random reflections

Woodblock Wednesday: March Edition

It's the last Wednesday in March so it's also Woodblock Wednesday, kindly hosted each month by Amy Tsurtua. 

It's still going to be awhile before butterflies appear here. Today's another mild day, but the temps go down again tomorrow. I'm hoping that a month from now we'll be in full bloom with Spring flowers and a few butterflies. This woodblock butterfly is from Lockhart Stamps. I gave away or sold a huge portion of my wooden stamp collection, so it's interesting to me how many Lockhart stamps I saved. The copyright date on it is 2009.

It had been awhile since I used my colored pencils, so I pulled out a sheet of Stonehenge White paper which works well with colored pencils. I also pulled out three cards from my Color Box 2. I knew I wanted to use purple, and the cards helped me choose the additional colors. I'm enjoying the Color Box. It gives me color choices I might not have chosen on my own.

Of course, I didn't use all the colors, but it's easy to find the ones I did use. After coloring the butterflies, I fussy cut them. I die cut two rectangles from The Greetery's Crimped Frames, and added dimensional foam behind both of them before adding them to a purple card base. 

I also added a strip of dimensional tape behind the body of the butterflies, so I could bend their wings a bit for more interest. The sentiment was white embossed on black with My Favorite Thing Itty Bitty Strips, also mounted with a bit of dimensional tape. Despite all the dimension, the card still fits in an envelope easily. 

In addition to Woodblock Wednesday, I'm posting this with two other challenges. When I enter The Triple B Challenge (Birds, Blooms and Butterflies) it's almost always blooms. This time it's a butterfly, and I could have entered a bird as well if I had only thought about it! I'm also sending this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge where it's Anything Goes.

Special Day

Just Us Girls and Time Out (two of my fave challenges) have joined together. "Birds" is the theme and I knew I had a great stamp set, Pure Joy, from Pinkfresh Studio that would fit the bill. Since it was a Pinkfresh Studio stamp set, I added a frame to the card to meet their March challenge: "Frames." Finally, I have another entry to The Flower Challenge with my square card. I've been keeping up with my #100DayProject, and although I used this stamp set when I participated with my first Create and Connect event, it's the first time I've used it on my own. 

I used some Pinkfresh Studio inks to color the image with the accompanying stencil. Ellen Hutson's Essential Circles worked perfectly to create the frame. To keep the clean look of the card I kept it all white and decided not to add any embellishments.

I don't often think to create a shaker card, but this seemed liked a good design for one. I frequently struggle with these, but this one came together so easily I may try this again soon! The clear sequins and drops were in my stash, but I've never been good about labeling such things so I have no idea who the manufacturer is. The sentiment was created with Betterpress using Spellbinders A Little Message. It's always good to have another birthday card in my stash. 

Color Hues 83

Carol has chosen Cream and Blue for the next Color Hues Challenge. I started out with one idea in mind and ink blended a group of white diecut flowers from My Favorite Things, Bold Blossoms, using two sets of Pinkfresh inks. The next morning, I totally revised my plan, but the ink blended flowers are still the centerpiece of the card. I decided to stuff an envelope with pretty blue flowers. The envelope die I own wasn't nearly large enough, but I had exactly one small cream envelope in my stash, and it worked out perfectly.

The sentiment stamp and die are new--part of the Greetery's Love Letters release in January--Sent with Love Sentiments. To add some dimension to the greeting I stacked three of the diecuts under the stamped sentiment. Altenew's Window Slats 3-D Embossing folder worked well as a background.

Instead of the die cut centers for the flowers I added a Pinkfresh Studio jewel to each. They add just the right amount of sparkle.

This turned out to be a fun challenge, and I hope you'll think so, too, and join us in the gallery at Color Hues. You're sure to find lots of inspiration from the Design Team members and our Guest Designer, Steph.

Since this is the debut of the new sentiment set, I'm sending this over to Darnell's March NBUS Challenge. It also fits with her Dies/Die Cuts weekly "challenge" as this is the last day of Week 2. I'm also entering this in The Card Concept Challenge: Spring Has Sprung where a basket of flowers is a focal point of their inspiration photo. 

 

Lucky

After seeing a couple of cards created with Papertrey Ink's Into the Bloom: Clover, I thought it would make a great birthday card for Tracy, whose birthday is on St. Patrick's Day. At the time, it was out of stock at Papertrey Ink, but luckily a friend had the die set and was kind enough to loan it to me.

I die cut all the shamrocks from white cardstock and used finger daubers to ink blend them in two colors of green ink from Pinkfresh Studio. Ellen Hutson's Lattice Background has become a favorite of mine, especially white on white. One of the designers for Papertrey Ink had used a circle to hold the sentiment as well as a place to tuck the stems of the shamrocks. I backed the circle from Reverse Confetti's Lacy Scalloped Circle with a piece of New Leaf cardstock from Papertrey Ink to add some color to the bottom of the card.  The sentiment is from a new stamp set recently released by Simon Says, Lucky Horseshoe. 

After taking the photos for this blog hop, one of the extra shamrocks landed on the card next to the sentiment. It was a lucky accident as the design is much improved with that added element, even though it did necessitate retaking some of the photos. 

