This week I have been thinking a lot about inspirations. Why certain things inspire me. Where I gain my inspiration. Thinking about where it all begins.
This morning I had about half an hour to be creative before I dug into my work day. I wanted to get a "quick fix" so to speak. When searching for inspiration, my eyes stumbled upon this card sitting on my desk. It is a special note from my good friend Dawn. The squares really struck me and I just began thinking about how much fun it would be to play with bits of patterned paper and a square punch. Immediately, I gravitated to our NEW Everyday Blessings 6×6 paper pack. All of the patterns in it are card makers scale. This means when using just a small portion, as you would with the square punch for example, you will still be able to include several elements from the paper. I know a lot of times with other papers the patterns are quite large and it’s difficult to do this type of technique.
For this one I was inspired by the precise spacing Dawn had in between her four accent squares. I matted mine on white and centered it on the card front. The sentiment (one of my absolute FAVORITES from Alli’s new stamp set, Shapes By Design) is simply stamped in white ink at the bottom. I love how "clean" this is, love the colors and I love how I could make several and leave the bottom blank to add a sentiment later.
With this project, I created a strip of patterned squares, side by side. I matted them with white cardstock and attached it to my card. I am crazy in LOVE with the way our white velvet flowers (from the Air Collection) coordinate with our patterned paper. So fresh looking and the texture just adds that subtle detail! The sentiment is from Butterfly Kisses and was stamped in white ink.
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In my small 30-minute stamping session I made both of these cards. Simple, quick & easy! So what are you waiting for? Got 30-minutes? Grab a square punch and our new pack of paper that you just bought and see what you can whip up! I would LOVE to see your results! Please feel free to link your project in the comments section!
SUPPLIES…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Stamps: Shapes by Design (life’s small pleasures) & Butterfly Kisses (Birthday wishes) from Papertrey
Ink: White craft from SU!
Paper: Spring Moss cardstock & 6×6 Everyday Blessings paper from Papertrey
Other: 1-3/8 inch square punch from EK Success, white velvet flower from Maya Road, small blue paper flower from Making Memories, green brad from Chatterbox
I love your cards Nicole (and Dawn’s card too!), can’t believe you made both in half an hour! Thank you for inspiring us, this is where I gain my inspiration ;o)
I can’t wait to get my shipment of those papers- I will probably make those exact cards- they really are “comfortable” to look at. Thanks for the inspiration.
Sandy
Great cards! I love the colors and layouts! Thanks for yet another inspiration! Can’t wait for next month’s releases! The new papers/ink/ribbons are awesome!!
Beautiful Nichole! You really have a talent and I have to say that patterned paper, wonderful. 😉
Cute cards! Thanks for sharing them with us today.
These cards are gorgeous. I love the colors, so soft and pretty. Thanks for Sharing!
Fantastic cards! Thanks for the inspiration.
Great cards both Dawn’s and yours. Can’t wait to go try one for myself. Thanks for inspiring me as always.
Here’s a card I made back in 2006 with the squares of patterned paper:
http://imagine-dream-create.blogspot.com/2006/09/simply-saturday.html
I love your cards – so pretty!
Both cards are beautiful, I love this blocking style and use it often. I am going to get my stack out today and see what I can do.
Nichole, thanks for sharing these cards today. I was asked to make 3 cards for our craft night at church and these fill the bill – easy, but striking! I just recently discovered Dawn’s wonderful blog and talent as well!
Sandy Kay
Beautiful! I love how you give inspiration in simple ways too so the rest of us can easily CASE your work! Thanks:)
This is always one of my favorite “last minute” card layouts. SO quick and easy! Now that I have my delicious new papers, I’m excited to play with them. Thanks for the reminder! (I have to say, though, that my spacing is rarely, if ever, that straight!)
Hugs,
Betsy
Simply fabulous. I need a card for a man that my husband made friends with when taking the grandchildren to pre-school. I know nothing about about this gentleman other than he is ill at the moment, so this is a great jumping off point for me. Thank you for the inspiration, and TFS.
simply beautiful, i love the subtle, soothing color pallete
Nichole…. I love your cards. Thank you for the inspiration to use my square punch.
I love Dawn’s card too. In fact, I love all of Dawn’s cards. She’s quite talented and a super sweetie too!
Hugs,
Renee
Love those cards Nichole! I just might have to try one of these tonight since I got my patterned paper. It is so pretty that it is hard to use:)! Glad to see you are finding a little time to be crafty!
