random reflections

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, and I can't think of a better place to be than with grandchildren who are SO excited about going Trick or Treating! Sarah and her family moved to a fabulous neighborhood with lots of kids. Both Caleb and Hannah have good friends just down the street. I've shared a couple of Halloween cards here and here, but made five more for the grandchildren. We gave the three girls their cards and Halloween gifts before we left.

I made four different cards, creating two of the same for Hannah and Ella. It's thanks to my crafty friends that I had a huge pile of die cuts to choose from when it came time to create the cards.

Aside from the sentiments the cards are just the same---Royal Purple (Simon Says) cardstock splattered with silver metallic paint and layered onto a cardbase of Orange Zest (PTI). The silver glitter paper is several years old and came from a cute shop in Milwaukee. I used a clear glitter pen to add glitter to the cats which you can see better here. The cat and the moon are from PTI's "Boo Black Cat" set. 

I also wanted all the cards to have some kind of interactive feature. The cats have a wobbler behind them. Try as I might, I never got a very good photo, but when Ella opened her card at home she "wobbled" the card, and I got a better photo,

Next up is Maddy's shaker card. 

I started by ink blending the Pretty Pink Posh "Spider Web" stencil on Bristol paper. I die cut the letters with the Pinkfresh Studio "Adore" alphabet, backing it with acetate and filling it with a variety of sequins and tiny stars.

I found the cute spider sticker from "la petites" at Hobby Lobby. 

Skylar's card was a spinner card. I made this one twice trying to get the spinner to work effectively. I now know what kind of thread I need to make it work even better than it did. 

Putting a greeting inside the card proved to be tricky, too, since I didn't want it to show through the opening for the spinner piece. In the end, it worked out really well. The ghosts are die cuts from Poppy Stamps and the greeting from The Stamp Market's "Halloween" set. The patterned paper is from an old 6X6 pad by American Craft. 

Last, but not least, is Caleb's card which I thought would appeal to a nine year old boy.

The center ghoul on the card is mounted on the card with a large Wobbler like the black cat  cards above, There's a narrow strip of patterned paper from the same paper pad behind the three ghouls from Papertrey Ink's "Grins and Ghouls." 

I found the perfect sentiment in an old Papertrey Ink Make-it Market kit, "Halloween Pin-ups" which was die cut with an Essential Oval by Ellen Hutson. A slightly larger oval from My Favorite Things "Black and White Stripes" served as a mat.

Yesterday, one set of neighbors arrived to carve pumpkins on the back porch so we have a set of jack-o-lanterns to decorate the front porch tonight. It's going to be a chilly evening for Trick 0r Treating, but thankfully, it's not raining or snowing!

Hope you have a great Hallow's Eve!

 

 

Happy Holidays

I've been slowing chipping away at the number of holiday cards I want to make. I have one to share today with one of my favorite poinsettia stamps from Altenew: "Modern Poinsettia." I posted another holiday card with the same poinsettia here. 

I stamped the poinsettia on hot press watercolor paper. Although it does not have as much texture as cold press paper, it does require two stampings to get a clear image. Thanks to the MISTI, that's easy to do. The next step was to watercolor the floral and die cut it with the accompanying die.

After I die cut it, I decided it would benefit from a few black splatters. It's taken me far too long to finally master the art of splattering, but I'm no longer afraid I'll ruin the whole thing!

I added a wide strip of black and white patterned paper from My Favorite Things to the left side of the card before adding the poinsettia with dimensional tape. The beautiful greeting is from the Colorado Crafts "Slimline Poinsettia" stamp. I'm using three of those greeting repeatedly this year on my cards.

I'm sending this off to two challenges: Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas, and Happy Little Stampers Christmas: Anything Goes.

I'm also adding this to a new (to me) site: Falling for the Holidays Blog Hop, sponsored by the Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers.

 

With Sympathy

Sympathy cards are never anyone's favorite card to create, and I'm a firm believer that CAS and subdued colors are the best bet. I recently acquired the wonderful "Leaf Mix" dies by Altenew, and I think they might become a "go to" set for just this kind of card.

This was a pretty quick and easy card to assemble since I had earlier die cut multiple leaves from four different metallic papers. I chose a gold, bronze, and brown leaf and carefully glued them to the front of a ready-made card by Memory Box. I love these cards because they are white inside which make them good for writing notes of condolence. 

This lovely sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Warm Regards" set which hasn't seem much love for awhile. It was gold embossed on a piece of Cocoa Bean cardstock and added to the card with a layer of dimensional tape. 

The card is for one of our dearest friends. Her mother-in-law passed away recently. Ruth lived a long life. She was 99 years old and outlived her husband and both her sons. That just shouldn't happen to anyone. The last several years were difficult, so it's good to know she's no longer struggling.

