Free Paper from Gina K

Hi Stampers. How is the end of the week treating you? I had a run-around day and it ended with me doing my best not to buy myself an IPad 2. I just happen to have some $$$ burning a hole in my pocket.

I subscribe to Susan's blog, Simplicity. She links to a blog called Miss Minimalist. I ordered Miss M's (aka, Francine Jay) book, the joy of less...yup, even the title is less as it uses lower case letters for the title. I'm head over heels devouring this book. I want to begin to live a minimalist life in every sense of the term. I need to begin somewhere. Why not with electronics. I already own an Iphone 4 (bless your life Steve Jobs). Apple provides upgrades every month or so. I absolutely love this piece of technology, still marveling at its very existence. I am asking myself, isn't this enough? Miss M writes about duplicates. Isn't an IPad a duplicate of an IPhone? No, not in every sense of the word, but surely near enough. So this will be my first big personal battle in learning to be a minimalist. I will be writing about this subject periodically here.

My card today is minimalist, more commonly known as clean and simple. Gina K is offering a lovely set of four black and white designer papers. You gotta have these. I am not a big fan of digi papers. I want to see my paper in person and feel it. But I thought I'd give these freebies a try. Love 'em and if you check Stamp TV, there is a video on how to "alter" them with color for an entirely different look. See my righthand sidebar for a link to Stamp TV. I'll be showing you how I used each design to make a card. The other items used include Nestibilities dies...same die for two mats with the position reversed...good idea, huh? That is a very ancient stamp of the world globes. My sentiment is from CTMH, stamped in Palette Noir Black...decided to give the Memento tuxedo black a break since no coloring was done on the image. Card base is standard A2. Get ready for another minimalist card tomorrow.

Blessings,
Erica

Betcha Can't Guess what this is for real!

Hi Stampers. I have a friend who is quite the artist and absolutely enamoured of all things Halloween. It was her turn to host our monthly stamping get-together for October, and along with her co-hort, they put on quite a show. The theme was food and the menu was indeed ghoulish. Here is the "brain-food." This was sooo authentic-looking, that one of our group couldn't even eat it. Actually, the recipe called for Jello, cream cheese, shredded carrots and a bit of food coloring. And a mold was used for the uhh, fun shape.

Do you serve Halloween foods....other than the traditional stuff?

Blessings,
Erica

No Witty Title, Just Him

Hi Stampers. Sometimes witty titles don't come forth from this tired brain. But I did have sufficient energy to make this card. It started out as my Design Team member entry to the Simply Create challenge going on here.  I didn't think it measured up to my standards and I made different one which was lovely, but,I missed the team deadline. So now my cards will be entered with all the entries. This is a ready-made card base from a Paper Studio box of cards. You can see the inside is white. These cards can't be beat if you're in a super hurry. I added CB die cut corners and Nestie frame dies. The MS butterfly is punched 3 x, glued together and mounted so that it 'pops' off the card. The sentiment and flowers are part of an older set from Our Daily Bread Designs. They design some of the most beautiful verses and accompanying images. I colored with Copics.

Hope your week is starting out beautifully for you.

Blessings,
Erica

Simply Create Challenge #54, Shades of Black

Good Evening Stampers. I worked on this card for a long time....too long unfortunately, and I didn't get it up for our challenge this week. Our fearless leader made some changes to our submission calendar meant to help the design team and I put them on the back burner and, well, the best laid plans of (wo)man! But it doesn't mean my blog readers can't have a looksie. I must say photographing black and white is agonizing. I can see why I totally need to purchase and learn all about, a light tent. It is not on my wish list, BUT, if I'm gonna show-off my cards, maybe I'd better find a way, because justice is not being served in this photo.

So, my card base is 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 Gina K Gina K Designs. heavy weight cs. It is matted with a black cs 5 x 5 piece on which I did diagonal scoring with my Martha Stewart scoreboard. Then I used my new Cheery Lynn Designs doily die in SU gray cs and exotic butterfly die on a scrap of white using my CB to cut it out. Circle diecuts were made with Nestabilities. The sentiment from Gina Ks Fanciful Tags is punched using a partial portion of an EK Success label punch, a little trick I learned on-line. The border on scrap white is Cuttlebugs' Fancy borders. I've added a gray satin bow made with my Bow Easy, a stickpin from CTMH, (already made up for you) and pearls from my stash. The crochet white flower and the center antique brad are from SU.

