PAPERLICIOUS

Color

How's life blog readers??  Hope you  are having a great week. If not, do something nice for yourself.... In the meantime, here is a happy card!

Card Constructions Details:

1.  Ran some Ranger Distress Ink pads over some scrap white cardstock.  Set aside to dry.

2.  Stamped with black ink and Stampin Up By Definition (retired background and the one I'd keep if I could only have one.  Love it!).

3.  Stamped with big flower from a Hero Arts set.  Cut out.  Added Ranger White Glossy Accents to center.

4.  Repeated with green and yellow inks and the leaves. 

5.  Assembled as shown onto a white Bazzill textured card.  Love that cardstock!

6.  Added sentiment from Paper Smooches.  Love those sentiments.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Apparently in Love! with everything

*****

Random thoughts and info:

-- loved your reaction to Train Wreck.  It is definitely going to be a series.  I'm not "brave" -- making cards is just a hobby for me.  I'm not trying to earn money or anything else.  Love it when it turns out great and I find analyzing the wrecks to be fun and informative. 

-- my Mom has turned into Little Miss Busybody at the nursing home, making "suggestions" and "advising" the other residents on all sorts of issues.  Duct tape please!

-- we are going to London in the fall.  Ativan for the flight please!

 

For Janelle

Janelle is a lovely woman who is struggling with a brain tumor.  Her husband, Ken, is her support.   Today I am participating in a blog hop organized by Laurie Willison and Dana to show Janelle and her husband Ken how much we care.  Thank you Laurie and Dana for doing this.  Thank you Janelle for being an amazing example of faith and optimism. And thank you Ken for being a wonderful husband and for keeping us posted on how Janelle is doing.  You are all an example of how stamping and the internet can build us up.

Would you like to participate?  Or see the other cards?  If so, click over to Laurie's blog here and check out the details!

This is just for you Janelle --

Card Construction Details:

1.  Using my Silhouette digital cutter, I designed a layer with Janelle's name embedded as shown.  Silhouette tip below.**

2.  Stamped flowers and colored with Prismacolor Pencils.  Nice and bright for a nice and bright woman.

3.  Adhered with dimensionals on a white card.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Hopeful

Supplies:

Stamps:  Paper Smooches
Cardstock:  A Muse Studio Sugar
Ink:  Memento
Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Silhouette, dimensionals

 

**For those of you with a Silhouette/Cameo, once you learn how to do this, you won't stop. I have cardstock with words all over the place! 

These directions assume some basic knowledge of how to make a design with the Silhouette/Cameo. I taught myself over the course of a few weeks -- one of the things I meant earlier when I said I wouldn't be posting as often because I was practicing.  This is a great way to avoid spending money on dies that spell out words.  Or alphabets.

1. Type the word.  A simple block font seems to work best.  Remember that all the letters have to be on the same plane -- meaning a lower case "y" won't work in this design because the bottom of the y will disappear.  For example, instead of "happy" use "HAPPY". 

2.  Resize the word so that the width is what you want.  Use character spacing to spread out the letters for small words if you want the word to span the width of the cardstock. 

3.  Draw a rectangle above and below the word.

4. Move each rectangle so that each one connects slightly with the top and bottom, respectively, of the word.  Remember that every letter in the word has to connect with the top or the bottom.  Don't cover up too much of the letters -- just a bit of each letter needs to overlap the rectangles. 

5. Resize the rectangles so that they are the exact width you want.

6.  Align so that your word is centered (if that is what you want).  Group everything together, press modify and then weld.  The weld functions is what makes the letters connected to the rectangles.

7.  Practice with cheap typing paper until you are happy or HAPPY. 

Bubbles in That Glass

As I was making this card (peace, love, smooches) I was thinking about the discord over some of Papertrey Ink's customer service policies and practices.  And that got me to thinking about how our personalities affect how we view and react so differently to the same set of facts (that's why jury consultants make so much money).

