random reflections

With Sympathy

This card went to a friend, but I never got it posted. Addicted to CAS's challenge right now is Sympathy, so it seems to be a good time to share it. I saw a very similar design somewhere on the internet, but didn't pin it, so I can't tell you who I am CASEing. But it's a design I know I'll use again.

It's important to me that sympathy cards be clean and simple designs. I like this one a lot. The strips of True Black and Smoky Shadow cardstock were added to the side of a cream card base. The leaves were snipped off a Pinkfresh Studio die, "Frame Builder Botanical Circle." I don't often leave the insides of a leaf die intact, but here I liked it better than when I tried it with open leaves.

The sentiment from Altenew's "Wildflower Garden" was stamped in black ink. No embellishments on most sympathy cards either.

We're having such wonderful fall weather here. Today is cloudy, but very warm. The last few days have been sunny and warm. Every day like this in November is a gift!

Holiday Tags

My stash of Christmas cards is in pretty good shape, so when I saw the new challenge at Just Us Girls for holiday tags I decided I'd make a couple since I have no new ones for this year. Then TypePad went down, and now I'm just getting this posted at the last minute! The old adage, "Better Late than Never" seems to fit.

The first tag was inspired by a post on Ellen Hutson's blog for layered tags. Mine looks nothing like theirs but I did layer one tag on top of the other.

I started with a tag from Simon Says and ran it through an old embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I die cut the red tag with Pinkfresh Studio's "Mini Tags with Fillable Words," and die cut Cheers from it layering bright green paper behind the word. The greenery is from Pinkfresh Studio's "Festive leaves stencil," which comes with coloring stencils and dies.

The second tag is a monochrome one. I made my own tag this time around and stenciled Nuvo Silver Glitter Paste through the Simon Says "Falling Stars" stencil.  The trees and house were die cut with Gina K's "Winter Wonderland" dies.

I used tiny strips of dimensional tape behind one of the trees and layered three houses together for some dimension there as well. The sentiment was silver embossed on black and is from Reverse Confetti's "Christmas Card Greetings" that I purchased just before they closed the shop.

In addition to Just Us Girls, I'm adding the second tag to the CAS on Friday challenge which is Winter. I'm not sure if a tag is allowed at CAS on Friday, but I'll take my chances.

I'm happy to have my blog back, but writing this post took at least twice as long as usual. Obviously, things are not quite working as they should. Hope it improves soon!

Color Hues #52

Hannelie has chosen the next color combination for our Color Hues Challenge: Mustard and Turquoise.

Hannelie is one of the most creative and talented card makers I know, so I'll be curious to see what she's come up with this time around, particularly since I found this combination quite challenging. I turned to die cuts as I often do.

I started by ink blending a rectangle with a Taylored Expression stencil on cream cardstock with Concord and 9th's Stardust ink, the only mustard ink and cardstock in my stash. 

After stamping the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Autumn Abundance set, I die cut the main panel with Gina K's Master Layout #1 and then the slightly larger panel from Stardust for a thin border.

I die cut several flowers and stems with Pinkfresh Studios's Dainty Blossoms from both Concord and 9th's Oceanside and Papertrey Ink's Hawaiian Shores. I ended up using only the turquoise dies, and added a few enamel dots for embellishment. 

Hop over to the Color Hues blog and see what Hannelie, the Design Team, and our guest have created. It's sure to be inspirational. And then, come play along!

 

Wedding Wishes

I don't often have an opportunity to make a wedding card, but the son of long-time friends was married in Costa Rica last month. It was, of course, a destination wedding for friends of the bride and groom and their extended families. My card needed to be one that could be easily mailed to the lovely couple.

I chose a favorite hot foil plate from Pinkfresh Studio, "Charming Floral Border," and colored it in soft colors using the coordinating stencil. I used two shade of pink and two shades of green but after the ink dried the colors blended together, so it's impossible to see the difference in the photograph. It's a bit better in real life.

I layered one of Papertrey Ink's "Pierced Frames" to the card base before adding the die cut floral border. The gold embossed sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Keep It Simple: Wedding," and the inside sentiment (which I love) is from Papertrey's "Half and Half," a set that's been in my stash for a very long time.

I'm sending this off to The Flower Challenge: Use a Sentiment for their sixth birthday. The challenge closes in just a few hours!

Happy Haunting

It's getting close to Halloween. We went to a delightful pumpkin farm yesterday with our grandchildren. It was my first experience with a corn maze, and let me tell you, it wasn't all that easy (or quick) to find our way out! 

Which means, of course, it's time to share a Halloween card. Actually, it's my second one. The first was shared here for a Color Hues Challenge.

The Color Hues card is for Hannah, and this one is for Caleb. They'll get their Halloween bags from us tomorrow morning as we'll be heading home early Saturday morning.

This one is a CASE of my first card, with a circle opening to an ink-blended moon instead of an oval. Only one ghost, but many more bats! The ghost die is Poppy Stamp's Scary Ghost, the bats from Spellbinders Spooky Boo, and both the outside and inside sentiments are from My Favorite Things Itty Bitty Boos.

