random reflections

Take Three Thursday: Flowers in the Yard & Patio

I could share a lot more photos from the yard this week, but here are three of my favorites. We've spent a long time in the yard this week, getting ready for summer. We got home just in time to enjoy the gorgeous blossoms on our peony tree.

These pretty dahlia came from our favorite nursery on the North Shore. Tracy gave me a generous gift for Mother's Day so I was able to purchase several plants and a few pots as well. The cool container came from a store in the Adirondacks last summer.

Last, but not least, a close-up view of the double petunias in a hanging basket on our patio that I purchased as we were walking out of the Rochester Public Market early Saturday morning. Later I'll try to post a photo of the whole basket which includes some other flowers. Love this purple colors.

Hoping the weather soon improves so we can spent more time on the patio. It's been pretty cool, and frequently rainy this month. Joining in with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards for her Take Three Thursday meme.

 

Photowalk #15: Tulips in Holland, Michigan

On our way to Wisconsin this month, we made a side trip to Holland, MI to see the tulips. They've hosted an annual tulip festival since 1929 after purchasing 100,000 bulbs the previous year. Now each September close to 1,000,000 tulip bulbs arrive in Holland. Planting begins in October and runs through mid-November with over 120 varieties being planted. 200,000 of those bulbs are planted by hand in a variety of locations. (Although they talk about sorting through the 1,000,000 bulbs they never say what happens to the other 800,00!)

We visited two of the major plantings: The Window on the Waterfront Park which is any easy walk from delightful downtown Holland, and Windmill Island Gardens. In addition, there are tulips in window boxes in pots, and along green spaces in the downtown area. The annual festival ended on May 12th this year, and we arrived on the 15th. It was perfect timing: the crowds were gone, and the tulips were still at their peak. We talked to one local photographer who was out with his very big lens and tripod who told us he believed the tulips were the best they'd been in quite a few years. Without a tripod, or a big lens here are some of the photos I took that morning.

A closer view shows the beautiful color variation in the tulip.

Although I'm holding back on a few photos for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt, but this is a good one for #3 Repetition.

And now onto Windmill Island Gardens:

I love this display of wooden shoes and this is another one for the scavenger hunt: #18 Something Found in Pairs.

More repetition!

And one final photo for my "Shadows" collection:

We spent some time at the visitor's center where a lovely woman shared lots of the history, and told us of the year when all the tulips bloomed in March, and there were none left by the time of the May festival. After our tours of the park and the island, we spent some time looking through the lovely shops in downtown, and having lunch on the patio of an Irish pub. All in all, a very satisfying morning. We both agreed it was worth a return trip.

Cards for Challenges

It's Memorial Day in the U.S. and time to pause and be grateful to the many, many service men and women who gave their lives for the cause of freedom and democracy. Let us hope that their sacrifice was not in vain. The world news as well as the national news points to more and more governments that are leaning away from equal rights for all. It is concerning to say the least.

On a happier note, it's a bright, sunny, warm day and after lunch we're headed to the Finger Lakes with three stops in mind: an Amish greenhouse in Penn Yan, our favorite Seneca Lake winery (we're members and need to pick up our spring case of wine), and finally to a Mennonite market in Seneca Falls. I have lists for the first and last stops. 

We spent most of yesterday planting in our perennial/cutting garden, our raised beds (tomatoes and lettuce), and filling the pots for the front yard and patio. We still need a few plants to fill in spots in the flower garden and a couple of bright flowers for smaller pots on the patio. We're not traveling again until the fall with the exception of one weekend away for our anniversary, so we'll be home to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Last night I had time to put together two cards for a few challenges. When I was in Racine, I had time to watercolor some images from a Simon Says stamp, "Mandy's Flowers" that came as part of a monthly card kit so I had some focal points already to go. The first card is for the current CAS on Friday challenge: use polka dots. 

Since it's a birthday card, I'll be entering it in two other CAS challenges:  AAA Cards Birthday Bash, and the new AAA Birthday challenge.

Loving polka dots, it wasn't hard to find a piece of patterned paper perfect for the border. This one is from My Favorite Things "Black and White Dots." I watercolored the image from "Mandy's Flowers" with the 36 pan watercolors from Altenew which has turned out to be my favorite set to take with me when I travel to Sarah's.

