Script Background, Part 1

Turns out, if you sit and read by the fire with your two dogs, it's really hard to see the mess.

Don't you just love Daisy peeking up from the bottom of the photo? She's my cuddle-bug.

And yes, I wear Birkenstocks with fleece socks. Most comfortable shoes made and toasty warm with fleece.

My latest card series goes way back with a small script background from a very old, wood-mounted Hero Arts set. It's just a small rectangle of old handwriting, but it's spoken to me for years. Time to take it out and play again.

Today's card was inspired by a color combo on Pinterest of shades of gray and yellow.

My stash of sympathy and thinking-of-you cards is running low, so you'll notice lots of those themes in the next week or so.

Hero Arts Antique Engravings is an old, discontinued set but it's perfect for vintage-style cards. The script pairs nicely with the butterfly for a soft, pretty look, but I wanted the sentiment to stand out strongly so it's in black and has a large, classic, serif font. The soft yellow bling (colored with a Copic) unifies the design.

These sorts of cards truly are my favorite...one layer, some ink, a little bling, lots of white space.

If you don't have this set, you could mask off a small area for a larger script background. The layout is versatile and could accommodate lots of different stamps. Give it a go!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts...all of 'em
ink: Archival black; Hero Arts lemon yellow, soft granite
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, Copic marker

You Are Amazing!

There's not been much time for stamping since I got back from Maryland, but I did play around a bit and made this fun one-layer card today. It's preppy colors and whimsical use of the star stamp from Hero Arts Dreams Are Made set make me smile.

I enhanced the swath of stars (stamped in Hero Arts bubble gum pink) with three additional "big" stars (stamped in Archival vibrant fuschia) in a visual triangle and added bling.

The sentiment comes from Altenew's Sentiments and Quotes set. The stamp arranges the words all on one line, but that looked odd given the curve under the stars, so I stamped just the you are and then added the amazing below. Some people (myself included, on occasion) will cut sentiment stamps to make this process easier. If you don't cut, just make sure to REALLY clean the stamp between impressions or you'll end up with a shadowy imprint of the first half of the stamp where you don't want it.

Don't ask how I know this. Just. Don't.

Is anyone else experiencing Spring Fever? Since I got back home, everything I look at in my house makes me crazy...from the chaos and mess. I want to throw away eighty percent of everything in our house and garage and BREATHE.

Somehow, I feel a giant urge to purge and clean, but sadly, I also feel incredibly overwhelmed and lazy.

First-world problems strike again.

Maybe I just have PMS.

Whatever.

Please give me a hug and tell my I'm pretty and that my house's mess isn't a reflection of my moral failings as a human.

I'll do the same for you.

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and Midol,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Altenew Sentiments and Quotes, Hero Arts Dreams Are Made
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Hero Arts bubble gum; Archival vibrant fuschia and vivid chartreuse
accessories: rhinestones

Polka Dot Basics, Part 4

So here's my favorite card in this batch of cards using the classic Papertrey set Polka Dot Basics.

Using the large open-circle border stamp, I filled in each circle with a small heart and gave the whole a hint of an ombre effect with two shades of pink.

The sentiment is incomplete on purpose...it's finished by the hearts and provides a sense of unity between the words and border. Also, the font has lots of circles. Yay, unity of design!

I love it when a design comes together.

Polka dots can go in so many different styles and design directions...far more than I have showed in this series. Today's card is my favorite, but which of the four cards has been your favorite?

1. Retro

2. Faux Collage

3. Sweet and Traditional

Or today's #4, Simple Minimalist. Inquiring minds, and all that.


Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Polka Dot Basics, Heart Prints, another set for the sentiment but I can't remember
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Hero Arts charcoal and bubble gum pink; Archival vibrant fuchsia
accessories: not a one

Polka Dot Basics, Part 3

Well, we are home safe and sound after four days in Maryland. Yay!

And now for another polka dot card, this one using my favorite of the polka dot stamps...the smallest dots. We've seen retro and faux collage polka dots, and now we see sweet and traditional ones.

They are just so darling...crisp, clean, and open. My only regret with this card is that I don't have a blue ribbon with white polka dots. THAT would have been perfect. Instead, I settled for black-and-white gingham, which is fun in its own way.

The ribbon is threaded through two holes, each tail put through from front to back, and then threaded out the opposite hole from back to front. The dimensional tape used to attach the panel leaves space for the back of the ribbon so everything lays nice and evenly with no unsightly bulges.

Who wants unsightly bulges on a card? No one.

So whatever will I do with the polka dots tomorrow? You'll just have to wait and see. But tomorrow's card is my favorite of the lot. Don't miss it!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Polka Dot Basics, Birthday Bash Sentiments
ink: Archival black, Memento Bahama blue
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: gingham ribbon, foam tape, hole punch

Polka Dot Basics, Part 2

If you read the artsy stamping or mixed media magazines, you've seen polka dots in collages. They crop up everywhere, often distressed and textured with pastes and stencils or stamped in distress inks or through off-stamping for a subtler look.

I wanted to give my card the feel of collage but keep my clean-and-simple, one-layer style. The results are blazing hot and happy!

My color choices are warm orange, hot pink, and yellow, with the fun little polka dots in red. The brushstroke stamps of Papertrey's Watercolor Wonders give a lot of movement to the energy provided by the colors, and the abundant white space allows the vivid colors pop magnificently!

So my faux collage doesn't look like the collages in the magazines, but it definitely looks like something I would make.

Your unofficial mid-week challenge is to adapt some element of a different style to your own. Perhaps you usually do collage...try something super-simple with lots of white space. Perhaps you usually make cute cards...try one in an elegant style. Just pick one or two elements of the different style to shake things up. It's fun!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Watercolor Wonders, Polka Dot Basics; can't remember the sentiment set name
paper: Papertrey white
ink: various dye inks
accessories: MISTI

Polka Dot Basics, Part 1

My sons and I are having a fun (and short) visit with my mom, sister, and her family where they live near Annapolis, Maryland. This picture of my nephew sums up our trip.

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We were at Barnes & Noble in Baltimore, and I asked to take his picture. This was the face he made.

Love this kid!

Anyway, before I left Ohio, I played around with a very old, very basic set from Papertrey...Polka Dot Basics. Just wanted to see what I could do with it. Here's my first card.

The color scheme is very '70s, and so much fun. The alternating colors of the polka dots were easy to achieve by inking and stamping twice, with the second impression offset from the first.

The polka dot border grounds the butterfly and unifies it with the sentiment. I do wish I'd stamped the sentiment in black rather than charcoal, though. It needs to stand out more. Alas! Charcoal it is.

The design is a bit busier than I usually make, but the colors make it work for me. What do you think?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love from Annapolis,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Butterflies, Papertrey Polka Dot Basics
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Archival prickly pear, tiger lily; Hero Arts charcoal
accessories: coordinating dies, glue

He Is Risen!

Happy Easter!

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and joy,
Susan


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Celtic Knots
paper: Papertrey white
ink: dye
accessories: coordinating dies, dimensionals