random reflections

With Sympathy

I don't tend to make sympathy cards ahead, so when I need one in a hurry I head to my envelope of card fronts or embossed panels. This time I found two pieces I had previously embossed with embossing folders, so made two cards. Now I have one in the stash.

Altenew's Magnolia Ballerina 3D Embossing Folder is so beautiful, it needs no embellishment. I decide to off set the oval and trimmed off the excess.Then I added a simple die cut sentiment from The Greetery's All Occasion Script Sentiments which I embossed in gold.

Gina K's Tapestry Embossing Folder is also beautiful. I cut down the panel, and added a narrow gold border and then used dimensional tape to add it to a white card base. For this card I used an already gold foiled sentiment from Spellbinders, You Are Everything set. I did add three gold pearls from Pinkfresh Studio.

These will be two more entries into the Can You Handle the Pressure Challenge and I'm also adding them to the AAA Card Challenge that's looking for CAS sympathy or get well cards. 

Just Because

My blogging friend, Darnell, posted a card using Altenew's Streamlined Sprig die for her I.D.E.A.S. project--D is for dies. When I saw it, I told her I'd try to get a card up that week, but it's taken longer than I anticipated. But looking at the current challenges I saw two that might help me get this die into use. Time Out Challenges: Friendship or Encouragement, and Can You Handle the Pressure? I'm not using the Optional Leaves theme, but it's always using an embossing folder. I had one of those in my NBUS box along with the Altenew die. 

I have to admit I just love this die. The die includes the stem and outline but separate die for the fillers behind. I chose my colors from scraps in my scrap box, and did some ink blending for dimension.

The graphic nature of the embossing folder (Spellbinders' Geo Screen) was just perfect for this stylized flower. 

The sentiment is a Betterpress one also from Spellbinders, You Are Everything.

Hope you are having a day filled with sunshine! It's cool here, but very bright and likely to warm up by the afternoon.

End of Summer Get-away

Sarah and her family spent a week with us in Rochester, and then the six of us took off for Intermediate Lake in Michigan where we had rented a cottage for a week. The weather was much cooler than we anticipated, but it didn't keep the kids out of the water, and by the end of the week it had warmed up. It was, gratefully, sunny every day.

The cottage was set back from the lake. The only disadvantage to that was the view from the cottage was more limited than it might have been.

We rented a boat for the week, and got out on the lake every day. Caleb (as you will see) loves tubing, and wished for a faster boat. Hannah wasn't interested in tubing this year, but loves driving with Grandpa. 

Hannah did like kayaking. The cottage had several we could use, and Sarah tied Hannah's kayak to hers. Hannah paddled continuously so I don't thing the rope did much except keep her with Sarah.

We think we may put this photo on a tee shirt for Caleb on his birthday!

The kids talked Adam into tubing. The rest of us passed on it. 

And that's the way we spent most of the days--on the water. I don't have any photos of Hannah in the water, but the water was shallow enough that she could easily play in the water which she loved. We also played board games, read, and napped. A pretty fine way to spend one of the last weeks of the summer.

After Sarah and her family left for Wisconsin, we stayed on for a couple of days to meet up with a couple we met on our tour of Spain and Portugal. Candy and Ralph live in northern Indiana so we had met them for lunch earlier in the year on our way home from Wisconsin. This time Ralph got us rooms at one of the wineries near Traverse City. It was gorgeous, and so relaxing. We had lovely rooms, but also had the use of a very large living area and patio. Traverse City is one of their favorite get-aways. 

One morning they took us to Fish Town--an old fishing village that now offers boat rentals, fishing excursions, and shops. 

I was excited to finally see a Wood Duck. There was a whole flock of them.

This is a view from one of the wineries we visited. The grounds were beautiful, as were the ones where we stayed.

All in all it was a wonderful trip. We returned to a very busy schedule which is finally winding down this week. Two weeks from Saturday we'll be off again. I don't expect to do more than try to keep up with email during that trip, so I hope to get a lot of crafting and posting done in the next week or two.

