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Spring Flowers – Take Three Thursday and Two Challenges

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It warmed up yesterday afternoon, and we were out for a walk, but there aren’t really any spring flowers to be seen. A few snowdrops peeking up, a few crocus, and not much else. I’d be more encouraged if there wasn’t snow in the weekend forecast. Maybe they’ll be wrong for a change!

Last week I went to a local garden store to pick up some new pots for my African violets. They had a special display of primroses for $3.50 apiece so I brought three home. One for the kitchen:

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One for the coffee table in the living room:

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And one for my desk:

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I’m joining Mary-Lou today for Take Three Thursday with three things you’ve noticed this week. Actually, these are three things I’ve truly enjoyed this week. Almost all my time at home is spent in one of these three rooms, and they’ve brought some joy and a touch of spring into my week.

Speaking of spring flowers, that’s the challenge for Work it Wednesday at Simon Says for the next several weeks. The Simon Says weekly Wednesday Challenge is “Anything Goes,” so this springy card will work for both challenges.

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Of all the images I watercolored while I was away, this is the most colorful. Here’s to Spring! The image is another Papertrey Ink “Bold Blossoms” for watercoloring.

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Like the others I’ve posted, I used Altenew’s 36 Pan Watercolor set. This time I added some details with my Polychromos pencils and a white Signo pen when I got home. Before mounting it on a card, I used the W+9 “Gift Card Layers Die” to create a stitched edge. 

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The sentiment was stamped and die cut with Papertrey Ink’s “Penned Elegance” set.

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Time Out: Birthday Celebration

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The Time Out Challenge is celebrating their 5th birthday. I’m late to the party, but just in time with a birthday card to celebrate.

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I’m sharing another card with a watercolored panel I worked on while we were away. This time it’s Papertrey Ink’s “Peonies on Parade.”

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The beautiful peonies were watercolored with Altenew’s 36 pan watercolor set.  

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I used a combination of pinks, orange, and reds and love the way the colors blend into one another using a wet-on-wet technique. The sentiment is from Papertrey’s “Penned Elegance.” The only embellishment was the addition of a few black pearls.

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I did add a bit of dimension by using a black Glaze pen on the center of the peonies. 

 

Watercolored Blossoms

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While we were in Wisconsin, I watercolored some images for cards. As usual, the first few days after returning from a trip were very busy, but finally while I watched the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship games last night, I had time to put the images to good use. I have one to share today for three challenges. The first is The Flower Challenge where “Anything Goes” is the theme.

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The second is for AAA Cards. The challenge there this time is One Image plus an Optional Twist of Spring. We awoke to another fresh coat of snow, so despite the encouraging forecasts the only sign of spring is right here in my craft room. 

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And, finally for Less is More where the challenge is “Take Three.” Although there are three main blossoms in the cluster, it is just one image, not several that have been masked, so I think it works for both the AAA Card challenge as well as Less is More. 

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The image is from Papertrey Ink, “Bold Blossoms” that was printed on watercolor paper. I used Altenew’s 36 pan watercolor set which is perfect for traveling as well as having great colors for flowers. That’s no surprise since Altenew excels in creating beautiful floral stamp sets. 

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The sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink. I love the “Penned Elegance” stamps and dies. Before I owned a set of the dies, I borrowed them from a friend and stamped and die cut a bunch of them. They were in my stash just waiting for the right occasion, and this was it.

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To qualify for the AAA Card Challenge, no embellishments can be added. I did die cut the panel with the large rectangle from W+9’s “Gift Card Layers” die, and added a few white dots to the flower centers with a Signo broad white pen. I’m hoping that doesn’t disqualify the card from the challenge.

Here’s hoping I’ll soon be able to post some photographs of spring flowers!

 

Photowalk #09: The Orchid Show at the Chicago Botanic Garden

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The weather forecasts are getting more encouraging which should mean that I can soon catch up with my photowalks. We chose the only warmer and sunny day while we were in Wisconsin to drive down to the North Shore and view the Orchid Show at the Botanic Garden–surely one of our favorite spots in that area.

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The orchids were displayed in a variety of ways:

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And, individually, they were beautiful:

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I love the buds for these that look like ripe berries:

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And the backlight on these:

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Of course, we needed to take a walk around the gardens themselves which, although pretty barren, provided a few photo ops. I love the shadows cast by the tree, which gave me an idea for a photo project for the year, looking at shadows. I’m almost always drawn to them, so I’ve started a collection.

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Loved the contrast of the dried hydrangea which had blown off the plant onto the brick sidewalk.

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And, finally, a black and white photo of a favorite view of the bell tower across the frozen pond.

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I have a few more photos from this walk for the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt, which I managed to finish while we were away thinking today (the official start of Spring) was the last day. However, I’ve discovered that the last day is March 31st, so I’ll wait to post them when Eileen’s link goes up. 

 

 

The Flower Challenge: Take Two

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There’s a gorgeous gallery of cards up on The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes.

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I have a second card to add to the gallery, another card created with my recent favorite: Pink Fresh Studio’s “Fleur 1.”

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After coloring the two floral images with Copic markers, I die cut them with the coordinating dies and added them to a Papertrey Ink Shape Shifter Circle #1. This time I used just two of the the dies: the outer scallop and the “stitched” border. On the last card I posted for this challenge, I used all three. You can see it here. The versatility of the Shape Shifter dies is one of the things I love best about them. The sentiment is from an older Papertrey set, “Floral Frenzy,” that’s been in my collection for years. 

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The bow was stamped in Hawaiian Shores to match the card base, and I added five yellow Nuvo dots to complete the card.

An “Irish” Birthday

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Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and Tracy’s birthday. We’ll be spending it at Sarah’s church, a lunch out afterwards to celebrate the birthday, back for chocolate cake and ice cream, and before dinner, heading home to Rochester. We’ll drive a few hours Sunday and finish the trip Monday.

So it’s unlikely that I’ll have time to write a blog post or even link to a challenge tomorrow. The Card Concept Challenge is just perfect for a St. Patrick’s Day birthday card: Shamrock Blessings.

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One of the stamp sets in the Simon Says March Card Kit, “Wooly Lucky,” was also perfect, and I made a shaker card thinking Caleb and Hannah would appreciate the cute llama and the shaker. I also know Tracy won’t mind not getting a sophisticated card for his birthday.

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I started by coloring the llama with Copic markers and fussy cutting him. Then I used a Spellbinder’s oval to die cut the center from patterned paper, “Really Rainbow Scallops” by Lawn Fawn, that came with kit, backed it with acetate, and after filling it with a sequin mixture that also came with the kit, added a foam backing to create the shaker.

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I couldn’t decide how to add the sentiment to the card, but finally decided to cut a shamrock with the Cameo and then embossed the sentiment in gold. It still needed something, so I cut a second shamrock from metallic gold paper to use as a border. I popped up the llama with some dimensional tape and adhered the piece to a top-folded white card.

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The kit also included a gold envelope and a set of stickers, and I used two of them on the envelope.

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And in honor of St. Patrick, an Irish Blessing:

May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!

 

Seize the Birthday: Dots and Stripes

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Seize the Birthday has a new challenge up. They always offer a generic birthday option, but the topping this time is “Dots and Stripes.”

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I have a birthday card for a friend that I think meets the “dots” part of the challenge.

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The white diecut background, “Diamond Background” by Simon Says, was backed with Papertrey Ink’s Raspberry Fizz cardstock. Then I die cut “Happy,” (My Favorite Things) twice—once in Raspberry Fizz and another in True Black to create a shadow effect. I adhered it to the background piece and added the rest of the sentiment, Papertrey Ink’s “Stylish Sentiments: Birthday,” by embossing it in white on black cardstock.

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The dots for the challenge are in the form of Nuvo drops that I added to the background piece. They add just the right amount of dimension.

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This card is for a teenager, but it could be easily replicated in different colors for both men and women.

AAA Cards Challenge

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The current challenge at AAA Cards is more complicated than usual:

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I’m playing along with the One Plus Three, but not the optional twist. The one is a sentiment and the plus three must come from this pie chart:

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My three are a stamped image,  colouring (with Copic markers), and a die cut. Actually I have two cards created with Pink Fresh Studio’s “Lush Greenery” stamps. It might appear that the cards are identical, but there are subtle differences between the stamped images.

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I started by stamping the two images and coloring them with Copic markers. Then they were die cut with the coordinating dies. After stamping the sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Penned Elegance,” I added a narrow black border to the die cuts, and adhered them with dimensional tape to a square card made from Simon Says Green Apple cardstock. 

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Another CAS design–and badly needed cards for my stash,

 

 

 

Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt

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It took me a long time to get going with this, and I’m only half way done, but it’s time to link up with Eileen’s Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt. I have just a little over ten days to finish this. Hard to know if I’ll get them all this year or not. Here are the first ten; ten more to go.

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Number 1: At the end of the day – Disney Springs, Florida

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Number 4: Nail – Tracy’s been reorganizing his work area in the basement and has all his brushes hanging on nails.

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A blurry photo of a horse and buggy taken with my iPhone late at night at Port Orleans, Disney World: # 7: Horse

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Number 9: Peel

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Number 10: Holly – buried under the snow

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Number 11: Dressed for the season – Miss Hannah in cold Wisconsin

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Number 14: A Crossing Place

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Number 15: Flight

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Number 16: Measurement

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Number 17: Orange

And finally . . .

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Number 18: A Natural Feature – Cayuga Lake

 

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

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This week’s challenge at The Flower Challenge is wide open—Anything Goes. 

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I’m still playing with the Pink Fresh Studio “Fleur 1” set. This card only used one of the florals, and I quite like it. Clean and simple.

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I started with a Pale Peony card base, and added Papertrey Ink’s ” Shape Shifter Circle #1, then adhered the floral (cut with the coordinating die) with some dimensional tape. The greeting is from Papertrey’s “Birthday Strings” set which I embossed in white.

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For the tiniest bit of sparkle, I added a clear drop from Studio Katia in the center of the flower. Just the right card for a spring birthday!

