Stamping is Good for the Environment

Ever make something that just doesn't turn out just the way you intend, but you're reticent to throw it away? Well, those pieces and parts can spark creativity when you least expect it, so don't throw them away!

This happened to me recently. I was making a quick card after I returned from visiting a friend and seeing her new kitchen when I spied a scrap of debossed card stock that I had colored using my brayer. Immediately I was reminded of the walls of my friend's kitchen and interrupted my work on the card I was making to use that scrap to make a card for her!

I didn't have to do much to incorporate this element into a card, other than cut it in half so I could use it as a border to the sentiment I chose. I had another left over sitting around too--a card base that I had embossed with the Framed Tulips TI Folder that didn't go through quite straight. The frame was still usable as an element, though, so I trimmed it and mounted it on a Riding Hood Red card base, which matched the scrap of textured card stock.

I added the sentiment from Inspired by Nature that communicated what I wanted to write to her about and the card was complete! Another morale to this story? Stamping is good for the environment; it reduces waste and recycles!

For My Sister

LOTS of birthdays in the family this month--5! Three of them are this week!! Today is my sister's 41st birthday. No big celebration like last year (I sent her 40 pieces of her favorite toffee from our favorite chocolate shop), but that doesn't mean her day should pass without acknowledging her and what makes her special.

This card utilizes another favorite color combination (Tempting Turquoise and Gable Green) that I won't be able to craft with after June 30, when GG is retired. I'm not planning on stocking up on retiring colors; there are new options and I'm going to embrace change! If you don't feel similarly though, I would advise you to act immediately and shop online to get what you'd like to have and hoard.

This card is fairly simple. It was inspired by one I saw online, but when I went back to find it, I couldn't. This one by Nancy Riley comes closest to what I saw. I stamped the grass image from Inspired by Nature in Garden Green on Whisper White card stock. I stamped it again on a smaller piece and matted it with GG and TT. The butterfly is from Flight of the Butterfly, and the solid 'fly is inked in TT and stamped off once, and the overlay of flowers is not.

Deciding where to place the greeting was the most challenging part of this entire layout. I finally went with the plain "Happy Birthday" from It's Your Birthday and determined the more meaningful sentiment would go on the inside.

My sister has not always been my confidante; we fought as kids and I even pulled her hair and strong armed her at times to try to get her to do what I wanted her to do. Today, though, we are close, and I'm so thankful to have her not only as a sibling but as a friend. She's been there for almost everything and she loves me. She's an amazingly talented pianist, incredibly organized household manager, and unconditionally loving wife and mother. Hugs from here, sister! Wish we could go for lunch.

What I See Each Day

I drive to work in the dark each morning, so there's not much to revel in but the worship music on the cd player. On the way home, though, I enjoy observing the roadside foliage as it flashes past my window while I speed down 400. To many, it may seem to be just weeds, but not to me. I love ornamental grasses, even wild ones, and for the past few days, I've been noticing these short grasses that have the most luscious shade of burgundy. (Yes, I stopped by the side of the road and snapped a photo so that you could enjoy their beauty!) I love that they're just there, shouting with vibrant color, and only those who are observant will have the opportunity to revel in their fantastic beauty.

If you're wondering why I'm going on about this nature observation, behold the resulting card. I started with a 3.5" x 11" base of Bravo Burgundy. I inked up the grass stamp from Inspired by Nature with So Saffron ink. When you look at the photo, you'll see that the grass is a mixture of green and burgundy, but when I see it as I'm driving down the road, it's interspersed with a wheaty yellow, so that's why I started with SS. I took my SU! Stampin' Write BB marker and streaked it randomly across the rubber. Then I stamped it on Very Vanilla card stock. I'm really happy with the result! I was so pleased that I reinked the stamp with SS and stamped it again on the SS mat. Aahhh...

