Seeing what happens...

I find it so easy to be stymied when I don't have a specific project in mind, or an intended recipient for a card.  Last night I reminded myself that the only way to get past that is by doing the work - just put stamp to paper, and something will happen.

This card started from me just stamping out a couple of stamps from a new-to-me set on some scrap paper, just to see what they looked like.  It's simple, which is completely my style, but I might try this one again and see if some pale coffee rings works as a background, or detracts from my focal image.  The inside reads:  Coffee is my love language.

All images and inside sentiment:  Coffee Talk by Joy Clair.

Another Rainy Day...

We've been having this spate of gloomy, rainy, intensely humid days in my part of the world.  I feel lucky to live and work in places with climate control.

In a rare burst of inspiration and creativity after a stamping convention a number of years ago, I made this card, which captures the current state of things.

It's a simple thing - two stamps, no embellishments, and these days cold be easily mass produced, and have better ink coverage using the MISTI.  Background:  Rain Cover-a-Card from Impression Obsession; Foreground:  Umbrella People by Technique Junkies.

Those bygone days...

I wasn't feeling especially creative last night (turns out I was hungry - who knew?), so I worked on my unmounted stamp catalogue.  I have a bunch of stamps that I've either unmounted from their original wood blocks and then remounted with cling foam, or that are cling-mounted duplicates of stamps I already had.  As I was looking through my mounted stamp catalogue for company and stamp name references, paging through that binder, was a wonderful trip down memory lane.  Yes, I'm now securely in the unmounted camp, for ease of use, storage, and the game-changer stamp positioning tools that all but remove the possibility of inking mishaps, but I don't want to lose track of and stop using those older images I love and collected over many years.

Above is a favorite card that I never quite had the courage to send.  Marvy dye inks on glossy paper, mounted on black felt, gold paper, and then the perfect shade of purple card stock.  Image:  Acey Deucy/Lynne Perrella.

Wait, what is a blog again??

Oh, I remember, a web log, a journal, a record of what I'm doing, in this case, in the craft room.  I've tried a couple of different ways to record a snapshot of what I'm doing, but the paper versions - inchies and ATCs involved making a thing, and then an extra bit for the journal.  Now I'm trying an old scheme:  online, one photo, 1-2 sentences, supplies.  What are the key things you want to know about a craft project?

Impetus:  This week's Splitcoast Stampers clean and simple challenge prompt is balloons.  I've been wanting to play with this Concord & 9th set for ages.  Also exploring the idea that the image on the front of the card, the sentiment, and the intended recipient can have a little incongruity and it's not the end of the world.

Supplies:
Image:  Happy Balloons by Concord & 9th
Sentiment:  Tealightful Day by Pinkfresh Studio
Background:  Mini Cloud Edges stencil by My Favorite things
Inks:  Altenew, Versafine, Impression Obsession

Getting Organized - Still...

Unmounted stamp catalog - example page

They say that rubber stamping is actually three different hobbies:  shopping for/buying stamps and supplies, organizing said supplies, and then actually making things.  So true.  And while it's always a good time of year for stamp and supply organization, somehow January seems like the time to buckle down and cross some of these tasks off the list (although, if you do the shopping bit, you can never really finish the organizing bit, can you.  Darn.).  I'll probably post more about my latest organization endeavors over the coming weeks, but this is a slight tangent...

Way back in 2015, I got a MISTI (I posted about it here).  And then a year later, I got the smaller version, the Mini MISTI.  And then this past summer, I got a Tim Holtz travel-sized stamp platform (with its useful case!).  The MISTI is definitely my favorite, but all of these do one thing very well:  they prevent stamping mishaps that ruin everything.  If you're a stamper, you know this moment...

• Your paper moves at the last second
• You missed inking a spot on a stamp, or didn't use even pressure everywhere
• You drop your stamp on the good paper by accident
• You do any and all of these things and you only had five minutes to make anything anyway and now everything is messed up and your card won't get done and everything will be horrible forever

The MISTI fixes all of these things with magnets and cling and magic (but not for wood mounted stamps, alas - but I persevere and take risks using these, and am one-by-one, converting them to cling mount - that's yet another post...).  But enter my stamp organization process, where I am finally creating a catalog of my single cling-mounted stamps that live on individual 8.5 x 11 sheets by stamping them out on 8.5 x 11 paper (see example at the top of the post).  That's too big a piece of paper for each stamp to be happily stamped out using the MISTI or the Tim Holtz platform.  But I can do this - I have acrylic blocks.  Uh huh.  Spoiler alert...

Because I'm left-handed, I work from the bottom-right corner of the page, and work my way up.  All was going fine until I dropped the inked stamp into the wrong spot - twice. Click on the image below to really get the full effect.

Stamps by Flonz, Hampton Art, Technique Junkies

And then I clearly missed a spot with my inking, pressure, or both.

Quantum Background by Deep Red Stamps

But since the catalog pages are just for me, even with the stamping flubs, they still do the job.

And for me, the added bonus of working on this project is that I remember what stamps I have, and where to find them so I can get some inspiration for some actual card-making!

Sentiment:  Viva Las Vegastamps

What projects are you working on this January?

Happy New Year!

Another year, another attempt to actually use this platform...  Can I do it?  Ready, set...