But first, the card --

I cut the peace heart with my Silhouette and stamped a sentiment from Paper Smooches.  The cardstock is a textured white Bazzil and using Distress Ink to stamp on it gave me a smooth finish (just hold the stamp down for a few seconds and the wetter distress ink will fill in the gaps in the cardstock). 

I love this card.  A heart. A peace symbol.  A flower with bling.  A happy card!

But, as I said before, while I was making it I was thinking about the turmoil at Papertrey.  For those of you unfamiliar with PTI's issues, the company has had some problems with its new website, some delayed packages, and has not sent out anniversary sets and prize packages in a timely fashion.  It also has fabulous products and a terrific design team.  (And I know Jenn, an employee of the company, who is a very nice woman put through the wringer over the internet.  Not a good situation and I am sending her good thoughts here.)

Some customers see these facts and are irate, spending (what appears to be) huge amounts of time pounding away at the issue.  Others love the company and are happy to overlook what looks to them as small glitches and are spending (what appears to be) lots of time expressing fury with the folks who are angry.

I have a glass half empty personality.  I see a prize package not delivered and I see all sorts of bad things.  I don't want to have a world view that sees the negative over the positive but I do.   As someone once put it to me "the scale of your reaction is out of proportion to what has happened."  (Cost for that observation $125 an hour...).  In other words, even if you are right, you are paying a high price for how strongly you are reacting.  So, I  try and wait things out until I can shake the glass and see bubbles peeking out over the half way mark or decide that my negative view is warranted. 

I was thinking about this as I viewed and reacted to the Papertrey issues.  None of it makes any sense to me.  The company. The customers.  None of it.  And then I realized that each of these parties brings themselves to the game.   The sunny personality who loves the products and naturally sees only the good in people can overlook what someone else finds fraudulent.   Trying to destroy a company because someone else didn't get a prize package seems a bit much.  Ignoring legitimate customer complaints seems a bit much.  Aacck -- enough to make a normal person run for the hills!! 

So I'm sitting back and hoping that the company resolves its policies and practices that have triggered the concerns.  I hope it does and I think it will.  So, I'm waiting until I can shake the PTI glass and see those bubbles again. 

 

A Little Stamping

I spend way more time stamping than blogging lately.  Most of my stamping is tossed, as I try new things and experiment and just generally goof around.

So I decided to actually stamp a card and give it to someone. Hmm...wonder who will get this one...  The images and inside sentiment are all from Paper Smooches.  The blue panel is cut with a Spellbinders die and embossed with an A Muse Studio woodgrain impression plate.

And of course I had to dab some Ranger Glossy Accents on the heart.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Cuddly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmoose (Copics Over Pencils)

Here's a cute gift tag made from a shipping tag purchased from Staples (much cheaper than "craft" tags.)

I was trying out a mix of colored pencils with a Copic wash over the pencils.  A very easy way to get a quick blend and softening of colors.  Like the effect, but be careful not to overdo the Copic -- you don't want to coat your Copic with a waxy substance from the pencils.  Just a quick light wash with a light coordinating Copic followed by rubbing the Copic on scratch paper. 

I've got a photos to show the progression.  Note the huge Ranger Glossy Accent nose (and the "oo" in Chrismasmoose...stamps from Paper Smooches...edge on the bottom with Ranger Distress Stains.  Ranger gets a lot of my money...

Colored Pencils only:

With the Copic wash:

Lots of Gloss!

MOOD WHEN DONE = Merry

Makeover

Can't bear to repost my last card, affectionately thought of as the "big mess!"  It is here.

And here is the makeover -- with a vertical orientation that works so much better.  The size and orientation of the flower panel on the original card was just so wrong...I also went with a cool color palette.  It's not perfect but I'm happy.

Card Construction Details:

1.  Stamped flowers from Paper Smooches in Memento ink.

2.  Colored flowers with a pale purple and a pale turquoise so that there was a nice even base.

3. Added shading with Prismacolor Pencils.  I'm enjoying that combination lately -- light background with Copics covered with a couple of darker pencils.

