random reflections

Featuring Gina K Designs

The Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is "Anything Goes." There's always a product focus on these challenges, and I don't usually have anything to share. This time it is Gina K Designs. The warehouse and very lovely retail store are located in Greendale, WI, about 35 minutes from Sarah's. A good friend of mine's sister also lives near there, and Nancy and I got together for lunch during our early March visit. Afterwards I made a stop at Village Paper and Ink. I didn't buy a lot, but I did pick up two small stamp sets. I used one to watercolor these hydrangeas from Heartfelt Hydrangea when we were at Sarah's. Since we've returned, I needed a sympathy card, and these seemed appropriate.

Since the image was already watercolored, it was just a matter of choosing a card. I had both a purple and a dark navy Memory Box card, and the navy looked much better than the shade of purple I had. Having added blue to to the flowers, this worked out fine. 

The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set, Sending You Comfort.  In addition to the Simon Says challenge, I'm entering this one in the Time Out Challenge: Purple as well. 

The weather today is wild. To avoid the predicted rain, we took our walk around noon today following our church's worship service on You Tube. Just as we came home, the sun came out, and less that 15 minutes ago, I went out on the patio to see if it were warm enough in the sun to spend some time out there. It was too breezy for me, so I came in. Tracy, however, went out to do some yard work. In less than 10 minutes, it started to pour. Blue skies vanished immediately! It's the beginning of a cold front---a drop from near 70° today to the 40's tomorrow. Ahh, March!

Start with a Sketch

I don't often start with a sketch. In fact, it's a rare event. One of my card-making friends excels at this, but I've always struggled a bit with it. When I saw the new sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches, however, I immediately had an idea, (and having plenty of time on my hands) pulled out a new stamp set by Memory Box called Wild Rose Stem.

At about the same time, a new challenge appeared at Time Out: use a little or a lot of purple, so that determined the color scheme.

Here's the card that resulted from the two challenges:

The Wild Rose Stem stamp set includes a very large double bloom with stem and this single bloom. Since the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge calls for a "clean and simple" card, I opted for the single bloom, which is still quite large. After watching a video the other day with watercoloring with watercolor markers, I pulled out my Zig Clean Color markers. It took a bit to get adjusted to them. They definitely don't react the same way my pan watercolors do to a wet on wet technique, so I had to be ready quickly to pull the color out with a damp brush. I used just two purple markers and a touch of a blue one on the petals.

Since I had gold embossed the flower and leaves before coloring them, I decided to back the Nordic Frame by The Greetery with some gold paper for a subtle shine and elegance. I also gold embossed the sentiment from The Greetery's Sentiment Suite: Birthday.

After mounting the flower on the frame, I adhered it all to a card made from Gina K's Wild Lilac cardstock. It appears a bit darker in the last photo than it is IRL. 

Hope you are finding satisfying ways to keep busy in this time of seclusion. I've managed to cross two LONG overdue projects off my list. More on that at the end of the month when I write up my OLW post for March.

 

Watercolored Flowers: Take Three

This is card #3 from my watercoloring session last week. It's another birthday card, but I couldn't find the perfect Happy Birthday to fit in the oval, so I chose a sentiment from an older, and not much used set, by Papertrey Ink, Scripted. Now that I've "found" it again, I think you'll see more of it. One of the items on my list of things to do during this time of forced seclusion is to use newer stamps and dies, and older less used ones. Of the three cards I made, I think this is my favorite. It also caused the most trouble. Just after I glued the beautiful Geometrix: Oval frame to the card front, the stamped message smeared. I can't remember the last time that happened, but it required starting over. Fortunately, the flowers had not been glued.

For all three cards, I used a wet on wet technique for watercoloring. I'm happiest with the shading that happened on this one.

I also used a Gelly Roll #10 white pen to add some accents on the pistils. 

I'm entering this card in these challenges:

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

AAA Birthday: Flowers

Time Out: Birthday 

CAS on Friday: Birthday

Here's a look at all three cards I've posted over the last few days. One thing I love about a versatile stamp set is the very different looks you can achieve by changing the color and the design of the cards. 

