Another Clean and Simple

This is basically the same card as the last post except after stamping the Fresh Greens Kaliadacolor ink pad, I spritzed it with some water and let the colors run a little bit.
I'm not sure which look I like best. What do you think? Do you like the watercolor look of this one or the clean look of the last post? I'm curious of your opinions if you would be kind enough to share them in the comments.
Have a great Monday and try to keep cool... it's going to be over 90 degrees here today which means it's going to be a lot hotter in most places!

Clean and Simple

I've been trying do some clean and simple style cards. It's very hard for me. I LOVE the look of clean and simple and I love to see what others are doing with them but for some reason I have a very difficult time accomplishing it myself.

But I do like this one. The base is Marco's watercolor cardstock. That makes all the difference in my book. I am just not happy with the weight of regular cardstock for these kinds of minimal cards. Watercolor paper is substantial enough to use for this and it has a beautiful texture.

The colored ink blocks on this card are done simply by "stamping" a Kalidacolor rainbow ink pad onto the watercolor paper. Just leave the colors separated- don't slide them together. For this card I used the color Autumn Leaves. The little tab that slides the ink colors together is too tall to "stamp" the ink pad but you can easily remedy that by doing it on the edge of your stamping table.

After trimming the cardstock around the ink blocks, I stamped the leaf stamp from the SU set called All Natural in black.

I finished the card by tying grosgrain ribbon around the front of it. A tip for easily tying ribbon that will stay in place is to punch a hole in the card where you want your knot or bow. Now wrap the ribbon around the front of the card so both ends go around the back and then thread the ends up through the hole so they are coming through the front of the card. Make each end come up on opposite sides of the ribbon that laying across the front of the card and then tie a knot or a bow. I hope that make sense... I've been looking for a tutorial online to show you how it's done but I can't find one at the moment.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Make Your Own "Clip it Up"

I've been seeing the Clip it Up all over the place lately on blogs. It's cool. Very cool. And expensive. I can see that it can be useful in so many ways and I was kind of wanting one. Then I realized that I had all the makings here to make something similar!

Check this out:

Okay, so it's not the same... I know. But when I tell you what it costs to put this together, you won't believe it! It's not the neat little spinner rack that the original comes with but this set up nicely uses the space under my cabinets.

And there's these cool little buckets too:
Okay, here's the deal.... it's all from IKEA.... and it's cheap!

Start with the rails- they are kitchen rails and you can find them here. There are two sizes and they are $1.99 and $2.99 each, depending on the size. I have 3 of the large hung under my cabinets. These rails work great for holding punches too.

Next, you need clips. Look here. They *appear* to me to be the same clips that the actual Clip it Up uses. They work great on the rails and they are $4.99 for 24 clips. They come with some little hooks too that can just be discarded. I'll let you know if I find a use for them.

Now just put the little clips on the rail after you hang it and you are good to go! The loop on the clips just fits on the rail- you kind of have to force it on there- so they aren't going to fall off. They work perfectly.

If you like the little pails that I have hanging on the rail too, you can find them here (Edit 11/25/13- It looks like they redesigned them since I bought mine). They are only $3.99 each. Can you believe it? You have to bend the top hook open a little to fit these rails but that works just fine.

So, let's figure this out.... with this idea, you can make your own Clip it Up for about $8.00 per 39 inches of rail. That's counting 24 clips... if you want to load it up with 48 clips that brings the price to $13.00. Now that's a deal!

Another "Inspired By" Card

This card didn't photograph as well as I'd hoped but I'm going to share it anyway. It's another card inspired by Jay over at Indigo Inklings. Click here to see the card that inspired me.
This is a monochromatic design using SU so saffron cardsock. The four embossed panels are embossed with the new cuttlebug embossing folder called Moroccan screen.
The sentiment is from the SU set called It's Your Birthday. The white flowers are Brides flowers that I overstamped with so saffron ink with a swirly image. The flower centers are homemade dew drops. Click here to see how they are made.

Thanks for all of the inspiration you've given me Jay! You helped coax my mojo back this week!

Edited to add: The sentiment in these photos looks smeared for some reason, doesn't it? I can't figure that out. In real life it's not smeared. It's pigment ink embossed with clear embossing powder. Hmmm.... odd.

Happy Birthday Card inspired by Indigo Inklings

You may have noticed that this card is very similar to the last one I posted and there's a reason for that. I had all kinds of leftover cardstock and designer paper left on my counter after the last one and I decided to use it up instead of putting it away (sliding it into my drawer of "extras" is more like it).
So... this card uses the same certainly celery cardstock base (the other half of the 12x12 sheet) and uses the same K & Company Hannah designer paper.
I thought this cuttlebug embossing folder matched the designer paper's pattern so embossed the main layer on an angle. It took some finagling to get it through the cuttlebug, but I did it. I got the idea from a card that I saw on Indigo Inklings blog (click here to see it). Thanks for the inspiration Jay. Please keep reading below for my comments about being inspired by someone's work.
And here's the inside.

Before I go, I wanted to point out that I added a new topic category on the sidebar called "Inspired By" and this is the first to fit that category. Some might call it CASEing, but I like to think of it as being inspired by someone's work. I also love to see when someone "CASE's" or is inspired by a card and shows the original too. I love to see the two cards and see what is different and what is the same. So hopefully you will find this topic as interesting as I do.

I have another card that was also inspired by Jay at Indigo Inklings that I will share tomorrow. Thanks for all the great inspiration Jay!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank you friends!

I want to thank all of the lovely ladies over at Gingerwood who send me the most beautiful birthday cards last week. I've added them all to a gallery on my picturetrail and you can see them by clicking here.

Mojo Monday #99

I know I've been missing in action for a couple of weeks and you've probably been wondering if I ran away or something. No, I'm still here. I am finding that my mojo sometimes takes a hike on me and seems to be in direct relation to the amount of stress in my life. I find this ironic because I thought papercrafting was a stress-reliever for me! Ha!

Well, this week's Mojo Monday Challenge brought my mojo back- I just hope it sticks around for a while!

The sketch is a fun one this week and here's my take on it:

For this card I used certainly celery cardstock layered with K & Company Hannah designer paper. The sentiments are from the SU set called It's Your Birthday.
I used a straight sewing machine stitch around the layers with beige thread.
I chose to make that top layer into a holder for a tag on my card. I did that by simply folding the designer paper into an open ended envelope. I stitched around the edges and punched the front layer with a circle punch.
Here's the tag pulled out of the slot. It is embellished with grosgrain ribbon, green brides flowers and paper flowers from my stash.
I added a small little layer of white cut with scallop scissors across the bottom of the tag holder.
And here's the inside embellished to match.

Thanks for stopping by... I hope to see you again soon!