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A CASE for an Anniversary

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I lost track of time, and needed an anniversary card ASAP. Sometimes I see a card on a blog, and it prompts me to buy the stamp set. That happened last month when I saw this card by Yana Smakula using a new set from Pretty Pink Posh. When my friend and I were in Buffalo spending our garage sale “money,” this set was available and I picked it up. It’s a very close CASE of Yana’s card–I gold embossed the image, changed the sentiment, and used some different Copic marker combinations, but otherwise, stuck close to her design. One thing I loved about Yana’s card was she took a wreath designed to be a circle and stretched it out into an oval which worked perfectly for my card as well. CASEing someone’s design (which I try not to do too often) definitely shortens the time it takes to create a nice card.

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I chose a lighter cardstock for the base, as well. This is Papertrey Ink’s Rustic Cream which took the Copics quite well. It’s not often I make a truly one-layer card, and I gave thought to added some embellishments but decided the business of the wreath was more than enough. I added some sparkle to a few of the larger images with a Nuevo clear glitter pen.

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The orange glittery envelope is from the latest Simon Says kit and was just perfect for getting this in the mail with a bit of sparkle, too.

The coloring gave me a chance to try a few new blending colors with my Copic markers. Earlier this summer I purchased the Waffle Flower “Color Swatches” stamp, and created a notebook for samples of my Copics. I expect to expand it to include my various watercolors as well. It’s already proven to be a good reference.

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On the left are samples of the green Copic markers I own, and on the right blending combinations using those markers.

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I have a two-page spread for each color, and probably will have to add some more pages for blending charts. When I was coloring the school bus for Caleb’s first day of school card, it was easy to come to this page and see which of the blending combos might work the best.

During my summer reorganization and purge, I also invested in an insert for my Raskog cart that holds Copic markers. It’s designed to hold an entire collection of Copics which I will never have (nor do I need). I’ve been collecting Copics for about 10 years now, and have pretty much everything I will ever need. The insert came from Etsy, and holds all of my Copics as well as my set of Tombow markers. Now when I want to color, I pull the Raskog cart up to my desk and easily pull out (and replace) the markers easily. 

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I wasn’t 100% sure I’d be happy with this, and ordering from Etsy is a bit of a risk since it couldn’t be returned, but I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. 

 

 

Take Three Thursday: Halloween Decorations

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Halloween is less than a week away. I have yet to do much decorating, (not a pumpkin in sight,) but on one of my walks this week, I spotted some cute Halloween decorations in the neighborhood. 

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This string of bright orange witches’ hats caught my eye immediately, and then I saw the reflection of them in the window.

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A more traditional arrangement, and one that I’d like in my yard. I do have an idea for a stack of pumpkins, but I’m not sure if I’ll manage to find what I need before Halloween. This transcends Halloween, and will still be appropriate until the U.S. Thanksgiving at the end of November. That’s if the squirrels don’t get to them. One year the squirrels ate right through all the pumpkins on our steps.

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This one made me chuckle! I love those striped witch’s legs hanging out of the pumpkin as well as the black cat poking out from the bottom one. I have one more photo, but since this is Take Three Thursday, I’ll save it in case I have a post for Halloween. Linking in with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards.

Papertrey Ink October 2018 Blog Hop & Time Out: Giving Thanks

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It’s the 25th of the month, so it must be the monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, one of my favorite challenges. This month’s inspiration piece features a chalkboard sign, pumpkins, and gourds among other fall motifs. 

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The main focus is the chalkboard sign, and it’s been a long time since I played around with the chalkboard look on a card. I started there and once the background was “chalked,” embossed a sentiment from “Giving Thanks,” a new to me Papertrey set. I absolutely love the fonts in this sentiment; it’s one of the reasons I added the set to a recent order. I attached a “Pierced Frame” in black to the chalkboard and tucked a pumpkin and two gourds from “Simply Gourd-eous” within the frame. Although I used the coordinating dies to cut the pumpkin and gourds I ended up fussy cutting them to eliminate the thin white borders from the dies.

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I originally thought I’d mount both pieces on a top-folding black card, but when I looked again at the inspiration piece, I decided to use Scarlet Jewel cardstock to mimic the frame on the chalkboard in the photo. It’s hard to see, but I used my Chai distress cube to distress the Scarlet Jewel cardstock much like the frame in the photo. 

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The pumpkin and gourds needed a little more definition so I added some Polychromos colored pencils to areas to enhance them a bit. Off to PTI to see what others made of this photo.

I’m also entering this in the current Time Out Challenge. It’s a quote this time about gratitude; perfect timing.

