random reflections

Spring Flowers

I had a chance to play around with a new-to-me stamp, stencil, and die cut from Pinkfresh Studio, "Floral Notes." It's designed to fit a slimline card which is what I've done this time, but once I saw some card makers cut the design in two pieces to use on A2 sized cards, I knew it would be a versatile set to own. I'm pretty new to using the coloring stencils, but I've had good success both times. For me, they are much easier to use than layering stamps.

I used a variety of Pinkfresh inks with blending brushes to color the flowers and leaves before die cutting the floral arrangement. Then I used the smaller of the two dies in the Pinkfresh "Slimline Diagonal Stitched Rectangle" die set and stenciled just one part of a two-part stencil from Pinkfresh "Slimline Argyle" as a background.

I die cut the larger stitched piece from a piece of Lovely Lady cardstock by Papertrey Ink---one of my favorite pinks. The sentiment is from Pink and Main's "Special Day." This card is already in an envelope waiting to be mailed to a friend whose birthday is next week.

I'm linking this up to three challenges: The Flower Challenge: Pretty Pastels, The Paper Players where the challenge is Spring Flowers, and Time Out with a quote about April and getting out in the garden. April's a little early in the northeast for these flowers, but the daffodils are up, and we've planted pansies in our front yard which has given me hope for an early spring!

 

Happy Easter!

It's a bright, sunny Easter and lots of fun to be in Wisconsin to celebrate. With the exception of last year, when we celebrated Easter alone, we are lucky to have had one set of grandchildren to celebrate with every year. This year, it's Caleb and Hannah, although we miss seeing the three girls. Before we left Rochester, we celebrated with the three girls. They made some Easter headbands and some place cards for their dinner table (no photos!)

Yesterday, we did the same with Caleb and Hannah. We made an extra for their friend, Evie, who will be coming for dinner tonight with her mom and dad.

Hannah and I made Easter cookies Friday morning, and when Caleb got home we got busy decorating them.

All five of the grandchildren's Easter cards are very similar.  The Card Concept's new challenge is "Celebrate Easter"---perfect for these cards! Card Concepts asks you to classify your card design. I'd classify these as Clean and Layered.

A friend loaned me a wonderful bunny die by Lil' Inker called "Peek-a-Boo Bunny", and I used it for all five grandchildren.

These are the card for the three girls in Rochester. The only difference is the patterned paper---all from my stash. The funky flowers are stickers that were also in my stash. 

The sentiment is from an older Papertrey Ink set, "Bunny Basket."

Similar, but not quite the same, here are the two for Caleb and Hannah.

When I made these cards, I wasn't sure we'd be able to travel over Easter, so I opted for a bow rather than a flower in case the card needed to go in the mail. I love the plaid paper on Caleb's card and the bright green card seems more appropriate for a boy. 

If you celebrate Easter, I hope you're having a lovely day! If not, I hope the sun is shining where you are, and you have some time to get out and enjoy it!

 

 

 

 

Color Hues #15

No matter the weather, by April 1, I'm ready for spring. This year we've been treated to very early signs of spring and I'm hoping a greener landscape is not far away. Today's new challenge at Color Hues is sure to brighten your day, regardless of where you are in welcoming the new season.

If you've followed me for very long, you know I'm partial to Clean and Simple designs. This card totally falls in that category. I'm not sure if I've ever created anything that was more Clean and Simple. This card more or less created itself. I die cut the floral from The Stamp Market's "Fresh Floral Layering" die in Concord and 9th's Ballet Slippers. Although this was made for inlaying the pieces of the floral, I knew as soon as I laid down the outline, that was all I was going to need.

I then die cut the two leaves from a pieces green cardstock in my bits and pieces folder and added them to the floral on a piece of white cardstock. 

I cut a narrow border from the Ballet Slippers cardstock, and added dimensional tape to the back of the focal piece before adding it to a white card base. The sentiment, embossed in white on black cardstock is from Reverse Confetti's "So Many Sentiments" set. 

After I had created this card, I started playing around with the new-to-me coloring stencils by Pinkfresh Studios for their stamp set "Friendship Blooms." And although I do like this card, it is definitely not CAS!

After die cutting the florals with the accompanying dies, I die cut two panels, one in black and one in gold, with Gina K's Layering dies. I love the narrow border these dies create. The sentiment, embossed in gold, is also from "Friendship Blooms." I layered everything onto a bright pink card base.

