Thinking of Inking

I’ve been feeling uninspired this week.  Normally I wouldn’t be terribly bothered by that.  But today it bothers me because I do need to make some cards to send out by the end of the week.

A lot of times when I’m feeling that my creativity has left the building, I’ll turn to an older card that I made and make something based on it - the same layout, or the same colors, or the same stamp set.  I’m beginning to think that maybe it’s time to revisit the layout of the card in today’s post.

This was actually a double challenge card at Splitcoaststampers - Sketch Challenge #177 and Color Challenge #167.  I don’t often think to stamp on designer paper, but this time it worked really well.  I lucked out with the Primas matching so well. 

Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Everything, Linen (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Certainly Celery, Soft Sky Prints designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Blue Bayou (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: ticket corner punch (Stampin’ Up!); Prima flowers; crystal beads; sponge

I know I’ve mentioned that on behalf of the PTA executive board, I send cards to the faculty and staff at my son’s elementary school.  Usually I just send birthday cards, but I’ve also made cards for the retiring teachers and teachers who have had babies.  I recently needed to send a sympathy card to one of our male teachers, but I didn’t have a lot of spare time to make a card.

I had just received the Branch Out stamp set from Stampin’ Up, and it seemed to be calling for some ink.  I had been browsing through the list of color challenges at Splitcoaststampers and particularly liked the look of challenge #53.  So I ended up creating a scene with those colors, added a sentiment, and ta-da… a quick and easy card that doesn’t look feminine was created.

Stamps:  Branch Out, Always in My Thoughts (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up!); Paper Basics white (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery (Stampin’ Up!)

It’s been a very long and tiring week for me.  However, I did manage to make time to create a birthday card for a longtime family friend of ours.  How long is “longtime”?  Well, I knew her parents before they had any children.  I used to babysit her when I was a teenager, and then she used to babysit my boys.  Now she’s married and become just a really delightful adult.  I wish her all the best!

Here’s her birthday card.  I used Lizzie Anne Designs‘ weekly sketch #78 for the layout and their Party Animals set for the stamps.  The “extra twist” to the challenge was to go eclectic - so I used colors that I wouldn’t normally put together, which just happened to be the weekly color challenge at Splitcoaststampers this week!  Also, I used VersaMark to stamp a squiggly design on the green square.  I usually don’t think about stamping on designer paper.

Stamps: Party Animals (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Summer Sun, Only Orange, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!); Magnifique Moss from French Floral paper pack (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black; VersaMark
Other: orange gingham ribbon (Offray); Watercolor Wonder Crayons (Stampin’ Up!); Window & Frame Making dies (Sizzlits)

Birthday wishes are the order of today’s post.  Two of my friends will be celebrating on Friday - Helen at All Things Stampy and Elizabeth at Shadow’s Stamping Spot.  I hope both of them have a wonderful day!

First, here’s the card I made for Helen.  I made this for one of the Mini Virtual Stamp Night Challenges at Splitcoaststampers two weekends ago.  This is a flap card.  The part you see with the polka-dotted paper folds up from the bottom, and the solid pink curved flap folds down from the top.  It’s secured with magnets concealed by the oval panel and the designer paper.  This was a fun one to make! It’s also the first time I’ve attempted doodling a border.

Supplies:
Stamps: Cheers to You (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Rose Romance, Whisper White, Tea Party designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Watercolor pencils, Rose Romance marker (Stampin’ Up); magnets (Basic Grey); mega scalloped oval punch (Marvy); oval die (Sizzix)

The second card in today’s post is what I sent to Elizabeth.  She’s a big fan of Shiner Bock beer so it seemed natural to use a Shiner label as the focal point of her card.  The layout for this card is a slight tweak of Lizzie Anne Designs’ Weekly Sketch Challenge #77.  I changed it to a rectangular format.  This is the least amount of stamping I’ve gotten away with on a card in a long time, but I enjoyed making it because I think E will really like it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Cheers to You (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: More Mustard, Basic Black, Real Red (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: label from Shiner Bock beer; circle cutting system (Creative Memories)

I’d love to have some feedback about the way I’ve been presenting my photos on here.  I’ve been playing around with pixel size and thumbnail vs. full size image, trying to get the photos to look clearer when you first see them on here.  I know they’ve been rather blurry, and that has really been annoying me.  So please leave me a comment and answer the following questions:

Do you like the current thumbnail-size images with the text wrapped around them?  Would you rather have a larger photo to view?  Do you ever click on the image to see it larger?  Even if I had a larger preview photo, would you click on it for a better view?

Any other opinions or comments you’d like to make would be greatly appreciated!  Brutal honesty isn’t going to hurt my feelings, so say what you mean.  Thanks in advance. 

Now, on to today’s card.  One of the teachers at our elementary school is expecting a little boy any day now.  Here is what I made to send her on behalf of the PTA Executive Board.