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Guest Designer – CASology for the “Scary” Challenge

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I’m so pleased and honored to be asked to be the guest designer for this week’s CASology challenge! Here’s the cue card:

 

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Once my grandchildren were old enough to appreciate getting a card in the mail, I began to accumulate a few stamps for each of the holidays. Since they are still quite young, there was nothing truly scary in my collection, but I decided I could increase the scare factor a bit by drawing spooky mouths on each of the die cut ghosts from Poppystamps, “Group of Ghosts. Then I found the perfect sentiment in a Papertrey Ink Mini-Market kit, “Halloween Pin-ups,” and had the basic elements for my card.

CASology specializes in clean and simple cards—one of the reasons I enjoy the challenge. Typically, a significant amount of “white space” is required. In this case, that space needed to be black to enhance the “scary” factor.

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I wanted the ghosts to be emerging into the night sky, so chose some pumpkins from Papertrey Ink’s “Friendship Jar: Autumn” to set before the ghosts. They were colored with Copics and fussy cut. They also add a bit of needed color to the card.

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Finally, I embossed the sentiment in white. I ended up making two identical cards, one for each set of grandchildren. Many thanks to Melissa for the kind invitation to guest design this week.

I’d also like to enter this card in the Inspired By: Halloween challenge.

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Five in Five: October

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Once again I’m late to the party! I missed a couple of opportunities so this week on a walk down a city street, I challenged myself to take five photos in five minutes. It’s not a block with much beauty–a row of multiple family homes, some woods, a school and a hospital, but I managed to find five pleasing subjects in less than five minutes.

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As you can see we’re still waiting for the leaves to change color. These red leaves are among the very few reds–most of the colored leaves are a pale yellow. Not sure what has caused the delay, but I’m thinking the colors may be disappointing this year. I’m joining in with Sandie for her 5 in 5 meme. It’s one of my faves, despite the fact that I almost never managed to post on the fifth! Fortunately, she gives us until the 25th to get our post up. Click on the link to see a charming sculpture and read the backstory about launching lifeboats with the help of horses during the the late 1800’s.

Inktober: Part 2

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We’re more than halfway through October, and despite the travel and busy calendar, I’ve managed to keep up with my Inktober project. I haven’t shared any of the cards I’m making with the list of prompts from Louise Gale, so I thought I’d share the first fifteen.

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I’m pretty happy with the way they’ve turned out, especially considering how sporadic I am with my sketching. The prompts from top left were:  rose, gingko leaf, trillium, poplar leaf, chrysanthemum, seed pods, fern, poppy, daisy, dogrose leaf, lavender, start anise seed pod, dahlia, fan palm, and cosmos. Not having photographs of my own, or actual specimens to work from I had to rely on Google searches for photographs and drawings. Now I need to get back to the lessons in Louise’s course. 

Autumn Colors

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I certainly didn’t anticipate that it would take me two weeks to get back to the blog after our trip to Michigan and Wisconsin. We had a lovely road trip and a wonderful stay with Sarah and her family. As frequently happens, after a good time away, our calendars were very full when we got home. Just now, I’m getting back to the craft room, and having some time to play. I have quite a few new products to try out, but today’s card actually features some “oldie but goodies:”  Papertrey Ink’s “Friendship Jar: Autumn,” and a small stamp set that was part of a scrapbooking kit from Gossamer Blue several years ago. I can’t remember the last time I ordered a scrapbook kit, but when I did I particularly liked those from Gossamer Blue. 

This card is for the current Time Out Challenge: Colorful.

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I wish the autumn colors here were as colorful as the ones on my card, but the trees have been very slow here to change colors. It’s turned quite cold in the last few days so we’ll see what effect that has on the colors. Here’s my entry to the “Colourful” challenge.

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I started with a textured card I found in my closet looking for something else. It was prefolded, and as you will see in the next photo, a small border peeked out from the inside. The colorful pumpkins and leaves are from the Friendship Jar set, colored with Copic markers, and fussy cut. The sentiment and frame are from the Gossamer Blue set and I embossed them in gold.

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I trimmed a small strip of patterned paper from a pack by Sunny Studio that I picked up in Buffalo the last time I was there, and adhered it to the bottom of the inside of the card. It accentuates the browns of the acorns in the fall cluster. Finally I added three small gold sequins to pick up the gold from the embossed sentiment. I’m not sure how I’ll use this card. It could easily become a thank you note, or even a birthday card with the right inside sentiment. 

 

 

CASology Challenge: Gratitude

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I have a quick and easy card for this week’s CASology Challenge on Gratitude.