The final touch was the addition of some gold sequins.

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

 Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 

 

Pretty Red Tulips

I'm a huge fan of women's college basketball, and have spend a lot more time in front of the television this past week watching the NCAA tournament games. I've been following UConn for nearly 20 years, but enjoy watching many of the other teams as well. If the game's not too exciting, I can craft at the same time, and yesterday I managed to finish a card for two challenges. The first is a photo inspiration from Just Us Girls with pretty red tulips. The other is the Librarian's Challenge with the book cover from Teach Yourself Dutch. 

One of the prettiest tulips stamps I own is from an old Papertrey Ink favorite: "Friendship Jar Fillers: Spring." I stamped it partially off the side and colored it with Copic markers.

When I started I didn't have any particular occasion in mind, but in looking at some pre-embossed sentiments, I found a Happy Mother's Day from Pink and Main's "Special Day" sentiment set. I try to make each of the mothers in our family a card so it's good to have one in the stash.

I didn't think it needed any other embellishment, but did trim the stamped image down so that there was a border of black from the card base. Then I decided it needed a thin strip of red cardstock as a finishing touch. 

We're busy organizing for an Easter trip to Sarah and Adam's this week. It's the first time we've been out of town since last September. We'll be driving straight through on the way. Both Sarah and Adam have just their first vaccinations, so we still need to be very careful. We're totally vaccinated now, with only the variants to worry about. That will keep us out of restaurants until it's warm enough to eat outside, but we hope it's safe to make a road trip.

 

You Make Life Bloom

This card was in my stash, but never blogged, and just recently sent to a good blogging friend in the past few days. Today is a great day to post it as we are just beginning a day-long weather alert with rain and very high winds. No tornadoes predicted, thankfully, as the southern part of the country is being hit hard by them. A friend's daughter lives in Alabama, but so far they've escaped any damage. It's going to be much cooler following this, and we'll need to watch the nighttime temperatures as lots of the plants we planted last fall have started to emerge and/or bud. This is SO early for Rochester, and I'm grateful for the early spring. We have what we need to cover all the plants so hopefully they'll survive this next (but probably not last) cold spell.

This card scream spring to me. The Simon Says "So Beautiful" stamp is one of their red rubber cling stamps, and they stamp so cleanly and crisply. I stamped it off to one side since the stamp covers more than an A2 card front.

I colored it with Copic markers and die cut it with Ellen Hutson "Essential Rectangles."  

I added it to a Memory Box card. I love these cards because the inside is a bright white that makes writing or stamping a message so much easier. The sentiment, white embossed on black cardstock, is from Reverse Confetti's "So Many Sentiments."

I'm throwing this into two challenges: Inspired By: Spring into Color, and Simon Says Wednesday Challenge with a Spring Mood Board. 

Sadly, the mood board image won't load in either Typepad or Photoshop Elements, so click through to the challenge to see it.

A Black and White Inchie

Years ago, "inchies" were a thing, and I still have a pack of them in a drawer. I'm hopping in at the last minute with a black and white inchie for AAA Cards.

Rather than use a pre-made inchie, I die cut my own using Ellen Hutson's Essential Rectangles die. It cuts an opening as well as a frame which worked perfectly for this card. I popped up the card front with dimensional tape, and then adhered the inchie in the center of the opening. The pot of flowers was also popped up with dimensional tape.

Of course, I pulled out another NBUS stamp and die set. This one's from Pinkfresh Studios, Itty Bitty Elements, and I've had it for well over a year. I've had lots of ideas for using the images (all very small and quite diverse) but never managed to execute any of them. 

The Tiny Words stamp set from Simon Says provided the perfectly sized sentiment for an inchie. Adding it to a black card and allowing the framing from the inchie die finished off this very CAS card. I'm thinking I'll make a few more with some of the other images, but I need to link this up quickly as the challenge ends tomorrow. And sending yet again another card to NBUS!

 

 

Easter Blessings

The last purchase I made before committing to a buying freeze until I used my NBUS that had literally piled up was the most recent Gina K kit. They are a great value and this one focused on flowers which I use over and over again. It took quite some time for the kit to arrive, but it came this week and I was excited to start with this lovely image of daffodils. Although they are definitely one of my favorite flowers, I didn't have a single set with daffodils. I decided I wanted to use watercolors and stamped the daffodils twice---once with black ink and then white embossed them. I chose the white embossed ones to start with.

