Bling and Washi

Two quick reminders...

1. The One-Layer Simplicity Challenge closes at midnight on January 24th.

2. The Little Give-Away of Bling closes at midnight tonight (the 20th), and I will announce three random winners on Tuesday, January 21st.

And now for today's card, which is a bit different for me. There's more going on than usual for me, but I kinda like it!

This card is really about color and bling. Hot pink and bright teal really sing together, which is just perfect for a birthday card, don't you think?

Just look at all that bling I used up! I'm really having lots of fun using my bling. Have you decided to use up some of your stash? How is it going for you?

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink Birthday Bash Sentiments
ink: Memento black
paper: Papertrey Ink white
accessories: rhinestones, washi tape, dimensionals

Using the Bling

If you missed my little give-away post, go HERE.  For a few days, this blog is all about ACTUALLY USING lots of bling as an intervention for hoarding the stuff.  So here's another card, layered for your viewing pleasure, that uses a lot of bling in blues and greens.

What do you think? Check your hoard stash of stamps and see if you have a sort of funky sentiment you can use for a similar card. Easy, fun, and consumptive of bling!

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and, for those in the United States, please take time to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Monday. Let's start with this gem of a quotation from him:

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

Unarmed truth and unconditional love. We will get there, people. We will.



Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Birthday Bash Sentiments
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, dimensionals

Christmas Cards We Received and Jonah News

First, the Jonah news. Tests came back positive for RSV. As Jonah is four and has asthma, this was scary, but the doctors appear to have it all under control, and Jonah is recovering, though still in the hospital. Please continue prayers as he's not fully recovered yet and this has delayed chemo. But here's his smiling face!

And now for Christmas cards. Many of you sent me hand-made Christmas cards, and I want to share your lovely work with the world to say thank you for taking the time--and making the effort--to brighten my family's Christmas. Some people sent store-bought cards, which we were equally grateful to receive! Overall, we saw a significant decrease in cards we received this year from family and friends, which makes the efforts made by people who don't even know us in real life even more appreciated.

The beautiful cards we received this year...

Patti J.

Sandra

Rachel

Michelle

Karen D.

kegbo

Mary

Nicole

Francie

Audrie

Sue C.

Kristen

Toni

Anne

Janet...the outside

Janet...the gorgeous inside!

Sheila

Vicki

Joan

Jane

Don't you just love the variety of styles and colors and techniques? There is amazing inspiration in this collection! Thank you all for sharing your talent with me and my family.

And here's a final gift I received from Audrie that is just pretty as can be.

set of 4 cards and envelopes, all tied up with a bow

accompanying card

Audrie is so generous. It seems like several times a year she sends me little things...and sometimes, not-so-little things! Whatever she sends is either gorgeous or useful or both. Thank you, Audrie, for being such a bright spot on the internet and in my life.

And thank you, each and every one, for reading my blogs, for encouraging me, for putting up with my occasional absences or delays in posting. I appreciate you more than you can know.

Jonah Update-ETA

This is my second post for Friday. If you are reading this in email, please scroll down for the first post.


Molly, Jonah's mom, updated his Facebook Group last night with a prayer request. Jonah was admitted to the hospital Thursday night with a fever and worrying blood work. He has an infection of some sort and is in a lot of pain (the doctors put him on morphine). The whole family is exhausted because Jonah hasn't been sleeping well for a while, and they need our prayers.

Thanks in advance for lifting Jonah, his family, and their medical caregivers up to God.

ETA: Here's a picture Molly posted on FB of Jonah. Let's surround this little guy in love and prayer!

First-World Problems, Balance, and a Little Give-Away

Conspicuous consumption creates all sorts of problems. How many of you have craft spaces so over-flowing with stuff that you don't even know what you have? How many of you have stamp sets you've never opened and used? How many of you have enough card stock to last about five lifetimes?

Well, welcome to the club. I used to have so much stuff I didn't know what I had, unused stamps just "waiting" for the perfect project, and a dozen Cropper Hopper paper holders full of card stock. Strict discipline over a period of years led me to my current state of relative sanity.

It's a process, people. A never-ending process.

Now, many of you don't have problems wallowing in plenty. In fact, you may even enjoy it, so yay for you! I, however, did not enjoy the chaos and started overcoming it by severely restricting my stamp buying and actually using every single image I bought. This went extremely well, and I now won't put away new stamps in my highly organized storage until I've used them all. This new habit is fully integrated into my stamping life, so yay me!

My card stock collection was pared down in two ways. First, I sold or gave away a LOT of my 8.5"x11" colored card stock...from six containers to two. I bought most of it just before realizing that one-layer white cards were my favorite format. *sigh* Second, I moved most of my 12"x12" card stock to an out-of-the-way closet so I didn't have to look at it. One day, I'll either get back to scrapbooking or decide to sell it all, but in the meantime, that card stock is out of sight, out of mind.

As for embellishments, several years of ruthless purging and completely obsessive organizing got me to a happy place. All my embellishments are stored in Sterilite drawers, organized by color. (If you haven't implemented this scheme, do so immediately. It. Will. Change. Your. Life. Seriously.)