The sentiments that go with the Inspired by Nature set weren't speaking to me, so I grabbed the one from A Beautiful Thing. It was the right size and expressed what I wanted to say, so there. Cut it out using my oval Coluzzle Cutter. I wish they hadn't retired this cutting system. It's so much easier to use than the Circle Scissors Plus, and, not to be obvious, but I can use it to create OVALS. The touch of linen thread creates just the look I want.

What do you enjoy seeing as you drive along your roads each day? Could you create a card or scrapbook page from your observations? I bet so. Tell me all about it.

How Can Things Be the Same but Different?

I don't get it...these are the same colors I used in my last card, but they aren't speaking to me at all in this combination! Is it as strange to you as it is to me that the same colors look so different used in different proportions? I liked this layout that was part of a huge download of card layouts given away by Papertrey Ink. This is a 5"x7" card by Becky Oehlers.

The one on top has no Riding Hood Red except for the ink on the flowers (from Inspired by Nature) and the ribbon. After I photographed it, I took it apart and added a layer of RHR card stock to see if that would make me like it more. It didn't. Oh well. It was still a fun sketch to try. What do you think this needs? More Baja Breeze? A different stamped image? The words are from the Loop to Loop rub-ons. I'm really interested in your thoughts on these.

On a completely different topic, we return tomorrow to the Ronald McDonald House with 50 rooms to deliver our second batch of cupcakes. I think it has been very gratifying to our customers to find out that we not only met but doubled our goal. I've been making more cards to take, since what I left was not even close to being enough for the current slate of guests. I still won't have enough for everyone to have one, but there will be more than there were last time. We may get a tour of the place, and if so, I may take pictures. Check back.

Have you found somewhere to volunteer in your community, either as part of a one-time event or in an ongoing capacity? Please share...

Rudbeckia hirtas...Inspired by Nature!

I hope you're wondering what the heck a Rudbeckia Hirta is, because, in the interest of accuracy in blogging (old habits of former journalists die hard), I had to make sure what the proper genus and species of my focal image was before I titled my post today. No, it's not a code name for some rude girl named Becky that I want to hurt (insert Mom humor courtesy laugh here). It's the scientific name for Black Eyed Susans, and I have a simple, cool technique using the stamped version to share.

While I was unwinding over the holiday weekend, I came across this blog, which highlighted the work of Kim Teasdale for her amazing ability to create dimension using stamps. I loved the idea and was intrigued but a bit intimidated; still, I wanted to try it. I decided to start simple and chose Inspired by Nature.

I inked the entire image in Garden Green and stamped it on Very Vanilla card stock. Then I used sponge daubers and inked up just the flowers in Summer Sun and More Mustard and Chocolate Chip. After stamping them on scraps of VV and cutting them out, I popped them up on dimensionals. I like how the GG serves as a sort of shadow for the flower heads while completing the image as well.

The last element I decided to add to this was the 5/8" double-stitched chocolate chip ribbon. It's FABULOUS!! One of the make and take projects at convention used this, incorporated into the card at the top as a major design element, and I really liked the effect. Now it's gracing a card I designed!

The sentiment at the bottom is another from Heard from the Heart. This works for lots of different occasions, but this is going to be a birthday card. One last thing: when I pulled out my stash of GG card stock, this 7.25" x 8.5" was on top. I was going to cut it down to make it into a standard size, but the more I played with the main image, I decided to leave it. The mat is Summer Sun and I roughed up the edges with my scissors. That's for you, Melissa!

This is MUCH cheerier than my previous post, and I hope you enjoyed seeing another way to use this versatile set. I'm off to take a short nap before heading back to work!

Inspired by Nature, Part 2

The set I mentioned and used in my first post today, Inspired by Nature, actually is a double-mounted set. This means that there is an image adhered to each side of the block! Double the pleasure, double the fun! The second image is that of prairie grass swaying in the breeze. Beautious, my friends. Instead of using it alone, I decided to try pairing both images with the help of bleach. Yes, you read correctly.