One of the issues I've always had with white embossed images on white watercolor paper is being able to see the outlines clearly. Tracy gave me a slant board for Christmas, and it worked perfectly. The work is just at just the right angle so it's easy to see. There are clips to hold the paper and it's magnetic so I used magnets on the bottom of the paper to hold it steady.

Recently I've gone back to my Daniel Smith paints in a palette I set up years ago. Of all the watercolors I own, they are the best quality and the more I use them the better I get at mixing just the colors I want. I chose my color palette from the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge which seemed just perfect for daffodils.

The sentiment is also from the Easter Blessings set. I love the elegant font. Once the watercoloring was done, I did a bit of shading with Polychromos pencils, stamped the sentiment and die cut it with the smaller layer from Gina K's Master Layout set. Then I used the larger layer to die cut a saffron layer and added it to a green card base.

Since we'll be away for Easter, I'll be sending this to my mother-in-law. I'm thinking that nearly everyone in Tracy's family will have had both vaccinations by Easter, and may be able to gather for the first time in over a year. We'll be in Wisconsin with my daughter and her family. 

I'm also sending this card to the Happy Little Stampers: Watercolor (Anything Goes) and NBUS.

Color Hues #14

The new challenge at Color Hues is really versatile. Neutrals can be added as well as gold or silver.

This is one of those cards that just "came to be." I had a card completed for this challenge, but about a week or so ago, I was in another organize and purge mood. In the process I came upon the card front which was embossed with a beautiful embossing folder by Alexandra Renke.

As soon as I saw it I knew it would make a perfect CAS card for this challenge. I added it to a black card base and used a sentiment strip from my stash.

I debated for a bit about embellishments, but finally decided on some small black pearls from AMuse which have been in my stash forever. I'm pretty sure I'll use this design again. It's very versatile. I can see it as a birthday card, an anniversary card, a thank you note, and even a sympathy card. 

I hope you'll hop over to the Color Hues Challenge and join in the fun, checking out the cards made by my awesome Design Team members and our Guest Designer, Shawna.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 

 

 

Floral Focus

A colleague of mine complained once she retired that she was bored, and told a mutual friend not to be in any hurry to leave her job. It's so far from my reality that I'm amazed by it every time I think of it. Even with all the time at home because of the pandemic, I am rarely, if ever, bored. Right now, I'm running out of time to do all the things I want to do, and to learn all the things I want to learn. I spent a couple of hours today working on the introductory lessons to the Sketching Now Foundations course. I enrolled in it years ago, and was in over my head. I wish I could say I've made lots of progress since then, but some of the concepts are still a struggle. And then, of course, I'm also trying to work through using all my unused stamps. That is a LOT more fun! 

The card today is a beautiful floral, called Floral Focus by My Favorite Things. I don't own the dies, but I've seen cards made with this stamp where they've separated the floral and used only a portion of it. It is one stamp, however, so that's how I used it. I pulled out my  Daniel Smith watercolors to color it, and chose Shades of Purple again for The Flower Challenge.

I did the watercoloring on Saturday night, and on Sunday added shading with four different Polychromos pencils. 

The sentiment is from "Everyday Greetings" by Pretty Pink Posh. I gave thought to adding a few sequins, but decided it really didn't need any, so just added the panel to a green card base. The challenge at Happy Little Stampers Watercolor is Anything Goes so I'm adding this to that challenge as well.

Spring Flowers

We had a brief, two day, taste of Spring this week, and it was wonderful. Today is sunny, but cold and windy again. Pretty typical for March. There are several challenges out there calling for Spring cards, so I pulled out of my NBUS box a stamp and die set, "Blooms and Buds" by Reverse Confetti that I've had for way too long. It almost got put into the "Donated" bag last week, but I'm glad I pulled out. Sometime guilt works well . . . 

I started with a sketch from CAS Colours and Sketches:

After stamping and die cutting, I arranged my flowers in the lower left-hand corner of a piece of white cardstock, but it felt too plain so decided to run it through my die cut machine with a Taylored Expression embossing folder. That's the Trend Challenge for Just Us Girls this week:

I rounded the corners of the floral piece as well as an orange Memory Box card before putting them together. The last touch was to add a sentiment strip from Pink and Main and some tiny pearls to the center of the flowers. 

The Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge is Spring as is the challenge at CAS on Friday. Sending this card their way as well.