Running With Scissors…

It’s that time of the week again when one of our Flourishes gals chooses a stamping subject to focus on and the rest of the team pitches in with samples.  Today, Julie has written a post about creating art on watercolor paper.  You can read all about it on the Flourishes Newsletter.

My card today features Sweet Violets (oops - temporarily sold out, I guess) which I watercolored with water-based markers.  I use this method most frequently when watercoloring images like this, and have mentioned it often in the past, such as in this post with the Sweet Peas.  Today I was attempting a particular shade of pink-violet and didn’t have the exact marker shade to accomplish that.  However, just as you can mix ink colors on a palette before applying to your paper, you can overlay marker colors on your paper to achieve a desired shade.  I painted these flowers in pink first, and then orchid to end up with a fair match to one of the varieties of violets that grow in my garden.

I used one of my pre-made layouts for which I’d already cut the watercolor image panel and mat.  I love the versatility of a large, detailed stamp like this since any area of it can be isolated for a different look every time.  The simple layout was dressed up with Flourishes’ pink crochet ribbon (also out of stock?) which, in turn, was trimmed with some plum taffeta ribbon I had on hand.

It all added up to a rather vintage-looking, lady-like card, so I decided to turn it into a sympathy card, stamping “In remembrance” inside.  Perhaps it’s not so much a sympathy card as a sweet and respectful acknowledgement of the life of a beautiful and well-loved woman.  In the medical center where I work, we grow fond of our patients and all too often have need of a card like this.

I’ll leave you with this photo of my own sweet violets.  I regret to say my good camera’s software and compact flash are not currently compatible with my laptop’s Vista, so I’m not sure what kind of garden photos I’ll have this year.  We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.  Now…  I know you’ll enjoy what Julie is sharing on the Flourishes Newsletter, as well as some beautiful watercolor creations by these folks:  Christine, Faith, Julie, Laura, Stacy

Thank you for your time.  Have a beautiful day!

Stamps:  Sweet Violets  Paper:  Certainly Celery, Pale Plum, watercolor, retired SU! designer paper (Enchante?)  Ink:  Palette Umber, Pretty in Pink, Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Pale Plum  Accessories:  Ribbon & crochet trim, ribbon slide, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Hello!  Today I’m sharing three very simple, no-coloring cards which came about just so I could have a few generic birthday cards in reserve, whether for my own use, or for those times someone asks me, “do you have any birthday cards?”.  They’re not intricately detailed or awe inspiring, but they do have sparkle, ribbon, and a little bit of layering, dimension, and texture.  They’re clean, colorful, very easy, and they were quite a lot of fun to make.

I used a candle set and sentiment from Rubbernecker:

Candle Set #2, SKU:  60-020405060708

So Many Candles, SKU:  60-12 

I mounted three candle stamps on the same block and stamped rows of color on the 1 1/4″ strips.  Outside:  So many candles…  Inside:  Too many birthdays!

I don’t often work with Bold Brights, but this first card is made up of Yo Yo Yellow, Green Galore, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, and Lovely Lilac.  It’s bright, but there’s no mistaking it’s a birthday card!

Next is a variation on the same theme, but with an Amuse sentiment and some Real Red thrown into the mix.  To adhere the ribbon snugly, I ran it through my little X-shaped Xyron.  I’ll generally do this when I can plan ahead and run two or three lengths of ribbon through at the same time, so as not to waste space on the adhesive strip.  It’s a very handy, no-fuss method of applying flat ribbon borders.  These little Xyrons and their refills are inexpensive and easy to come by.  I purchased mine at Joann’s.

And, finally, this last card is meant to be suitable for a guy (?), done in Not Quite Navy with a bright spot of ribbon but no sparkle.  There’s no reason a masculine card cannot have sparkle, but I decided to leave it off this time.

I’ll be back soon with something colored up all pretty and using one of my pre-made layouts.  It was nice to have that layout to fall back on because I’ve been busy stamping a few special orders and cards for Flourishes’ next release (!).  I’m glad you could drop in today.  Stay well and happy!

Well, here we are at Monday again already.  Good heavens, those weekends do fly by, don’t they?  I’m always so happy for Friday night, and then I blink and…it’s Monday.  What happened?

I never seem to have enough time, and that’s partly what brings about today’s post — finding time, or making time.  Since this is primarily a stamping blog, naturally I’m focusing on the issue of stamping, but time saved in any one area allows more time to be used however I desire, or wherever necessary.  Now, why would I be trying to save time stamping?  Shouldn’t I be trying to save time somewhere else so I’d be free to sit down with my favorite craft?  Am I inferring that stamping is infringing upon time I’d rather devote to other activities?  Well, let’s see…how shall I put this…?

