PAPERLICIOUS

Holiday Thanks -- Before & After & After

The card above is "before". The card below is "after."

Card Construction Details:

1. A2 PTI Kraft card.

2. Repeatedly stamped thanks sentiment from Technique Tuesday Thanks for Everything set with Memento Tuxedo ink. Set aside and made dinner.

3. Colored in sentiments with Copic markers in Mom's room, listening to her trying to remember what she had just read in People Magazine. "He's a tennis player with a spanish name. He played with Andre Agassi. Come on, you know who I mean!" (Still no clue.)

4. Stamped small snowflake from Papertreyink Rustic Snowflakes with SU White Craft ink.

5. Wrapped card with red and white flossy twine from I Heart Papers. Thought card would be ok, but snoozefest.

6. Stamped larger snowflake from same set. Cut circle. Layered on red circle. Added red Liquid pearls. Set aside to dry.

7. Ate dinner.

8. Made first version of card. Ugh. Cord is twisted and it still doesn't sing.

9. Added green circle mat, fixed cord. (Make sure cord is knotted off at end or it will unravel).

10. Adhered circle with dimensionals.

Mood when done = glad stamping is such an awesome distraction. Card? Meh.  Snowflake and cord look a little bit like a bolero tie. (Thanks to Nancy for correcting my grammar!)

11.  Cut off twine tails. Version 3 below.

Mood when done = satisfied

 

Does This Bow Make My Card Look Fat?

Card Construction Details:

1.  Cut 5 and 1/4" x 4" PTI Kraft cardstock.

2.  Stamped the snowflake (love this!) from Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Christsmas with  Tsukineko Blue Frost Kaleidacolor spectrum ink pad (try saying that twice) over the kraft cardstock.

3.  Stamped small flower from same set with Stampin Up White Craft ink.  Set aside to dry.

4.  Stamped twice tag image from Very Vintage Christmas with same Blue Frost ink on kraft.

5.  Hand cut oval center.  Stamped center with snowflake and white ink.  Sponged edges. Set aside.

6.  Sponged Blue Frost over edges of kraft background, with more in corners.

7.  Stamped sentiment from same set with the darker portion of Blue Frost ink.

8.  Sponged white cardstock with Blue Frost ink and adhered tag to white cardstock. Trimmed to form layer under tag.

9.  Mounted oval with dimensionals onto tag. 

10.  Needed something.  Added Ranger White Opal Liquid Pearls to centers of snowflakes and to sides of sentiment.  LOVE this product. 

11.  Used Stampin Up punch to make corners on kraft background (the tag already has corners).

12.  Cut SU Night of Navy to mat; added more Liquid Pearls to corners.  Tap card to get liquid pearls to form smooth circle.

13.  Adhered all, tag is on thick dimensionals.

14.  Tied bow and adhered. 

Mood when done = Pleased

****

Life:  work is busy in a weird it's still a new administration kind of way.  My Mom is ok.  My husband is fine.  I have NO idea how my son at college is because, apparently, communication is a ONE way street.  I wonder if he'll call if his bank account reaches zero?

Argh. 

Christmas, Vintage Style

Here's one more card for the stash!

Card Construction Details:

(Honestly, I wrote this whole post and accidentally deleted it so this is going to be short!).  

1.  A2 white card.  Trimmed front bottom with long rectangle nestability die.

2.  Patterned paper from Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses 6x6 paper pack.  (Love every piece of paper in this pack).  Trimmed bottom with long rectangle nestability die.

3.  Stamped image from Waltzingmouse Stamps Very Vintage Christmas twice -- once in Versafine Crimson Red and once in SU Old Olive.  I don't recommend Versafine unless the stamp is very detailed -- the ink on this image isn't as crisp as the SU Classic, but the color was perfect. 

4.  Cut out sentiment in red and set aside.

5.  Adhered patterned paper to card.  Sponged with Ranger Linen Distress ink.

6.  Added piece of silk fabric, cut to ribbon size from stash (someone sent me this, can't remember who -- cut on bias and therefore, easy to ruffle edges.)

7.  Sponged more with distress ink.

8.  Added red pearls.

9.  Popped up sentiment on dimensionals.  

10.  Cut image and scallop with nestability dies.

11.  Put all together.

Mood when done = Merry

Bee Mine, Quick!

