random reflections

Happy Birthday, Caleb and Hannah!

Caleb turns nine today, and Hannah is four! We've only missed one birthday party prior to this year. But that was in 2019 when we went to Disney World with them in January and the spent another week or so in Wisconsin with them afterward. Nonetheless, here we are in New York, and there they are in Wisconsin. The blessing is that we'll have a FaceTime or Zoom visit and get to watch them open their presents and blow out the candles on their cake. 

I sent two gifts ahead of time, but one "big" gift is actually enclosed in their birthday cards. Because the cards needed extra postage and couldn't go through the machines, it took a long time for them to get there. Fortunately, they finally arrived on Monday.

Here are the birthday cards I sent. I wondered if the design was too "young" for Caleb until earlier this week when I saw that Laura Bassen had created one for her 17 year old daughter!

As you can see, both cards have the same ingredients: My Favorite Things, "Better Together" stamps and dies; My Favorite Things, "Carpool" die; Ellen Hutson "Landscape;" Simon Says "Sentiment Labels" and "Tiny Words;" and My Favorite Things "Bitty Birthday Wishes" and cloud stencil.

It took awhile to die cut all the pieces, stencil the skies, and color the cute critters with Copic markers, but it was an easy card to assemble once all the pieces were ready.

I love the pink car, and I chose a couple different critters for this car pool.

Inside each card is a slider tag. I just recently added this die to my collection of interactive dies, and it worked perfectly. It's quite a bit smaller than the dies for the slider cards I made for the three little girls for Christmas. 

I covered the tag with two different patterned papers. Caleb's came from My Favorite Things "Birthday Brights" paper pad; Hannah's was a loose sheet stuck among the 6X6 paper pads so I'm not sure where it came from. I used 3-D stickers I found in my stash to decorate them. 

Caleb's slides up to reveal a second year of "Grandma's Book Club." Last year Sarah and I tried to find an online book club that would meet his needs. The clubs were all quite expensive, none had enough choice, and the shipping costs were high. I finally decided to create my own, and it worked great. At the end of each month, I talk to Caleb and he tells me what book(s) he's interested in, and I have them sent to him. "For the Love of Books" was an Ali Edward digital product I had in my files.

Hannah's also reveals a monthly birthday gift--a subscription to a Kiwi kit. When I'm in Wisconsin we almost always work on the kit together. They're very imaginative, and Hannah really enjoys the activities. There are always three or four projects and a booklet to extend the theme. I downloaded the image from the Kiwi site.

I'm going to pop these into the Simon Says Monday Challenge which is, appropriately, "Celebrate!"

 

 

The Last Christmas Card Share

I always run out of time around the holiday to get cards photographed, uploaded, and blogged. This year was no exception in spite of the fact that I had a lot less to do! Christmas Day was lovely, and we've now had a couple of pretty low key days at home. I haven't had my usual energy or motivation to work in the craft room. I'm hoping to get my mojo back this week! I did, however, get a few more of the Christmas cards I made ready to post, and thought I'd share them now that most (hopefully, all) have received their cards. 

I'll start with one of my favorites. I only made one of these. It's a bit more time intensive, but this year I'm hoping to get Christmas cards made throughout the year, so if I come up with a card like this, I'll have the leisure to make several of them.

I embossed Pinkfresh Studio's "Winterberry Background" in white, and then ink blended over it.  All the die cuts are from The Greetery: "Botani Cuts: Pine Bough" and "Fit to Be Tied."

I added a bit of glitter to the tops of the pinecones and the evergreen boughs and some details to the pinecones with colored pencils.

The sentiment from Simon Says "Holiday Greeting Mix 1" was embossed in silver on the same Enchanted Evening (PTI) paper as the card base.

The next card comes from a Papertrey Ink set I've had for awhile called "Santa's Sleigh." It has two main images, and I posted a card-here- with one of those images earlier as part of a daily coloring challenge. The second image is so different, and I love both cards. Again, I made only one of these, but I'm likely to replicate this one again for next year.

I colored the image with Copic markers, die cut it with a circle die and used two slightly larger circles to die cut a red and then a gold circle to frame it. The circles are from Ellen Hutson's "Essential Circles" dies. 

The gold embossed  sentiment is from an even older Papertrey Ink set, "Signature Christmas." One of my favorite sentiments from that set disappeared somewhere during this year's crafting marathon, and I'm sad that the set is no longer available. There are still a few Christmas challenges out there, so I'll be entering this in the current Christmas Kickstart Challenge: Christmassy.

