random reflections

Fusion: Easter Bunny

This week's inspiration photo at the Fusion challenge is a cute one: an Easter bunny wreath. There's also a sketch that you can follow, but I stuck to the Easter bunny theme with an Easter card for my Chicago granddaughter.

Awhile ago, I ordered three of the Simon Says Picture Book dies. One of them was the cutest bunny. It seemed perfect for a 14 month old little girl's Easter card.

I photographed the card on a cute stuffed bunny from Target. All five grandchildren are getting one of these bunnies (in brown and pink or white and blue) for Easter. First I die cut the bunny in three colors and pieced it together. I popped it into a heart die cut with a My Favorite Things heart from a white stitched square backed with some patterned paper from the Avery Elle collection, "The Sorbet Collection." That was all adhered to a square card made from Cotton Candy cardstock from Simon Says.

Although the photograph makes the Spellbinder banner look as if it's been cut from a different cardstock, in real life, the banner matches the card perfectly. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Bunny Basket." 

Easter is likely to be snowy. Matt and Betsy are planning to have the Easter egg hunt inside this year. We'll enjoy it wherever it happens. There'll be lots of inspiration for sure at the Fusion Challenge, and I'm thinking of trying the sketch for another card.

Papertrey Ink March Bloghop & Time Out Take #2

It's the 25th of March, and that means today is the monthly blog hop at Papertrey Ink. Despite my intentions I don't always complete as many card challenges as I hope, but I rarely miss a Papertrey Ink Blog Hop if I'm not traveling. Today's inspiration piece is charming, as always.

I don't own a single nest die or stamp, so arranging flowers in a nest was not an option. I decided to go with the soft pastel colors of the flowers and make another (needed!) birthday card. That means I can also link this up to the current birthday celebration challenged at Time Out.

So here's my take on the Papertrey Inspiration photo:

Starting with the soft, pastel colors led me to create a very feminine birthday card. The "Friendship Jar Flowers" set seemed perfect, and I stamped the flowers with Bright Buttercup, Pale Peony, Lovely Lady (all PTI), and Soft Lilac (Altenew). The stems and leaves were stamped with Green Parakeet. Once the stamping was done, I deliberated for awhile about the rest of the card, finally settling on die cutting the image with the stitched oval from the Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical Die. I used the same die cut set to cut a stitched rectangle from Bitty Big Lovely Lady patterned paper, and a scalloped card from white cardstock. 

I still have a partial roll of the white silk ribbon Papertrey used to sell (I'd love more if anyone knows where to find it), and tied a ribbon around the die cut pieces with a bow. The sentiment from "Just Desserts" was embossed in white on a scrap of Lovely Lady, cut out by hand, and adhered over the ribbon.

Finally I added a few sequins. Once I finished the card, I knew just who was going to receive it for their April birthday! Thanks for stopping by. There's sure to be lots of inspiration for spring cards on the Papertrey Ink blog.

March Five in Five: The March for Our Lives

I almost missed the party at Itchifingers for this month's 5 in 5. Actually I did one series and wasn't thrilled with it, so I waited until today's March for Our Lives. Like many cities Rochester hosted a local march. A group from our church met in our parking lot and walked to the rally (followed by the march) at Washington Square Park. According to the news reports, about 5,000 attended. I took the photos just as the rally was getting underway.

One of my best friends and her daughter who created posters for the three of us.

My poster; I love the message. Emily found all of them on the internet.

There were a LOT of speeches by public officials, high school students, and college students. By far the most moving was a young lady who is a student at a local college. She grew up in Sandy Hook, Connecticut where 20 first graders and six teachers were gunned down in 2012. She has lived with this issue in a much more personal way than most of us. I thought for sure the Sandy Hook tragedy would prompt our Congress to act, but the NRA has been such an incredibly powerful lobby that still five and a half years later (and so many more mass shootings to say nothing of individual lives cut down by guns), nothing has been done. Preventing gun violence has to become a priority. One of the most effective things that can happen is to vote those Congressional representative and senators opposing gun violence legislation right out of office. Hopefully, the kids can do a better job of keeping this issue in the forefront of the news better than adults have been able to do. 

Linking up with Sandie and her Five in Five.

Time Out: Happy Birthday

It's the Time Out Challenge's 4th birthday, and here's the challenge:

There are twenty birthdays on my birthday/anniversary calendar in April and May so making a birthday card seems like a good idea! I was playing around with some new Papertrey Ink stamp sets this weekend, and came up with a very springy card for one of my best friends. Hopefully, by the beginning of April the card will be appropriate.

With the exception of a few sequins the stamped panel is a one layer event---no dies--unusual for me. I stamped one of the flower images from the new anniversary set, "Mixed Bouquet," in New Leaf, Spring Rain, and Blueberry Sky. 