Here's a 5 minute 3" square card.  Cut, score, stamp, add liquid pearls.  Done!

Oh, and give the card to your "honey"!!

Card Construction Details:

Paper:  Gina K Luxury White

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps:  Papertrey Ink Honey Bees

Extra:  SU Gingham Ribbon and Ranger Gold and Ruby Red Liquid Pearls. 

I've ordered quite a collection of Liquid Pearls from I {Heart} Papers.  I intend to have the full collection eventually. They are easy to find on my desk, cheap -- one bottle is less than $2 and lasts forever, and are easy to use. Just be sure to practice before putting on your finished card.  You don't want a big blop to ruin your card!  You can also put a bit on scrap paper and use a toothpick to add, which I did for these "eyes". 

Challenges

I made another card based on the challenge layout found here at Clean & Simple.  Very similar to the card I posted yesterday. 

I've almost kept to my $50 a month budget -- purchased a few extras this month -- no stamps, just some essentials.  Had to replace the cutting plate for my Wizard and get some adhesive and threw in one new Copic marker.  Just enough to do my share to keep my favorite companies in business, but not enough to go hog wild....

My NEW Challenge?

Getting ready to send Andy to college this fall.  He had to complete an online survey on roommate and dorm preferences.  Of course he didn't tell me about it, but I happened to walk in on him while he was completing it.  I didn't let him see me, but tears came to my eyes.  He's really going! 

It is that whole circle of life thing...it is all good, but bittersweet. 

Card Construction Details: 

Just a few basics.  The top card uses patterned paper from SEI.  The Mimosa collection, which I received from I {Heart} Papers.  Most of the other products are the same as the ones on yesterday's post.

Sparkly Blooms

Here's a quick card that combines paper from SEI's Mimosa collection and a watercolored Artsy Blooms from Shady Tree Studios at Cornish Heritage Farms. I added some glitter to the flowers since the background paper came chock full of it. 

I debated posting it, but if nothing else, you can see how pretty this paper is.  Plus, I LOVE this flower image....

Enjoy your day.

Quick Card

I received this wonderful Mimosa collection of papers by SEI from Kate at I Heart Papers.  It is full of shiny stuff.  Quite pretty IRL.

I decided to use it to make a simple very quick Mother's Day card.  The sentiment is from Flourishes Rubber Stamps. 

This is the 4th night in a row that I cannot sleep.  I'm either anxious about something or as Mike thinks, can't handle not spending money. He thinks that if I place a huge order for something, my life will go back to normal!  Maybe it's the Claritin I'm taking????  Or maybe I should test out Mike's theory!

I {Heart} Mike

This card is for Mike's birthday.  He likes bold contemporary patterns and bright colors. He's not the fishing or wild animal card type!   I know the ruffled ribbon is a bit fem for a "guy" card, but Mike takes whatever I make and saves and cherishes them.  He's a keeper, the love of my life and the best Dad and husband!  Happy Birthday Mike!

I was lucky enough to receive a set of gorgeous Mimosa SEI papers and some coordinating ribbons from Kate at I {Heart} Papers.  I told her that I played with them for 2 hours before I realized that they are double sided.  Oops!  Some are full of glitter and shiny stuff.  Beautiful. 

Card construction:  Lordy, I wasted some of that gorgeous paper before settling on this.  Stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Borders Rectangle with SU's Cameo Coral classic ink onto white cardstock and punched with a Marvy scalloped rectangle.  Added the ruffled ribbon by running adhesive on the paper and the ribbon first and then just pleated as I adhered the ribbon to the paper.  Added a Foo fa la button and then rounded the bottom corners.

If you'd like to hear a bit about my life, keep reading. Otherwise, enjoy your day!

**********

In many ways, I am in the best place of my life.  Good marriage?  Check.  Good relationship with teen son?  Check (most of the time!).  Good job?  Check.  Good health?  Check.

I'm struggling not to start the next sentence with "but" -- everyone's life has a "but" at the end of a string of good things.  In fact, I'm lucky to have the string of good things.  But...

My Mom's situation remains a struggle for all of us.  She doesn't have many friends left.  Betty died last week and Alice had heart surgery followed by a stroke.  These hit my Mom hard and she talked a lot about her friends dying and how hospice was there.  She's got death on the mind. I didn't want to sit and listen.  I wanted to go upstairs and stamp.  But.

