Shocking!!!! A Colored Card Base

Let's start the week with a lime green card, just to shake things up a bit and to remind everyone that white space doesn't actually have to be white. It simply needs to be empty.

size: 5.5" x 3.5"

I tried putting these three inchies on a white base and they looked blah, but on the lime they pop right off! The ink here is Brilliance thyme and poppy. Here's a close-up so you can see the iridescence:

Measurements for Ornaments
Several people have asked for measurements for the ornaments I've posted, so I'm going to give them to you. BUT I encourage you to work with whatever scraps you have and design to the size and shape of the scraps. You can always trim and adapt as needed. That's what I do.

Anyway, the library pocket ornament template with measurements is here:

The tabs are 3/8" each. Score along
dotted lines.

This template will fit the old, discontinued SU library card that came in a big, expensive set (was it Office Accoutrements or Stamp of Authenticity?).

The dimensions for the pinecone and baker's twine book marks are 1.5" x 5.5".

I'll be posting some more book marks (a.k.a. ornaments) and will include the dimensions with those posts. But seriously, feel free to flex the measurements to suit whatever size stamps you have!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (discontinued old ornament stamp), Papertrey Peaceful Pinecone and Holly Jolly
ink: Brilliance
paper: Papertrey white, unknown lime
accessories: red rhinestones, dimensionals, 1" square punch

A Few Changes to the Blog

Check out the new tab on Simplicity. There's a Subscribe button now, with a number of different ways you can subscribe to the blog listed in one place.

You'll also notice I removed the Jonah Cards tab. Jonah is, thankfully, doing very well and getting back to a normal, healthy life. I have received a few cards for him in the past few months and continue to drop them at his house, but I feel like we accomplished our goal of encouraging him and his parents through their time of crisis. Thank you so very much to all who sent cards and gifts for a very special boy!

I've reorganized the widgets on the sidebar as well...if you care about that sort of thing. I know there are several people who feel strongly that I should label posts, but I struggle with this. Labels multiply past usefulness so quickly! I have 70+ labels...which is just a silly number. I've added the widget back, with only seven popular labels showing. BUT...these don't include posts from the past three years, so it's only a good way to find older posts. I'm going to think about how to proceed with labels in the most useful way, but remember that the Search widget can work in a pinch.

Have a lovely weekend!

Library Card Pocket Ornament

Since I've decided to do a smallish book-themed tree in addition to our regular Christmas trees, I've been experimenting with various ideas for ornaments to put on it. This one makes me extremely happy.

How fun! I'm going to have to make more, with Christmas-themed book titles. Unfortunately, this old SU library card stamp doesn't give much room for a title. I'll just have to do the best I can and thank goodness that I've have this teeny alphabet set from Papertrey. It's a pain to use because the stamps are so darn tiny, but I gave up trying to line them up on the block and instead stamp each letter individually. In the long run, it's faster and looks better.

My date stamp didn't stamp perfectly, but how many times did the librarian stamp crooked or just like I did? In my experience...all the time.

The pocket template is of my own making to fit the SU library card stamp...and leave a little extra on the top for the eyelet. I just googled "library pocket template," saw the basic idea in the Images at the top of the page, and went for it. It's pretty easy!

BTW, did you know that my first job as a work-study student (1984-85) was ordering and filing cards in the card catalog at Duke University's Perkins Library? Those were the days.

Source

Oh, yeah. I feel old.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Simple Alphabet, SU set that I broke up years ago
ink: Memento, Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: eyelet, baker's twine, corner rounder, Scor-Pal

Simple, Colorful Bookmarks

I have a need of little token gifts for people...a little something more than just a Christmas card, but nothing that will make them feel obligated to reciprocate at all. Bookmarks seem like a perfect thing to give, and so I made a batch using Peaceful Pinecones from Papertrey.

The colors were based on the baker's twine I have to hand, and I used eyelets and a 1/4" radius corner rounder to finish each off nicely. The design is simple, clean, and easy. If you have a nicely detailed, yet smallish stamp, you could easily duplicate these along any theme you wanted and with any color you wanted.

I wanted to use some baker's twine. Love the stuff but find it somewhat hard to use. These little pieces didn't use up much of my copious stash, but at least I used them.

