random reflections

Make It Monday: Repeating the Greeting

A quick post to share a card for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge. I had a lot of time today in the craft room and took the opportunity to play. As it often happens, a fair amount ended up in the circular file, and this card is a far cry from the original idea in my mind. Nonetheless, it ended up an extremely bright and cheery birthday greeting.

The card base is Bright Buttercup. I die cut a Pierced Frame from watercolor paper and used my watercolors create an ombre effect. The Pierced Frame dies are new and I think I'll get a lot of use from them. The balloons were die cut with dies from "Balloon Bash" from a piece of watercolored paper I'd embossed with the Cover-up Grid stamp (also new). It didn't work for the original plan, but it made pretty cute balloons. I die cut the "Balloon Strings" from watercolor paper as well.

The repeated sentiment is from "Ways to Say: Birthday." It's a $5 set that sees lots of action here. Before I added any of the elements to the card, I stamped it in white with Hero Art's "Tiny Ink Dots." I've had that so long, I don't think it's available any longer. I found all kinds of things when I purged my stamp collection earlier this week. You can't see it in the first photo, but it's visible in this one.

Tomorrow a friend and I are off to Buffalo Stamps and Things for their annual garage sale (hence the purging of stamps). Even if I don't sell many of them, I'm much better organized, and I've cleared out a lot of space, especially in my storage cabinet for wooden stamps. Hopefully, I'll restrain from buying any more stamps, though that probably won't be easy!

July Link-up for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt

July flew by just as quickly as June. Although I have two short trips planned for August, we'll be home more than we're away which is a first for the summer. I'm looking forward to getting back to the craft table, having more time to read, and getting back to the gym on a regular basis. Routines have been hard to come by. I probably would have missed this link-up had Mary-Lou (the kind hostess of the scavenger hunt) not reminded us it was coming.

Travel, among its many pleasures, offers opportunities for photography so several of my offerings this month come from our travels.

Stripes, #2:

My family and travel companions usually get interested in the items for the scavenger hunt. Someone at the table pointed out that Ella's grilled cheese sandwich was a good contender.

That same day at the beach, the striped umbrellas were everywhere.

On our way to Nantucket we spent a morning in Falmouth. This wooden flag was displayed (for sale) in front of one of the stores.

A framed view: #3:

These are four of my favorite photos from July. The first three are from the Hancock Shaker Village near Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It's long been on my bucket list, and I hope to have a blog post devoted to our visit up soon. 

When I took this last one as we got out of our car on the ferry leaving Nantucket, I didn't think I'd gotten a very good photo. I was pleasantly surprised when I uploaded it.

I have a couple photos for items in the list that I also found in June. You can find those right here. First off #4, Wings:

This sea gull cooperated for this photo. He/she was after the fish that were being thrown back in on the Critter Cruise. 

And another entry for Pedal Power, #5 found outside the Lily Pulitzer store in Nantucket.

Two contenders for #8-A Pile Of:

A pile of lobster shells after Maddy's birthday dinner.

A woodpile at the Shaker village.

Our trip to Springdale Farm was the perfect opportunity to get #10, A Field of Plenty.

A Trilogy of Three, #14, was pretty easy since I have three adorable granddaughters who live around the corner. Truthfully, though, it isn't always so easy to get them all together and willing to have a photograph taken. (And for the record, a fourth adorable granddaughter, and grandson, who live too far away!)

Skylar, Maddy, and Ella in their Pottery Barn chairs. All three received these as gifts from Grandma on their second birthdays. Both Ella and Maddy were thrilled to get theirs since until then they had to share with someone else.

On the swings at Bartlett Farms, Nantucket

Matt spotted these in the parking lot of Jetties Beach on Nantucket.

Tracy is responsible for this easy-to-find photo for #17, Re-purposed. Several years ago we purchased this dragonfly made from spoons at an art fair.

