Berry Birthday

My mother requested some birthday cards, so I had fun making a whole bunch of different cards for her. This one uses Kaleidacolor's Berry Blaze spectrum ink pad for a VERY pink and purple card.

The sentiment (from Papertrey...not sure the set) is enormous and only needs a little something-something to set it off. A spectrum ink pad and a few starbursts from Papertrey's Good Times set (and of course some bling) were all it took to make this sentiment rock!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey
ink: Kaleidacolor berry blaze
paper: Papertrey
accessories: rhinestones

Christmas Cards, Christmas Books, and a Winner

Christmas Cards

Every now and then, I purchase ready-made embellishments,hoard them until I don't like them anymore, and then donate them to the preschool at our church.

Sound familiar?

Anyway, this year I purchased a sheet of glittery holly-and-berry stickers with a new resolution to use the pretty, sparkly things. One appeared on the third card in this post, and here are a few more.

Stamp; Papertrey Keep It Simple: Christmas

Stamp: W Plus 9 Silver Bells

Stamp: Clearly Besotted Ornamental Style

Stamp: Hero Arts Happy Holly Days

Close-up picture of the sparkle!

Obviously, the point in this series is to use JUST a fun sentiment and a single holly sticker on a white card base, but for those of you who get itchy with so much white space, the idea translates into layers and panels of decorative paper...and of course using more than one sticker per card. These little stickers are adorable. Get some. Use them. Don't hoard them.

If you go as clean and simple as I have done here, just remember that placement matters. I tossed a few that were too high up on the card.

Christmas Books

Now for a compilation of the books suggested by readers for Christmas. Many thanks to all who shared!

Red Boots for Christmas by Carol Greene
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
The Greatest Gift by Max Lucado
One Incredible Moment by Max Lucado
Russell the Sheep, a series by Rob Scotton
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon
Lanterns across the Snow by Susan Hill
The Glass Angels by Susan Hill
The Lost Angel by Elizabeth Goudge
Sister of the Angels by Elizabeth Goudge
The Christmas Tree by Julie Salamon
The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo
A Wayne in a Manger by Gervase Phinn

And last but not least, the book that spawned all the others, the Holy Bible...in particular the gospel accounts in Matthew and Luke.

A Winner

The winner of the bookmark is Carol Didier! Carol, please email me at susanraihala at roadrunner dot com with your snail-mail address, and I will send you your bookmark! It's a MAJOR AWARD!!!!

Why, oh why, didn't I buy a leg-lamp stamp at The Christmas Story house on our visit to Cleveland this summer?!?!?

Landscape v. Portrait

I'm working on a post to announce the giveaway winner and list a bunch of holiday books recommended by YOU and those on my own shelf, for any who are interested. Many thanks to all who shared their favorite holiday books!

In the meantime, let's have a little lesson on image orientation.

Today's cards were inspired by a variety of clean-and-simple printed cards I've seen at Barnes & Noble and Papyrus and other places...a simple line image floating on a card with nothing else.

It doesn't get more CAS than this.

I thought the vertical image would work best on a horizontal card. The idea was that the tension created would add some interest.

I was wrong. Again. I'm really quite used to this.

The more I looked at the first card, the less satisfied I was. The cup looks squashed or something. It's just wrong. Which brings us to card #2:

Ahhh. Much better. The placement of the cup across the line one-third down from the top of the card gives an interesting horizontal asymmetry that reinforces the vertical asymmetry of the cup.

In this case, Portrait wins!

While most of you won't make cards quite this simple, keep in mind that changing the orientation of your card might fix whatever doesn't look quite right. Sometimes Portrait wins, sometimes Landscape wins. And when you get it right, you win, too.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Warm Happiness
ink: Memento Luxe black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: nothing whatsoever

Happy Colors

Have any of you noticed that Memento markers have more intense color than the pads? This card is living proof of that. Colored with markers, the card has fun, bold colors that pop right off all that white.

Lady bug, rose bud, lilac posies, and tangelo are the marker colors. All give much more intense color than the pads ever yield. Normally this annoys me because I prefer them to match. But in this case, the intensity works in my favor, so YAY!

What I love about this layout is how everything is so centered and perfect...yet the sentiment throws a pleasingly asymmetrical monkey-wrench into the mix. Curves and points, long and short, round and rectangular. Fun tension is going on here.

The orange enamel dot subtly reinforces the focal point of the orange petal. And orange is such a happy color!