This card was one of the last ones I made. On the first few I used Nuvo drops for the berries but on the last set I changed to small red pearls from AMuse. Had the other cards not already gone in the mail, I might have tried to change to the pearls which I like much better.

One of the very satisfying parts of crafting this season was having time to pull out stamps I hadn't used in awhile, or had never used. This is one I've used in the past, but a very different design. The "Winter Wreath" is by Avery Elle.

You can almost see the beautiful sheen to the red metallic paper used to die cut the "JOY" by Savvy. This is a die I've had for years, and I think I pull it out every holiday.

The small sentiment is from WPlus9's "Hand Lettered Holiday."

The next card is one of the most unusual ones I've made. I came across a piece of patterned paper in a Pinkfresh Studio pack as I was looking for something else. I immediately thought of the Papertrey Ink "Warmest Wishes" set and the adorable polar bear with the wonderful sweater. I was pretty sure I could use the patterned paper as a background.

The colors were determined by the patterned paper, and this turned out to be a very quick card to make. I would have made several had I had more paper! I'm throwing this in the AAA Cards: Made in Minutes/Optional Christmas Challenge.

It's almost impossible to see in either photograph, but I added some Glitter Glue to the tops of the mountains. I die cut the panel with a "Stitched Rectangle" from Simon Says, and attached the bear with some dimensional tape. The sentiment is from the "Warm Wishes" set.

Finally a card I made this year with a set I purchased last year for this very image! I used Simon Says' "Holiday Greeting Mix 1" set frequently last year, but I never stamped and colored this image which I loved from the moment I saw it. It's another quick image to color.

I embossed the image in gold on Bristol paper and watercolored it. The gold embossing makes the watercoloring go much more quickly. Here it's easier to see:

All the card needed then was to cut down the image and layer it with red and green papers. I used Concord and 9th's Evergreen and Cranberry papers--the perfect Christmas colors.

Now it's on to January birthdays, replenishing my "Thinking of You" cards, and getting out my thank you notes. 

 

 

 

 

 

An Interactive Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I know for many of us, this holiday has brought disappointments, and for many, sorrows due to the COVID pandemic. I hope that you've been able to find some joy or hope in the Christmas message today. We're celebrating in a much quieter fashion this year. Inside of a crowd of family members for Christmas dinner, it will be just us and Matt's family. For that, we are truly blessed. We'll FaceTime with Sarah and her family, but we had hoped to be there for Christmas this year.

Grandchildren certainly bring excitement and joy to the holiday. I've long admired the interactive cards I've seen on blogs over the years, and now that my grandchildren are old enough (ages 4-9) to appreciate them, I've started to have a lot of fun creating them. I waited until all the other Christmas cards were in the mail, but in the last week, I've made a slider card for both sets of grandchildren, and interactive cards for three gift card gifts. 

This set was released by Simon Says this year, and I held off buying it for awhile, but finally caved when I saw some variations I knew I could use in the future for more adult cards. I pretty much followed the designer's tips in making this card---an ink blended snowy sky, textured snow, and a colorful village scene. I used a Simon Says stencil and Gina K Glitter paste to create the glittery snow--which I think could also be seen as stars. Santa and his sleigh ride across the sky thanks to some "spin and slide" discs by My Favorite Things, and two pennies.

I colored the little town with Copic markers and added some Glitter Glue along the eaves and the snow drifts. I'm never quite sure how these cards will be received, but yesterday I gave the three little girls their card, and they all were quite taken with it. Ella, the six year-old, was particularly entranced, not the least of which was due to the fact that she could read the inside greeting ("Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!) by herself. The sentiment came from an older Papertrey Ink set. 

The little girls will be getting Apple gift cards this evening. Because of remote learning this year, they all have iPads. They frequently request additions for some of the apps, which are typically refused. Betsy thought they'd be thrilled to be able to purchase some extensions for the apps. I've used this slider card die a couple of times already, and thought it would be perfect for "hiding" the cards. All the images are from My Favorite Things Jingle All the Way set, and the patterned papers are also from My Favorite Things.

Off to enjoy the fireplace for a bit before the girls and their parents arrive for early dinner. I'll be back in a day or so with a few more Christmas cards to share before I move on to cards for winter birthday, and thinking of you cards for my single friends who will find it more difficult to get out during the winter.

