random reflections

Color Hues #80

It’s an unusual occurrence, but this is my second post of the day. My post as the Guest Designer for the AAABirthday Challenge went live at 3:00 this morning due to a time difference in England. 

It's February 1st and time for a new Color Hues Challenge. Sheri is our hostess this time and has chosen Red and Pink. Perfect for Valentine's Day if you're so inclined. And check out our new graphic--an awesome design!

My card could easily be a valentine, but I was somewhat surprised to find I had several valentines left over from last year. I'm thinking this is more likely going to be an anniversary card for close friends of ours. I do have to make new valentines for the five grandchildren, but this one doesn't seem quite right for any of them. 

I've kept my New Year's Intention in a big way here. Every product I used was in my To Be Used Box of products purchased, but not used. I'm quite happy with all of them. I started by stenciling Papertrey Ink's Happy Hearts with Kitsch Flamingo and Lumberjack Red Distress Oxide inks, masking off the bottom of the panel for a space for the sentiment. I die cut the panel as well as a slightly larger red panel with dies from Gina K's Master Layout #3. I use her Master Layout #1 all the time, and purchased several more versions during sales over the past year. It's way past time to put them to use.

The sentiment was die cut with a very recent purchase during the after Christmas sale at Waffle Flower. The Print and Script with Love die includes two versions of the words as well as shadows for all of them. I chose the block print ones and die cut them from a scrap piece of paper that I ink blended with the two Distress Oxide inks. 

I hope you'll hop over to the Color Hues blog and check out all the amazing designs by our Guest Designer, Bobby, and the Design Team. We look forward to seeing what you create in the gallery.

If all goes as planned I'll be on Day Four of a Tanzania Safari Tour when this goes live, and most likely will be checking out your creations on my return. Aside from lack of time, my understanding is internet service is hard to come by. Nancy, our fearless leader on Color Hues, has graciously offered to cover for me while I'm gone. It's an incredible offer as she's one of the busiest card makers I know as well as running two challenge blogs. Many thanks, Nancy!

Positive Vibes

Crafting has really been a last minute affair since we've been home. We've been so busy, it almost feels like I'm working again. Thanks to friend who gifted me a couple of her sunflowers from Spellbinders, I was able to get a card in the mail for a friend who had a knee replacement on Monday.

The card design is thanks for the many videos I've watched in the last few months from Jill Foster for Penny Black. I love this All in One Hexagon frame. I die cut an extra of the interior frames for a little dimension, and added some light ink blending behind the sunflowers.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Just Sentiments: Thinking of You.

This seems perfect for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Bright and Cheerful. I'll send it to A Cut Above as well.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope it's sunny where you are. We're in the midst of a cool, gray and wet weather pattern that appears to be hanging on for awhile.

Graduation Wishes

We’ve been home for week now, and I’m just beginning to feel like I have some control over all the things that need to be done, and all the crafting I want to do. I made time in last week’s insanely busy schedule to pull out my new Greetery Yay! product suite. We attended a party Saturday night to celebrate Betsy’s niece’s graduation with a masters in school counseling from the Simon School at the University of Rochester . The U of R colors are blue and yellow so that took care of any color decisions.

After seeing Lea Lawson’s card during the recent release from The Greetery, I used clear embossing ink on the third stencil layer. It’s is a technique I’m sure to use again. Each of the elements work so well together—as they typically do from The Greetery.

After stenciling the background, I die cut Yay! in gold metallic and layered it for dimension. The sub-sentiment was stamped in the same Pinkfresh Studio blue as the background, die cut and added with dimensional tape. I die cut a few extra stars and added three to finish the card. The card panel was added to the bright blue card base with more dimensional tape.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your week is off to a good start.

The card is going to the Stencil Fun Challenge where anything goes (not using the optional prompt: bouquets).

Color Hues #110

I'm the hostess for the mid-May Color Hues Challenge and I chose:

It's important to remember for this challenge that it's a color HUES challenge, and let me tell you, I had no idea how many hues of plum I would find. Here are just three and you can see how different they are.

I wanted something on the pastel end of Plum so went with the Paper Source hue to stencil my Pinkfresh Studio Magnificent Magnolia after embossing it in silver.

I used a soft gray ink for the leaves. I used Altenew's Dotted Scales Debossing Cover Die on white for the background. After stenciling the image and die cutting it, I added it to the background with some dimensional tape.

The stamped and die cut sentiment is also from the Magnificent Magnolia set. I added some beautiful Iridescent Clear drops from Pinkfresh as the final embellishment.

As always there's lots of inspiration to be found on the Color Hues blog by our Guest Designer, Rachel, and the so-talented Design Team. Please join us in the gallery! 

One of my favorite challenges is the Seize the Birthday Challenge. I ought to have an entry every month (at the very least) but it doesn't always happen. The current challenge is Flowers, and I was glad that I could add this card to their gallery.

