random reflections

25 Days of Christmas Tags

Every year I make tags for the family gift exchange at Christmas. I'm never quite sure how many I'll need, but I am sure it will be less than 25. Nonetheless, I'll have no trouble using any additional tags for Christmas gifts. I've followed along with Tracey McNeeley's 25 Tags project other years, but this is the first time I've participated. I got a late start, so will have to post most of these on Instagram to link them up to the 25 Tags post. Here's a look at the first six:

And a closer look at each tag. Day 1:

One of the requirements is to choose one of the tags on Tracey's blog as an inspiration piece. For Day 1 I chose the tags by Ankita Agrawal. Here's a look at the two layers.

Simon Says "Snowflake Tags," Papertrey Ink "Signature Christmas" & "Rustic Wreath," Studio Katia Clear Drop, printed vellum from stash, Aqua Mist cardstock

Day 2:

Inspired by Norrine Borys- premade tag, Simon Says "Frozen Fractals," Papertrey Ink "Warmest Wishes," Winter Wonderland embossing powder (glittery IRL)

Day 3:

Inspired by Tenia Nelson - Papertrey Ink "Shape Shifter Square 3," "Tag Sale 6," Essentials by Ellen "Mondo Holly," Gold Mirror, Aqua Mist and vellum cardstock

And a closer look at the Gold Mirror cardstock which I just love:

Day 4: 

Inspired by: Audrey Tokach - Neat & Tangled "So Foxy," Simon Says "Merry & Bright," "Stitched Dress Up Tags," & "Diagonal Stripes"

Day 5: 

Inspired by: Zsofia Molnar - Simon Says "Stitched Dress Up Tags," "Merry & Bright," My Favorite Things patterned paper

And, finally, Day 6:

Inspired by: Debbie Marcinkiewcz -  Tag by Graphic 45, Winnie & Walter "The Big, The Bold, and The Merry," Papertrey Ink "Holly Jolly," ribbon by Offray, unknown glitter paper

My guess is I'll be posting these a few at a time. It's already been a fun challenge!

 

Seize the Birthday: Foliage

I have a second entry to the current Seize the Birthday challenge. For this challenge, you can create any birthday card, but each challenge has a "topping" with a specific theme.

The current one is "foliage."

I borrowed a Papertrey Ink Bold Borders: Foliage from a friend recently and die cut a whole slew of them from different papers. I thought I'd try using two of them slightly offset. Since the Bold Borders die covers the whole card front I needed to snip off the outermost border on the second one before I could offset it.

The total frame was die cut with a relatively thin piece of gold textured paper from Michael's. The bronze paper is likewise lighter than the typical cardstock, and I think it, too, came from Michaels. I layered them on a card made from Simon Says "Burnt Orange" cardstock, and embossed the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Stylish Sentiments: Birthday" in gold.

It's a bit easier to see the two layers in this photo. I added three gold sequins before I got the card in the mail for a friend's birthday.

Autumn Birthday Card

My niece's birthday is coming up, and I wanted to make a fall birthday card to enter into two challenges: Seize the Birthday: Foliage, and the Fusion Card Challenge.

The Fusion Challenge is a sketch/photo challenge. This time my inspiration comes from the beautiful fall colors on this wonderfully decorated porch:

It had been awhile since I pulled out my Distress Inks for the "smoosh" technique, but the latest Simon Says Card Kit, ''Thanks and Leaves" seemed perfect for it. There are a variety of different sized and shaped leaves in the set. I smooshed several different Distress Inks on my glass mat, and simply smooshed the stamps in them, and stamped them on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper. I first tried spritzing the stamps with a mist of water, but decided I liked the effect better without it. After stamping, I trimmed the piece down and added it to the side of a Canyon Clay (PTI) top-folded card. A thin strip of bronze metallic card added a bit of glitz.

Once that was completed, I hunted through my drawer of embossing powders and discovered an old one called Woven Tapestry. It was almost a perfect match for the strip of bronze paper. The sentiment is from a Simon Says set "Birthday Flowers," part of a card kit from 2016. 

The card still needed a "little something," so I layered some gold and copper sequins and added them as a final touch. 

After nearly a week of cold, rainy days we're having a glorious autumn day. Our Healthy Living class at the refugee center finally got outside to walk this afternoon instead of doing exercises in the gym! Hoping the rain holds off for treat and treating tomorrow night, but it doesn't look likely.

