random reflections

An Inspired Rainbow Critter Card

Not long ago, I watched Therese create a couple of cute cards using a rainbow stamp from Ellen Hutson and a collaborative stamp with Ellen Hutson and Avery Elle. I had both stamp sets so I pinned it to my Pinterest board for kids. My CASE is similar, but I chose to use a die from The Stamp Market for my rainbow in an effort to use another product that had been sitting in my stash. I had already colored one of the critters from The Peek-a-Boo Pals Camp Wanna Stamp set so I set about creating the card. 

After attaching the rainbow to white cardstock, I added it to a red cardbase. The die cut cloud is from Papertrey Ink, and both the cloud and the cute bear are adhered with dimensional tape. I created a red frame using two of Ellen Hutson's Essential Rectangle dies and then added that to the panel.

The sentiment is a preprinted one from Simon Says. After attaching it, I added the bear's paws so he appears to be holding the greeting.

I'm entering the card in two challenges:  Just Us Girls: Animals and Addicted to CAS where the challenge is also Animals. It's my second entry to both challenges---so unusual!

This card's all set for a very cute little girl who will be turning four next month. 

Wish Big

It's not often that I can create a card for four challenges, but it's the luck of the Irish in this case. St. Patrick's Day is coming and all four challenges feature some aspect of the traditions surrounding St. Patrick's Day. Luckily for me I have two birthdays to celebrate--one on the day itself and another on the 18th.

Here are the challenges:

The Card Concept Challenge is a photo inspiration: I'm picking up on the hat (St. Patrick's Day) and the green for my card.
As usual, it fits their category "Clean and Simple."

CASology's challenge is Luck, and my card features four-leaf clovers, definitely a sign of luck!

At JUGS, the challenge is Animals, and I've yet another Anita Jeram cutie holding the four-leaf clover.

It's been awhile since I've played with Seize the Birthday, and yes, there are three shades of green created with three green Karin watercolor markers.

So finally, the card itself. As I said it features another of the Anita Jeram illustrations from the Colorado Craft Company. Knowing I had St. Patrick's Day cards to create, it was a must-have. 

I stamped the design on Altenew watercolor paper and colored it with Karin brush markers. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Ways to Say: Birthday.

I wanted a narrow frame of traditional St. Patrick's green (New Leaf from PTI) and then added it to a card base created with Green Parakeet (PTI).

I hope the luck of the Irish is with you today!

 

Celebrate!

The current challenge at The Paper Players is a sketch challenge, and one that appealed to me. At Addicted to CAS the challenge is "Animals," and I thought I could combine an image from another of my unused/new stamp sets and get a birthday card into the stash.

Earlier I shared one of the stamps from Colorado Crafts illustrated by Anita Jeram. This is another of her darling images.

Her illustrations cry out for watercolors so I got out my Daniel Smith watercolors and created a bit of a background as well as coloring the bunny and his/her balloon. 

I kept the rest simple; a narrow black frame and a white embossed sentiment from Pink and Main. Typically, a CAS card calls for white space, but I'm a believer that it can also be colored space as well! 

The sun is shining here, and I hope it's the same for you!

Another One Layer Card

I really enjoyed coming up with a one-layer card last week, and decided to try another one, both for Less Is More (my second entry) and AAA Cards where the challenge is a sketch. 

I opted to use Copic markers rather than watercolor since I wanted to use Neenah #110 cardstock to dry emboss the My Favorite Things "Peek-a-Boo" die. 

Once I embossed the rectangle, I stamped the smallest flower from Pink Fresh Studio's new "Friendship Blooms" stamp set. I won a $25 gift certificate during their release blog hop, and decided to purchase this stamp set. It has gorgeous florals and wonderful sentiments. You'll be seeing more of it soon.

After coloring the floral with Copic markers and adding some detail with Polychromos colored pencils, I stamped a simple greeting from Sentiment Suite: Birthday by The Greetery. Although I also use the Peek-a-Boo window die to cut an open window, I think I prefer it embossed. 

One of my intentions for March is to use as many unused or new stamps or dies as I can. I gathered them altogether and put them in a basket. Some of them are relatively new, but to my chagrin, some of them have been in my collection for well over a year! No more purchases until I've worked my way through the pile.

 

Color Hues #13

It's March first, and time for a new challenge at Color Hues. I have to admit March is one of my least favorite months. When travel is safe again, I expect to spend the month of March in a location much warmer and sunnier than Rochester! Here are the new colors:

These bright and cheery colors gave me permission to create a card that celebrates sunshine.

This is actually the second card I made. Both cards started with The Stamp Market's " Color Block" die. For this card I chose two hues of yellow and two of blue. Each piece is popped up with dimensional tape on a white card base. Then I searched through my stamps looking for a sunshine die, and ended up with Reverse Confetti's set "Over the Rainbow." I added a bit of ink blending to the edges of the sun to set it apart from the yellow panels.

I added a white puffy die cut cloud (from Papertrey Ink), and a sentiment from a new stamp set from My Favorite Things, "Bitty Hugs and Kisses." 

Here's a look at the first card I created. For this card I used four hues of yellow and blue.

I do like this card as well, but doesn't meet the I. need. spring. requirement. I inlaid the panels from the "Color Block" die this time, and added a die cut sentiment from Simon Says, "Bold Hello," that was included in one of the monthly card kits. 

Hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has come up with . . . and join in the fun!

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey