random reflections

Color Hues #10

Times flies, and here we are with the tenth Color Hues challenge:

One of my intentions for this year, is to make sure I'm using all the stamps and dies I have accumulated since the pandemic started! One of the dies is the "Altenew Circled Greetings." I have all four of them, but today I used "Thanks." I'll start with the card I posted on the Color Hues Challenge post.

You can see that the die creates a wonderful focal point for an A2 card. I backed the open circle with a piece of cream cardstock on which I'd stamped with another new purchase, My Favorite Things "Peacock Pattern Background" in Dark Indigo ink.

I used a stamp from W+9's "Hand Lettered Thanks" for the small sentiment strip, and bordered it with a bit of the dark navy cardstock. The front panel was then added to a cream colored card base which is perfect for writing a thank you note.

The second card is very similar, but I chose to dry emboss a series of narrow score lines on the cream card base before adding the navy panel which I trimmed down to expose a narrow cream border.

This time I chose a brighter hue of navy cardstock that has a subtle texture to it.

I added a few sequins and pearls from Lucy's Cards: "Pearl Necklace" collection.

Hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what the rest of the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Julie,  have come up with . . . and join in the fun!

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 

Warm Wishes

The stamped images for this card have been lying on my desk since before Christmas. I realized sometime in December that I owned no snowmen stamps and ordered a couple sets from My Favorite Things during a sale. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with these cute snowmen and MFT provided not one, but two, challenges that fit this card. First, the MFT Birthday Challenge which is Winter Wonderland, and the MFT Outside the Box Challenge: Winter Scenes. Everything I used for this card also goes to the NBUS Challenge.

I've been immersed in a Sketchbook Design course with Liz Steel. Her courses are always loaded with content, and this has been no exception. But I've started a new sketchbook, and have a few pages started. I've found all my fountain pens, and although I thought I had them all working again, I've discovered that most of them are going to require a thorough cleaning before I can count on them. All that to say, stamping and card making has taken a backseat in my schedule.

It's not often that a card comes out just the way I imagined it, but this one comes pretty close.

I constructed the box with Spring Rain cardstock. I don't own the Outside the Box snow drift dies, but created my own with the Ellen Hutson "Landscapes" die. When I purchased those, I thought they might work for a variety of cards and so far, they've been great. I used some Distress Oxide ink to create a bit of blue sky on the back side of the box.

All the stamped images were colored with Copic markers and then die cut. Before adding them to the snow drifts, I added the stitched panel with the sentiment (also from the "Toasty Greetings" set). 

Here you can see that the card folds so that it fits into an A2 envelope. You can also see the stitched side panels. I'm off to link up with these challenges:

 

Just Us Girls: Trend Week

I had every intention of joining Just Us Girls last week where the challenge was "Hello," but the weekly challenges frequently get away from me. This week's challenge is to Use a Stencil.

It definitely is a trending technique, and I'm glad to be joining in this week with a card that also uses a large HELLO sentiment.

I love Altenew's "Flowing Drops" stencil and used Distress Oxides inks to create the blue/green background. I trimmed the sides enough so the Hawaiian Shores card base would create a narrow border. 

The sentiment is from The Stamp Market's "Paper Hugs" set. I die cut it with white and layered it on the shadow die cut with Hawaiian Shores, and popped it up with some dimensional tape.

I'm also entering this in the Happy Little Stampers Stencil Challenge. I just recently happened up the Happy Little Stampers who seem to have monthly challenges for a variety of techniques/products. I'm much more likely to be on time with monthly challenges! 

 

Time Out Challenge

Time Out has more than one meaning this afternoon after the assault on the Capitol yesterday. The horrific event will be haunting us for months (and years), and there are many, many questions that need to be answered. Although I do try to stay away from discussing political events on this blog, but this can't be ignored. I'm not one that watches television during the day, so I actually discovered what was happening in Washington when an international blogging friend emailed me to be sure we were safe---knowing that we were miles away. As it turns out there were demonstrations in other cities, but fortunately, not here.

