Water, The Easy Way

When I bought the owl stamp on Salt Spring Island, I also picked up a water bird image. It's not quite as detailed as the owl, but there's always the need to create a watery ground for the image, and that's intimidating.

Until I thought of Watercolor Wonders from Papertrey.

Put the two together, and this is what you get.

The Watercolor Wonders long stamp is inked with Soft Pool ink from Hero Arts and spritzed with water. Once the water was stamped, I added the bird (using a stamp positioner since it's wood mounted!), then the sentiment, then cut out the panel.

Note that the bird's beak points at the sentiment. That's on purpose.

As far as you know.

The stamped panel needed a little something, so I added a very thin black mat. I love how easy this was and how clean and fresh it looks.

What do you think?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey (sentiment, water), Salt Springs Island (bird)
ink: Hero Arts, Memento
paper: Papertrey White, SU black
accessories: squirt bottle of water, dimensionals

Wise Card

Quick note: Ironman Wisconsin is going on as I type this post. If you're reading it on Sunday and are interested, click over to my other blog for race day coverage!

Years ago, for our 20th wedding anniversary, George and I went to British Columbia and stayed at a resort on Pender Island. On one excursion, we took a water taxi to Salt Spring Island for a craft fair, where I bought two stamps from a company called Salt Spring Island Rubber Stamps.

This owl is one of those two stamps.

A bit different from the cutesy owls so popular right now, wouldn't you say?

This wise owl is gorgeous, but we CAS stampers can have a bit of trouble with such natural-style images. First of all, they generally look best colored in. Second, the level of detail wildly deviates from my usual clean and graphic style.

That doesn't mean I can't use these sorts of stamps, though. Some white-on-white layering adds interest (think of all those layers of feathers!!!), and the pine bough border punch gives Mr. Owl a lovely forest context without a complicated scene.

BTW, I used a glue pen to adhere all those little pine needles. Otherwise, the card might rip, which would be unsightly.

If you like CAS but have some natural images to work with, search your stash for punches or dies that relate to nature. See if they can work with your stamps.

I'll bet you can make something beautiful!

Supplies
stamps: Salt Spring Island Rubber Stamps
ink: Versacolor black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Martha Stewart pine bough border punch, glue pen

Operation Write Home and the Thanksgiving Crusade

Note: If you are interested in following our little Ironman adventure this weekend, please visit my other blog, Questioning my Intelligence. I'll be updating there all weekend!

Also note: The OLW for this week is on Ardyth's blog...and it's called Paintchip...use as many shades of a single color as you can. How fun is that!!!

And now for the real reason you're here...some cards.

Today's post shares three cards riffing on the same basic layout and sentiment, a sentiment that is absolutely, totally perfect for our heroes to send home to their family and friends at Thanksgiving. That means these cards are perfect for both OWH and for the Thanksgiving Crusade.

These fabulously clean and crisp images come from Waltzingmouse's Blessed by You set, as does the sentiment. This really is an amazing set, and the joy I've had stamping with it is encouraging me to order more stamps from that darling Irish company with the most excellent customer service.

And no, I'm not paid or compensated for saying that. It's my own unsolicited opinion. But I do have a bit of the Irish in me, so top o' the day to you!

Remember that you are allowed to link to all your Thanksgiving/gratitude cards on the Thanksgiving Crusade page until the end of November. If you're in search of Thanksgiving inspiration, click on the link and check out what's already been posted there for this year...and also last year's wonderful submissions!

From a design standpoint, today's cards are as simple as they can be, but I'd like to point out that to pull off such simple designs successfully, the stamping itself must be flawless. The first time I stamped the card with the house, I didn't ink the sentiment fully and it looked blotchy. That botched, blotchy effort got recycled, and I did it again...the right way.

If you have issues with perfectionism, CAS stamping can be enormously satisfying but perhaps not helpful in your recovery from that perfectionism.

Just sayin'.

Supplies
stamps: Waltzingmouse
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: not a blessed one

We're Here!

We were there, at home, and now after 9 hours of driving, we're here, in Madison, Wisconsin, on a perfect September day. George has registered for the Ironman race, and I'm on line, sharing some recent cards with you.

Because, thanks to the glories of the interwebs, I can.

I made these cards for OWH and as part of my Use-Your-Stamps Challenge. These are about as cutesy as I ever get, but I love, love, love these stamps from Hero Arts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

For both cards, I added a simple horizon with a black pen and quilting ruler. The line anchors the image so it's not floating in space, and the simplicity works perfectly with the line images. Just little hints of color keep the whole thing interesting and super clean.

*swoon*

Don't you think a child of a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine would LOVE to receive one of these cards?

And now I'm going to freshen up for dinner.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (discontinued Newton and kitty), Papertrey (Mega Mixed Messages)
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: markers, black micron pen, quilting ruler, corner rounder, dimensionals

Autumn Stripes

Autumn.

My favorite season of the year.

After an unseasonably cool summer, I'm starting to think autumn will never arrive. Temperatures here in Ohio are summery now, and the Wisconsin Ironman race this weekend is currently forecast to take place in the low 80s.

I want 50s and 60s. I want to wear sweaters and smell the fires of dry leaves burning. I want to drink hot cider and eat apple fritters. I want to put mums on my porch and see the exquisitely blue sky that only happens when it's chilly out.

I want autumn.

Isn't it ironic that a chilly time of year is made up of such incredibly warm colors?

Anyway, I made this homage to autumn card using the large stripe in Watercolor Wonders (Papertrey Ink), leaves from Fall Elegance (also Papertrey) and an old sentiment from Hero Arts. The design concept was to place the action in the horizontal middle of the card while placing the sentiment and leaves asymmetrically. I like how the leaves and sentiment create a sense of movement in a very stable design.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey (Fall Elegance, Watercolor Wonders), Hero Arts (discontinued)
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey Ink
accessories: rhinestones

Blogger Is Being Difficult...

Tried loading a card, but Blogger wouldn't let me do it. Will try again tomorrow!

Happy Labor Day!

More Fresh Squeezed Fun

Here are some more cards using Fresh Squeezed Stamps' Everyday Expressions!

A visual triangle of flowers in an analogous color scheme, with black nail heads to reinforce the triangle:

A square sans sentiment, with Stickles in the centers of the flowers for fun:

4.25" square

A birthday blossom with greenery and Stickles:

It was incredibly easy to put together pretty CAS cards with this set. Customer service for my Fresh Squeezed order was quick, and the stamps are lovely high-quality photopolymer. If you're looking to try something new, check them out!

By the way, this post was unsolicited, and I paid for my stamps.

Supplies
stamps: Fresh Squeezed Everyday Expressions
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: nail heads, Stickles