A Couple of Easel Cards

Hi Everyone

I'm still putzing with my One Sheet Wonder cards, but don't have any more ready to show yet - maybe tomorrow...

In the meantime, I thought I'd just post some photos of other items I've made recently. Hopefully, it'll help spark your creativity.

I find I sometimes have to look at another person's work in order to get my own mojo working - or I have to do something besides stamping, in order to get some new ideas to try with my stamps. There's something about this process that helps your own creativity get moving.


This card came about because of the OSWs I've been working on. The pieces were just sitting on the stamping table, and suddenly I knew they needed to GO together.








Below is an Easel Card. I saw the idea on someone's blog ( Sandi McGiver's?), which led me to Split Coast Stampers, where I got the pattern.


But it's a really easy pattern! Cut CS 4" x 8", score & fold at 4", then again at 2" from one end.

Then you'll need to cut another piece 4"x4", which you'll glue to the END fold of the card.






Here's the card from a different angle. Now can you understand why it's called an Easel Card? You prop the top of the card up against the layered piece on the INSIDE of the card, and it creates it's own easel! But it folds flat for mailing. Very clever idea!

And here it is opened, so you can see the folds.



I chose to use the Good Cheer set (# 115326) for my first attempt. The Santa and Reindeer piece fit the 4x4 size perfectly! And, besides, I'd just gotten the stamp set and it was CRYING to me to ink it up and use it! ha ha



Here's a Christmas card I made using this year's In colors.

It occurred to me that, although I really LIKE this year's In colors, I haven't been using them much, since starting down the Christmas path. So I challenged myself to make this card, using the Easel Card idea.



This is a different orientation for the Easel Card, but it still works.

I used the Level I Hostess set from the Holiday mini-catalog (did you notice there are TWO additional Hostess sets available in the mini-catalog?)

The set is titled Patterned Pines. I used Dusty Durango for the trees and popped them up with dimensionals. The star is stamped in Crushed Curry, the flower pieces in the corners are Rich Razzleberry, and the greeting was stamped in Bermuda Bay. The CS is Soft Suede.

Isn't it interesting how green it looks here? This CS does change colors somewhat, depending upon the other colors you've paired it with.

Here's a close up of the pieces I stamped, then cut out to create the "prop" for this card.









I want to remind you about my upcoming Christmas Stamp A Stack - Saturday, December 5th @ 10 AM and again Sunday, December 6th @ 1 PM Fee for the class is $25, and you'll make 12 cards - three each of four different designs.

Call or email today to reserve your spot!

Hope you saw something that sparked your creativity here tonight! Let me know what you think of my Christmas card done in the In colors - one friend looked at the card and turned up her nose. What do YOU think?

One Sheet Wonder - Revisited

About a week ago, I showed you how to make a One Sheet Wonder (OSW): Stamp an entire sheet of neutral cardstock (CS) with lots of images, and cut it up to create up to 16 cards.

I showed you a few of the quick ideas I'd come up with, and promised step them up and show them to you again.

So, without further ado:
Before and After:



Not much change - just added the ribbon and stamped some background images using the VersaMark pad. But it was enough to pull the card together.
















For this one, I used the spiral punch on the left edge, glued a small scrap of Real Red underneath, and added the Happy Holidays. I also mounted the center piece askew, to give the card more visual interest.














The addition of a single piece of ribbon to this card helped pull it all together.

Simple changes, but they make a difference.

Last night I showed you a glass block that I'd decorated with Decor Elements and commented that it needed a bow:

What do you think?


Doesn't it have more "gift appeal" this way?













The Kidz were helping me while I worked on the OSW cards tonight:




They look REALLY interested in whatever I was doing, don't they?

Thank goodness your attention span is a little longer!










Thanks for coming by and visiting... Happy stampin'!

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...













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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'!