PAPERLICIOUS

Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Challenge 91

The sketch?

One layer! Right up my alley. Here's my take. Normally I would have cut out the butterfly and adhered; but no, have to play by the rules. 

Hope I get to make another one, but my week coming up is looking chock full of everything except stamping.

Card Construction Details:

1. Stamped butterfly from Waltzingmouse Stamps Nordic Spring onto A2 card.

2. Colored with Prismacolor pencils.

3.  Stamped sentiment from WMS.

4.  Using craft knife, cut out part of the wings of the butterfly.

5.  Added Ranger Glossy Accents to center of fly and yellow dots.

MOOD WHEN DONE = listening to a lecture by Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart.  Interesting.

Color

How's life blog readers??  Hope you  are having a great week. If not, do something nice for yourself.... In the meantime, here is a happy card!

Card Constructions Details:

1.  Ran some Ranger Distress Ink pads over some scrap white cardstock.  Set aside to dry.

2.  Stamped with black ink and Stampin Up By Definition (retired background and the one I'd keep if I could only have one.  Love it!).

3.  Stamped with big flower from a Hero Arts set.  Cut out.  Added Ranger White Glossy Accents to center.

4.  Repeated with green and yellow inks and the leaves. 

5.  Assembled as shown onto a white Bazzill textured card.  Love that cardstock!

6.  Added sentiment from Paper Smooches.  Love those sentiments.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Apparently in Love! with everything

*****

Random thoughts and info:

-- loved your reaction to Train Wreck.  It is definitely going to be a series.  I'm not "brave" -- making cards is just a hobby for me.  I'm not trying to earn money or anything else.  Love it when it turns out great and I find analyzing the wrecks to be fun and informative. 

-- my Mom has turned into Little Miss Busybody at the nursing home, making "suggestions" and "advising" the other residents on all sorts of issues.  Duct tape please!

-- we are going to London in the fall.  Ativan for the flight please!

 

Dogwoods

The single most beautiful tree.  Love them. And there are a lot of them in Virginia.

Card Construction Details:

1.  Cut a tag with Kraft cardstock and the Silhouette digital cutter.

2.  Stamped the branch from WPlus9 Flora and Fauna.

3. Colored with a light green and a white Prismacolor Pencil.  No shading.  Just a pop of color.

4.  Edged tag with white craft ink (Stampin Up).

5.  Tied ribbon through tag.

6.  Adhered to an A2 card (A Muse Studio cardstock).

MOOD WHEN DONE = happy

Train Wreck

I have no shame. Today's card is a

And we are going to use it as the dreaded "learning experience."  Expect more "train wrecks" on the blog this year.  In fact, I'm thinking of a series ....

Here's the card --

Before we discuss (and learn) from this, what do you like about the card?

Nothing?  Come on.  How about the pretty pink big bling in the center?  The woodgrain impression on the brown cardstock?  The pale blush and chocolate color scheme? 

Your assignment is to go get a piece of paper and a pen and come back.

Ok, that's good.

Write down your very first impression.  Mine was "ugh."  Why?  Don't read further without first looking at this little lovely and write down what you don't think works.  If  I know why I don't like something, it helps me learn not to do the same thing.  Plus it trains the eye.

Here are all the things I don't like --

1.  The main image (peacock feather) is ugly.  The patterned paper is boring used this way -- and too busy for this bold graphic image. 

Lesson Learned:  nothing can save an ugly focal point.  Nothing.  Not even Amber Daigre. 

2.  The card is not balanced.  The top of the feather is too heavy and the sentiment too small.  Looks like it is going to tip over.  Tip already and spare me! 

Lesson learned:  Try out different sentiments or elements on scrap paper or just lay them on the card before committing.  Step back and see if the card looks top heavy or bottom heavy or whatever before using adhesive to finalize.

3.  The font of the sentiment doesn't work with the style of the image. I was trying to use a font that I thought would be elegant like the patterned paper.  But the image itself is so large and graphic that the scripty font doesn't work with it. 

Lesson Learned:  Don't quit my day job.

Happy Birthday x 90

Happy Monday!  My mom turned 90 over the weekend.  Her comment?  "90 must be the new 89."  She is doing well.

Since her favorite flower is the daisy, I used one of my favorite Flourishes sets, Gerber Daisies. 

In a bit of a rush, so I'll just mention that I colored with Prismacolor pencils and also sponged over the background a bit with Distress Inks.  As you can see in the close up, I didn't fuss.  Also used an Impression Obsession background on the yellow LilyBee Designs Homemade patterned paper.  

MOOD WHEN DONE = flowery

ps.  Got so many questions/emails about the Silhouette/Cameo, I'll try and post my thoughts (pro and con) later this week.  Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments.

 

For Janelle

Janelle is a lovely woman who is struggling with a brain tumor.  Her husband, Ken, is her support.   Today I am participating in a blog hop organized by Laurie Willison and Dana to show Janelle and her husband Ken how much we care.  Thank you Laurie and Dana for doing this.  Thank you Janelle for being an amazing example of faith and optimism. And thank you Ken for being a wonderful husband and for keeping us posted on how Janelle is doing.  You are all an example of how stamping and the internet can build us up.

Would you like to participate?  Or see the other cards?  If so, click over to Laurie's blog here and check out the details!

This is just for you Janelle --

Card Construction Details:

1.  Using my Silhouette digital cutter, I designed a layer with Janelle's name embedded as shown.  Silhouette tip below.**

2.  Stamped flowers and colored with Prismacolor Pencils.  Nice and bright for a nice and bright woman.

3.  Adhered with dimensionals on a white card.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Hopeful

Supplies:

Stamps:  Paper Smooches
Cardstock:  A Muse Studio Sugar
Ink:  Memento
Other: Prismacolor Pencils, Silhouette, dimensionals

 

**For those of you with a Silhouette/Cameo, once you learn how to do this, you won't stop. I have cardstock with words all over the place! 

These directions assume some basic knowledge of how to make a design with the Silhouette/Cameo. I taught myself over the course of a few weeks -- one of the things I meant earlier when I said I wouldn't be posting as often because I was practicing.  This is a great way to avoid spending money on dies that spell out words.  Or alphabets.

1. Type the word.  A simple block font seems to work best.  Remember that all the letters have to be on the same plane -- meaning a lower case "y" won't work in this design because the bottom of the y will disappear.  For example, instead of "happy" use "HAPPY". 

2.  Resize the word so that the width is what you want.  Use character spacing to spread out the letters for small words if you want the word to span the width of the cardstock. 

3.  Draw a rectangle above and below the word.

4. Move each rectangle so that each one connects slightly with the top and bottom, respectively, of the word.  Remember that every letter in the word has to connect with the top or the bottom.  Don't cover up too much of the letters -- just a bit of each letter needs to overlap the rectangles. 

5. Resize the rectangles so that they are the exact width you want.

6.  Align so that your word is centered (if that is what you want).  Group everything together, press modify and then weld.  The weld functions is what makes the letters connected to the rectangles.

7.  Practice with cheap typing paper until you are happy or HAPPY. 

Dear Paperlicious: Pinning and Other Possible Felonies

Dear Paperlicious:

I am terrified.  Please help.  I received a law suit summons subpoena thing telling me that I can no longer "pin."  When did "pin" become a verb and how much will you charge to represent me?

Signed,
Potential Client

Dear PC:

Welcome to the long list of people thrilled to call DP their lawyer.  I am here to help and my rates are very reasonable.  I charge by the word.  Did you see the cherry blossoms today?  Driving through their floaty pinkness yesterday on the way to my "day job" (a place where stamping goes to die) I thought of that time years ago when Japan sent us cool stuff like pretty trees rather than cool ugly stuff like Prius cars.  ($100 please for those words.) 

Now let's get to the whole "pin" brew ha ha.  To pin is to take pictures from the screen on your computer and put them in a "file" called a "board" also on a screen on your computer.  If you don't add the name of the place where you got it maybe someone can or should sue you.  Not sure as I got bored reading about it and ate some Ho Hos.

But do not be afraid of pinning!!  Embrace the fad!  Pinning is your opportunity to sue someone else!!!  Maybe get a free roll of baker's twine wrapped around actual baked goods rather than cardstock.  It's a lawyer's dream come true.  Billions of suits and countersuits pinging all over the world. 

Feel better? 

That will be $500.

Sincerely,
DP

 

Bubbles in That Glass

As I was making this card (peace, love, smooches) I was thinking about the discord over some of Papertrey Ink's customer service policies and practices.  And that got me to thinking about how our personalities affect how we view and react so differently to the same set of facts (that's why jury consultants make so much money).

But first, the card --

I cut the peace heart with my Silhouette and stamped a sentiment from Paper Smooches.  The cardstock is a textured white Bazzil and using Distress Ink to stamp on it gave me a smooth finish (just hold the stamp down for a few seconds and the wetter distress ink will fill in the gaps in the cardstock). 

I love this card.  A heart. A peace symbol.  A flower with bling.  A happy card!

But, as I said before, while I was making it I was thinking about the turmoil at Papertrey.  For those of you unfamiliar with PTI's issues, the company has had some problems with its new website, some delayed packages, and has not sent out anniversary sets and prize packages in a timely fashion.  It also has fabulous products and a terrific design team.  (And I know Jenn, an employee of the company, who is a very nice woman put through the wringer over the internet.  Not a good situation and I am sending her good thoughts here.)

