Christmases of Days Gone By

Hi, everyone.

Boy, what a difference a day makes. Hope everyone is safe and sound following yesterday's weather.

The card below is inspired by two separate posts: this month's OWH Design Bootcamp lesson from Paula about using texture and this week's CAS-ual Fridays and Curtain Call's combined challenge. (Luckily, this digital camera pic turned out much better than my last few efforts! Maybe there's hope for me yet...)

Distress Ink core, Bo Bunny Father Christmas, Bazzill or AC cardstock
Stampin' Up! stamp and punch
dry embossing with Cuttlebug folder
heat embossing with Inkadinkado gold powder
Martha Stewart branch punch; Creative Memories oval cutting system
Really Reasonable Ribbon lace; Paper Studio brads
Tombow foam adheaives

The CAS-ual Fridays inspiration photo reminded me of a Currier and Ives or Norman Rockwell Christmas. So, it just felt right to pull out my remaining Bo Bunny Father Christmas papers and new Stampin' Up! old-fashioned ornament stamp set to create this holiday card.

Love the richness of the colors, the simplicity of the design, and all of the texture. (I know there's a  lot of tactile texture, not so sure about the visual texture.)

This card is going to OWH to send some holiday cheer to one of our deployed troops.

Parting Thoughts

Thanks again, Paula, for another wonderful Design Bootcamp. Your posts have been fabulous!

Looking forward to Wednesday's craft show at work. Hoping for lots of sales. After all,  girl's gotta do something to support her card-making hobby...   :)

Have a great rest of the week. Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

thank U

Hi, everyone.

Seems forever since I've posted. I've been offline for a while, and it's good to be back. Today's card is inspired by Paula's Design Bootcamp lesson on balance and this month's ODBD challenge to make a card featuring a sentiment.

Creative Memories dp from stash; Bazzill cardstock
Creative Memories letter stickers
Tattered Angels 3-in-1 alpha chips, painted in acrylic Plantation Pine

Going for some asymmetrical balance here, balancing out the word "thank" and the letter "u". Not sure if they are in completely in balance, but the end result feels visually pleasing to me. Most importantly, it received hubby's seal of approval. :)

Gotta make it short and sweet today. Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

A More Unified Look

Hi, everyone.

Today was another wonderful installment of Paula's OWH Design Bootcamp. This month's topic was about creating a more cohesive relationship between a card's elements or, in other words, the principle of unity.

Original Card

Paula challenged us old-timers to go back to a past card and think about how we would rework the design to create more unified look. I have to admit this was rather painful. At the time that I made the card at the right, I thought it was a pretty good little card. After all, I had created an adorable free-handed ghost -- with brads for eyes, nonetheless, and a clever computer-generated sentiment. What's not to like?

Well, as it turns out, there's quite a bit not to like, starting with three "focal points" spread around the card: ghost, pumpkins, and sentiment.

 The Reworked Layout

In the revised layout, I'm going with:

• a much better defined focal point,
• bigger elements,
• a strip of paper that pops the sentiment,
• a physical connection among the ghost, sentiment, and pumpkins, and
• a few (odd in number) brads under the sentiment to give it a little extra emphasis.

One thing I did get right in the original was creating a contrast by placing the ghost on dark color paper. Seems like a good thing to keep in the revision.

Parting Thoughts

The original card had a few Stickles -- an OWH no-no. This may have been a card made for nephews, although I made the mistake of using Stickles on some of my OWH first generation cards. :(

Thanks, Paula and Sandy, for another fabulous Bootcamp session. I've really learned so much this year. Hope it shows in the revised sketch!

Thanks for stoppin' and happy scrappin'!

[Just Because] It's Design Bootcamp

Hi, everyone.

A couple of days ago, I posted version 1 of the card below. The revised card shown below was inspired by this month's OWH Design Bootcamp lesson on using three colors in a 60:30:10 ratio.

In the original version, I actually used 4 colors, instead of 3. Also, the 60:30 balance was probably closer to 50:40.

In the revised version, I stuck with just 3 colors. And, I tried to be truer to the percentages that Paula talked about in her lesson. For this card, I went with 60% white, 30% brown, and 10% green.