 

 

Color Hues #94

I knew September would show up long before I was ready to say goodbye to summer. I remember Tracy once saying that now that we're retired "it's  endless summer." Sadly, not. I will miss the long hours of sunshine, the pretty flowers in my yard and garden, and the warm weather. It will still be nice for a few more weeks, but once Labor Day arrives, summer seems to end for me.

Knowing fall is on its way, Carol has a wonderful color challenge for us at the Color Hues Challenge blog:

For this challenge, especially, remember that this is a color hues challenge so there's always room for a variety of hues. I chose two hues of cardstock for rust and two hues of green. I also included some dark brown and white--neutrals are always welcome. I immediately thought of two die sets in my NBUS box:  Spellbinders' The Botanical Solarium and Altenew's Through the Window. 

After die cutting all the elements, I added a bit of ink blending to the greenery and backed the window with a piece of cloud vellum. When I started to consider what I could use I remembered some of this, but I had no idea if there was any left. I had plenty for the window, and enough for several more when I use this die again. 

I had several contenders for a rust card base but chose Papertrey Ink's Terra Cotta Tile. The rust cardstock for the pots is Gina K's Rusty. The sentiment is from My Favorite Things, Sunflower Sweetheart. The only embellishments were the pearls for the flower centers and one for the butterfly. I had a few die cuts left over, and decided to use a few of them on the inside:

The sentiment here is from My Favorite Things Sweet Birthday Wishes. I'll bet there are a few stamps or die in your collection that would make for a great entry to our Rust and Green gallery. Be sure to check on the Color Hues Blog for more inspiration, and come join us!

As noted above, this card definitely benefited from my NBUS box, so it will be an early entry to Darnell's September NBUS challenge. I'm also adding it to the gallery at Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and Stencils.

 

Woodblock Wednesday-August

The fourth Wednesday is always Woodblock Wednesday, and this month the last Wednesday in the month. I read an Opinion piece in the New York Times recently saying that although most people see Labor Day (Monday) as the end of the summer, you don't have to buy into that. Most of my adult life Labor Day was the last weekend of summer because it brought the beginning of the new school year. I actually loved the start of a school year, but this year I'm going to try to hold on to that summer feeling for a few more weeks. 

We got home last yesterday from a fun week on Intermediate Lake in Michigan and two days with friends in the wine country of Traverse City. I'll have some photos up by the end of the week. Luckily, I made my Woodblock Wednesday card before we left, and you can see that summer was definitely on my mind. 

This is another old woodblock that's been in my collection for years. The manufacturer was Fred B. Mullet, and I have no idea where I picked it up. I stamped it on watercolor paper and water colored it with Distress Oxide Inks. Both the narrow frame and the card base were created with woodgrain papers from Simon Says.

The sentiment is from Colorado Crafts' A Fox's Life which a friend gave me. It's never been used so it's off to Darnell's NBUS.  Thanks, as always, to Amy Tsuruta for hosting Woodblock Wednesday! 

Color Hues #93

Tracey has chose perfect summer colors for the new Color Hues Challenge.

I pulled out an old favorite for some bright and cheerful Coneflowers by Honey Bee. The layers and size of the florals make a big impact on an A2 sized card.

Catherine Pooler's Chic Chevron coverplate made a good background for the florals. I added a sentiment stamped in dark brown and fussy cut from Pinkfresh Studio's Friendship Blooms stamp set. 

The colors in the photos are quite a bright as they are in real life--a too frequent result of living in an old house with limited light. I added a few yellow enamel dots was the only embellishment. 

I hope you'll join us at the Color Hues Challenge. The gallery is open until August 29th so there's lots of time to create with us! 

 

Pinkfresh Studio August Challenge

I was excited to see the theme of the Pinkfresh Studio Challenge this month: Washi tape. I immediately knew what I wanted to use, but had to wait until my friend received the card before posting it.

I hadn't pulled out the beautiful, gold enhanced Pinkfresh Studio Washi tape, Sunflowers, in a very long time. They are perfect for a summer birthday. I used a card design I learned from Anett Gelencsér during the Create & Connect event held in February. It creates a middle portion that "pops up" when the card is released from the envelope.

