random reflections

Snowflake Kisses

There's a great Color Throwdown Challenge now:  navy, gold, and white. I knew right away that I'd love working with that combination, and I did. Photographing that navy, however, proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. Here's a mini slimline card that could be a Christmas card or a winter birthday card.

I chose a Concord & 9th Midnight cardstock for the card base and layered two snowflakes, one gold and one white die cut from My Favorite Things "Stylish Snowflakes."

The sentiment, from Penny Black, is a new one I picked up at Ellen Hutson's birthday sale called "When Snow Falls." I expect to use it frequently for birthdays in January and February. Lots of fun "snow" sentiments but some lovely ones referencing winter as well.

Along with the Color Throwdown Challenge, I'm entering this in the My Favorite Things Slimline Challenge which asks for mini slimlines this time around. They're becoming a favorite of mine, so I may be back with some more since the challenge runs until mid-December. 

 

 

 

Color Hues #30

Carol picked an elegant combo for our next Color Hues Challenge: Silver and Gold. 

Last year I acquired several new snowflake dies, so I knew right away what I wanted to use for this challenge. I chose a group of snowflakes from Gina K, "Snowflake Trio," which I believe were part of a kit last year. Recentl,y I've ended up with more than one card for these challenges, and this is no exception. Here's the card I set out to make:

I die cut multiple snowflakes from silver and gold glitter paper and arranged four of them on a black die cut mat (by Pinkfresh Studio). Once I had them carefully glued down, I decided the card base would be best in a shimmer silver (Papertrey Ink). That left just the right space for a circular mat and embossed sentiment from The Greetery's "Speed Tagging Christmas."

The final step was to add gold and silver gems by Trinity Stamps.

I still had quite a few snowflakes laying on my desk, and thought I could layer silver and gold snowflakes for an A2 card.

This, of course, appealed to my CAS heart. I die cut a diagonally stitched circle from the Pinkfresh Studio "Slimline Essentials," and layered the snowflakes on top of it and added another gold gem.

The gold embossed sentiment here is from Papertrey Ink's "Rustic Wreath," a purchase made many years ago. 

Once I finished the A2 sized card, I realized that really the best size just might be a mini slimline, and luckily, I still had some snowflakes to spare. 

All the products used here are the same as those used on the A2 card, just in a different format.

In the end, the mini slimline is my favorite. I definitely prefer CAS cards, although I do like the multiple snowflakes on the slimline. Since it's a larger card, it can carry the weight of four varied sized snowflakes. I'd be curious to know which one is your favorite.

The new Just Us Girls Challenge was posted on Saturday. It's Trend Week, and the challenge is for mini slimlines. Perfect timing!

But, most importantly, go check out the gorgeous creations made by the Design Team and our Guest Designers, Carol and Hilary, and join in the fun. 

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

  Tracey

 

 

 

Winter Whites

I love white on white, but have to admit photographing it in an (always) dark house can be a challenge. Nonetheless, this is one of my favorite Christmas cards this year.

The Less is More Challenge is "Winter Whites," and I knew what I wanted to do. It's hard to see in the photos above, but I started the design by scoring seven lines of different lengths on the left side of the card. Then I added a series of snow flakes from My Favorite Things "Stylish Snowflakes." It's easier to see the score lines in this photo.

The silver embossed sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Beautiful Berries: Winter." The last touch was to add a pearl to the center of each of the snowflakes. Although they appear silver in the photo above, they are white pearls.

Along with Less is More, I'm sending this off to Happy Little Stampers Dies: Anything Goes.

 

More Christmas Poinsettias

My watercolor session with Altenew's "Modern Poinsettia" resulted in three different cards. I posted the first one here, and the second one here. Today is the last of the cards.

These were watercolored with the Altenew 36 pan watercolors and then splattered with white ink. I decided not to add splatter to the black background to keep a cleaner look. 

The background panel was die cut with one of the Pinkfresh Studio "Diagonal Stitched Slimline " dies. The sentiment from Colorado Crafts "Slimline Poinsettia" was embossed on gold. It was added to a white card base before arranging the poinsettias. The last touch was to add a group of small gold pears to the centers of the poinsettias.

I'm linking this card to three challenges:  Addicted to Stamping and More: Christmas, Simon Says Monday: Any Holiday Occasion, and Happy Little Stampers Christmas: Anything Goes.

 

Beyond Van Gogh

We're visiting Sarah and her family in Wisconsin. On Thursday, we all went to the beautiful Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee to see the interactive and immersive Beyond Van Gogh exhibit. I thought it would be fun to share some photos. It was mesmerizing, even for the 4 and 9 year olds.

