Quick and Elegant...His & Hers

This first card (hers) was made for Friday's SCS Limited Supply challenge (LSC138...http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=294405). The challenge was to use:

1-floral stamp
1-swirly stamp
1-sentiment (optional)
embelisments: ribbon
quick tools: punches, sponges, cuttlebug, paper piercer
paper: pattern or plain
layers: limited

So...this is what I came up with! The whole idea was to keep it quick & simple...yet make the end result elegant. I think what challenged me the most was the limited layering. Without several layers, it looked really plain. One of the things I love about these challenges is that is forces me to think outside the box, so to speak. I tried several layouts with this card using the usual, expected, traditional 1/4 & 1/8 inch matted layers and I just kept getting stuck. At one point, I literally pushed all those layers aside and just re-looked at my main image piece...then I grabbed a couple of scraps & tucked them behind my main image, and this was the result...and the whole card came together. Adding my new Satin Pomegranate ribbon was the finishing touch (love, love, love that ribbon!!). So, the next time you get stuck...try something entirely different from what you'd planned. Turn the card, move the image piece around, take some little scrap pieces and try using those for layers. The best part about stamping, is that it's just paper & ink and you have all the pieces in front of you...just mix 'em up a bit and see what you come up with!!

paper: basic black, purely pomegranate & very vanilla
ink: black stazon & pomegrante
stamps: baroque motifs & garden silhouettes
accessories: satin pomegrante ribbon, black stickles, dimensionals


The second card (His)...is just a variation of the first one. I needed to make a thank you card for my nephew, Mike, who helped us out at the Portland Regionals, by giving us a ride from downtown Portland back to our hotel (such a nice young man!). He is one classy guy & I wanted the card to be very simple, yet classy (elegant sounds too girly). So I just changed a few things from the challenge card to make it masculine, substituted brads for the ribbon and added some dry embossing on the lower left side (it's hard to see in the picture). I love being able to dry emboss with the cropadile (see previous posting..."embossing with the cropadile" for a quick tutorial on how to). I also used my basic gray paper for the first time. I really appreciated Jen's challenge for simplicity...cards really don't have to be complicated to be nice. Lesson learned...thanks Jen = ) !!!

paper: basic black, basic gray, bravo burgundy & very vanilla
ink: stazon black & burgundy
stamps: garden silhouette, so much
accessories: cropadile for embossing, paper piercing tool & mat pack for guide, photo corner punch, black brads, black stickles

Okay...I better get these cards in the mail...that's my favorite part of making cards...putting them in the mailbox and knowing they're on their way to someone special = )