Lazy, Rainy Day, or The Evolution of a Card

Yesterday was GORgeous. Sunny, put-down-the-rag-top gorgeous. I went to a Pot Luck dinner with some friends, over-ate, stayed out too late, took too much of the leftovers, got home and went to bed. I woke up this morning to torrential rain accompanied by thunder and lightening. So after I got up and brushed my teeth, I did something I almost never do: I went back to bed. There are two major reasons I never go back to bed. (1) The second time I wake up, the day is half-gone. I am one of those people at the grocery store at 7:30 am on a Sunday. I get all my errands run and still have half the day left. But if I sleep in, it is mid-morning and I wake up behind schedule, and my life is stressful enough without all this added pressure. And (2) I have really, really - really - weird dreams. Like people from one part of my past life get mixed up in a current event. Or I find myself shopping for clothes, which I never do, and looking for a hook at work in my cube to hang them up. And I guess I bought the clothes in the wedding department or something. And they were nothing I'd be caught dead wearing. See - really weird.

So I got up, showered to wake up, and stamped. I love a good stampin' day!

Following is what came out of my lazy-day efforts.

First up is a card I finally made with one of my shaving cream papers. This one uses Night Of Navy reinker, and I like how it came out. Not sure I like the card I made with it, but I like the shaving cream background part.

I also made one where I added some Real Red to it, but it came out too garish and I decided to save your eyes from the result. I am still trying to figure out how to mix the reinker into the shaving cream and not have it change colors, like the Real Red turned part of the shaving cream pink. Still learning ...

Recipe: Stamps - All Holiday; Paper - Kraft (or maybe it's Confetti Tan), Night of Navy, Whisper White, Baroque Burgundy; Ink - Night of Navy and Baroque Burgundy markers, Night of Navy reinker; Other - Prep Ribbon Originals, non-SU brads, shaving cream.

Then I saw this card on SCS, and was inspired. I started out strong, then backed off. This is the part I refer to as The Evolution Of A Card. When I do my Farmers Markets and craft shows, people always ask me how long it takes me to make a card. That is a tough question to answer. The design is the tough part. That could take me a few minutes to a few days. Or weeks. And even if I think I know what I want to do, it does not always come out like it thought it would, so I keep changing it until I like it enough to replicate. Then it only takes a few minutes to make more of them. Like this card. I mean c'mon, I was CASEing it, fer goodness sake, and it still took me all day.

This was my first pass. I used a different background stamp and different Cuttlebug folder, but tried to follow her idea. I liked her flower, but the idea of stamping and embossing that bugger three times and cutting them all out to make each card made me tired, so I opted to not do the flower. I am basically lazy, you see.

I saw the opportunity to use up some of the SU ribbon that came with the Flirty Ribbon Originals, but decided it matched the paper too well, and was not enough of a contrast. I also decided with the stamped background and the Cuttlebug embossing, it was so busy that if I added a sentiment (layered, of course), it might explode, so I set it aside. And looked at it.

Here is a close-up of the image, mostly because I think close-ups are fun, and also because the Cuttlebug'd background-stamped card is very cool. I'm thinking this folder will work well for a Wedding card. White-on-White-like.

Oh, I used my Fiskars rotary cutter to make the scalloped edge. I tried my corner rounder punch, but it started to become work, and I was too lazy to continue. So out came the rotary cutter and the fancy blade. Tools are my friend.

But then I moved on. This version of the above card is on white card stock since I managed to Cuttlebug the front of it upside down, and had to cut the pink card apart to save the front. I left off the white strip and used Regal Rose ribbon for contrast.

Without that strip of white to add busy-ness (I spelled it that way on purpose, since 'business' did not read quite right), I felt I could add the layered sentiment without overloading the card. I stamped the sentiment in Regal Rose and added a background layer of card stock, also of Regal Rose. Since it matches the ribbon I think it all came together nicely. I am still missing the white strip, but I think the pattern stamped with the sentiment helps out a little.

Then I made some without the Cuttlebug. I think the 'bug adds a neat element, but I felt way more comfortable adding things without making the card feel like it had too much going on.

For this one I went back to the matching ribbon, hoping I would start to like it, but I still think it is too light - not enough contrast.

I also left the Regal Rose layer under the sentiment plain instead of edging it like the white layer.

This one I think came out the best. It has the white layer under the darker ribbon, and I think it is just the right mix.

Then I thought if I saw one more piece of pink anything, I'd heave, so I moved on to Guava. Arguably still very close to pink, but enough orangier (I just made up that word) to settle my stomach.

Recipe: Stamps - All Holidays, Bitty Blossoms bg; Paper - Pretty In Pink, Whisper White, Regal Rose; Ink - Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose; Other - Regal Rose wide gg ribbon, Fiskars rotary cutter.

Here's basically the same card in Groovy Guava. I used this piece of ribbon from the Sherbet Ribbon Originals...I am not sure if it is a Groovy Guava color or not (I was too lazy to go look it up), but I think it goes very well.

I messed with the sentiment layers for a while until I ended up with the rounded corners and the stamped white layer underneath. It still needed something, so I hunted through my brad stash and found these stars that are almost a perfect color match. It might have been better if they were flowers, or round, but on some level I think being different works for me.

I could probably make SU-colored brads by mixing reinker in some Crystal Effects and putting it on a gold brad, but I did not think of that until I was done, and in my world there is no taking apart and doing over. I'll remember that little trick for next time, as I am sure there will be a next time. ;-)

Recipe: Stamps - All Holidays, Bitty Blossoms bg; Paper - Groovy Guava, Whisper White; Ink - Groovy Guava; Other - Sherbet Ribbon Originals, Fiskars rotary cutter, misc brads.


Then I got really crazy and used one of the Cuttlebug dies I have. Used it, can you imagine?

I started with the card stock and just the piece of Guava ribbon, with the flowers laying on the card loose until I figured out what to do with them.

Then it morphed from there. I added the scrap of patterned Guava paper to the top of the card, and the piece of twill from my 500+ yard stash from my Ribbon Outlet Field Trip.

Sticking the flowers on was a bit of a challenge, since the middle pieces would not stay in. I ended up cutting tiny strips of scrap and gluing them to the back of the flowers as a brace for support. Even then, when I stuck on the Dimensional, the white part wanted to separate, so No Fondling!

The bottom of the card is left plain with just the sentiment stamped on it. Of all the cards I made today, this one may be my favorite. Now if I could just get out of this pink groove I seem to be in ....

I think I will put away all this pink and move on to maybe some more striped cards using patterned papers - like Yellow. Or Green. But not pink.