random reflections

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Matt turned 35 today. How that is possible is amazing not only to me, but to him as well. We were there for a birthday dinner of pizza, and his favorite, a Wegman's chocolate chip cookie cake. The two older girls were anxious to help Dad blow out his candles.

Here's his birthday card. 

The three circles were die cut from silver and gray cardstock and then stamped with images from Papertrey Ink's "Initial Sentiments: Birthday." The large initial stamp was embossed in silver, and the tiny star was die cut from Smoky Shadow cardstock with the "Holiday Shapes" die from Simon Says. Then the circles were arranged on a rectangle die cut with the "Stitched Rectangle" die, also Simon Says, and adhered to a card made from Fog cardstock.

Happy Birthday, Matt! Here's to a great year ahead. I'm linking this card up to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

 

 

February Papertrey Ink Blog Hop . . . and Make It Monday Challenge

I loved Laurie Schmidlin's Make It Monday post this week where she shared three cards with framed sentiments. When I looked at the February Blog Hop Challenge, I thought I could combine the two challenges. Here's the cute photo inspiration for the blog hop; just perfect for an Easter card.

I love the glass bunny at the top of this table decoration, and thought I might be able to recreate that with vellum, but it just didn't work well. In the end, I used a piece of polka-dot vellum over a white bunny with the eye dotted with a Sakura Glaze black pen.

I used the same dies Laurie used for her first card on MIM, from the "A2 Scalloped" die set. The bunny, eggs, and flowers are all from the "Bunny Blessing" set. The flowers were die cut from some watercolored scraps in my scrap box, and the eggs stamped with Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, and Bright Buttercup. The grass is a Jolee's product that I luckily had in my stash.

 

I didn't have a pom-pom small enough for the bunny's tail so I trimmed a larger one. It's a little fluffier, but it looks like it will hold up. 

The last addition was a few rainstones. Off to link up with Make It Monday, and to check out all the inspiration at Papertrey Ink's blog hop.

 

Take Three Thursday: Storks

We're home. It was a fabulous trip, and it far exceeded our expectations. Morocco is a country of great contrasts in geography, and incredibly rich in history and culture. I'm just beginning to sort through the 1500 photos I took over two weeks time. Granted many are duplicates, and many are easily tossed, but it's going to take awhile to pare them down to a reasonable number to keep and print. I aim for about 100-150, although I'll keep more than that for memories sake.

I thought I might use Mary-Lou's meme, Take Three Thursday, to share a few isolated photos over the next few weeks. When I was growing up, one of my favorite books was The Wheel on the School.  When I read that storks were frequently seen in Morocco, I was hoping to see one. It didn't take long. Our very first day in Rabat we visited the Chellah Kasbah, and there they were. 

It rained most of the day in Rabat, but it didn't diminish our enjoyment. It made for pretty dull looking skies in the photos, however. 

It's Valentine's Day

It's February 14th and Valentine's Day. Little did I know I'd be celebrating in Casablanca, Morocco this year! It's our last night here; we'll be heading back to Chicago tomorrow morning. I made sure to have all the valentines made before we left. All the grandchildren got books this year in addition to their cards. And all five cards were made with the same design, the same stamps and dies. The only variation was the individual stamp chosen and the patterned papers---all from my stash.

The first three have cute little critters from Simon Says "Cuddly Critters," attached with mini-Wobbly's. If you touch the critter, it wobbles back and forth. I've seen people photograph them as they wobble, but I was too lazy to get out the tripod, and couldn't get a sharp photo without it. The heart was die cut with MFT's "Stitched Hearts."

Both little girls got very similar valentines, no wobblys---I've learned the hard way they'd be pulled right off! 

Here's what the inside of the cards look like---colored in with Copics as were the critters.

I also made valentines for Matt and Betsy, and Sarah and Adam, but in the rush to get ready to leave, I sealed them in envelopes before I took a photograph of them! I do have Tracy's to share. It might be one of my all-time favorite cards. I love the stamp (Simon Says "Center Cut Heart," and I love the color combination (PTI's Soft Stone and Pure Poppy).