The sentiment is from the "Penned Elegance" stamp set, one of my new favorites for sure. When the stamping was done, I adhered the panel to a Blueberry Sky card.

The Time Out challenge lasts for another week, so I'm certain to be back with another entry before too long.

 

Monday Musings

Officially, it's the last day of winter although you'd hardly know it by looking out my window. It's a bright, sunny day but our yard is still blanketed by nearly a foot of snow. It's been way too cold for the snow to melt from most lawns. Given that tomorrow is the first day of spring, I must get the last two photos up for the Winter Scavenger Hunt---the two I neglected to take in Morocco, but fortunately, captured at The Container Store in Chicago before we left.

Number 6 was "wrapping paper" and #15 was bow. The Container Store always has a wonderful selection of wrapping paper.

This giant bow was on sale after the Christmas rush.

Tracy's birthday celebration turned out more festive than we anticipated. Betsy's sister from Boston, as well as her niece, joined us for the birthday dinner. I couldn't get everyone in the iPhoto picture so I popped the two into a digital template.

His cake was his favorite, a chocolate raspberry torte from the neighborhood Jewish bakery.

Of course, he had help blowing out the candles. (Actually, he did it twice---once with Skylar and once with Ella. No one captured the second one.

We had planned a quiet day at home for his actual birthday on St. Patrick's Day. But I got an email a couple of days prior from one of our favorite wineries on Seneca Lake announcing Customer Appreciation Day. It was another bright, sunny day so we headed down to the Finger Lakes late in the afternoon.

Silver Thread is an (almost) organic winery we've been visiting for many years. They have a gorgeous setting overlooking the lake.

We had a little time before our dinner reservations, so we stopped at another winery---one we hadn't visited in years. We had a fun time at the tasting bar, and ended up taking home some wine from both wineries. As you can see in both photos, they have a lot less snow than we do. We get a lot of our snow from a phenomenon called "lake effect" being just east of Lake Erie and right on Lake Ontario.

I'd made reservations at Dano's on Seneca Lake. It had been highly recommended by friends of ours years ago, but we'd never been. It was a charming place---great views and even better food!

We both had Irish bangers and mash. It's one of our favorite dishes at an Irish pub in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, but this was the best bangers and mash we'd ever had. 

When we got home we had a great FaceTime call with Sarah and her family with lots of birthday singing on the part of the six year old. All in all, a fine way to celebrate a big birthday.

 

 

Inspired By . . .

There are two challenge sites now with "Inspired By" in the title. I enjoy the inspiration pieces for both, and have a card to enter in the newest challenge at Inspired By . . . H is for Hoppy. I think my last three posts have been for these two challenge sites.

Like Tracy's birthday card, I'm sharing an Easter card ahead of Easter to meet the challenge. This one is for Caleb. I think he'll appreciate the pun.

Both the dies and the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Huggables: Bunny & Chick" were perfect for this challenge. I die cut all the pieces for the bunny from Soft Stone (PTI), Neenah Solar White, Orange Zest, New Leaf, and Lovely Lady (all PTI). I die cut a piece of Soft Stone "Bitty Big" patterned paper for the background and die cut it with the W Plus 9 "Gift Card Layers" die. The heart was die cut with the "Stitched Hearts" from My Favorite Things. 

I used two small black pearls from Amuse for the bunny's eyes.

I'll have one more Easter card to share before the holiday. Caleb and Hannah's cards need to get in the mail in the next few days.

Inspired By . . .

I'm inspired by so many things: color combinations, photographs, cards made by the most awesome designers, magazine ads, and of course, inspiration posts from a variety of card challenges. There are too many to keep up with each week, but I do follow several. One of them is the Inspired By The Little Things challenge. This week's photo inspiration brought to mind a beautiful piece of patterned paper by Papertrey Ink for their Mini Market Kit: Herb Garden.

I needed two sympathy cards, and sat down with another wonderful Papertrey Ink product, "Penned Elegance" and created two of the same card. The light, airy herbs in the photo reminded me of the subtle leaves and pretty greens of the patterned paper.

I die cut the patterned paper with a Stitched Rectangle die from Simon Says and mounted it on a card made from Pinefeather cardstock. I love the die cut sentiments for "Penned Elegance." I die cut two from white cardstock, stamped the sentiment in Pinefeather on one of them and stacked them for a little dimension. I think simple is best for sympathy cards, so no embellishment was needed.

Sadly, the kit only had two pieces of this patterned paper, so a replacement set of paper is in my cart waiting for my next order.

Lucky

After a flurry of photographic posts, I'm back with a card. This one for two challenges: FUSION: St. Paddy's Day, and Inspired By: Get Lucky.

St. Patrick's Day is fast approaching. We'll be celebrating twice because it's also Tracy's 70th birthday. Matt, Betsy and the girls are coming for a birthday dinner Friday night, and the two of us will celebrate on Saturday with the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner at home. We'll eventually go out to dinner to celebrate as well, but St. Patrick's Day is just too crazy.

