Around Thanksgiving I discovered some awesome local paper. I used a bit of it on a Christmas card. I hope to have time to make some more, although time is running very short! If anyone is reading this blog, you may be getting tired of seeing the ornament stamps. I didn't bring much with me in the way of Christmas stamps so I have to use them a lot. Sorry!


You might not be able to see the "Merry Christmas" on the front of the card. It is the only sentiment I used because, as I've said before, I'm not feeling very merry about Christmas this year. So I pretty much leave my insides blank and write a note in them.


~La

A Santa Card

I don't generally use Santa on cards, preferring to focus on Jesus at Christmas. However, I do have this one very old stamp with Santa (or a version of Santa) on it. The image fit nicely for this weeks Mojo Monday sketch, that was my sole motivation for using it!

This card is a conglomeration of supplies from so many companies! There is a stamp from Stampin' Up (the background), the Santa stamp of unknown origin purchased a thousand years ago, ribbon from who-knows-where, Stampin' Up paper, Creative Memories paper, Copic markers, SU markers, etc. Hmmm... nothing from Verve - the sponsor of Mojo Monday! Oops! I don't have any Christmas stamps from Verve yet and at the moment it's hard to do anything other than Christmas.

~La

Baby Card

I'm going to a baby shower today so needed a card to go with the gift. When we moved I must not have anticipated needing baby cards because I didn't bring any appropriate stamps with me. So coming up with an appropriate card was challenging. I did find this stamp within a set of stars. It says "Twinkle Twinkle little star do you know how loved you are" and "Baby" in the middle of the star. The recipient is choosing not to know the sex of the baby (Yeah for her!!!) so I couldn't use blue or pink. For some reason I also did not bring any basic yellow ink with me, or for that matter any babyish green. The closest I could come was Certainly Celery, which I think works.

My daughter badly wanted to help, so I told her to work on some designs while I looked for white cardstock. (Another thing I brought very little of. What was I thinking??) She actually started the polka dot idea and did something similar to this final version. It reminded me of a card I had done a couple of years ago so VOILA! - we had our starting point! I let my daughter stamp the polka dots and she did a great job. It was nice to be able to allow her to help.

Poinsettia Gift

I liked the poinsettia from my Fa La La card a few days ago, and I liked the coloring with copics on shimmery paper from my last post, so I combined the two and got a shimmery poinsettia. As I worked with paper placement I realized if I set the poinsettia at the top of the DP it looked like a Christmas present, so I continued the idea and used gold cording as a ribbon.


~La

It looks like the sentiment won't show here, so I'll quote it: Each day comes bearing it's own gifts, untie the ribbons

This card is not for any challenge. I was browsing some of my favorite stamping sites today and saw a note about stamping on shimmery papers. They said if you color the image with Copics the shimmer comes through. Well, I have some shimmery paper and I happen to have a few brand new Copics - my first ever! (I found them at a store here in Taipei so decided now is the time to try them.) It does look quite pretty, although I doubt any of the shimmer will show here. (What exactly IS showing here??) I was able to use some very old designer paper I've had sitting around. I think this may be some of the first paper I ever bought! Yeah me for finally using it!

~La

Today I went to Our Creative Corner for inspiration, and found a color challenge. The colors were gold, brown, rust and blue. No problem!

I used an image from one of my favorite old sets. It is so old in fact that I don't know what it's called. It's from SU and I looked through my old catalogs but couldn't find it. I call it "Hope is the Thing with Feathers" because that is part of the "sentiment" that is in the set. (It is also part of a poem by Emily Dickinson that I love.) Anyhow, I first stamped the French words background and clear embossed it, then stamped the main image, colored it a bit and clear embossed over it. Then I sponged a bit of blue around the image and the edges.

I'm not sure if I never bought Chocolate Chip paper or if I forgot to bring it with me, but in any case I couldn't find any. I have Close to Cocoa but that isn't rich enough with gold and rust. I managed to find this perfect piece of dark brown with polka dots (blue no less!) and thought it would be perfect. I thought I would crimp a strip of the polka dot to make it look like a ribbon but, alas, I left the crimper behind. Oh well, I like how this turned out!


~ La

New Christmas Colors

I went outside my traditional box a bit for this Christmas card:

The layout comes from the Mojo Monday blog, again. If it wasn't for them I'm not sure I would get any cards made!

(BTW, I found "Fa La La" printed on some paper I have and I couldn't resist!)

~La

Yesterday I was looking at the blog of a stamping diva and "my Stampin Up Lady", Robin. She makes amazingly beautiful cards. She had just posted some beautiful "one layer cards" (see her fabulous creations here.) What a great idea! I hopped right on the bandwagon and made this:


I know Robin's cards are nicer than mine - not false humility, she is just a master. But I think if someone didn't see hers they would think mine was fine.

After making this I thought of how the trend in the stamping world appears to be to throw as many embellishments as possible onto a card. I think it has gotten to the point that the cards have too much on them - truly. So, not that I would want every card to be one dimensional, but it is refreshing to see something simpler. And on a practical note, those hyper-embellished cards are impossible to mail, especially from Taiwan, so I think I will be making a lot of simple cards that I can use when writing letters.

Thank you for the marvelous inspiration, again, Robin!

~La

Christmas Mojo

I am back to looking to the blog "Mojo Monday" for design inspiration. I don't know if my brain is thinking more creatively or if this weeks design was just easy, but when I looked at it I immediately knew in my head what I would do - a first for me!

This card is ALMOST perfect. I would be so happy if I could drop the "almost". The vellum adhesive shows - darn it. If I would have thought I should have put adhesive on the entire piece so it would have looked uniform. Oh well, live and learn I guess! (And BTW, the colors actually match in real life. For some reason the cranberry looks too red in this picture.)

~La

Practice Hospitality

I think I made this card for myself, because it is my new goal. (Actually, not just a new goal - the first time I've ever had a goal!)

2010 Christmas

I bought some Christmas things from Stampin' Up on sale last year, either after Christmas or after it was too late to make Christmas cards. I love the ornament stamps so have begun making cards with them.

It is hard to make Christmas cards this year because I don't feel "merry" or "joyful" or even "peaceful". I guess more precisely it is hard to put a sentiment on Christmas Cards this year. So I've decided I won't put much, just the obligatory "Merry Christmas".

Here is today's card:

Deck the halls and fa-la-la and all that stuff.

Breaking the Rules...

So I believe I am finally, officially, back to stamping. I used a sketch from the blog "Mojo Monday" to get me started. Except, right out of the gate, I broke one of the rules! The ribbon is supposed to go horizontally across the top of the card. I just did not like how it looked that way, at all, so I did it vertically instead. It doesn't matter because: 1) I don't think the blog people are terribly concerned that I follow their rules exactly; 2) There is no prize up for grabs; and 3) I am strictly using them for "inspiration" and they certainly gave me that this week!

Here is my card, front:


and inside:


Making this card made me realize something good and something bad about my Mom being gone. The bad: I don't get to show my cards to my Mom and listen to her tell me how great I'm doing. The good: I can send the cards to ANYONE. In the past I had to fight not to send every card to Mom because I knew she would think they were wonderful whereas anyone else will not necessarily think that.

I like this card. I wish I could send it to my Mom.

Beginning Again

After my long hiatus from stamping I made the card shown in my last post. As I said, it was for my Mom. The date of the post shows as August 30th but, in fact, in MY time it was made on August 31st. (I am in Taiwan which is 12-15 hours ahead of America.) I finished the card in the afternoon. That night I received the news that my Mom had died so, obviously, I never got to send her the last card I made for her. Mom died on August 31st, 2010.

Today is October 11, 2010 and once again I have returned to stamping. I made this card for a woman who reads my other blog. She comments frequently and has a blog of her own which I love to read. I recently mentioned on my other blog that Mom was the only person who sent me letters. Elizabeth commented that she would happily write real letters to me. I cried when I read that. I quickly sent her my address, and she sent me hers. So today I decided I need to write to Elizabeth and I cannot do it on ordinary stationary; I needed a handmade card.

I made a watercolor image because I love water coloring. Since I am living in Asia I turned the image on its side so that it looks kind of like an image of cherry blossoms. Because Elizabeth and I are both Christians I chose to include the Bible verse. It speaks to where I am at emotionally right now. The card was not looking good; too stark, too sparse and too... I don't know. Then I thought of the Bible verse that talks about seeing through a glass darkly but that someday we will see our Saviour clearly, face to face. (That also speaks to where I am at now as I consider my Mom now seeing Jesus clearly.) I decided to put vellum over my main image, which sort of distorts the image. It just seemed fitting to me.

I am sorry that I cannot do a better job of explaining this card. It's clear in my head, but at this time I am having trouble translating the thoughts from my brain onto "paper" (as it were.)

I'm rusty. But I have begun stamping again and I intend to keep at it. I have missed it and I need it.

For My Mom

After 5 months away from my stamps, I'm back. I am in a new house, in a new country. I don't have a stamping room set up yet - that has to wait for some more furniture to arrive and a certain dog we're watching to return to it's home. So I stamped on the dining room table today.

I have been longing to stamp, and I have been longing to make a card for my Mom. I missed making her one for Mother's Day because I didn't have any stamps with me. Mom is in the process of dying, so this could be the last card I ever get to make for her. I hope it is okay. I kind of wanted to add a bow but I thought that: a) it would get too "fussy" and, b) it would make it difficult to mail. Since I have to mail it internationally that could be a real issue.

So here it is. The front:

And the inside:
My Mom made a difference in the lives of a lot of people. She quietly modeled the life of someone who serves Jesus. My siblings and I have heard this from childhood friends. I know that I have not shown the same servant heart as my Mom, but I do sincerely hope that I am at least a little bit like her, and that somehow people will see Jesus in me, as they did in her.

Just checkin'..

To see if this blog still works. I've had an extended absence from my stamp and I miss them! I don't expect to be reunited until September, at which time I hope to resume posting cards here.

~ La

Circular Valentine

Hello!

Verve's "Mojo Monday" blog challenged readers to make a circular card. At first I didn't think I could do it because I don't have a lot of the fancy equipment that some people have. But then I realized I have doilies and I thought I could use one as the base. Looking at it, I realized it was too flimsy. But then I thought perhaps I could use my archaic Creative Memories circle cutter to cut a card base. I was thrilled that it worked! I cut the first circle, leaving about 1 inch uncut at the top. Then I lined up my cutter so that the top of the second circle would align with the top of the first, and it worked perfectly - hooray! Sometimes I think figuring out a way to "make do" is more fun than having all of the perfect supplies.

Here is my card:



~La

Supplies:
Paper: Pink Pirouette, old Christmas DP (SU), miscellaneous doilies
Ink: Chocolate Chip (SU)
Stamp: Love You Much (SU)
Accessories: Chocolate chip and miscellaneous designer ribbon (SU), Prima Flowers, K&Company adhesive pearls

Hello

I made my card for this weeks Viva la Verve challenge. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I was trying to keep it clean and modern but I think perhaps it is too boring. It definitely did not capture the elegance from my inspiration photo.

Here is my card:

and here is the inspiration photo:

I was once again attracted to the gray. But when I tried to incorporated gray with my black and white it seemed too busy. Also, as I've said before, my stamps tend to be flowery so I was hard pressed to find anything modern. But now that I'm looking at the inspiration photo again I feel like I didn't really have to be that modern. Oh well, it's done and it's going to have to do for now.

~La

All righty then... My husband helped me find the photo. I don't know why I couldn't find it - it was filed with 2003 photos, naturally! (????) We got a new computer after Christmas and downloaded the updated software for my photo printer from the internet. Everything works differently, so obviously I'm on a learning curve!

This is my entry for this week's Verve's weeks 3 Viva la Verve challenge. I see they've already posted week 4, so I'd better get busy!

I used one of my oldest stamps for this (2-step stampin' rose from SU) and two from my newest set (Filigree Fantasy from Verve).

I am so frustrated! I made a card that is too bulky to scan. I photographed it. I uploaded the picture to my photo software. I cannot FIND the picture to put on here! I have looked, and looked, and looked some more. I shut down the computer thinking maybe it needed to shut down to save it. No luck. It doesn't seem to be anywhere! And yet, every time I open the photo program there it is. AAAAAAAGH!

Any ideas?

Button Balloons

I never managed to enter the contest I wanted to enter last week. I only completed 1 of the 5 projects. Too bad, because the prize was a lot of very beautiful stamps. Oh well...


I have managed to make just one card in the past week. I'll post it, although it didn't scan well because the buttons prevent the top closing on the scanner. I copied the idea of the button balloons from my new favorite card blogger. You can see her card here. I have the greatest collection of vintage buttons - a whole tin that belonged to my Grandma. The yellow button on my card is from her collection. I hesitate to use them because they are irreplaceable; however, I recently became aware of the TV show "The Hoarders" and it scares me, so I am tossing things and using things with a new purpose!

Coffee

Verve Stamps has a 5 part challenge going this week and I am hoping to enter. I'm not sure I'll be able to though, because it's Wednesday night and I only have 1 part done! (The deadline is Friday.) I've had to work 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there to get this card done. If the rest doesn't go more smoothly I won't get to enter. Oh well... It is still great inspiration for me!

Here is the one that I have finished. It was perhaps the easiest for me because all you have to do is follow a sketch they provide. The rest will require more creativity on my part, so we'll see!

One delay for this card was trying to find a ribbon that looked good. I have loads of ribbon to choose from, but nothing looked great. However, today I stopped at the scrapbook store and found this ribbon which couldn't be more perfect!

~La

Supplies:
Stamps: Delightful & Delicious, Filigree Fantasy (both Verve - yeah!)
Ink: Soft Suede, Bashful Blue (mashed together with a Bordering Blue marker to get the right color)
Paper: Blue Bayou, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla and - once again - an unknown DP, all SU

Challenge: At Home With Verve

I went to my neighborhood's "Scrapbook Club" over the weekend. They had a 2 day event but I was only able to be there for 3 hours. I decided to stamp rather than scrap because 3 hours is about enough time to unpack all of your supplies and pack them up again. I thought I would get so much stamping accomplished in 3 hours. Ha! I ate lunch and visited with old friends and new. In 3 hours I managed to make just one card! Oh well, it was a nice time. And I do like my card. I made it for another Verve challenge, and this time I actually had a Verve stamp to use on it! I placed my first order from Verve around Christmas time - it was my "Merry Christmas to me". I was shocked to find out that the company is in Idaho - where I lived until 2-1/2 years ago. If only I had known about it while I was there!

So here is the challenge sketch:

Here is the picture I chose as inspiration:


I don't know why, but lately I have been very drawn to the color gray. If I was decorating right now I think I would be painting dark gray walls.

I decided to think toward Valentine's Day for cards I am making right now, so I used gray with pink, which there is a bit of in my inspiration photo. I also thought my new Verve stamp was a great match to the flowers in the inspiration piece.

I think I will make this card again, with some changes. I didn't like the fact that I stamped the entire image in red. I colored over some of the leaves, which helped a bit, but next time I will color onto the stamp to get a more realistic image. I'll put that card here when I'm finished, because I think it will look better. I'll also be sure to scan it straight!! AND I'll straighten out the "always". I was literally out of time so just had to go with this. I'm anxious to do a new and improved version!

~La

Supplies:
Stamps: Because of You (Verve) and Small Script (SU)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Pretty in Pink and unknown DP all from SU
Ink: Real Red
Markers: Pretty in Pink, Always Artichoke

First Viva La Verve Challenge Card

I made another challenge card today, but I'm afraid I didn't follow the directions exactly. I thought about doing it over, but I think I'll just let it go. It's not like I'm really in the same league as the other participants anyhow.

So here is the sketch (that I didn't follow!):

and here is the inspiration photo I chose (there were three to pick from):

and here is my card:

In my opinion I copied the photo too literally. But I had this stamp which was practically the image in the photo so I couldn't help it! Thinking outside the box is not my strong suit. It's something I hope to work on as I participate in these challenges.

Supplies:
Stamp: Flowers for Daisy (Gina K)
Ink: Yo Yo Yellow, Soft Suede
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Ballet Blue, Soft Suede, DP from my scrap drawer
Accessories: Cream Ribbon (SU), Embosslits Die "Hi" (SU), Eyelets that came with the Crop-a-dile, SU watercolor pencils, Twinkling H20

I just finished the most challenging card of the year - my husband's birthday card. I don't know why, but I have the hardest time making a decent card for him. Year after year he has received truly inferior cards, not because I don't care but because, because... I'm not sure! Partly because I don't have much in the way of masculine stamps and anything I do have that remotely qualifies as masculine I've already used.

So here's what I came up with. It's no prize winner but it's probably the best he's received from me.

I'm glad to have that done. Now I can get back to flowers and flourishes and stuff I like!

Supplies:
Stamps: French Script, Elegant Greetings
Paper: I honestly have no idea the color of my cardstock! It is something from SU, probably a past In Color, but I cannot identify it.
Ink: Night of Navy, Sage Shadow (SU), Silver Metallic and Versamark
Accessories: Pewter Buckle from SU Hardware, French Blue ribbon, Silver Metallic Calligraphy Pen.

~La

Today's card was not made for a challenge, I just think it is very pretty. I love the blue/white/silver combination. I actually stamped the image on the Top Note Die when I was trying to design this year's Christmas Card. I loved it, but it didn't end up working with what I wanted to do. But I thought it would work nicely on a thank you card after Christmas since it is wintery looking.

Supplies:

Stamps: Scandanavian Season, Elegant Greetings (both SU)
Paper: Whisper White, Sky Blue
Ink: Sky Blue, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue (all SU), Silver Metallic (Encore)
Accessories: Silver Metallic Calligraphy Pen (Marvy), Blue organza ribbon, Sizzix embossing template, Nestabilities, Giant Scallop Circle Punch (Marvy?) Embossing Powder - don't remember the name but it's clear with "sparkles" in it.

A New Blog!

I've decided to start a new blog. The idea is to have a place to show my cards. I've been posting some from time to time on my "regular" blog, but I want to make this change for two reasons: 1) People who read my blog don't necessarily care about cards; and 2) As I enter cards into contests I don't want the other participants and/or judges to have to read my personal stuff.

As I prepared for this new blog I looked through pictures of past cards. I can see that my work has improved a lot. But I also compare my work to many uber-talented people whose blogs I read and it shows me that I have a LOT of room for improvement. I am a bit hesitant to enter into the fray, but I think it will push me to improve if I have to compete against these insanely talented people.

So without further ado, here is my "first" card. It is for "Mojo Monday". First, the Mojo Monday sketch:
My apologies to the people at Verve - I placed my first order for some of your stamps but they haven't arrived yet, so this card utilizes SU stamps and supplies. (All except for the jewel brad, which is from Michael's, and the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder.)

Amongst the things that need improvement is my method for capturing the image of the cards. I currently scan them and the image usually looks, well, "less" than in real life. So I am forever saying "This looks so much better in real life." In this image the colors don't look too great. They are all from SU's current "In colors", so they really do coordinate with each other! I cannot say I'll work to change this right away, but I will see what I can do eventually.

Anyhow, thanks for stopping by. I would LOVE it if you'd take a minute to say "hi" in the comments.

~La