random reflections

Don't Forget to Write

Years ago I purchased my first large stamping kit from Papertrey Ink called "Don't F0rget to Write. It was packed with preprinted card fronts, preprinted florals with accompanying dies, and a stamp set with dies. I have all the components in a cute red paper "suitcase" sitting on top of one of my bookcases. And I just never think about what's up there. Last week I was in need of some "thinking of you" cards and pulled it down. In just one afternoon, I had eight cards--seven "thinking of you" cards and one birthday card. I took some of my inspiration from the Papertrey Ink Design Team at the time the kit was released, but once I got going most of the cards just came together without much thought.

The first two cards use preprinted card fronts. One of them I cut down with a rounded rectangle die and then used the next larger die to cut a white mat. The "note" is one of several word dies included in the kit, and the "just a" is part of the stamp set. I added some Nuvo Drops to the centers of the flowers, and added them to card fronts.

These two used preprinted cardstock with and without florals. The floral cluster on the left card was die cut from a sheets of florals. I added more Nuvo Drops to the florals and die cut the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Scripted" dies. On the right, the sentiment is actually a sticker. I die cut a white circle as a mat and adhered it with dimensional tape. Some of the preprinted patterns are on squares, and there's a die that cuts a lovely scalloped card that I didn't use this time around. The floral centers are white pearls this time.

The next set use the purple papers. The design of the left card is a CASE from Kay Miller. The lovely die cut frame is also part of the kit. For the card on the right I used a piece of Bitty Big striped paper in Amethyst Allure. I filled the circular frame with a white circle cut with Ellen Hutson's Essential Circles dies and added the die cut florals. The sentiment is just the same as the first cards, and I added a few rainstones as embellishment. These floral centers were filled with enamel dots.

Lastly the green combos. The birthday card on the left is one of my favorites although it's a bit fussier than the rest. I added a floral cluster die cut that matched the florals on the printed paper. I cut a vellum strip and added a piece of Paper Source ribbon to it before adding the cluster with dimensional tape. The sentiment is from a group I had foiled a week or so earlier from Spellbinders. On the right, another smaller square note card which needs no explanation, since all the elements are explained above. 

Here's a closer look at the birthday card.

I have another Papertrey Ink kit that's looking for some attention soon, but it will be awhile. We'll be on vacation when this post is published, and although I have another post scheduled for the first of April, it's likely to be very quiet here for the next two weeks.

 

Magnolia Ballerina

As soon as I saw the Altenew "Magnolia Ballerina" I knew I would find a home for it. When Ellen Hutson had a sale a week or so ago on all Altenew products, I put the embossing folder (and the accompanying stamp set) in the cart. I'm not disappointed. Altenew's 3-D embossing folders are just gorgeous. I ran this one through my die cutter with watercolor paper, and with the March Altenew Challenge in mind. Here's the inspiration photo. It's definitely a CASE of Therese at Lost in Paper with a change in orientation, size, and sentiment.

Watercoloring a white flower on white paper is, needless to say, a bit of a challenge. Looking at the light purple in the color triad, I used the lavender in my Daniel Smith palette. The palette is not one I use too often, but it included all three of the colors in the challenge, and required no mixing. It's hard to see the watercolor on the petals, but I think that's the point.

The embossing folder is larger than a standard card, so this was cut down considerably to make a square card. You can see the folder here.

The sentiment is from The Ton's "Easy Expressions: Birthday." I keep a collection of these sentiments ready to go in a small basket, and it's amazing how often they work.

After cutting the image down, I cut a very narrow mat from Gina K Asparagus cardstock, and added it to a card made with Simon Says "Ivory" cardstock. Some time ago I read that Ivory almost always is a good match for watercolor paper, which I've found to be true.

In addition to the March Altenew Challenge I'm entering this in the new Paper Players Challenge for CAS Blooms. Despite the large image, this fits my definition of CAS since the majority of the image is white.

 

 

You're the Best!

I'm on a mission to get cards created for the challenges I've been thinking about all month. Today's card is for the Pinkfresh Studio Monthly Challenge, and the emphasis is on frames. In addition there is a color palette to use as well.

I knew right away I wanted to use one of my new hot foiling plates, and it's thanks to two big wins at Pinkfresh Studio that I have the foiling plates to design with! "Lush Vines" is one of my favorites. Although I've foiled previously, I've never tried to color with Copic markers on the Hammermill paper I use for foiling. Turns out it's easy as can be.

