random reflections

Folk Garden 2

We've been home a week, and I've been immersed in an online class, "Beautiful Blooms," a botanical watercolor class hosted by Karen Abend and taught by Sarah Simon (also known as the Mint Gardener.) I have two of Sarah's books and have perused both of them, but found the prospect of working through them a bit intimidating. Being able to watch Sarah work in watercolor was so enlightening, and it was easy to see the simple things I need to improve. More water when working wet on wet, learning some excellent "recipes" for mixing colors, and how to work in layers on a piece are just a few of the things I've been working on. Her books are a lot more inviting now! I'll have more to share later. 

But, finally, yesterday, I was able to get back to card making and my newly acquired Pinkfresh Studio goodies won back in November. I started off by stamping and stenciling the Folk Garden 2 set. It's a beautiful design that really appeals to me. The stamp creates a lovely background pattern, but what's especially wonderful is that an accompanying die will cut out (in one go) all the individual floral patterns. The open design could easily be colored with Copic markers or colored pencils, but the coloring stencil does it all with ink blending in six separate stencils --- a much quicker process. I ended up with three different cards from the session, with a few blooms left over.

I used two of the blooms on this card, arranging them at the bottom of an oval cut with Ellen Hutson's "Essential Ovals.

The sentiment is from another new Pinkfresh set, "Always Uplifting," and the Pinkfresh Jewels are in Sapphire, my favorite blue ink color from Pinkfresh, and one of the inks I used in stenciling the florals.

The next card is a CAS thank you note.

This time I added just one floral to a red panel die cut with The Greetery's "Crimped Frame."

The sentiment is also from Pinkfresh. I don't have many word dies with shadows, but I do love them. This one accompanies a stamp set "Sentiment Suite: Thank You."

Lastly, a birthday card with another die cut sentiment from the Pinkfresh "Happy Birthday Sentiments." Both this and the thank you set have been in my collection for awhile. Because they are a larger format, I often forget about them when I'm looking for sentiments for my cards. 

This card had a previous iteration that I tore apart this morning after deciding it was just "too busy." I like this version much better. 

It's always a bit nerve wracking to tear a card apart, but if I'm slow and steady, I can usually salvage the important elements. The only things that were trashed were a white panel and a blue card base. You can see I reversed that here. 

I'm entering this one in two open challenges:  Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes and Happy Little Stampers Dies: Anything Goes. 

 

 

Watercolor Anemone

In preparing for my Guest Designer jig on the CAS Mixed Media Challenge, I watercolored this Honey Bee "Winter Anemone" as well as the one I finally submitted. This was done with loose watercoloring. I got each petal and leaf wet with clear water, and dropped color in and let it do what it wanted. Because I had gold embossed the image first, it stayed within the lines, and didn't look all that "loose" in the end. I did do some loose watercoloring as a background which I'm frequently reluctant to do for fear I'll ruin the whole card. This time it worked.

This weekend I pulled it out and decided on a sentiment from the Gina K set "Wreath Builder. It fit in the open space perfectly, so I gold embossed it to match the florals.

After matting it in black, I added it to a card base created with Gina K's "Fuchsia" cardstock. I decided there was some room for a few gems, so that was the final touch.

I'm throwing this in the mix at the Happy Little Stampers Watercolor Challenge which is Anything Goes.

It's 17° now and headed downward. By tomorrow morning, we'll be at 6° with a wind chill of -9°. Good thing I have lots to keep me busy inside, and no reason to venture out!

A Little Sparkle for a Friend

We got home just in time for me to get a card posted for The Paper Players Challenge: Sparkle.

In November I won the prize of all prizes: the complete release of the new products at Pinkfresh Studios. Since I was in the midst of card making and preparation for Christmas, I barely had time to even look through the collection of stamps, stencils, dies, and foiling plates. (Luckily, Santa brought me a Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil machine, so that's high on the list of things to do in January.) I did have time to play with one of my favorite stamps in the collection, "Charming Floral Border." I also used just one of the several layering stencils to add a touch of shadow to the image. I got the card in the mail to my friend, but had no time to get a blog post written. 

I embossed the floral border in silver and then added the detail with a medium shade of gray ink with one of the stencils. It's hard to see the sparkle in the photo above, but here's a clearer look.

You can also see here where I added a few quick strokes of a dark gray Copic marker to add some detail to some of the stenciled areas.

The sentiment from Simon Says "Sketched Flowers" was also embossed in silver. I trimmed the stamped piece down just enough to show a narrow border from the card base.

We had an easy drive home, thanks to Tracy's foresight. There was a band of lake effect snow predicted for the area west of Buffalo extending to Batavia (about 40 minutes west of Rochester.) Instead of taking a chance with the weather, we headed south  and east on Rte. 86 just after Erie, Pennsylvania and then north on Rte. 390 to Rochester. There were only snow flurries on our route for about 20 minutes, and then we had partly sunny skies a good part of the way. When we watched the news last night, we discovered the Buffalo airport recorded the highest snowfall in one day---17.8 inches!!! Our usual route takes us right by the airport. The change in route took about an hour longer if done in good weather, but most likely saved us time---and certainly saved me a lot of anxiety. 