But the Time Out I'm referring to is a card challenge:

Last night after the Congress was able to resume and as I was listening to their discussions of the objections to the Electoral College votes, I decided I needed to find something to do at the same time. This My Favorite Things "City Block Background" had already been stamped, and I decided to do some spotlight coloring. Needing a masculine birthday card, I thought this might be a fun, albeit a bit unusual, one.

I picked just a few of the buildings in the center of the panel to color with Copic markers.  After finishing the coloring, I used one of Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles" to die cut the panel, and added it to a very thin border of Honey Nut cardstock. The brown card base is one I've had in my stash for years.

Trying to decide on a sentiment was the next problem. I have a box of pre-stamped and die cut sentiments, and found that this one, "Penned Elegance" by Papertrey Ink, worked quite well.

I backed the sentiment with thin strips of dimensional tape to lift it up and give it some space from the black and white background. I ended up making a second version (nearly identical) this morning. I think the card's charming, and I hope my buddies do too. 

Just a note: some photos haven't been showing recently. According to Typepad, it's an error on their end and should repair itself with time. If not, I'll be sending them a message and they will retrieve it. So annoying.

The Flower Challenge: Embossing

I'll bet I'm not alone when I say that watching my friend heat emboss a sentiment on a card over 25 years ago was the impetus to hop in the car and go to the local stamp store to buy some supplies. I still have a couple of the wooden stamps I bought that day, and just replaced my heat gun in May when a friend gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday. It's been a favorite technique ever since so The Flower Challenge had me looking through the cards I hadn't posted. This card which has already been received by my friend (so can now be shared) has both heat embossing in gold, and dry embossing along the bottom portion of the card.

The beautiful magnolias are from Altenew's "Magnolias for You" set. I embossed them in gold on Bristol and watercolored them with the Altenew 36 pan watercolor set. 

I had to fussy cut the flowers and leaves since I don't own the dies, and then arranged them at the top of the white panel. The sentiment, also gold embossed, is from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Birthday" set which gets a lot of use. I decided the card was just too CAS (is that possible?), so added three lines of dry embossing with my stylus on the bottom portion. That was added that to a top folded card in Lovely Lady (PTI.)

I'm in the midst of trying to keep up with two online classes, so crafting time has been at a premium. Today's personal challenge is to get two masculine birthday cards created.

Color Hues #9

Happy New Year and Welcome 2021! I imagine most of us are more than happy to put 2020 behind us, and hoping for a much better year ahead despite knowing that we still have some dark days ahead. For me, crafting has been the one way I can put aside all the fears and anxieties of the times for a few hours. I hope it does the same for you.  And the Color Hues Challenge is here to help. I love this round's color choices:

I'm a fan of Laura Bassen's graphic cards, and when she designed and released some graphic dies for Simon Says this winter, I picked up the "Geometric Builders: Squares." Putting the squares together is a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle. It's not something I do quickly, but I enjoyed the challenge. And I have a lot of pieces left to play with to make one or more additional cards.

I used three shade of gray from Simon Says: Fog, Smoke, and Slate, and my favorite red from Papertrey Ink: Pure Poppy. I love the clean and simple design of the card, and think it will make a great masculine birthday greeting.

The sentiment from The Stamp Market, "Tons of Type," was embossed in white on black cardstock, and bumped up with some dimensional tape.

You may well see a similar design in a future Color Hues Challenge as this set is perfect for a two color challenge. Now check what our Design Team and Guest Designer have for you at the Color Hues Challenge.

Marcia, Guest Designer

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

Pull out some reds and grays, and join in the fun! I'll be back tomorrow to share my One Little Word for 2021.

 

In Praise of Snail Mail

For us, one of the most pleasant surprises of Caleb's homeschool curriculum is a weekly letter writing assignment. He alternates between his four grandparents, and his letters are utterly charming! They require, of course, a card and a note in return. One of the charms of his letters is the way in which he responds to what I write to him. For my most recent note I used a new stamp set (NBUS!) by Concord and 9th called Snail Mail which I purchased with grandchildren in mind. (Must admit, the bulk of my acquisitions in the last few months have been with grandchildren in mind.)

The first card I made was this one.

The colors just didn't seem right for an almost nine year-old boy, so here is #2. I'm much happier with it. But I do have a couple of friends who live alone who will find the green card charming--the young in heart!

Caleb and I already had a "conversation" about "Happy Mail" so I told him that Snail Mail = Happy Mail! One of the joys of the holiday season is receiving so much Happy Mail in the form of holiday greetings, and letters from friends we haven't seen sometimes in years! 

Of course, whenever a card goes out to Caleb, one needs to go to Hannah as well. The dies in the Snail Mail set include this die which creates an adorable card in just a few minutes!

After cutting out the die, all that the card needed with a few score lines for interest behind the die cut, and a sparkly silver inlaid heart with a pink rhinestone. Perfect for a nearly four year-old girl!

The AAA Card Challenge is still open for their theme "Made in Minutes," so I'll pop this one in the gallery. I'm skipping the optional challenge this time. Also getting this into the NBUS Gallery for December as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern Christmas Tree

I have another red, black, and white Christmas card to share for three challenges. First, AAA Cards: Made in Minutes/Optional Christmas. This might be one of the fastest cards I've made this season. Second, The Paper Players where it's a theme challenge: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and finally, the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Fun with Dies.

My card is simple, but striking. It was quick enough to make that I made several of them.

Creating it involved two dies--my favorite Stitched Rectangle by Simon Says and the modern Christmas tree ("Winterland Tree") by Memory Box, and one stamp: "Sentiment Suite: Christmas" by The Greetery.

After adhering the die cut to the black panel, I added some favorite red pearls from A Muse and bumped the panel out for a bit of dimension with some black fun foam. The sentiment was embossed in white and die cut with Simon Says "Sentiment Labels." I resisted that purchase until a recent sale, and it was a great purchase. No more cutting these strips with a paper cutter or by hand - perfectly straight the first time!

 

Just Add S for Snowflake

The challenge at Just Add Ink is:

For this card, S is for Snowflake.

I made two different versions of this card, one with this large snowflake ("Lea" from Simon Says) and another with a smaller snowflake. I'd show you both, but the other card needs a photo retake, and I haven't gotten to much crafting/photographing for the last four days. This is a pretty CAS card. Although one doesn't usually think of using black on a Christmas card, I realized a few days ago that I've made at least three different Christmas cards using black cardstock---and I like them all.

You can see the two layers of cardstock in the first photo, but not so much in this one. The sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Floral Fantasy" set was embossed in gold, and I added a glittery gold enamel dot to the center of the snowflake. 

I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Off to do some curbside pick-ups. I like to support local businesses, but I'm trying to stay out of stores so I ordered some things online that I can pick up today.

 

Color Hues #7

It's time for the next Color Hues Challenge: Blue and Magenta.

Since it's now December (yikes!) I thought a Christmas card was in order so I pulled out another stamp set that's been in my stash for a couple of years, and never used! Honestly, it's embarrassing. But it proved to be just what I wanted.

I die cut the three ornaments and stamped them with Pinkfresh Studio inks (Sapphire and Bubble Gum) and then added a layer of Spectrum Noir glitter. I embossed the background with the Papertrey Ink Herringbone Impression Plate and "hung" the ornament with some silver cord. That was then layered onto a piece of magenta cardstock to create a thin frame, and finally to a bright blue card base.

I embossed the greeting from Altenew's "Holiday Tag Sentiments" with Black Opal embossing powder which has a wonderful glittery appearance which didn't show up well in either photograph. The final touch was to add some clear sequins. 

Hop over to the Color Hues site and check out the creations from the Design Team and our fabulous Guest Designer, Vikki:

  Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

And please join us for the new challenge!