps: CASual Fridays Wish Big
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: not a blessed one

Fun with Repetition and Scale

The CASual Friday's set Wish Big has some fabulous stamps in different sizes. It's fun to play with layouts that use the scale of the stamps effectively. It's even more fun to use the stamps the same number of times on each card.

The magic number is, of course, three.

Let's start with three of the small border stamp...with lots of white space and happy bright colors. Note the bling matches the ink colors for a clean and simple effect. Yum!

Next, let's move to the medium border, with two colors in a symmetrical arrangement. There's less room for white space, and the simpler color scheme works well. Bling still matches the ink color.

Finally, let's use the big single stamp, repeated three times, with the same pattern of color as the medium stamp border.  To add interest, I used only hot pink bling, even on the orange images. Subtl different, but so much fun!

Do you have a favorite? Why? How can you have fun with repetition and scale using stamps you already own?

Make Monday FUN!

And don't forget about the OLW and the Give-Away of a Waltzingmouse Set!!!!

Supplies
stamps: CASual Fridays Wish Big, Papertrey Birthday Basics
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: various rhinestones

Another Bright Idea

Really? This card was just an excuse to use orange and teal together. I needed that.

Have a complementary weekend, everyone!

Supplies
stamps: Technique Tuesday Bright Idea, Papertrey Faux Ribbon
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: a tiny little rhinestone

You Can Do Anything

So, Technique Tuesday's Bright Idea set has called out to me for a long time. Light bulb, lamps, punny sentiments...photopolymer fun, right? The stamps are nice quality and really right up my alley.

I wanted to make an encouragement/graduation card for our nephew, who was due to graduate from college on the five-year plan (long story) this month. He's not sure what he wants to do with his life and is feeling a tad insecure about it because his younger brother chose to become a diesel engine mechanic and is already fully independent from his parents and has a solid plan for the next ten years of his life.

Darn younger brothers....

Anyway, older nephew needs encouragement, especially since he recently learned he needs to go to summer school before he can graduate. Sigh. The university changed the degree requirements and added a specific class that he didn't have to take under the old requirements. Something like this should be illegal, but alas, poor guy's gotta wait even longer before having that sheepskin to hang on his wall.

To make this card, I stamped the bulb from Technique Tuesday's Bright Idea set on a scrap of paper, colored it with Bic/Sharpie markers and punched it out using a 7/8" circle punch. I wanted to use a clear dome sticker on it, but unfortunately, those are 3/4" and it looked silly. I really didn't want to mess with whatever that liquid crystal stuff is called (senior moment at 46...how sad is that?) and decided a little kick of yellow Stickles would add a little sumthin' to it without being a huge pain.

The circle is popped on a dimensional over another stamped image of the bulb, and the whole stamped panel is raised as well.

The sentiment is from CAS-ual Friday's Breathe set.

Hope the nephew realizes he's a bright bulb and really can do anything. Well, anything within reason that requires a degree in Communications.

Supplies
stamps: Technique Tuesday (Bright Idea), CAS-ual Friday (Breathe)
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white
accessories: markers, Stickles, dimensionals