Think Pink!

I never make anything in pink, despite what Kay Thompson said!

...except for now, I suppose.

In an earlier post, I wrote about my serendipitous collection of art deco/art nouveau rose craft items, including Poppystamps' Art Deco Roses die.  My mother's birthday was the perfect excuse to both play with that die and dabble in an unusual (for me) color choice.

This was also my first experiment with the inlay technique of filling in your die cuts with the cut-out pieces, shown here in a contrasting color.  No doubt this is easier both with practice and with dies that have fewer solid pieces, and although I liked the end effect on my cart, it was a pain to do with this die.  If I do it again with this die, I'll only fill in a couple of the largest roses, rather than all of them.

I also loved using Technique Junkie's Bubble Girl image.  She presented a different type of challenge for me as I gravitate toward images that face to the right from the viewer's perspective, rather than to the left.  But I'm too fond of the stamp to not use it, so I'll add this to the list of ways this simple card moved me ever-so-slightly closer to the edge of my creative comfort zone.

In the world of card making, various stamp manufacturers, affinity groups, and other sites host challenges.  I hate competitions, and am in no way competitive, but I keep track of a few challenge series' topics if only to give myself a list of key words that might spark an idea if I ever run dry, or the impetus to carve out time to actually sit down and make something.  When I saw this week's challenge from CASology, I thought, I won't even write that one down, I never do anything in pink.  But then when I was posting a few new cards to Pinterest, I remembered this one, AND had a picture of it.  I'll write a little more about some of my (very few) challenge entries in a future post.

Mask, redux...

Last June I wrote this post about the mismatch of a favorite stamp and the pre-cut mask I purchased for it at the Heirloom Rubber Stamp & Paper Arts show in Allentown.  That same rubber stamp show was back for it's annual visit last weekend (and you want to be regaled with future posts about everything I purchased there, don't you???), and I took the opportunity to buy the stamp that actually goes with the mask.

I first purchased the stamp years ago from Silvercrow Creations, who calls it "Reading Woman." I'd seen the same image from Stampland, which they call "Janice Reading," a while ago too, but for some reason, I never liked it as much, although it was nearly identical to the Silvercrow version.  I bought the unmounted version from Stampland, and mounted it with cling foam.  You can see the size difference from the back, but it's more noticeable once you see the two stamped out.

But the key thing is that the mask (made by Stampland) matches their version of the image (go figure).

I made a quick card to experiment with the mask...

...and though it was definitely a time saver to have the pre-cut mask I can use over and over again, I still prefer the size and the detail of the original image.

It felt good to get back into the craft room again, even if briefly.  I dashed off another card recently and hope to spend a few hours there this weekend.  What are you working on this month?

Recurring themes...

Happy new year, all two of you who read this blog!! 

One of the long-term projects on my list is to get a new monogram stamp to use as a signature or logo for the back of my cards.  I have different initials than I used to, so my perfect monogram peg stamp made by the now defunct Stamp Cabana no longer does the job.  Of course there are many companies who will design and make a monogram stamp for you, but better than that, my husband offered to design one for me.  This led to the problem of having too many options:  what size did I want, what font, how readable, graphics, or none, and on and on.  Having too many options brings me to a halt, so though I've had new initials for a while now, I still have no stamp.  But it's the new year, so it's time for a decision and progress.

To get me on the right track, I recently started to think about what I liked about the current monogram stamp I have.  It's small, about 1/2" square, simple, with two initials intertwined, and uses a kind of Art Nouveau-esque font.  Internet searches of Art Nouveau and Art Deco alphabets led me to fonts which resonated with me.  From there it was a very short hop to the artwork of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who's work I studied in school.  This led to another connection - I already own a bunch of craft stuff in this style and gravitate toward those stylistic Glasgow roses.  Searching in my craft room last night, here's what I pulled out:

The products:  Acey Duecy stamp - Palazzo; Rubber Stamp Tapestry Stamp - Single Rose-Small;  Spellbinders M-bossabilities - Cabbage Roses; Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Scribbles; Poppystamps die - Art Deco Roses

In my head, the roses in all of these products looked identical.  Not so, of course.  I decided to see if and how they all worked together.  I used plum dye ink on cream paper for with the stencil.  As the pattern is called scribbles, perhaps that's what the designer sees, but I always see roses.

Using a similar palette, I stamped out the two images, and decided that the peg stamp was sufficiently different to not make the final piece.

I used textured paper with a white core in the embossing folder, and sanded off part of the paper to try and make the roses pop.

But in the end I decided that I like the solid coloring best, so used the debossed side.

My die cut corner was the final piece.  Here's how they all came together:

This card was just an exercise and an experiment with some new and old products.  In the end, I liked the pieces individually, but not how they came together.  The design developed organically, based on the scraps that were closest to the top of the pile on my desk, not with any forethought.  If I do something like it again, I'll think about the size and color of the pieces more carefully. 

I love the die cut especially, and hope to use that often, but I need to work on how incorporate it in a larger sheet without adding bulk or too many layers to the card, and more important, how to glue it down (If you look closely at the image above, you'll likely see tons of residue from the adhesive, and the oh-so-attractive visible bits of double-face tape beneath the two roses on the lower right.  One of these days I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go back to glue.  Suggestions???)

In the end, what struck me is how my collection of craft products is consistent, even in its breadth and age.  I have these mini themes that wind their way through my stamps, papers, and now embossing folders, dies, and stencils.  Maybe this just shows how little my tastes have changed through the years.

I have a long list of topics for this and my oft-neglected companion blog Festive, Yet Tasteful, so check-in from time to time, and share in the comments what projects you're working on this year.