And last night I couldn't do anything other than lose myself playing computer scrabble because she was extremely nauseous and throwing up. There was nothing I could do to help, so she shooed me out (and I was grateful for that), yet I couldn't run off to the craft room and play.  Too anxious to create.  (There was a time when I would fill that space with on line shopping, but!!).

So about 1/5 of my life is the "but," which I guess is pretty good! 

It's a Mixed Message

December 13th -- this day is livin' in infamy, fellow stampers.  The date of my last purchase!  This whole marriage compromise/pay your taxes/save/pay your kid's college tuition/ adult way of living is sooooooo overrated.  No wonder Van Gogh gave up his ear.  He probably owed France taxes and had a responsible wife....

As soon as I get our taxes done and IF we do not OWE the equivalent of Iowa to Uncle Sam, I am buying something -- my wish list stretches from Gina K, drives through Cornish Heritage Farms and Verve, visits Flourishes, swoons a bit at Amuse and takes a large swath through Papertrey!!  And then Kate at I Heart Papers has this May Arts sheer ribbon with little hearts on the edges!!  Have you seen how cute this ribbon is?  Somebody buy it and just post something using it.  I can still get a bit of the buying buzz vicariously!! 

Oh, and I hear that Stampin Up! is coming out with Digi Scrapbooking software (January or August? not sure) and some very cool die cuts and embossing folder things.  The possibilities of Paperlicious stimulating the economy are endless!

In the meantime, I am very much enjoying discovering the long forgotten treasures sitting in my craft room closet.  For this card, I used all Papertrey Ink images -- the Love sentiment from Mixed Messages, the Heart from Borders and Corners Hearts, and a flower from Pond Life.  

The paper is Pixie Pink from Stampin Up, Black shiny textured from Bazzil, and the white is from Gina K.  Can you see the glitter on the white part of the flower?  IRL it adds just the right touch!

To answer a few questions from my previous post:

Is the Gina K paper as stiff as the Papertrey?  Not quite.  I give Papertrey the edge on stiffness.

Do the papers look different?  Yes, Papertrey's is duller while Gina K's has a bit of a sheen.

How does Mike stand living with you?  HA!  Fake question! 

Distressed Sympathy Card and Sale Info

I didn't expect to stamp again so soon, but I found myself in my stamp room in the pre dawn hours of the morning, two days in a row.  When I wake up early and can't get back to sleep, I usually browse the net, often stopping at SCS, causing trouble at the current events forum!  I've decided that when I have the ability to focus during those wee hours, I'm going to stamp, and not rush. 

I needed a sympathy card and put this one together over the course of the past two mornings.  The images are from SU's Close As a Memory and the flourishes are from Flourishes Siberian Iris set.  I used the Megabilities Curved dies to set off the image and then lots and lots of distressing and a gold Painty pen to add an outline. It is very hard to see, but I also used Cornish Heritage Farms' Cracked Montana Earth Background on the papers.  Stamped with Versamark, it is fabulous for adding some depth.

I also used one of my favorite products, Ranger Liquid Pearls in the corners and centers of the flowers.  This one is gold, although I bought about 5 colors earlier this month! 

Speaking of buying, whew! I'm still doing great -- at least as far as my wallet is concerned.  I know that if we all cut back drastically, our favorite small stamp stores will go out of business, so I will focus most of my holiday and birthday wish lists on stamping supplies from small stores...

And, here's a first good place to start to save money!  Kate asked me to share that I {Heart} Papers is having a sale this weekend (Friday to Sunday) (that's where I purchased my Liquid Pearls stash and these Megabilities...Free shipping has been reduced to $25 US Fri-Sun ($50 CAN.) and for every $50 spent, you will receive a $10 gift certificate (on Dec 1) towards a future purchase. It is incremental $50=$10gc, $100=$20gc, etc.  Hmm, I love buy one, get something cheaper in the future!! 
You can get the details here.

Thanks so much for your responses to yesterday's post.  Sometimes the "burdenness" of my Mom gets overwhelming and other days, she's a hoot.  Yesterday, she joined us at the dinner table (Cream of Wheat for her!) for the first time in months.  She was quite the chatty Cathy, sharing all sorts of shenanigans from her early years. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.