Binder creativity

I'm posting today for the design team of Eureka, and decorating binders seemed like an appropriate idea to work with in lieu of their most recent challenge. Most department stores carry binders with clear plastic fronts with an opening at the top. With standard size carstock or scrapbook paper, one has the option of simple paper, an ornate, all-out design (just be careful it isn't too thick!), or like me, a simple design to do the job. Because of the plastic, I couldn't seem to get away from the glare, so please excuse the poor quality.

If you have multiple notebooks or children to design for, you can keep it really simple with patterned paper as I did here, and a simple scripture (Philippians 4:13 seemed like an appropriate one for a student). I don't have any children going off to school (well, one to college but she doesn't use binders), but I put these on my stamp storage albums.

For the second album, I used cut-outs of Eureka's peacock feather that I had made years ago for a journal. I used Opalite Inks on a sparkle blue cardstock. I could have simply used white cardstock and added my colors (example here), but I really wanted copper and only had it in the Opalites, so I went with a sparkle blue cardstock. Opalite inks never photograph really well, and in the wrong light can look rather dull. But, they are fun to play with!

This is a second picture of the peacock album, that I am showing because I like to show problems/errors that teach me. I had rejected a few of these feathers because I had not realized that Opalite inks (interference inks working only on very dark colors) will lose their color and look white if applied to heavily. So if you look closely at the feather on the lower right, you'll see it looks very white in the middle. So, be careful when using these inks!

Sunflower hello

I"m posting for Biblical Impressions today.  I love the faux batik techinique, even if I am not trying for that look, it's just a fun to invert stamping images.  For this card, I stamped Biblical's sunflower background in dark yellow, than embossed the plaids over it.  Then I sponged yellows and butterscotch over the panel, finishing by ironing off the clear embossing.  I embossed the individual sunflower with yellow, restamped it with die ink, stamped "hi" on it, and cutit out with decorative scissors. 

 As often happens when I experiment, even after several tries, I did not get the look I had envisioned, but I still was happy with how it looked in the end.  I've included a picture of the first time I did it before adding the yellows and butterscotch, and then that panel and another that I also tried that I did not use.  How would you have done it?

If anyone be in Christ...

I have been taking classes online at Regent University for a couple of years, and I wanted to make a card for my favorite professor. I chose the 2 Corinthians 5:17 stamp because I had to write a ten page paper on this verse for him; I'm so glad Eureka carries it! The card was far less time consuming to do than the paper, lol! Along with the alphabet set, in which letters are also available to be purchased individually, Eureka has a number of cubes that can be used for the background. The one I used for this card happens to come from the Winter set of four; I wanted a masculine card, and the pine branch seemed a good fit.

Tile Fun!

I went to Lowe's to get some tumbled tiles, and spotted these scrabble-tile sized glass tiles, on clearance for just over $2!  I grabbed one, thinking I would group them together in sets for coasters, and individually for pendants.  I had so much fun, that the next time I was out of town, I stopped by to pick up more.  However, they were all gone, and I did not want to pay full price!  But I then saw the same size, this time in more counter-top style, on clearance.  This time, I grabbed two sets!  I think I am addicted to these!  One of my favorite stamping companies, smARTworks, has a ton of inchies and "little bits" which are perfect for these tiles.  The inchies have a frame, but the tiles are smaller than that, which is great for the these! 

The tile at the bottom right did not photgraph really well, but I embossed it in gold, then affixed Yuzen Washi paper to it.  If I can find a way to attach tiles without grout, and seal it well, I think these would turn into a classy set of coasters!

Sympathy Card

I needed a masculine sympathy card in a hurry, and this layout was answer. :-)  I don't usually put embellishments on cards for a guy, but I needed something else, and the buttons just seemed right.

Piano thanks

I have a "not yet posted" file  that has cards I haven't gotten around to posting, but when I started college two years ago, I did almost nothing on the blog.  I knew some of the "not yet posted" cards actually had been posted, but not until now have I been willing to go through my blog to see which ones still had not been posted.  

This is a design I made a set of for a friend of ours, Benjamin, who is an absolutely marvelous composer.  I stamped the piano first, masked it, then stamped the music score.

Praying without words

I'm posting today from Eureka, with a card I am sharing also on Stamping Sisters in Christ.  I hadn't thought I would have time to make a card this weekend as we were planning to do a bonfire last night with a bunch of friends, so I expected to be catching up on everything else today I hadn't done while preparing for it.  However, a friend mentioned to me that  our town has a burn ban right now, so, no bonfire.  We had a surprise visit from our daugther and two friends, however, so it was still a wonderful night!

The Stamping Sister's in Christ challenge was simply to add some sparkle.  So I decided to get out my glitter -- something I have done maybe three times in ten years, lol, I'm not much of a glitter fan!  But I had fun with this card ... especially when I realized that two of the glitter sheets I owned - and have not used at all in the five or more years I have owned them -- were perfect matches for the glitters I had already chosen before remembering the glitter sheets existed!   I found it while looking for background paper, where I also unexpectedly found the cool copper material (not exactly cardstock, but not orinary paper).  All in all, I was satisfied with my simple card.

The first card I made with glitter was a waste; the glitter clung to the embossed image of clear on black, which is what my first desire was for the image.  I then tried the copper, and after embossing, decided to let it sit for a much longer time than I had the clear.  The very time I embossed, I had done clear embossing with black powder, and decided to see if gel pens would give the glitter look I sought.   It didn't, but I liked it, and while the copper cooled, I finished the second card.  My photographing job does not show the beautiful emerald green of the unique, foil-like background paper, and the glitter pens worked much nicer than you see here.  Still, I wanted to include it just because it's a very different look than the other card, despite the near identical layouts.

When I went to Houghton College in the early eighties, I had a friend who would let me sit behind his piano in one of the music rooms.   He was a composition major, and wrote absolutely beautiful piano pieces.  When he played, despite the fact that he was not singing, the music clearly was centered on the Lord, and I worshipped as I listened.  So although texts like the one of this stamps can sometimes seem trite, I find truth in it.