Irreverence: It's Good Medicine!

I spent all day Sunday stampin'. I needed to come up with five projects for my workshops next weekend, and I needed a clue. I had some ideas, but nothing worthy was coming out from my finger-tips, so I sighed heavily. I work well under pressure, but creativity cannot be forced, I am convinced!

So I allowed myself to play with some of my new acquisitions as a reward for coming up with a viable card for the workshops. Some things worked, and some were not so hot, but that happens, ya know? I have to remember to not try so hard!

Let me say that most of these were not my original ideas, but I did make them my own. Credit will be given where possible. You will see what I mean momentarily.

I got this idea from a blog I read occasionally, and I cannot find it now! Aaack! So if you also saw it and know who's blog it was, please let me know so I can give her credit! (I am so sorry ...) Found it! It's this post on Lauri Seago's blog: A Stamper's Perspective.

When I saw these purses (actually, this is how I remembered them...), I thought it would be a cute card to use for The Ladies. I was largely on my own, though, and I think I got them pretty close. I used SU's Flowers For You paper, which is soooo "not me", but I try to stretch beyond my comfort zone once in a while.

I should call this one Punch Fest, since it uses a LOT of punches. :-) Actually, I think the whole workshop will be a major punch fest. If it's not one thing, it's another. I did try to not make them tie ribbon on every card this month ... I get a lot of comments when I make them do that ....

One other thing I wanted to try was the Plastic Wrap inking technique, where you crumple up a piece of plastic wrap, tap it on your ink pad, then hit the white card stock with it. I decided to incorporate this into the card to make the background for this busy patterned paper. I kinda like it!

These next two were inspired (nay, stolen) from SCS.

This card was inspired by this post. I really liked the silver-embossed Thank You from the Bursting With Joy set, and I especially liked it layered on the Brushed Silver card stock. That last part is because I opted for some Brushed Silver card stock in a recent CDO from a Trade, so I have a lot of it on hand.

I used Shimmery White card stock and Basic Gray Taffeta ribbon. Simple, clean, and I think The Ladies will like it!

This card was inspired by this post. I have been trying to use some of my older sets, and this was perfect! I scored the Naturals White card stock using a ruler lined up with the grid lines on SU's paper - super easy! I stamped the flower from Baroque Motifs in River Rock ink in the diamonds created by the score lines. Then I added my usual ribbon and my now over-used layered punches for the sentiment. I like the clean lines of this one.


I have two more projects to go, and at least I have some ideas rolling around in my brain now. So what shook out and rejeuvenated the Mojo? It was partly all the New Stuff that has been arriving at my doorstep. I have been a bad girl these past few weeks. Point, click, point, click. It is a sickness.

So in between each of the above efforts I played with some new stuff. First up is a set I got from Verve Visual. I am not a flourishy person, but these seemed like something even *I* could use. HA! Not! Check this out:

I thought I could line these babies up like some of the samples on the Verve blog, but alas, let's just say this is a perfect example of why I should never buy stamps such as these. And also why I should never be allowed to surf blogs and get itchy clicker fingers!

I also need to learn when to STOP! I did not like what came out, so I kept going, and going, and going...adding more stuff. I dunno, maybe someone will like it - I'll put this in the One Of A Kind section.

This one, too. One Of A Kind, baby - not making any more!

I actually had a large piece of that white stamped card stock, already layered on the brown, and I decided to cut it into two sections; thus the two cards.

Oh, and those blue brads? The ones that perfectly match the Blue Bayou card stock? They are from my stash from Pink Hedge Hogs. See, I am even dipping into the stash.

Somewhere along the way, during some major blockage, I got this silly idea to make cards for twins. I think it hit me while I rummaged through one of my non-SU-stuff drawers and stumbled upon this onsie stamp (from Savvy Stamps).

One of the rules of making things for sale - things like cards, or photographs, or anything, really - is that you will not have something for everyone. SOMEone will ask you for something you just do not have. And you SHOULD NOT rush home to make any of it, either! Because who knows if that person will ever come back and ask again, and if you do not sell it, you are stuck carrying it around forever, or until in desperation you just give it away, like I do.

So several people have asked if I have baby cards (yes, a few) and then once in a while they ask for something for twins. Um, no, sorry. So here I am in a mojo funk, and what hits me? Twins Cards! Yeah, that's the ticket! Yeesh, talk about major creative avoidance. So I made three...one with two pink, one with two blue, and one with one of each. I kept it really simple, and I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder for a white-on-white treatment ("treatment" - man, I crack myself up!), and I used (used!) some of the baby ribbon I had to have. Yay, me!

Then I went to The Day Job this morning. Gotta do it, ya know. But when I got home, the irreverence kicked in, big time! Check it out:

I got this sentiment (from Viva Las Vegas Stamps) because it said "me" to a 'T'. I actually experience potential Blog Rant Moments almost every day on both ends of my commute, and I compose blog entries in my mind as I sit in traffic and watch stupid people do stupid things. This card is a mild compromise to the rant I was going to post on my other blog ... I calmed down once I started putting ink to paper. ;-)

I stamped this GinaK image and layered her with black and orange since I wanted to use this orange ribbon from the stash. Then I dug up this orange patterned paper from the stash to go with her. It is actually a pretty close color match in real life. Remember, I need to work on those photography skills. I will continue to blame the 3.2 pixel camera I have until I come up with a better reason than Operator Error.

And lastly we have another of my irreverent sentiments. Man, I do love them! And this lady from Eat Cake Graphics is so perfect to pair with irreverence, don't you think? I just love doing paper piecing with her dress, and I also love that I used up some scraps from the heap in The Other Room. Just think, at this rate, in about 50 years I think I'll see the top of the table that's in there.

I also used yet another ribbon from the stash, along with some pink brads. Man, I am on a roll tonight!

On the agenda for the rest of this week is to use some more of the irreverent sentiments I have on the table before I have to put them away in The Clean Sweep for this weekend's workshops. I also need to peek into the box that just arrived from Papertrey Ink. I told you I'd been bad! Oh, and there's that package from Clear Art Stamps that just shipped ... but boy, do I have a doosie of a card waiting to happen once that box arrives! But for now, it's off to bed. Got a book just asking to have another chapter read before Light's Out. Thanks for stopping by!