random reflections

Color Hues #47

Color Hues has a fun combination for you this time:  Chocolate and Mint.

It was the candy mints that inspired me this time around, and like last round, I had a never before used product waiting in the wings to be put on stage.

I just love the Anita Jeram stamps from Colorado Craft and don't use them as much as I should. They're all filed together in my boxes, and I tend to forget they are there. It was so much fund to color these cute little mice with Copic markers.

The coordinating die cuts work perfectly and that made it easy to arrange these critters on a white panel die cut with the Gina K "Master Layout 7" dies which create a mini-slimline card.

The sentiment is from the "So Sweet Slimline" set from Colorado Craft and was stamped in Dark Chocolate ink. The card base is Papertrey's Mint Julep.

We'd love to have you come join us in the Color Hues Gallery. Be sure to check out the wonderful variety of cards by the Design Team and Guest Designer.

Seize the Birthday: No Stamping

I'm a huge fan of die cuts so this no stamping challenge from Seize the Birthday is right up my alley. I have a card that went to one of our male family members a week or so ago, but it's never made the blog.

It's another card that features hot foiling. I'm so happy I got the Glimmer Foiling system for Christmas. I've won a fair share of hot foil plates, and foiling plates represent a good portion of the products I've purchased since the holidays. This one features the Pinkfresh Studio Abstract Triangles--one of my wins from Pinkfresh.

Lots of folks have reported difficulties foiling on colored cardstock but the papers from Paper Source foil beautifully. This Night cardstock is a lovely navy, and I used silver foil.

The sentiment is a Simon Says' die, It's Your Birthday. The words were die cut from the same navy cardstock, and I used a textured silver for the shadow die. The last touch was to add a few sparkly star stickers. 

 

Less is More: Butterflies

The Less is More Challenge is one I always enjoy, but rarely seem to find time to participate. Last night I had some free time, and decided to play around with some butterflies that were already die cut. 

I found both a shimmery black butterfly and a gold metallic butterfly die cut with Papertrey Ink's Life Is Beautiful set. I used the frame portion of one of Ellen Hutson's Essential Square die cuts as a backdrop, and offset the two butterflies before adding them to the card.

All that was left to do was add a sentiment by Pink and Main from the Special Day set which I embossed in gold on black cardstock and die cut with a My Favorite Things Itty Bitty Strips die. Simple and definitely CAS!

I'm also entering this in the brand new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and Stencils.

Color Hues #46

Sadly, today's Color Hues Challenge brings with it the news that one of our teammates has died after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer. Lindsey was a design team member for several challenges and a warm, supportive, and creative human being. She will be missed by many, many friends as well as the crafting community. 

This round of colors - Blue and Purple - were chosen by Lindsey, and we're honoring her with cards focused on some of the things she loved:  humor, cats, gardening/flowers, love of reading, friendship, wine and tea.

After several attempts at a card in honor of Lindsey, I finally ended up with a floral card created with a new hot foil plate from Pinkfresh Studio, Folk Floral Stem. I used the coordinating stencils to color it with some Pinkfresh inks (Candy Violet & Lavender), Sea Glass by Gina K, and for the leaves Delicata Silvery Shimmer with highlights from a set of metallic rub-ons I found in my stash. Let me just say, photographing this card was as big a challenge as coming up with a card design!

After die cutting the floral stem, I added it to a panel of purple paper from Paper Source that I dry embossed with a very old embossing folder by Quickutz. I'm not even sure the company exists any more. I added that to a card base of light gray to mimic the leaves on the floral. 

It was hard to find a sentiment that fit in with the floral stem which fills the card front. I had an already hot foiled sentiment by Spellbinders that I was able to tuck in among the flowers and leaves. I added some gold pearls as the final touch.

I hope you'll join us for this Color Hues Challenge, and be sure to check out the wonderful cards created in Lindsey's memory by the Design Team and our guests.

 

 

 

Summer Findings

For a very long time I've wanted to use The Greetery "Curio Divider" and "Curio: Summer Findings" which I purchased at the end of last summer. I decided on using my metallic watercolors with a few stamped images as well as the die cuts.  I must admit this took awhile, but I totally enjoyed watercoloring the different elements, and deciding on the arrangement.

I chose a couple of sentiments to include. One is from The Greetery's " Pretty Postmarks" and the other from Papertrey Ink's "Just Sentiments: Summer." Both were embossed in Rose Gold. The other stamps both stamped in a light brown are also from the "Pretty Postmarks" set as is the die with the postmarks on it. I created a pseudo shaker with the pretty bottle, glueing the Rock Candy Glitter behind the acetate on the bottle.

It's easier to see the shine of the metallic paints in this photo. The two starfish are actually stickers I found in my collection and painted with the metallic paints. Both the starfish are attached with some dimensional tape, and I tucked a tiny piece behind one of the blue leaves. 