Happy Hump Day!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Modern Basics
ink: Hero Arts intense black
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Memento markers, enamel dot

Modern Basic Squared

It's a late night. We sent our younger son off for his eighth grade trip to Washington DC. If you're the praying kind, please pray for their safe travel, safe exploration of our nation's capital, and safe return. Oh, and for the sanity of the chaperones and teachers and nurses because, dang, those men and women are brave!

Thanks.

Tonight's cards take full advantage of bright, glowing colors and fun enamel dots.The stamps are Papertrey's Modern Basics...same as on yesterday's card.

inks: Impress Fresh Ink sky blue, Memento Luxe Bahama blue

Inks: Impress Fresh Ink ginger, Memento Luxe Morocco

Layering the large and medium leaf shapes for these flowers was pretty easy with a gridded acrylic block and careful alignment. I found doing this same layering with the small leaf shape was a nightmare. Couldn't get them lined up consistently at all. Whatever. These two bold, beautiful cards more than make up for that failure.

The blue enamel dot has sparkle in it, while the orange one is a standard shiny dot. The world needs more sparkle dots, doesn't it?

Blessings to all. And good night.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Modern Basics
ink: listed in captions
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: enamel dots

Making Lemonade out of Lemons

Not sure what prompted me to pull out Papertrey's Modern Basics set and play around, but that's what happened this weekend. I thought one of my cards might make a good lesson in rethinking a failure.

First up, the failure. I really hate two-step stamping that's hard to line up.

If you zoom in, you'll notice that the middle butterfly is poorly aligned. In real life, it's VERY noticeable. The top one isn't perfect, either, but much less noticeably so. The bottom one is as close to perfect as can be, and as I sat staring sadly at this failure in both alignment and design (which is very meh), it occurred to me that the bottom butterfly and sentiment COULD be salvaged.

And then this card happened.

While it's not perfect, it is solid. I prefer my butterflies to fly free, and that green line sort of restricts flight, but it also points up, which is good. The green and white is also quite cheerful and upbeat, and the bling is, well, blingity. So there's that.

A definite improvement over the first effort, wouldn't you say?

Don't forget to enter the giveaway from yesterday's post!



Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Modern Basics, Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental
ink: Hero Arts green hills, charcoal; Archival emerald
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp green galore
accessories: craft foam, glue, rhinestones  

One for Three, or Maybe Four, and Thus a Little Giveaway

Let's revisit this year's personal challenge to make three cards from as many different Christmas stamp sets as I can tolerate. Today's spotlight lands on Papertrey's Silent Night set. I've made three cards and a bookmark.

My favorite of all four projects is this unexpected aquamarine and red card. I've always used this sentiment with subdued blues and silvers...nighttime colors...and I've always thought the resulting cards turned out boring. (See third card below.) But this time, I decided to make it more energetic and celebratory and fresh. And I love it! Plus, check out the bling, small to large, arranged in a visual triangle and ever so sparkly!

*happy sigh*

Ink: Archival aquamarine and red geranium

Then I went VERY minimalist with the "Wise men still seek Him" saying. This sentiment usually accompanies an image of camels and kings traveling in a desert, chasing a star. The only things I kept were the sand dunes, hand cut with a craft knife, highlighted with gold marker, and the star.

Ink: Archival deep violet, Delicata gold

Finally, the last card uses the giant star in the set, highlighted by three small stars. I love the arrangement of the stars, but wish I'd left off the sentiment or put it inside. The color combo of silver and navy is kind of boring.

Ink: Delicata silver, Hero Arts navy

And now the fourth project: a fun bookmark that I'd intended to use with my Advent study. But after talking with my pastor, I ended up buying a study on my Nook and therefore don't need a bookmark. (Since some of you will ask, I am reading The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel this December.)

So I will send this bookmark to a randomly selected winner from the comments on this post. Just tell me what your favorite holiday book is. If, like me, you don't have a favorite, just share a random one you really like a lot. For me, what popped into my head first was Ann Voskamp's The Greatest Gift. A minute from now, Olive, the Other Reindeer might pop in there.

You just never know with me. Which Susan will show up? The compassionate, kind, spiritual-fruit growing, mature Susan who loves Jesus, teaches Bible studies, and practically lives at the church; or the intellectual, cynical Susan who drinks red wine, reads boldly and widely, and might occasionally swear a little; or the laughing, silly, utterly juvenile Susan who almost lost it when her younger son pointed at a giant mercury-glass pear at the Macy's furniture store and said, "I really like that glass pear."

Giant glass pears, people! On sale at Macy's! Why do I not have one?!?!

Anyway. I hope you'll play along with the giveaway so we can amass a long list of holiday books because Heaven knows I don't have enough books.

Deadline for the giveaway will be Wednesday night at midnight, Eastern Daylight Savings Time.