Papertrey Ink October 2018 Blog Hop & Time Out: Giving Thanks

It's the 25th of the month, so it must be the monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, one of my favorite challenges. This month's inspiration piece features a chalkboard sign, pumpkins, and gourds among other fall motifs. 

The main focus is the chalkboard sign, and it's been a long time since I played around with the chalkboard look on a card. I started there and once the background was "chalked," embossed a sentiment from "Giving Thanks," a new to me Papertrey set. I absolutely love the fonts in this sentiment; it's one of the reasons I added the set to a recent order. I attached a "Pierced Frame" in black to the chalkboard and tucked a pumpkin and two gourds from "Simply Gourd-eous" within the frame. Although I used the coordinating dies to cut the pumpkin and gourds I ended up fussy cutting them to eliminate the thin white borders from the dies.

I originally thought I'd mount both pieces on a top-folding black card, but when I looked again at the inspiration piece, I decided to use Scarlet Jewel cardstock to mimic the frame on the chalkboard in the photo. It's hard to see, but I used my Chai distress cube to distress the Scarlet Jewel cardstock much like the frame in the photo. 

The pumpkin and gourds needed a little more definition so I added some Polychromos colored pencils to areas to enhance them a bit. Off to PTI to see what others made of this photo.

I'm also entering this in the current Time Out Challenge. It's a quote this time about gratitude; perfect timing.

Autumn Colors

I certainly didn't anticipate that it would take me two weeks to get back to the blog after our trip to Michigan and Wisconsin. We had a lovely road trip and a wonderful stay with Sarah and her family. As frequently happens, after a good time away, our calendars were very full when we got home. Just now, I'm getting back to the craft room, and having some time to play. I have quite a few new products to try out, but today's card actually features some "oldie but goodies:"  Papertrey Ink's "Friendship Jar: Autumn," and a small stamp set that was part of a scrapbooking kit from Gossamer Blue several years ago. I can't remember the last time I ordered a scrapbook kit, but when I did I particularly liked those from Gossamer Blue. 

This card is for the current Time Out Challenge: Colorful.

I wish the autumn colors here were as colorful as the ones on my card, but the trees have been very slow here to change colors. It's turned quite cold in the last few days so we'll see what effect that has on the colors. Here's my entry to the "Colourful" challenge.

I started with a textured card I found in my closet looking for something else. It was prefolded, and as you will see in the next photo, a small border peeked out from the inside. The colorful pumpkins and leaves are from the Friendship Jar set, colored with Copic markers, and fussy cut. The sentiment and frame are from the Gossamer Blue set and I embossed them in gold.

I trimmed a small strip of patterned paper from a pack by Sunny Studio that I picked up in Buffalo the last time I was there, and adhered it to the bottom of the inside of the card. It accentuates the browns of the acorns in the fall cluster. Finally I added three small gold sequins to pick up the gold from the embossed sentiment. I'm not sure how I'll use this card. It could easily become a thank you note, or even a birthday card with the right inside sentiment. 

 

 

CASology Challenge: Gratitude

I have a quick and easy card for this week's CASology Challenge on Gratitude.

I like to have small thank you notes on hand to send out whenever the occasion warrants. I love the 4-bar cards made by Paper Source and also like the ones by Memory Box. This card was a Paper Source card that seemed to be the perfect autumn shade of green. 

The die cut is from Papertrey Ink's Make-It Market Kit, Herb Garden. I added a thin twine bow, and stamped a sentiment from my very favorite Penned Elegance set, also by Papertrey Ink. Couldn't be easier, although it would be even nicer if I had a whole set of these ready to set out---perhaps another goal for October!

September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Today's the 25th and time for the September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. Right before we left, I managed to find time to make two fall birthday cards based on this gorgeous inspiration photo. I wasn't sure I'd have time to write a post from the road, but we're in our hotel after a lovely dinner and there's still two hours left before the link closes. 

Both cards feature leaves and the beautiful fall colors in the inspiration photos. The first is my favorite.

I've had the Mix and Mat Pinked Edges die laying out for several weeks, knowing it was perfect for a fall birthday card. I die cut it four times, first with kraft, and then again with Ripe Avocado, Terracotta Tile, and Canyon Clay. I carefully cut out two leaves from each of the colorful cardstock and adhered them to the kraft die cut.  Then I adhered that to a top-folding Saffron Spice card. I gold embossed the sentiment on a strip of Dark Chocolate cardstock.

The next card uses many of the same colors but I used both the leaf stamps and die cuts from Forest Floor: Autumn along with an oldie but goodie, Fillable Frames #4.

