random reflections

Happy Birthday!

Each year when we're lucky enough to travel to celebrate Christmas with Sarah and her family, we're also able to celebrate with Caleb and Hannah when they celebrate their joint birthdays. And today was the day! It started early with (requested) scavenger hunts. Caleb asked for a challenging hunt, and his coded clues were definitely that. Hannah had photographic clues, and was very quick to identify the details in the photo to lead her to the next clue.

After lunch their good friend, Evie, and her parents arrived for cake and ice cream. It was a Harry Potter cake (another request). The 10 candles on the left are for Caleb, and the five on the right for Hannah.

Caleb is a huge fan of Super Heroes (and Harry Potter). The older Papertrey Ink set "Zappy Birthday" seemed like a good fit for his birthday card.

The coordinating paper pad, "Comic Strip" was the perfect background to which I added a variety of die cuts and stamped sentiments. Some of the die cuts were layered for dimensional, some adhered with dimensional tape, and I added a bit of  white glitter paper for the lightening bolt.

 The inside sentiment came from another older Papertrey Ink set. (Can't remember the name of the set; it's now retired.)

"Birthday Buds" by My Favorite Things has always been one of my favorite sets, so I pulled it out again to make a mini slimline card for Hannah.

I die cut the mini Polaroid frames by Mama Elephant, and added three of the cute animals colored with Copic markers.  The sentiments on each frame are from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Balloons" and the patterned paper is also from Papertrey Ink. Six tiny stars were the last addition. 

The inside of her card features the hedgehog from the set with the very appropriate five candles with a greeting from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Birthday."

It's been pretty dreary here, but luckily no significant snow as yet. Our trip home will be determined as much by the weather reports as anything else so I'm hoping there's nothing BIG on the way!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! It's been a lovely two days. Yesterday we celebrated with Matt, Betsy, and the three girls. After dinner we went to the 7:00 Christmas Eve service. I'd been asked to be one of the liturgists, and I'm so glad I said yes. The music was beautiful (as always), the church was filled with red poinsettias and carnations, and the Lessons and Carols service has long been a favorite of mine. Had I not been asked to read, we would have stayed home despite the masks and social distancing observed at our church. 

Today we had a quiet morning at home. This afternoon Tracy's family arrived for Christmas. There were just nine of us, the smallest number ever. Given all the concerns, none of the adult children with families were traveling this season. 

I thought I'd share the cards I made for the three girls and Caleb and Hannah. I'll be throwing two of them in the mix at the Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge and the Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes with Dies. 

For the girls. All three cards feature the cutest Santas ever from My Favorite Things, and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

And for Caleb and Hannah. Their cards were made with the November Hero Arts Card Kit. There's also a cute elf and a reindeer for another year.

For Caleb who's not much of a believer any more:

And for Hannah:

I hope you've had a happy and healthy holiday!

Pink Poinsettia

I have a lovely pink poinsettia on my desk, and it's inspired me to make a variety of Christmas cards with pink poinsettias. Life here has been much busier than usual. We no longer eat in restaurants, but we are seeing friends here and in their homes since we're all vaccinated and boosted. It's so much better than last year, even with the Omicron variant hanging over our heads. And it's making the holiday much more fun that it was a year ago. Nonetheless, Instagram and blogging have fallen by the wayside for the last week. But now that I know this card has safely arrived in my friend's hands, I can share it here on the blog. 

This card was made specifically for a blogging friend who loves all things pink. It was another one of the cards I put together with dies that had been cut last year, but not used. The poinsettia is from Papertrey Ink's "Modern Gift Card" set which I layered onto a lighter pink circle die cut with Simon Says' "Stitched Circle" die and a gold circle frame from the Ellen Hutson "Essentials: Circles" dies. 

The sentiment is from a new Christmas set by Penny Black, " Happy & Bright," and it's my favorite new sentiment set. I've used it over and over, both on the fronts of cards as well as the inside sentiments.

I'm entering this in two challenges: The Flower Challenge (a fave that I've neglected for far too long,) and Addicted to Stamping and More, a newer challenge for me.

Happy Birthday!