This card belongs in the fussy card category, but it was worth it, I think.

Have a Happy Weekend. Don't forget to check-out Less Is More early tomorrow for another challenge.

Blessings, Erica

A Trio of Christmas cards

Hi Stampers, I've been putting off making Christmas cards. It's not like I don't have plenty of material to use. It's more like if I wait until November, like I did last year, they won't get made. As I grow older...mature, I have fewer people to send to. Most of my friends are still alive, but have chosen to send out those rather one size fits all newsletters telling me all about what every grand-child is up to, the cruises they went on, etc., I'm not gonna lie and tell you I like this sort of communication. Quite the contrary. I'd much rather receive a beautiful card simply wishing me a Merry Christmas and/or A Happy New Year. Yep, that's really all I want. And if I do want more, I'll call them after  the holidays...just being honest here.
So, I kept to my word of what I wanted and I made a trio that fit the bill. I kept them simple. I do not enjoy making the same card repeatedly, so though the sketch can be the same, little else is.
I was inspired by new stuff I ordered from Gina K. First time I've given her company a go and I'm happy with my stuff. They ran a special for World Card Making Day last week. Instead of contributing a card, I was happily bargain hunting on-line.
Two of the three cards use dsp from a BasicGrey "Jovial" 6x6 pad, (available at Gina K.) The stamps are from Gina K's Fanciful Tags. You get three borders that fit the Nestibilities Fancy Tag Dies and  oodles of sentiments. Can one ever have enough sentiments?..you need different fonts and sizes and directions, etc., which reminds me, if you haven't heard, Joanna Munster just posted about her brand new store with stamps galore. She has a design team search open too. Might just give that a try myself. I love her work. Check out her store and leave some good wishes.

Hope you have a great week. Get those holiday cards going.

Blessings,
Erica

2nd Submission to Simply Create

Hi Stampers and Happy Monday. Here's the second box I made while in my boxy mood. This is another template I have had for some time and there's a video tute Top Note Box tutorial, on YouTube for it . I've had the ribbed felt flowers forever and the tiny maple leaf punch and the Nesties dies I used are not new. Note, I subbed my Nesties for the SU Top Note Sizzix die. I wanted a smaller top and bottom. And the Nestie has various shapes with just the one I wanted. The paper is SU. I used Crystal.Effects on the leaf, but it is missing that 'something', so it kinda' just is. I have to work on that. I punched a sort of 'opening' with an oval punch.
This is the same scripture I used on the weekend from Dee's here .

More Than six Months

Hi Stampers...I have been totally wrapped up in a busy weekend and my project is up for  Simply Create, but I haven't posted the accompanying post. I'm very sorry about that.
So, over there  where life is a lot more simpler than it is in my neck of the woods, we can use anything we have that you have had for more than six months. I've been stamping for 7 or so years, and I hardly ever throw anything away and rarely give anything away either.

I am in a boxy mood. I'm trying several different sorts of packaging so I can figure out what's best to give away some small goodies in for the T-Day holidays. This is fom a template that was a freebie on Lauren Meader's  My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence blog.  Lauren is one busy woman. In addition to many family responsibilities, she designs templates and dsp every single month specializing in packaging.  I love her stuff and am a frequent buyer. This cute little crayon-style box was one of her first. I don't know if it's still available. All of the items used on the box, with the exception of the scripture, are quite a bit older than six months...some retired. The scripture is from Dee here. Yet another designer who is kind enough to share her talent. Her forte is a scripture each Tuesday free to her readers. See, you don't always need dollars to hone your stamping skills.

Off to continue my busy week. I was given some fresh organic beets and I found a salad recipe in the Food Network October magazine...this is one of the few food-related magazines that's less than $5.00, on the newstand. Love the price and the magazine. Have a great weekend.

Blessings,
Erica