Paper Art North

Short and sweet

It’s a beautiful spring day here today – sunny, mid 60’s. Exactly what you’d expect for northern Wisconsin. I’m not sure why I’m indoors posting. The little voice in my head is telling me to go outside and get some fresh air and sunshine. Maybe I’ll take my baby out when I’m done.

Today’s card features images from Inkadinkado. When I saw them, I immediately thought they’d be perfect done in solid black. My main image was colored with Prismacolor pencils and highlighted with glitter. So simple there’s not much more to add!

Challenged

Today's card is for a challenge at Kristina Werner's blog. Our inspiration is some bedding in shades of brown, blue and ivory. I decided to use a new stamp I got from Stampendous.

I started by stamping the flowers in dark brown on ivory cardstock. The first time I sponged some blue ink around the flowers, but it just didn't work. So I decided to leave it plain. Then I cut a piece of sky blue cardstock a little taller than my flower piece and created a scalloped border with my corner rounder punch. I adhered my image to that and added lighter brown on the left. Pewter hardware with brown ribbons were added next. At that point I looked at it and decided it needed something a little bit more, so I ran a piece of my dark brown through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and added that to the bottom.

It was a conscious decision not to add a sentiment. I wanted to leave it open for whatever I need to use it for. It also felt finished to me.

While in deep thought lately, I came to realize that I need to do what feels right to me, what pleases *me* with my art. When I don't, a couple things happen. I get complete stamper's block, where I sit at my work table and can't make a thing. If I can make something, it's not fun. It's stressful. I don't *do* this to feel stressed out. I do it for the joy and excitement of creating.

I want you to like what I make. I have *issues* about being valued and accepted. KWIM? In fact, I want you to love my blog with a passion and make it your home page. I want companies beating down my door to make me a design team member and pay me for mentioning their name. I want to be famous. (I daydream huge, don't I?) But most of all, I want to look at my creations and be happy inside with what I've done.

If you stayed with me this long, thank you. More pictures, less words next time.

Cooling Off

I have a few cards to share today. The first is a simple card spotlighting one of TAC's free stamps.

I started with Robin's Egg Blue card stock. I added a coordinating purple-pink strip stamped with images from the circle set with Versamark. I stamped the butterflies twice on textured white card stock with Caribbean blue. I outlined them with a black pen for more definition, then dragged the edges across my black ink pad. I matted them on a lighter color blue that was also inked on the edges.

Instead of just putting a strip of the patterned paper behind the images, I chose to weave through them. I cut skinny rectangles in the sides of the butterfly pieces with a craft knife. Very simple to do. At that point I looked at it and wondered how I was going to adhere it it all. Leaving the weaving, I applied tape to the back of all the pieces. I started with the left side and placed it all down piece by piece. That worked well. I stamped "YOU" and "priceless." I wrote in "are."

All stamps by The Angel Company: Butterfly GWP, Circle Sampler, F is for Family

Celebrating Life is another simple card. Yes, simplicity is my current theme.

I stamped my flower and colored it with watercolor crayons and a water brush. I punched it out with a giga oval punch, then punched two 1/8" holes and tied purple ribbon through them.

For the background I stamped swirls and highlighted them with a white prismacolor pencil. I stamped the sentiment and voila!

All stamps by The Angel Company: Treasure It, Curls and Swirls, Abundance Is.

I adore this ladybug card! I started out by making the ladybug. I punched 2 black circles, one medium, one small. The red circle is the largest. I stamped black spots with a small pencil eraser, then cut it in half. Adhere the red half circles to the larger black circle, then put the head on. I adhered to to the layered scalloped and regular circles with pop dots.

You can't see it very well on the picture, but the lower part of the card is stamped with Versamarked swirls. I added the ribbons and stamped the sentiment.

All stamps by The Angel Company: Curls and Swirls, Enjoy Today

Roar!!!

It's 94 degrees here today. I feel every single degree plus more in the studio! We're getting a second-hand A/C unit tomorrow and I can't wait. The fan helps a bit, but all it really does is blow hot air. If I have to be miserable at least I can be miserable doing something I love. LOL!

This is the card I did for a sketch challenge today. I've done a few tent topper cards and they are surprisingly challenging. Maybe because I'm used to basic rectangles. It turned out okay!

I stamped the lion twice in Raw Sienna and once in Cognac then cut out the main and face. Thin pop dots push up each for dimension on top of the base image.

The yellow background is subtle because the Versamark doesn't show up well on such a light paper. It does compliment the slightly darker piece with words.

Glue all the papers, pierce holes around the scalloped circle, stamp  and add ribbon. Voila!

Stamps by The Angel Company: Wild for You and Floral Dingbats.

 

Review of the Tonic Trimmer

My old faithful Fiskars trimmer is showing wear and tear, so I bought the Tonic Trimmer from the TAC catalog. It has some good points, but several improvements could be made.

Pros:

• It’s lightweight and easily portable.
• It cuts very smoothly and accurately. Finally, a portable trimmer that’s accurate!!!
• 12 x 12 papers fit even with their identification strip.
• Its fold out arm has a sliding guide to mark your cutting spot. I don’t have to squint and try to figure out where my paper goes.
• It has a full size grid marker at every quarter inch. The top is marked by 1/16”.

Cons:

• There is no lip at the bottom of the cutter, so everything has to be done at the top. I’ve resorted to cutting sideways for ease.
• The grid and markers are cut into the plastic. They aren’t marked with black. Can be hard to read.
• The cutting strip can be flipped up like the Fiskars, but the piece that swivels it goes beyond the depth of the cutter. I either have to open it part way to slide my paper in or take it off the table.
• The base of the cutter goes to 5”. This is my biggest pet peeve! Standard size stamped cards are 5.5” high. If they made it just an inch wider it would be much more user friendly.
• I’m concerned that it’s lightweight construction might not be durable, but that’s to be seen.

 If I had to grade the Tonic trimmer I would give it a solid B.

Welcome!

Thanks for checking out my new blog! I'm excited to have a place to share my stamping "stuff" with you. In the days to come I will be adding new cards and projects I've been working on.