random reflections

With Sympathy

It's been a difficult week. One of my very best friends had to admit her husband to hospice this week, and he passed away on Friday night. Six of their seven children arrived from all over the country, and it was as peaceful and kind as it could possible be. Nonetheless, we will all miss Jim's sharp intelligence and great sense of humor. It reminded me that I had a couple of sympathy cards I hadn't posted yet.

Sympathy cards are one of the hardest cards to make, and CAS ones have always seemed appropriate to me.

This is a smaller card by Memory Box, a die cut circle cut with Simon Says stitched circles, and a die cut leaf by Memory Box. The sentiment is from Boutique Borders: Sympathy by Papertrey Ink.

The next card uses the same sentiment with some border dies from that set stamped on the die from the Center Style: Masculine die set.

This is a fairly new die for me, and I can seen lots of applications for it, but it was perfect for a simple sympathy card.

I almost never have a sympathy card made ahead of time, and I was certainly not prepared for this week's events. Once the memorial is complete, I'll sit down to make a card for my friend.

Pairs: Process and Product

Yesterday was Ella's first birthday---how time flies! Typically she is a happy little girl, and she and her sister are lots of fun. For once I started her birthday card with a pretty clear idea of how I wanted it to look. Here's a view of the card in process.

At this point, I had colored and die cut all elements for the card, and was laying it out on my desk trying to decide on which sentiment to use. After I assembled the card, as I stamped the last word of the sentiment, I got a smudge of ink on the card. So I took it apart and decided to use a brighter pink cardstock. So here's the final product.

The adorable little animals are from Simon Say's "Baby Party Animals," the frame from Pretty Pink Posh, the #1 from Papertrey's "By the Numbers," and the sentiment from Papertrey's "Stylish Sentiments: Birthday." The animals were all colored with Copic markers.

And of course, I couldn't post this without some photos of the birthday girl. Matt and Betsy had a lovely party for family and a few close family friends. Ella is teething, and was sound asleep when the party started. They woke her up an hour later, and she was not her usual cheerful self. She showed no interest in eating any of her personal cupcake. (There was a big cake for the rest of us.) 

 

But once she was given a spoon, she had a good time going at it!

I'm popping this card into the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

 

 

 

Papertrey November 2015 Blog Hop Challenge

Two days ago, I woke up with ideas for this month's blog hop. I wanted to try the watercolor technique with the Spruce and Sprigs stamps, and it took awhile before I got anything I was happy with. I tried painting directly on the stamp with watercolor paints which I've see done on the card blogs with great effect. I never managed to get the right consistency, so I went back to using the Papertrey inks and spritzing them with water. I also added water directly to the watercolor paper before stamping.

The inspiration piece for this month uses pretty non-traditional colors, but I ended up liking them a lot. 

Here's the first of two cards I created with the watercolored images.

I cut the watercolored piece with the Stitched Tag die and adhered it to a Tropical Teal card. Then I added a die cut sentiment (Christmas Cheer) and a snowflake (old Sizzix die) from silver adhesive paper and some sequins. The "Merry" came from the Stylish Sentiments: Holiday set from several years ago. I tied two different kinds of silver twine through the tag to finish it off. I also added some Clear Star Gelly Roll pen to the sprigs. 

Only one card can be posted for the blog hop, so I thought I was done, but as I was cleaning up, I picked up another piece of the watercolored paper, and came up with another card, which I like just as much.

Most of the supplies are the same. The two stitched rectangle dies are from Simon Says and they're added to a Rustic White card base. 

You can find more holiday inspiration on Nicole's blog right here.

Ten Things on Tuesday

On this week of Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S., the Ten Things prompt is so appropriate:  10 Things You're Thankful For. I have a lot more than ten, but these came to mind in a matter of minutes.

1. Our health
2. Our family
3. A wonderful marriage
4. A warm and comfortable home
5. Good friends
6. The library
7. Retirement
8. Crafting space and crafting time
9. Photography
10. The internet—source of inspiration and ongoing learning

And a big part of the inspiration I get comes from this wonderful blogging community, so this card's for all of you! Thanks for visiting, for taking the time to comment, and for including me in your blogging family.