 

 

 

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men

Regardless of our religious affiliations or political leanings, I think we can all agree that more "peace on earth," and "good will" among men would be a blessing in the coming year. One of my favorite new Christmas dies this year was the Little Town of Bethlehem. I used it to make four different Christmas cards, all for friends of our in our congregation, and one devout Catholic friend. I thought today would be a good day to share them.

For this version, I ink blended a sky and used black cardstock for the die. The sentiment is from an old favorite, Papertrey Ink's Signature Christmas.

This one used a navy blue shimmer paper from Papertrey Ink which is easier to see in the close-up. For all of the cards, I ink splattered with white ink for the skies. I finally found a process that produces pretty consistent results.

When I ran out of the navy blue shimmer cardstock, I switched to black. I'm on the wait list for both papers to come back in stock.

The last version uses My Favorite Things Outside the Box die and a stencil from Taylored Expressions. I had a scrap of the navy shimmer cardstock just large enough for the sky and banner. I changed the sentiment because the previous one would have been "lost" on the stenciled background and embossed it on a banner from Neat and Tangled. I was pretty sure I'd taken a photo of the card when it was closed, but I think it may still be on a memory card! These were taken with my iPhone. The box does fold flat and fit into an A2 envelope. This card is a CASE of a card posted by one of the Design Team members for My Favorite Things. 

 

In Praise of Snail Mail

For us, one of the most pleasant surprises of Caleb's homeschool curriculum is a weekly letter writing assignment. He alternates between his four grandparents, and his letters are utterly charming! They require, of course, a card and a note in return. One of the charms of his letters is the way in which he responds to what I write to him. For my most recent note I used a new stamp set (NBUS!) by Concord and 9th called Snail Mail which I purchased with grandchildren in mind. (Must admit, the bulk of my acquisitions in the last few months have been with grandchildren in mind.)

The first card I made was this one.

The colors just didn't seem right for an almost nine year-old boy, so here is #2. I'm much happier with it. But I do have a couple of friends who live alone who will find the green card charming--the young in heart!

Caleb and I already had a "conversation" about "Happy Mail" so I told him that Snail Mail = Happy Mail! One of the joys of the holiday season is receiving so much Happy Mail in the form of holiday greetings, and letters from friends we haven't seen sometimes in years! 

Of course, whenever a card goes out to Caleb, one needs to go to Hannah as well. The dies in the Snail Mail set include this die which creates an adorable card in just a few minutes!

After cutting out the die, all that the card needed with a few score lines for interest behind the die cut, and a sparkly silver inlaid heart with a pink rhinestone. Perfect for a nearly four year-old girl!

The AAA Card Challenge is still open for their theme "Made in Minutes," so I'll pop this one in the gallery. I'm skipping the optional challenge this time. Also getting this into the NBUS Gallery for December as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

Color Hues #8

The new Color Hues Challenge is up and running, and it's colors are:

Christmas is just nine days away, but I still have a card (or two) to share even though nearly all of them are in the mail now.

This isn't the card I first imagined nor is it the first card I made for this challenge. From the moment I finished the first card, I knew I was going to do another one. The first one was just too "busy" for my tastes. This one is almost a one layer card and definitely in the CAS camp! The idea for this card came as I was looking through my Christmas stamps for something entirely different. When I came across W+9's "Woodland Wreath," I knew just what I wanted to do. 

The stamp set comes with four different wreaths that can be layered (or not) to create a variety of wreaths. This one used two of the stamps in two different green inks which gives is a depth you wouldn't get with just one stamp or just one ink. Once it was stamped on the blue card base, I wanted to add some ornaments or berries, and was excited to find these beautiful blue pearls in my stash. The next challenge was to decide on how to stamp the sentiment from Altenew's "Holiday Tag Sentiments." Another lucky find in the stash was this glittery blue embossing powder from Simon Says--"Ultra-fine Mermaid Embossing Powder." 

The final touch was the ribbon bow--a third stash find! I can't remember the last time I used real ribbon on a card, but I love this blue and green ribbon and think it's just perfect.

Hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what our Guest Designer, Steph, and the rest of the Design Team has come up with . . .

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

and join in the fun!

Celebrate (With a Bit of Twinkle)

My brother celebrated a big birthday this week. His card features seven candles, and although I forgot to photograph the inside, it reads "Times 10!"