The sentiment is from an older Papertrey Ink set, " Birthday Style." I used dimensional tape to adhere the flower to the card.

The second card is for the Inspired By . . . Challenge:

The wreath on this card is also from "Mandy's Flowers." The set has one after another of beautiful floral images.

When I pulled this one out last night, the flower was in need of some more contrast, so I got out my Prisma colored pencils and added some depth to the flower and some green to the thin leaves which I had not watercolored. Finally I added some black gel pen to the center and some Wink of Stella glitter to the flower. The sentiment is from a much older Simon Says card kit set, "Flower Friend." Before attaching the watercolored piece to the Orange Zest card, I die cut it with the largest of Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles."

The sentiment is universal enough to send as a "thinking of you" or a birthday card. 

Hope you have a great week! I'll be back soon with a couple of photo walks I did while we were away.

 

 

 

Back on Track

It's taken several days to get back on track after having been away for ten days. We had a great visit with Sarah and her family, and two good road trips, including some opportunities for photography--photo walk posts to come.

But today I want to enter a card into two challenges. The first is a brand new challenge: AAA Birthday Challenge. I'm hoping to enter a card in each of their challenges from now on since I'm always in the need of a birthday card. I've always thought I'd like to make a commitment to one challenge, but have never taken the plunge. This challenge lasts for nearly a month, so even traveling shouldn't interfere.

I'm also entering the card in their sister challenge: AAA Cards which has been a favorite for awhile. This is their fifth birthday celebration, so birthday cards are the feature here as well.

This is a card for a blogging friend who I hope has received the card before she sees it here.

I don't often choose to do selective coloring, but I like this one quite a bit. It was a Papertrey Ink watercolor "Bold Blossoms" card that I fussy cut after water coloring the main blossom with Altenew's 36 pan watercolors. I adhered it to a Pale Peony cardbase that I ran through a dotted embossing folder. All it needed then was the die cut sentiment from "Penned Elegance."

The new Simon Says card kit was waiting for me when I got home, and thanks to some gift certificates I have some new stamps and dies arriving from Pink Fresh Studio so there's lots to play with this week. Tomorrow we have a half day road trip planned to the Finger Lakes so there probably won't be much crafting time. Hopefully, I'll get back into a good routine later in the week.

White on White

I love white on white cards, but I have to say trying to photograph them on a dark, rainy day is not an easy task. I had limited time as well as I had a busy schedule, and we're packing up for a trip to Sarah's for a week. Nonetheless, I'm hopping in here to post a White on White card for the CAS on Friday challenge as well as the Flower Challenge which calls for embossing.

When I sat down to create this card, I had a vision which was very different from what I ended up with. I started out by embossing some of the flowers in Simon Says "Delicate Flowers" set in white on vellum. I fussy cut a couple and played around with a variety of layouts and white on white backgrounds. I finally reached for one of the premade embossed cards I've had in my stash for years.

After adhering the flower to the center square I added some white dots to the stamens with a Signo pen for a little texture, and embossed a sentiment on another piece of vellum. 

The shadows when I was trying to photograph this obscure some of the dry embossing polka dots on the card. It's really much nicer IRL! But the CAS on Friday challenge ends in a day, and we'll be on the road so I need to get this linked up tonight. 

 

You Shine Brighter!

Time Out Challenges has a new challenge up, and I have a card to enter created with a fabulous die from Pinkfresh Studio. The challenge is based on a quote by Theodore Roosevelt.

Given the topic, I chose two gorgeous metallic papers I picked up in a wonderful paper shop in the Historic Third Ward of Milwaukee. One is a silver glitter paper and the other a purple metallic one. They are much more beautiful than they are in the photograph.

The "Geo Stars 2" Pinkfresh Studio die covers the front of a standard card so this turns out to be a pretty quick card to make. The sentiment stamp is from Papertrey Ink's "Number the Stars" set which I embossed in silver on black cardstock and trimmed out to make a banner.

The sentiment isn't difficult to read IRL, but also didn't photograph too well: "You Shine Brighter Than All the Stars in the Sky."

 

 

Happy Mother's Day: Round 2

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the United States. We've already started celebrating. Last night, Matt, Betsy, and the girls were here for dinner, and we celebrated Mother's Day as well as my upcoming birthday since we'll be on the road on my birthday. The older girls are experienced in helping blow out candles on a cake.