 

 

Color Hues #109

It's May Day. When I first went to school we lived in Hays, Kansas. I remember May Day being a big deal. We made little baskets filled with treats, left them on our friends' front porch, rang the bell, and ran away. I can remember dancing around a May pole at school. Such celebratory events never happened when we lived in Ohio, and I've never seen much of it in New York. Now the first of May represents the likelihood that Spring will come and stay, although there has been snow in May on occasion. It's also the first Color Hues Challenge of the month, and Marcia has chose two springy and happy colors:

I reached for one of my new Pinkfresh purchases (I was enabled by a generous gift certificate for Christmas) the Radiating Hearts and Stars stencil and die set. I knew it would be great for two color challenges, and it's a very versatile set--good for almost any age. This time I chose the stars.

I ran the card front through my die cutting machine with Reverse Confetti's Stitched Rays cover die, and then layered two of the stenciled stars at the meeting point of the rays. I used three Simon Says inks for the stenciling: Marine, Cadette, and Sunshine.

The sentiment was embossed in gold with Altenew's Sentiment Strips.  I added five sparkly gold stars as an embellishment.

I hope you'll join us at The Color Hues Gallery during the next two weeks, but first check out the amazing inspiration from our Guest Designer, and the Design Team. I'll be away for a good portion of the challenge, but will be checking in as soon as I get home! Have fun!

 

Spring Flowers

Before we left home for our trip to Europe I was determined to put my new Penny Black Tulip Bloom to use. I'm posting from my brother's in the Hudson Valley tonight. We'll drive to JFK tomorrow to fly to Amsterdam, and my post is just in time to enter the card in The Flower Challenge: Spring Colors which closes in about an hour. It was also inspired by the Double D Challenge: Springtime Flowers. I have some birthday cards to share as well, but I'm not sure I'll get them posted while we're gone. 

I kept the design clean and simple, and used another new product, Pinkfresh Studio's Scalloped Grid which I cut down for a smaller panel. The tulip was cut from cardstock scraps and ink blended with some red ink which, sadly, does not show well in the photograph.

The sentiment was foiled in gold with the Pinkfresh Here for You sentiments. 

In addition to The Flower Challenge and the Double D Challenge, I'm sending this off to A Cut Above--it's my last of three entries for April.

 

My post for the May 1 Color Hues Challenge is ready to post, so be sure to stop by for that! 

 

Easter Bunnies: Part 2

Happy Easter if you celebrate! Ours is a quiet one--church and a visit to our granddaughters who arrived home yesterday from a week in Florida. They'll all be tired and getting ready for school to resume, so it will most likely be a quick visit to drop off our Easter cards and a small gift for each of them.

All three cards are the same design, just different colors. I might never have come up with this colorful design had it not been for a comment on my blog from Diane Hover which sent me off to her blog to see her Hey, Honeycomb Bunny from The Greetery. I had kept to more realistic colors for my first two bunnies, but really these colorful bunnies are just perfect for the girls. I chose the honeycomb balls first, then searched through my patterned papers and came upon Sunny Studio's Gingham Jewel Tones which had wonderful matches.

Once I had the colors and the patterned papers all three came together nicely. I die cut the patterned paper with my friend's Stitched Scallops from The Greetery. The Hey, Honeycomb Bunny and all the rest of the dies are from The Greetery as well. The little florals are from the Winter Medley collection, and the little bows were die cut from the Diamond Ribbons die. I didn't bother to stamp and emboss the "directions" for opening the honeycombs since the girls are already familiar with the routine. 

Here they are with the honeycombs closed and then open. Keeping them open is a challenge!

And that's a wrap for Easter this year. I've got several birthday cards to share that also use the Hey, Honeycomb products. They work so well for kids, although I did make one I think will go to an adult. No reason not to spread joy to everyone!

There are still some challenges around where one of these bunnies would fit in the gallery: AAA Colorful with a beautiful colorboard, Shopping Our Stash: Hippity Hop. and A Cut Above where they are always looking for die cut images. 

 

 

More Charming Floral Borders

As promised on Wednesday, here are the two cards that didn't make the cut for the Color Hues Challenge: Lilac and Aqua. The first card was put aside once I realized the "lilac" ink I had used was actually more pink than lilac. I turned this one into a mini-slimline, adding the Pinkfresh Studio Charming Floral Border to a stitched rectangle from Gina K's Master Layout #7, using some dimensional tape. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market Foiled Card Phrases. It's always good to have another birthday card in your stash.

The second card has to be eliminated from the challenge when I used a stencil brush that still had significant green on it. No way could it be called aqua.

It's hard to see, but I cut the top of the card off and layered the Charming Floral Border over it. The sentiment from Spellbinder's Curved Everyday Sentiments is on the bottom of the inside of the card. This has already gone in the mail for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's anniversary.

The first card is off to Seize the Birthday Challenge: Layer it, and both cards are off to The Flower Challenge: Spring Colors and the Pinkfresh Studio April Challenge: Floral Frenzy.

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Color Hues #108

It's mid-April and time for a new Color Hues Challenge. Nancy, our fabulous leader, has chose Lilac and Aqua. It's such a beautiful, soft color combination.