Thanks, Nicole. This is just the push I needed to get going on the Polka Dot set again. I hit a creative roadblock, but now I’m inspired to push on.
Theresa
Love these cards, Nichole! Also love Dawn’s card (and all of her creations, too!)!
Love your cards Nicole. Isn’t Dawn such a great inspiration? (And also a real sweetie!!!)
Very cute! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I have to say I have been anxiously waiting for your next creations. You did not disappoint. Love the simplicity…and yes the patterned paper…you rock PTI!
I have to say I have been anxiously waiting for your next creations. You did not disappoint. Love the simplicity…and yes the patterned paper…you rock PTI!
Nichole, these are great cards. Can you believe that I forgot to order the patterned paper. Dang it! Thanks for posting Dawn’s blog link. We’ve been emailing via SCS…we live about an hour away and she remembers seeing me when I stopped by the LSS in KC to see you. She’s a sweetheart!
Just gorgeous ! clean fresh, all coordinating perfectly & something we all could make.
Thanks for the inspiration. I used this idea to make some St. Patrick’s Day cards last night!
Beautiful simple cards and such beautiful paper! I can’t wait to use mine!
These cards are so simple and truely inspired! Sometimes we get so bogged down with embellishments and colors, we forget how wonderful COLOR can be!
Thanks for the inspiration and showing a couple of really quick cards. 🙂
So pretty – I especially love the second one with the flower embellishment. I really love the look of the simple cards; I’m jsut not very good at stopping when they’re still simple!
Thanks for the inspiration today! I needed that!! I plan to take an hour to play later. Papercrafting is my favorite therapy to relax and express myself. Thanks again.
I just posted my take on this card (along with another PTI card) on my blog this morning.
http://madisonavenue.typepad.com
WHY CAN’T I????!! These are the type of cards that I LOOVE and yet, I seem to think that all my cards need to be so much more…why? These are wonderful….(now to find 30 min!!)
Starla
Hi Nichole~~I love how simple and clean the design is in your patterned square cards. They almost remind me of building a quilt, but instead of using patterened paper you use fabric 🙂
I also have to tell you how pleased I was to discover I’d received my most recent order from PT today. I can’t tell you how OVER-THE-MOON I was when I finally got to see with my own eyes, the new PaperTrey *Perfect Match* cardstock, ink and ribbons. The paper really is ALL that you promised, as it is quality through and through and the colours are mesmerizing 🙂
Thank you Nichole, as well as your Team, for developing this *Perfect Match* element, that goes hand-in-hand with your great stamp designs. Can’t wait to start creating with all of my new **goodies** from PT :0)
Love both your cards Nichole and Dawn’s too! You are such a wonderful inspiration and I check your blog very frequently and am always amazed at your beautiful creations. I love all my new PTI schtuff (along with all my old PTI schtuff, lol!!) I made a card last night with some of my PTI things and really wanted matching brads. I decided to try and make my own using white brads and the new spring moss ink and I was so excited that it worked and now I can have perfect match brads too!!! Here is a link to my card if you are interested:http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/829604?cat=500&ppuser=110263
Anywhoo, have a wonderful day and I can’t wait for the 15th to see what else you have in store for us:)
Dawn
Hey Nichole,
Thanks for the inspiration yesterday. I CASE’d your card but gave you credit. You can see my sample on Splitcoast.
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/829863?cat=500&ppuser=114056
Thanks for your help and borrowed creativity.
Like everyone else I want to say very nice cards. But no one else enquired about the beautiful flower on Dawn’s card – it doesn’t seem to mention anywhere what ‘stamp’ it is?? Can any one help – I can’t seem to find it in any of the Papertrey sets….. Denise
Ooooh, I feel another order coming on. I can’t wait to get the stamps I just ordered and now you tempt me with these gorgeous ideas for sets of stamps that I had not even considered, and those flowers, I had not even looked at the flowers on your site because I have lots but those velvet ones ,mmmm, delish.
very nice, love your colours!
These are all so beautiful and yet easy to do. Here’s mine:
http://berkerblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/no-stamp-card.html
Thanks for the quick fix of inspiration! I pulled out my punch, dusted it off, and busted out two cards.
http://createdbybd.blogspot.com/
Nicole, I had so much fun with this challenge 🙂 here is my card.
http://joannacraftykid.blogspot.com/
Hi Nichole! I was inspired by the cards you had created and made one of my own. I posted it on my blog this morning.. http://aschoss.blogspot.com. Thank you for the inspiration! 🙂