random reflections

Fair Isle Christmas

I was inspired by three challenges to finally break out some holiday stamps and sentiments. While I was purging stamps I often came upon stamp sets I loved but hadn't paid any attention to in a long time. Papertrey Ink's Fair Isle Motifs was one of those sets, so I pulled it out to create two CAS cards for Addicted to CAS: Holiday, Christmas Craft Creations: CAS, and Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge: Anything Goes. I think this is the first time I've ever played along with Christmas Craft Creations although I've been following them for awhile. 

 

I chose two different motifs and created cards with different orientations. For some reason I've had a lot of trouble lately being able to photograph cards without shadows. If I weren't so close to the deadline for the Peace On Earth Challenge, I'd give this another go tomorrow. 

The sentiment for this card is from one of my favorite holiday sentiment sets, Simon Says  Holiday Greetings Mix 1. After die cutting the motif with Ellen Hutson's Essential Squares I die cut a white square from the next largest die. It's hard to see, but I added one layer of dimensional tape behind it.

The greeting here is from Pinkfresh Studio's Berry Branch stamp set and die cut with My Favorite Things Itty Bitty Strips. Again I backed the image with white and added some dimensional tape before adding it to the card base.

Last year I had over 50 Christmas cards completed by now. This year we're doing a photo card for many people on our holiday list, so I'm not in need of the large number I usually create. With all the disruption in my craft room, it's a good decision.

Woodblock Wednesday

It's the August Woodblock Wednesday post.

I pulled out one of my all-time favorite pumpkin images, Pumpkin Harvest by Annette Watkins, to color with Copic markers.

I decided on an Altenew embossing folder, Deck Planks, for the background, running it through with Classic Kraft cardstock. It lends a rustic look to the card.

I trimmed the embossed panel down just enough so the Cocoa Brown card base would create a narrow frame. I fussy cut the pumpkin image; there were no coordinating dies in the days when I purchased this stamp. I rarely give it much thought, but it's truly amazing how much this hobby has changed over the years. I had to stamp this image twice before I got a clean image. With a MISTI stamping tool, restamping is so much easier (and wastes no paper!) The sentiment is from Altenew's Sentiment Strips 2, die cut with MFT's Itty Bitty Banners.

Thanks to Amy, as always, for organizing this monthly affair! I'm sending this off to AAA Birthday where the challenge remains: Anything Goes for a few more days!

Betterpress Florals

I only own three Betterpress plates, one came with the Spellbinder system, and two are part of Altenew's Dainty Flower Garden set. Both sets include a few sentiments, although for today's cards, I used Altenew's One-Go Birthday Greetings, a new set I'm quite sure will get a lot of use. There are 12 sentiments on one stamp and one die that cuts them all out. I love having an envelope filled with sentiments ready to go. Both cards are very similar and both were watercolored with Zig Watercolor markers.

The blue card went in the mail earlier this month, and I know my friend received it. So it's time to get these cards off to a couple of challenges. 

The Betterpress cardstock is perfect for watercoloring. I tried not to add too much water, and let it dry completely between layers.  I just trimmed down the sides of this one and added it to a navy card base.

Sometimes it's good (and easy) to CASE yourself, so here is the orange edition.

This time I used Gina K's Master Layout one dies to cut the impressed panel as well as a black panel which gives it a lovely narrow border. I added it to a card base of Orange Zest. 

The blue card is off to Addicted to Stamps and More. The challenge is for birthday cards. And the orange card is off to Less is More. The challenge is Orange!

I'm sending them both off to the NBUS August Challenge since this is the sentiment set's debut.

Happy Golden Anniversary

Now that the recipients have received their cards, I have a card to enter in the current TicTacToe Challenge.

I made two of these cards although I only photographed one of them and both have been received.  I used the elegant Spellbinders Betterpress plate that came with the system. I can't seem to find a name for it. I inked it up with gold ink and impressed it on the Bisque Betterpress paper from Spellbinders.

I added narrow borders of gold glitter paper that I purchased in Milwaukee at Broadway Papers and then added it to a card base of gold shimmer paper from the same source.

The sentiment from Sugar Peas Everyday Sentiments was embossed in gold on black and die cut the MFT Itty Bitty Banners-a die I used repeatedly. Finally, I added some gold glitter dots from Pinkfresh Studio.

It's easy to find my path through the TicTacToe board--diagonally from right top to left bottom.

A Rush to the Finish

My craft room is already being dismantled and painted although I probably have a week or two before I have to vacate it completely. All my crafting time has been eaten up with trying to organize and purge what's in here. Nonetheless, after church today, I was determined to get an entry into the Freshly Made Sketches challenge which is their 600th sketch. I don't often gravitate to sketch challenges, but this is one of the best--and their celebration surely represents their success. Here's the sketch:

The Jumbo Curiosity: Dragonfly & Stencil are from The Greetery. I used the stencil to color it with shades of blue and purple with Pinkfresh Studio inks. 

I ran the strip behind it through a very old dotted embossing place and edged it with some silver paper. The circle was also die cut from a piece of textured silver paper.

The sentiment is a preprinted one from Waffleflower that arrived in their Sneak Peek Kit #8 package which I won last month. I added some glitter to the dragonfly with the Spectrum Noir glitter pen.

I'm also sending this off to AAA Birthday--always CAS and this time Anything Goes. I'm expecting to be back again tomorrow as I have a list of cards I'd like to make before I have to give up the craft room for a week or so.

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt

Today is supposed to be the second post for this summer's scavenger hunt, but I got off to the slowest start ever and didn't have anything to share the first round. I've done much better since, and have 12 of the 14 items checked off.

A plant with thorns

A wordless directional sign--on the roadway indicating the bicycle lane

Something Berry Berry Delicious

Bridge #1: A lift bridge in Charlev0ix, Michigan

Bridge #2: A covered bridge in Frankenmuth, Michigan

Something That Dangles: A ride at Seabreeze Amusement Park

My Shadow on an evening walk

A crack in the sidewalk (I had my pick of these--so many to choose from!)

White Flowers

Extraordinary Water: Niagara Falls 
Taken from the car once we discovered it would cost $70 to park the two cars in order to walk
over the see the falls. Fortunately, the grandchildren were happy with the view from the car.

Summer Tools: Tracy and Matt have been installing an irrigation system this
summer. Once it's finished all the plants (and pots!) will get watered automatically.

A For Sale sign

Something that rolls: My granddaughter, Hannah, and her suitcase.

I took a few photos of ducks and geese for "Something Netted or Webbed," but I wasn't happy with any of them, so I'll keep looking. I do have some other ideas--just haven't found them yet. I also need "A School"--not a difficult one to find, but I have something particular in mind and haven't taken the time to photograph it yet. Those two will finish it off, but I'd also like to take a photo of my "favorite summer taste." I have to admit that I've enjoyed it several times this summer but never took the photo!

Thanks, Mary-Lou for creating the scavenger hunt and keeping us on track!

 

 

It's BEE week at JUGS

It's Word Week at Just Us Girls Challenge and the word is BEE.

We've just returned from a vacation in Michigan, first a week with Sarah and her family at Big Twin Lake, and then a weekend on our own which we split between Traverse City and Petoskey. I picked up a couple of new dish towels in a little shop in Traverse City. They were rolled and tied with a piece of black and yellow twine and a Bee Kind tag was tied to each towel.

For the last several weeks I've been working on creating an inventory of all my stamps and dies and doing a major purge as well. It's taken up most of my creative time, but in the end, will be well worth it. Yesterday as I was going through a box of stamps I found a Simon Says kit from 2019. As luck would have it, it was a bee themed kit called "Bee Yourself." The combination of events was too good to pass up, so this morning I got busy creating a card for the JUGS challenge.

Along with the stamp set, there was a variety of patterned paper, several of which I tried before ending up with my usual CAS style, stamping one of the bee hive stamps on yellow paper and adding the tag with some dimensional tape. 

I added a thin black mat and attached them to a card base made from Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream cardstock. 

We're off this afternoon to spend time with friends on their boat on Canandaigua Lake and it's just perfect weather for it. 

 

 

Color Hues #70

The new Color Hues colors chosen by Steph are just perfect for summer. There are so many directions these colors could take you. My choice turned out to be quite different than I originally thought when I first saw the new colors. 

Earlier this summer, I saw some wonderful cards by Uniko. I just love the graphic design and think it will work especially well for both masculine and feminine cards as well as for a variety of occasions. Using them continues my streak of using new or unused stamps for my Color Hues cards. This is the fifth month in a row. :-)

I do have to say that coloring the center card using Uniko's Background Blocks Arts Decoratifs turned out to be a challenge. The red Copic marker bled every time I tried to use it, even when I embossed the stamp so I switched to Tombow markers and that red marker bled out of the lines once, too. I finally managed to get a clean coloring, and I do think it was worth the effort. 

My original idea for the card, however, was to use some of the smaller designs from the Bauhaus Blocks set. There are four different designs, and I tried using three of them on a card but couldn't find an arrangement I liked, so I went Clean and Simple---always a good decision. The layers on all three cards were cut with Ellen Hutson's Essential Rectangles. Her Essential Shape dies are some of my most used dies. 

 

All three sentiments are from Sugar Peas Everyday Sentiments. 

Be sure to check out the great designs by our Guest Designer, Annette, and my fabulous team members at the Color Hues blog, and join us with your Red and Yellow cards!

 

Monochromatic--and a Second Betterpress Card

The Time Out Challenge is Monochromatic and this Betterpress card fits the bill. It's a slight variation on the card I shared earlier.

Once again I'm using one of two designs from the Altenew Betterpress plate, Dainty Flower Garden. This time I centered the design and added a sentiment strip embossed in white on a black banner from My Favorite Things, Itty Bitty Banners.

I also added a large Stargazer jewel from Pinkfresh Studio and three smaller ones as a bit of embellishment. They don't photograph well, but are just wonderful in real life.

I'm also sending this to the Triple B Challenge where you must include at least one Bird, Butterfly, or Bloom. 

 

CASE the DT at Just Us Girls

The JUGS Challenge has a fun option this week: CASE one of the Design Team's cards. Here's the definition of CASE from the JUGS post: (CASE means Copy And Selectively Edit, or Copy And Slightly Edit, and even Copy And Share Everything. It is "proper etiquette" in cardmaking that the person CASE-ing a card gives credit to the person he/she CASEd for the original idea.) 

As soon as I saw Vicki's card, I knew I could use my new Betterpress system and one of the two Betterpress plates I have. I needed a card to thank my daughter-in-law's sister who helped me plan our 50th Wedding Anniversary party last Saturday. The Open House was a huge success and better than anything I imagined. 

To CASE Vicki's card I chose to use the same black and white color scheme as well as a slight variation on her layout. My image is in the lefthand corner rather than the right, and my sentiment is placed to the right of hers as well. I spend an afternoon running plates through my Betterpress system, but most of those I can't share yet as they are either on their way to someone or will be by the end of the month. Once I know the recipient has received the card, I can post them.

Spellbinder's Betterpress system replicates the old letterpress effects with one easy to use system. I've always loved letterpress, and once owned a very complicated system which I rarely used. If you're unfamiliar with letterpress here's a great definition of it:  Letterpress printing is a form of relief printing; the raised surface of letters or images is inked and then pressed into paper. This card uses one of Altenew's new Betterpress plates, Dainty Flower Garden.

I don't think it's possible to see in a photograph how deeply the image is impressed into the paper, but the effect is truly beautiful.   The system does require special paper. Today's card uses the Spellbinder's Pebble paper, a very light gray. Both the sentiment and the floral image were inked with black ink. You can use colored inks as well, and the Betterpress ink is waterproof so I watercolored two of the cards I made last week.

This is also headed to NBUS as the first ever card with my Betterpress System. I do believe it's close to foolproof!