random reflections

Color Hues #108

It's mid-April and time for a new Color Hues Challenge. Nancy, our fabulous leader, has chose Lilac and Aqua. It's such a beautiful, soft color combination.

The biggest problem I had with this challenge was finding the "correct" lilac ink. Although the first ink I used had "lilac" in its name, it was entirely too pink. I tested several more before finding an older Altenew in called Lavender Fields. It was a great pastel purple.

As I did for the last challenge, I chose an older Pinkfresh Studio product. This time the Charming Floral Border with accompanying stencils and die. I used just one ink for each color, starting with a light hand and adding the highlights with a firmer hand. After finishing the coloring, I die cut the border. Then using Papertrey Ink's Lilac Grace cardstock, I did a partial die cut on the card base with the border die, adding the floral border on top. The foiled sentiment banner, Curved Everyday Sentiments, is by Spellbinders.

The closer view gives you a peek at the beautiful foiling as well as the perfect match jewels from the Pinkfresh collection of Essential Jewels as a final embellishment.

In the next day or so, I'll post the two additional cards I made while working on this challenge--the pink one and another "fail" when I used a stencil brush that wasn't clean enough so instead of aqua, I had green! But it's nice to have a couple additional cards in my stash.

It's time now for you to hop over to the Color Hues Blog and check out the great designs and creativity from our talented Guest Designer, Caroline, and the Design Team. I hope you'll join us in the gallery.

I'm sending this off to the April Pinkfresh Studio Challenge: Floral Frenzy.

 

Easter Bunnies: Part 1

Two of my Easter cards needed to be in the mail yesterday. Since my grandchildren definitely do not read my blog, I thought I'd share them while some of the Easter challenges are live. These cards are proof that I don't always take weeks, months, and sometimes a year to use the products I love enough to order. These Honeycomb Bunnies from The Greetery were irresitable in last month's release. I have to restrain myself from buying all the different varieties in the Honeycomb line.

First off is Hannah's card. I borrowed a friend's Stitched Scallops die, also from The Greetery and found a My Favorite Things pack of gingham papers, Gingham Galore, to use as the background. The bunny was die cut from my palest gray cardstock, Soft Stone, from Papertrey Ink. All the detail pieces came from my scrap boxes. I used stamps from the Honeycomb Basics as well as Honeycomb Spring. 

I added a spring from The Greetery's Wildflower Mix for the embellishment. The tail was die cut twice from white and the top on raised up a bit for dimension. Here's the bunny with the honeycomb opened up.

I struggle with holiday cards for my 13 year old grandson, who is now taller than I am. But I went ahead and made another version of the same bunny for him. When I made the Honeycomb Penguins for Christmas, he ended up putting it on his dresser which I took for a sign that it was fine with him. I intend to ask him after Easter what he thought of the card. 

The patterned paper was in an envelope with Easter die cuts and left-overs from previous Easters. I suspect it's left over from my scrapbooking days. The die cut carrots were die cut at my friend's house a year or two ago, and I'm not sure who made them. I was, however, delighted to find those in the envelope as well. This bunny was die cut from Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream cardstock. I added some dimension behind this bunny since the background was so busy. I did cut the patterned paper and the narrow orange frame with Gina K's Master Layout #2.

The honeycomb on this bunny isn't as bright yellow in real life.

Several of the Easter/Bunny challenges are also CAS challenges. Neither of these come close to being CAS. The Fourseason Challenge: Anything Spring and the Inspired By: Bunnies Challenge are super appropriate. The Four Seasons has a beautiful moodboard, but I didn't add it here--there were no bunnies, but I saw some bunnies already in the gallery. I'm also sending this to Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. gallery (this week is dies) and to her NBUS Gallery these bunnies are new but never used before!

 

Flower Shoppes

I had lunch today with two of my best friends, both of whom have April birthdays. Their birthday cards were in my mind when I asked for the Flower Shoppe dies from Concord & 9th for Christmas. 

I started putting together the flower pots, cart, and hanging plants when I was in Racine in March. I ended up needing more, but it was a good head start. After assembling the pop-up shoppe with Concord and 9th's Window Shoppe die, I added the acetate behind the windows, the architectural details, and the door. 

Getting the hanging pots, shelf and florals inside the shoppe would have been easier if I had added them before assembling the shoppe itself. But it was easier to know what I wanted back there, and a nice pair of straight tweezers made it pretty easy. Everything else was glued to the front of the shop.

I wanted the two cards to be somewhat different, so chose a different color for the shoppe and the awning. The "flower shoppe" sign dies looked fine on the green awning, but got lost on the black and white one.

I changed up some of the flowers, adding a tall plant in a gold pot from the Window Shoppe die, and a second hanging plant instead of a shelf. 

