The Gift of Thyme

Yes, you're in the right place. At first glance, this card may not feel much like an "Ardyth" card. And although the image and font may not feel familiar, I figured that the simple layout and the stickles may help you recognize it as one of mine!

Last Thursday, our bookclub met at a restaurant for our final pre-holiday meeting. The book was Blood, Bones and Butter, by Gabrielle Hamilton. Not my favourite, but it was quite interesting. Anyway, we had agreed that everyone would bring a spice/herb/flavouring/condiment as a little gift exchange. One lady brought pomegranate syrup and a recipe for a divine salad to make with it. I haven't tried it yet, but it has goats cheese in it, so I'm pretty sure it will be good. Another brought lavender that she puts in a chocolate chip cookie recipe. They're delicious - a grown up take on the childhood classic. Another brought the custom, home made mixture of herbs that she uses when she roasts meat and vegetables. And so on. I am really bad at that kind of stuff, so I decided to go with what I know - stamping. I made each lady a set of 4 of these cards.

I chose an 'herby' looking stamp (from Papertrey) and inked it in turquoise before inking it in Soft Suede (think rock and roll with more coverage!). This way, each impression had a hint of bluey-green, and each impression was unique. Some of them had quite a bit of turquoise showing through. I used Fabriano cards that are 3.5" x 5" and feel amazingly luxurious (I always have some of these on hand for a quick simple gift like this). I think the sentiment came from a free 'Thank you' set that I got with an order at one point, but I could be wrong - please correct me if you know!

I told everyone that I had chosen thyme as my gift - a nod to the herb stamp, but also a play on the word, representing the time I spent putting them together. The ladies were pleased - everyone can use thank you cards at some point!

And our next book is The Life of Pi, in case you were wondering.

Pinterest Inspired Colour Q - Merry!

ETA - this card was chosen as a winner! Yay! I'm a Colour Queen!


Way back, in the early days of Pinterest, I pinned this photo to my Inspiration Board:

And the day has finally come. I bought some new red and green embossing powders in Madison last weekend and I already had turquoise and pink, so I used this week's Colour Cue Challenge again:

The 'blot' is from Stampin' Up's Extreme Elements. I cut a mask of 'Merry' (Papertrey Ink), placed it on the front panel and then stamped in versamark over the whole thing. Then I added each colour of embossing powder separately (the new colour will not stick where another colour is already in place). I removed the mask and melted the powder with my heat gun. Then I cut a clean 'Merry' out of white cardstock and popped it up on dimensionals.

Somehow my 'blot' looks a bit like a map of Canada to me. But then again, when I look at the card, I also see 'messy' not 'merry'. Ah, the mind is a wondrous thing! At least mine seems to be! lol!

Next, looking back to yesterday's card: Yes, there was a pattern of letters as well as colours. As an accountant, I am a lover of order and predictability. I'm really not very good at 'random'!

So here's the scoop:
First, the pattern does not include the top line for obvious reasons. 
Then, because I wanted clear space at the top,  I started from the bottom rather than trying to find the 'right' place to start and still fit only full rows. But I wanted you to be able to see JOY going left to right and top to bottom, as if I had stamped it from top to bottom. Once I knew all this, I worked it out on grid paper, so I knew which order to stamp the letters in.The pattern starts in the bottom left corner and goes left to right (but does not start with J). Then up a row, left to right.

I've got a busy weekend lined up, trying to finish my friend's order of 80 photo Christmas cards (all with embossing and glitter - I'll be sneezing up a storm!), as well as my daughter's piano recital. I hope you have fun things to do, too!

cQc 165 - Joy to the World

For this week's Colour Q Challenge:

I am completely enchanted with these colours - they're definitely Christmassy (although not everyone is making Christmas cards with them!) but also playful and childlike and beg to be used in a really FUN way.

You wouldn't believe the convoluted way I came to this design from a very simple billboard that I see when I drive by it every week, but don't have a photo of, so I won't even bother you with the details. Let's just say that you might have a hard time seeing the billboard in this card!

The other interesting part of this card was that for 3 of the 4 colours (I used Gumball since I don't have (never did, never will) Glorious), I used the new foam Stampin' Up inks, but my 2007 Cool Caribbean fabric pad is obviously OLD! Despite re-inking it, I'm still not getting reliable images, which is a shame, since it is probably my all time favourite Stampin' Up colour (hey, Shelley G - do you hear me?! lol!). Also, it doesn't seem to match my hoarded and dwindling pile of Caribbean cardstock anymore. I guess maybe the inks deteriorate. Or the cardstock is fading. Or both! This alphabet is called Lots of Dots from My Stampbox.

OLW116 - Scene It, Done It (Never Again!)

Take a good look at this card, because I don't think I'll be making any more like it! lol! I have admired the art of Leanne Spanza for a while now - the bold colours, geometric shapes - LOVE!

So when Karen's challenge for this week's One Layer Wednesday was to create a scene, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try something in Leanne's style. Yes. I drew this with a Copic multiliner and a ruler.

As always, the simplest looking things become quite challenging. My biggest challenge here was keeping the ruler clean so it wouldn't smudge the scene. I used a piece of cardstock that was cut using my curvy cutter (Creative Memories, but I think it's retired) to trace for the hills, and I did smudge it (hence the stickles on the snowy hill!). I did stamp the snowflakes, using a little open circle from Paper Smooches. And the sentiment is part of a very old Doodlebug clear set.

Having said all that, I'm pretty happy with the overall look, and have new respect for artists who do not rely on stamps for their images!

PS - for those of you who voted yesterday, thank you. We are unanimous! Here's the card with the added text:

DD30 - Gloria (or Gloria in Excelsis)!

OK, this one needs to go to a vote. But first, let me give you the background.

I found this Stampabilities angel at Hobby Lobby in Madison last weekend, when I was visiting my sister. I love the child-like abstract feeling she has. There are tons of possibilities for her (you may see another one tomorrow!).

When I saw this week's Dynamic Duo combination,

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with her. I made her into the Heavenly Host, and added the sentiment (Stampin' Up, Contempo Alphabet) in a font that is equally clean and child-like. I used Silver Lightning embossing powder, which has a glorious sparkle, which I have yet to capture in a photo.

So here's my question:

Now that I look at it here on the blog, I am itching to add "in excelsis" in very small font, under the gloria. What do you think? Does it look like a place setting name card for my friend "Gloria" (I don't actually have a friend named Gloria) or is it finished? I don't have time to make another one today, so please let me know what you think!

PS - I'm thinking that this (or the 'in excelsis' version) is my first design for my 2013 Church Christmas cards - talk about a head start! lol!

CASology 21 - Time

This week's CASology Cue Card is Time!

Well, it's just about time to say good-bye to 2012 and welcome 2013, so I decided to make a New Year's card.

I masked, stamped and embossed the Old Island Stamp Company sentiment and then lined up my clear number stamps on my acrylic block above the sentiment. I masked above the final 2 and below the 3, to make it look like a digital clock rolling forward.

To add some colour, I masked 1/4 inch of the top and bottom of the main panel and stamped multiple colours using the thinnest line from Papertrey's Faux Ribbon set.

Then, I used mirror card for the card base to give the whole card a celebratory feel!

Now it's your turn to show us what time means to you.

Don't forget to link up by noon, CST on Sunday, December 2 (can you believe it's almost December already - Time is passing!!)

Here are links to the blogs of the other Design Team members - go see what they came up with!

Jen Wills

Melissa Chipperfield

Rosemary Dennis 

Tracey McNeely

and this week's Guest Designer: N@

Final Horse Cards. For Now.

These are the last two designs I made for the sets of cards I made for my sister to give to her friends and clients.

And this is the last scheduled post due to my weekend trip to deliver these cards to my sister in Wisconsin. (I came back late Sunday night, and I knew I wouldn't have time to make a card before Monday morning.)

Unfortunately, I don't know who made either stamp (they're unmounted rubber). For the first one, I used Silver Lightning embossing powder - it's so hard to get a photo of how pretty it really is - it has glitter in the powder and it catches the light so nicely! I used brushed silver for the main panel and Cherry Cobbler for the mat.

On the second card, it's looking rather Pumpkin Pie-ish, but it's really More Mustard, and Soft Suede. The ink is my Spectrum Kaleidecolor pad - one of my favourite ways to get a 'wow' out of simple stamping!

Tomorrow it's time for CASology again - be sure to come back at 9:00 for another inspiring Cue Card!