I just received Stampin’ Up’s Delicate Dots designer paper and decided to put it to use right away.  The color scheme is taken from Splitcoaststampers’ weekly color challenge #213, and the layout is this week’s sketch challenge, #224.  I wanted to use my scalloped Nestabilities for the mat for the two narrow strips of designer paper, but the largest die I had was still a little too short to reach across the entire width of the card.  I love paper piecing the onesie!

Stamps: By Ones & By Twos, Hugs & Wishes (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Delicate Dots designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Other: Nestabilities scalloped rectangle die; Cutterbee scissors; dimensional adhesive

Sorry that time has slipped away from me again and I’ve gone so long without an update. 

Today I’ll share the birthday card I sent my Stampin’ Up! demo last week.  I haven’t heard from her since I mailed it, so I hope she liked it.  I followed Sketch Challenge 212 at Splitcoaststampers for the layout.  I think the Afternoon Tea designer paper is sooooo pretty!  You can click on the photo for a clearer, larger picture.  (One of these days I’ll figure out how to get *clear* clickable thumbnails formatted within my blog posts!)

The deets:

Stamps:  On Your Birthday (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock:  Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Afternoon Tea designer paper (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: sky blue brads, ticket corner punch, sponge, round and oval Sizzlits dies

Seriously, I’ve had a really hard time getting in a stamping frame of mind lately.  Yes, I need to make some cards.  But when I start pulling out cardstock and designer paper and trying to figure a layout, I get disappointed in what I see and get discouraged and quit.  It’s frustrating!

It occured to me a few minutes ago that I hadn’t yet shared one of the cards I made during the holiday challenges over at Splitcoaststampers.  This one fits the New Year’s Eve challenge hosted by my friend Victoria as well as the Holiday Challenge Extravaganza sketch challenge.  For Victoria’s challenge, I needed to use 1 inch of ribbon, 1 punch, 2 embellishments, and she gave 9 cardstock colors from which I could choose.  This card ended up coming in handy for me to send to my friend Lois when she celebrated her birthday earlier this month. 

The details:
Stamps: Friendship Blooms, On Your Birthday (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Real Red (Stampin’ Up!); “Admire” (Basic Grey Blush collection)
Ink: Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Chocolate Chip twill ribbon, red crystal brads, corner rounder punch (for the scalloped edge)

Sorry for the lack of updates.  Things have been pretty busy around here lately. 

I hope you had a chance to play in the holiday challenges and/or the New Year’s Eve challenges at Splitcoaststampers.  I had fun hosting one of each of the challenges.

For my New Year’s Eve challenge, the requirements were that that main image be from a retired Stampin’ Up! stamp set, and that the card could be easily mailed.  Here’s the sample I made for it.  I wanted to make it suitable for Valentine’s Day because that holiday will be coming up pretty soon.  I wish the piercing in the corners showed up better in the photo than it does.

Stamps: Roses in Winter, Short & Sweet (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock : Regal Rose, Rose Red, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Mellow Moss (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: piercing tool

I hope everyone has been having fun and enjoying the holiday season!

In Wednesday’s post, I mentioned the Splitcoaststampers Holiday Challenge Extravaganza.  Here’s a little something I created for the challenge that was offered on Monday, Dec. 22. 

It’s a “Scrap-ling.”  It’s only 4.25″ tall x 1.25″ wide.  These originated from people taking 4.25″ x 5.5″ cards and cutting off a 1.25″ strip to make a 4.25″ square card.  Anyway, the challenge was to create a Christmas themed Scrap-ling.  I chose to keep the color scheme really simple, and use Liquid Applique as the only embellishment. I had to break up the sentiment so it would fit better, and the Stamp-a-ma-jig made realigning it really easy.

Stamps: Holiday Lane (Lizzie Anne Designs)
Cardstock: Kraft (Stampin’ Up!)
Ink: Close to Cocoa (Stampin’ Up!)
Other: Liquid Applique, Stamp-a-ma-jig

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, the solstice, Kwanzaa, or something else, I hope you have a very wonderful holiday season filled with all the things that make you happy.

If you’re in a creative mood, you should check out the Splitcoaststampers Holiday Challenge Extravaganza. A new challenge is being posted every day from December 20 through January 3.  So have some fun and get those creative juices flowing!

I combined the first two Holiday Challenges for this gift card holder.  I scored a piece of 4.25″ x 11″ cardstock along the 11″ side at 4.25″ and 9″, which allowed me to fold the cardstock into a 4.25″ square card with a 2″ deep pocket inside to hold the gift card.  You know how when you use dimensional adhesive, there’s usually a thin border strip of adhesive left over from the way they are cut and packaged? I used a thin strip of that to adhere the pocket, to accommodate the thickness of the gift card.

I hope my niece likes this as much as we love her! 

Stamps: Riveting (Stampin’ Up!)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou textured, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Spring Showers designer paper (Stampin’ Up!); Jack Frost (Basic Grey)
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Other: sponge, Cuttlebug “Harmony” alphabet for scalloped circle, corner rounder punch (for straight scalloped border), Soft Sky ribbon, pearl brad, 1/2″ circle punch