I wish I could remember where I first saw this bear from the Essentials by Ellen All Inside set by Julie Ebersole, but it was on someone's blog somewhere, at some point.  And clearly it stayed in my consciousness, because at some point, I just had to have it.  And all the accessories, of course.  I don't often turn to "cute" for my card-making, but I just can't resist this bear, and I knew it would be perfect for my holiday cards.

One of the key features about this bear is that it can hold things.  The matching die cuts out around the arms so you can slip in an object.  I made several test bears to practice cutting and stamping.

To go with the holiday/winter/warmth theme, I added some presents, including one proudly toppled over by the cat (my cat), and decided to give the bear a coffee cup to hold (like me, who likes nothing more than a warm beverage at all times of the year).  The Bear Ware sets don't include a coffee cup (hint:  Ellen, Julie, I know you'll never see this, but so many more bear accessories needed.  I'll send you a list...), so I used this one from Endless Creations.

I stamped all of the presents, masked one of them, and stamped the cat.

Then I masked the presents and the cat, and sponged on some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide.

I stamped and colored the coffee cups, and fussy cut each one.  I didn't want the bear to be cold, so I die cut a scarf from the Bear Ware 2 set.  

The bears, of course, needed rosy cheeks...

Before the final assembly, I colored the presents and the kitty (to resemble my cat, Bunny), and stamped the cobbled together sentiment from Flora & Fauna's Holiday Word Party set.

I even used some of the leftover bears to create another card.

I look forward to using this bear often, and sharing my adventures in card-making with (all two of) you over the coming year.

Summer thanks...

You'd think with all of the craft products I have in my craft room that there's enough in there to feed a lifetime of crafting activities.  And you'd be right about that, of course.  But still and all, periodically I get on this tear where I have something, and eventually, happily, I give in, and shortly thereafter, a lovely package appears at my door.*

Recently, Craig asked me to make some thank you cards for the people who had stayed with him while I was away this summer.  I saw it as the perfect opportunity to not only get some quality time in my craft room, but also to use some recent purchases from over the summer and try out some new (to me) techniques with watercolor. 

I think I'm the last person in the stamping world to get on the watercolor bandwagon, but like so many others, I've been inspired by the videos of long-time card-making experts Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire, and more recently by Cathy Zielske, who is a long-time scrapbooker, but a new-ish card maker.  I have different aesthetics from all three (though I love Cathy's sassy sentiment stamps!), but their design sense and the tone of their videos is amazing.  And I love that peek into the community of the elite of the stamping world, which seems far away, yet real and friendly and supportive.

So, my cards...

At some point I fell in love with Concord & 9ths Many Mandalas stamp set.  I don't gravitate toward circular images a lot, but I love the kaleidoscopic effect of these images and how they can be used together or separately, and colored in, or not, to create backgrounds or focal images or simple patterns.  I also love that they are 9-pointed stars, which I didn't realize right away.

So, with my Misti, a container of white embossing powder, some sticky Versamark embossing ink, an almost untouched pad of watercolor paper, and my new-ish heat gun, off I went.  Once I had stamped the images, I explored color variations, and at the same time, tried to figure out how to use the "smooshing" technique for a quick watercolor background and how to use a water brush for the details.  And after many stages, color trials, and hours with purple and blue ink on my hands, I had 14 cards.

So many shades of blue and purple to choose from!  Somehow, my cards are always blue and purple.  Shock.

At first, I just colored the center of the largest mandala...

...and then I realized that I liked the effect of a more solid-colored background

Thank goodness for the Misti, which helped me quickly add sentiments, and even re-stamp the largest mandala after I learned the hard way that you need to stamp an image 2-3 times in order to get a clean image on watercolor paper you can then emboss. 

Most of the cards look like this:  A2-size, simple stitched border.

But at first, I cut the cover image down a little smaller, and then hated it.  But finally, I decided to see if I could salvage the smaller cards and mounted them on navy duplex paper.  And of course, I like them a lot better than the others, but just couldn't stomach the idea of taking ten cards apart, re-cutting, and re-mounting them.

Lessons learned:

• Smooshing - I sort of like it, but don't really have it yet.  I think I want to try again with more color variations over smaller portions of a card.  And I like the idea of an artful, messy, outside-the-lines watercolor wash, but I don't know if I'm really that person.
• Watercolor brush - yes!  I love it!  And combined with heat embossing creates raised lines that contain the paint into small areas, it's perfect for me.
• Versamark and watercolor paper - ink twice, at least.
• Many Mandalas - beautiful.  I just bought the coordinating dies for the images.  I think these would make the best mobiles.
• Finishing - I'm getting better at making prototypes of cards, and giving myself permission to make many versions of something before I even attempt a real final version (given enough time - ha!), but I need to take my prototype all the way to the end, including final trimming and mounting.

 I hope I get some crafting time this weekend - so many cards to make!!

*At some point recently I realized what some of my need for more craft products was all about.  Some of it is just that there are wonderful products out there on the market and appearing all the time, and I want to use them for my card-making.  A bunch of it is just the regular myths of retail therapy - buying craft things as retail therapy, or to make me feel creative, even though I don't have time to play.  But a bunch of it is the anticipation of something wonderful arriving or waiting for me when I get home in the midst of a challenging environment.  Food for thought indeed...