Both cards had the same inside message. 

Last year I created a Fashion Boutique for one of my granddaughtes. I love that the shoppes fold up and fit into an A2 envelope, and I love all the tiny details that are included in both the Fashion Boutique dies as well as these floral dies. Before I ever made one of these shoppe, I purchased the Book Shoppe dies and used it for a card for my grandson. Next on my list is to create a book shoppe. 

I'm sending these off to A Cut Above: Anything Goes.

 

Abstract Sunset

Right before the latest Color Hues Challenge went live, I discovered this canvas from an Etsy shop:

Had I seen it earlier, I'm pretty sure I would have made this card:

But it didn't take me long to get to it since I needed another masculine birthday card. (In fact, I need several, so hopefully I'll be back soon with more.) I knew as soon as I saw the inspiration piece that I had the perfect die from Ellen Hutson, Abstract Sunset. After die cutting the pieces from multiple cardstocks, I pieced them back together on a cream rectangle cut with Ellen Hutson's Essential Rectangles.

Then I pieced together some oranges, and die cut the sun. I ended up using one of Ellen Hutson's Essential Circles, since the circle die in the Abstract Sunset was smaller than I wanted. Once again the gold foiled Black Tabs from Memory Box was the perfect sentiment. 

This is off to the Just Us Girls Challenge where they want die cuts, but no flowers, and the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Birthday Cards.

Color Hues #107

It's April Fool's Day. It was one of my least favorite days as a teacher of 5th graders who delighted in trying to do you in and usually succeeded at some mischief. Today, however, April 1st means a new Color Hues Challenge, and it's a good one. Jules chose Orange (one of my faves) and Teal. It's a great combination, and not one I've used very often. 

I pulled out an old favorite hot foil plate from Pinkfresh Studio, Geo Blocks and it's accompanying stencil. I don't think I've ever used all three stencils because I love the way it looks with some white space. 

This time I decided to use a larger hot foiled sentiment from Waffle Flower, Hey, There.  I liked it placed on the diagonal which is not something I often do. 

This gives you a better look at the shiny gold foil. It took me awhile to figure out where I wanted to add some gold pearls, but I'm happy with the final decision.

As always, you'll find lots of inspiration on the Color Hues blog by our wonderful Guest Designer, Renate, as well as the fabulous Design Team! I hope you'll come join us!

My schedule has been crazy recently, and although I've been crafting, there hasn't been much that could be shared just yet. I don't usually let two weeks go by without blogging, but I hope to remedy that this week. The Women's NCAA March Madness schedule hasn't helped much. I'm a huge fan of women's college basketball and watch a lot more television during the tournament. The only consolation to the increased TV time, is that while I watched the games, I finished two big organizing and cleaning out projects in my craft room that have been on the to-do list for far too long. 

 

A New Masculine Birthday Card

We're in Wisconsin for a few days. It's always good to be visiting family, but Sunday was a rude awakening--snow, ending up with nearly 2" of the white stuff. Meanwhile, back in Rochester it was 60°+.

The day before we left, I squeezed in a little time to make a birthday card for my brother-in-law. The main foiled pattern, Pinkfresh Studio's Abstract Triangles, had already been foiled, so it was pretty quick and easy once I settled on the design. 

I did manage to put another NBUS die to use: My Favorite Things: Stitched Diamond STAX. Recently, I spent some time hot foiling lots of sentiments, so the Happy Birthday from Spellbinders, You Are Everything, was also ready to add to the diamond die cut. 

I love this design--elegant, but simple, and another great card for a guy. I'm quite sure I'll use the design again. No additional embellishment was needed. 

The card is off to three challenges and Darnell's NBUS site. AAA Birthday Challenge is looking for Masculine Cards, Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday Cards, and I'll add it to Seize the Birthday's Anything Goes category. 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Lemons and Limes for CH #106

As soon as I saw Julie's pick for the current Color Hues Challenge,

I knew I had exactly the right stamp, stencil and die set. A year ago February, I participated in Pinkfresh Studio's Create & Connect event. As usual, I never finished all the cards but I hadn't forgotten the Citrus Twist set which I never used during the course. This card is a CASE of Anett Gelencsér's Make and Take for that class. 

Her card used a partial die cut technique, but I opted to just cut a diagonal slice from the card front which I was able to use on the inside for the sentiment. I then attached the die cut slices to the front of the card.  Anett used the same coverplate, Stitched Octagons, but she used it on the front of the card, and I opted for the inside.

