just wing it

Sometimes when I sit down to make a card, I can get wrapped up in the creative process. I might have a layout that I really want to try. I may have a stamp set that I've been meaning to work with. Or I might want to try out a new color combination. Lots of people can work like that. I usually end up spending more time frustrated and annoyed when I try to force myself into a preconceived idea of what I want to create. For me things flow best when I just wing it.

Recently, my mother-in-law passed away. I loved her dearly. She always treated me like her daughter. Not a transplant. It has been a testament to her life to see how many people have poured out love and help to my family over the past month. Prayers, and meals, and flowers, and kindness has been lavished on us all. So lately, the only creative constraint that I have put on myself is the making of "thank you" cards. It's been therapeutic thinking of the wonderful people that loved my mother-in-law as I create each card. And the only rule I have for myself when I make the cards is that I use a "thank you" stamp of some sort. Simple. Easy. I've been winging it. 

A little patterned paper, some texture from an embossing folder, a unique use of a woodgrain stamp, and voila!

Happy stamping!

The background is the focal point

Yesterday I posted about a new technique I stumbled upon. I fell in serious love with, not only the process of making the paper, but the results as well! So today I was on a mission to showcase that awesome paper in a few cards.

I don't think that I have ever used a particular paper as the focal point of a project. But after discovering this fun way of playing with ink and water, I can see that I will be cranking out loads of water misted, embossed papers in the very near future! Here I kept the designs and embellishments minimal so that the gorgeous background paper could truly sing!