Stampin' Up! Off the Grid stamp, heat embossed in Distress Ink walnut stain
computer-generated sentiment in Franklin Gothic Book (40 red, 20 green 0 brown)
Hero Arts white paper: swiped with bundled sage using baby wipes
Distress Ink core paper: bundled sage; Paper Smooches twine, pressed in walnut stain

There is actually a tad more green than shows in the scanned image. I took a baby wipe and swiped small patches of bundled sage around the card. If you look closely at the scanned image, you can see teeny, tiny bits of green. These little swipes of green actually bring the percentage closer to 10%, rather than the lesser ratio that shows on the screen.

In addition to concentrating on the 60:30:10 color ratio, I tried to incorporate the rule of thirds. The sentiment and stamped image were placed in the top one-third and bottom two-thirds of the card, respectively.

Think I need to trim the twine just a tad. Then, this little card should be ready to go.

Parting Thoughts

Thanks, Paula, for another wonderful lesson.

Thanks for stopping and happy scrappin'!

Lil Monster

Hi, everyone!

Isn't it interesting how the excitement about something keeps you up late and gets you up early? I'm so very excited about my brother's family's visit that I had trouble falling asleep -- and even more trouble getting back to sleep!

The other thing that had my motor running was the desire to ink up some new stamps. The Paper Smooches blog candy from OWH's Memorial Day blog hop came this week. (The delay was totally mine, by the way. Once I finally decided on what to get, the package arrived within days! Kim was fabulous!!! Thanks, Kim.) I also wanted to ink up some newly purchased Stampin' Up! stamps.

So, as it turned out, I've had time to sneak in one last card before the visit begins. :)  The card below is for this month's OWH Design Bootcamp on repetition -- and variation -- and a strong focal point.

Lil Monster

Paper Smooches Alphadot stamp set and natural ribbons; 
Stampin' Up! Build a Monster stamp set
Cosmo Cricket Matilda dp; Distress Ink core paper;
Distress Ink black soot, heat embossed with clear powder
EK border punch; Zots 3D glue dots, Zig 2 Way Glue

A description of the thought process behind this card's design follows:

• The first decision was to make three lil monsters in the same shape and same color, but varied in features. There is also a slight variation in the sanding of the left and right monsters, while keeping the center monster at 100% saturation.
• The second decision was in paper selection. I didn't have any space- or monster-related dp in my stash. But, then I remembered the Matilda halloween collection had some really fun colors and patterns. Looking at the patterns I had left from the pad -- and the complementary cardstock papers in my stash, I decided to go with the orange/gold/purple plaid. The plaid seemed playful, gender neutral, and unexpected. Two other important considerations: the plaid was non-Halloween'ish and it "popped" the lil monsters.
• I repeated the monster's purple in the background of the top portion of the card and around the paper and sentiment on the bottom portion of the card. 
• A pair of natural ribbons were placed behind the monsters to connect them and make a stronger focal point without adding an additional color or pattern. I also liked the extra texture the ribbon brought to the card.
• To adhere the monsters, I used 2 Way glue on their main bodies and glue dots on their eye and leg appendages. They have to be pretty secure for little hands. :)
• This fun font from Paper Smooches was just right for these little guys. It is stamped on the reverse side of a Distress Ink core green that matched a green used in other papers in the dp collection. I chose to not heat emboss -- deciding to use that little extra shimmer for just the monsters.
• So, you'd think I would be done. Not so fast... The top corners felt like they needed something, but I never put brads or gems on kid cards. And, then I saw the cute little trio of dots in the Stampin' Up! monster set. I stamped those in the corners, heat embossing so that they would pop off the plaid paper.

Here's hoping a hero's little one will smile when receiving these little guys in the mail.

Parting Thoughts

Wow, this post got a little longer than I expected. Sorry about that! (Can you tell I'm really psyched about my brother's visit?!)

Thanks to Paula for these Design Bootcamps. They are great!

Another huge thanks to Paper Smooches for all they do for OWH. For my blog candy, I ordered three sets that would address some OWH needs: a fun alphabet, the Teen Scene images, and the Bee Mine set (to go with a honeycomb embossing folder.) Kim, the stamps are fabulous and you totally rock!

Speaking of that honeycomb folder,  a big thanks also goes to Bernadette, a central Ohio Stampin' Up! demonstrator. My stamping is getting better thanks to her help. If only I could say the same about my checking account....

Have a great weekend! REALLY looking forward to celebrating Father's Day with both dads and my brother and his family.

Thanks for stoppin' and happy scrappin'!

A Variegated Garden

Hi, everyone!

Happy Wednesday!

