Saturday, January 16, 2010

Stamping Word Nerd Has Fun

Giggle! I got FOUR shipments this week, one each from Stampin' Treasures, A Muse, Clear and Simple Stamps, and StampinUp. This postal joy comes to me courtesy of relatives who gave me money for Christmas!

I love Christmas. And my relatives.

Anyway, I'm madly trying to play with it all at once, which, as you can imagine, doesn't work very well. Today, let's take a look at the damage I did with the new Hero Arts crossword puzzle background:



The new crossword puzzle stamp had to be MINE, not for artistic reasons but simply because I am a highly-trained word nerd. It's only logical I own it AND PUT WORDS ON IT.

Sorry about the shouting. I'm just a tad geeked out here.

The stamp is huge, just shy of 5.5 x 4.25 inches. Using the whole thing in black on a standard card is, shall we say, not visually attractive. There's just no place for the eye to rest, especially since the stamp leaves no border. I need to try it on a 5 x 7 card, but for now, I've experimented with cutting the image down. I like the result.

The alphabet here is Hero Arts Bird Branch Alphabet. I have about a dozen aphas that will fit this puzzle, but it would look really cool to use a pencil and fill in the squares by hand. Except I hate my handwriting. Does anyone other than Dawn McVey and Becky Higgins like their own handwiting?

This card is going to the troops, so I turned it into a Miss You/Love You card. But can you see the possibilities? Any words you want!!!! (I'm trying not to shout, but it's coming out italics.) Filling in empty spaces with tiny shape stamps allows you to balance out the design. OH MY GOSH!

Sorry.

I need to practice with arranging the words and filler images to make a pleasing composition. There's a bit of trapped white space under the word you, and you would look better right under miss. But this isn't bad for a first effort!

CAS Design Tip: Trapped white space is essentially a hole in the design. See how that 3x3 grid under the word you is completely enclosed by words and hearts and a solid square? It's even got a black square in the center to reinforce the idea of a hole! That's a design no-no. White space needs to have an escape off the page.

And now for a comment about the cool caribbean card base. I tried putting this on a white base, and blech. So blah and unappealing. The cool caribbean makes the red pop prettily and makes the whole card more fun.

Wow! Thanks if you made it this far, and have a great weekend!

21 comments:

  1. triple love this, need that stamp!

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  2. Fun stamp! Your post made me chuckle.

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  3. Love the cool caribbean and the red! And I love word nerds, I'm so glad you found a stamp to make you THAT happy.
    Petra

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  4. Just got this stamp - my mom's a scrabble addict, so I thought it would be perfect for her birthday card, but I can see it will be great for just about anything. Love the cool caribbean - I'm extremely miserly with mine since you can't get it any more!

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  5. how fun, susan!
    love this card, and the colors and the touch of ribbon. you are inspired!!
    thanks for the smile this morning.
    enjoy your weekend!!
    marty ferraro

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  6. Oh my, what a fun stamp....I have been doing the NY Times puzzle since I was 18 years old.....not that that makes me good at it, just a long-timer! All my family knows my love of crosswords, so this is right up my alley! LOVE it!

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  7. Cool stamp and card Susan. Thanks for a great start to my day - I laughed reading your post!!

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  8. Word nerds unite! :D Love your fun card!

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  9. Oh so clever! I can't wait to see what happens with this stamp when you are not distracted by the rest of your postal joy!

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  10. Womderful idea!
    I have some cardstock filled with a crossword design and have used it for fun b'day announcements and such. Problem is, it's so small. This is a nice sized (even if you cut it down) image for the eye- less busy than mine.
    I discovered aqua with red a while ago and am having serious trouble getting away from it. So serious I stopped fighting it :-D The red adds such oomph and elegance to an already happy colour.

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  11. Oh my. As a crossword fanatic (classic AND cryptic), I think I must have this stamp. :P Also perfect for making a card for my mother-in-law, who taught me the arcane mysteries of solving cryptics. Of course, I like your card a lot!

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  12. wow, I saw that stamp and figured I'd have no idea what to do with it...but look at you go!!! Awesome!

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  13. The possibilities are endless even to us non-word nerds. What fun you can have with this stamp. And your first attempt is much better than 'not bad.'

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  14. That Hero stamp is at the top of my list to purchase. So many possibilities. Love your creation!

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  15. WOW what a great fun card and colour combo... brilliant. Your ability to look at a stamp and see its possibilities never fails to amaze me!!! I love crosswords, particularly cryptic, so might just have to make a purchase (any excuse!!).
    I really admire your dedication to sending cards to the troops, what a generous lady you are.
    Hope your weekend has been a good one...... TFS

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  16. Thanks so much, Susan, for all of the education you are providing. This is a cool card, but even better, is what you are teaching me about design concepts and layout. Ah hah...I guess I need this stamp so that I can practice my white space placement!

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  17. I love getting new toys! I have not seen this stamp, but i think I am going to have to go looking for it!

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  18. Great card.
    I can see why you felt you needed to yell at us. This was a very smart creation.

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  19. What a super fun card. And yell away, it's your blog!

    And, I think Ali Edwards likes her handwriting, too. I know I like her handwriting.

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  20. How fun...and the possibilities are endless, aren't they? I love what you've done here, and the colors are wonderful!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!