Today has been a bit busy, and I was completely out of ideas. Nothing was coming to mind. At all. So I asked those of you who follow me on Facebook for some help.

First I asked, stamp or sticker as a focal point. The first response was stamp.

Next was theme. The options were flower, simple shape, or tech. The first response was flower, and tech was a close second. I feel like I’ve been doing lots of flowers and sewing this month, but you spoke, and I listened. Flower it is!

Finally, it was time for you all to decide on color. When I gave you the option of ROYGBIV, of course my sister piped up and said indigo right off the bat.

Indigo flower stamp it is. Do I have any indigo ink?

That’s pretty close to indigo, right?

How does this work for a crowdsourced card?

If you want to make this, you could try using these supplies from Amazon: (affiliate link)

The card idea I originally had for today involved lots of masking and fussy cutting, but I haven’t been able to find my desk lately, so didn’t really have room at the moment to work on that idea.

Instead, we’ve got the lazy woman’s version of fussy cutting.

The sentiment was made with stamps that were cut out by hand– no die-cut for these cuties!

Bonus for today? Using up these ancient Jolee’s sunflowers, and the last full sheet of the Amy Butler paper pad from K & Company. I’m a stash-busting fool over here!

Amazingly enough, the sunflowers are still available from Amazon! (affiliate link)

This school year has been super busy, what with the new job, and kids in high school now. (Activities! Friends! Sports! Lots of driving!)

As a result, most of the cards I’ll be sharing with you are simple and quick to create. I’ll be doing a few more technique investigations, but the object is to make cards, not reinvent the wheel.

Today’s card makes use of a great tool from Creative Memories. I don’t know if it’s still available, but you could use any oval cutter to achieve a similar look.

The stamp is an old one from The Angel Company, and the laser cut paper ribbons were a present from my mother, lo, many moons ago. (I just got back from a Marvel Universe Live show. Hyperbole is running rampant today.)

Basically, none of these things are currently available for purchase, other than the ink. So what would a card maker looking to lift this design do?

If you don’t have oval punches or cutters, use circle punches. Any stamp or sticker in your collection would work as a focal point. Your favorite washi tape or ribbon or border punch would work as the horizontal element. Make this design your own!

You could even post your versions of it in my Flickr group, just click on through!

Don’t forget, if you want to get a card from me, sign up for my email list in the box on the top right of the page!

Continuing with the distress and using up leftovers theme from yesterday, how about another sewing themed card? I don’t sew extensively, but working at JoAnn certainly encouraged a bit of sewing themed stamps.

The torn piece of patterned paper was used as a demo piece to show tearing and inking techniques. A quick stamp, a related sticker and chipboard embellishment, and it’s done.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a ten year old and almost sixteen year old waiting for me, so we can continue our Star Wars movie marathon weekend. we’ve got to be ready for when The Force Awakens next month!

Some Amazon available supplies: (affiliate link)

When I used to work at JoAnn Etc. as an instructor, I frequently had to buy supplies to make samples and to use in class for corporate designed classes. I still have bits and pieces of leftover supplies that really need to get used up.

Today’s card is made with a few left over sheets of paper and a stamp from a class on distressing. We made a carousel mini-album in class, and learned a bit about various distressing techniques. It made sense to use a few of those techniques today.

The dress form was stamped with archival ink, and then crumpled into a ball, and smoothed out, twice. You may find it hard to crumple up a perfectly good stamped image of piece of paper, but sometimes the results are worth it. I then used a distressing tool to rough up the edges of the stamped piece, as well as the patterned paper behind it. A little distress ink applied to the edges and creases of all the papers, a sticker and chipboard embellishment from the same paper line, and the card was done.

If you’d like to get a card from me in the mail, sign up for my email list at the top right hand side of the page.

Some of these supplies can be found on Amazon: (affiliate link)