The stamp is an unusual one. The center heart pops out. You can stamp it and add it back in or leave it open for a sentiment. I embossed the larger part of the stamp in white on the Soft Stone cardstock, and embossed the center heart in black. I colored just the tiny center heart with a red Copic marker. 

All that was left to do was mount it on a Pure Poppy card. I love the graphic design of this stamp, and have several more ideas for using it.

Hope you've had a Happy Heart's Day!

 

Recover!

Masculine cards are often the hardest to come up with, and get well cards seem especially challenging. A good friend fell a few weeks ago, and had to have major surgery to one of his legs. The recovery is going to be long and hard. I remembered I had an older Memory Box stamp (from the days when you could only purchase wooden stamps) that I thought might work.

I found a scrap of patterned paper that I fussy cut to paper piece the chair. Then I discovered that one of my newest stamp sets from Papertrey Ink, "Ways to Say: Get Well" had the absolutely perfect sentiment included. How lucky can you get?

All that was left to do was to color the cup with a Copic marker. 

Butterfly Hope

Awhile ago, a good friend loaned me her "Butterfly Hope" stamp set by Papertrey Ink. While I had it, and stamped a variety of butterflies and put them aside for a time when I needed a quick card. That time came last month when my friend's daughter was in the hospital prior to her heart transplant.

I also had a stash of die cut "Horizontal Stripe Cover Plate" dies from a previous project. This one cut from Smoky Shadow was a nice contrast with the orange, yellow and black butterflies. 

The sentiments in "The Skinny" fit perfectly between the die cut strips and are so versatile. Just a few black pearls from my long stockpiled Amuse pearls finished it off. I don't know what I'll do when I get to the end of those pearls! I have multiple sets in black and in red, and they are often just what I need.

Birthday Wishes

Two of my best friends had January birthdays, and I created very similar cards for them.

The beautiful stamp is Altenew's "Arabesque Medallion" stamp. Actually this is just half the stamp! I embossed it in gold, and then used Zig watercolor markers to color each one, choosing a redder color for the one on the left, and pink for the other. 

The sentiment, Papertrey's "Banner Sentiments" was also embossed with gold. One card was adhered to a dark green textured paper in my stash (probably Bazzil) and the other to a Pink Hibiscus card. For once, I didn't think either card needed any further embellishment.

I've had this stamp for several months, and was glad to finally put it to use. I have more ideas for it, so you're sure to see it pop up again in a different form.

Five in five on the 5th

Greetings from Fez, Morocco! We’re here for a two week tour. Today was our third day here, and we spent the morning at Volubilis, the largest of the Romans’ 17 colonies established in Morocco between the first century BCE and the 2nd century CE. It poured rain on our drive from Rabat, but the sun began to shine just as we arrived at the site. The French excavated the ruins here, rebuilding several of the ruins piece by piece, during the early 20th century.

The Basilica 

 

There are more photos to share, but not taken within 5 minutes. Internet here is slow, my keyboard for the iPad isn’t working, and this post has taken forever, so I’ll save the commentary for later. Linking up with Sandie at Itchifingers for her monthly 5 in 5 meme.

 

 

Crafty Friends: Part 2

Recently I posted a card for the CASe This Sketch challenge made with Simon Says February card kit. I made two other cards, both of which I sent across the pond. I know they've been delivered so I thought I'd share them as well. 

Included in the card kit, along with the "Crafty Friend" stamp set was a set of patterned papers from Echo Park's "I'd Rather Be Crafting" paper pad. I used both sides of one of the papers---the typewriter keys, and then fussy cut the little typewriters from the other side of the paper.

I backed the wide strip of patterned paper with a piece of Tropical Teal paper (PTI) and die cut the sentiment with my often used Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles." I can't seem to get away from using those dies. I love the subtle interest they add to a card.

Hope you're having a great weekend!