I used another of my NBUS dies, and I can't understand why it's taken me so long. There are actually eight candles in the My Favorite Things "Happy Birthday Candles," and you can die cut them on the front of the card and back them with color. Since I only needed seven, I die cut them and colored them with Distress Inks. Then I arranged them on the front of the card, using the negative die cut as a guide to keep them straight and well-spaced. 

The sentiment from Papertrey Ink was die cut with gold mirror cardstock, and the flames from a gold glitter paper. (Not a stamp to be seen on this card!)

I used my Hero Arts "Rounded Rectangles" to die cut the main panel, and rounded the bottom corners of the card for a bit of interest.

The current challenge at AAA Birthday is "Twinkle" and I think the candles definitely qualify. I'm also linking up with Darnell's NBUS challenge for December. 

 

 

Five in Five: Twinkling Lights

As is often the case, I'm a few days late with my Five in Five post---five photos in five minutes (to be taken on the 5th.) Early Monday morning I was trying to think about what I might do for this meme, hosted by Sandi each month, when I looked up and saw the twinkling lights in our living room. Then I realized we'd added some new twinkling lights this year, and it took less than five minutes to hop up and take these photos with my iPhone. We've had little white lights on our tree for many years now, and purchased the lights for the mantle in Indiana several years ago.

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The lights around our kitchen window were added just last year. We never took them down, but rarely turned them on after the holiday. Now we turn them on every morning and again at dinner time.

We've had a little artificial tree on our patio table for several years as well, and for the last two years some lights on the lower fence. This year Tracy added white lights to our new wrought iron railing around the patio. Once we had them all lit, he decided that the white lights on the tree needed to be changed to colored ones. Even though they can't be seen by more than a couple neighbors, we can see them from the kitchen, the dining room, and from one window in the living room.

The outside lights have been around for a few years, and we've had the wreath (one of three) for probably twenty years. The bows have been changed a few times, though. The small trees on the porch have been replaces at least once. One year, one of them disappeared overnight. So strange. 

The twinkling lights add a festive feel to the house which is more needed this year than any before. COVID is taking its toll here, and we're more house-bound than we've been since early spring. That's not likely to change. If predictions hold true we're in for several more months of serious infection before the vaccine will be available widely enough to make a difference. If only the necessary precautions had not become so politicized in the United States, we might find ourselves in a better situation. Here most people seems to wear masks, but I think they're a little less conscientious about social distancing. The big difference seems to be the increase in family gatherings (even before the Thanksgiving holiday) and indoor dining. I do miss going out with friends, but I'm happy to cook at home.

Thanks to Sandi for hosting this most months this year. I always enjoy the challenge.

Modern Christmas Tree

I have another red, black, and white Christmas card to share for three challenges. First, AAA Cards: Made in Minutes/Optional Christmas. This might be one of the fastest cards I've made this season. Second, The Paper Players where it's a theme challenge: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and finally, the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Fun with Dies.

My card is simple, but striking. It was quick enough to make that I made several of them.

Creating it involved two dies--my favorite Stitched Rectangle by Simon Says and the modern Christmas tree ("Winterland Tree") by Memory Box, and one stamp: "Sentiment Suite: Christmas" by The Greetery.

After adhering the die cut to the black panel, I added some favorite red pearls from A Muse and bumped the panel out for a bit of dimension with some black fun foam. The sentiment was embossed in white and die cut with Simon Says "Sentiment Labels." I resisted that purchase until a recent sale, and it was a great purchase. No more cutting these strips with a paper cutter or by hand - perfectly straight the first time!

 

Just Add S for Snowflake

The challenge at Just Add Ink is:

For this card, S is for Snowflake.

I made two different versions of this card, one with this large snowflake ("Lea" from Simon Says) and another with a smaller snowflake. I'd show you both, but the other card needs a photo retake, and I haven't gotten to much crafting/photographing for the last four days. This is a pretty CAS card. Although one doesn't usually think of using black on a Christmas card, I realized a few days ago that I've made at least three different Christmas cards using black cardstock---and I like them all.

You can see the two layers of cardstock in the first photo, but not so much in this one. The sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Floral Fantasy" set was embossed in gold, and I added a glittery gold enamel dot to the center of the snowflake. 

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

Off to do some curbside pick-ups. I like to support local businesses, but I'm trying to stay out of stores so I ordered some things online that I can pick up today.