random reflections

Woodblock Wednesday

It's been a week since I posted. I have lots to share, but haven't had the energy to get blog posts organized. But I did pull out a favorite wood block stamp for the current Addicted to CAS challenge: Plaid.

It's one of my favorite stamps to paper piece, and typically works as a get well or encouragement card for either guys or women. This plaid from my stash seems more feminine that many I have. The stamp itself is a Memory Box stamp, and the sentiment comes from an old Papertrey Ink set, "Chair-ished." I added a bit of colored pencil under the chair to ground it. The card is a premade one from Paper Source. Fortunately, I don't have anyone right this minute in need of a get well card, but it's good to have one on hand.

After many beautiful sunny days (quite unusual for Rochester!) today is gray and rainy. It's a good day to edit photos (I'm almost done with our trip photos) and write blog posts. 

Woodblock Wednesday

While I was surfing around some card blogs, I happened on Amy Tsuruta's blog and discovered she's started a "Woodblock Wednesday" routine. There's no link-up or challenge, but here's what she wrote when she posted the first edition:

So, I decided to start a new blog feature, Woodblock Wednesday.  I have so many wood stamps that just don't get the love that they deserve.  They double up as decor!

Some of mine function as decor as well. I have a printer's drawer that hangs in my craft room and is filled with small wooden stamps, mostly sentiments. I also have several drawers of wooden stamps in a storage unit Tracy built for me years and years ago. I've donated a lot of my wooden stamps to charity, but I still have plenty to play along with the Woodblock Wednesday idea. I won't promise to post one every Wednesday, but I am going to make an effort to pull one out more frequently. Here's #1:

I've been stamping for over 20 years, and when I first started collecting stamps, they were all wood mounted or unmounted stamps. This stamp, "Pumpkin Harvest" by Annette Watkins is one of the early stamps I purchased, and I still love it. Perfect for fall. After coloring it with Copic markers, I fussy cut around the image and mounted it on a piece of fun foam.

After stamping the sentiment from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Birthday" (not a woodblock), I scored three lines above and below the focal point to frame it. This was a lot of fun to color, and I have a lot of fall birthdays for which I need cards. 

The current challenge at AAA Birthday is a Color Palette Challenge, using fall colors. I love the inspiration photo of the gummies.

The challenge asks for at least two of the colors, but I think I have them all covered with this card, although my greens are bit more muted. 

Start With a Song

Pink Fresh Studio has become one of my favorite stamp companies. They hosted two challenges yesterday for World Cardmaking Day. I managed to finish a card for the first challenge: favorite technique.

One of my favorite techniques is to color images, and I'm also a fan of watercolor backgrounds which I don't do often enough. I combined both with this stamp set from Pink Fresh: "Aviary." I love the whimsical images in this set.

After watercoloring the background on Tim Holtz watercolor paper, I die cut it with a Spellbinders rectangle die and stamped the sentiment (also from "Aviary.") 

The individual images were also watercolored and die cut with the accompanying dies. Before I adhered the background to the Soft Stone card, I dry embossed a slightly larger Spellbinders rectangle to create a subtle frame. 

The final step was to arrange the three images. I used a bit of dimensional tape under the cute bird. 

We're off after church to the Finger Lakes with a friend for lunch and to pick up our fall order of wine from Boundary Breaks. Hoping it doesn't rain.

World Cardmaking Day

It's World Cardmaking Day, and I've had a bit of time to create a couple of cards. I'm hoping I'll have time to finish at least one more that needs to get in the mail later today. But for now here's a card for the current challenge at The Flower Challenge: Clean and Simple. Right up my alley.

In August, I was lucky enough to attend an Altenew Open House in Syracuse. We had the opportunity to play with the September release, so the image from the now released "Flower Garden" was stamped on a piece of white cardstock then. All it needed was a bit of coloring and a sentiment (also from Altenew).

I added the front panel to a card made from Papertrey Ink's "Lilac Grace," and called it done. It's almost a one layer card!

I don't often do partial coloring, but I really like it here, and think I'll do more of it in the future.

The second card is also for a challenge: Inspired By: A Truckload of Fall. 

 

As soon as I saw the image, I knew I'd play along this week. I had the perfect stamp set and it had been awhile since I pulled it out: "Little Pickup" by Honeybee Stamps. 

After coloring the image with Copics, I die cut the piece with a "Stitched Rectangle," and then die cut a slightly larger "Stitched Rectangle" from a piece of patterned paper by Sunny Studio. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Scene It: Celebrations" set. All was then adhered to a kraft card. Not quite sure which guy will get this card this fall. If it was a bit more CAS I could enter it in another current challenge for masculine cards. I didn't think of that while I was creating it!

Card Concept Challenge

There's a lovely new photo inspiration at The Card Concept.

In need of multiple thank you notes earlier this month, I pulled out some butterflies I had embossed and die cut earlier, and colored them with Copic markers. I added a thin strip of black cardstock to a premade card from Paper Source and added the butterfly to the center. 

Then I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Never Enough Thanks" in black in. I love this font and wish I had other sentiments that used it.

This is clearly a quick Clean and Simple design---right up my alley.

 

A Special Birthday for Three Challenges

It's not often that I have a card to share for three different challenges, but tonight I do! While we're away a good friend is celebrating an very special birthday. We'll be missing the party, but we'll be toasting to his big day later in our trip.

The new challenge at Seize the Birthday is "Just a Number."  At AAA Birthday it's "Use a Stencil," and at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge it's "Stamp It." This card meets all three:

I used two Simon Says stamp sets, "Birthday Numbers" and "Party Like a Panda" and a bit of masking to stamp the number and the balloons onto watercolor paper. It's harder to see in this photo, but after watercoloring the numbers and balloons, I used a My Favorite Things cloud stencil to add some interest to the background. It's a bit easier to see in this photo:

Finally I die cut the panel W+9's Gift Card Layers die and adhered it to a bright green card made from PTI's New Leaf cardstock.

It's a pretty whimsical card for a guy, but the recipient is one lighthearted, fun-loving guy, so I think he'll like it.

Linking up with:

A Square Card for Seize the Birthday

I have an unusual spare moment on our road trip, and an email reminder that there's still time to enter a card into the current Seize the Birthday challenge for a square card. Right before we left I had to make a number of birthday cards to send while we are away. One went in the mailbox in Cannon Beach today. 

Once again the main image comes from Altenew's Weekend Doodles. I stamped it on watercolor paper and painted it with Altenew's 36 pan watercolors. After fussy cutting a lot of images from this set, I took advantage of a sale and bought the dies. The week before we left, however, Sarah helped me figure out how to die cut stamped and scanned images with my Cameo, so there'll be a lot less money spent on dies after this!

I backed the wreath with a strip of ombre striped patterned paper from Papertrey Ink. stamped the sentiment (also PTI) and mounted the wreath with foam tape.

I'm linking this card to the Seize the Birthday Challenge right here.

 

Seize the Birthday: Butterflies

The current challenge (with toppings) at Seize the Birthday is Butterflies. 

Papertrey Ink has several great sets with butterflies. I pulled out "Butterfly Blooms" for this card.

After coloring the butterfly with Copic markers and die cutting it, I die cut Papertrey's "Bold Borders: Wave" from True Black cardstock. I adhered it to a white card and stamped the greeting from Gina K's "Wreath Builder" set in the center.

There have been several Monarch butterflies in our yard recently which inspired the color choices for the butterfly. It's a good contrast with the white and black background. 

Hope you have a great weekend ahead!

 

For the Girls: Take 2

I have another card for the AAA Birthday Challenge: For the Girls.

This one is a bright pink, and one of the more simple cards I've created recently. I do like the vellum embossed flowers though on the pretty cardstock. I die cut the Raspberry Fizz cardstock with a Stitched Rectangle die and adhered it to a white card. Then I add the white embossed flowers.

Once again, the flowers are from the Simon Says "Delicate Flowers" set. I fussy cut them right up against the white embossing, although I do have the dies for this set now.  

The sentiment, also white embossed, is from the Papertrey Ink "Just Desserts" set.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start. We're off to Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate our anniversary.

Color Throwdown

The current Color Throwdown is pink, gray, silver, and white. I'm in need of several anniversary cards, and these seemed like appropriate colors.

I started by diecutting Simon Says "Hearts Trio" in a piece of white cardstock, and then die cutting it again with "Stitched Rectangles." I cut a piece of Sunny Studios "Silly Stripes" paper to back the hearts and added the piece to a card base made from Papertrey Ink's Weathervane.

For the sentiment, I die cut a Weathervane banner from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Basics" and embossed the greeting in silver. To add a bit more silver, I die cut two small hearts with Simon Says "Large Holiday Shapes" from beautiful silver paper from Paper Source.

The sentiment is from an old Papertrey Ink set "Mat Stack #3." It's an oldie that I turn to over and over for small font sentiments. Finally I added some Rainstones for a bit of sparkle.

I'm off to link up to the challenge which ends in just a few hours!