Watercolored Flowers: Part 2

I'm back with the second of the watercolored flowers from my afternoon of playing with the Altenew 36 pan watercolors. Like yesterday, the images are from Simon Says Delicate Flowers set which was part of the May 2019 card kit.

The sentiment is from a relatively new Ink to Paper set called It's a Sign: Birthday. I'm a fan of orange and gray so created a top-folding card from PTI's "Soft Stone" cardstock. The sentiment was stamped with Smoky Shadow ink.

After die cutting the flowers and leaves with the accompanying dies, I popped up one of the flowers with dimensional tape for a little interest.

I'm entering this in three challenges:

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

AAA Birthday: Flowers

Time Out Challenges: Birthday

 

Playing with Watercolors

As part of my OLW, COMMIT for March, I'm still playing with watercolors. Over the next three days, you'll see three cards that resulted from one afternoon session. I'm learning quite a bit: I need to work more slowly, and I'm better off with a good #4 watercolor brush. Patience, too, is important. Waiting for one section to dry before moving on is also important. All the flowers I watercolored came from the same Simon Says set, Delicate Flowers, which was part of the May 2019 card kit. 

Here's the first card, another for the birthday stash.

I used Altenew's 36 pan watercolors for these flowers. It's one of my favorite watercolor sets for painting flowers. Almost no mixing needed since the colors are so fresh and bright.

Because I wanted to play along with the Addicted to CAS challenge: Circle, I used a PTI Shape Shifter Circle #2 die as a backdrop for the flower. I think most CAS blogs now accept a color as the "white space" and this one is Spring Rain, also from PTI. The blue cardstock is its truest color in this photo.

I'm entering this in the Addicted to CAS Challenge: Circle.

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes:

And the AAA Birthday Game: Flowers:

 

We made an early grocery store run this morning, needing to purchase a gift card for RAIHN (Rochester Interfaith Hospitality Network). My friend and I provide dinner each time our church hosts families from RAIHN. Needless to say, during this time of seclusion, we are not hosting families. We are, however, providing dinners for a family that is residing in the RAIHN apartment. We arrived just as Wegmans opened, and were pleasantly surprised to find the shelves reasonably full. A week ago there was no meat except for a few packages of hamburger, no salad dressing, no bananas . . . you get the picture. Today I was able to pick up ingredients for several of our favorite meals as well as some cleaning supplies we needed. It was relatively easy to stay appropriately distant from other shoppers, too. We go to the Wegmans flagship store which has wide aisles and ample cashiers so I feel as safe as I could be under the circumstances. We won't need to return again for at least a week, if not longer. I am a fan of fresh produce so am likely to make a quick run once every week or 10 days.

Hope you are finding good things to occupy your time. Sarah gave Tracy a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle for his birthday, and in three days, he's just about completed it. I'd like to say I helped, but if I put in 50 pieces that would be saying a lot. Granted, I also have not put in the time!

Stay safe!

 

 

Happy Birthday X Three

Here's another entry for Seize the Birthday's current challenge: Sentiment as the Focal Image. It also uses the same tall skinny alphabet used on my first entry. 

I've been trying, when I could, to make multiples of cards so I have a few in my stash ready to go. It doesn't always work, but in this case, I had to die cut five different colors in order to made the card so I had the opportunity to make five cards. Since I layered two letters of each color to give them a bit of height, it took a little longer, so I only managed to complete three cards. I saved the letters, though, so there's the possibility of two more. 

 

So that the HAPPY was truly the focal point, I centered the word on a navy 4-bar card from Paper Source. 

All three of these cards are headed to men whose birthdays are upon us. I think it would be just as appropriate for a teenager, or a woman---a very versatile design. 

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Color Crush (The Stamp Market), True Black (PTI), Paper Source A4 card
Dies: Skinny Upper Alpha (The Stamp Market)
Stamp: Birthday Basics (The Stamp Market)

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

A Big Happy Birthday

The new challenge at Seize the Birthday is "Sentiment as Focal Image." I have the perfect card to share for this challenge. The sentiment is all there is to the card. It's already been gifted to my daughter-in-law's niece who just turned 18.