I’m a slow stamper.  I’m okay with that.  It’s never mattered much unless I need a card in a hurry.  I savor the time I spend stamping, and it’s never been something I wanted to hurry.  If stamping meant flying into my room with ten minutes to spare, flinging a card together, then dashing off to another activity with barely a moment to consider my handiwork, I probably wouldn’t be a stamper.  Would any of us?  Surely this is not how it’s done!

I want to do my design team work, I want to sell cards from my little basket at work, I want to fulfill special requests, make cards for my personal use, keep my best friend supplied, make gift sets.  I’m also utterly devoted to my blog these past two plus years, and you’ve probably noticed I’m not very good at writing short posts.  However, I do feel I need to streamline these processes, but do it in such a way that does not compromise my enjoyment of stamping and stamping-related activities.  I had to examine where I could make improvements.

I’ve begun by exploring the art of “clean and simple” (see this post).  Perhaps I’ll write shorter blog posts once in a while.  Today, it’s all about making the layouts first.  I’ve long since acknowledged this as my downfall when it comes to the amount of time spent on a card.  I can color images on my coffee breaks at work, but I spend triple (or more) that time creating the card which will feature the image.  I know!  It’s embarrassing!  So, the other day when I had some time at home, I just sat and made layouts:

These are a few of them, in addition to today’s card.  They’re mostly made by piecing together scraps.  I went so far as to cut the image panels, too, because it’s easy to find an image to fit from among my thousands of stamps.  The card bases are cut, but I left the layouts free for tucking ribbon ends, etc.  They all went together very quickly since I wasn’t trying to coordinate them with an image.  Truly, this is the most liberating thing I’ve ever done for myself in regard to stamping.  In fact, cards started happening immediately — I’d no sooner cut the image panels than I’d chosen images to stamp on them.   These particular papers are old but, gosh, I need to use them up rather than let them go to waste.

About today’s card:  I chose this very pretty image from Stampin’ Up!’s retired Garden Silhouettes to fit the panel for this layout.  I don’t use silhouette stamps very often because I love to color.  I will probably be using them more in the future for those clean and simple cards, but today I added color to the image as follows:

• I stamped it in Certainly Celery on a Vanilla panel.
• Colored over the flowers with a deep pink Sakura glaze pen, which gave them a shiny, embossed appearance.
• Dotted the flower centers with Cinammon Stickles (sparkle!).
• Shaded the lower edges of the leaves with a Stampin’ Up! Old Olive marker.

I stamped the word in Close to Cocoa.  I added Stardust Stickles to the Martha Stewart punched borders, inserted pearlized brads, added ribbon trim and a bow.  Papers are Chocolate, Pale Plum, Certainly Celery, and a retired SU! designer paper, the name of which I simply cannot remember (sorry!).

I’m so glad we could have this visit today and I hope you know how much I appreciate your time.  It’s all so precious, isn’t it?  Have a wonderful Monday!

Hello, and happy Friday!  Today’s Flourishes Friday Focus is all about a fun product called Flower Soft.  I’m sure you’ve heard of it.  If you’d like to learn more about it, Cindy has prepared an instructive post on the Flourishes Newsletter, and a few of the team have some cards to share which put the product to use:   Christine, Cindy, Julie, Latisha, Laura.

When I set out to make my card, I thought of this image from Summer on the Patio – a pitcher of summer blooms, which includes a couple of feathery plumes resembling Astilbe.  Since I’d given the image all that dimension with the Flower Soft, I decided to pop up a few of the other blooms as well.  It was some pretty tiny cutting, but it made for a very fun main image on my card.

I was feeling a summer in the country look, and the flower-sprigged saffron paper and soft country blue seemed to express that well.  I softened the Bordering Blue by sponging with white pigment ink.  The pink plaid ribbon has a touch of saffron in the weave, and its pink adds just a bit more color, matched up with the pink in the Flower Soft.

The close up photo gives you a little better look at the Flower Soft.  I first watercolored the image, then applied Alene’s Tacky glue to the plume-like blooms and pressed the Flower Soft into the glue.  I find it a more secure application when I press and hold for a moment, rather than simply sprinkle over the glue and come what may.  The cut out and popped flowers were applied last with tiny pieces of foam mounting tape, which I can cut to any desired size.

I hope you enjoyed my little country card today, and perhaps it brings the warmth of summer to those of you who are still experiencing winter weather.  Spring is a touchy time of year but, oh, we’ve certainly had some tantalizingly beautiful days here on the Oregon coast.

