random reflections

Happy Anniversary!

There were two anniversaries in May to celebrate: my brother-in-law and sister-in-law celebrated their 40th anniversary and Sarah and Adam celebrated their 13th anniversary. I made both couples the same card--a near total CASE of this card. 

As soon as I saw the Simon Says "Deco Heart" die, I knew I'd want to own it. I already had the very similar stamp set which has been a favorite all along--see here and here. The patterned paper is from MFT "Black and White Stripes," and the sentiment from Hero Arts "Everyday Sayings." I typically wouldn't post such a close CASE but my real reason for the post today are two anniversary cards that were created from the scraps and left-overs on my desk when I finished the one above.

I had one black die cut left, and cut a white heart as a frame for it, layered on a Pure Poppy card base. Same sentiment as above. 

I also had a white die cut heart and mounted it on a red heart. This time I used a premade card that came with a Simon Says kit some time ago.

I added a thin border of red cardstock on the inside of the card to accentuate the scallop on the bottom of the card. It's not often I get two more cards from the left-overs on the desk, but it worked out well this time.

I'm linking this up to the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Wedding/Anniversary.

 

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day was celebrated here yesterday. This post was ready to go, but after celebrating with Matt and Betsy at her dad's and a long Face Time call with Sarah and her family, we got busy and it just didn't happen.

I'm always happy to make cards for three of the best dads I know--Tracy, Matt, and Adam. All three are hard-working, affectionate, loving, and kind. They've all been totally involved with raising their kids, and put in lots of quality time with them. I made three of the same card this year using Pink Fresh Studio's "Adore" alphabet die. The die cuts two images-a very thin outline and a chunky inner letter. 

I layered three of each letter and outline to provide some texture--once with Simon Say's "Smoke" and once with "Slate." To get enough of them for three cards, meant die cutting 54 letters, but I love the contrast so it was well worth it. After assembling the letters I arranged them on a piece of Simon Says "Fog" cardstock die cut with Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles." The sentiment was white embossed on black cardstock with a sentiment from W+9's "Super Star" set which has been a go-to for masculine cards for many years.

I attached the sentiment with dimensional tape, and then adhered the cardfront to a card base made of Simon Says "Slate" cardstock. Another CAS design that I hope all three will like.

I'm linking this up to the "Father" challenge at Addicted to CAS. It's been awhile since I played along with this challenge, and this is clearly CAS!

Wishes and Dreams

I have a birthday card to link up with two challenges. The first is a new challenge to me called The Library Challenge. Being an avid reader, I'm intrigued by this challenge which uses books as the inspiration. There are two current challenges open, and I'm joining in with "The Art of Stripes."

I'm also entering it in the Seize the Birthday Challeng: Anything Goes.

The Simon Says June Card Kit is wonderful---filled with leafy frames, flowers, and branches just calling out to be colored. I pulled out my Copic markers for this card.

After coloring the circular wreath, I fussy cut it out, and die cut a "Stitched Circle" from Simon Says for the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Day Dreamers."  I also die cut a piece of Carta Bella 'Botanical Gardens" patterned paper which also came with the June kit. After layering it on a white card base, I added the wreath, with dimensional tape.

The only embellishment was a few drops of Nuvo Crystal Drops that came with a previous kit.

 

Watercolor #2 for AAA Birthday Challenges

Although I have a ways to go to perfect this technique, I finally gave no-line watercoloring a try. I used Ink on 3 for the stamping, and I was pleased with the way it worked. I used my MISTI to stamp the images, and that was a good decision as both needed a double stamping in order to be seen well enough. The lines remained clear until I touched them with the watercolor brush. Several days transpired between stamping and watercoloring the leaves.

Once again I used the Altenew 36 pan watercolor set which has wonderful colors for flowers, mixing together a couple of pinks, and using two different greens for the leaves. The stamped images are from my recent favorite set, Simon Says "Delicate Flowers." I fussy cut the flowers after watercoloring, but ended up ordering the dies when I got a coupon code for Simon Says, and waited for them to arrive before die cutting the leaves. The circular mat was die cut with Papertrey Ink's "Shape Shifter Circle #1," using just the two outer dies.

The sentiment is from a new set from Waffle Flower, "Label Greetings." I couldn't resist the font or the narrow border around the sentiment. I embossed it in white on the same Raspberry Fizz cardstock as the card front.

The final embellishment were three small white pearls.

Entering this at AAA Birthday Challenge: Use Watercolors.

I'm also linking this up to the sister challenge AAA Cards for their 5th birthday celebration. This gets in just under the wire!

AAA Birthday Challenge: Watercolor

The new challenge at AAA Birthday is up: Use Watercolors.

I still had an image from Simon Says "Mandy's Flowers" lying on my desk that I watercolored with Altenew's 36 pan watercolors when we were visiting Sarah. I used Reverse Confetti's "Pierced Round Top" dies to create a focal point for the image which is smaller than some.

I die cut two different sizes, first with Papertrey's Green Parakeet cardstock, and then a pretty patterned paper from Reverse Confetti's "Fun Times" paper pad. I used dimensional tape to add the flower pot, and then added it all to a white card base.

The sentiment from Simon Says "Best Ever' set was embossed in white on black cardstock and trimmed out. Another pretty CAS design, although a bit more colorful than many.

Time Out: Home Sweet Home

The current challenge at Time Out is inspiration from a photograph:

I was inspired by the bright flowers and created a CAS card with two pretty flowers from Altenew's "Adore" stamp set.

I started with a white card base, and added the Papertrey Ink "Bold Borders: Wave"  in white as a frame. After coloring the flowers with Copic markers, I fussy cut them and added them to the card after stamping a sentiment from Right at Home's " Grateful Heart" in black. 

