random reflections

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.

Photowalk #14: Highland Park

Tracy and I managed to get to the park late last week before the rains came. We expected to see forsythia . . .

I'm not sure what kind of flowering bush this is. Highland Park is very good at identifying their plants with small signs, but we couldn't find any indication of what this might be.

The big surprise of the walk was finding the early magnolias in bud and in bloom. 

I've been playing with the portrait mode on my iPhone recently, and love the blurred effect you can get. The trick is remembering the aspect ratio on the native app is not 4X6, so if you aren't careful you end up having to crop more than you want. I'm used to filling the frame with the composition I want, so this is taking some practice.

Magnolias are among my favorites this time of year. We had warm, sunny temperatures again yesterday, so I'm guessing even more has burst out since Friday. You can see an increase in green every day now. I love the first days of spring!

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes

I haven't spent much time at the crafting table this week, but I did get a few cards made for upcoming birthday for some little ones. In May, both my grand-nephews have birthdays. (And both are named Finn! One on my side of the family, and one on Tracy's.) I made identical cards for them.

I love the Simon Says "Picture Book Love Bear" die. It takes several runs through the die cutting machine. In this case the body in kraft cardstock, and scraps for the tummy and nose, the inside of the ears, the eyes and nose, and the little red heart. I started by running the Reverse Confetti "Stitched Rays" cover through the die cutting machine in Bright Buttercup. Then I die cut a circle from that. After sponging some Altenew "Sea Glass" ink on the white card underneath, I assembled the little bear just below the circle on the white card.

Then I used two Spellbinder circle dies to cut a frame from Aqua Mist cardstock to frame him. The sentiment from MFT "Birthday Bears" was white embossed on black cardstock, and added to the front of the card. I think it makes for a bright and cheery card! I'm posting this to the Seize the Birthday Challenge: Anything Goes just under the wire.

Happy Easter!

There are many joys to having grandchildren, but having an excuse to create cards and goodies for the holidays is certainly one of them. I left the goodies for Caleb and Hannah with Sarah when we visited in March, and then sent their cards through the mail, since getting mail is always a good thing!

Thanks to a friend, I had the use of Papertrey Ink's "Huggable Bunny and Chick" mini stamp and die set. I chose the chick for Hannah.

Creating these cuties requires die cutting many pieces and fitting them altogether. The little chickie requires no stamping. I die cut her bow from a scrap of patterned paper. After die cutting Altenew's "Gradient Stripe" from Raspberry Fizz cardstock, I glued it to a Harvest Gold top-folded card. I stamped the greeting in Raspberry Fizz with a sentiment from Simon Says' "Some Bunny" set. 

Although it doesn't show in the photo, I added some Wink of Stella Glitter to one of the "stripes" on the die cut eggs.

Caleb got the bunny.

Same process, same design except New Leaf cardstock for the Altenew die and Orange Zest for the card. The sentiment on his card came from Papertrey Ink's "Bunny Basket." 

I love all the detail on the bunny, the heart shaped die for his paw, the details on the carrot dies, and his cute face which was stamped before putting the bunny together.

I asked Skylar which she preferred: a bunny or a chick? She voted for a bunny so all three girls will get bunny boxes. It's important, at least for now, for everything to be the same. They still enjoy having matching outfits, although that's getting harder to find the correct sizes now that they are older.

I've always loved these clear boxes by Reverse Confetti, and the die that creates the insert. (Which I now see is behind one of the treats!) Fortunately, I'm writing this a day early so it can be fixed before tomorrow morning!)

The boxes actually hold quite a bit. There are glitter markers, temporary tatoos, little bags of treats, a chicken lip gloss, and a couple of games included. They'll each get a spiral-bound coloring book as well, which was too big to put in the box. The inserts were all die cut from Papertrey Ink patterned paper which I think is no longer available. The tags are die cut with one of Papertrey Ink's "Tremendous Tags," and the sentiment came with the Bunny and Chick stamp set.

I applied Spectrum Noir glitter to the whole egg for the bunny boxes which you can see here. 

The girls will get their Bunny Boxes tomorrow morning when we go down to join them for the Easter egg hunt. Like last year, it's sure to be inside as it's turned quite chilly, and we've had substantial rain the last two days. Even if the sun comes out, the yard will be way too wet for a hunt.

