Day 1: Online Class Pattern Play

This is my second post for today!

I decided to enroll in the Online Card Class: Pattern Play to learn more about the use of patterned paper.

I don't use patterned paper too much, let along mixing various patterns.  But somehow, those cute papers and 6x6 pads just keep jumping in my shopping cart.  I decided that I was either going to have to start using them - or they were going to have to stop accumulating in my stash.

Today's class had a variety of tips about the basic of mixing patterns - size of patterns, boldness of patterns, ways to set apart the patterns and the use of a striped strip.  My card for today tries to use a little bit of everything that I learned. (There were a number of techniques for setting patterns apart - I used a white mat.)  I most definitely did not get overly creative with this card - I used papers from one pad instead of trying to mix and match my own and, although there are variations in size and boldness, the patterns are still pretty basic!!  Even so - this is quite a bit of pattern for me!!

One of the things that I always love about these classes are all the other tidbits that you pick up when you watch the videos.  Kristina loves twine bows.  I like twine too - but usually I have to have some kraft on the card so it's all matchy-matchy.  I loved her twine - so tucked it on mine - such a nice contrast!    Jennifer talked about bending acrylic stamps - the stem on my card is actually a straight stamp that I bent.  I always watch very carefully for the basic supplies and the techniques that they use.  Did you know there are clear pop dots?  How cool is that? My sketch comes from Freshly Made Sketches.

• Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Flower Friend
• Paper: Lawn Fawn Bright Side 6x6 pad, Papertrey Plum Pudding
• Ink: Papertrey Plum Pudding, Stampin' Up Gumball Green and Vintage Violet (really old!)
• Accessories: Stampin' Up twine, Martha Stewart Bright Large Gemstones

It's the Little Things

There are some fun and unique sayings (in a very fun font) in the new set by The Alley Way Stamps called Words to Live By.  I hadn't used this sentiment yet and chose to use it with a baby card.  The sentiment could also easily be paired with a pretty butterfly or other "small" thing and used as a thank you card.


Part of the reason that I went this direction is to play along with the color challenge at Stampin' Royalty.  It includes Summer Starfruit which I have barely used - so I made myself do the challenge (but you can see how little Starfruit that I used!)

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Words to Live By, Tiny Treasures (baby outfit), Ka-Pow (the little star)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede
• Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Suede
• Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Impress rubber stamps hangers, Stampin' Up Pool Party twine

A Little Bit of Calypso Coral and iPad Sketches

OK.  I have to admit it.  I think my least favorite color in the Stampin' Up rainbow of colors is Calypso Coral.  I don't even know why. Every time that I use it, it just seems to dominate.  So when I saw the color challenge at Play Date Cafe, I thought that pairing it with just black and white could work...and I think it does!


Last Friday, I spent a wonderful afternoon playing at a friend's house who has even more than I do.  (Yes, it is possible!)  I had to use this butterfly stamp - and I have a couple more Stampin' Up goodies to share throughout this week.  I'll try to do a little more with Stampin' Up.  A number of you started following me when I was doing a Stampin' Up countdown in an attempt to use every single one of my Stampin' Up sets.  Then I found some other styles of stamps that I truly love.  I don't dislike Stampin' Up   - I just got distracted.  My continually growing stash of SU stamps is feeling a little lonely and I'll be giving them some more attention!
This butterfly was the perfect fit for this week's Sketch Frenzy Friday.

And I would not have used these colors without The Play Date Cafe:

Sketching with the iPad:

I am an iPad fanatic.  I have shared many of my favorite apps for crafting in a tab at the top of the page. I will be doing a major overhaul of this section over the next month as I decide on a Google Reader replacement so don't spend too much time looking at it now.

In the meantime, I wanted to share an amazing write-up of an app called Paper53.  Amber, at Damask Love, details all the amazing features and shows you how she uses it to lay out her cards.

If you do your own sketches or constantly find yourself with ideas in your head - this app seems to be a great app to capture it all!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Swallowtail
• Paper and Ink: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral
• Accessories: misc black twine

WPlus9 Mood Board

This morning was one of those reminders that I need every so often to stay true to my style.  I wanted to play along with the WPlus9 Mood Board.

I had so much out on my desk to make this work.  Layers of patterns, canvas textures, clips, ribbon, etc. but it was taking such a huge effort.  I spend a lot of time on my cards, but it's not necessarily work.  A recent commenter called me meticulous.  I wasn't initially sure that I liked that, but the more that I thought about it - it does describe my cards.  I take a lot of time on each card - even the simple ones - because the colors have to match and the ribbon has to be tied right and everything needs to be straight. So my first effort for this mood board was swept into the trash can - and I went much simpler...

I stuck with the colors, a flower, a little country with the quilt, just a few patterns - and I am much happier!!

• Stamps: WPlus9 Mother's Day Bouquet, Heartfelt Mix
• Paper and Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Real Red, Lucky Limeade
• Accessories: WPlus9 Quilt die and heart die, Stampin' Up Limeade twine, misc pearl

Update on Blog Readers

Thank you for all of the advice on my plea for a new blog reader.  If you didn't see the post, check it out here - but most importantly - read the comments - there is a stream of great advice.

