OLW89...Three Cards

So I didn't get to stamp yesterday because I was too busy being obsessive about my new house. Seems that the only thing holding me back from going all AR/OC about getting settled in the new place was the fact that we'd not sold the old one.

Now that we only own one house, the dam has broken and I'm surging forward with a vengeance that has left me crippled and limping. Because, you know, I can't do something sensibly slow and easy. I've got to either laze about thinking "oh there's just too much to do so I'm not going to do any of it" or "I am the Energizer Bunny on SPEEEEEEEEED look at me GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

You think I'm kidding? Then you don't know me. It's sort of scary, actually, how stupid I can be.

Today is "stay off my feet as much as possible day." So of course I stamped. Three cards for OLW89: Something Sweet.

PTI's Fruitful came immediately to mind. Fruit is sweet. And yummy. So let's start with grapes for a thank you note:

Suitably simple and just my style, right? So now let's mix things up with a technique. I colored the peach stamp with SU pretty in pink and pumpkin pie markers (pink first, pumpkin over that) and spritzed with Shimmer Mist. The photo editing made the color more intensely orange than it is in real life, but you get the picture.

Finally, well, let's just say I can only give this card to my husband. If you don't know why, read this.

The watercolor effect comes from Memento pear tart marker under rhubarb.

And that's all I have to say about that.

If you haven't played the OLW this week, click on over to Cheryl's blog and do so! It's a sweet challenge!

Finding My Mojo with Jaclyn Miller

Before we get to my mojo, don't forget to check out OLW89 on Cheryl's Blog: Something Sweet. Make a one-layer card with something sweet on it. Her sample is fabulously inspiring, and I'm going to make time tomorrow to play along!!!!


And now on to my mojo.

Oh, I'm having so much fun with Card Creations Volume 10! Today's inspiration comes from Jaclyn Miller and her absolutely delightfully "me" baby card:

Can't you just imagine I would make a card like this? Check out all that glorious white space! Check out that fun color combo! Check out the SINGLE LAYER OF CARD STOCK!!!!!!!!!

Of course, I can't remember ever having the brain bliss to do something like this, so I took her brilliant idea and looked for stamps in my collection that would work similarly. And I made this in about five minutes (and that includes searching for the stamps):

Squeee!!!!!

Sometimes, when we improvise, we have to tweek things to keep the design balanced. Since my sentiment was a bit wider and the red image a bit bigger than Jaclyn's, I moved it down on the card. That just felt right for balance. Higher, it would have looked top-heavy. Lower down, it feels grounded.

Thank you, Jaclyn, for opening up a whole glorious new CAS layout for me. I anticipate using this one with every single long sentiment I own. The permutations are endless!


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink Floral Frenzy
ink: Memento pear tart, black; SU real red (because it's the only real red out there!)
paper: Papertrey
accessories: not a single one!

A Question and Request for You

Reader Brend is having a weird experience on Simplicity, and I hope one of you can help. She's getting text enhancement on certain words...you know, when her cursor hovers over them, she gets ad links. Is anyone else experiencing this? Does anyone know what's causing it? I don't get any text enhancement, so we suspect it might be a virus on her computer or some setting in her browser. Any help getting rid of this annoying feature would be greatly appreciated!

Please know that if I ever add advertising to Simplicity, it will be the "bottom of the post, non-blinky" kind. DH is mad that I have so many hits and no money to show for them, LOL!

Also, Reader Leslie had a problem commenting on a post on my other blog. If you ever have a problem commenting on any of my blogs, please pretty please let me know.

Finding My Mojo with Els Brige

As we continue this week's walk down inspiration lane, we're going to take a look at a fabulously wonderful card by Els Brige.

Will someone please tell me how to make an accent over the e in her name so I can spell it correctly?

Anyway, here is Els' stunningly loose and artistic card from page 24 of Card Creations Volume 10:

Now, if you've been reading Simplicity for any length of time, you know how, um, TIDY my cards tend to be. I love Els' looser style, the splatter background, and the free-form stitching on her card, but I'm uptight and hopelessly in love with right angles.

So here's the best I could do...and I like it muchly!

My splatter background is an old stamp I bought at JoAnn's. I was going to soften the edges of it with the SU Itty Bitty Background splatter stamp, but when I made my strips of paper ('cause I'm allergic to designer paper, remember?), they looked so graphic and geometric that I sorta liked the straight edges of the splattered area. I'm not convinced it's a successful experiment from a design standpoint, but that's really not the point.

And only one element is askew. Ask me how hard that was to glue down.

So hard!

Color totally changes the feel of Els' layout, doesn't it? Hers is warm and soft in browns, black, tan, and white. Mine is fun and funky in pear tart and bahama blue.

I hope this post demonstrates one key element of inspiration: having fun. In the end, I like Els' card WAY better than mine. But playing with her layout really sparked my imagination and sense of my own style again.

I sincerely hope that a few of my cards have that effect on you.

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts grid background; Papertrey Background Basics: Circles, Faux Ribbon; Unknown spatter
ink: Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: flower punch, rhinestone

Finding My Mojo Again: Inspired by Card Creations and Emily Leiphart

Lately, I've sat down too often in my (still unfinished) craft space and felt...unmotivated?...uninspired?...distracted?...pointlessly wallowing in crafty malaise? Whatever I've been feeling, it's not been fun.

Heather's OLW challenge certainly got me going, but after I made those three cards, I sorta lost steam again. So I picked up Card Creations Volume 10 from Papercrafts Magazine.

OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So for the next few days, I'm going to share cards that came out of a VERY fruitful two hours on Sunday. First up is one inspired by the very talented Emily Leiphart. Hi, Emily!!!!

I loved her use of curves and lines but don't have the dies she used to make this. Sooooo, I pulled out my punches. My version is smaller...using a 3/4" square punch and a 1 1/4" circle punch, which I then trimmed a bit.

I also used just four SU colors of card stock, because Emily may be comfy using seven colors, but I am not. Four colors make me itch...seven would give me a major case of hives!
If you look closely, you'll notice the bottom right square is just a bit off. This is what happens when you glue something down wrong. And the glue doesn't move after just a few seconds. Darn. Oh, well. At least someone will know it is handmade, and therefore special!

No matter. This was INCREDIBLY FUN to make, definitely fresh and definitely enough to jump-start my enthusiasm again. Thank you, Emily, for doing that for me. Mwah!


Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Sign Language
paper: SU marina mist, baja breeze, certainly celery, cool caribbean; PTI white
ink: SU marina mist
accessories: square punch, circle punch, scissors, Corner Chomper

A Quicky

Here's a quick card for a wiped-out Sunday night.

Bit of an unusual layout. What do you think?

Hope you all had a lovely weekend. Mine did not involve quite enough sleep, but lots of reading and a bit too much baseball.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey All Booked Up, Faux Ribbon
ink: Memento (including the new teal!)
paper: PTI white
accessories: Memento Marker

OLW88 Final Card?

Probably not. Because, really, this challenge is timeless. Eternal. Perfectly CAS. And I love it. Excessively.

I colored an old Hero Arts shadow stamp with Memento Markers and spritzed it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (the glimmery colorless one). The photo doesn't show the shimmery goodness of the background. Then, I stamped the grass from some PTI set whose name escapes me...Peaceful Garden, maybe? I don't know and am feeling far too lazy tired to go look. Anyway, the grass fit perfectly, and bling just makes it better!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey, Hero Arts
ink: Memento
Paper: PTI
accessories: Glimmer Mist, rhinestones