 

 

All the supplies except the card (Memory Box) came from the November Simon Says Card Kit. I'm linking this to the Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Thanks/Thanksgiving. 

Hope your week is off to a good start!

 

 

Simon Says November Card Kit

The November Card Kit from Simon Says was filled with great patterned papers and some really cute die cuts. I don't usually create without using the stamp set from the kit, but I didn't touch the stamps for either of these cards.

I love the fall colors of this card--perfect for a November birthday. I trimmed around the die cut so there wasn't so much white, added some brown glitter (I think from a previous card kit) to the cap of the acorn, and a bit of gold pen to the veins of the leaf. The sentiment from Papertrey's "Birthday Style" was trimmed by hand into a banner and tied with some thin twine, also from Papertrey. 

I also needed an anniversary card, and love this card by Debbie Hughes where she used a cluster of the die cuts. I added another pear to the group, and created the sentiment on the computer and die cut it with one of the banner dies from Papertrey's "Simple Frames." 

I added some Stickles Glitter to the pears and berries.

It was fun to create a couple cards using some different types of materials. Another reason I love my subscription to the card kit. 

 

 

Fall Cards for Guys

There were a number of birthdays for guys on my birthday calendar this month. I made a few multiples but have three different cards to share. Two of them are a variation on the same theme.

When Papertrey Ink released the Leaf Prints stamp set, I passed on it. After a year or so, I decided it would be a good addition to my collection, and I'm happy I changed my mind. I stamped the leaf on watercolor paper after rolling the edges in a slightly different ink color. Then I took a water brush and blended the colors some more, adding a third color with one of my Clear Color markers. Then I embossed the veins with gold embossing powder. I die cut and stamped the birthday sentiment from the "Swoosh" set.

Then I tried a slightly different version which I think I like even better. This time I trimmed the main part of the card and mounted it on a Classic Kraft card.

The last card has a totally different vibe. 

I used the same die cut and sentiment set, but layered some of the papers from the Black and White collection. It's a riff on one of the cards Maile Belles created when she released the paper collection.

Now I have a pile of tags to make for our annual gift exchange drawing on Thanksgiving, and a project I promised to create for Sarah that needs to be in Chicago by the first of the month. There just hasn't been much studio time this week.

 

Pairs on the Canal

My friend, Debbie, and I are still getting in our long walk on the canal every week. The weather for November has been wonderful, and although it was a chilly start yesterday, the sun warmed us up pretty quickly. We almost always see ducks swimming in the canal, but yesterday there were large groups of Canadian geese----

on the water and in the air
swimming and flying

I wish I'd had my big camera with me, as it was hard to get a closer, clear shot of the geese swimming across the canal.

Surprisingly, the iPhone did quite a good job of capturing them flying overhead.

Linking up to Helena's blog, and wondering how we've gotten so close to the end of the year!

 

 

Card Concept Challenge

It's been quite awhile since I participated in a card challenge, but the fall inspiration at Card Concept caught my eye this week.

It's an interesting challenge since you must identify your entry by its style. Typically that would be an easy one for me since most of my cards fit the category of Clean and Simple. But not this one, which was made specifically for a friend who definitely falls into the more Shabby Chic /Country category. I suppose it could also fit the Layered Clean and Simple style, but the doily, the twine bow, and button seem to put it in the Shabby Chic category.

When I was die cutting and coloring images for Skylar, Ella, and Caleb's Halloween cards, I die cut and colored some of the other images from Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers by Papertrey Ink. I was happy to have this one already for a card when it came time. I die cut the Shaker Friendship Jar, backed it with clear cardstock and bumped it up with some fun foam before adding the fall images. The patterned paper is from a Papertrey Ink pack called Autumn Abundance---just perfect!

My thoughts and prayers are with all those who have suffered losses in the horrendous massacres in Paris this weekend. The world can be a very frightening place these days, but I do believe that it's important to carry on so that the terrorists do not win this battle of fear and intimidation. Nonetheless, it gives one pause.

