Mojo - where are you?

There was an interesting blog post on the Stars & Stamps blog this week about loss of mojo.  This has been a frequent problem for me.  I tend to make cards in spurts, so I'm always looking for inspiration.  When you read this blog post HERE be sure to read the comments.

Recently, I was tolally stuck and hadn't made a card for 2 weeks.  The blog post on Flower Power helped me to find an inspiration.  It's nice that it's springtime in the desert and flowers are blooming everywhere.



Jasmine

Oleander




 

Daisies

Royal geranium

 

Dianthus

With this inspiration from my yard, I remembered a technique from long ago of putting punched flowers on my cards.  You can check back on my last few posts to see some of the cards I have made recently.

 Sometimes, my first card leaves something to be desired.  When this happens, I try making another card right away to correct the things I didn't like about the previous card.  This helps me learn to make better quality cards.

I made this pansy card, but stamped the sentiment too far from right edge of card.  This didn't leave enough room to use the ribbon I wanted to use.  I used a narrower sheer ribbon, which was all I could find in the right color.  This card was okay, but I wasn't satisfied with it.  I immediately began making this card.

Besides the placement and ribbon, I changed the colors of the pansies.  I like this card better than the first one.  Sandy Allnock from Operation Write Home always stresses that we need to make the best quality cards we can because our heroes deserve the best.  They do so much for us.

More punched flowers

I bought these Punch-In stamps years ago from Make an Impression.  I thought they were out of business, but just learned that they kept their online portion only.

This daisy frame stamp doesn't appear to be available any more, but there are a lot of other stamps that can be used with punched flowers.

Punched dogwood

I created this card after reading the tutorial on Flower Power on the Stars & Stamps blog.  This is a very old technique made with supplies for Make an Impression.  This store is out of business, I think.  I bought a lot of their Punch-In stamps and supplies many years ago.  Instructions are in the book I purchased from them.

I punched the balloons in 2 sizes, then punched out a depression at tip of ballon.  I used a white gel pen to make the base of petal lighter.  Petals were shaped with the white tool to the left of petal.  The little sun punch was used for centers.

Stamped image was colored with pencils. Flowers were glued onto stamped branch with Tombow Mono Liquid Glue.

I trimmed the image and added a layer before adhering it to base card.

PS:  I just discovered that Make an Impression only closed their brick & mortar store, but still have their online store.  You can find them HERE.

Thanks to our heroes

This week has been traumatic for a lot of people.  I know I live far away from Boston, but the media brings all those horrible events closer to all of us.  Last night, I fell asleep watching the citizens of Boston celebrating their freedom.  During the night, my dreams designed this card.

The chevron die is made by Papertrey Ink and the thanks die was made by Provo Craft.  The ribbon is by Celebrate It.  I decided to try some cards made with some washi tape instead of the ribbon.

Thanks to all the heroes who keep us safe.

Boot Camp: Now that's odd!

I've been following Paula's Design Boot Camp on the Stars & Stamps blog.  For this month, Paula chose Now That's Odd!  This involves using an odd number of elements on a card design.

For this card, I used 1 image, 1 sentiment, 3 ribbons and 3 butterflies.  The stamped image is from Hero Arts, but didn't include the leaves, so I added 3 leaves.  Ink was Marvy Brush Markers, direct to rubber then lightly spritzed with water.

The butterflies are a Martha Stewart punch.  All dies are by Spellbinders.  I attached the MME paper to the pink cardstock, then embossed both layers with a Craft Concepts embossing folder, called Garden Swirl.

Looking for inspiration

I've been very mojoless for a couple weeks.  I've been looking for things to inspire me.  Since it's springtime, flowers are beginning to bloom.  I took some photos of my flowers to help inspire me.

Dianthus

Regal Geranium

After a few days of looking at the flowers and comparing with my rubber stamps and ink colors, I stamped a couple of images, using Marvy markers.  Today, I created these cards with my images.

Masculine cards

Operation Write Home has been doing tutorials on making masculine cards.  I'm trying to make my own masculine cards, but will go back and study some of those on the blog.  I started this group in the last post by using the corner of a 12"x12" sheet of paper from the K & Co. Marines pad.  After that, I decided to finish up that sheet of paper.  I started by making cards from the other 3 corners.

I had more paper from the center of the paper, without the borders.  I've made 2 cards with that.

I have some small pieces left, but decided to leave them for another day.

OWH Midweek Throwdown - tags & twine

I've been trying for several days to make a card for the Midweek Throwdown on the Stars & Stamps blog.  This totally out of my comfort zone, but I gave it an attempt.

This paper is from K&Co. from the Marines pad.  When I embossed it with the stars, the paper began to tear, so I mounted it on kraft cardstock for stablilization.  The tag is a Spellbinders die.