Go, me!

Supplies
stamps: Peaceful Pinecones (Papertrey)
ink: various
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: eyelets, setter, 1/8" hole punch, baker's twine, Corner Chomper

Playing with Alphabets for Christmas

Sometimes, when you don't have a sentiment in the size or shape or font you want, you can make your own sentiment with alphabet stamps. The song says, "Deck the halls with boughs of holly...." I have holly stamps but nothing that says, "Deck the Halls." So I pulled out a small Hero Arts peg-mounted rubber stamp alphabet called Playful...and I played.

The line isn't totally straight, but it doesn't need to be with this alphabet. I did, however, try to get it straight because I'm me and weird that way. After stamping the holly border in Hero Arts green ink, I drew a light pencil line where I wanted the sentiment. Then, I did my best to line up and space the letters by eye rather than futzing with a stamp positioner, which would have taken forever.

I like the effect and hope you do, too!

The berries were rendered red with a Sakura Stardust pen, which puts down opaque, shimmery red ink that adequately covers the green.

This simple, completely flat card makes me so very merry!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (alphabet), Papertrey Holly Jolly (border)
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Sakura stardust pen, pencil, ruler, eraser

Christmas Inspiration...or Using Pinterest as It Was Intended to Be Used

I've been in a bit of a creative funk lately. Life's been pretty busy and distracting, and I've had precious little time to stamp. When I do make the time, I am singularly uninspired and feel rather lost and unfocused. It's frustrating, especially because there is so much out there to be inspired by...too much, in fact. And that's the problem.

So today, I decided to take three hours and play with my laptop by my side and my Pinterest account open. I'm so glad I did!

Here's a card that was completely inspired by a photo of bedding. It took a bit of tweaking to make the design work on a card, though, and I'm so glad I made the effort!

First of all, I've always loved color blocking, which used to be hugely in style and now isn't and who the heck cares anyway.

Second, don't you just love the yellow gems in the centers of the poinsettias? A reader gave me hundreds of them in two different sizes years ago, and I pull them out every Christmas just for this purpose!

Third, the inspiration photo is lovely in lime:

Source

Note the sameness of the layout of the bedding...the flower is always in the lower left corner of the "block" of white, whether it's a pillow case or the spread. I tried this with my card and it looked utterly goofy...an example of a three-dimensional arrangement not translating well at all to two dimensions. I rearranged my red flowers to create an asymmetrical triangle of the red that is much more visually pleasing on a card.

But I adore that bed. A. Dore.

If you're curious about the dimensions of the blocks on the card, they are a smidge more than 7/8" by 1" for the smaller ones, and 2" by 2 1/8" for the large one.

And I'm feeling much better about stamping now. Yay!!!!

If you're feeling stumped, go to Pinterest. If you don't have an account or boards, visit mine. These two are the best for visual inspiration: Cards and Pure Inspiration.

Happy stampin'!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Peaceful Poinsettia (yes, it's now in the vault, and no, it's not worth $48 unless you're rich), Signature Christmas
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: SU dimensionals, yellow half beads, glue

OLS#11 Is up and Running!

The November One-Layer Simplicity Challenge is up and running! The theme is Home, Sweet Home...make a card that uses the idea of home as an image or theme. Your card can be any theme, though, as long as the idea of home is present. You'll see I focused on Christmas but was true to the challenge with both image and words.

I hope you'll play along with us!

You can see my first card on the OLS blog, but here's my second. That wonderful sentiment from Papertrey's Peaceful Poinsettia is perfect for this challenge and for my need of Christmas cards. I'm way behind on them this year.

I just adore those fabulous bling hearts!!! I ran out of red ones but colored the clear ones with a red Sharpie marker...an easy fix that adds enormous versatility to clear bling.

I hope you'll join us for the OLS challenge this month. Remember that the OLS Challenge takes a break in December, and will start again in January. If you haven't checked out the collection for the October challenge, you can see it here. There are some amazing fall cards for your inspiration!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts (houses), Papertrey (sentiment)
ink: Hero Arts
paper: Papertrey
accessories: red Sharpie, clear bling hearts