Simple Wishes and Dreams

My shoulder is still bothering me intermittently and my back's started to hurt as well, so I've been working on some pretty clean and simple designs to lessen the strain. These two cards for this month's first two Viva la Verve sketches are definitely examples that fall along those lines.

Here's my card for the first week's sketch. I replaced the heart shaped piece in the sketch with a snowflake for a soft and soothing wintery card. I die cut the snowflake from shimmery white paper using the Snowflake CutUps die from The Cat's Pajamas. A pretty clear crystal adds a bit more sparkle to the center of the flake.

The card's simple design really keeps the attention on the snowflake element. I used a patterned paper with a faint tone-on-tone doily pattern that sort of mirrors the shape of the snowflake and matted it on a gray panel before attaching it to the white card base. A strip of silver paper runs up and down the card and a sentiment flag with the "peaceful wishes" sentiment from Verve's Glad Tidings set runs across the card. Setting the snowflake at the intersection of these two pieces was the finishing touch.

Materials Used:
Glad Tidings stamp set (Verve Stamps); Encore Silver ink (Tsukineko); Basic Gray, Shimmery White, and Brushed Silver cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Stella & Rose-Gertie 6x6 paper pad (My Mind's Eye); CutUps Snowflake die (The Cat's Pajamas); clear crystal (Studio 18); foam tape

This one is a simple masculine birthday card--done from start to finish in less than 30 minutes. I used a sentiment from the Always on My Mind set as the focal image. I stamped the smaller dangling star image next to it, stamping the "string" part a second time to extend it to the top of the oval panel. The star is paper pieced with a scrap of mustard cardstock. Even though I used cream cardstock instead of white for a more earthy look, I went ahead and brushed the edges of the panel with a little distress ink for a warmer feel.

I used a distressed-looking striped paper with warm, earthy colors for the cardfront. I attached a mustard strip across the panel, edging it with kraft strips cut with another CutUps die, this time the big pinking border one. Instead of ribbon or even twill, I wrapped some twine around the center of the mustard panel before attaching it to the cardfront and layering on the sentiment panel. I left it at that to keep the card simple and masculine.

Materials Used:
Always on My Mind stamp set (Verve Stamps); Memento Rich Cocoa ink (Tsukineko); Tea Dye distress ink (Ranger); Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Not Quite Navy, and Very Vanilla cardstock (Stampin' Up!); Destinations-Going Places designer paper (Simple Stories); oval dies (Spellbinders); CutUps Big Pinking Border die (The Cat's Pajamas); twine (Papertrey Ink)