There wasn't a rich purple color in my metallic watercolor set, but I found a jar of Radiant Pearls that was just perfect for this gorgeous dragonfly. 

I'm entering this in two challenges: Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion and Fusion: Beach Tiers as well as a last minute entry to the July NBUS.

I'm adding this to two challenges:

I'm hoping I'll have time this week to create a few more summer themed cards. We're (hopefully) off to Scotland on Saturday for a two week tour that was scheduled for 2020 and paid for in 2019. We're going with good friends who are flying out of Washington, D.C. We're flying from Toronto. Given all the travel woes I've read about we'll all be grateful to meet up in Edinburgh. We scheduled our arrivals for the day before the tour starts so we do have a little wiggle room. Hopefully I'll have a couple of blog posts scheduled to post while we are away, but I don't intend to publish any directly from Scotland. If I do post photos, it will be on Instagram. You can find my profile here.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

It's our 49th anniversary today---hard to believe, but true. Tracy spent the morning on the golf course, and I had lunch with a friend. We're going out to dinner out in a bit, but that's the only celebrating for today since a week from Saturday we'll (hopefully) be on our way to Scotland with friends for a two-week tour that was originally scheduled for 2020. It's not often that I go 10 days without a blog post. It's taken me awhile to settle in after our two weeks with Sarah and her family, both here and at Chautauqua Lake. Crafting as definitely taken a back seat, and although I'm busy getting some future posts ready, there won't be a lot of crafting in August either. 

I did make a very CAS anniversary card for Tracy. There's no sentiment on the outside. I tried (and failed) to get a photo of the inside sentiment which reads, "Love you with all my heart." Indeed.

The card base and all the layers are die cut from Fresh Snow Linen card stock. I cut a series of squares with Ellen Huston's Essential Squares and added a gold metallic heart cut with Hero Arts Infinity Hearts. 

Since we're celebrating our anniversary, I thought I'd take the time to share a few family photos from the last two weeks. If there's anything we're most proud of it's our kids and grandkids. First off some photos from Chautauqua Lake. The cottage there was the smallest we've ever shared, but we made it work, and there was a lovely covered patio overlooking the lake. Like some of the Finger Lakes, Chautauqua Lake is a bit murky due to seaweed. The best swimming was in the middle of the lake, off the boat we rented for several of the days we were there. 

Here's Hannah, ready to go! She would have been in the lake every minute if she'd had a choice.

And Caleb would have gone tubing every single day if we'd had a boat for the whole week!

Watching the sunset (and the moon rise) was right up my alley!

Once we got back to Rochester, it was cousin time. It's always so wonderful to watch the five cousins reconnect in just a few minutes each summer. 

It was really hot while Sarah and her family were here. Matt and Betsy have a blow-up waterslide that cooled everyone off in a hurry!

Better yet, Betsy's dad has a fabulous pool in his backyard. Here are the dads, the kids, and Grandpa floating along.

One big change this year, is the willingness of the kids to let Grandma get a photo of all of them. This was the last night with dinner at our house.

And another one, because I couldn't decide.
Back row: Ella 7, Caleb 10, Skylar (almost) 11
Front row: Maddy 6 and Hannah 5

I know it's REALLY HOT for many folks right now. I hope you're able to find a cool place to hang out. It's warm here, but not oppressive for which I am grateful.

 

Seize the Birthday!

The blog's been pretty quiet recently, but we've returned from our week on Chautauqua Lake, and I've got just enough time to enter a couple of cards made for some guys in the family using the current challenge at Seize the Birthday: Metallic!

Having a hot foil machine has definitely increased my production of cards with metallic shine. I particularly like the many geometric designs that can be used for backgrounds. They're great for masculine cards.

This one uses the Art Deco hot foil plate from Pinkfresh Studio, foiled in gold. I die cut it with a square die from the Essentials line by Ellen Hutson and added it to a black card base.

The gold embossed sentiment from The Greetery's Everyday Labels is one of my favorites.

Next up is a navy and silver foiled card using Spellbinder's Skinny Stripes Background.

Foiling on colored cardstock can be a problem, but I've found that the cardstock from The Paper Source is quite smooth and foils easily. 

The sentiment die cut in silver and layered onto a vellum shadow die is also from Pinkfresh and layered onto a Crimped Circle Die from The Greetery. 

My daughter and her family came home with us to spend a few more day visiting with family before heading back to Wisconsin. It's the first rainy day we've had in quite some time. Needed not only by the plants and flowers but all of us as well!

Color Hues #45

Welcome to the next round of the Color Hues Challenge. Kristie is our hostess this time around, and she chose Peach and Gray.