The stamp was embossed in gold as is the sentiment from Honey Bee's Be Still stamps. I added some of the additional flowers and leaves included in the set that are die cut separately with the same die for the citrus slices. This card turned out to be difficult to photograph and the gold embossing will have to be imagined by the viewer (probably due primarily to the gray days that extend in western New York through March--and sometimes into April.)

I attached the diagonal piece from the card front to the inside of the card so I'd have a good place for the sentiment.

This sentiment and die are also from Be Still by Honey Bee.

This color combo is a great antidote to gloomy days. Regardless of where you live, I hope you'll find yellow and green to be inspirational colors and join us in the gallery at Color Hues! You'll find lots of inspiration from the Design Team and our very special Guest Designer, Michele! 

I'm sending this card to the AAA Colorful Challenge, where the colorboard is yellows and green. Once again, this card is off to NBUS as well as a relatively new challenge Neglected Stuff since I've had the stamps and dies for over a year, and have finally found the perfect use for them!

     

Exotic Blooms

I have two cards to share, both inspired by current challenges which also gave me an opportunity to move one more item out of my NBUS box. The pretty little blooms were perfect for these challenges, all of which are among my favorite challenges. First off was Just Us Girls where it's Die Week and they want a birthday card. Seize the Birthday wants "no stamping," and The Flower Challenge (they're celebrating their 100th challenge!!) wants a circle in the design. Here's my answer to these three challenges. 

I started by die cutting Simon Says Exotic Blooms from watercolor paper as well as a Simon Says Stitched Circles die. I used finger daubers to color the florals, picking bright and happy hues to celebrate some of the first warm days we've had recently. They just make me happy. It's hard to tell but I very lightly ink blended a pale blue onto the circle before adding the flowers. Since no stamping is allowed, I pulled out my fave Memory Box Black Tab Sentiments. 

I had another set of die cut florals, and remembered that The Paper Players are looking for pastel colors. The flowers are the same, but the design is different.

Once again I used the watercolor paper. I love the texture it gives to CAS cards. This time I die cut two of Pinkfresh Studio's Nested Hexagon Blanket Stitched dies and layered them before adding the florals which I again colored with finger daubers. I thought this card needed a little something so I added three small gold pearls, and another Black Tab birthday greeting in a different font.

This card is also off to Seize the Birthday  and Just Us Girls as well as The Paper Players.

 

 

 

Songbirds

It's unusual for me to post twice in a day, but here is a set of three cards that, once again, came out of my "Work on This" box. This particular set of products have been sitting around for quite some time, but when I saw the As You See It Challenge for Birds, I knew it was time to get a move on. Having been away, I'm just posting these under the wire since the challenge closes in just a few hours.

The project idea began months ago when a friend gifted me with three charming die cut birds all assembled. I put them in a wooden bowl and pulled out Paper Trey Ink's Songbirds stamp and die set, a long-time favorite. The three birds were created with a gradient of blues, so I chose a different card base for each of them.

This was the lightest of the three birds, so I chose Papertrey Ink's Rustic White cardstock for the base. This card has a slightly different design than the other two. When I initially added the die cut branch, I glued it in the wrong place, so had to start all over. I had already put the MISTI away, so had to reposition the stamps. The musical stamp ended up being higher than the others, so I added a second branch to the bottom. I might like this design a bit better, but it was the last one I put together.

For the second card, I chose Papertrey Ink's Soft Stone, another favorite of mine. I added a few musical notes at the top of the card from My Favorite Things, Strike Up the Band.

 This combination of the darkest bird on the kraft cardbase ended up being my favorite. One of the things I like about these cards is that they are pretty generic birthday card. I'd feel comfortable ending them to guys or girls. One close up so you can see how darling these birds are. 

In addition to As You See It, I'm sending this off to A Cut Above challenge as well.

 

 

 

Spring Blossoms

A couple of challenges motivated me to move another project out of my "Work on This" box which utilizes a NBUS product, the Hill Blossoms stencils and dies by Altenew. I don't find using Altenew stencils to be as intuitive as those by Pinkfresh Studio, but once I got them placed correctly, they were very easy to color. I used my new one inch blending brushes from Pinkfresh, and they are truly a game changer. 

I ended up making a mini-slimline card when I found the stitched and scalloped die cut in my box of premade treasures. I must have die cut them at a friend's house, since I don't own any dies quite like this one. 

The sentiment is, once again, a Memory Box black tab. They work well on so many cards! I added some very tiny black pearls to the centers of the flowers, and then some clear drops as a final accent. 

The challenges that inspired me were The Paper Players looking for Spring Flowers, Just Us Girls: Anything Goes: Stencils, and Neglected Stuff (this stencil has been in my box for months!). It's also off to Darnell's NBUS, and will link it up to her I.D.E.A.S. since this is the week for Ink (not a challenge per se.)