To create the card, we used two of the Notched Corner Frame dies as well as the Stitched Octagons coverplate. I did some light yellow ink blending on the coverplate die and chose two dies from the washi tape collection to decorate the frame. You can see the dimension better in the photo below.

The sentiment is also from Pinkfresh, Perfect Sentiments, hot-foiled in gold. 

I have more Pinkfresh Studio washi tape, but my crafting time for August is just about up, so another entry is probably unlikely. We're off to Michigan this weekend with our daughter and her family, and then to visit with friends we met on our tour of Portugal and Spain last year.  So many ideas, so little time!

 

Harvest Mice

The Double D Challenge theme is Harvest, and it was the perfect opportunity to pull out a My Favorite Things which I have owned (and never used) for so long that it is no longer available to purchase! I love these little mice so I'm not sure why they were so neglected.

I wanted to use the Waffle Flower Postage set again, so used the Postage Collage Coloring Stencil to color the background. I cut the stamps apart, and then set out to stamp, color, and die cut the cute little mice with their haul of pumpkins and apples. I placed the die cuts in four of the postage stamps, and arranged them on a woodgrain card (Simon Says.)

The sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Happy Fall is generic enough that I could use this for a fall birthday or even a fall anniversary. The little heart on the sentiment stamp is a red glittery sticker. 

This card is off to Double D as well as Darnell's NBUS challenge.

 

I have a crafting companion today, who worked very hard to create this card for her cousin who like crafting as much as she does. Here's Hannah with her card.

I had made a card for one of her birthday gifts that featured crafting supplies so that's what she wanted. She was pleased to see that I had a new (another NBUS) set by Gina K, Crafty Notes, and picked out the images she wanted to stamp. It took her no time to master the MISTI and she carefully colored the crafty tools with Tombow markers. She definitely wanted them to be "bumped out." 

When Hannah arrived from Wisconsin on Saturday she brought her watercolors with her and has created several wonderful paintings. After she colored the card and envelope, she noted that she was coloring the marker with one of the colors she used on the card. I think she's got this!

We're sending this off to NBUS as well. 

 

Summer Fence Line

I pulled this stamp set out of the "Summer" box to decide whether I wanted to keep it or not. It's been years since I used it. I found a design on Pinterest for inspiration, and set about creating a card. I'm usually not a fan nor particularly adept at using layering stamps or scene building. But I'm pretty happy with this (almost) one layer card. The stamp set went back in the box. 

The scenery stamp is Summer Fence Line by Papertrey Ink. The sentiment is from The Greetery's Sentiment Suite: Birthday, always a favorite.

I die cut the panel with Simon Says Stamps Stitched Rectangles and layered it on a dark brown card base. 

I'm sending this off to the Paper Players where the challenge is: Beach Time, to Time Out: It's Always Summer Somewhere; and The Four Seasons: Anything Goes Summer.

Color Hues #92

Another month has flown by, and we're at the top of August already: time for a new Color Hues Challenge. Stef has chosen:

Last month, Jill Foster for Penny Black presented ten videos in a series call "Permission to Play." Each video featured a different layout design, and I chose the layout from the second video.

You'll quickly realize I made one major change, using a circle frame rather than an oval. Much to my surprise, I didn't have any decorative oval frames, and no circle ones that I was happy with either. I ended up creating my own using one design from Pinkfresh Studio's Braided Circles and using one of the Ellen Hutson Essential Circles.

I've always love Penny Black's hedgie images, but only own one set. This cute critter rushing off with his package is from the Critter Delight set, and is one I've owned for a long time. Jill Foster used watercolors for all the images in her 10 video series, but I chose Copic markers for this guy.  After adding some ink blending to the background circle, I added the frame with dimensional tape.

The sentiment from The Greetery's Inflated Sentiments was curved to fit inside the frame (and doesn't look as close to the frame IRL.) I added a small butterfly (an embellishment used by Jill on several of her cards.) I didn't have a small die so fussy cut this one from an older Papertrey Ink set, Life is Beautiful. 

There's lots to see at the Color Hues Blog so hop over and take a look at the creative designs by the Design Team.