Once I had all the elements stamped and die cut, I felt like I needed something behind the frame. A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME die cut with a stitched rectangle fit the bill. Although there are acorns to stamp and die cut from the Forest Floor set, I chose two little three-dimensional acorns by Little B instead to finish off the card. 

We've had a wonderful three days on the road. Tomorrow we take the ferry across Lake Michigan and will be in Racine with Sarah and her family by dinnertime. Off to link up to the blog hop! Thanks for stopping in!

Less is More

A quick post to enter a card in the current Less is More challenge: Black & White & Plus One.

Anyone who's followed my blog for awhile knows one of my favorite color combinations is black, white, and red. And it frequently shows up in anniversary cards.

One of the hallmarks of a Less is More card is white space, although it doesn't have to be white---non-patterned, clean space--- which in this case is black. The beautiful die cut and shadow is from Simon Says and the sentiment is from an accompanying stamp set. a simple heart and three white enamel dots and it was done. Easy, but classic, I think.

A Birthday Celebration

It's a dark and cold Monday morning here, but the fall chill we've had for the last three days isn't supposed to last long. We had a lovely weekend, but I have no photos to show for it. I do have a card to share, however, for three different challenges. I made this card for one of our good friends who recently turned 70. He enjoys good food and good wine, and his wife hosted a wonderful party for him at a local restaurant. One of the highlights of the evening was seeing their children who now live and work in NYC and Denver, CO. Matt and their son, Ben, were best friends all through elementary school. They forged different paths come middle school (Scouts vs. sports), but we've maintained a lasting friendship with his parents.

Although I knew I wanted to use Papertrey Ink's "Uncorked" stamp set, the card I had in mind is a far cry from the one I ended up with. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy with the final result. I trimmed off the top of a ready-made tag to hold the wine bottle (embossed in gold) and the wine glasses (die cut from patterned vellum). After embossing the sentiment, I felt the card needed "a little something" so I added a few score lines to the Scarlet Jewel card before adhering the tag and rounded the top corners.

For the inside greeting, I die cut some numbers from Memory Box with gold adhesive paper from PTI, and embossed a sentiment from "Big Birthday Wishes," also by PTI.

I'm entering this card in three challenges:

Time Out's Quotation Challenge, focusing on the "wine in our hands:"

Seize the Birthday: 

And last, but not least, Simon Says Wednesday challenge: Stamp It! in celebration of their annual Stamptember event:

Fence Lines for Inspired By . . . Seascapes

A generous friend gave me a gift certificate to Papertrey Ink for my birthday. I saved it for something special, something I wouldn't ordinarily order. When I saw the Fence Line: Summer stamps and die sets I knew I'd found the perfect way to use the gift certificate. I don't usually buy stamps that are so specific to a season, but I really love these, and I love how the cards turned out.

The first card went to my friend so she could see how I had used her gift certificate.

After I had stamped and die cut the elements from Fence Line, I die cut the outer two pieces to the Shape Shifters: Oval 2 die. The Shape Shifter dies are among my favorites because they are so versatile. Using a stencil brush, I added some Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink to the top of the oval fro the sky, and some Fossilized Amber for the sand. Since I was writing a note I decided not to add a sentiment to the front of the card.

The second card is a top folded card. I like that you can use these elements in both a horizontal and a vertical format.

When I made this card, I had just finished watching all the videos for Kristina Werner's "Simply Watercolor" class. It was the week Sarah and her family were here. I was able to watch the videos, but had no time to play with the watercoloring techniques she demonstrated. Both the sky and the sand were done with watercolors, and I used Kristina's technique to create a sky filled with white clouds. Right as Sarah left, Tracy came down with what appeared to be a virus (and was diagnosed twice as such), but turned out to be mono. Who knew a 70 year old could get mono? It's the sickest I've ever known him to be. At any rate, he is still slowly recovering, so time in the craft room has been very limited. I'm hoping to get to Kristina's other lessons in the next week or so.

On top of the watercolored "sand" I stamped the sand image from the set to add some texture. Once again I used the Shape Shifter: Oval 2 as the canvas for the card. I did stamp a sentiment on this card which was given to my daughter-in-law for her generous invitation to stay with them in Nantucket in July. I used the MISTI and stamped it two or three times, but in retrospect wish I had used a die cut for the sentiment instead.

Unlike the first card, I didn't bother to "punch out" all the little die cut pieces from the frame. I think it works well either way.

I'm linking up the first card to Inspired By . . . Seascapes.