The card below was made for this month's installment of OWH Design Bootcamp, using variation to add interest. This card really feels like a change of pace for me, although I can't quite put my finger on why that is. (And, while I'm 'fessing up, this lesson was a really hard one for me.)

Making Memories foam flower stamps
AC White; Distress Ink core
Distress Ink tattered rose, dusty concord, and peeled paint
stash ribbon; Queen & Co. and Mark Richards pearls
Stampin; Up! sponge daubers

I tried to go with a variety of flower sizes and two different colors of flowers, with the biggest flower being a different color than the other flowers. (The large flower is also two-layered.) In addition, I added variety through the use of pearls and ribbon (hard and soft elements). Finally, I added variety through the number and sizes of pearls used in the center of several flowers.

The placement of the largest flower was made based upon the rule of thirds. And, the sentiment was placed to be fairly close to the largest flower.

I'll be interested in getting feedback on this one, since it does feel so different than my usual cards.

Parting Thoughts

Feeling kind of tired tonight. Not much more comes to mind.

Thanks for visiting and happy scrappin'!

Q: When does 1/3 + 1/3 = 1?

A: When you place an element one-third from the left and a second element one third from the bottom to create one great card!

If you haven't yet checked out Paula's Rule of Thirds post for this month's OWH Design Bootcamp, be sure to take a look. Paula is sooooo rocking design bootcamp!

Paper: Bo Bunny Liberty, Core-dinations Vintage, Bazzill Admiral
sentiment from Paper Inspirations heat embossed in Distress Ink vintage photo
garage sale brads

I really LOVE this card -- so CAS and so elegant! I decided to go with a white background for the sentiment so it would really pop -- and I placed three little brads next to the sentiment to draw just a little more attention to the sentiment portion of the card.

Parting Thoughts

 Thanks again, Paula! Who knew bootcamp could be so much fun?

This is probably the last post for a week or two. May have a chance to make a few cards, but probably not to blog about them.

Have a good rest of the week. Thanks for visiting -- and happy scrappin'!

Focal Point Hearts -- Takes 2 and 3

Hi everyone,

First of all, thanks to all those who hosted stops on last weekend's VCMP!  The challenges were so much fun!

And, thanks to everyone who visited here. Special thanks to those who left comments. The patriotic chevron card and the diffused-embossed gear card seemed to be the crowd favorites.

I'm so excited that I won the blog candy at the Desert Rose Stamper -- whose challenge was to make a card in white and/or cream. Looks like some lovely lace and embellishments are headed my way!  :)

Focal Point Card -- Take One

cardstock: AC and Distress Ink core; original heart pattern created in Word
tools: Sizzix ef, crimper, sander; embellishments: Recollections brads

Note: Wish the image did justice to the colors. The red is a much richer red.
The brads are a much deeper blue, about the same color as the cardstock.

I posted the card at the right for OWH's Design Bootcamp Focal Point Challenge. Silly me... I actually thought it had a strong focal point. :)

While Paula agreed that her eye first went to the heart element, she felt a little "tension" with regard to the
3 stars.

She suggested that a larger blue rectangle around the heart element might help make that element an even stronger focal point.

Focal Point Card -- Take Two

Aside from swapping out the brads, I kept most of the elements exactly the same in the card below. (I did have to use a slightly different neutral because I was all out of the one used on the first card.) 

As you will see, I tweaked the dimensions of several of the elements. Even though I'm waiting official word from Paula, this focal point feels much stronger to me. But I'm wondering if it's possible for a focal point to be too strong... And, if yes, is this focal point so strong that it is overpowering?

Focal Point Card -- TakeThree

For this week's Midweek Throwdown Fun Folds Challenge, I made a brad-less version of the card, again keeping many of the elements the same. I did add a red square behind the heart element to tie in the red of the heart.

This card feels like it has a really strong focal point. But, it seems like it might be easier to make a strong focal point with a symmetrical card. 

Parting Thoughts

So, what do you think about these three cards? Is there one that appeals to you more than the others? What is it that you like about it? (Hubby's review was the same for all three -- "nice".)

I loved how all three of this week's OWH posts were interrelated: Design Bootcamp Focal Point,Tuesday Tutorial featuring techniques that produce strong focal points, and Midweek Throwdown Fun Folds that can produce strong focal points. Nice job, Paula, Nancy and Jan!  :)

Working from home tomorrow. So, it feels kind of like the weekend. Hope your weekend is a good one.

Happy scrappin'!