There was a beautiful memorial service this weekend. Ruth was the oldest of 10 children and grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. Her youngest sister who is in her early eighties was able to attend, and spoke so warmly of her older sister, who she saw as a second mother. Ruth was a phenomenal quilter, and both Sarah and I are recipients of one of her beautiful quilts, all done by hand.

I'm entering this in the CAS on Friday Challenge where one of the options is Autumn. This card definitely has an autumn feel to it.

 

 

Eek!!!

Halloween card making is finally complete, and over the next week I'll be sharing the cards I made. This one is for my mother-in-law who has always loved Halloween. In the days when she ran a very successful bed and breakfast, she often closed it over Halloween weekend to entertain her grandchildren with games, hide and seek, and lots of Halloween treats. 

The design of this card was cased from a winner at The Paper Players Challenge several weeks ago. The original card was a fabulous example of a CAS card. I went a bit fancier with mine. I die cut the Pretty Pink Posh "Stitched Film Strip" from black paper and the Papertrey Ink "Corner Adorner: August" from silver glitter paper. Then I backed the opening in the frame with pieces from the die cut web.

I layered that on a bright purple paper and embossed the sentiment from The Stamp Market's "Halloween" in silver. The cute spider (is any spider cute?) came from Hobby Lobby.

It all went on a bright orange cardbase. I never used much purple and orange together in past years, but this year, it's been a favorite combination. I'm throwing this in the ring at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge which is Spooky/Halloween.

 

Botanical Print: Take Two

I have a second botanical print for the CAS Mix-Up Challenge before it ends.

As I was cleaning off my desk Wednesday night, I saw this vellum piece that I had printed with the same Distress Oxide inks and the same leaf as I used for my first botanical print here. It wasn't what I was looking for the first time, but I decided I really did like it and decided to see what I could do with it. I’m quite happy with the result.

I cut the vellum piece and then added two very narrow gold metallic strips to the top and the bottom so I would have a place to adhere it to the card. 

Before adding the vellum to the Terra Cotta card base, I stamped this lovely sentiment from Concord and 9th’s “Hey, Bestie.” The font is so elegant. 

I might like this "after-thought" card better than the original. I wish every card I made came together so easily!

It’s been a crazy busy week, and the weekend looks no different. I’m still hoping to squeeze in some crafting, and hopefully, showing up here again before too long.

World Card Making Day Challenge

On World Card Making Day, October 2nd, I was busy crafting, but I wasn't paying much attention to the many challenges available. After the fact, I saw the Pinkfresh Studio World Card Making Day Challenge which closes tonight. For most of the intervening days, a lovely new stencil from Pinkfresh Studio, "Holiday Botanical Background," has been laying on my desk waiting for some attention. Finally, on the last night the challenge is live, here is the card.

It's a four-step stencil and very easy to line up. I used two Pinkfresh green inks and one Altenew green ink on the leaves and Pinkfresh's "Candy Apple" for the berries. The sentiment is from a new stamp set by Waffle Flower, "Cozy Holiday Sentiments." I like the simply graphic font, and it was the perfect size for the opening in the center of the card.

I die cut the stenciled panel with the largest of Spellbinders "A2 Matting Basics" dies and added it to a red cardbase. Then I added some subtle shadows with a very light gray Copic marker and some highlights with a white gel pen. The only embellishments are some  Droplets from The Stamp Market. 

Happy to have another Christmas card added to the stash and happy to have finally put these lovely products to use!

Fall and Christmas

It's that time of year when I'm creating autumn cards for birthdays and anniversaries, and Christmas cards since I know I'll need a LOT of them very soon! Today I have two cards--one of each--for two challenges. 

First off, a very interesting challenge on the CAS Mix-Up site. They're looking for a botanical print (from a real leaf or plant) as well as some stamping and/or die cutting.

I found a few pretty leaves on a walk a day or so again, and it's taken two days to get the print made and the card assembled. It's not often I have very busy weeks with lots of commitments, but this is one of them. 

I colored two leaves with Distress Oxide inks (Crackling Campfire and Carved Pumpkin) and then pressed them into cardstock. I found that using my fingers to press down on the leaves worked the best. I'm very happy with the way they turned out. 

The gold embossed sentiment on vellum is from a tiny stamp set by Gossamer Blue. It harkens back to my scrapbooking days. I added some gold splatters and a narrow gold mat (thanks to the Gina K "Master Layouts 1 dies).

The next card is for the Jingle Bells Pink Challenge. As you might guess this is a Christmas challenge, and if I've ever entered it, it's been at least a year. 

It's been a long time since I pulled out my Polychromos colored pencils, but this turned out to be a pretty meditative task. 

This is a mini slimline card. The poinsettias are from Colorado Crafts "Slimline Poinsettia" set and the sentiment is from Gina K's "Holiday Tapestry" set. 

I decided on no embellishments for this one. It's not often I end up with a one-layer card! 

Color Hues #28

A new Color Hues Challenge is live. Nancy chose Red and Kraft for this round.