I’ll list the ingredients and wish you a happy weekend, whatever the weather.  There’s something to enjoy in every season.  Take care!

Stamps:  Summer on the Patio  Paper:  Bordering Blue, So Saffron Prints designer paper (retired SU!), watercolor  Ink:  Palette Umber, Craft White (pigment), SU! markers for watercoloring  Accessories:  Offray ribbon, SU! filigree brad, Flower Soft, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Spellbinders curved rectangle dies, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

I made this card for an 11 year old boy who just received the pretty awesome news that he has won his battle with leukemia.  It doesn’t get much more awesome than that, does it?

Since I have no awesome stamps for a boy that age, I relied on my Stampin’ Up! Headline Alphabet to sum it up in a word.  Big news, big word.  The designer paper is Memory Box Glitterati.  The simple, no frills, boy-type design makes this a “no extra postage required” card, just right for sharing on One Stamp Wednesday, the day I devote to these Post Office friendly cards.

That’s it in a nutshell!  My goodness, these simple cards don’t require much explanation, do they?  I’ll be back with something pretty for Flourishes Friday Focus.  I hope to see you then.  Take care!

Stamps:  SU! retired Headline Alphabet  Paper:  Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, Memory Box Glitterati designer paper  Ink:  Brilliant Blue  Accessories:  None

Just having a little fun today with my Whipper Snapper Crazy for Chickens.  I’ve been wanting to bring this set out to play and now seemed like as good time a time as any.

This first card is for my son’s birthday.  He’s a grown man so you’d think I’d come up with something a little more “grown up” for him.  Well… maybe another time.  That’s okay… he’ll let me get away with anything.

I don’t know what in the world a chicken would want with a big cupcake, but the cupcake was one of my surplus colored images and it helped make this look more like a birthday card.   Once I’d placed the itty bitty chicken next to the huge cupcake, I went looking for a sentiment which would help explain my thought process.  I found the “wish big” in one of my SU! sets.  So… the cupcake, the sentiment, and the chicken wire are miscellaneous stamps (listed in the recipe), and all other stamps on this card are from Crazy for Chickens.

The cupcake was colored with regular SU! markers, and the chicken was colored with Prismacolor markers.

Stamps:  Crazy for Chickens, SU! Treat Yourself (retired), SU! Along The Same Lines (wish big sentiment, also retired), Art Impressions chicken wire background  Paper:  Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White, Chatterbox designer paper  Ink:  Ranger Distress Vintage Photo, Palette Noir, Creamy Caramel, Summer Sun, SU! markers, Prismacolor markers  Accessories:  Offray ribbon, swirl clip, Stardust Stickles, SU! tag punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

The backgound of this card was made with my Cuttlebug Tiny Mosaic embossing folder.  I sponged white pigment ink directly from the pad to the paper and then clear embossed.  It reminded me of something you’d see in a kitchen, hence the bowl of eggs image.   I masked the chicken and stamped the bowl of eggs over her.  This image is watercolored with SU! markers.

I’ll sum up the rest of the info in the recipe.  I don’t want to leave anything out, but I think the cards are pretty self-explanatory.  I’m a little distracted at the moment because I’m hurrying to spend some time with my son.  We had an absolutely beautiful weekend and I spent a good deal of it in the garden.  Today, my husband and son went fishing on the bay.  When they came home, my son washed his car and my husband joined me in the garden saying, “give me something to do”.  Boy, did I!  Let’s just say we have an area “under construction”.  Tomorrow, I’ll go back to work and my son will go home to another town.  I aim to enjoy his company while I can!  I hope you had a great weekend, too.  See you again soon!

Stamps:  Crazy for Chickens, sentiment from retired SU! Love Ya Bunches  Paper:  Buckaroo Blue, Barely Banana, Cranberry Crisp, watercolor, Chatterbox designer paper  Ink:  Palette Noir, SU! markers, white pigment  Accesories:  Ribbon, Prima flowers, brad, rhinestone, ticket corner punch, Spellbinders oval dies, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Hello!  Flourishes Friday Focus this week is on ribbon knots, and you’ll find Stacy has prepared an informative post for you on the Flourishes Newsletter.  You’ll also find some pretty cards with different sorts of ribbon knots when you visit the rest of the team:  Christine, Cindy, Faith, Julie, Latisha, Laura, Stacy, and Sharon.