Christmas Card Roundup

I made far too many Christmas cards of a single design this year. My goal for 2022 is to make a set of Christmas cards each month, so there's not a big rush at the end. I post a few as I go along if I create one for a challenge, but typically wait to post until I know they've been received. So today, I thought I'd do a Christmas card roundup of some of the cards I particularly liked. And, in fact, there's still one challenge looking for Christmas cards.

First of all, two cards created with one of my favorite 3-D embossing folders: the poinsettia from Altenew.

This was was embossed with red paper and lightly swiped with a white pigment ink. I tried a couple of variations with this technique, but this was the only one I liked enough to make into a card.

I made two or three variations of this card with the same embossing folder and a red frame from The Greetery.

This card went to one of my best friends, a single man. It got posted on Instagram, but not here. I dry-embossed the frame and added the gold embossed deer and sentiment to a Nordic Circle die from The Greetery that a friend had die cut for me. 

I used this oversized Joy stamp from Waffleflower on several cards--all a slight variation of this one.

Another card made with a 3-D embossing folder and a sentiment from The Stamp Market. I should have made a few more of these.

This was one of the cards I made early on, and I made a set of them. It's a set I've owned from Altenew for awhile, but never found a design I was happy with. Stamped on white and then die cut with a pierced frame.

This was the biggest set of cards I made--25 in all. There were four different snowflakes so I could die cut them in sets so it went pretty quickly. I did the die cutting at home, and stamped and assembled them in November when we were visiting Sarah.

And one variation on the card above, I only made one or two of these because they required embossing of the sentiment which takes more time. I already know the first set of cards I'm making for next year and they do require embossing, but if I'm working well ahead of time, it shouldn't be a problem.

All the following cards were made in one session with a group of pre-made tags and die cuts from 2020. Several of them use a new tag die from The Greetery that die cuts two tags at a time. I have more ideas for those tags for 2022.

And my favorite of the bunch:

There's still one of my favorite challenges open for Christmas cards, so I'll be posting to AAA Cards, and then calling this season of card making done.

 

Guest Designer

My card here won a challenge at the CAS Mix-up Challenge in October, and I was asked if I'd like to be a Guest Designer for the first post of 2022. Of course, there was no hesitation before saying yes! I was thrilled to be asked.

Each challenge at CAS Mix-up involves some kind of mixed media and/or a technique. The challenge this round is "Loose Watercoloring." If you know me well, "loose" isn't something you'd typically associate with my card making. Luckily, however, the hosts of CAS Mix-up always include links to a variety of ways you might complete the challenge.

I definitely took advantage and watched all the videos for this technique. I tried three different takes on loose watercoloring, and ended up with this which I like quite a bit. It's a much quicker method of watercoloring, and yet allows you to stay CAS - another requirement for the challenge.

I embossed one of the images from Honey Bee's "Winter Anemone" in gold on Altenew's Watercolor paper. I added a heavy wash of clean water over the entire image, and then dropped in some pink and green watercolors from the Altenew 36 Pan Watercolor set and set it aside to dry.

I went back in with some more watercolor to brighten them, and then die cut the image. You can see that there's no need to worry about staying inside the lines with this technique.

I layered the floral on an oval die cut with Ellen Hustson's "Essential Ovals" die, and dry embossed five lines on the card before adhering the floral with some dimensional tape. The sentiment from Pink and Main's "Special Day" was embossed on black and trimmed out.

Please go take a look at what the designers at CAS Mix-Up have to show you It's sure to be a lovely gallery with lots of wonderful takes on this technique.  

Pink Poinsettia

I have a lovely pink poinsettia on my desk, and it's inspired me to make a variety of Christmas cards with pink poinsettias. Life here has been much busier than usual. We no longer eat in restaurants, but we are seeing friends here and in their homes since we're all vaccinated and boosted. It's so much better than last year, even with the Omicron variant hanging over our heads. And it's making the holiday much more fun that it was a year ago. Nonetheless, Instagram and blogging have fallen by the wayside for the last week. But now that I know this card has safely arrived in my friend's hands, I can share it here on the blog. 

This card was made specifically for a blogging friend who loves all things pink. It was another one of the cards I put together with dies that had been cut last year, but not used. The poinsettia is from Papertrey Ink's "Modern Gift Card" set which I layered onto a lighter pink circle die cut with Simon Says' "Stitched Circle" die and a gold circle frame from the Ellen Hutson "Essentials: Circles" dies. 

The sentiment is from a new Christmas set by Penny Black, " Happy & Bright," and it's my favorite new sentiment set. I've used it over and over, both on the fronts of cards as well as the inside sentiments.

I'm entering this in two challenges: The Flower Challenge (a fave that I've neglected for far too long,) and Addicted to Stamping and More, a newer challenge for me.

Two Poinsettias

I'm a fan of women's collegiate basketball, and have been following the Connecticut Huskies for over 25 years now. There was a televised game Friday night, and I decided I'd like to make a card while I listened and occasionally watched the game. It wasn't a nail biter, so it was easy to craft and just listen.

I keep a list of current challenges on my Notes app, and looked through to see if I could find a couple of challenges that might work well together. I started with the Color Throwdown Challenge: silver, pink, and white. Then I saw Cécile's sketch on Freshly Made Sketches and knew I could use some of my previously die cut poinsettias for the card. This morning I discovered that the new Flower Challenge: Christmas certainly fits the bill as well.

Just recently, I took a pile of poinsettias I had die cut last year from Papertrey Ink's "Modern Gift Card" dies and colored and assembled them. The starting point for the card were the white and pink poinsettias, and for the Color Throwdown Challenge, choosing a card base was easy---it had to be silver. 

To match the sketch, I pulled out an already die cut circle, and added two silver glittery holly leaves cut from a new Simon Says die set, " Christmas Foliage."

I used some silver gems from Paper Studio for the centers of the flowers. The sentiment was embossed in silver on a narrow strip of black cardstock with a sentiment from Avery Elle's 
"Seasonal Simple Sentiments."

I love when everything comes together so nicely. It doesn't often happen, but I'm quite fond of the sketch and happy with the card!

Color Hues #31

There's just one challenge this month leading up to the holiday season. And not surprisingly, Cindy has chosen the traditional colors of Christmas: Red and Green.

I've had two of Papertrey's Bold Borders: Yuledtide in my stash that I die cut during a crafty session before the pandemic, but never used. They worked perfectly for this challenge. They'd been die cut with PTI's Pinefeather paper which I layered on cards made from Concord & 9th's Cranberry cardstock.

The sentiment is a combination of a die cut and a stamp. The Savvy "Joy" die cut has been in my stash for years, and has appeared on many of my Christmas cards. I never tire of it. I added a stamped sentiment from PTI's "Big Hugs" stamp set.

I debated for a time about whether to add any embellishments but decided the tiny red pearls from A Muse would work well here. The pearls are another item that I've had in my stash for many years. Years ago, A Muse decided to become an online company, and I was afraid I'd run out of the red pearls. I purchased multiple packs of them, and still have plenty, but no unopened packages are left. I have some other colors as well, but the red ones are my favorite.

 

Thank goodness classic items don't go out of style! I'd label this a pretty classic Christmas card, and would love to have had enough borders to make a whole set. I hope this color combo inspires you to create a few holiday cards, and I hope you'll share them with us in the gallery at Color Hues. Please check out all the inspiration from my Design Team members and our fabulous Guest Designer, Michele Ferguson.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

   Tracey

 

 

 

A CAS Christmas Card

Over the weekend I sat down with a pile of designs I had die cut last year and some ephemera from my scrapbooking days to see how many Christmas cards I could make. I ended up with ten, some of which I'll share soon. Today I want to share one of my favorites that was such a challenge to photograph. It's a beautiful gold snowflake that came in a package of ephemera with a kit, perhaps one of the Christmas Journal kits. I used several of the pieces from that kit on my cards, but this one won me over with its simplicity. 

So I'm entering it in the Time Out Challenge where the inspiration quote focuses on simplicity as well as the CAS on Friday Challenge where the theme is "Winter." 

Here's the card. I have no idea who manufactured the snowflake. The beautiful sentiment from Penny Black's "Happy & Bright" was gold embossed on a cream card.

The challenge was to photograph the card so that you could see the shine to the snowflake. After multiple tries, I finally leaned it on an angle. It's actually much brighter in the photograph than in real life but there didn't see to be any middle ground.

It turned out that the challenge in posting the card was much greater than the creating the card for the challenges!

 

 

Snowflake Kisses

There's a great Color Throwdown Challenge now:  navy, gold, and white. I knew right away that I'd love working with that combination, and I did. Photographing that navy, however, proved to be more of a challenge than I expected. Here's a mini slimline card that could be a Christmas card or a winter birthday card.

I chose a Concord & 9th Midnight cardstock for the card base and layered two snowflakes, one gold and one white die cut from My Favorite Things "Stylish Snowflakes."

The sentiment, from Penny Black, is a new one I picked up at Ellen Hutson's birthday sale called "When Snow Falls." I expect to use it frequently for birthdays in January and February. Lots of fun "snow" sentiments but some lovely ones referencing winter as well.

Along with the Color Throwdown Challenge, I'm entering this in the My Favorite Things Slimline Challenge which asks for mini slimlines this time around. They're becoming a favorite of mine, so I may be back with some more since the challenge runs until mid-December.