Another Bloggess-Inspired Card

When I made the set of cards inspired by Jenny Lawson (aka: The Bloggess), I had another sentiment out on my desk I'd intended to use, but it just didn't work with that exhausted lady image. Later I went back into The Heaplet and grabbed some River Rock DSP, paired it with black, and made this:

For what could have been a simple card, there's a lot going on here.  I also managed to smear glue everywhere on the card, so it's pretty much toast. Oh, sure, from back here it looks fine, but there is glue all over the black swirls. The faux stitching was my attempt to distract the viewer from the glue, but it failed me. For all you non-stampers out there, this is what is known as pretty trash. Yep, I plan to rip off the back of the card for the Partial Pieces Of Card Stock Collection and toss the rest of it. It's just not worth it.

But I did make another version today:

This time I got smart and did a less-fussy version of the swirls, so they were easier to glue down. Now that I look at this, it kindof looks like half a die-cut, but it's not. Underneath the circle are two swirls:

 from these two cuts:

After I'd attached the circle, I considered adding the same faux stitching I used on the first version, but I stopped myself. I still think this second one needs something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe a couple of gems under the circle.

Ah, well, I'm going back in for more. Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired By The Bloggess

You know how I keep saying, "Inspiration - it's everywhere"? And I've also been whining about my lack of mojo lately, which has manifested itself in a lack of posts here on the ole blog. Yep. Big. black. hole.

But last night, as I was re-reading "Let's Pretend This Never Happened" by Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, I read the following sentence on page 150: "It's exhausting being me. Pretending to be normal is draining and requires amazing amounts of energy ..." at which point I screamed out loud: I HAVE THAT STAMP! I do!!!! So today I made this:

I've had that stamp for several years, and though I've used it a few times, it hasn't seen ink lately. I spent 20 minutes looking for it, assuming I'd put it away since I've been trying to be good these days, but I found it in my "clean these" stamp pile, so apparently not. :/

I actually did color her skin, though she looks ghostly white in these photos. :(  I usually color the chair a dark brown, but I wanted it to kinda blend into the background this time, so I opted for a color that's like old white painted wood. I also paper pieced her shirt, since my coloring skills sukketh so much, and if I'd been thinking clearly, I'd have paper-pieced her pedal-pushers, too. Yes, I said pedal-pushers. That's what we called capris back in the olden days that is now referred to as "mid-century". Back when kids played outside all day and rode bikes on the sidewalks and weren't allowed in the street and our parents didn't worry about us being outside alone. Pedal-pushers were pants that were short enough to pedal a bike and not get your pant legs caught in the chain.

Okay, I'm reeling this back into the present ... I actually made five of these cards, using different papers for the background based on what was in my remnant pile. Also, I need to tell you: these are not A2 cards. Nope. The layers were matted as if they were going to be A2, but the sentiment is too long, and I was forced -- forced, I tell you, to make these non-standard size. I just needed them a tiny bit wider, but that would mean I'd have to make envelopes, and we all know that won't happen any time soon.

Then I remembered I have a pack of old SU Large envelopes that measure 4 3/4 x 6 1/2, so I made the cards 1/4" smaller than that so I could use the envelopes. WIN!

Also, another happy accident: when I bought the stamp image, I actually bought it in two sizes, and me being me, I didn't pay attention to the size of either of them. The larger one is perfect for cards, but the tiny one, well, it's never been used before. So today, in honor of not having to make envelopes for these five cards, I actually stamped something on the envelopes. Lookie:

Here you can see the size difference. The tiny one is perfect for the envelope. WIN #2!

Okay, now that this project is off my table I'm going back in to try and tackle some mostly-current challenges. I may even use some more irreverent sentiments. I'm kinda in that mood. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: I'll figure out the winner of the Spot The Mistake contest and post it later.

Orange & Yellow Fleurs

I was in the grocery last night (I KNOW!) and at my store you walk right into the floral department. Smells divine, and it's sooo pretty! Yesterday they had a large display with a sign: All Tulips $5. Then I spotted this in the same display:

Yeah, it's a really poor photo - I took it with my phone in the mood lighting my store has, but the orange and yellows were so vibrant and BRIGHT (unlike in this photo), that I immediately knew I needed to make a card based on it. I had a vision of a yellow background with rolled orange flowers. Oh, yeah.

You'll notice, by the way, those are not tulips, and they were not $5.  I did not take them home with me, though I have been known to buy myself flowers on occasion. I wasn't feeling that generous last night.

So this evening I finally got to try it. I printed out one of Mel's digi papers, and then I decided I was not going to roll no stinkin' flowers! First of all, I have no orange felt, and second, I have a whole cache of paper roses in shades of yellow and orange, so HELLO!  I made this:

I may have gotten a bit carried away with the roses. I die-cut the MFT doily, then added each flower (by Recollections ... moment of silence...), one at a time, by poking a hole into the doily with my paper piercer, sticking in the wire that's on the back of the rose, then bending it back to hold it in place.  When I finally declared it ENOUGH, I realized there was a bit of open space at the bottom of the doily, so being ever open to embellishment opportunities, I tied some SAB ribbons through two holes in the doily and tied a bow.

You can also see that I am not used to these very bright colors, since I seem to grab the same still-out Paper Smooches sentiment to use each time.

Here's a close-up of the roses:

The package says Mulberry Paper Roses. They are quite delicate, and so pretty. I think I got them at Mike's a few years ago. Oh, and this card weighs about 5 pounds, just in case you were wondering.

So if you ever feel mojo-less, just get out into your world, man. There's inspiration everywhere!

Thanks for stopping by!