In fact, I’m certain these designers with talent of awesome magnitude will make it well worth your while to pay them a visit.  While I do actually like the card I made today — I like the stamps, colors, ribbon and basic design — I don’t have much to share in the way of ribbon knots, other than this one li’l old French knot.  I had originally planned to put it in a flower center, and in retrospect I wish I had gone with that plan.  No time for a do-over.  Oh, well… you know what they say about hind sight… I’ve made lots of French knots and each one turns out a little differently when using ribbon.  When I was testing out the plausibility of using this particular ribbon, my practice knot looked just like a rose.  It was perfect!  The reversible ribbon gave it a shaded look, just like the folded petals of a rose.  Not sure what happened with this one…  I hope you can laugh with me on this…

I’d thought about doing a little “how to” on the French knot, but I found this for you instead.  It’s a video which demonstrates the process perfectly.  I use a tapestry needle and wrap the ribbon around it twice — loosely.  The video will provide more explanation.

This stamp from the Summer Botanicals set is one of my favorites.  I’m not sure why I like this simple little stamp so much…I just do.  It’s versatile in that it can be stamped as a silhouette or colored with markers before or after stamping.  That’s a good reason to like it but, really, there’s something about the shape of the image that appeals to me.  It made a nice little echinacea garden in the morning mist by stamping repeatedly, with some of the images being second stamped.

The sentiment is part of the Mixed Greetings set, and I used Ornamental Elements on the Chocolate Chip card base.  That one little strip of designer paper is BasicGrey Perhaps.

That’s it for today!  I hope you’re all in the Friday spirit and ready for a great weekend.  I’m hoping for some good gardening weather.  My husband mowed the lawn today and it smelled so good!  Take care until we meet again!

Stamps:  Summer Botanicals, Mixed Greetings, Ornamental Elements  Paper:  Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Whisper White, BasicGrey Perhaps designer paper  Ink:  Close to Cocoa, More Mustard  Accessories:  Reversible satin ribbon, eyelets

I hope these aren’t too clean and too simple, or maybe they aren’t simple enough to qualify as “clean and simple”.  I’ve never been very good at clean and simple, but I do want to get better at it.

I remember being introduced to the CAS (clean and simple) style when I started seeing Tracy’s cards on Splitcoaststampers.  She had and still does have the most amazing knack for creating interesting and appealing cards with simple images and plenty of white space.  It’s just her style and I’ve always admired it.  Recently, I was visiting Heather’s blog and saw this absolutely perfect card, and that post sent me here and to a blog called Simplicity (the name speaks for itself).  If you’d like ideas for CAS, these are some great places to visit.  I also came upon Gabriela’s card here and Sharon’s card here.  It seemed I was seeing a lot of clean and simple that day and I was loving it.

Maybe it’s because Life gets so cluttered up all on its own sometimes that I find this smooth, sleek, simple, clean style so appealing and refreshing.  It’s easy and restful to look upon and satisfying to accomplish.  It’s like the “weekend” of cardmaking, a break from the usual routine.

These certainly were quick cards.  I just wheeled a single border along each side with my retired Stampin’ Up! Leaf Prints wheel and centered my 5 1/2″ x 3 1/4″ image panel with ribbon over that.  The tulips — SU!’s retired Watercolor Garden II — were very easy stamping with a pretty result.  I’ve always loved this tulip image.  It’s a two-step stamp with the stem and leaves being separate stamps.  It was very refreshing to complete three cards so quickly in these pretty Spring colors.

I used Very Vanilla cardstock, though in the second photo it appears more white than vanilla.  There’s a vanilla lining in each card with a coordinating sentiment.  The Thinking of You is a sympathy card.   All supplies are from Stampin’ Up!

No extra postage is required to mail these cards, which is why I’m sharing them on One Stamp Wednesday.  Color combos and other ingredients are listed below.

I’m really happy you could stop by today.  As always, you make my time here so very worthwhile.  Have an absolutely wonderful Wednesday, and I’ll see you again soon!

Stamps:  Watercolor Garden II, Sincere Salutations, Leaf Prints wheel  Paper:  Very Vanilla  Ink:  Apricot Appeal/Pumpkin Pie, Barely Banana/Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom/Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa  Accessories:  Apricot and Pale Pink grosgrain ribbon, Olive polytwill ribbon

When I was out visiting blogs the other day, I saw this post by Sue B. in which she challenged folks to get out one of those older stamp sets which has never seen ink, or seen very little ink.  You know, the set you just had to have but then never used…a few years have gone by and it seems less likely every day that you’re ever going to use it…  you know — that set.  I’d be embarrassed to admit how many of those stamp sets I have, so… I won’t.  Let’s just say I have several of them that I’ve never used, not even once.    Well… Sue threw down the gauntlet and I grabbed it up by finally using my Stampin’ Up! Long Time Friend for the first time.

