Pacific Petals

I hope you enjoyed your day honoring the important men in your life. We sure had a great day- it was a wonderful Father's Day celebration. Nothing fancy or big~ just a nice lunch and conversation. Later in the day I had the opportunity to spend some time in the studio. My space is fairly disorganized as over the last super busy month I have been able to squeeze in here and there some time to make a few things (when not traveling). But when I am crazy busy like that, I don't worry about putting everything away; I am just happy to find a little time for relaxing in the studio to create with paper and ink. So today I had to clear a spot to even make a card although I am lucky to have lots of dedicated space. So you can image the chaos, the piles and

misplaced items...but if you could see my face, you would see a HUGE smile!

This creation was made for the SCS Featured Stamper challenge. Today Christy S. was spotlighted. I chose this card to case: Clean and Simple. I kept quite a bit from Christy's card including the sketch, the ribbon placement, the randomly stamped flowers, the oval with the sentiment, the black and kraft bases. I changed the stamp set, the colors, the width of the colored cardstock layer, the ribbon type, and the placement of the sentiment.

I took the opportunity to stamp a full 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of whisper white with these Petal Pizzaz images in Almost Amethyst, Pacific Point, and Lovely Lilac. I will be creating many cards using the one-sheet-wonder technique, however, I am just going to wing it. It may be old (from 2005) but I still like this OSW ; I have used in the past and Cat, the SCS artist also has examples of cards designs. I have quite a bit of Pacific Point cardstock left that I want to use up. It is pretty amazing that I have any Pacific Point cardstock left at all as royal blue is my very favorite color of all-time. The multiple cards will serve another purpose of beefing up my stock of 'thank you's' and birthday cards.

I have learned how to get a nice strong image with these solid image stamps. There are several tricks that I've picked up along the way. First, make sure the ink pad is relatively juicy. I re-ink my pad if it has been a while and I am going to be using one of these solid type stamps. Second, hold the inked stamp firmly against the paper for at least 10 seconds. This allows time for the paper to soak up the ink. Last, use a good quality paper- I prefer SU! whisper white and I know from others there are several other quality brands out there, but I don't have experience with any others.

I grew up with this saying "An artist is only as good as his brushes". And I have always kept that in mind when purchasing my supplies. Sometimes I will buy cheaper accessories but I don't scrimp on cardstock or ink. This is one of the reasons I love SU!- the quality of paper and ink is the best PLUS everything matches. I know there are other wonderful brands too, but my preference is SU!

I guess since I had such a long time away, I keep chattering away. Have a great week!