This card, like yesterday's, uses some new-to-me products from The Stamp Market. Tracy gave me a gift certificate for Christmas, and top on my list was the tall "Skinny Upper Case Alpha." Die cut from metallic gold paper they really make a statement. Although hard to see in this photo the card itself is black shimmer paper adding just a bit more sparkle. "Hooray" was embossed in silver on black cardstock and then die cut.  It's also from The Stamp Market.

Here's a better view:

I used the tall skinny number dies for the inside sentiment along with a die from Papertrey Ink's "By the Number Suffixes." The stamped greeting is from The Stamp Market's set called "Hip, Hip, Hooray."

One last look:

The card got high marks from the teenager---always a good sign.

 

Let There Be Cake

Addicted to CAS's current challenge is "Cake," and I couldn't wait to use my new stamps and dies from The Stamp Market. They are "cake focused!"

This card has a fair amount of stamping, but all of it ends up being die cut before assembly.

Since I knew I'd be spending some time putting the card together, I decided to make three identical cards. Stamping and die cutting for three really didn't take a lot more time, and now I have a few cards in my stash. I die cut the cake from some My Mind's Eye metallic paper. The rest of the cake was stamped and then die cut. I love the added glitter on the icing, compliments of some Stickles.

The card seemed a bit plain so I embossed the front with the polka dots--the white on white texture is pretty subtle, but add some interest. 

I'm also linking this to the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Anything Goes.

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah, Paper Source 4 bar card
Patterned Paper: Joyful (My Minds Eye)
Stamps and dies: Party Pieces (The Stamp Market)
Embossing folder: Sizzix

 

 

Celebrate

There's lots to celebrate here today: warm temperatures, sunny skies, and time to write a blog post! I have a card to share for The Flower Challenge: Add Leaves.

Although I haven't been able to make a card every single day in February, by the end of the week, I will have completed at least 29 cards, so I'll count that as a successful goal. One night after creating a birthday card for Tracy's upcoming birthday in March, I had a piece of patterned paper laying on my desk. I looked through my collections of already stamped and die cut images, and found these pretty flowers from Papertrey Ink's "Botanical Bounty." I added some shading with Polychromos colored pencils, and assembled the card.

Card Supplies:
Cardsttock: True Black (PTI), Neenah
Patterned Paper: Color Crush Patterns (The Stamp Market)
Dies: Botanical Bounty (PTI), Stitched Rectangles (Simon Says), Celebrate (in my stash, unsure)

 

Cute!

I have a cute birthday card for a very CUTE three year old. The current AAA Birthday Card Challenge is CUTE--perfect timing!

One of my goals this year is to use products I've owned and not used often or at all. This wonderful "Happy Birthday" die from My Favorite Things has been in my collection over a year. This was the perfect time to pull it out. The other product here is a brand-new stamp set, also from My Favorite Things, called "Birthday Buds." I chose just one image from the set, and you'll see many more of them in the future.

The cute little bunny with the balloon was colored with Copic markers and fussy cut, and popped up with some dimensional tape.

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Fresh Pink (Stamp Market), Neenah
Patterned Paper: Color Crush Patterns (Stamp Market)
Stamp: Birthday Buds (Stamp Market)
Dies: Large Nested Circles (Spellbinders). Birthday Circle (MFT)

I had a whole afternoon to craft this weekend, then came down with an ugly stomach bug which put me out of commission for two days. Fortunately, it's long gone, and I'm not behind in my card-a-day efforts since I got four cards made on Sunday. That to say, I'll be back soon with another one or two or three.

Edited to add: Wrote this post while watching the presidential debates last night, and entered it in the wrong AAA Challenge where patterned paper isn't allowed. The AAA Birthday Challenge however doesn't have that restriction. That will teach me to multi-task---something I pretty much gave up a couple of years ago.