Some customers see these facts and are irate, spending (what appears to be) huge amounts of time pounding away at the issue.  Others love the company and are happy to overlook what looks to them as small glitches and are spending (what appears to be) lots of time expressing fury with the folks who are angry.

I have a glass half empty personality.  I see a prize package not delivered and I see all sorts of bad things.  I don't want to have a world view that sees the negative over the positive but I do.   As someone once put it to me "the scale of your reaction is out of proportion to what has happened."  (Cost for that observation $125 an hour...).  In other words, even if you are right, you are paying a high price for how strongly you are reacting.  So, I  try and wait things out until I can shake the glass and see bubbles peeking out over the half way mark or decide that my negative view is warranted. 

I was thinking about this as I viewed and reacted to the Papertrey issues.  None of it makes any sense to me.  The company. The customers.  None of it.  And then I realized that each of these parties brings themselves to the game.   The sunny personality who loves the products and naturally sees only the good in people can overlook what someone else finds fraudulent.   Trying to destroy a company because someone else didn't get a prize package seems a bit much.  Ignoring legitimate customer complaints seems a bit much.  Aacck -- enough to make a normal person run for the hills!! 

So I'm sitting back and hoping that the company resolves its policies and practices that have triggered the concerns.  I hope it does and I think it will.  So, I'm waiting until I can shake the PTI glass and see those bubbles again. 

 

A Nursing Home Diversion (and a card)

Note:  Now that Mike is back home I'll ask him to take some photos while I demo the "dots" technique featured in my last post.  In the meantime, here's a card made with the same pencil over ink technique with a slightly different result (more on that coming) and the details on this card too when I have more time.

And the nursing home diversion:

Linda sits with my mom at meals.  A lovely woman who appears to have had a stroke, leaving her with the use of one arm and in a wheelchair.  Linda loves me and looks forward to my visits (which often occur during meal times).  I joined them last night while they ate.  You should know that my Mom's dementia lifted and she is doing much better for now and is completely lucid.

****

Linda:  Oh good, Joan is here.  I have 5 questions for you tonight.  Medicare and Social Security are ending on February 31st.  I need to sell my car to get money.

Me:  I promise you that Medicare and Social Security are still here and are not ending during our lifetimes.

Linda:  Oh good.  Everybody listen.  Joan says Medicare and Social Security are still here.  She's a lawyer so she knows this stuff.

My Mom (to me):  What's the name of that movie?

Me:  (???) Give me a clue mom.

Linda:  I have an account with Red Top cab and need to go out.

My Mom:  (to me):  You know, you know the name of that movie. About that lady?

Me:  The Help?

My Mom:  NO!  The movie with the husband and the wife and how the husband is doing something to her?

Me:  Gaslight?  The guy is trying to make his wife think she is going crazy.

My Mom:  YES.  We have a Gaslight situation.

Linda:  Are you sure about Medicare?

Me:  I'll look it up on my iphone (and I do).

 

Eventually, after about 5 more minutes of this, my Mom and I get up and walk out of the unit to chat alone.

My Mom:  Don't say anything about going crazy in front of Linda!!!!  Linda is going crazy.  Gaslight was my CLUE to you that she is going crazy.

Me:  Mom, I didn't need a clue.  I got it right away.

My Mom:  Oh, I didn't realize.  You have no idea what it is like to talk to someone who is going crazy.

Me:  ????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

 

Faux Dots

On my last post I said I was practicing and would be gone for a few days.  I've got a few ideas and have been trying them out (and enjoying the failures and successes).  Today, I'm reporting back (faster than expected) on one of them.

I've been trying to come up with a way to color flowers, etc by using the dotted technique of Pointillism.  I tried making tiny dots with the point of a pencil or marker, etc.  Little bits of paint.  A big mess.

I finally figured out that stamping first with a solid image and then layering some faux dots would give me the look I wanted.

Yum.

I got it by lightly shading with a very sharp slightly darker Prismacolor pencil.  Use the side of the pencil tip. 

Ended up with this one layer card (except for the green strip). 

MOOD WHEN DONE = Pleased

Supplies:

Stamps: WPlus9 Ever After; sentiment is from a special Papertrey Ink set that a friend gave to me. I do not know its name but am grateful to receive it as it is gorgeous.
Ink:  A Muse Studio Grass, Bubblegum and Papaya
Cardstock:  Stampin Up (a specked cardstock I found in my stash); A Muse Studio Grass
Other:  Prismacolor Pencils