random reflections

Stock Your Stash-Take 2

As I was cleaning up from yesterday's card, I came across another Reverse Confetti floral stamp and discovered several flowers and leaves that I had previously colored and die cut. It didn't take too long to make another Mother's Day card for the Stock Your Stash Challenge which ends tomorrow.

Today's florals come from a set "Tall Blooms"- another one that's been in my collection for quite a few years. 

After arranging the flowers on a piece of black cardstock, and adding the sentiment (from Pink and Main), I had to hunt through my cardstock for a piece of paper the right color for the mat. It turned out to be a good search. A friend ordered some Papertrey Ink cardstock for me weeks ago, and I had misplaced a couple of the packs which didn't fit in the usual place. Low and behold, there they were! Neither of them worked for the card, but a mystery's been solved. Better yet, I have the Pure Poppy cardstock that I love and don't need to order more. The beautiful paper matting the florals is Orchid from The Stamp Market. I have a sample pack of all their colors and it's proven to be a good purchase on several occasions.

When I put the panel on the white card base, it looked rather blah, so I added a strip of black and white striped patterned paper from My Favorite Things, and that seemed to perk it up a bit!

The sun is shining, but no walks until a delivery is made between 11:00 and 1:00. Rain is forecast for the afternoon, so hopefully we'll get out before then. Hope your day is going well!

 

Reverse Confetti-Stock Your Stash

I've kept my eye on Reverse Confetti's "Stock Your Stash" for some time now, but this is the first time I've played along. Being away half of  April has meant that crafting time was very limited. Now we're home, unpacked, and trying to get back into our regular routines (such as they are.) The challenge this month is for "Moms, Dads, and Grads. So I took some time this afternoon to make another Mother's Day card. (Two down, three to go!)

I don't own any appropriate stamps for dads from Reverse Confetti, and I don't know anyone graduating this year. I do, however, have several floral stamps and chose one I don't believe I've every used called "Pattern Blocks."

Once it was stamped, I colored it with some bright, happy Copic markers. I added some gel pen accents in white and black, and then matted it with a thin black frame.

I added it to a premade square card with embossed polka-dots (easier to see in the first photo), and an embossed sentiment from Pink and Main. 

It was good to be away after being home-bound for so long, but it's also nice to be home, although I'm missing the warm weather from South Carolina. Photos from the month coming soon.

 

Under the Wire

I have a birthday card for two challenges, one of which ends at noon today---so getting it in just "under the wire!"

I love the AAA Cards Challenge for a one-inch strip across a card, and I used just one stamp from Papertrey Ink, "Ombre Builder," made up of many small images rather than using a single small stamp. And the card definitely fits in The Paper Players' Challenge for a CAS Birthday card.

You won't be surprised to see yet another red, black and white color combination. It's a fave, and a great one for either a male or female recipient. 

It might be one of the quickest of cards to made as well. The only trick was needing to stamp the image several times to get each of the tiny triangles a solid black. With the MISTI stamping tool, that's an easy task. A simple stamped sentiment from The Stamp Market, "Tons of Type" and a red heart from a very old punch and it was done. Simple layers thanks to the Gina K "Master Layout" dies.

Color Hues #16

I'm the hostess at Color Hues this round, and chose Yellow and Gray for the colors. It's always been a favorite combination, and as it turns out, it's the Pantone Color(s) of the Year. Pantone decided to chose a duo rather than a single color this year. 

I CASED myself this round, using a design I've previously used. 

I started with this Memory Box card with subtle gray stripes. I've had these in my stash for so long I have no idea where I purchased them originally. Then I die cut a white "Shape Shifter Oval 2" by Papertrey Ink.

The floral is a favorite of mine from Pinkfresh Studio's "Keep Going" set. I watercolored it on Altenew Watercolor paper which I like very much. It's a nice clean white and the watercolors move nicely on it. This time I used my Karin watercolor markers.

I don't own the accompanying dies, so fussy cut the image and added it to the fancy oval. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions. 

I hope this color combo appeals to you as well, and that you'll join us at the Color Hues Challenge. Be sure to check out the great designs by my Design Team members, and our Guest Designer, Amy.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 

Sending Caring Thoughts

A quick post to share a card for the new Addicted to CAS Challenge: Flower, and the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: CAS.

I've used several of the images from the Waffle Flower "Bouquet Builder 4" set, but this one seems to be my favorite.

I stamped the image on watercolor paper and used my Karin watercolor markers. I love how vibrant the colors are. Then I used a very light blue wash around the flower. I'm always a bit hesitant to try this for fear I'll ruin the whole thing, but it worked out fine in this case.

I added a white embossed sentiment stamped on black cardstock from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You." Then as I often do, I die cut that panel and a dark blue panel with the Gina K "Master Layout" dies and layered them onto a bright blue cardbase. It's definitely a CAS design!

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Today is Adam's birthday. Since we were just there, I was able to leave his card and gift with Sarah. I used a new-to-me (NBUS!) stamp from My Favorite Things called "Trendy Triangles." It's somewhat reminiscent of an older Altenew stamp I have, but there are more triangle options with this set, plus I splurged on the dies. I've been waiting for an excuse to get it out. 

I chose one of my favorite color combinations: red, white, and black, but added a nice gray as well. 