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I like to have small thank you notes on hand to send out whenever the occasion warrants. I love the 4-bar cards made by Paper Source and also like the ones by Memory Box. This card was a Paper Source card that seemed to be the perfect autumn shade of green. 

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The die cut is from Papertrey Ink’s Make-It Market Kit, Herb Garden. I added a thin twine bow, and stamped a sentiment from my very favorite Penned Elegance set, also by Papertrey Ink. Couldn’t be easier, although it would be even nicer if I had a whole set of these ready to set out—perhaps another goal for October!

Take Three Thursday: Inktober

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I decided to participate in Inktober–an online challenge to draw an image in ink each day of October. Although the official Inktober site provides prompts for each day, I am using Louise Gale’s prompts. I purchased her book, Botanical Mandalas, some time ago, and am in the midst of taking one of her online classes now. For those prompts, I’m drawing on 3X4 cards to create an inspiration deck to use in creating mandalas if I ever get that far. But on Day 2 I decided to also make some drawings based on some objects I’ve found in Sarah’s yard, as well as a pumpkin I bought at the store the other day. These drawing are in a sketchbook, and I’ve not set any expectations for the number I’ll complete during the month. Here are the first three. I took the photos with my phone on Sarah’s kitchen table, and didn’t see the shadows until I uploaded them this evening. If I wait to retake the photos tomorrow when the light is better, I’ll be too late for Mary-Lou’s meme, Take Three Thursday! 

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It’s been a long time since I did any sketching, and I’m pretty happy with how these turned out, given how little practice I’ve had in the last year. The Inktober drawing can be all ink or colored in any way you’d like. I’m using my new Altenew watercolor set which is perfect for traveling. 

It’s not too late to join in the Inktober challenge!

Final Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt Posting

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Today is the last day of September, and the end of the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt. At the end of August, I had just two items left to find: #9 Looks Smaller Than You, and #13 Equal Portions. 

I found the first one on a road trip to Ithaca a couple of weeks ago. On our way into Ithaca, we stopped at the overlook to Taughannock Falls and Tracy helped me get this photo:

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Somehow I remembered the Equal Portions prompt amid all the excitement of Skylar’s birthday party, and Matt let me snap this photo before he served any of the delicious chocolate cake.

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As I always do, I enjoyed the hunt and look forward to the next one! Thanks to Mary-Lou for creating a fun list and hosting the scavenger hunt. You can find the rest of my scavenger hunt photos here, here, and here. Typically I create an album for all the hunt photos in a SmugMug album, and eventually that will also happen. Travel does seem to interfere with my best posting plans! 

 

September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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Today’s the 25th and time for the September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. Right before we left, I managed to find time to make two fall birthday cards based on this gorgeous inspiration photo. I wasn’t sure I’d have time to write a post from the road, but we’re in our hotel after a lovely dinner and there’s still two hours left before the link closes. 

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Both cards feature leaves and the beautiful fall colors in the inspiration photos. The first is my favorite.

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I’ve had the Mix and Mat Pinked Edges die laying out for several weeks, knowing it was perfect for a fall birthday card. I die cut it four times, first with kraft, and then again with Ripe Avocado, Terracotta Tile, and Canyon Clay. I carefully cut out two leaves from each of the colorful cardstock and adhered them to the kraft die cut.  Then I adhered that to a top-folding Saffron Spice card. I gold embossed the sentiment on a strip of Dark Chocolate cardstock.

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The next card uses many of the same colors but I used both the leaf stamps and die cuts from Forest Floor: Autumn along with an oldie but goodie, Fillable Frames #4.

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Once I had all the elements stamped and die cut, I felt like I needed something behind the frame. A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME die cut with a stitched rectangle fit the bill. Although there are acorns to stamp and die cut from the Forest Floor set, I chose two little three-dimensional acorns by Little B instead to finish off the card. 

We’ve had a wonderful three days on the road. Tomorrow we take the ferry across Lake Michigan and will be in Racine with Sarah and her family by dinnertime. Off to link up to the blog hop! Thanks for stopping in!

Happy Birthday, Skylar

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It’s been a crazy week. I had at least three blog posts planned, but didn’t end up with time to write any of them. This is being written at the last minute as we pack up for a short road trip and then a ten day stay with Sarah, Adam, Caleb, and Hannah. I’m looking forward to the time away, and to spending time with family!

Yesterday, Miss Skylar turned seven! It seems like just yesterday she was turning three. Betsy hosted a family dinner party last night for her, and today there was a kids’ party at a trampoline center (I think.) Matt told us not to bother to come to that since we’d never get any time with the kids and it would be “crazy.” He was probably right, and I definitely needed the time today to finish getting ready for the trip. 

Here are some pics from the party last night.

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The birthday girl with her “best gift ever”—an American Girl doll!

And because I don’t want to leave out the little sisters:

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Ella, taking photos. Check out the heart-shaped flash!

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Miss Madelyn, who has grown 3 1/2 inches since January. She LOVES the monkey bars, the swings, and the slide.

The theme for Skylar’s party was mermaids. September’s Simon Says Card Kit featured mermaids, and I almost passed on it. Then I remembered I have four granddaughters seven years and under so I chose to have it sent. So glad I did. It was perfect for this year’s birthday card.

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I purchased the Simon Says “Waves” stencil which I’m sure I’ll use again, and blended a variety of blue Distress Oxide inks on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I stamped the mermaid and colored her with Copic markers. The sentiment on the front of the card comes from a Stampendous set called “Ocean Wisdom.” After adding some glitter to the mermaid’s fins with a Spectrum Noir glitter pen and three sequins, I adhered the stamped piece to a card made from Hawaiian Shores. 

Here’s a closer look at the sparkly mermaid.

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I’m taking my laptop and external hard drive with me, so hope to get the planned blog posts up mid-week when we get to Sarah’s. Hopefully, there’ll be some photos from the road trip as well. For sure, I’ll be seeing you next week with the last of the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt photos—the last of which I snapped last night!

Less is More

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A quick post to enter a card in the current Less is More challenge: Black & White & Plus One.

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Anyone who’s followed my blog for awhile knows one of my favorite color combinations is black, white, and red. And it frequently shows up in anniversary cards.

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One of the hallmarks of a Less is More card is white space, although it doesn’t have to be white—non-patterned, clean space— which in this case is black. The beautiful die cut and shadow is from Simon Says and the sentiment is from an accompanying stamp set. a simple heart and three white enamel dots and it was done. Easy, but classic, I think.

A Birthday Celebration

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It’s a dark and cold Monday morning here, but the fall chill we’ve had for the last three days isn’t supposed to last long. We had a lovely weekend, but I have no photos to show for it. I do have a card to share, however, for three different challenges. I made this card for one of our good friends who recently turned 70. He enjoys good food and good wine, and his wife hosted a wonderful party for him at a local restaurant. One of the highlights of the evening was seeing their children who now live and work in NYC and Denver, CO. Matt and their son, Ben, were best friends all through elementary school. They forged different paths come middle school (Scouts vs. sports), but we’ve maintained a lasting friendship with his parents.

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Although I knew I wanted to use Papertrey Ink’s “Uncorked” stamp set, the card I had in mind is a far cry from the one I ended up with. Nonetheless, I’m quite happy with the final result. I trimmed off the top of a ready-made tag to hold the wine bottle (embossed in gold) and the wine glasses (die cut from patterned vellum). After embossing the sentiment, I felt the card needed “a little something” so I added a few score lines to the Scarlet Jewel card before adhering the tag and rounded the top corners.

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For the inside greeting, I die cut some numbers from Memory Box with gold adhesive paper from PTI, and embossed a sentiment from “Big Birthday Wishes,” also by PTI.

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I’m entering this card in three challenges:

Time Out’s Quotation Challenge, focusing on the “wine in our hands:”

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Seize the Birthday: 

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And last, but not least, Simon Says Wednesday challenge: Stamp It! in celebration of their annual Stamptember event:

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Five in Five: Fall Decorations

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There are three gift shops in small towns east of Rochester that I visit at the change of each season. Today was the Fall Open House for two of the shops, so having a free morning, I took a little drive. I found nothing of interest at my favorite shop in Palmyra, but picked up a few fall decorations at the second shop. On my way back to Rochester, I stopped in Macedon to take some photos for Sandie’s Five in Five meme:  five photos taken within five minutes. It was easy to do because they have lots of outdoor decorations. Perhaps I should have stayed outside, but I decided to take a look inside as well. It was very crowded, but I joined the long line at the check-out to purchase a new fall wreath for the front door and a beautiful handmade wool felt pillow for the living room. I’ll share those when the fall decorating gets done. For now, here are five photos from the Main Street Trading Company to get you in the mood for fall.

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I spotted the pick-up truck on my way out to Palmyra, and knew I’d be stopping for some photos on my way home.

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The trip put me in the mood to switch out the summer decorations for the fall ones, but first I need to finish a major purge and reorganization of my crafting space/office which I started yesterday.