After church tomorrow, we'll be celebrating Mother's Day with Tracy's family at a brunch. I have all the mothers covered with cards as well as a card for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. (I won't be sharing that card until later in the month since I made two of them, and the other anniversary isn't until the end of the month.) Of the five Mother's Day cards I made, this is my favorite, and I'm posting it a day early to enter it in three different challenges:

CASology

Inspired By . . . 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: For a Special Lady

After all that introduction, here's the card:

When the Simon Says May Card Kit arrived, I knew I wanted to get it stamped right away. These beautiful flowers from the stamp set, "Delicate Flowers" were screaming to be colored. I decided on coloring with Copic markers this time, but they'd be beautiful in watercolors as well. There are no dies for these, so I fussy cut them which proved to be a bit of a challenge since I've been suffering from Trigger Thumb for several weeks. Two days ago, I had a cortisone shot in my thumb (painful!), and hopefully that will take care of the problem. There seems to be some improvement, but my hand is so bruised and sore from the injection, it's hard to tell. 

I layered the flowers on a "Shape Shifters Oval #2" (Papertrey Ink) and stamped the sentiment from "Fillable Frame #4" (PTI) in black ink. Then I mounted it on a True Black card.

As a final touch, I added some white dots to the stamens with a white gel pen. 

 

Take Three Thursday: At the Birdfeeders

We have a variety of bird feeders in our front yard, and enjoy watching the birds from our kitchen table. This week we've had three pleasant surprises. The first was the return of the yellow finches. I love the little one on the top of the crook.

And then a bigger surprise: the rose-breasted grosbeak. We see them only occasionally, and often just for a day or two on their way north, but this year they've been here for a week already. Yesterday I counted 6 males and 4 females in the yard at once! We've never seen that many before.

But the biggest surprise was this morning when, for the first time ever, we had a visit from some Baltimore Orioles. There were four of them and they returned multiple times today. I hope they'll stay awhile like the grosbeaks.

I'm joining in with Mary-Lou for the Take Three Thursday meme--just getting this posted at the end of the day!

And one final photo of three of the Baltimore Orioles in the tree across the street. They are such a brilliant orange you can see them from a distance. Watching both the orioles and the grosbeaks fly about is just beautiful. They are even more gorgeous in flight.

Happy Birthday!

It's not often that I'm under pressure to get a birthday card made. I keep a calendar of upcoming birthdays and try to be sure the card is made well ahead of time. Tonight, however, I discovered that the young lady I tutor twice a week will have her birthday while I'm in Wisconsin. Tomorrow will be our last meeting before her birthday. Fortunately for me, I have a stash of prestamped and die cut images that I've saved. I thought butterflies were a safe bet for a sixth grader, and I had a stash of pretty butterflies from Papertrey Ink's "Butterfly Folks" set as well as a sentiment stamped and die cut with "Penned Elegance." The sentiment had been stamped with the same ink as one of the butterflies. How lucky was that?

I found a piece of glittery, textured cardstock in the same teal color for the card. I recently purchased some wonderful patterned paper from The Stamp Market, and used one of the papers from the "Color Crush" set to layer on the card before adhering my butterflies and sentiment.

I added some glitter to the butterflies with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen, and three enamel dots to finish it off.

I'm linking this up to the Simon Says 10th birthday party, and to the new AAA Birthday Challenge where "Anything Goes."

Happy Birthday

Popping in with two cards made with the same design and materials for the Seize the Birthday Challenge (no topping this time), the Simon Says 10th Birthday Party, and Addicted to CAS Challenge: Contrast.

Pinkfresh Studio has become one of my favorite companies in the last year, and I'm particularly fond of their stand-alone dies. These card use two of those: "Dainty Blossoms," and "Noteworthy Frames." (You'll see these again this weekend!)

I thought the gold and silver flowers provided nice contrast against the Smoky Shadow cardstock which I layered on a card made from Simon Say's Fog cardstock. 

The cards are identical except for a variety of the die cuts. The sentiment which fits perfectly on the "Noteworthy Frame" is from Papertrey Ink's "Inside Out: Birthday" set.

I love the partial cut dies that the frames make, and I've found quite a few sentiments in my collection that work well with them.