I added some white dots with a Signo broad pen to the center of the orange flower. This went off to a friend almost as soon as it was made!

Cards for Challenges

It's Memorial Day in the U.S. and time to pause and be grateful to the many, many service men and women who gave their lives for the cause of freedom and democracy. Let us hope that their sacrifice was not in vain. The world news as well as the national news points to more and more governments that are leaning away from equal rights for all. It is concerning to say the least.

On a happier note, it's a bright, sunny, warm day and after lunch we're headed to the Finger Lakes with three stops in mind: an Amish greenhouse in Penn Yan, our favorite Seneca Lake winery (we're members and need to pick up our spring case of wine), and finally to a Mennonite market in Seneca Falls. I have lists for the first and last stops. 

We spent most of yesterday planting in our perennial/cutting garden, our raised beds (tomatoes and lettuce), and filling the pots for the front yard and patio. We still need a few plants to fill in spots in the flower garden and a couple of bright flowers for smaller pots on the patio. We're not traveling again until the fall with the exception of one weekend away for our anniversary, so we'll be home to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Last night I had time to put together two cards for a few challenges. When I was in Racine, I had time to watercolor some images from a Simon Says stamp, "Mandy's Flowers" that came as part of a monthly card kit so I had some focal points already to go. The first card is for the current CAS on Friday challenge: use polka dots. 

Since it's a birthday card, I'll be entering it in two other CAS challenges:  AAA Cards Birthday Bash, and the new AAA Birthday challenge.

Loving polka dots, it wasn't hard to find a piece of patterned paper perfect for the border. This one is from My Favorite Things "Black and White Dots." I watercolored the image from "Mandy's Flowers" with the 36 pan watercolors from Altenew which has turned out to be my favorite set to take with me when I travel to Sarah's.

The sentiment is from an older Papertrey Ink set, " Birthday Style." I used dimensional tape to adhere the flower to the card.

The second card is for the Inspired By . . . Challenge:

The wreath on this card is also from "Mandy's Flowers." The set has one after another of beautiful floral images.

When I pulled this one out last night, the flower was in need of some more contrast, so I got out my Prisma colored pencils and added some depth to the flower and some green to the thin leaves which I had not watercolored. Finally I added some black gel pen to the center and some Wink of Stella glitter to the flower. The sentiment is from a much older Simon Says card kit set, "Flower Friend." Before attaching the watercolored piece to the Orange Zest card, I die cut it with the largest of Simon Says "Stitched Rectangles."

The sentiment is universal enough to send as a "thinking of you" or a birthday card. 

Hope you have a great week! I'll be back soon with a couple of photo walks I did while we were away.

 

 

 

Back on Track

It's taken several days to get back on track after having been away for ten days. We had a great visit with Sarah and her family, and two good road trips, including some opportunities for photography--photo walk posts to come.

But today I want to enter a card into two challenges. The first is a brand new challenge: AAA Birthday Challenge. I'm hoping to enter a card in each of their challenges from now on since I'm always in the need of a birthday card. I've always thought I'd like to make a commitment to one challenge, but have never taken the plunge. This challenge lasts for nearly a month, so even traveling shouldn't interfere.

I'm also entering the card in their sister challenge: AAA Cards which has been a favorite for awhile. This is their fifth birthday celebration, so birthday cards are the feature here as well.

This is a card for a blogging friend who I hope has received the card before she sees it here.

I don't often choose to do selective coloring, but I like this one quite a bit. It was a Papertrey Ink watercolor "Bold Blossoms" card that I fussy cut after water coloring the main blossom with Altenew's 36 pan watercolors. I adhered it to a Pale Peony cardbase that I ran through a dotted embossing folder. All it needed then was the die cut sentiment from "Penned Elegance."

The new Simon Says card kit was waiting for me when I got home, and thanks to some gift certificates I have some new stamps and dies arriving from Pink Fresh Studio so there's lots to play with this week. Tomorrow we have a half day road trip planned to the Finger Lakes so there probably won't be much crafting time. Hopefully, I'll get back into a good routine later in the week.

White on White

I love white on white cards, but I have to say trying to photograph them on a dark, rainy day is not an easy task. I had limited time as well as I had a busy schedule, and we're packing up for a trip to Sarah's for a week. Nonetheless, I'm hopping in here to post a White on White card for the CAS on Friday challenge as well as the Flower Challenge which calls for embossing.

When I sat down to create this card, I had a vision which was very different from what I ended up with. I started out by embossing some of the flowers in Simon Says "Delicate Flowers" set in white on vellum. I fussy cut a couple and played around with a variety of layouts and white on white backgrounds. I finally reached for one of the premade embossed cards I've had in my stash for years.

After adhering the flower to the center square I added some white dots to the stamens with a Signo pen for a little texture, and embossed a sentiment on another piece of vellum. 

The shadows when I was trying to photograph this obscure some of the dry embossing polka dots on the card. It's really much nicer IRL! But the CAS on Friday challenge ends in a day, and we'll be on the road so I need to get this linked up tonight. 

 

You Shine Brighter!

Time Out Challenges has a new challenge up, and I have a card to enter created with a fabulous die from Pinkfresh Studio. The challenge is based on a quote by Theodore Roosevelt.

Given the topic, I chose two gorgeous metallic papers I picked up in a wonderful paper shop in the Historic Third Ward of Milwaukee. One is a silver glitter paper and the other a purple metallic one. They are much more beautiful than they are in the photograph.

The "Geo Stars 2" Pinkfresh Studio die covers the front of a standard card so this turns out to be a pretty quick card to make. The sentiment stamp is from Papertrey Ink's "Number the Stars" set which I embossed in silver on black cardstock and trimmed out to make a banner.

The sentiment isn't difficult to read IRL, but also didn't photograph too well: "You Shine Brighter Than All the Stars in the Sky."