If you didn't read it or didn't hear - Google Reader is shutting down on July 1st.  Google Reader has been a fantastic way to read blogs as it checks for new content, allows you to quickly scroll through blogs, put blogs into folders (ex. I have folders for such things as challenge blogs, company blogs, friends and miscellaneous), tag things, save things, etc.  My time spent in Google Reader is some of the best time of my day - maybe even more than actually making my own cards!!

I got lots of great advice yesterday, I've done a lot of research and I've played with a lot of apps.  I've already narrowed it down to a worthy (maybe even more than worthy) replacement to Google Reader.

First - a quick "lesson".  Many of the other blog readers out there may not be called Google Reader, but they are based on Google Reader.  They are only a front-end - they do not have the functionality of tracking blogs.  I currently used Feeddler Pro on my iPad.  It is ONLY a front end - so unless they do some major modifications, it will cease to work on July 1.  Any or all of these might do the modifications but from what I read it is no small thing so some will fall by the wayside, some may try and not make July 1st, some may succeed.

Second - I do have to suggest that you might look at bloglovin.  I did not study it all because my first criterion is that it work on my desktop and on my iPad and right now, bloglovin is desktop and iPhone.  For that reason, I didn't test it at all, but it looks very attractive and might be worthy if you aren't tied to an iPad.


My choice - Feedly.

I am truly loving what I am seeing and actually sort of wishing that I had found it earlier.  It is VERY attractive (but also very different from what you are used to seeing on Google Reader.)

HOWEVER - it is currently only a front-end, but unlike many others, they have already been working on the back-end functionality and are calmly and confidently saying that they can do it.

I have been playing with Feedly on both iPad and desktop and will continue to play.  I have already found some issues with the iPad, although nothing huge - and I have found some things that are different enough from Google Reader that I need to point out.

Next week, I will post a little Feedly tutorial for card makers.

But if you prefer to play yourself, here's just a bit of Feedly info:

1. Feedly works on desktop, android, ios (iPad and iPod)

2. Right now, they all connect through Google Reader - so they are all synced.

3. If you get it now, connect to Google Reader and it will bring everything over.  Their blogs says "When Google Reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless."   Their new version is a Pro version and, although no one has said said it, "Pro" usually means a cost - at least in the app store.

4. It is somewhat slow right now with the massive influx of users.  (Can you imagine waking up one morning and realizing your app has shot to #1 and you're rich!!)  Their blog post today  talks about how many servers, etc. they are adding - so they are on top of the problem.

5. They are VERY actively collecting user requests.  See here.  One of the request is to add direct sharing to Pinterest - yeah!! - if we cardmakers jump on the bandwagon, we could add a lot of votes to that request.  Vote here.

6. Just remember - it looks different - don't get too freaked out by that because it does the same thing!


There is definitely more that I want to eventually point out.

• I am collecting a list and WILL do a tutorial in a week or so. 
• If you are playing with it on your own - I would LOVE to have your input as a comment and I will add it to the tutorial.
• There are definitely some problems on the iPad and some areas that simply aren't intuitive - not huge things but enough to cause a bit of confusion.  I will include those in the tutorial and any workarounds.  The desktop version seems a little cleaner.

I'd love to keep hearing from you on this issue!!  Comment below!

Feeddler Pro users: I know I have Feeddler Pro users out there as you commented.  One thing that you HAVE to know - Feedly does NOT handle unread the same was as Feeddler Pro.  If you mark something as unread in Feeddler Pro, it stays unread until you make a conscious choice to tell it you have read it.  Feedly works like Google Reader - you can mark it "unread" but the next time you scroll by it, it is GONE.  Don't find out the hard way and lose your unread items!!  There is a little bookmark on top right of the page. Click it!!  It works like a star and saves your stuff!!

CAS(E) this Sketch: So Tweet

This is my second post today.  Please read further for my plea for help!!??

We have a nice simple sketch for you this week at CAS(E) this Sketch!

I had just picked up a cute stamp/die set by Hero Arts called Bold Pop - I liked the idea of a flower, bird, banner layer, but it was just too small for a regular card.  Then I stumbled on some 3x3 envelopes.  I don't know why I had them - but the light bulb came on and I realized that the flower/bird/banner would fit nicely on a small notecard!


It's fun working with these tiny cards!
I also am playing along with the colors at Pals Paper Arts.  When I saw them I swore that I was going to use them because I simply have not used either Calypso Coral or Raspberry Ripple and it would definitely be a challenge.  The challenge ends today so I am squeezing in at the last minute (but I did it!)

• Stamps: Hero Arts Bold Pop, My Favorite Things Notched Tags (sentiment)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Raspberry Ripple
• Ink: Stampin' Up Rasberry Ripple, Calypso Coral and Crumb Cake
• Accessories: Hero Arts Bold Pop dies, Timeless Twine Krazy for Kraft

Farewell Google Reader...now what??

I am in complete and total panic.

For years now, I wake up with my first cup of coffee, pop onto Google Reader and scroll through all of your wonderful creations.  Google Reader does all of the work of finding all of the new posts on the hundreds of blogs that I love.  I read all the new posts, comment, add to folders, etc.

But last night, Google announced that Google Reader will be no more as of July 1st.

I'm sure there are many, many alternatives out there - maybe even better - but I don't what they are.

What do you all do to read your blogs???

I don't want emails.  I don't want to go into all of my favorite blogs just to see if you have posted.

And most importantly - I would really like to do this on my iPad.

What do you all do???

{I'm going to go get a second cup of coffee now and try not to think about this}