The first step was to create the oval frame with one of Ellen Hutson's Essential Ovals. After marking where it would go, I colored jus the parts of the design that would show through the frame. Once that was done I die cut the next largest oval in gold and adhered just the frame around the oval. Then I attached that piece to the foiled piece with dimensional tape.

Up to that point everything was going as planned, but I hadn't decided on a sentiment. It was clear that part of the sentiment needed to go on top of the oval and I had a collection of Pinkfresh "Brushed Sentiments" already foiled. The "You" fit in perfectly, and I finished the sentiment with a phrase from Altenew's "Build a Flower: Magnolia" which I embossed in gold and cut with an "Itty Bitty Strip" from My Favorite Things.

There have times recently when the finished card is totally unlike my original vision, but this time it's just about perfect!

 

Color Hues #37

One thing I love about the Color Hues Challenge is the challenge to use colors I would never think to use. Nancy's choice of Yellow and Pale Teal would never occur to me, but as it often turns out, I'm a new fan. In fact, I ended up with two quite different cards.

The card I started out to make ended up being the second card I created. I just couldn't get the elements to come together, so abandoned the multiple pieces and went on to make my signature CAS card,

I started out with the "Shape Shifter Square #4" by Papertrey Ink. The entire design includes another frame with a more intricate design which I eliminated,  using an Ellen Hutson "Essential Squares" die to cut it off for a cleaner look. I die cut it three times: once in white, once in yellow (Papertrey's Harvest Gold), and once in pale teal (Concord & 9th's Sea Glass). I punched out all the die cuts in the white image, and inlaid them with yellow and pale teal. I used a neutral brown on the centers of the four small daisies.

I left the outermost border empty so the yellow card base would show through. It also adds a bit of dimension to the design. Deciding on the sentiment took while, but I decided on a white embossed greeting on vellum which doesn't detract from the design.

When I sat down the next day at my desk, I saw all the pieces for the first card I intended to make. A new day made all the difference. The "Lovely Layers" set from Papertrey Ink has always been a favorite and that's where I had started. Arranging it the second day came pretty easily. Who's to understand the creative process? And in the end, I chose this one to post on the challenge site.

Layering the Lovely Layers pieces on a "Crimped Circle" from The Greetery worked well. Then I decided to use my new "Detail Petal Plate" from Simon Says for a subtle background. 

I used my favorite Gina K Design "Master Layout #1" dies to cut that panel as well as one from the soft teal to create a narrow border. The sentiment also comes from a favorite set from Pink and Main: "Special Day" which I embossed in white and die cut with Papertrey Ink's "Skinny Mini Banners."

I hope you'll end up finding this combination inspiring as well, and join us at Color Hues. Be sure to take a look at all the wonderful creations by the Design Team as well as our Guest Designer, Kerry.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Carol

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 Tracey

I'm determined to use new products as often as I can, so I'm sending the second card over to Darnell's NBUS Challenge.

 

Celebrate

I keep a running list of current card challenges that I follow regularly. Just Us Girls is one of my favorites, but because it is a one week challenge, I often miss the opportunity to play along. When I saw the current challenge was their Trend Week and Embossing folders was the challenge, I wanted to find time to create a card for it.

I've done a pretty good job recently of using products that have been in my collection for awhile, but never used. There was only one embossing folder that hadn't seen the light of day, and it was Altenew's  "Decorative Florals." 

The embossing folder is a large one with multiple blooms. I started out with a card that used the whole embossing folder, but switched gears after my husband (who rarely has a suggestion) felt that the foiled sentiment and gold embellishments detracted from the beautiful embossed flowers. 

I switched then to a tag, embossing it with only one of the florals. Then I lightly tapped a white pigment ink pad over the embossed elements. I used this technique for the first time last year on a Christmas card and loved it, and I like it here as well

The trick then was to decide how to add the sentiment, and I chose a Pinkfresh Studio die cut from their "Scripted Greetings," using some vellum for the shadow die. I'm adding this to the NBUS Challenge since my embossing folder fits the category perfectly.

I have two more challenges I'd like to enter this week. We'll see how the time goes. Tomorrow I'll be back with the new Color Hues Challenge which features some wonderful spring colors.