Typically, I'd post Tracy's card on his birthday, but since it's perfect for both challenges, it's going up a couple of days early. Both challenges end very soon.

Except for the two stickers from Jolee, everything on the card came from Papertrey Ink. The patterned paper is an older one, and I cased this design for the card from one Lizzie Jones posted during the January release. The dies and sentiment are from the "Lucky" series of stamps and dies released that month.

I wanted a bit of embellishment and was happy to find a sheet of St. Patrick's Day stickers in my stash. 

Hope your week is off to a good start. I've had lots of fun playing with stamps, so there'll be more card posts in the near future.

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Morocco Part 3

This is the final post of scavenger hunt photos from Morocco. I have two more photos to post, but I took both of them in Chicago before we left. I'm planning to put all the photos from the hunt in a SmugMug album as I usually do. I don't feel any need to choose just one photo for a prompt, but like to see how many different ways I've managed to capture them. 

Number 18 was "A Signpost." This is probably the lowest quality photo that I kept of the trip because it was taken out of the bus window. Actually I took some really fine photos out the window with my iPhone, but try as I might, I could not seem to get a signpost in clear focus.

"Detail," prompt #20, was photographed over and over. I loved the detail in the stucco work, the mosaics, and many of the crafts. So here are several. 

Here a craftsman is carving a marble headstone.

A close-up of one of the bronze doors in the King's Palace in Fes.

A closer look. This one could also work for the next prompt:  "Handles"

Here you see stucco work, mosaics, and calligraphy---all are hallmarks of Moroccan architecture.

The beautiful woodworking on a minbar in Marrakesh. The minbar is the pulpit in a mosque where the iman stands to deliver the sermon. (This one was showcased in a room in a kasbah in Marrakesh.) 

Number 21 is "Handles," and I found a lot of those I liked as well. The first ones show my interest in worn and ancient doors and handles.

Although hardly new, this one shows a little less wear and tear.

Although "Symmetry" (#22) is also a hallmark of Moroccan design, it was most apparent in the beautiful mosaic fountains. Almost every riad in the medinas had a beautiful fountain.

Number 24 was "Steam or smoke." I have one for steam and one for smoke. 

Mint tea being poured after our lunch at the Governor's House in Salé. We were told that it is traditionally (and almost always in our daily experience) poured from a height so that a foam head appears on the top of the tea. If no head appears, it means you are being served old tea. Mint tea is a symbol of hospitality, and it is considered rude to refuse it. In my reading before the trip, it was noted that it is usually quite sweet, but we were always offered mint tea, with or without sugar. The beautiful glasses were almost always filled with fresh mint before the tea was poured. I became quite fond of it. At some hotels we were greeted with trays of mint tea, and in both of the rug cooperatives we visited, tea was served prior to a talk on the rugs.

Here spices are being roasted in a souk in Marrakesh.

The last prompt (#25) was "a peek inside." Until we reached Casablanca, a peek inside was all we could see of a mosque. Unlike Istanbul, where all the mosques were open to non-Muslims during times when there was no worship service, in Morocco, only the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is open to non-Muslims.

One of the most beautiful mosques we peeked into. This one was in Rissani, Morocco.

A peek into a room in a ksar in Rissani. A ksar was (is) a fortified castle, and many ancient ones exist in Morocco. Most are in a state of disrepair, and there are very few Moroccans living in one. This one was in terrible condition except for a very few rooms. One family was still living here. A woman opened the door to one of the rooms, and two goats stuck their heads out!

Someone commented that the scavenger hunt seemed made for my trip to Morocco, and indeed it did. There are a few more photos to share, perhaps, but these scavenger hunt finds give a good flavor of what we experienced on our tour. 

Take Three Thursday: WSH Heart

I'm joining Mary-Lou for her Take Three Thursday meme with three choices for #23:  "A Heart," all found on our trip to Morocco.

Tracy spotted this one on a tomb in the Fes Mellah (Jewish Quarter). Notice the French rather than Arabic. The French held a protectorate in Morocco from 1912-1955. They are responsible for building much of the modern parts of the main cities in Morocco, and French is still spoken by many Moroccans. The French influence is still felt throughout the country. In addition to the public schools, there are both French and American schools. These are private and lessons are taught in French or English, respectively. The two official languages in Morocco are Arabic and Berber. The Berbers represent nearly a third of Moroccans, but their language did not become one of Morocco's official languages until 2016.

This was one of the walls in the restaurant in Fes where we stayed, and had one of the best meals on the tour---a sea bass tagine.

I took several photos of these two storks in their nest, and truthfully, didn't notice that their heads formed a heart until I uploaded the photo.

I still have six more prompts for the Winter Scavenger Hunt to share, and will be back with those in the next day or two.