random reflections

White on White

I love white on white cards, but I have to say trying to photograph them on a dark, rainy day is not an easy task. I had limited time as well as I had a busy schedule, and we're packing up for a trip to Sarah's for a week. Nonetheless, I'm hopping in here to post a White on White card for the CAS on Friday challenge as well as the Flower Challenge which calls for embossing.

When I sat down to create this card, I had a vision which was very different from what I ended up with. I started out by embossing some of the flowers in Simon Says "Delicate Flowers" set in white on vellum. I fussy cut a couple and played around with a variety of layouts and white on white backgrounds. I finally reached for one of the premade embossed cards I've had in my stash for years.

After adhering the flower to the center square I added some white dots to the stamens with a Signo pen for a little texture, and embossed a sentiment on another piece of vellum. 

The shadows when I was trying to photograph this obscure some of the dry embossing polka dots on the card. It's really much nicer IRL! But the CAS on Friday challenge ends in a day, and we'll be on the road so I need to get this linked up tonight. 

 

You Shine Brighter!

Time Out Challenges has a new challenge up, and I have a card to enter created with a fabulous die from Pinkfresh Studio. The challenge is based on a quote by Theodore Roosevelt.

Given the topic, I chose two gorgeous metallic papers I picked up in a wonderful paper shop in the Historic Third Ward of Milwaukee. One is a silver glitter paper and the other a purple metallic one. They are much more beautiful than they are in the photograph.

The "Geo Stars 2" Pinkfresh Studio die covers the front of a standard card so this turns out to be a pretty quick card to make. The sentiment stamp is from Papertrey Ink's "Number the Stars" set which I embossed in silver on black cardstock and trimmed out to make a banner.

The sentiment isn't difficult to read IRL, but also didn't photograph too well: "You Shine Brighter Than All the Stars in the Sky."

 

 

Happy Mother's Day: Round 2

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the United States. We've already started celebrating. Last night, Matt, Betsy, and the girls were here for dinner, and we celebrated Mother's Day as well as my upcoming birthday since we'll be on the road on my birthday. The older girls are experienced in helping blow out candles on a cake.

After church tomorrow, we'll be celebrating Mother's Day with Tracy's family at a brunch. I have all the mothers covered with cards as well as a card for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. (I won't be sharing that card until later in the month since I made two of them, and the other anniversary isn't until the end of the month.) Of the five Mother's Day cards I made, this is my favorite, and I'm posting it a day early to enter it in three different challenges:

CASology

Inspired By . . . 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: For a Special Lady

After all that introduction, here's the card:

When the Simon Says May Card Kit arrived, I knew I wanted to get it stamped right away. These beautiful flowers from the stamp set, "Delicate Flowers" were screaming to be colored. I decided on coloring with Copic markers this time, but they'd be beautiful in watercolors as well. There are no dies for these, so I fussy cut them which proved to be a bit of a challenge since I've been suffering from Trigger Thumb for several weeks. Two days ago, I had a cortisone shot in my thumb (painful!), and hopefully that will take care of the problem. There seems to be some improvement, but my hand is so bruised and sore from the injection, it's hard to tell. 

I layered the flowers on a "Shape Shifters Oval #2" (Papertrey Ink) and stamped the sentiment from "Fillable Frame #4" (PTI) in black ink. Then I mounted it on a True Black card.

As a final touch, I added some white dots to the stamens with a white gel pen. 

 

Take Three Thursday: At the Birdfeeders

We have a variety of bird feeders in our front yard, and enjoy watching the birds from our kitchen table. This week we've had three pleasant surprises. The first was the return of the yellow finches. I love the little one on the top of the crook.

And then a bigger surprise: the rose-breasted grosbeak. We see them only occasionally, and often just for a day or two on their way north, but this year they've been here for a week already. Yesterday I counted 6 males and 4 females in the yard at once! We've never seen that many before.

But the biggest surprise was this morning when, for the first time ever, we had a visit from some Baltimore Orioles. There were four of them and they returned multiple times today. I hope they'll stay awhile like the grosbeaks.

I'm joining in with Mary-Lou for the Take Three Thursday meme--just getting this posted at the end of the day!

And one final photo of three of the Baltimore Orioles in the tree across the street. They are such a brilliant orange you can see them from a distance. Watching both the orioles and the grosbeaks fly about is just beautiful. They are even more gorgeous in flight.

Happy Birthday!

It's not often that I'm under pressure to get a birthday card made. I keep a calendar of upcoming birthdays and try to be sure the card is made well ahead of time. Tonight, however, I discovered that the young lady I tutor twice a week will have her birthday while I'm in Wisconsin. Tomorrow will be our last meeting before her birthday. Fortunately for me, I have a stash of prestamped and die cut images that I've saved. I thought butterflies were a safe bet for a sixth grader, and I had a stash of pretty butterflies from Papertrey Ink's "Butterfly Folks" set as well as a sentiment stamped and die cut with "Penned Elegance." The sentiment had been stamped with the same ink as one of the butterflies. How lucky was that?