It’s not a color combo I typically use for Christmas, but I love the way this ended up.

It’s really past time to start thinking about Christmas cards so I used this opportunity to create one using two dies I’ve never put to use. I purchased Altenew’s “Poinsettia 3D Die Set” last year at the end of the season after all my Christmas cards were made. The Waffle Flower “Triple Line Diamond Panel” die is newer, but it’s been in the stash for a couple of months.

I die cut the “Triple Line Diamond” panel from Kraft cardstock (Papertrey Ink) and added it to the card base. It needed a festive touch, so I die cut a second panel from gold and inlaid the tiny squares. Sadly, the poinsettia covers up quite a few of them. The bonus is that I’m left with a lovely gold panel you’re likely to see soon.

The poinsettia was die cut from red cardstock (Concord and 9th) and splattered with gold watercolors from Gansi Tambi’s “Starry Colors.” I added some dimensional tape under some of the bracts of the poinsettia.

The sentiment from The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite: Christmas” was gold embossed and die cut with one of the “Sentiment Suite Basic” dies. Instead of using the tiny die from the poinsettia set for the center, I chose some gold pearls from The Paper Studio.

I hope you'll hop over to the Color Hues Challenge and join in the fun, checking out the cards made by my awesome Design Team members and our Guest Designer, Ma-Mi.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 Tracey

 

 

Celebrate!

There are two celebratory challenges running right now, and I pulled out a die I've never used to create a couple of birthday cards for them. AAA Card Challenges is celebrating their 200th challenge (Congrats! That's a lot of challenges!), and Seize the Birthday is asking for cakes! I was happy to oblige.

I wanted to use pink with chocolate cake for one of my cards but also die cut some portions of the cakes in metallic and shimmer papers, being unsure of what I'd want in the way of decorations. In the end I had enough pieces to create two cards--one definitely feminine and another that could work for both men and women. 

I started with a pre-embossed piece I found in my collection of ready-to-use pieces and die cut it with one of the tags in Gina K's "Tag Trio." It turned out to be a perfect size for the cake, but I ended up deciding it required a 5X7 format which I don't typically make. 

You can see the white embossed pattern on the tag. I have no idea what I used to create that piece, but I'd like to locate it. The fun cake is My Favorite Things "Birthday Cake" die, and although I've never used it before, it must already be retired as I couldn't find it on the MFT site. 

For the second cake, I chose one of The Greetery's "Crimped Frames." I love the gold and silver with the chocolate cake.

The only change for the second card was to emboss the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Banner Sentiments" in gold.

On both cards, I inlaid the circles on one layer of the cake. On the pink card, I used the same pink shimmer paper as the other "frosting" layers. On this card, I had some white shimmer circles and liked those better than either of the glittery decorations.

It's always a good idea to have a few birthday cards in my stash. And I'm quite sure I'll find just the right recipients for these. I'm also sending these cards to the October NBUS Challenge. I'm so relieved to have finally gotten around to using this fun die. It certainly won't be the last time!

 

 

A Christmas Poinsettia

Along with Halloween cards, I finished a few Christmas cards last weekend as well. There's now a small stash, but it certainly needs to grow by leaps and bounds by the end of next month! This card was made with two challenges in mind. One of my favorite challenges (which I've neglected recently) is The Flower Challenge. They are celebrating their 5th birthday, and I wanted to be sure to celebrate with them. The challenge calls for Using a Shape. The second challenge is a Christmas challenge. I ought to participate in these all year long, but I seem to wait until the time is drawing near. The CAS Christmas Challenge calls for Red & Gray.

It's a color combination I like, so I set out to create a Christmas card with a flower, on a shape, using red and gray. I'm pretty happy with the outcome:

The poinsettia is one of my favorites, Altenew's "Modern Poinsettia." I watercolored it with The Stamp Market watercolors. I struggle with those sometimes, but I slowed down and finished this over two days, letting the previous coats dry completely. After finishing it, I splattered it with white ink.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but the "Braided Circle" die from Pinkfresh Studio was cut from light gray cardstock which looks more cream in the photo than it does IRL. 

The circle and poinsettia were layered onto a dark gray card base. I used a few small pieces of dimensional tape behind the leaves of the poinsettia. According to Google, poinsettias do not have petals, just leaves which are different colors given the amount of light they've had. Technically, they're called bracts. The flowers are actually the small centers of the poinsettia which I colored in a yellow green. They are one of two favorite holiday flowers, the other being cyclamens which are available all year, but were always a Christmas gift from my father when he was alive.

The sentiment, embossed in silver, is from a Colorado Craft set I ordered at the end of last year and have never used, "Slimline Poinsettias." I've yet to stamp or color the beautiful flowers in that set, but I used all three of the accompanying sentiments this weekend while I was crafting Christmas cards. I think you'll see them on lots of cards. The fonts are really lovely, and they're universal holiday greetings. The final touch was to add a few silver pearls from Trinity Stamps.