The biggest problem I had with this challenge was finding the "correct" lilac ink. Although the first ink I used had "lilac" in its name, it was entirely too pink. I tested several more before finding an older Altenew in called Lavender Fields. It was a great pastel purple.

As I did for the last challenge, I chose an older Pinkfresh Studio product. This time the Charming Floral Border with accompanying stencils and die. I used just one ink for each color, starting with a light hand and adding the highlights with a firmer hand. After finishing the coloring, I die cut the border. Then using Papertrey Ink's Lilac Grace cardstock, I did a partial die cut on the card base with the border die, adding the floral border on top. The foiled sentiment banner, Curved Everyday Sentiments, is by Spellbinders.

The closer view gives you a peek at the beautiful foiling as well as the perfect match jewels from the Pinkfresh collection of Essential Jewels as a final embellishment.

In the next day or so, I'll post the two additional cards I made while working on this challenge--the pink one and another "fail" when I used a stencil brush that wasn't clean enough so instead of aqua, I had green! But it's nice to have a couple additional cards in my stash.

It's time now for you to hop over to the Color Hues Blog and check out the great designs and creativity from our talented Guest Designer, Caroline, and the Design Team. I hope you'll join us in the gallery.

I'm sending this off to the April Pinkfresh Studio Challenge: Floral Frenzy.

 

Easter Bunnies: Part 1

Two of my Easter cards needed to be in the mail yesterday. Since my grandchildren definitely do not read my blog, I thought I'd share them while some of the Easter challenges are live. These cards are proof that I don't always take weeks, months, and sometimes a year to use the products I love enough to order. These Honeycomb Bunnies from The Greetery were irresitable in last month's release. I have to restrain myself from buying all the different varieties in the Honeycomb line.

First off is Hannah's card. I borrowed a friend's Stitched Scallops die, also from The Greetery and found a My Favorite Things pack of gingham papers, Gingham Galore, to use as the background. The bunny was die cut from my palest gray cardstock, Soft Stone, from Papertrey Ink. All the detail pieces came from my scrap boxes. I used stamps from the Honeycomb Basics as well as Honeycomb Spring. 

I added a spring from The Greetery's Wildflower Mix for the embellishment. The tail was die cut twice from white and the top on raised up a bit for dimension. Here's the bunny with the honeycomb opened up.

I struggle with holiday cards for my 13 year old grandson, who is now taller than I am. But I went ahead and made another version of the same bunny for him. When I made the Honeycomb Penguins for Christmas, he ended up putting it on his dresser which I took for a sign that it was fine with him. I intend to ask him after Easter what he thought of the card. 

The patterned paper was in an envelope with Easter die cuts and left-overs from previous Easters. I suspect it's left over from my scrapbooking days. The die cut carrots were die cut at my friend's house a year or two ago, and I'm not sure who made them. I was, however, delighted to find those in the envelope as well. This bunny was die cut from Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream cardstock. I added some dimension behind this bunny since the background was so busy. I did cut the patterned paper and the narrow orange frame with Gina K's Master Layout #2.

The honeycomb on this bunny isn't as bright yellow in real life.

Several of the Easter/Bunny challenges are also CAS challenges. Neither of these come close to being CAS. The Fourseason Challenge: Anything Spring and the Inspired By: Bunnies Challenge are super appropriate. The Four Seasons has a beautiful moodboard, but I didn't add it here--there were no bunnies, but I saw some bunnies already in the gallery. I'm also sending this to Darnell's I.D.E.A.S. gallery (this week is dies) and to her NBUS Gallery these bunnies are new but never used before!

 

Flower Shoppes

I had lunch today with two of my best friends, both of whom have April birthdays. Their birthday cards were in my mind when I asked for the Flower Shoppe dies from Concord & 9th for Christmas. 

I started putting together the flower pots, cart, and hanging plants when I was in Racine in March. I ended up needing more, but it was a good head start. After assembling the pop-up shoppe with Concord and 9th's Window Shoppe die, I added the acetate behind the windows, the architectural details, and the door. 

Getting the hanging pots, shelf and florals inside the shoppe would have been easier if I had added them before assembling the shoppe itself. But it was easier to know what I wanted back there, and a nice pair of straight tweezers made it pretty easy. Everything else was glued to the front of the shop.

I wanted the two cards to be somewhat different, so chose a different color for the shoppe and the awning. The "flower shoppe" sign dies looked fine on the green awning, but got lost on the black and white one.

I changed up some of the flowers, adding a tall plant in a gold pot from the Window Shoppe die, and a second hanging plant instead of a shelf. 

Both cards had the same inside message. 

Last year I created a Fashion Boutique for one of my granddaughtes. I love that the shoppes fold up and fit into an A2 envelope, and I love all the tiny details that are included in both the Fashion Boutique dies as well as these floral dies. Before I ever made one of these shoppe, I purchased the Book Shoppe dies and used it for a card for my grandson. Next on my list is to create a book shoppe. 

I'm sending these off to A Cut Above: Anything Goes.