The Day After

Karen & I went to "The Happiest Place on Earth" (Disneyland) yesterday to celebrate my birthday. Had a free ticket from Mickey for myself, and Karen went along to keep me company.

We had a great time. It was a beautiful day - a little warm at times, but gorgeous and bright.

I got a big ole badge with my name on it, that says "Happy Birthday, Sam". I proudly put it on, and started walking around the park.

There were a zillion other people with the H B-day button, too! Like every other person! I was amazed that I shared my birthday with so many others!

Here are a few photos. Found out I'm MUCH better at the macro-photography, than the scenery kind...













=====
Today was Stamp Club day and I taught them how to do a One Sheet Wonder (OSW).

To do this, you take an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of neutral CS, chose 3-5 different, but coordinating, stamp pads, and 4-5 coordinating stamps that match the theme you had in mind.

Then you stamp all over the entire sheet, stamping off a lot of time, too, to fill in spaces on the CS.

Here's a photo of what mine looked like after I'd stamped the entire 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of CS.

I also chose colors that would match at least one DSP packet, so I could use pieces of that on my cards, if I wanted.

Notice I've stamped REALLY close together and stamped off on a bunch of the stamps to fill in with muted images.

As you start to cut up your CS, the images won't fill the pieces as much as you thought they had, so keep your stamps and inkpads handy to fill in where necessary.

After everyone stamped their piece(s) of CS to their satisfaction today, I had them cut them up. First they cut the sheet into quarters (4 pcs. 5-1/2 x 4-1/4).

Then they took two of the quarters and cut them on the diagonal. The other two pieces were cut in half lengthwise - one torn, and the other cut.

They also pulled a full sheet of CS of each of the colors of inks they'd used in the OSW sheet, and cut them in half, then folded them in half. These were the bases for their cards. After that, they took the pieces they'd made, and attached them to the folded CS and decorated to their hearts content.

I'd forgotten how some people are afraid to tear paper. One of the gals was really struggling with the tearing part, and her friend took HER piece of CS and said to the first gal, just think about what George did to make you mad this morning (and she tore a little), and how such & such a thing irritated you (and she tore a little more), and how upset you were with your daughter yeseterday about that little thing she did (and she finished tearing the piece of CS). I was roaring when she was finished!

Who said stamping wasn't a stress release!?

At that point, I remembered how much it used to bug me to tear CS, too. BUT, I'm over it now - I just forget to do it most of the time.

Some put "bling" on theirs, some brads, a couple attached a layered greeting to the front of their card.

There are lots of ways the dress these ideas up - ribbon, brads, buttons, eyelets, punches, die cuts, stickers (from Simply Scrappin' kits) or scraps of DSP, if the colors are compatible.

Each card will be different - and you don't get bored making them!

Here are some of the cards I made using the One Sheet Wonder (OSW) pattern I used, which was a different one than I taught this AM. The one from this morning is a very simple and easy to remember method for cutting your CS.











These are very serviceable cards, as they are above. But you can always do something more, which will help step it up.

The pattern I used had lots of different sized pieces to it. At this point, I have 6 different cards to a point where they'd be acceptable, but plan to step them up on them, too.

Without further ado...

The first "go" at pulling this card together - it needed more, but I wasn't quite sure just what. The only part of the original OSW I used on this one is the three "berries" I punched out of one of the left-over scraps.





The second "go" - after I'd had some time to look thru my stash to find additional elements that would help step it up. Here I added some of the Mistletoe twill ribbon, and a small flower with a brad in it.








Hope you enjoyed these.

Challenge yourself to try this! It's a really QUICK way to pull 8 cards together, OR, create background paper specifically for YOUR project!

Happy stampin'!