Last, #18: Currency. I've been purging my stamps for a garage sale event on Sunday, and came across some currency from our travels. It's another Trilogy of Three as well.

I'm linking up here with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards. Thanks, as always, for hosting this fun activity!

 

 

Seize the Birthday: Stripes

The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is Stripes.

To create the stripes for this card, I die cut the My Favorite Things "Striped Sentiment Strip Cover" from PTI's True Black cardstock. I adhered it to a white card, and embossed the greeting from Papertrey Ink's "Wishes Come True" in white. I didn't glue everything down completely so I could tuck in some bright blue flowers stamped and die cut with Papertrey's "Warm Regards" stamps and dies.

I always find lining up two and three part stamps a challenge, but these flowers from the "Warm Regards" set are among the easiest I've found. I love the bright blue against the black and white. 

This is a two week challenge, and I LOVE stripes so I'm pretty sure I'll be back with another entry before the challenge ends.

Take Three Thursday: Springdale Farm

It's still Thursday, but late. Sarah, Adam, Caleb, and Hannah are here for a week so it's been busy. Yesterday we had a lovely break in the heat, and headed out for a couple of hours to Springdale Farm. Springdale is a public demonstration farm owned by the county, and operated by Heritage Christian Services that supports adults with developmental disabilities. The adults take care of the animals and the grounds, and welcome visitors of all ages. Both Caleb and Hannah enjoyed the trip. Hannah was particularly taken with the goats.

Caleb enjoyed "riding" the tractor.

And they both enjoyed watching the animals in the fields.

And one bonus photo of the two of them on top of some kind of hay rack---one of my faves from the trip.

I'm linking up with Mary-Lou's meme "Take Three Thursday." Check in to see what others found of interest this week.

 

 

Cards for Challenges

Typically, I do a separate post for each challenge, although I notice many submit to several challenges at once. I finally had time to sit down and play for awhile yesterday. I started out playing with a new-to-me set from Simon Says called "Cups and Succulents." I used the opportunity to also play with my Copic markers and start a Copic Combo chart. Thanks to Cathy Zielske, I have a decent-looking chart. There is, however, some bleeding of the colors. I used Neenah Solar White cardstock to print the chart which is supposed to be Copic-friendly, but I also had some trouble with bleeding when coloring my images. If anyone has some suggestions to prevent bleeding, I'd appreciate them. Sorry for the shadow on the chart, I snapped this in a hurry with my phone and didn't even notice it until I uploaded it.

I pulled the succulent set out before we left when I saw the challenge on Fusion, called Cactus Door.

Most often when I'm playing along with this challenge, I use just the photograph, but this time I used both the sketch and the photo.

It's an Ripe Avocado card base with Bitty Big paper in Simply Chartreuse. I never realized how well those two green work together. 

I played around with several Copic combinations, but I'm happy with the pot and the succulent. I attended a certification in Copics years ago, but never put the practice time in to be particularly good at it. Now I'm determined to improve!

The next card uses the same set and is for the Time Out Challenge which has a quote for the inspiration.

This time I started with a Soft Stone card base and Bitty Big paper of the same shade die cut with a Stitched Rectangle from Simon Says. I put a very thin green mat of Pinefeather behind it.

The sentiment is from a Simon Says set that came with a card kit two years ago called "Happy and Smile." I'm not sure why I haven't used it much as it has some really useful sentiments. 

The inside sentiment reads "It's Your Day!" 

Last, but not least, I wanted to play around with Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday, with Laurie Schmidlin, creating shadow backgrounds. I've used this technique before so I didn't think it would be particularly stressful. Just when you get cocky, you find out that's it's not so easy after all. I chose an oldie but goodie, "Friends Til The End." The focal flower in the set comes in two sizes. I used the smaller one for the background, and the large one for the colored focal point.

The problems started when I realized I needed to mask the background stamp. As it turned out, I needed two separate mask. Not that it's hard, but cutting these flowers is a bit time-consuming. I had already gold embossed the large flower on hot press watercolor paper and colored it with my Zig and SAI watercolor pens, so I wasn't willing to change directions then.

Fussy cutting the large flower was also more of a problem than I expected since watercolor paper is pretty heavy and cutting into the small areas is risky when the image is embossed. In the end I was pretty happy with it. I love the "Penned Elegance" sentiment as well. It's the first time I've used this particular sentiment, and I realize it works for a thank you note or a birthday card so there's no inside sentiment for now.

All three of these challenges expire in the next two days, so I'm off to link up, and look for more inspiration.

July: Five in Five

I always enjoy the challenge of Sandie's Five in Five meme, and this month represents five years of her meme. I've only known about it for the last two or three, but I do try to participate whenever I can. On rare occasions, I even get it done on the 5th of the month. Not this month. But by the time we left Nantucket this week, I had a couple of options. These five were actually taken in less than five minutes as the ferry pulled out of Nantucket Harbor on its way to Hyannis. We were supposed to be on the 2:45 ferry, but it was cancelled so we ended up on the 5:30 ferry. The light for photos was probably better, although we did miss our dinner reservation in Sandwich, MA.

Approaching the lighthouse at Brandt Point.

Looking back at Nantucket village.

A closer look at Brandt Point Light, established in 1746, automated in 1965, and still in use.

Rounding the point, and looking back at the town.

And the beautiful sailboat accompanying the ferry out of the harbor.

It's pretty hard to say good-bye to this beautiful place. We had gorgeous weather after our rainy arrival, and had so much fun with our son, daughter-in-law, and three granddaughters. 

 

Inspired By . . . Vintage Linens

I love the look of vintage linens so was drawn to this challenge at Inspired By . . .

The photo reminded me of one of Papertrey Ink's premade card fronts. I don't often make use of them unless I'm in need of a very quick card, but I'm happy to have this in my stash of birthday cards, and I thought it mimicked the florals in the tea towels in the photo.

I stamped and die cut the sentiment from Penned Elegance (one of my all-time favorite sentiment sets) in Pure Poppy, added a few pearls, and covered the flowers with the Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen for a bit of sparkle.

It's easier to see the glitter in this shot as well as the final touch of emphasizing the stamens of the pink flowers with a white glaze pen.

Off to link this up to the Inspired By . . . Challenge.

 

 

Take Three Thursday

I didn't anticipate having a Take Three Thursday post, but unexpectedly I do have three photos to share. I'm joining in with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards where she holds a weekly meme, posting three related photos. She started the meme in an effort "to notice more of the ordinary in {her} life." My take three this week are a result of my effort to take more steps each day.

Last week I decided to purchase a FitBit in hopes that it would motivate me to get out and get moving! So far it has worked. This photo is not one of the three, but I decided to include it because there is another "unexpected reflection"---one of the prompts for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt. (Another of Mary-Lou's wonderful ideas!) At any rate, our original plan for today was to drive to Sturbridge, MA and visit Old Sturbridge Village. It's been over 20 years since we've been there. But the forecast was for 90° and neither of us had any desire to be out walking in that heat. We decided to leave after lunch instead, stopping in Lee at the outlets for a bit. So . . . I had time for a nice walk this morning before the heat hit Rochester, and snapped a few photos as I walked along.

I was walking in the city, and this sunflower was one of several in a very tiny front yard.

My Shasta daisies are just beginning to bloom, but these were a perfect opportunity to get a "where I stand" photo. I didn't realize there was a daisy covering most of my feet until I uploaded the photo.

Finally, one more for the SPSH:  "a framed view." A peek into someone's patio.

We'll be on the Cape for most of tomorrow, until our ferry leaves for Nantucket in mid-afternoon. It's looking like we'll be "enjoying" thunderstorms for most of the day, but the extended forecast for the island looks delightful for the four days we'll be there, so I won't be complaining. Plus it will break the heat wave we've all been enduring for the last week.