The first part of the exhibit consisted of open frames and a series of informational panels about Van Gogh's life and his work.

The next room was the Waterfall Room where the art flowed down the walls onto the floor. Here are just a few images to give you a taste of the experience,

Walking into the large exhibition hall was a breath-taking experience. The art slowly changed from one series of paintings to another. I've only captured a very few here.

Hannah enjoyed chasing the colors across the floor. Tickets were timed and the room was huge, so it was perfectly OK for her to run across the designs which flowed from the walls onto the floor.

It wasn't all in color. Sometimes the exhibits began in black and white, and for others they remained in black and white.

Finally, my first attempt insert videos onto my blog. With Typepad, it's trickier than it ought to be. I had to clear out some of the photos on an old Flicker account in order to upload the videos. I don't like the black borders, but I'll try to figure that out later. Both videos are very short, but they'll give you a sense of what the exhibit was like.

 

If you're interested in learning more, the Beyond Van Gogh site has lots of information. It turns out that Beyond Van Gogh is also showing in Buffalo, just an hour's drive for us. I was unaware of it until the week before we left, but I'm so glad we got a chance to see it with both grandchildren which certainly enhanced the experience for us.

 

 

 

Color Hues #29

October flew by for me, and here it is---November 1st! The good news is it's time for a new Color Hues Challenge. Sheri's choice this round is Brown and Orange, and I had quite a good time with it.

I find it interesting how frequently I end up creating two cards for the Color Hues challenges. The first card I made was CAS on steroids, and I was was pretty happy with it. It didn't end up being the one I posted on the Color Hues Challenge site, however. Here's Card #1:

There are a couple of fall anniversaries to celebrate and I thought this did the trick. I started with the Papertrey Ink "Leaf Silhouette" die and cut it from a piece of Bristol that I had watercolored in shades of orange. I die cut the white rectange and cut two rectangles, one from a scrap of orange cardstock and one from a piece of Ellen Hutson's Woodgrain paper that I darkened with Distress ink.

The sentiment from Pink and Main's "Special Day" was embossed in gold and I used a very old punch to cut a heart from metallic gold paper. I glued it to three additional hearts cut from cardstock to give it some dimension. I also added dimension to the white rectangle with dimensional tape.

And then I was lucky enough to spend a crafty afternoon with two friends, one of whom had the Papertrey Ink "Bold Borders: Foliage." I die cut a couple of them from white cardstock. Once I was home, I wondered what would happen if I tried to ink blend the entire frame. It worked quite well, and here is Card #2:

I used the Distress Oxide inks Spiced Marmalade and  Carved Pumpkin for the leaves with a bit of Catherine Pooler's Orange Twist toward the bottom. The branches and the frame were ink blended with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink. 

After carefully gluing the frame to a piece of Papertrey's Rustic White cardstock, I gold embossed one of the sentiments from The Greetery's "Everyday Labels." The open space in the frame was just the perfect size.

It took some time to get the frame and leaves ink blended, but I think it was time well-spent, and I'd do it again. The only embellishment are three gold gems from Paper Studio.

I hope you'll hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Åsa, have come up with . . . and join in the fun!

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

Tracey

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, and I can't think of a better place to be than with grandchildren who are SO excited about going Trick or Treating! Sarah and her family moved to a fabulous neighborhood with lots of kids. Both Caleb and Hannah have good friends just down the street. I've shared a couple of Halloween cards here and here, but made five more for the grandchildren. We gave the three girls their cards and Halloween gifts before we left.

I made four different cards, creating two of the same for Hannah and Ella. It's thanks to my crafty friends that I had a huge pile of die cuts to choose from when it came time to create the cards.

Aside from the sentiments the cards are just the same---Royal Purple (Simon Says) cardstock splattered with silver metallic paint and layered onto a cardbase of Orange Zest (PTI). The silver glitter paper is several years old and came from a cute shop in Milwaukee. I used a clear glitter pen to add glitter to the cats which you can see better here. The cat and the moon are from PTI's "Boo Black Cat" set. 

I also wanted all the cards to have some kind of interactive feature. The cats have a wobbler behind them. Try as I might, I never got a very good photo, but when Ella opened her card at home she "wobbled" the card, and I got a better photo,

Next up is Maddy's shaker card. 

I started by ink blending the Pretty Pink Posh "Spider Web" stencil on Bristol paper. I die cut the letters with the Pinkfresh Studio "Adore" alphabet, backing it with acetate and filling it with a variety of sequins and tiny stars.

I found the cute spider sticker from "la petites" at Hobby Lobby. 

Skylar's card was a spinner card. I made this one twice trying to get the spinner to work effectively. I now know what kind of thread I need to make it work even better than it did. 

