Simple

After stamping for many years, I always feel inclined to make elaborate cards. Unfortunately, my time is short and I would rather do a little something, rather than nothing at all. I'm sure there are others out there who feel the same. Plus, sometimes clean and simple is kind of a fun a change of pace. The cards below fit the bill - and will most likely be sent to Operation Write Home:

The sentiment is made from letter stickers.

The bottom curly line is a portion of paper tape. Both cards were made from kits from SimonSaysStamp.

I had a few moments recently, and thought it would be a good time to start on the shadow box I painted a few weeks ago. I used a page of Carta Bella's All Hallow's Eve, some ephemera and a glass bottle:

I used black alcohol ink to color the bottle. Drip a couple drops into your glass and rotate the bottle for coverage. The bird cage is a 3-D acetate sticker.

This is a close up of the top slot. I have a few more things to add here - possible some pen nibs, etc.

Using My Stash

As much as love this paper collection, I am determined not to hoard. So, I made this cute little card using a scrap and a sticker. Add a stamped greeting - 10 minutes of less!

In The Neighborhood

I completed a double page spread for my journal exchange. I thought I would use the background I made with paint and plastic wrap, adding some new purchases. It is a bit less busy in person as the pen work did not photograph well. I used one of the new Hero Arts stamps (large house) and paired with Basic Grey's Out of Print paper. I used the On The Edge houses from Tim Holtz/Sizzix to die cut the patterned paper. A few stickers and punched circles were added.

Tuesday's Tips

I have a confession to make. Yes, as a paper crafter and artist, I love all things artsy. But, I am not, nor ever have been, a sticker fan. I have bought them, only to give them to the nearest available child!
Well, I recently read a couple of ideas that I could use (other than the obvious titles of scrap pages or journal pages). Using punches to punch out small shapes - think circles for flower centers. Or, collage them on card stock and die cut or punch. I will be giving these a try this week!

Tuesday's Tip

I love rubber stamps. I use them in all my paper art projects, so I have quite a selection of images and sentiments. Even with a plethora of sayings, I sometime come up short. Has this happened to you? I found a fun and funky way to use my stamps and stickers together. Stamp the words you want and fill in with stickers. I like to use the mini letters to spell out the sentiment/fill in the words that I want. it is also a great way to use your stash!

Tuesday's Tip

I have seen a variety of seasonal items on sale recently, especially stickers. You can get great prices on sticker sets at your local store. One way to get more mileage from holiday - actually, all - stickers is to cut them apart. you can mix and match a variety of greetings.

Shadow Box

Several months ago, there was much discussion on one of the on-line boards I subscribe to regarding Configurations boxes, Design team samples, etc. At that time, I had mentioned that you could probably make your own with chip board. Well, the above photo is of a box I crated using chipboard that I cut myself. it was a bit of a pain, but I wanted to see how it would all turn out. After painting it white, I set i aside for quite a few months. A couple of weeks ago, I was determined to complete that which i had started oh,so long ago!.

I used a couple of photos from a trip to Paris in 2009 (Moulon Rouge and 1920's art deco Metro sign). The rest of the backgrounds came from my stash of vintage french ephemera. The large Fleur de Lis was purchased at Les Puces flea market outside of Paris. A few stickers, cut-outs, and German Scrap completed the shadow box. I used a lot pop up dimensionals in the shadow box - unfortunately, there is no way to adequately photograph. So, my experiment worked - although it was no fun cutting the chipboard. So, you can "do it yourself" if you do not want to spend the money on a pre-made shadow box!

Busy Day

Today was quite the busy and productive day. Have you had one of these lately? There were so many ideas that I wanted to try it was difficult to find a starting point. PSL is in full swing, so I should be helping my teams with scrapbooking and/or card making. But...the art journal and mail art were calling to me! So, I ended up doing a little of each (well, except the scrapping).
My last project of the day was making cards for my Club Scrap card team. Our challenge this week really is a challenge - using Club Scrap stickers. I am not a sticker person - never have been. I always figure that with all the rubber stamps I own, I can make my own stickers in the exact colors I need/want.  Well, I gave it a shot:

I am still not a sticker fan - at least for cards. I will admit that alphabet stickers are periodically useful for scrapbook pages. How about you - fan or no?