4.  Cut out flowers.

5.  Added white Ranger Accents to the flower petals and clear Ranger accents to the heart and set aside to dry.

4.  Stamped flowers and stems on white cardstock, masking a bit.

5.  Stamped sentiment (Paper Smooches Chit Chat). Hightlighted "too kind" with the pale Copic.

6.  Trimmed white panel, adhered to black base and adhered flowers.

7.  Fiddled with some rhinestones from Impress (like these because they really are self adhesive and easy to work with).

8.  Shaded around stems, petals and bottom of flowers with pencils and added a little "ground" with pencils.

9.  Adhered to a card made with A Muse Studio Bermuda cardstock.  **love**

 MOOD WHEN DONE = Pleased

****

Since I've received a few requests for a mom update -- she likes where she is, knows who I am, but is [empty space here].  I don't know the adjective to describe how she is.  The word that keeps popping up is "crazy" but that sounds so derisive.  No permanent placement yet.  I'll post more when I can find the words to describe all of this.  But a huge THANKs and a shout out to all of you who are going through, or who have gone through, similar situations. 

 

 

Need a Hug?

Take this one -

-- using some Paper Smooches, Copics and A Muse Studio cardstock and Stickles and Nestability die and paper cutter and dimensionals and ink and good grief no wonder I'll never retire....

MOOD WHEN DONE = Crazy for listening to political stuff this early in the season.  Stop me now.

 

Pucker Up Baby

I'm in a Paper Smooches mood lately.  Here's a cute, dimensional card for the husband.

Card Construction Details:

1.  What the heck do you do with a stamp of a lemon with eyelashes and lips on it?  Well, here's one way to use it.

2.  Stamped the lemon face twice, highlighed one with pale pink and beige Copic markers and cut out.  Colored the lips with "lipstick" red Copic and cut out.

3.  Die cut a banner die and stamped sentiment in center.

4.  Scored lines on either side of the sentiment and scored a quarter of an inch on either side of each score line.

5. Folded banner as shown.

6. Popped up face with a really thick dimensional and added a thin dimensional to the lips.

7.  Trimmed A Muse Studio black polka dot paper to 4 and 3/4" x 3.5"

8.  Adhered as shown.

MOOD WHEN DONE: Flirty -- hmm, wonder who will get this card?

Supplies:

Stamps:  Paper Smooches Fruitastic
Cardstock:  A Muse Studio Sugar, Cherry and Black polka dot
Ink:  Memento
Other:  Copics, dimensionals, paper cutter, adhesive, PTI banner die (broke down and got it), $$

and here's the straight on view --

 

 

Faux Twine

I really like twine, especially the multicolored.  Trendy, easy to tie, and mail.  Cute.  I want every color. Just like I wanted, and bought, every color of brads.  So -- I took some very inexpensive cheap white cotton thread and touched it with the wide end of a purple Copic marker.  Voila.  Faux twine.

Colored with Copics and lots of Stickles!

And here's the card, using Paper Smooches.  Love those stamps!

MOOD WHEN DONE = Frugal and Glittery

My Favorite Things . . .

3 of my favorite things -- kraft cardstock, colored pencils, and Ranger Glossy White Accents.

I'm a lukcy duck and won a spot in Jennifer McGuire's and Kristina Werner's online summer camp.  I'm also lucky that I finished this card before I saw this week's color challenge.  (However, I have another card with these colors that I just need to photograph...)

Card Construction Details:

1.  A2 Kraft card.

2.  Stamped various flowers with Memories Dye ink.  Elongated the 3rd stem with a fine black pen because the stem was not long enough.

3.  Colored flowers with Prismacolor pencils -- yellow, orange, red, lighter green and a darker green.

4.  Stamped sentiment in wrong place -- should have been a bit lower.  Added small flowers to try and tie the sentiment with the rest of card.  Did I succeed?  Who knows?  Eye in the beholder and all that...

5.  Added Ranger Glossy Accents.

6.  Rounded corners. 

MOOD WHEN DONE = fiesty

Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Smooches Friendly Flowers and Sentiment Sampler
Ink:  Memories Black Dye
Cardstock:  PTI Kraft
Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Ranger Glossy Accents White, W R Memories Corner Chomper