In order to get the black-eyed susan flower image to stand out from the grass, I wetted 2 paper towels with undiluted bleach and used it as a sort of "ink" pad. I stamped it, let it dry, and this is what the result was. Way cool, huh! Let me back up and share that the grass is stamped on Pacific Point, from the InColor Collection, with PP ink. It stamped darker than I anticipated, but I like the effect.

The base of this card is Baja Breeze, another of the InColors, and Not Quite Navy is the border that frames the Very Vanilla strip with the words "thank you so very much". That phrase is from another set from convention called Flight of the Butterfly. (Cards forthcoming...) I stamped this in Pacific Point. Here's a closeup for those who enjoy detail shots.

I was enjoying this look so much that I made a second one while everything was on the table, and then I remembered that I had a sympathy card to make for a friend of mine whose father passed away last week after a four-month battle with cancer. I've had to make too many sympathy cards this year!

This time I used Kiwi Kiss as the base, so now you've seen all 6 new InColors in action. I thought incorporating this "kissing cousin" of Old Olive would evoke the feeling of the grass, even though it was again stamped in PP. I had hoped that SU! would bring out a good sentiment set that had a variety of sayings in it, one to address the death of a loved one. Didn't happen, although there are 2 new ones with stamps that say "with sympathy".

So, I went back to the one I always pull out when I want to send something comforting. This verse is from the Bible, Psalm 46:1. It really says it all for me, and it's what I want to be reminded of when times are hard. This friend of mine is newly married and early in her 30s. Too early to lose her daddy. I hope it accomplishes what I want it to, to be a sort of long-distance hug.

I know I'm ending on a somber note, but that's life. Full and complex. Find someone to bless with a card, a phone call, a word of encouragement, or a simple hug today. Don't put off until tomorrow something good that you could do today.

Inspired by Nature--Fall-Winter 2008 Catalog Preview!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was by the new Silhouette Style Watch portion of the new SU! Fall-Winter 2008 Catalog! There is an entire package of new stamp sets, coordinating Designer Series Paper, rub-ons, brads, chipboard, AND accents and elements self-adhesive die cuts designed to complement each other. Now that's what I call a coordinated effort!!

Inspired by Nature is one of 4 FREE sets we were given at convention, and today is finally the day it gets ink! I wanted to do my own take on a demonstration I saw at one of the breakout sessions that used three of the new InColor Collection inks--Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, and Tangerine Tango--and a very easy technique called sponging.

First let me show you a comparison between the SU! reds. The base card is the new RHR, and the piece on the top left is Real Red from the Bold Brights color family. On top right is Ruby Red from the Earth Elements color family. In real life Ruby Red and RHR are almost twins, but RHR is just a smidge darker. It's amazing how broad the color spectrum is within a specific color like red, isn't it?

Now on to the card. I photographed it with the stamp so that you can see that it has this great negative space in the middle of the flowers. No, I didn't cut that out with my craft and rubber scissors, girlfriends! SU!'s new stamps are die cut, so all you have to do is pop them out of the rubber and mount them. It's truly a beautiful thing!

OK, the nitty gritty. I stamped the entire image in Pink Pirouette first, then took out my little sponge daubers and applied TT and RHR selectively over the rest of the image. So quick, so easy, so stunning, don't you agree? The sentiment "live with passion" is also part of this set. To me, flowers are bold examples of God's creativity, and they do live with passion, providing us with an example of bold, passionate, although brief, living OUT LOUD exactly as they are. They also provide us with compassion as they express on our behalf love, concern, happiness, sympathy, and joy when words don't seem to be able to. I think the saying fits the image, and would be an encouragement to someone in need of a lift.

A little inside tip about the ribbon that seems to be floating there in the middle of the card. I used my horizontal slot punch pushed all the way in on the sides of my 3.75" x 5" Whisper White card stock, then threaded the 1/2" striped grosgrain ribbon in Pumpkin Pie up from the back side and tied a simple knot. A nod to Canadian SU! demonstrator Laura Fredrickson who inspired this look!

I have another look I'm going to attempt with this same stamp, so check back for a second post today! I LOVE DAYS OFF WORK!