 

Mirrored Triangles

Pinkfresh Studio's "Mirrored Triangles" offers multiple design options. I had my first opportunity to play with it this week, and know I'll be returning to it with different color combinations, and different configurations. 

Although my first idea was to create an ombre effect, I ended up cutting the design in half and using the two sections for separate cards. For sure, it created a much more CAS design which I like a lot. 

As you can see in the photo above, the design is created with just one stencil that you rotate for each new color.

After cutting the stenciled design in half I cut two very narrow borders of black and mounted the piece on a white card with dimensional foam.

A simple banner (MFT's "Itty Bitty Strips"} with a white embossed sentiment was all the cards needed. Two cards for the stash with guys in mind!

I'm sending these off to three challenges:

Springtime Hello

About 90% of the snow in our front yard has melted, and there are a couple of buds on the hydrangeas, but according to the meteorologist winter is not gone! Not that I expect it to be in early March. Yesterday we were nearly blown off the sidewalk with gusts of winds clocked at 60mph, but the record high temperature of 73° was a very welcome change. The Paper Players has a springtime challenge, and I had time to play yesterday. I needed a note for a new church member and this fit the bill. 

I started by using the Pinkfresh Studio hot foiling plate, "Lush Vine" to emboss a piece of white cardstock. I love the result! Then I finally broke out the Pinkfresh "In the Meadow" Washi tape and accompanying die. I now have a lovely pile of blooms die cut and used two of them on the card.

The two-piece sentiment is from The Greetery's "Opposites Attract." 

In addition to The Paper Players, I'm adding this to the Addicted to Stamps and More gallery where "Any Occasion" is the challenge, and to NBUS for using the Washi tape.

Prayers and Cards for Ukraine & A Double Challenge

Nancy, the creator of Color Hues, asked the Design Team if we'd like to create a card using the colors of the Ukrainian flag. This week has been so horrific---loss of life, lives scattered as mothers and children flee leaving behind their husbands to take up arms against the unprovoked aggression by Russian forces. There's so little that any of us can do except pray and hope for a quick resolution of the fighting, so I was happy to design a card as one way to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people. The intent is to flood Instagram and FaceBook with cards for the Ukrainians. Our regularly scheduled challenge hosted by Lindsey is just below this new challenge. Cardmakers can enter cards for either challenge during the next two weeks.

Here's my card:

I had to wait quite awhile before the Honey Bee "Coneflower" die came back into stock. When I finally purchased it, I was in the midst of holiday creating, so this was a wonderful opportunity to pull it out. It's a multi-layered floral, and I used a bit of dimensional tape that added even more dimension to the card.

I also used a new embossing folder, "Plaid Company," from Spellbinders which arrived with a few hot foil plates right after Christmas. Color Hues is a two-color challenge, but neutrals are allowed so I took the liberty of adding a brown center to the coneflower, but chose to die cut the leaves from vellum. The lines in the die are much more apparent when using vellum.

I knew I wanted a sentiment that included the word "peace." This is part of a longer sentiment from one of Simon Says reverse sentiment sets for Christmas. I die cut it with another new product, "Itty Bitty Strips," which is going to see a lot of use! I hope you'll join us in the challenge to support Ukraine, and also in the very apt color challenge chose by Lindsey below.

Lindsey's colors for this round at Color Hues are just perfect for St. Patrick's Day. If that doesn't appeal to you, check out the cards the Design Team and our Guest Designer have created.

Since my husband's birthday falls on St. Patrick's Day, I've taken the theme but created a birthday card for him.

Paper Source's Clover cardstock is the perfect St. Patty's Day green, and I combined it with some gold mirror cardstock that I love but is often a challenge to photograph. I used Pinkfresh Studio's "Headliner Alphabet" and die cut them from the green panel. When that panel was adhered to the gold mirror cardstock it shines right through. 

I had to cut apart a sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio's "Simply Sentiments: Thank You" to create the phrase I wanted.

I don't own a shamrock paper punch but found a set of stickers in my stash and chose the one with a tiny heart on it. I added two other gold hearts from Simon Says "Holiday Shapes that I use frequently to finish the embelllishment.

Although you can find all the DT's cards on the Color Hues Challenge blog, you can find the details for their cards here, as well as that of Julie P. who is our wonderful Guest Designer this round.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Carol

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

Tracey

I'm posting the first card in Darnell's NBUS Challenge. I outdid myself with using new products---one of my goals for 2022.