Putting a greeting inside the card proved to be tricky, too, since I didn't want it to show through the opening for the spinner piece. In the end, it worked out really well. The ghosts are die cuts from Poppy Stamps and the greeting from The Stamp Market's "Halloween" set. The patterned paper is from an old 6X6 pad by American Craft. 

Last, but not least, is Caleb's card which I thought would appeal to a nine year old boy.

The center ghoul on the card is mounted on the card with a large Wobbler like the black cat  cards above, There's a narrow strip of patterned paper from the same paper pad behind the three ghouls from Papertrey Ink's "Grins and Ghouls." 

I found the perfect sentiment in an old Papertrey Ink Make-it Market kit, "Halloween Pin-ups" which was die cut with an Essential Oval by Ellen Hutson. A slightly larger oval from My Favorite Things "Black and White Stripes" served as a mat.

Yesterday, one set of neighbors arrived to carve pumpkins on the back porch so we have a set of jack-o-lanterns to decorate the front porch tonight. It's going to be a chilly evening for Trick 0r Treating, but thankfully, it's not raining or snowing!

Hope you have a great Hallow's Eve!

 

 

Happy Holidays

I've been slowing chipping away at the number of holiday cards I want to make. I have one to share today with one of my favorite poinsettia stamps from Altenew: "Modern Poinsettia." I posted another holiday card with the same poinsettia here. 

I stamped the poinsettia on hot press watercolor paper. Although it does not have as much texture as cold press paper, it does require two stampings to get a clear image. Thanks to the MISTI, that's easy to do. The next step was to watercolor the floral and die cut it with the accompanying die.

After I die cut it, I decided it would benefit from a few black splatters. It's taken me far too long to finally master the art of splattering, but I'm no longer afraid I'll ruin the whole thing!

I added a wide strip of black and white patterned paper from My Favorite Things to the left side of the card before adding the poinsettia with dimensional tape. The beautiful greeting is from the Colorado Crafts "Slimline Poinsettia" stamp. I'm using three of those greeting repeatedly this year on my cards.

I'm sending this off to two challenges: Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas, and Happy Little Stampers Christmas: Anything Goes.

I'm also adding this to a new (to me) site: Falling for the Holidays Blog Hop, sponsored by the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers.

 

With Sympathy

Sympathy cards are never anyone's favorite card to create, and I'm a firm believer that CAS and subdued colors are the best bet. I recently acquired the wonderful "Leaf Mix" dies by Altenew, and I think they might become a "go to" set for just this kind of card.

This was a pretty quick and easy card to assemble since I had earlier die cut multiple leaves from four different metallic papers. I chose a gold, bronze, and brown leaf and carefully glued them to the front of a ready-made card by Memory Box. I love these cards because they are white inside which make them good for writing notes of condolence. 

This lovely sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Warm Regards" set which hasn't seem much love for awhile. It was gold embossed on a piece of Cocoa Bean cardstock and added to the card with a layer of dimensional tape. 

The card is for one of our dearest friends. Her mother-in-law passed away recently. Ruth lived a long life. She was 99 years old and outlived her husband and both her sons. That just shouldn't happen to anyone. The last several years were difficult, so it's good to know she's no longer struggling.

There was a beautiful memorial service this weekend. Ruth was the oldest of 10 children and grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Her youngest sister who is in her early eighties was able to attend, and spoke so warmly of her older sister, who she saw as a second mother. Ruth was a phenomenal quilter, and both Sarah and I are recipients of one of her beautiful quilts, all done by hand.

I'm entering this in the CAS on Friday Challenge where one of the options is Autumn. This card definitely has an autumn feel to it.

 

 

Eek!!!

Halloween card making is finally complete, and over the next week I'll be sharing the cards I made. This one is for my mother-in-law who has always loved Halloween. In the days when she ran a very successful bed and breakfast, she often closed it over Halloween weekend to entertain her grandchildren with games, hide and seek, and lots of Halloween treats. 

The design of this card was cased from a winner at The Paper Players Challenge several weeks ago. The original card was a fabulous example of a CAS card. I went a bit fancier with mine. I die cut the Pretty Pink Posh "Stitched Film Strip" from black paper and the Papertrey Ink "Corner Adorner: August" from silver glitter paper. Then I backed the opening in the frame with pieces from the die cut web.

I layered that on a bright purple paper and embossed the sentiment from The Stamp Market's "Halloween" in silver. The cute spider (is any spider cute?) came from Hobby Lobby.

It all went on a bright orange cardbase. I never used much purple and orange together in past years, but this year, it's been a favorite combination. I'm throwing this in the ring at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge which is Spooky/Halloween.