Card formulas...

I was watching a May Park video the other week where she mentions a favorite card formula - a go-to design that just works but is infinitely variable as you change images and ink colors.  This is what I crave in card-making, fashion, meal-planning, dance program-writing - everything - something simple that just works, that I can turn to again and again.  Here's a basic card design I love:

Formula:  Image, often on the left side, some kind of (often snarky) quote or sentiment, simple border.  I made this one a few weeks ago, took a deep breath, and sent it to my mother.  Image:  Red Castle Stamps; Sentiment:  River City Rubber Works

Looking through my file of scanned cards, I turn to this formula again and again...

I made this one right after I got home from a stamp convention with some just-purchased products.  In a daring move, the image is on the right side!  I used a stencil for the background and lightly colored (and added sparkle to) the image.  Image and sentiment by Character Constructions; Background stencil by Neat & Tangled.

I know I've had this stamp forever!  And look at me attempting some watercolor!  Stamp:  Woman with Cup by David Walker for Uptown Rubber Stamps; Tea Packet sentiment - Stampington (it's not this one, but a similar one...).

I will probably never have enough Gibson Girls in my rubber stamp collection!  Here I stamped the image and sentiment, and then sponged some ink on top.  Image:  Flonz; Sentiment:  custom stamp I had made based on a much-loved button not unlike this one.

It turns out I have two rubber stamps with this same sentiment.  This is one of a pair I made.  Image and sentiment by Technique Junkies.

This is one of a series of cards I made for my favorite place in the world, riffing off of their logo.  Image:  Stampscapes; Sentiment:  Stampa Fe

And finally, a valentine from several years ago.  Image:  Moon Rose; Sentiment:  Just for Fun

Portable crafting...

Summer is a time of traveling for me (Dance Camp!!), and brings with it all kinds of wishful thinking like I will have so much time for reading - I'd better take at least three books with me, and my Kindle, just in case.  And then I manage to only read a few pages from one book each night before falling dead asleep.  Crafting on the go is another one of these things aspirations.  I imagine I will have lots of downtime for working on a project, or making random things.  So I dutifully pack too many supplies, because I can never decide ahead of time what to work on, and maybe get an hour once, or not at all.

Last summer, in an attempt to not carry so much (as if), I focused on wreaths and the wreath builder system from GinaK Designs, and I actually made a few things I didn't hate.

People are making beautiful wreaths out there, and I aspire to that, but I find my success rate is mixed.  But I do love the idea of wreaths or other geometric designs not made out of flowers.  This is one I made last summer with a bunch of small stamps from the Stampendous Charm Collection.  I love the monochromatic simplicity of it, and the surprise when you look closely and discover the small images that make up the whole.  Someday, I'll actually turn this into a card.

I'm going back to camp in a few weeks.  Oh, all 1-2 people who look at this, what should I work on this year?

Recurring themes: Cityscapes

This is a post I started writing in 2015 and have been meaning to finish ever since... 

I find I have inadvertent themes in my stamp and die collection:  background stamps with script/French/indecipherable writing, Gibson Girls, mail art and faux postage, snarky quotes, sassy women, moose, oceans and water, and on, and on.  Another recurring theme: cities and skylines. Maybe it was growing up in New York City, but I find drawn images of buildings, towns, cities, city maps, row houses, etc. alluring. When I finally added cutting dies to my collection, I had to have all of the cityscape dies. 

This 4th of July, I played with a few new purchases:  a cityscape die from Ellen Hutson and a fireworks layering set from My Favorite Things.  I dragged out my ancient embossing powders and chose a few of the best metallics.   If/when I do it again, I'd use a transparency to plan out the fireworks a little better - may putting one burst below the skyline, adding a few more, and thinking about placement and balance - always a challenge for me.

I have this someday project of cutting all of my cityscape dies, and stamping all of the city stamps and looking at them side-by-side.  I wonder how many of the dies in particular would look identical?

Stamps:  Fireworks by My Favorite Things
Die:  Big City by Ellen Hutson
Inks:  Versamark and Tim Holtz Distress Oxides

This could be vodka...

My grand plans for the July 4th holiday involved making at least five cards.  At least!  Which means I made 1.5...

I saw a card using this stamp set on Coffee-Loving Cardmakers, and thought about it for a long time before ordering the set from Cat's Pajamas recently.  The set features two of my recurring card themes and stamp purchases:  coffee/tea related stamps and saucy/sassy/snarky/wry/irreverent (which is the best descriptor???) sentiments.

I also wanted to practice with my watercolor markers, so I just stamped and embossed a bunch of images, and used my favorite for this card.  And look at me actually using some rhinestones I got for free with a stamp purchase a year ago.  I like a clean and simple card, but this one needed something.

Thinking about the card again this morning, if I were to do it over, which I might, I would leave the mug plain, or stamp or pattern piece a design on it, and then stamp the image with the sentiment in the same location on the inside of the card, leaving the sentiment as a surprise for the recipient.

Stamps:

Image:  This Could be Vodka by Cat's Pajamas
Background:  Love of Coffee by Picket Fence Studios