Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Mojo 201

I've been having a great time playing in my stamp room. I am tempted to feel guilty about the amount of time I've spent stamping lately, but all of the cards have been necessary so... No guilt!

It's Wednesday but I used the Mojo Monday sketch for inspiration - again! Here is their sketch:

and here is my card:
My daughter needs to send out thank you notes for birthday gifts so I kept everything cute for this card. Pulled out some very OLD stamps and 1 brand new one.

Thanks for looking!

~La

Monday, July 25, 2011

Inspired by Play Date

While looking at other entries in this weeks Play Date Cafe challenge I came across one that I thought would be a simple yet beautiful card to add to those I am making for my friend. The card I copied is here.

This is my first take on it. I like it, but I hand sewed the pink line and I thought that was a little too time consuming.

So next I made this one and I simply glued down the ribbon and a line of embroidery floss. Much simpler, but I didn't love the flowers.

Finally I tried this, and it was so quick and easy that I made 2. I think I am now ready to send out my cards. Well, I need to package them nicely first, but at least all of the cards are made. There are a couple more which I haven't shown yet but I will post them soon.

I don't know if it shows in the photo, but I drew in some dashed lines between the flowers - a sort of "chain stitch" to go with the sentiment. It is a very nice card and so quick and easy! Many thanks to Judy for the inspiration.

~La

Sunday, July 24, 2011

200th Mojo

I haven't come CLOSE to making 200 cards for Mojo Monday but who's counting? Well, the people at Mojo Monday are, but they are counting how many challenges THEY have issued and this week marks number 200.

I would have liked to have produced a better card but this is what I made and, since I'm busy trying to produce many simple cards right now, I couldn't take the time to try again. Perhaps I will do better for 201...



~La
I just want to show off some of the cards I am making for my friend.

Because I am trying to make a quantity of cards I am looking for simple cards. Today (very early this morning actually - jet lag!) I came up with this idea which I must say I LOVE:


As I am playing with ideas I have come up with cards that I like but which are not practical to produce en masse. This is one such card:


Two things about the poppy card: 1) It looks better in real life (I say that a lot.) 2) It was sort of a happy accident. I was trying to make a poppy garden but I didn't have any stem stamps that I liked. I tried drawing some by hand and ended up with a mess. However, I had a piece of vellum sitting nearby and held it over the poppies to see if they would look any better under vellum. Then I decided to stamp another poppy on the vellum, thereby hiding my awful stems. I think it looks a bit weird in this scanned image but in real life it really does look quite nice.

I will send the one-of-a-kind cards to my friend too and hope that she likes them. I have an idea for another simple card that I will make tomorrow. But for now it's off to bed!

~La

Friday, July 22, 2011

Verve's Diva Dare

I found another challenge to inspire me: Verve's Diva Dare. This week their challenge is to use patterned papers and allow a sentiment to take center stage. I chose papers with pink intending to use this as the card I send to my friend who is fighting breast cancer. (see earlier post) I must also say that I copied many of the elements on my card from Andrea Ewen, another blogger whose cards I LOVE. You can see her beautiful card here.




While I was in the States I purchased Verve's entire July release because I knew they would be perfect to make thank you cards for my friend. This sentiment from their stamp set "New Mercies" was perfect for my friends card. I think this set will be seeing a LOT of ink in my home.

~La

Challenge: PDCC91

I'm back from the States and stamping in the middle of the night thanks to jet lag!

I missed some wonderful color combinations at The Play Date Cafe. But I guess I can still use them for inspiration!

This weeks challenge is to use black and white with just a splash of any color you choose. I chose pink and here's why: while I was in the States I got the news that my friend with breast cancer learned she is stage 4. She has been told her cancer is not curable, just treatable. I don't like that diagnosis so am praying for a miracle. When I heard her diagnosis I tried to send her some flowers. Thankfully the florist I called was aware of limitations for chemo patients so told me I could not send flowers. As I looked for something else to send I thought about the fact that this friend has tons of friends who will undoubtedly be performing countless acts of kindness for her. I decided the best thing I could give her would be handmade cards which she can use to thank her many friends. With that in mind, in the coming days I will be making many cards as a gift for my friend. Here is my first:



The "L" in the sentiment reminded me of the pink ribbon used as the symbol for the fight against breast cancer. So I stamped the image with black ink, wiped the ink of the "l" and colored it with a pink marker. I expect someone will give my friend gifts of chocolate so I think this sentiment will work fine.

Here is the inside:



The inside doesn't stick to the black and white theme, but I think the front is the part which must fit with the challenge so this should be fine.
Thanks for looking!
~La