Basic design and building on it . . .

Yesterday while I was designing the anniversary card I posted, I got to thinking, again, about all the time it takes me to design one card. I came up with a new strategy out of frustration. This morning I decided to start with a basic, clean, and simple design. I used the "Thank You" stamp by Impress Rubber Stamps and the Sea Shell stamp by Inkadinkado. I picked two colors I really like together (SU! Night of Navy and Certainly Celery), stamped the images, cut the mats, and adhered them. There! The card was finished and I was pleased with it. Whew! No hours of agonizing over one card! I already had an idea of how I wanted to develop that basic design. I wanted to add a "random" patterned layer under the "Thank You" image. My "random" has never come out the way I wanted it to, so I have kind of avoided "random". I "googled" random stamping and the very first article that came up was "How to "Random" Stamp" by Tracy Liu. I printed her article, put it down next to me on the kitchen island where I was stamping, and followed her formula. It worked the VERY FIRST TIME! (Did you hear me shrieking with excitement?) Then I used my first sheet of SU! grid paper and stamped the "Thank You" and the sea shells in the exact spots! (I shrieked again!)
This is one of those events that you want to share with someone who stamps, too. I'd tell my DH, but he probably wouldn't appreciate my excitement. Now I have a few more variations spinning around in my head. I should write them down. Thanks so much for dropping by!

Happy Anniversary

Today I made an anniversary card for my younger brother and sister-in-law for their 25th anniversary. I didn't go down the silver anniversary road as you can see. You might be able to tell, I LOVE SU! Soft Sky and use it quite a bit. I should really broaden my color horizons ... which I will be doing now that I have added significantly to my SU! cardstock inventory.
I started the card with the Cuttlebug embossing folder you see. It made it so easy to stamp the sentiment right onto the card. I punched the hearts with my Marvy Uchida scallop heart punches and then ran them through different CB embossing folders. They are both "popped up" with SU! dimensionals. I stamped the flower which is from the Vintage Vogue set (unmounted -- love them!) and cut it out. (I continue to push myself to do that. It looks so nice when you do. And I need to work on my cutting skills as well. I always wonder if I flunked scissor cutting in kindergarten!) I added a few pearls and there you have it! I did more stamping on the inside, back, and envie, too. Thanks so much for looking and if you feel like it or have the time, I'd love for you to comment.

Two Card Monday

There are times when a card just does NOT turn out the way I had envisioned it would. This is DEFINITELY one of those times! I started with the SU! set entitled Vintage Vogue. I chose to use only the "Friends" stamp from that set. The ink I stamped the image with was SU! Basic Gray. It turned out to be darker than I had hoped. Maybe when my new stamp pad of Soft Suede arrives, I will try it with that! The card base is a lighter gray followed by a layer of Whisper White and then the Cuttlebug embossed layer of Rose Red. I added a strip of white Bazzill also embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and edged with the SU! Scallop Border Punch. The ribbon is from my SU! ribbon stash. The ovals (both plain and scalloped) from from Marvy Uchida. I punched two of the gray ones as I didn't have the larger size than the one I punched the Rose Red oval from. The brads were an afterthought. At that point, I was desperate to add "a little something more". I realized too late that I should have placed the "Friends" oval further from the left. However, the SU! dimensionals had adhered so well to the cardstock that the oval wasn't going anywhere!
My second card of the day is one of the last sympathy cards I made for the card ministry project. I started with an SU! Kraft card base, a layer of SU! confetti card stock, and a layer of SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock embossed with another CB embossing folder. The stamped image is layered in the same fashion. The flower is part of the SU! set entitled "Of the Earth" and the sentiment is from SU! Thoughts and Prayers. I used SU! Chocolate Chip ink, did a bit of paper-piercing, and finished up the card with an SU! button and SU! linen thread.
That's it for today. I am off to come up with a better design for that "Friends" card! Hmm . . . maybe it is time to just CASE a few designs. Thanks so much for visiting my blog. And thanks to all who have been commenting. It's so fun to read your messages! Have a great week!

No card today ...

Happy Sunday! I do not have any pictures to post today . . . waiting for my DH to return home this morning with my camera before I can take decent pictures of the tri-shutter card as well as the rest of the sympathy cards for our card ministry. Yes, I am finished with them! All they need are envelopes and to be stamped on the back of each with our card ministry stamp.
As usual, I spent some time early this morning surfing the SCS galleries ... so much amazing talent and so very many great ideas.
I've already stamped a couple of images to work on after I return from picking up DH at the airport. Now that my "sympathy card" project is completed, I should really make a list of the cards I need to make as well as the ones I want to make! Oh, and I do have another project for a different group I am part of. I need to come up with some designs for fundraising purposes.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some new card pictures. Hope you are having a great summer Sunday and that the weather in your part of the world is just the way you'd like it!

Gate-fold Sympathy Card

Always wanting to vary designs when "mass producing", I decided to make a few gate-fold cards. I used the same Sizzix Damask embossing folder set as well as the punches, sentiment, etc. SU! Soft Sky and the same Bazzill White were my paper choices. Of course, when I reach that magic number of 35, I still need to complete the insides of the cards. I have a few different sympathy sentiments I am planning to use for that.
Yesterday I worked on a tri-shutter card. It is a new style card for me. However, as I began working on it, I realized it was very similar to a style I loved about 4 years ago called color blocking. The tri-shutter card has actual physical dimension to it because you score, cut, and mountain-fold the card base before beginning to lay down your design. I watched a tutorial for it in Splitcoast Stampers' Resources section. It was great to be able to watch the video as well as look at the individual steps which are also part of the tutorial. You get all the information you need. If you haven't visited the Resources section on SCS, you are missing a lot of valuable information and lots of techniques. I will be returning there on a regular basis!
I sent my camera off yesterday with my DH who went to St. Charles, IL to attend Bloomington Gold/Mecum Auto Auction. He'll be coming home with LOTS of pictures of Corvettes. In the meantime, all I have for photographing my cards is my cell phone. I plan to wait until he comes back on Sunday to take "good" pictures of my first tri-shutter card. I'll upload them to my blog then.
Have a great weekend. Enjoy the lovingly summer weather. And thank you for coming by!

More sympathy cards, different design ...

Today I decided to change the design for the next batch of sympathy cards for card ministry. I am now up to 26 cards on my way to 35. I used SU! Brocade Blue and Bazzill White for these cards. I also used Metallic Silver from The Paper Company for the card on the left. The embossing folders used are from a Sizzix set entitled Damask. The scallop punches are from Marvy Uchida and the circle punches are SU! I used the sentiment "Here for You" from the SU! set entitled Friends 24/7. The ink is Stazon Black. The pearl is from Hero Arts and the ribbon is SU!. I am not such of the original of the dew drop. My goal is to have all 35 completed by Saturday for sure. DH has requested cards, too, so I need to keep very busy creating. Have a great weekend!

Masculine Sympathy Card

I really love the SU! Thoughts & Prayers set ... as you can tell from prior posts. Since I need to make 35 sympathy cards for card ministry, I thought some of them should have a masculine look. I used Kraft and Close to Cocoa card stock, the Cuttlebug argyle embossing folder, the SU! Curley Label punch, and a button from the SU! Button Latte package. It might be time for me to switch to another sympathy stamp set to finish the rest of my assignment. :-) Thanks so much for stopping by. Enjoy this summer day wherever you are!

Wedding Card ...

Finally, I have broken out of my brown and blue color scheme "rut" to design a wedding card for a young friend who is getting married this weekend. I started out with the Cuttlebug wedding couple embossing folder as the basis for my design. From there I decided to go with the colors for the wedding which are black and fuschia. I used SU! Rose Red as it was the best match to the invitation. I used the "tiny hearts" CB embossing folder on the Rose Red mat. It is my next favorite embossing folder to the dotted swiss folder. You probably can't see it in my photo, but there is a clear gem on one of the "flourishes" on the invitation. I chose to add flourishes and gems to my card, too. I think that die is from AccuCut (which I have had for a long time and have used so often). The fushcia gems are from A Muse as is the ribbon. The scallop punches are Marvy Uchida. I used SU! dimensionals under both the embossed image and it's mat to make certain it remained the focal point. The metallic white paper is from The Paper Company. The "Best Wishes" stamp is SU! stamped with Black Stazon and punched with the SU! Word Window punch. Thank you for looking! Feel free to leave a comment if you have time!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! My card for today is for my DH Michael. One of his favorite colors is blue. I chose Blue Bayou and wanted to keep the card monochromatic. I am slowly building up my SU! DSP supply and luckily had Blue Bayou DSP! Things were falling together as I began to work out the design. The "ties" stamp is from A Muse which I had in my stamp collection. DH loves ties and has quite a collection himself. He loves "subtle" Disney ties and has actually worn them to presentations at the FDA! Also appropriate for DH was the "argyle" pattern in the DSP. He has a small collection of argyle socks which he loves, too. The "Happy Father's Day" sentiment did NOT have a company name on it. I used the designer paper on all four sides of the card. It really gave the card substance. Originally, I was just going to use the ticket punch on the Whisper White cardstock, but decided to add the "tiny" pewter brads and the pewter gel pen stitching. I cut a slit in the left side of the card front for the Whisper White ribbon to be threaded through. I didn't want the lumpiness of the ribbon under the DSP and I do not like to put cut ribbon ends on the front of a card. It just doesn't look finished to me. Thank you for stopping by. If you have time, feel free to leave a comment.

Hate to bore you ...

I hate to bore you with another one of the sympathy cards I am making for our church festival through our card ministry, but I had such fun surfing through the "Thoughts and Prayers" gallery on SCS and found some fun ideas to add to my basic card. With this version, I stamped the branch image in SU! Chocolate Chip. Then I stamped it, again, in Bashful Blue and used a "tiny" punch to punch the flowers. I added a mini-glue dot to each one and adhered them to the Chocolate Chip branch. The butterflies are from the SU! Sizzix Embosslit. It punches out a variety of butterflies in various sizes and embosses them. I added one of the same "jewels" I've been using on the other versions. I also added the Very Vanilla ribbon. What do you think of this version?
I don't think that my dear husband checks my blog, but just to be safe , I won't post his Father's Day card until tomorrow. I'll keep this short this evening. Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend! If you are celebrating Father's Day tomorrow, enjoy the day!

Variation on the theme ...

This morning I am sharing another card I made yesterday for my sympathy card project through our card ministry at church. I had purchased the scallop corner and border punches from SU! this spring. I saw a card on SCS using them with the Thoughts and Prayers stamps that I am using for this project, so I decided to CASE the card. First I needed to find dimensions for the image and for the mat behind it. I found a great tutorial by Gretchen Barron regarding these punches and using them.
Inspiration in Action

Today I will probably figure out another design. Although I could just keep going with the designs I have for the rest of the 35 cards, I'd like to vary the designs.
It is a sunny morning here, but there is a chance of a severe thunderstorm sometime today. I hope wherever you are that you will have a sunny June day!

A Long Time Between Posts

It's been many months since the last time I posted on this blog. Card-making got put on the back burner this winter and spring. We were busy with the remodel of our house, meeting new friends, spending time with old friends, and learning to be Florida residents. All GREAT things to be doing! In the rental, there was minimal quality light for crafting as well as minimal space to do same. When we finally moved back into our house, the task lighting at our workstations wasn't playing well with the circuit breaker assigned to them. We had to wait until after the final inspection to get that working correctly! I spent time organizing my supplies and trying to figure out what to leave there and what to bring back up to Minnesota. I did spend quite a few evenings with my friend Deb participating in her SU! events and classes, so my hands weren't totally idle.
On a sad note, our dear Miniature Schnauzer Molly suffered a massive cervical embolism on March 23. It hit her out of the blue with no warning to us. By that Thursday evening, we made the painful decision to put our formerly lively, happy 5 year old puppy turned into a frightened puppy paralyzed from her neck down to sleep. Mike had flown back to MN, so I was the one to take her to the vet that Friday. There were many sad days down in Florida without her. It wasn't until we prepared to return to MN that we began to feel the pain of leaving without her and arriving back here where we had raised her for almost 6 wonderful years. We know that time will replace the sadness with all our great memories of our short time with Molly.
What a lead in to my current card posting! Our card ministry is preparing cards to sell at our church's festival in August. Each of us took a different category. Mine is sympathy cards. Yesterday I got 6 out of 35 made. I've taken a picture of all of them together and close-ups of two of them. I had planned to make them all the same, but decided to vary them a bit. The basic color combination will be blue, brown, and vanilla. I have used Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, and Very Vanilla from SU! so far.
The stamp set is: Thoughts and Prayers by SU! as well. I do plan to use Close to Cocoa as the "brown" alternative as well. I love that color brown. It is on the "retired" color list from SU! so I will not use a lot of it. I will have to hoard it. ;-) I used my Scor-Pal to make the diamond embossed pattern on the Bashful Blue matting.
Thank you for stopping in ... hopefully, I will be posting a lot more regularly from here on.