After ink blending the moon, I sprayed it with a clear shimmer spray, although you'll have to believe me since it's almost impossible to see in the photo.

If you look closely, you might be able to see that the bats on the front of the card and the web in the corner were die cut from black glitter cardstock. 

I've been following the Festive Friday Challenge for awhile, but this might be my first entry. It's a Halloween challenge and you need to pick 3 of the items to include on your card. Mine uses Moon, Orange, Black, and Ghost. It's definitely my first entry in the Shopping Your Stash Challenge which I recently discovered. It's one I really need to participate it frequently. Absolutely everything on this card was already in my stash. The current challenge is "Frightfully Delightful." I'm also adding to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Spooky.

Note Cards

I recently needed a small gift for a friend, and Tracy suggested I make a set of notecards. Once the holidays are over, I think I'll make a few sets of cards so they're ready when I need them. For these, I pulled out one of my favorite Simon Says stamp sets, "Stronger Together" with sentiments from Papertrey Ink's "Botanical Silhouettes."

I chose rather generic sentiments thinking that "Best Wishes" works for many occasions and "Just a Note" as well.

I'm entering the CAS on Friday Challenge which is currently "Black, White, and One Color." 

For a Friend

This is one of those cards that works for so many occasions--thank you, birthday, thinking of you . . . I love having a few of these kinds of cards in my stash. 

Anemones are one of my favorite flowers. We tried twice in the last year to grow some, but most of the bulbs were dug up and eaten by some little critter before they ever broke through the ground. I have to settle on a couple of stamp sets and this beautiful die from Honey Bee. I die cut it twice--once with light blue paper and once with a dark purple (the bottom layer of the flower.) I opted for metallic silver die cut leaves and added some light purple ink to the centers of the flower layers.

I also die cut the arch from Ellen Hutson's Essential Arches two times once to get the layer for the sentiment and once for the frame. Those Essential dies are some of my most used-sometimes I layer them and sometimes I just use the frames. The sentiment is from an older Pretty Pink Posh sentiment set, Thoughtful Greetings.

The Time Out Challenge this week is to create a friendship or encouragement card in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness. I'm also adding this to The Flower Challenge: Use a Sentiment and Happy Little Stampers: Dies-Anything Goes.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's definitely time to think about creating Christmas cards, and for the first time ever I'm in great shape. I've pretty much stuck with my goal of creating 10 Christmas cards every month so I think I have 80+ cards done. This card is one I made when I was experimenting with different color combinations for the wonderful, "Holiday Botanical Background Stencil," by Pinkfresh Studio.

I added Stickles to red berries and they suddenly became pink or melon berries. I like them, but it wasn't what I wanted at the time, so there is only one version of this card. I used two different green inks for the leaves and added some white gel pen for some added interest.

It's easier to see the frosted berries here as well as the wonderful pre-made foiled sentiment by Waffle Flower.

This is another entry in the Pinkfresh World Card Making Day Challenge. I'm also adding it to the Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts &/or Stencils and Happy Little Stampers: Stencils.

All About You

I’ve been sidelined for awhile following some (not serious) surgery, lots of church commitments, and getting ready for a road trip to Wisconsin. I managed to get a few cards made, and some of them photographed, but writing blog posts just didn't happen. Now we’re visiting Sarah and her family for a week so I finally have time to share some cards while the grandchildren are in school. Hopefully there will be a flurry of posts this week. There's also a stack of cards waiting to be photographed when I get home, and quite a few more I'm hoping to create once I get back into a regular routine.

First off a card for the Pinkfresh Studio World Cardmaking Day, Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and/or Stencil, and The Flower Challenge: Use a Sentiment.

It's a birthday card created with all Pinkfresh Studio products to help The Flower Challenge celebrate their 6th birthday. It uses two dies as well for the Addicted to Stamps and More challenge.

I started with the hot foil plate from Pinkfresh Studio called "Folk Floral Stem," and used the coordinating stencils to color it. After die cutting the floral, I added it to the Pinkfresh "Stitched Diamond" coverplate,t rimmed down before adding it to a deep purple card base.

The sentiment is also from Pinkfresh Studio from their Foiled Sentiments collections. I'm a huge fan of the premade foiled sentiments that look so good with the hot foiled designs. 

Thanks for being here, I expect to be back soon!

Color Hues #51

We have another pretty fall color combination for you this round at Color Hues: Orange and Green. When this post goes live I'll be visiting with my daughter in Wisconsin, and expect to see lots of green and orange foliage on the trip there and back. 

And foliage is what I chose when designing this card.

I die cut some leaves from the Greetery's Botanicut "Mighty Oak" set and applied some green and orange Distress Inks with daubers. Once that was done, I die cut three small squares from gold metallic paper with Ellen Hustson's "Essential Squares," using only the frames and arranged them on an ivory mini slimline card base before tucking in the leaves.

The sentiment, embossed in gold, is from the Papertrey Ink "Monthly Moments: September" set---one that's been in my collection since early in my scrapbooking days. 

I hope this color combination inspires you to create a few fall-themed cards--birthdays, Thanksgiving, even Halloween, perhaps. Be sure to check out the inspiration on the Color Hues blog by the Design Team and our guest.