random reflections

Birthday Star

As soon as I saw the new challenge at Seize the Birthday: Add a Star, I knew I wanted to finally pull out The Greetery's Rustic Star dies. I used just the large set this time, but have some good ideas for the smaller one as well. I went with a pink and blue color combo because two of my granddaughters have birthdays coming up, and frankly I could give this to either of them.

Unlike the last card I made for a challenge I didn't have any preconceived ideas about this one. I die cut the start from bright pink and silver glitter paper and then hunted for a sentiment set that would work. Papertrey Ink's Sparkle and Shine had just what I wanted. The next decision was finding an embossing folder for the background. Lifestyle Craft's tiny star folder was perfect. 

Once I had embossed the sentiment for the front of the card, I pulled out another NBUS product, Spellbinder's Sentiment Labels. Instead of using the die cut to slip through the label, I pulled out some silver cord. I used some dimensional foam behind the embossed panel, and added two narrow strips to the label so it would lay flat after the cord was inserted. Once I had the star adhered, I found a tiny rhinestone star in my stash for the center. 

Sparkle and Shine also includes two large sentiment die cuts. I chose Sparkle for the inside sentiment, embossing the sub-sentiment in silver on blue paper. I couldn't decide whether to add some rhinestone stars to the inside, so I'll wait to make that decision until it's time to give the card away.

In addition to Seize the Birthday, there are some other open challenges that are perfect for this card: Double D: Reach for the Stars, Can You Handle the Pressure (must use an embossing folder), and NBUS--two more NBUS products put to use!

AAA Birthday Challenge: Cute!

The current call for Cute cards at AAA Birthday is the perfect time to post another puppy card! This time I created two of the same card. One will be sent, the other for the stash.

The layout is based on one I saw on Pinterest some time ago. It uses some more NBUS stamps and dies (MFT Canine Companions)  as well as some of the oldest patterned paper in my stash from AMuse Studios. The sentiment is from another newish set from MFT: Woof Pack. I used the images from that set on an earlier card. 

Once again I cut the images with my Scan N Cut and then colored them with Copic markers.  I used two favorite dies for the card design: Simon Says Stitched Rectangles, and Stitched Circles. There's dimensional tape behing the white panel to give those puppies a little breathing room. 

This is also off to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes, and to NBUS because one more product is out of the NBUS box.

 

 

Woodblock Wednesday: June Edition

I look forward to Woodblock Wednesday every month, and actually wish I had saved a few more of my woodblock stamps. I got down to the wire this month, just finishing this last night. The stamp is a Magenta one that I used over and over before the stamping world exploded with acrylic and red rubber stamps. I was in the mood to watercolor so got out my Daniel Smith palette and mixed up a bit of yellow, green, and blue.

The sketch is one I saw on one of the recent videos by Jill Foster for Penny Black, a series called "Permission to Play." All her sketches utilize embossing folders, and this is a new one of mine: 3-D Checkered Squares by Altenew. I cut a narrow strip of the watercolor paper to add a border where the watercolor and the embossing folder meet. 

The sentiment also comes from a new set: All Occasion Script from The Greetery. I'll be tossing this in the fabulous gallery at NBUS to celebrate using another two new products, along with one of my oldest!

Just Us Girls

It's been a wild two weeks, but finally we're home for a few days, and I've had time to create a card for the Just Us Girls Challenge which has a fabulous moodboard as inspiration.

As soon as I saw the upper left corner of this moodboard, I thought of the Ellen Hutson Abstract Mountain die. It had been a long time since I pulled it out, but I had a lot of fun trying to replicate the colors as best I could. I used three colors of cardstock, and quite a bit of ink blending to get the look I wanted.

I added a bit of foam tape behind the moon, but that's the only dimension. The gold foiled sentiment is from Spellbinder's Always and Forever sentiment strips and dies. No embellishment needed.

In addition to Just Us Girls, I'm sending this off to Inkspirational whose moodboard feautres the same colors, and to Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts & Stencils. 

With Sympathy

The Paper Players has a CAS Challenge for Sympathy or Thinking of You cards. The older I get the more important it is to have a few of these cards in my stash. I'm always a fan of CAS cards, but especially for Sympathy cards where I really believe "less is more." 

This one layer card is about a minimalist as it gets, but I think it is elegant in its simplicity. The stamps are both from Simon Says. The leaves from. Stronger Together and the sentiment from Sketched Flowers. 

I'm sending this to AAA Cards where it's always CAS and this time with a masculine option. This is certainly appropriate for men as well as women. 

Celebrate!

I couldn't resist ordering from The Greetery's April release: The Confetti Encore, but I haven't had much time to play with them. I needed a quick birthday card, though, so pulled out three of the new products: Hey, Honeycomb Balloons, the Inflated Sentiments stamp set, and Curly Q Streamers die. I also own the Ticker Tape Hot Foil plate, but decided in the interest of time to use an already foiled background from my stash.

I die cut balloons from my scraps, and the streamers from gold metallic paper. The main sentiment was gold embossed and the smaller one stamped in black. Everything from Betsy Veldman works together beautifully, and these stamps are no exception.

This is off to Just Us Girls where it's Word Week: CELELBRATE! I have more ideas for this challenge, but our week is busier than usual so we'll see how much time I can find for crafting!

 

Happy Father's Day

It's unusual, but here is a second post for the day. The new Color Hues Challenge started today as well; scroll down for that post. Last year I purchased Concord & 9th's Greatest Hits. During one of their recent sales, I picked up the accompanying For the Record.  I combined parts of both sets to make Father's Day cards for Tracy and Adam. Since I used For the Record last year for Matt's card, his card was a totally different design this year. These three guys are really the best. dads. ever.  

Adam and Tracy's cards were essentially the same, and both are a CASE of Carissa Wiley's intro to the set on the Concord & 9th site. I made my background much cleaner and changed the colors, but the basic design stayed pretty much the same. 

I love the way Carissa layered the main sentiment. It makes for a pretty thick card, but this year neither card needed to be mailed. We just came home from a trip to Washington, D.C. with Caleb, our 12 year old grandson, so I left Adam's card with Sarah when we left yesterday. Here's a close up:

The orange is layered with the blue and the gold. The gold record is attached with a brad and spins around. Here's a look at the inside of the card:

The record die cut with glossy black cardstock is from Greatest Hits and the sentiment is from Pink and Main's Special Day.

Matt's card is a totally different design with one of my favorite color combination - they work for almost anyone:  red, gray, black and white.

I started by die cutting strips of four colors with The Stamp Market's 1/4" Quick Strips and starting at the bottom, adhered them on a diagonal. The Pinkfresh Adore Alphabet is one of my favorites. The sub-sentiment was from the Concord & 9th Greatest Hits.

I'm sending these off to Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and Inspired By: Pops.

 

 

Color Hues #89

Marcia has chosen a very lovely color combo for the Color Hues Challlenge this time, Sage and Pink.

This is, once again, the second card I created for this challenge but it has a slightly different story than previously. I created a card I was pretty happy with, photographed it, but hadn't gotten around to posting it. Then a day or two later I created this card:

This card was intended for a Pinkfresh Studio Challenge, but when it was completed, I realized I had used (once again) a sage and pink colorway. Clearly this color combo speaks to me. I like the card even better than the first one, so saved it for this challenge. It represents a lot of firsts for me: 1) I had never dry embossed using a stencil, 2) I had never foiled using a Betterpress plate, and all of the elements on the card are ones that I have never used before. 

The Betterpress Plate, coloring stencil, and die are Pinkfresh Studio's Amazing Things, and the stencil is Pinkfresh Studio's Diamond Plaid.  I used a new die from My Favorite Things, Elegant Rectangles, to cut the background for the floral. The sentiment was also foiled with a Betterpress plate from Spellbinders, Always and Forever Sentiment Strips.

The closer view shows how beautifully the Betterpress plate foils. All the inks I used were from Pinkfresh Studio:  Sage, Ballet Slippers, and Sparkling Rose. 

As always, you'll find lots of inspiration from our Guest Designer, Amy, and the Design Team on the Color Hues Blog.

I'm sending this off to the Time Out Challenge where the quote speaks of flowers, to Triple B for Blooms,  and to NBUS for all the new products and techniques I used.

 

 

Framed

The Inkspirational Challenge has a new theme: Frame . . .

and I had a new (to me) stamp so it was time to put this beautiful floral to use.

The gorgeous flower is from the Alex Syberia Midnight Blooms set. It's my first Alex Syberia stamp set and certainly won't be my last. I colored it with the accompanying stencil, using just two inks, but using a light hand and then a heavier hand to create the dimension. 

The stunning sentiment is from The Greetery's Scripted Sentiments. I was on a long waitlist for this to come in, and it was worth the wait. I love the way the flourishes just fill the empty space in this design. The frame is from Pinkfresh Studio, Notched Corner Frames which worked out perfectly here. I added five pink jewels from Pinkfresh Studio for a bit of sparkle.

In additional to Inkspirational, this is off to Triple B (must use bird, butterfly or bloom) and to NBUS to celebrate the first use of both stamps used on this card.

 

 

Color Hues #88

With another turn of the calendar my hopes for summer increase dramatically! I'm the hostess for the new Color Hues Challenge and I chose:

Clearly I'm hoping for lots of sunshine and bright blue skies--and my happy card reflects my optimism. 

Although I've posted some cards using the Spellbinders Fresh Picked Buttercups, it was actually purchased with this color combination in mind.  I die cut a bundle of the buttercups from yellow cardstock and used some Distress Ink to add some dimension to the centers. Brown is always an accepted neutral for the Color Hues Challenge so I chose that for the centers of the buttercups.  For a background I chose the Reverse Confetti Center Circle Cover Pattern. I love the stitched details and the circle was a great place to arrange the blooms. 

I added dimensional tape behind the cover plate, and some dimensional dots beneath some of the buttercups. I used the same cardstock and Distress Ink to create an ombre look for the die cut sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio's Scripted Greetings. The sub-sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Scripted stamp set. A few gold pearls from Pinkfresh finished it off. 

I hope you'll find time to join us in the gallery at Color Hues which will be open until June 14th. Be sure to stop by the blog for inspiration from my very talented friends on the Design Team!