I just love all the different designs for the triangles: stripes of several sizes, polka dots, graphs, open and closed. It makes for a really dynamic design---and great for a masculine card.

The sentiment is from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Birthday. I added three enamel dots to mimic the dots in the triangle on the top of the card. The focal layer and the thin black layer were cut with my favorite "Master Layout" dies by Gina K. They were layered on a Pure Poppy card base. 

I'm entering this in two birthday challenges: Simon Says Wednesday Challenge--their 12th birthday, and Seize the Birthday. There's always an optional topping. Interestingly, this time it's squares and I've used triangles, so I'll enter this without the topping! And, of course, the NBUS Challenge. *Edited to add that I missed the cut-off for the Seize the Birthday challenge which ended this morning!

Spring Flowers

I had a chance to play around with a new-to-me stamp, stencil, and die cut from Pinkfresh Studio, "Floral Notes." It's designed to fit a slimline card which is what I've done this time, but once I saw some card makers cut the design in two pieces to use on A2 sized cards, I knew it would be a versatile set to own. I'm pretty new to using the coloring stencils, but I've had good success both times. For me, they are much easier to use than layering stamps.

I used a variety of Pinkfresh inks with blending brushes to color the flowers and leaves before die cutting the floral arrangement. Then I used the smaller of the two dies in the Pinkfresh "Slimline Diagonal Stitched Rectangle" die set and stenciled just one part of a two-part stencil from Pinkfresh "Slimline Argyle" as a background.

I die cut the larger stitched piece from a piece of Lovely Lady cardstock by Papertrey Ink---one of my favorite pinks. The sentiment is from Pink and Main's "Special Day." This card is already in an envelope waiting to be mailed to a friend whose birthday is next week.

I'm linking this up to three challenges: The Flower Challenge: Pretty Pastels, The Paper Players where the challenge is Spring Flowers, and Time Out with a quote about April and getting out in the garden. April's a little early in the northeast for these flowers, but the daffodils are up, and we've planted pansies in our front yard which has given me hope for an early spring!

 

Happy Easter!

It's a bright, sunny Easter and lots of fun to be in Wisconsin to celebrate. With the exception of last year, when we celebrated Easter alone, we are lucky to have had one set of grandchildren to celebrate with every year. This year, it's Caleb and Hannah, although we miss seeing the three girls. Before we left Rochester, we celebrated with the three girls. They made some Easter headbands and some place cards for their dinner table (no photos!)

Yesterday, we did the same with Caleb and Hannah. We made an extra for their friend, Evie, who will be coming for dinner tonight with her mom and dad.

Hannah and I made Easter cookies Friday morning, and when Caleb got home we got busy decorating them.

All five of the grandchildren's Easter cards are very similar.  The Card Concept's new challenge is "Celebrate Easter"---perfect for these cards! Card Concepts asks you to classify your card design. I'd classify these as Clean and Layered.

A friend loaned me a wonderful bunny die by Lil' Inker called "Peek-a-Boo Bunny", and I used it for all five grandchildren.

These are the card for the three girls in Rochester. The only difference is the patterned paper---all from my stash. The funky flowers are stickers that were also in my stash. 

The sentiment is from an older Papertrey Ink set, "Bunny Basket."

Similar, but not quite the same, here are the two for Caleb and Hannah.

When I made these cards, I wasn't sure we'd be able to travel over Easter, so I opted for a bow rather than a flower in case the card needed to go in the mail. I love the plaid paper on Caleb's card and the bright green card seems more appropriate for a boy. 

If you celebrate Easter, I hope you're having a lovely day! If not, I hope the sun is shining where you are, and you have some time to get out and enjoy it!

 

 

 

 

Color Hues #15

No matter the weather, by April 1, I'm ready for spring. This year we've been treated to very early signs of spring and I'm hoping a greener landscape is not far away. Today's new challenge at Color Hues is sure to brighten your day, regardless of where you are in welcoming the new season.

If you've followed me for very long, you know I'm partial to Clean and Simple designs. This card totally falls in that category. I'm not sure if I've ever created anything that was more Clean and Simple. This card more or less created itself. I die cut the floral from The Stamp Market's "Fresh Floral Layering" die in Concord and 9th's Ballet Slippers. Although this was made for inlaying the pieces of the floral, I knew as soon as I laid down the outline, that was all I was going to need.

I then die cut the two leaves from a pieces green cardstock in my bits and pieces folder and added them to the floral on a piece of white cardstock. 

I cut a narrow border from the Ballet Slippers cardstock, and added dimensional tape to the back of the focal piece before adding it to a white card base. The sentiment, embossed in white on black cardstock is from Reverse Confetti's "So Many Sentiments" set. 

After I had created this card, I started playing around with the new-to-me coloring stencils by Pinkfresh Studios for their stamp set "Friendship Blooms." And although I do like this card, it is definitely not CAS!

After die cutting the florals with the accompanying dies, I die cut two panels, one in black and one in gold, with Gina K's Layering dies. I love the narrow border these dies create. The sentiment, embossed in gold, is also from "Friendship Blooms." I layered everything onto a bright pink card base.

The final touch was the addition of some gold sequins.

Hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Tenia, have come up with . . . and join in the fun!

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey