February SAS Card #1

Rarely does a card design just come to me. I'm not that confident in my layout skills, a disability that haunts me from my days as a lifestyle section editor at a weekly newspaper in Glen Ellyn, IL. Each Tuesday morning, I awoke knowing I was going to face an entire day of physically placing stories and photos on mock-up sheets to create 24-32 pages. Yes, I graduated college in 1989, but then I stepped back 30 years in technology time when I took my first job. But I digress.

ALthough layout design doesn't come naturally to me, thankfully, I have great help at my fingertips at splitcoaststampers.com. Today's card is a CASE (Copy and Share Everything) of this card from TreasureOiler and this card by Smithden.

I really like the Time Well Spent set, but its many images (all line art) require cutting and coloring, and that bogs down you who come to SAS to get a lot done in a short period of time. So, instead of a lot of coloring, there's a little. And I do all the cutting of those pieces parts for you.

There's still time to RSVP your attendance. Just leave me a comment, unless I already know you're coming, and we'll count you in! Deadline for RSVP'ing is Saturday.

Time Well Spent...But Not.

This card is headed to my parents to thank them for the generosity they showed us at Christmas, so it was worth the time investment to make. But sheesh! I saw this basic design online at SCS by Lynn Mercurio, and I thought it would be a piece of cake. NOT!

Not that it was hard to make, but just time consuming. Cutting out the large flowers twice, snipping the leaves, stamping a background onto both the Wild Wasabi base and the Barely Banana accent strips, doing the coloring (which is made more challenging by the fact that SU! doesn't offer SU! markers in the InColor collection colors), and the layering. Why can't I just keep it simple?

Well, not everything works out as you intend, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile.

Potholder Plaid Take 2

After I posted last night, I went back to my favorites file at SCS and looked again at the card that had inspired me. This morning, I returned to the "drawing board" and came up with something that I think is a little better.

I had made 2 of the 3"x3" "plaid" squares, and so I cut that one into four segments. Then I layered colors from the In Color Collection behind each and went with a different base color altogether, leaving River Rock out of this card design. The sentiment is different too, and I like that this set comes with a choice!

I still don't know if it's going to make the cut for the Stamp-A-Stack, but I like it much better than yesterday's design.

I've been speaking of Stamp-A-Stack, and I should share the details:

Sat., Jan. 19
10a-12:30p
10 cards with coordinating envelopes for $25
RSVP by Sat., Jan. 12

You can RSVP by leaving a comment here, or contact me privately. Hope you're having a great day! It's 68 degrees here; how could I even think of complaining?!

Potholder Plaid

When I was in elementary school, a crafty gift my sister received was a potholder maker. Remember those? Loops of varying colors that you stretched on a frame and wove together? Well, that's what came to mind as I was making the focal point for this card tonight.

The idea came to me after I'd seen this photo on splitcoaststampers. Of course, I have trouble keeping it simple, so while this card started out as a possibility for my upcoming Stamp-A-Stack, I will probably rethink it to try to simplify the design.


I started with a 3"x3" square because the image--which is the stem from the Time Well Spent flower set (genius!)--is 3 1/8" long. Then I tacked it down on my grid paper and counted the squares down the side--12. That meant I could stamp 2 of each of the In Color colors and create a plaid pattern. I like how that turned out. The rest of the card didn't come together quite as easily. I wanted to include all the colors from the plaid in the card, and thus the layers under the sentiment. Then I had trouble getting it all to tie together. The flower border along the top and bottom again utilized the grid paper, and the DP is coordinating River Rock stripe from the recently retired Dashing set. If I'd had the River Rock double-stitched ribbon, I think I would've gone with that, but I don't, so...

what do you think?

The Gift That Will Keep on Giving

This is the stamp set I received from Shelli Gardner, president of Stampin' Up! Just so you know what kind of company culture you support when you purchase SU! products, let me quote a bit from the letter that came with this gift:

"As we work together to share what we love with others, I recognize your hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm. I hope this set brings you happiness and reminds you how very much we appreciate the time you spend with us and the time we spend with you." Wow, huh! I'm glad she is guiding the company, because this communicates to me that she values people and invests her energies accordingly.

The name of the set is Time Well Spent, and the 2 sentiments in it are "Time with Friends is time well spent" and "Too much of a good thing is still a good thing." Then there are 5 different sized flower images, several leaves, a stem and a butterfly.

This is the first attempt that came of my experimenting with it, and it was a birthday card for a new friend. My idea was to accomplish something similar to the spotlight technique that I did with the pumpkin set last month here. I don't think I quite pulled it off though. Still, I had fun and the recipient liked it. That's really all that matters, right?

So, pull out some stamps this holiday weekend and focus on someone you can encourage with a card. That was really the point of Shelli's gift, and I intend to live toward that end, because what we do to invest in each other really is the only gift that keeps on giving.

Happy Thanksgiving--I'm giving thanks for you!