This is a pretty set that was issued in 2006.  There are 931 images of it uploaded on Splitcoaststampers which can be seen here.  I see it’s still being used occasionally, as some of the uploads are fairly recent.  I colored this little garden vignette with Prismacolor markers.  The blue sky background was sponged on with Soft Sky ink.  After I finished this I thought it unlikely that the dirt and sky would meet quite like this, unless you’re on the very edge of a hill.  Oh, well… technicalities…

Sue really got me in the mood to use the old stuff, and the old stuff got me in the mood to bring out the background stamps.  Once upon a time I was a dedicated collector of background stamps and I amassed quite a hoard before my head was turned by the enchantment of designer papers.  There’s room in my heart, though, if not, perhaps my stamp room, for both of them.  I used Weathered (an old favorite) on the upper panel to simulate a weathered white painted wall, like the side of a house.  The lower panel is my Brick Wall Backgrounder, which I used the other day for the first time.  Today I stamped it in Versamark on Blush Blossom cardstock and embossed it with a terracotta embossing powder.  I went over the grout lines with a gray Prismacolor marker.  The screw brads have been in my stash, unused, for a long time, having been purchased for use on masculine cards.  Funny how they emerged for the first time on a rather lady-like garden scene.

I did use one new-to-me product on this card — my Martha Stewart Arched Lattice border punch.  I’d stopped by Joan’s Gardens just to say “hi” and see what she was up to and happened to notice her Martha Stewart category.  I’ve not had an easy time finding these punches locally, so I picked up this punch and one other while I was there.

So… I’m heading back to Sue’s now to link up to her post and let her know I took her up on her challenge.  If you’ve never visited Sue’s blog, I highly recommend it.  She makes such pretty cards and is always trying something new.  She also provides links to the originals so the rest of us can try it, too.  I hope you had a very nice Easter and an all around great weekend!  Happy Monday!

Stamps:  Long Time Friend, Weathered (both SU!), Brick Wall Backgrounder (by CHF)  Paper:  Groovy Guava, Blush Blossom, Whisper White  Ink:  Ranger Distress Vintage Photo, Versamark, Going Gray, Soft Sky, Primacolor markers – Light Peach, Peach, and Cherry for the pots, Cinnamon Toast and Dark Brown for the dirt, Cool Grays 10%, 20%, 30% for the pitcher  Accessories:  Groovy Guava stitched grosgrain ribbon, terracotta embossing powder, screw brads, Martha Stewart Arched Lattice punch, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Sweet Violets… they are so sweet, aren’t they?  My goodness, I haven’t enjoyed a stamp set this much since…well…Sweet Peas.  I think, perhaps, it’s the movement in the images of these two sets that has captured my heart so much.  They look so realistic and happy and sweet!

Today I wanted to color my violets with Prismacolor markers on Neenah Classic Solar White.  I like how nicely the pens blend on this paper, but I struggle with bleeding outside the lines.  Embossing provides a barrier that stops the ink from spreading into areas where it doesn’t belong.  I chose to use an embossing powder called Jewel Gold, a very fine glittery powder with lots of wonderful sparkle.  I did add a very soft shading around the violets with a Cool Gray #20, made softer still with the Colorless Blender.  It’s not real evident in the photo, but I always find it interesting how the Cool Gray shading makes an image to appear to have been stamped on vellum.  Do you see that illusion, too?

The 5 1/4″ square card base is SU!’s Almost Amethyst textured, and next to that is the Vintage Wallpaper background stamped in Almost Amethyst.  I just love the soft look of this new background stamp, and it is so classically vintage.  The scalloped circle is gold metallic (in case you can’t tell from the photo), and there are gold threads in the ribbon.

Thank you so much for coming back to visit throughout Flourishes’ release week.  It’s been a lot of fun for me.  And now I wish you all a very happy Easter.  Enjoy!

Stamps:  Sweet Violets, Vintage Wallpaper  Paper:  Almost Amethyst textured, gold metallic, Neenah Classic Solar White  Ink:  Versamark, Lovely Lilac, Prismacolor markers in Lilac, Violet, Green Tea, Dark Olive, Pink, Deco Yellow, Colorless Blender  Accessories:  Offray ribbon, Kaiser flat-backed pearls (from Flourishes), Spellbinders circle dies, SU! word window punch, Jewell Gold embossing powder, Scotch brand foam mounting tape