I always need to take a break from holiday crafting to make birthday cards for my brother and brother-in-law whose birthdays are just a week apart. Today is my brother's birthday. My mom always held off any Christmas decorating or celebrating until his birthday was over. I, of course, pay no attention to that at all! As I often do, I made two identical cards, using a new Ellen Hutson stamp, "HB2U," that arrived as a freebie during one of her recent sales.

It's clearly a CAS design and definitely hits the "masculine" factor, but with different colors and a few embellishments, the design could easily be adapted for a woman. The inks and the papers are all from Concord & 9th--Dove, Stardust, and Midnight.

I used my favorite layering dies from Gina K's Master Layout #1 to cut the layers for the card. 

I'll definitely be revisiting this design by trying out some different color combinations!

Back to holiday crafting for a few more days. I have all the international cards in the mail, but the domestic ones have yet to leave the house.

Two Poinsettias

I'm a fan of women's collegiate basketball, and have been following the Connecticut Huskies for over 25 years now. There was a televised game Friday night, and I decided I'd like to make a card while I listened and occasionally watched the game. It wasn't a nail biter, so it was easy to craft and just listen.

I keep a list of current challenges on my Notes app, and looked through to see if I could find a couple of challenges that might work well together. I started with the Color Throwdown Challenge: silver, pink, and white. Then I saw Cécile's sketch on Freshly Made Sketches and knew I could use some of my previously die cut poinsettias for the card. This morning I discovered that the new Flower Challenge: Christmas certainly fits the bill as well.

Just recently, I took a pile of poinsettias I had die cut last year from Papertrey Ink's "Modern Gift Card" dies and colored and assembled them. The starting point for the card were the white and pink poinsettias, and for the Color Throwdown Challenge, choosing a card base was easy---it had to be silver. 

To match the sketch, I pulled out an already die cut circle, and added two silver glittery holly leaves cut from a new Simon Says die set, " Christmas Foliage."

I used some silver gems from Paper Studio for the centers of the flowers. The sentiment was embossed in silver on a narrow strip of black cardstock with a sentiment from Avery Elle's 
"Seasonal Simple Sentiments."

I love when everything comes together so nicely. It doesn't often happen, but I'm quite fond of the sketch and happy with the card!

Condolences

Losing someone at holiday time always seems harder since so many family traditions and gatherings happen during the late fall and early winter. Sadly, we have lost several more friends in the last several weeks, and in fact, I have another three sympathy cards to make this weekend. Two of them are for the children of one of our dearest friends who died very suddenly last week. She was 87, so had lived a long life. But as far as anyone knew, she was in good health, and was certainly as sharp as ever. We were just devastated when we heard the news.

But here are three sympathy cards that have been sent in the past two weeks. For all of them, I've relied on the Altenew's "Leaf Mix" dies, and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Warm Regards" set. This one has a different design which is my favorite. I'm throwing it into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion. I imagine a sympathy card is not quite what they're expecting during this busy Christmas crafting time!

 

These two are very similar in design, but different in color.

 

 

 

Color Hues #31

There's just one challenge this month leading up to the holiday season. And not surprisingly, Cindy has chosen the traditional colors of Christmas: Red and Green.

I've had two of Papertrey's Bold Borders: Yuledtide in my stash that I die cut during a crafty session before the pandemic, but never used. They worked perfectly for this challenge. They'd been die cut with PTI's Pinefeather paper which I layered on cards made from Concord & 9th's Cranberry cardstock.

The sentiment is a combination of a die cut and a stamp. The Savvy "Joy" die cut has been in my stash for years, and has appeared on many of my Christmas cards. I never tire of it. I added a stamped sentiment from PTI's "Big Hugs" stamp set.

I debated for a time about whether to add any embellishments but decided the tiny red pearls from A Muse would work well here. The pearls are another item that I've had in my stash for many years. Years ago, A Muse decided to become an online company, and I was afraid I'd run out of the red pearls. I purchased multiple packs of them, and still have plenty, but no unopened packages are left. I have some other colors as well, but the red ones are my favorite.

 

Thank goodness classic items don't go out of style! I'd label this a pretty classic Christmas card, and would love to have had enough borders to make a whole set. I hope this color combo inspires you to create a few holiday cards, and I hope you'll share them with us in the gallery at Color Hues. Please check out all the inspiration from my Design Team members and our fabulous Guest Designer, Michele Ferguson.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

   Tracey