Inspiration, Times Two!

Did you ever see a technique, or just something you had never thought to try before, and you thought, "Hmmmm ...I'll have to try that sometime."? Yeah, me too, and it never happens. But then you see it again, like right away?! Well that is what sets me in motion!

Case in point: I got this very cool card yesterday (only parts of these are shown since I did not make them, and I did not bother to get permission to post them...I am so bad.) Anyway, this is the bottom of the card I got yesterday:

My first thought was, "Stamping on striped paper?! Love it!" Then I thanked the sender and filed the idea away in what was left of my brain after a 8 hours at The Day Job.


Then today I got this card (again, only parts shown):

I just love the stamping right on the patterned paper! (and the rest of the card, too!)

Hey, wait a minute! I have this paper! Sigh ...

So off I went to see what I could do with stuff from my own stash. I took out some of the new paper I had purchased on Sunday, partly out of guilt for having bought it (we Jewish Mothers can do guilt really well), partly because I had not put it away, yet, and it was still on the Dining Room chair (no room on the table), and partly because I knew I had coordinating sheets of paper side-by-each in the bag.

And this is what came out:

First up we have a simple Leslie-style card. You know, one layer, ribbon, sentiment ... a Leslie Card. At least that's what my customers call it.

This paper is from the 29th Street Market Collection by My Mind's Eye (had to go look that up ...), and it is actually two-sided card stock, not paper. Soooo, even though I had taken out SU card stock to try and match it up, I decided to go crazy and just use the new card stock as the card. Like I said, crazy! I know!

The really wild part is where I took out my new Ranger Distress Ink and stamped something on the striped card stock. Whoa - stop me now!

Believe it or not, until Sunday I owned no (zero, zip) Distress Ink. MB (who probably owns all of them) helped me pick a color - old paper - that she thought I might actually use. Thanks, MB, it is perfect!

Of course, the card needed ribbon, and of course, I could not find one in my embarrassingly-large collection that looked right. I finally settled on this green satin, but I think the satin is wrong for this card stock. Oh, well. I only made one.

The stamped flower image is from SU's Fabulous Flowers, and the sentiment is from one of the retired SU All Year Cheer sets, and is stamped in Choc Chip.

I kinda like how it turned out!

This next one uses the same card stock and ink, but I used a stamp from the SU Petal Prints set.

I switched to SU's Spring Moss grosgrain ribbon. I also stamped the leaf image on the accent strip, but it is kinda difficult to see.

I futzed with the sentiment a while and ended up stamping it on the back of a scrap of the striped card stock and tearing the edges to match the torn edge of the card. I even went a little nuts and inked the torn edges of everything with the Distress Ink.

At the last second I added that swirl clip thing - stuck it on with Liquid Glue. It needed something, and without my traditional layers, where was I to put a brad?

Maybe not my best work, but it certainly gives me room to stretch my wings and try new things. ;-)

Oh, and I got an email from one of my beloved three (maybe four) readers. One who took my Candy With A Catch challenge and used a piece of ribbon I sent her. Check out what she did at her blog. I love this idea! She has sent me a piece of her ribbon in exchange for mine, and as soon as I get it I will get right to work! (Apparently the US Mail takes longer to get something from VA to MD - neighboring states, than they do to get something cross-country...go figure.) If anyone else wants to play, let me know. I have a ton of that ribbon.

And one last parting thought: Squirrels are cute, but they are rodents, and unlike the cute chipmunk, they are mean. Mean, I tell you! I think I really pissed them off when I got my squirrel-proof bird feeder, so they are taking it out on my postage-stamp yard. One of the reasons I stopped planting tomatoes, in addition to the lack of sun, is the darn squirrels! No sooner would a tomato turn red, I'd go out to pick it and it would have a bite out of it! Like I said, darn squirrels!

Ahem. Okay, back to the moss. As I looked at my back yard this evening, I was shocked to see this:

Just look at this! See that shredded moss? See that red arrow? That's where the moss used to be. Sigh. Kitty and I had to go out and put it back. Well, I had to put it back. She needed to chew on all the nice green weeds so she can throw up on my carpet later.


Now here is some well-rooted, happy moss:



Please ignore that pesky weed growing up through the well-rooted, happy moss. I'll get to it another day.



Well, it looks like it's time to hit the hay. I finished my last book (yes, past lights-out time) last night, and I need to go start the next one!