 

A Pair for Remembrance

Two photos from the archives for Veteran's Day to honor the men and women who have served all over the world to protect and defend us. 

The Vietnam Memorial in Highland Park

The graves of veterans at Mt. Hope Cemetery

Lest We Forget

18 Minutes--and a New Plan of Action

This is a post I started writing in September, and have finally returned to, but now with two months of history, so I think the delay was a good thing.

I suppose it's because I spent 37 years in a classroom, but September always seems like a good time for a fresh start. In August, I noticed one of Sarah's Good Read posts for a book called 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. 

When Sarah gives a book 4 or 5 stars, I always pay attention. (Unless, of course, it's one of her dystopian novels which are definitely not my thing.) Our library had a copy and I picked it up on the way to the pool a couple of weeks ago. My friend, Tina, leafed through it, and said, "You don't need this book!" But she was so wrong. Although it's intended for business people, there were lots of applications for someone who's retired as well.

I've been playing around with the concept of block scheduling for the last year or so. In an effort to make it work, I purchased The Action Day planner in early April. Every Sunday I sat down and filled in all my out-of-the-house commitments. It helped me see where the blocks of free time were each week, but I still wasn't getting a good balance of the things I need and want to do completed each week. Sometimes I filled in the empty spaces with specific projects, but not always. Since reading this book, I've been much more intentional in how I fill my calendar, and much more productive. Things still slide by. I'm four months behind with my Project Life pages, but it never leaves my mind because each week, there it is under the Projects category.

So, today---November 5---I woke up thinking about a presentation being given this morning, and trying to decide if I wanted to give up two hours of my day for it. Suddenly, I remembered my Five Annual Focuses and knew right away that it wasn't a priority. And then, remembered this blog post and decided to finish it up!

Bregman's first task is to have you identify five or six areas that are important to you. When you're deciding how you'll spend your time, if it doesn't fall under one of those areas, you probably should pass on it. I have a list of things I want to do, want to learn, and care about. Gathering them together into broader categories took a bit of thinking. I'm still not sure that everything is just where it should be, but it helps me think about where I want to spend my time. This morning I redid it for this blog post and made a few revisions. I used one of Bregman's printouts available on his website to write out my five categories, and put a piece of Washi tape over the title that doesn't match its purpose.

Here's a look at this week's Action Day Planner pages. It's been a busier week than usual, probably because we were away for 10 days. Nonetheless, I've started a new Self-Directed Study project each morning that I'm home, and have done a daily sketch (I started again on October 1 and have managed to keep it up.) My Christmas cards are more than half done, and I'm finally back to working on Project Life. You can see that I've changed up some of the headings to meet my needs. I've also learned not to plan each day's activities too far ahead. I usually do it first thing in the morning. SDS stands for Self-Directed Study (more about that coming soon), PL is Project Life, and Midtown is our gym. Names typically indicate an appointment or meeting. Voices is a weekly discussion group at our church. Everything else is self-explanatory. (I write in pencil which doesn't photograph well.)

I also wrote out some of the key points (for me) from the book, and find it helpful to look back on them:

• "Failure is inevitable, useful, and educational. Just don't give up---stay focused over the year---and it will pay off."
  
  
• "Create an environment that compels you to do the things you want to do." For me that's keeping my sketchbook on my desk in front of me, and my supplies for card making and Project Life easily accessible, and easy to put away. (Having a neat workspace is critical for my productivity. If I don't clean my desk before I go to bed, it's the first thing I do in the morning.)
  
  
• "You need to be motivated for only a few seconds. Know when you're vulnerable, and you'll know when you need to turn it on." (Critical for my desire to snack at odd times in the day. I need to stop, and focus on a new task, and move on!)
  
  
• "Don't forget to schedule transition time; it can help make the next task shorter, faster, and more productive." (I don't actually show transition time, but I account for it when I schedule.)
  
  
• "Don't multi-task."
  
  
• "The world doesn't reward perfection. It rewards productivity." 

I'm always interested in how people plan their time, and organize their projects, so I hope something here will interest you as well.