Part of my never-ending process includes sifting through every single item in my craft space once every three to four months to remind myself what I have, purge items that still haven't been used and aren't likely to be used ever, and tidy what's left for easy finding. At first, this sifting would take days; now, it takes a few hours. Yay for me! Anyway, during my last sift session, I realized that I have been hoarding colored rhinestones.

Now, why in the world would I do that? It's easy as pie to color rhinestones to match ink using Copics and Sharpies. (Bics, I have found, don't dry as quickly as the other two do). You can even blend colors on rhinestones fairly easily to get just the right shade to match your ink. So why do I have five unopened packs of pink bling and a bunch of purple bling that doesn't match any ink I own? What a colorful jumble my rhinestone collection has become!

So I committed to using up as much of my colored bling as possible. Here's the first two of a number of birthday cards using up an abundance of bling.

4.25" Square

5.5" x 4.25"

To make these cards, I stamped a random-sized dot border from Hero Arts (discontinued years ago), stamped the sentiment, and covered each dot on the border with bling. These are fun and sparkly cards...and very easy! You could create your own random border without the stamp, or search your stash for border stamps you could adapt to this technique.

You could even use multiple lines, or frame shapes like circles, squares, ovals, etc. I've been experimenting. Bling can go almost anywhere, really, and more is better!

I have no idea why I moved the sentiment on the rectangular card, or why I put it where I did on the square card. But I like them both.

To celebrate my transition from hoarder to user of bling, I'm going to give away three packs of bling to three randomly selected readers who share their favorite organizational tip/product/plan in the comments. Comments will close for the give-away on January 20, 2014, at midnight.

Remember, if you don't include a tip, your comment will not be in the running for the give-away. Let's help each other discover new and better ways to overcome our first-world problems of conspicuous consumption!

While you're at it, you might want to think about my Use-Your-Stamps Challenge. It will help you figure out what sorts of stamps you really do love and want to work with...and the ones that are cool but not necessarily for you.

Happy Stamping!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts border, Papertrey Birthday Basics
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, corner rounders

And...She Uses Two Layers

I've been making so many one-layer cards lately that it felt weird to make this two-layer card, as if I were doing something radically counter-cultural, which is weird, don't you think?

Anyway, I have a drawer full of scraps of white card stock that need to be used, and white-on-white cards make me almost as happy as one-layer white cards!

This card uses some of my new Papertrey stamps...Birthday Bash Sentiments and Beautiful Blooms II. I wanted a very minimalist flower (cutting it off like that is pretty minimalist) that was still interesting. The triangle of flower, sentiment, and rhinestones keeps your eye moving and creates a nice balance.

I colored red rhinestones with a dark red Bic marker to get more of a burgundy shade to match the burgundy VersaColor ink of the flower. Love that little trick.

And now I'm going to share a story from my 14-year-old son. As he was getting ready for bed tonight, he said, "Mom, remember how you used to tell me I had Jesus in my heart? Well, I didn't know you were speaking metaphorically, so I thought a little Jesus really was in my heart, pedaling a bike in my internal organs." I'm just pleased as punch the kid now knows how to use "metaphorically" correctly, and ohmygosh, Jesus riding a bike in our hearts!!!! Kids are awesome.

And on that happy note, I'll say goodnight.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Beautiful Blooms II, Birthday Bash Sentiments
ink: Versacolor
paper: Papertrey
accessories: dimensionals, rhinestones, Bic marker

Shimmery Ink Is Cool; Chalk Ink Is Also Cool

Just an FYI...y'all are going to see a LOT of birthday cards in the next few weeks, simply because the OLS challenge to Stock Your Shelves didn't come out of thin air. I need a lot of birthday cards for 2014, and I want to send more birthday cards to Operation Write Home this year. I'm stocking up and hope you don't get bored.

Today's card demonstrates why every single CAS stamper in the whole wide world needs to have a nice selection of shimmery ink. It can carry a card all by its lonesome!

This totally flat card has lots of pop. I love that the photo shows how shimmery the platinum ink is, but the copper ink is also shimmery. Both are from the Brilliance line of inks. I love the dew drop pads...so easy to work with!

Now, a lot of the time, when using shimmery metallics, I think I have to stick with more formal stamps. This was an experiment to see if casual stamps would work...and I think they do!

Also, this layout is one of my favorites for sheer fun and energy. I made another card, with a different stamp set, using chalk ink from VersaMagic.

Note how things get rearranged slightly to accommodate a larger, wider sentiment. Also, I just HAD to put some bling on this card because as much as I like chalk ink for its great coverage and thickness, this card needed just a little something more.

GACK! I just checked the time. I'm running out of time right now--busy evening coming up--so I'll come back tomorrow and edit the post to include stamp set names. Sorry for the delay!

In the meantime, discuss whether you prefer shimmery inks or chalk inks...or do you have to have them both? Nosy Inquiring minds want to know.