This card is off to Colorful Options: Green, Four Seasons Challenge with the great inspiration photo below, and Inspired By: Luck. I'm also adding this to Darnell's site where her I.D.E.A. for the week is Dies/Die Cuts. In addition, it is the first time I've used the set where I got the sentiment. 

 

Birthday Shine and Sparkle

I rarely have a card with so much bling and sparkle, but I couldn't resist using this reverse foiled panel to create a bold and bright birthday card. 

I had a free morning last week, and pulled out my foiling machine to create some backgrounds. This card uses Spellbinders' Starburst hot foil plate. I made a couple of panels, one with gold foil and one with Rainbow Stripes foil. You'll see those panels eventually, but when I pulled the foil off the Rainbow Stripes panel, I immediately pulled out my Solid Hot Foil Plate from Pinkfresh Studio which produced this panel which I love. 

The sentiment was also reversed foiled some time ago and die cut with Pinkfresh Studio's Brushed Sentiments that came with a fabulous prize I won a year and a half ago. I don't often use large and bold sentiments, but this card definitely called for one. I also added some Honey Bee Aurora Borealis Gem Stickers to each of the starbursts. 

I'm sending this one off to a new-to-me challenge, Word Power. It's a challenge to showcase sentiments as a focal point on a card. It's also going to Colorful Options where Rainbow is always welcomed. It's another one for Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays. And, finally, it's off to NBUS--it's the Starburst's debut on a card. 

  

Birthday Basket of Flowers

The Flower Challenge is looking for a square card. When my Seagrass Basket from the Greetery arrived this week, I decided to put it to use right away. I already had an envelope filled with die cut and assembled flowers and leaves from the Spellbinder's Bold Blooms. 

The basket can be assembled with or without weaving, but I opted to weave it together, it gives it additional dimension. It was die cut from Weathervane cardstock, and I added some ink blending to it to add some character to it. The most time consuming part of the card was getting the florals arranged--so many options! I dry embossed a square die from Ellen Hutson's Essential Squares to create a frame on the Soft Stone square behind the basket full of flowers.

The pretty die cut label is part of the Seagrass Basket die. I found the perfect sentiment for it in Gina K's Beautiful Baskets Additions which I need to put to better use soon!

With late March and April birthdays coming up, this card won't be in the stash for wrong. Most of us in this area are anxious for some consistent Spring weather. I have to admit, however, that winter here has thus far been pretty mild. 

In addition to the Flower Challenge, I'm sending this off to the Triple B Challenge--this time for Blooms, and Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays.

       

Colorful Thanks

Quite some time ago, I was looking through an envelope with already die cut flowers, and came across the three on this card.

When it came to arranging them I tried all kinds of things, finally gluing them down on a card. When I looked at it, the balance on the card was way off. I hated putting it in the circular file. After waiting awhile, I finally chopped off the bottom half of the card and mounted it in this green card base that just happened to be sitting on my desk. I don't know that I would have chosen this color, but I really do like it with the bright florals. They're held together with a kraft wrap and bow from The Greetery.

The flowers are from the Papertrey Ink Into the Blooms. The background is also from The Greetery, the Herringbone Parquet, cut from Concord and 9th's Mushroom cardstock. The sentiment is gold foiled with Spellbinder's Everyday Sentiments II. 

My commitment to the #100DayProject is proving to be very helpful. Despite a busier than usual schedule (I'm now tutoring three days a week), I am managing to get at least 30 minutes a day in my craft room. I've been working on cards for the Design Team at Color Hues, finishing up cards started during the Pinkfresh Create & Connect event two weekends ago, and making sure I have the needed birthday cards for March. 

I'm also committed to editing our many, many photos from the safari for at least 30 minutes most days. The end is in sight. Meanwhile, getting things up on the blog and on Instagram is proving to be a bit more difficult.  

Although the mood board at the Triple B Challenge features soft pastel colors, anything goes as long as you have Birds, Blooms, or Butterflies. This blooms are off to the gallery.

 

Color Hues #82 - Two for One

Tracey has chosen a beautiful color combination for the new Color Hues Challenge:

Right away I knew I wanted to use my new Alex Syberia stencil, Modern Weave. It's a 6X6 stencil so I had two panels I could use for cards.

I started out by using the larger panel and adding it to a card base made with Concord and 9th's Oceanside, a beautiful dark turquoise which matches the small diamond pattern in the stencil. You can see in this photo, the three Pinkfresh Studio inks I used to stencil the design.

Here's a closer look. The sentiment also new to me, My Favorite Things Stylized Happy Birthday, was die cut from gold metallic paper and layered on a vellum shadow die.

After die cutting the first panel, I was left with a narrow strip of patterned paper and wanted to make good use of this gorgeous stenciled design.

I backed the stenciled piece with some of the Oceanside cardstock and added it to a white notecard. 

The sentiment, foiled in gold, is from Pinkfresh Studio's Perfect Sentiments. Needless to say, this card pleases me with its CAS design. I embellished both cards with some gold pearls.

I hope you'll check out all the great designs from the Color Hues Design Team and our Guest Designer, Tenia. Please join us for this bright and happy color challenge! 

 

There are two CAS challenges where my second card fits the challenge: AAA Cards: Anything CAS Goes and Addicted to CAS: Geometric.