If you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a great day. We'll head to the second service after the Easter egg hunt, and then head to Tracy's brother's for Easter dinner in the afternoon. It's likely to be a full day.

I'm entering one of the bunny boxes in The Card Concept: Spring Celebration. 

The gray, white, and pink combo is just right as is the bunny!

And also in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge where the mood board also features many of the same colors, and a cute little bunny.

 

Take Three Thursday: Signs of Spring

A quick post to join Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards for her Take Three meme. A walk around our yard just now produced a few photos of signs of spring. We live in an old neighborhood with lots of trees so some places are much farther along than we are. I have some daffodils on the dining room table that bloomed on our back hill, but the ones in the front yard are just beginning to open up as our house faces north and doesn't get sun until late afternoon right now. 

These pretty blue flowers are one of the first to bloom, and there is a carpet of them just below the patio.

We're probably a month or more away from seeing the peonies in bloom, but I was happy to see them poking through the soil.

The hellebores is in full bloom. I have a dish of floating blooms on the coffee table.

Hoping to get a walk through the park before the rains come, but for now I'm happy to see signs of spring in the yard.

 

Photowalk #13: Washington, D.C.

On Monday morning, after attending workshops and plenary sessions on advocacy for three days, we were assigned times to meet with legislative aides for our senators and Congressmen. The New York delegation met with Kirsten Gillibrand's aide after a prayer meeting at the Methodist House near the Capitol. Then we met with Joe Morrelle's aide. Our meetings were timed too closely for us to join the NY delegation at Chuck Shumer's office. We had met and planned our visits on Sunday afternoon, so were well-prepared to talk on two issues: voting rights and the Global Fragility Act. Both the conference and the advocacy meetings on Monday were fascinating and very informative. I have pages of notes to transcribe and digest!

As we walked from Union Station where we parked to our various meetings, I had time to get some photos of some of the landmarks as well as the beautiful spring flowers and trees.

The Capitol

Two views of the Supreme Court

          Thanks to Krista's comment, I now know this is the Columbus Fountain in front of Union Station. 

Two takes on the beautiful magnolias.

And the happy daffodils!

The next two photos were not part of the photowalk, but taken at the New York Ave. Presbyterian Church on Friday during the Compassion, Peace, and Justice Day conference. I thought you might be interested in them as well. Abraham Lincoln worshiped at this church, and when they replaced the pews, they saved and installed the pew where he sat. The rest of the pews are white, but this one is dark brown.

Upstairs there is the Abraham Lincoln stained glass window.

It's taken me the better part of the week since we arrived home, to get well rested and back in a good routine, but I would definitely go to both the Compassion, Peace, and Justice Day as well as Ecumenical Advocacy Days again if I had the opportunity.

 

The Card Concept: Cottage Florals and CAS on Friday: Spring

I love this inspiration photo for the current Card Concept Challenge:

Rather than poppies, I have some lovely peonies to offer. 

Once again, the lovely image from Papertrey Ink was watercolored with the Altenew 36 pan watercolor set.

The sentiment is from my favorite, "Penned Elegance" by Papertrey Ink, stamped and die cut. One of the challenges for the Card Concept is to identify the style of the card. I'd put this one in the Clean and Simple category, or perhaps, the Clean and Graphic one. You can see the definitions of the different styles here.

I used the wet on wet technique when watercoloring this image and love how the colors blended together on their own. 

This card also fits well with the CAS on Friday challenge: Spring.

It's a dark and rainy Palm Sunday here, but there's hope in the future for some beautiful peonies in the yard.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Adam

Just a quick post to share the birthday card I made Adam who celebrates his birthday today! His parents are visiting them from Washington, so there's probably a bigger party than usual. The design of the card was inspired by this post, using a different set of Pinkfresh Studio stamps and die cuts than I used here. I also have the set Natasha used, and will probably give that a try in the future. I was pleased that the Gatsby die from Pinkfresh Studio worked just as well.

After measuring the opening for the acetate window, I die cut the Gatsy dies in black and kraft cardstock and layered them. These are one of my favorite dies for masculine cards. I adhered the acetate and then layered the dies on top. The die fit perfectly in the window.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Bash" set--a tried and true set of birthday sentiments. I hope the weather in Racine was as lovely as it was here--bright sunshine and temps in the low 60's.