I found a piece of glittery, textured cardstock in the same teal color for the card. I recently purchased some wonderful patterned paper from The Stamp Market, and used one of the papers from the "Color Crush" set to layer on the card before adhering my butterflies and sentiment.

I added some glitter to the butterflies with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen, and three enamel dots to finish it off.

I'm linking this up to the Simon Says 10th birthday party, and to the new AAA Birthday Challenge where "Anything Goes."

Happy Birthday

Popping in with two cards made with the same design and materials for the Seize the Birthday Challenge (no topping this time), the Simon Says 10th Birthday Party, and Addicted to CAS Challenge: Contrast.

Pinkfresh Studio has become one of my favorite companies in the last year, and I'm particularly fond of their stand-alone dies. These card use two of those: "Dainty Blossoms," and "Noteworthy Frames." (You'll see these again this weekend!)

I thought the gold and silver flowers provided nice contrast against the Smoky Shadow cardstock which I layered on a card made from Simon Say's Fog cardstock. 

The cards are identical except for a variety of the die cuts. The sentiment which fits perfectly on the "Noteworthy Frame" is from Papertrey Ink's "Inside Out: Birthday" set.

I love the partial cut dies that the frames make, and I've found quite a few sentiments in my collection that work well with them.

Photowalk#15: Highland Park & May Five in Five

It's not often that I take the 5 in 5 minute photos for Sandi's Five in Five Meme on the fifth and post them on the fifth. Today the weather cooperated, and we got back to the park for another look at the magnolias. When we went last week, we hoped to go every day to watch the progression of the magnolias, as well as the other flowering trees and plants. A combination of busy schedules and rainy weather kept us away. Today's weather was perfect, and because it was a Sunday it was busier than usual at the park. This is also the fifth month in a row that I've combined a photowalk with the Five in Five meme. The first five photos are for the meme, although I had enough tulip photos that would have qualified as well. Here's a look at the magnolias as we walked down the hill.

I've long been a huge fan of the yellow magnolias. There are only two or three of them in the park.

Of course, there are the lovely pinks as well.

And daffodils:

And the tulip beds:

And gorgeous flowering trees:

I'll leave you with this charming photo of a group of Amish girls having a group portrait taken.

 

Make a Wish

I needed a birthday card for my niece's upcoming birthday, and thought the current challenge at AAA Cards was a great place to start. Here's the challenge:

And here's the sketch:

I decided to go with both the sketch and the optional twist to make a shaker card.

This was a relatively quick card to create. I started with a square of white cardstock, and die cut the Impress candles in the middle. The sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Wishes Come True "was stamped below the candles in black ink.  After adding some acetate behind the candles, I created the space for the shaker by adding two layers of dimensional tape around the outside of the square. 

Then I poured in a generous amount of "Cotton Candy" glitter by Martha Stewart. It's a wonderful mix of tiny stars and sequins in pinks, golds, and teals. I found a lovely metallic envelope that had been included in one of the Simon Says Card Kits that matched some of the glitter.

 

It's a very CAS design, and one I think would work for many recipients.

 

Happy Mother's Day-Take One

We'll be celebrating Mother's Day in May with a buffet luncheon. I want to have a card for each of the mothers present, so I'm working a bit ahead. When I saw this week's sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch and the beautiful combination of colors for the Color Throwdown Challenge, I got to work. 

I hadn't used the Simon Says "Sketched Flowers" set in awhile, and I thought the large floral bouquet would work well diagonally across the bottom of the card for the sketch.

Then I chose some Copic markers to go along with the Color Throwdown challenge. It's such a great combination. I kept the rest of the card quite simple, just adding a sentiment created with two additional stamp sets: Simon Says "Happy and Smile," and Mama Elephant's "Happy Everything." 

If not for the layer mat (Dark Indigo) on the Blueberry Sky card and the embossed part of the sentiment, it would have been a one layer card. It's not often I manage to create a card without any die cuts! 

I gave some thought to adding a few embellishments, but chose to keep it clean and simple. I'm also linking the card to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

It snowed here again today, so these cheerful flowers are a reminder that the snow is just a temporary aberration!

Oh, Happy Day!

On Monday, I posted a card for my grand-nephew, Finn. His little sister, Rowan, has a birthday the day after his! The new Time Out Challenge: Playful seemed perfect for creating a card for her with My Favorite Things, " Fly With Me."

It's one of my favorite sets for creating cards for little ones. On previous cards, I had to fussy cut all those cute little flying elephants, but during a sale, I picked up the dies for them, and it was so. much. easier. 

I also had previously colored one of the Mama Elephant "Cloudy Day Cover" die, so all I needed to do was color the elephants and their balloons with Copic markers.

All three elephants are adhered to the cover die with dimensional tape. The sentiment is also from "Fly With Me." 

I love that there's an optional bow to add to one of the elephants, making the card more feminine.