Happy Birthday, America, and Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is the Fourth of July, a celebration of all the good things that America is! Despite the multitude of serious problems in this country, we continue to be blessed in so many ways. I took this photo on Flag Day when Tracy's family was at Honeoye Lake.

Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday, but we celebrated today with a barbecue at my sister-in-law's house. There are only two of the five siblings in town this week, so it was a smaller gathering than usual. But not less festive!

Actually, Jill managed to get the brother from Austin on the computer and the one from Phoenix on Tracy's phone to sing "Happy Birthday," and watch Mom open her gift. Being 89, there's not much Mom needs, but family time means everything to her. This year we decided to give her a series of dinners out when as many of us are in town as possible. She was delighted as you can see.

Tracy's sister excels in writing poems for such gifts. In the past we've gifted her with floral arrangements that arrive at her home several times during the year, and other group gifts. Jill always manages to come up with just the right words. Here's this year's:

Ellie is a huge fan of flowers, so I chose one of my most elegant floral stamps, "Beautiful Flowers," that was part of a recent Simon Says card kit. I only used a part of the floral arrangement and got my inspiration here. I love Yana's work, but this time, I decided I didn't like the way her background came out. I decided to see if I could pull off doing coloring between the flowers that would look good on black cardstock instead of coloring the entire background.

I stamped the image in black waterproof ink on Bristol paper, and watercolored it with my Zig Clean Color and SAI Watercolor markers. Before I fussy cut around them, I colored the white spaces between the flowers with a black Copic marker which worked out perfectly. I knew I'd never be able to fussy cut the small opening between the flowers.

I embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set in white before arranging the flowers and adhering them with liquid adhesive. I was so anxious about not smearing the glue that I didn't pay close enough attention to the placement of the flowers, so the sentiment is closer to the arrangement than I would like. By the time I realized it, it was too late, the flowers were permanently attached.

We're off to spend a few days with Matt and his family and to celebrate another birthday on Saturday.

 

Make A Wish

Someone wondered how I was doing on the #100DayProject, and you probably noticed that there haven't been any weekly updates in over a month. Although I planned for our travel in May, and managed to keep up, June was just too busy. There were literally just 5 days in the whole month that we were home without a guest or a family commitment. I packed a project box for our last trip to Chicago, but there was no time (and no clear spot) to work as we helped get Sarah's house ready for their move to Wisconsin. Today I got an email from the project, and if I had kept up, there would be just nine days left. But there was also this question: If you fell behind, are you planning to catch up? And, the answer is, yes. Yesterday for the first time in over a month, I had time to play with new stamps and new techniques. As the project has gone on, my Pinterest board for Techniques has continued to grow, so I do intend to keep working on them in a consistent fashion. Yesterday I created 10 different backgrounds or stamped images. I only had time to get one of them made into a card.

I spent a lot of time playing around with Copic markers and blending combinations yesterday. I had recently read this post, and set out to create my own blending chart. Before I could get very far, I got an email from Cathy Zielske offering a chart to her newsletter recipients she'd made after reading the same post. Let me just say, her chart looked a lot better than mine! The stamp for this card is a new one I ordered in May after a Simon Says release: "Center Cut Flowers." I linked it here so you can see how it works. There's an outer wreath, and an inner center. I used the inner part, and did a partial stamping on opposite corners. This is easy to do with the Misti stamping tool, once you've stamped one corner, you simply rotate the card to stamp exactly the same impression on the opposing corner. 

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Cheer" set. I've used it often, but I don't think I've ever used this particular sentiment. The sequins aren't really sequins. They came with a Simon Says card kit (I think) and the mix is designed for shaker cards. The colors were perfect, though, so I went ahead and used them. They are solid and sit a little higher which explains the shadow in the photograph. They'll definitely need some protection if they go in an envelope to be mailed. 

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.