Organizing and a question…

I haven’t created anything today, but I did go to Archiver’s to see what was on sale! I was going to go to JoAnn’s, Michaels, and Hobby Lobby, too, but I spent enough at Archiver’s to make up for missing the other ones! I’ve been sitting here for the last hour or so trying to decide if I should start on some Valentine’s, but instead I’m going to work on that never ending task, organizing stamps. Do your stamps seem to multiply when you’re not looking, too? I swear—they’re worse than rabbits!!!

So here’s a question for you—when you have sets of stamps, do you break them up or keep them together?? Any insight would be greatly appreciated! I made the decision awhile ago to go to CD case storage for unmounted stamps. However, some manufacturers, like Oxford Impressions or Artistic Outpost, put lots of stamps in a set—more than will fit a CD case. In these instances, do you split your sets or keep them together in some alternate type of storage? I know—this is the age-old question for stampers, but I would love to hear how you handle it! Oh—and while I’m organizing the stamps, I’m actually going to clean them (gasp!).   

I hope to get started on Valentines and a birthday card tomorrow, but until then, have you seen the video tutorial for this card? I got this stamp today—definitely see some of these for next Christmas!

Christmas card—final version…

Hey there! I posted my prototype Christmas card earlier—here’s the slightly modified version. I stamped in white on the card base and inked the edges of the kraft mat behind the image. I know these are subtle changes, but they make a real difference, at least to my eye. Hope you like it! Oh—I didn’t change border punches. I was going to switch to the Martha Stewart doily punch, but it wouldn’t go through the SU! burgundy paper. So aggravating!!! Also—the image was stamped in Peeled Paint, not Shabby Shutters as previously reported. Finally—I forgot to give credit to SCS for the sketch—this is SC150 from Splitcoaststampers. Let me know what you think! Otherwise, I’m getting a cold just in time for jury duty tomorrow morning. Great. Have a good week everybody—hope I get a chance to play this week and have some more things to share with you!

Christmas card prototype…

Some people laugh at me because if I’m making multiples of a card, I always make a prototype. I don’t think there’s anything weird about it, but I’m also the same person who designs card layouts to scale in PowerPoint! So—this afternoon I worked up a prototype of my Christmas card for this year. Yes, I send the same card to almost everyone. It would make me crazy to make individual cards and figuring out which one to send to what person! It’s hard enough for me to settle on a design and paper for just one kind!!! Having said that, I showed you the paper and image I’d chosen in a post awhile ago. Now here’s the prototype card.

There are a couple of things I plan to change on the final product. I like the kraft mat around the image, but it needs something, so I’m going to try distressing the edges with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink (that’s the same color used on the image). I’m also going to use a more ornate border punch on the edges of the striped and burgundy panels. The one I used here doesn’t seem quite ornate enough. I’m also wondering about using some sort of background stamp on the kraft card base, just to give it a little more interest. What do you think? I definitely need to get started on the cracked glass images tomorrow!

OK—off to bed soon. I’ll show you what I end up with on the Christmas card tomorrow! 

As promised…

I didn’t get as much playing done as I wanted to today, but I did force myself to settle on paper for my Christmas cards, which is a huge relief! Here is a picture of the paper and the image I’m using in two different colors. I haven’t decided yet whether to go with the red or green. The image is from Cornish Heritage Farms. What do you think?

I also made a birthday card for a friend who I found out celebrated a birthday last week and I didn’t know it. Here’s a picture of it.

I’m not sure how well some of the detail shows up in this photo. First, I want to credit Splitcoaststampers for the layout—this is SC232 if you’re interested.  I used some of the yummy Basic Grey Indian Summer paper, and a Tim Holtz
Idea-ology Muse Token that says “Wonderful.” The stamped image is from ERA Graphics. It’s been treated with the cracked glass technique (as are the Christmas card images)—I’m on a roll with that. I haven’t finished the inside yet, but I picked up a terrific stamp a couple of weeks ago at the best stamp store on the planet, Stamp Your Art Out! It’s from their very own stamp line, Verses, and says, “Surely a star danced in heaven on the day you were born.” I hope he likes it!

That’s it for today, Pussydoll Cats! I’m going to keep on inkin’ and will try to post more creations tomorrow!