When I first saw the color combination for this Color Hues Challenge, I immediately thought of watercolored florals. I chose a favorite of mine, Honey Bee's "Winter Anemone." I didn't let the "winter" in the title discourage me because I think these are beautiful any time of the year.

I used Karin Watercolor Brush markers for the florals, and added some more detail with Polychromos pencils for the florals and a black Glaze pen to add some dimension to the stamens.

Once the florals were die cut, I chose two shades of gray cardstock. I embossed the darker panel with a new Spellbinders embossing folder, "Plaid Company." The sentiment was embossed in silver from the Pinkfresh Studio "Perfect Sentiments" set.

The last touch was the addition of a few silver metallic pearls.

As always, you'll find a wonderfully diverse set of cards using Peach and Gray at the Color Hues Challenge, created by the Design Team as well as our two Guest Designers this round Caroline and Joyce.

I'm adding this one to the July NBUS Challenge--another new product used!

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt 2022: First Link-in

The Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt is on. I was trying to remember how many years I've participated, and it took me awhile to figure it out. The first scavenger hunt was posted in June of 2011 and was organized by Rinda Ontiveros who no longer blogs. When she gave up the endeavor, Mary-Lou of Patio Postcards took it on. So that makes 11 years! You can find this summer's list right here. There's still plenty of time to play along if you'd like. Photos can be taken anytime from June 1 to September 30. 

Like last year, I got off to a slow start, but Hannah provided me with two more photos yesterday. We're renting a cottage on Chautauqua Lake for a week. We've rented a boat for two days, and both grandkids were excited to go swimming and tubing. It was a beautiful day, but a bit windy.

So here are the eight photos I have. I may find better ones for some of the prompts, but it's a start.

#1 Path

#2 Peek-a-Boo  This wasn't posed exactly. She poked her head around and said "Peek-a-Boo,"
and did it again so I could get the photo.

#7 Leaf Vein - I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but I admire the leaves every time I walk 
down this street--which is frequently on my daily walk.

#11 Yellow and Blue Together

#12 Fuzzy Wuzzy Texture-this little guy was on the Brickyard Trail

#16 Oh So Colourful

#18 In the Distance - A respectful distance!
This skunk was headed in the other direction toward the sidewalk
 as I was walking last week. I had no desire to get too close, but pulled out
my camera to take a photo. With that, he retreated into the bushes, and I only got the tail!

#20 You Grew It, Made It
Last year we moved all our peonies which hadn't produced many blooms
in the past 10 years. They love the new spot, and this year we had plenty of beautiful flowers.

Alt B: Sunset 
I think I'm likely to find a better photo for this prompt, but this was the sunset the first night
we were here at the cottage, and I thought I'd better capture one when I saw it.

Many thanks to Mary-Lou for the wonderful (and occasionally, challenging) list for this year's hunt. It always turns out to be a family and friends project when we're traveling, which makes it even more fun.

 

 

 

Precious & An Unexpected Holiday

There was wonderful news at a recent extended family gathering--a baby boy is expected this winter! It's a long hoped for event, and I wanted to send a card of congratulations.

The sweet images are from Waffle Flower's "Little One Baby," which I borrowed from a friend for this card. I colored the images with Copic markers and used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I paper pieced the grid pattern from a scrap of patterned paper in my bin.

I forgot to photograph the inside before I sent this off, but it says "is on the way," from another borrowed stamp by Lawn Fawn. I liked these images so much I stamped and die cut a bunch to save for the next time I need a baby card---which admittedly, isn't very often.

This is off to two challenges: Inkspirational: Precious, and Addicted to CAS: Grid.

      

As I said in my last post, we had quite the weekend. We had planned to spend this week driving back and forth to a cottage on Canandaigua Lake to spend time with Tracy's family and a few friends. Just before we arrived at the cottage on Saturday, we received a phone call saying Tracy's sister had been scammed and the cottage was not rented to us! We were planning to celebrate the 4th with a boat ride to watch the fireworks on the lake, celebrate my mother-in-law's 93rd birthday on the 5th, and enjoy gorgeous views of the lake. In addition to renting the cottage, my sister-in-law plans all the meals for the week, and buys most of the food in advance with any average of 10 people at every dinner. 

After talking with the sheriff it became clear that there is very little recourse to such scams. It's not an unusual scam and the perpetrators are most likely not even in the country. We decided to make the best of a bad situation and are in the process of rotating dinners among the three houses where my mother-in-law can navigate with a wheelchair. So the 4th was celebrated at our house. We had a wonderful time despite no lake views and no fireworks.

I should have waited until the table was filled with food before taking the photo!

Last night we celebrated Ellie's birthday at her condominium with grilled oysters, steak, baked potatoes, green beans, salads, and a chocolate cake.

  

It certainly wasn't what we expected, but we're having a lovely week at home.