OLW88 Koi Strikes Again

This koi is one of the most brilliant stamps ever.

Hyperbole is fun, and sometimes, it's true.

I used the Hero Arts Wood background stamp through a 1.75" square mask punched out of a post-it. Then, leaving the mask in place, I sponged a bit of the same color ink (Ancient Page Neptune) to fill in the water. After removing the mask, I stamped the koi just ever so slightly falling out of the lines of the square. The sentiment tucks right into the koi and hangs off the edge a bit as well. This may mean it doesn't qualify for the challenge exactly, but it's pretty darn close!

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Masculine Motifs, Hero Arts wood background
ink: Ancient Page Neptune, SU pumpkin pie, Memento Gray Flannel
paper: white
accessories: square punch, post-it, sponge

OLW88...I'm HUGELY Inspired

Heather always inspires me to pull out my sponges, but for some reason, my sponges were not playing nicely this week. So I decided to flex to completely different styles that still meet the requirements of the challenge, which is to make a mini masterpiece, keeping your stamped area to no more than 2" x 2". No worries there...just think of all that glorious white space!

I've made a whole bunch of cards I'll share over the next few days. That mini-masterpiece idea is just so gosh-darn fun!
First up, I pulled out Grunge Me from Papertrey Ink and played. My first few efforts were, shall we say, unbalanced in the color department, but then I hit on these two color combos and giggled with glee!

I love the fresh and loose feel of Grunge Me...it makes me think I'm not quite as obsessive as I feel most of the time.

Don't forget to play OLW88...Heather is offering a prize from Penny Black of the gorgeous stamps she used on her card.

OLW88 Hosted by Heather Telford!

Don't forget to click over to Heather's blog for this week's OLW challenge! It's right up Heather's alley and will have me breaking out my sponges today. Oh, goodie!!!!!

CASification Inspired by Glenda Wyatt

When I saw the card by Glenda Wyatt in the latest special issue from Papercrafts Magazine, I squealed in delight and made my son ask, "Wha'?" He didn't get it, but you will:

Of course, Glenda's brilliant use of TOOTHPICKS to make a GRID for an adorable patterned-paper flower made me squeal, and while it's already CAS (check out all that glorious white space!), I decided to use my Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background to make a flatter version of Glenda's card.

I masked an area of the card and then stamped the Envelope Pattern at an angle, so the pattern would be horizontal/vertical rather than diagonal. Clever, eh? Then, after unsuccessfully experimenting with my flower punches and really wishing I had a die cut machine and an infinite number of dies, I thought about Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms, with this totally fab and timeless daisy stamp.

YAY!!!!!

It's not as awesomely creative as Glenda's original, and I had to move my sentiment onto the grid because the flower wasn't quite large enough for the grid area I stamped, but it's a bit more mailable (even with the button) and it gave me a chance to use SU's Cherry Cobbler, which is completely wonderful.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Ink (Beautiful Blooms), Hero Arts (Envelope Pattern), SU (sentiment)
ink: SU pretty in pink, cherry cobbler (yummy!)
paper: PTI white
accessories: button, glue dot, craft thread, post-its for masking

Winterberry in a Single Layer

...with bling, of course.

Not much chit-chat today. I'm off to my craft area to make some new stuff...because this is the last card on my hard drive I've not posted!

Blessings to you, and thanks for your readership!

Supplies
stamps: Winterberry (PTI)
ink: Memento bamboo, SU real red
paper: PTI white
accessories: rhinestones, corner chomper

Geezer Explained and a Yellow Card

In my last post, I referred to my husband as a geezer at 47 years old. This is a bit of a running joke since I've referred to him as a geezer since our early twenties. You see, he's ALWAYS going to be older than I am. So no matter how old I feel, he's older. And this makes me feel good.

He can tease me about my gray hair, and I can counter with teasing about his baldness: "At least I HAVE hair!" But that just evens the score.

He will never be able to counter the age thing, so I WIN. We laugh a lot in this house. And exaggerate. As I've grown older, I now believe that people all people except my husband need to be at least 90 to be geezers. When I'm 80 (God willing), I'm sure I'll bump geezer age up to 100. But George is a geezer right now and has been for twenty-plus years.

And now for a yellow card.

Design Discussion: Nothing cosmic, but it's pretty, no? I actually tried a black mat under the stamped panel and did NOT like it, which totally surprised me. It would seem that a touch more black would unify the design, but it made it look really heavy and off. I suspect if I had a dark gray ink and paper, a mat would have worked great. Sometimes, black is just too stark.

The yellow card stock is from Gina K and is my favorite yellow card stock ever. It's really yellow without being too yellow, if you know what I mean.



Supplies
stamps: A Muse (flowers), SU (sentiment)
ink: honestly can't remember the yellow; Memento black
paper: Gina K yellow, PTI white
accessories: yellow pearls, dimensionals

Today's Friday, Right?

Oh, wait. It's Saturday. And I forgot to post yesterday. Hmmm.

Today is my husband's birthday, and here's the card I made for him. Dude cards are always so hard, and I think I like this way more than he does. But still, it's cool, isn't it?

I told him the gold was for his Golden Years. He's 47. The geezer will always be older than I am!

Hope you are having a great weekend.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey (Masculine Motifs)
ink: Memento (with off-stamping)
paper: PTI natural
accessories: gold smooch, dimensional, sponge