Five in Five on the 5th & Photowalk #08

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Saturday we took a day trip to the Finger Lakes. Our first stop was Sauder’s Market, a Mennonite grocery store in Seneca Falls. They produce many of their own labels—jams, jellies, sauces, and my favorite: sauerkraut. From there we drove to Auroa on Cayuga Lake. We were given a gift certificate to the Auroa Inn and had a lovely (and delicious lunch) there. Our table overlooked the lake, and afterwards we walked down to the lake to take some photos for Sandie’s Five in Five meme. The challenge is to take as many photos as you can in five minutes. I only had my iPhone with me (what was I thinking?) but I did end up with five photos I was satisfied with. (A zoom lens would have been very helpful.)

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Processed this one as a black and white photo; interestingly there wasn’t a lot of difference from the original. A sign of how gray the weather is! The birds are a flock of Canadian geese.  As we loaded our groceries into the car at Sauders, flock after flock in large V-formations flew overhead. I don’t think I’d ever seen quite so many geese at once. The Montezuma Wild Life Refuge isn’t too far away which may explain the high numbers.

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I was attracted to the colors and patterns of the bark on this tree.

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The back of the Auroa Inn. The dining room is at the top of the stairs with the long windows; a great view of the lake.

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Cold and snowy, but still beautiful.

After we left Auroa, we drove to Seneca Lake to visit one of our favorite wineries, Silver Thread. We had a lovely time chatting with two groups of people who had driven up from Pennsylvania for the day. A quick stop at the Waterloo Outlets and we headed home. By then it was snowing . . . again.

CAS Colours and Sketch Challenge

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Yesterday I posted a card for a sketch challenge which is a bit unusual for me, and I’m back again today with another sketch challenge. The CAS Colours & Sketches is a new challenge for me and, like yesterday’s card, as soon as I saw the sketch I knew I had just the right stamp set for the sketch.

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“Lush Greenery” is another Pink Fresh Studio set. I managed to make a card for the challenge as well as two smaller cards which I’ll share another day.

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The top and bottom images are similar, but not the same. Once I had stamped them I colored them with a variety of Copic markers. Then I trimmed down the image so I’d have a narrow border of the New Leaf top-folding card showing, The first sentiment I added was on New Leaf cardstock, but it was too much of a contrast. Changing it to white made all the difference—much more CAS.

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The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s “Penned Elegance” set which I die cut with the matching die. These are some of the nicest sentiment dies I have.

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I’m also adding this to Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes. 

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Edited to add that I missed the CAS Colours and Sketch Challenge by just two hours! Sigh.

 

CAS(E) this Sketch

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I have a good friend who finds starting with a sketch an ideal way to create a card. I don’t always find it that easy, but when I saw the current sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch, I knew I wanted to give it a try.

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And I knew exactly what I wanted to use—a Simon Says die that I’ve had for some time, but never used. It turned out to be a bit larger than I remembered but I carried on, and I’m glad I did as I’m pretty happy with the end result. 

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The die is “Hibiscus Frame” which I die cut from Neenah Solar White. Before adhering it to the white card base, I traced around the flower and then ink blended with Distress Inks on a separate sheet of Neenah cardstock. I trimmed that out and adhered it behind the frame. The sentiment is from Simon Says “Tiny Words.” 

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I added a bit of glitter to the stamen with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen.

Take Three (Plus!) Thursday & Photowalk #07

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Mary-Lou’s Take Three Thursday post this morning inspired me to get outside with my camera. When I set the intention of completing 52 photowalks this year, I did intend to do one each week. The weather here has been so gray and so bitterly cold that any thoughts of actually going outside with the camera quickly vanished. So I’ll have a few to make up later in the year. Today, although it was still very cold, was a bit brighter and with almost no wind so I decided to take a walk around our yard. We got another 8 inches of snow yesterday and last night, and as you’ll see in some of the photos, there were still some snow flurries around this morning. I commented on Mary-Lou’s blog that at least the new snow made everything beautiful again.

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Snow on a sprig of holly; likely to show up on the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt.

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Snow capping the bird feeders.

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A dry hydrangea against a pure white background.

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The fire pit; the Buddha’s head is all that’s visible. My St. Francis statue (new last summer) was blown over during one of the fierce wind storms and broke into three pieces.

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Our fancy water sprinkler (which the grandchildren love). I couldn’t resist taking a selfie.

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Looking out across the street. You can see the snow flurries on the camera lens.

Here’s hoping for an early spring. I’m pretty sure we have another month of winter to go. By the beginning of the week, the high temperatures are only in the teens again. Sigh.

Birthday Wishes

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Here’s the next in the series of cards created with Pink Fresh Studio’s “Fleur 1” stamps and dies. This one turned out to be really difficult to photograph, but I think this photo ended up without too much glare.

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The frames were die cut from glossy black cardstock, and the light reflected off of them so that in some of the photos, the frames appeared almost white. The skinny frames are from Altenew, and I adhered them at angles before adding the three blossoms from “Fleur 1.” The sentiment is from an older Papertrey Ink set “Sending You.” Another very CAS card. The cardstock color is correct in the first photo but got washed out in the second one. Lighting is such a problem in this old house!

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I was happy to find the “Sending You” stamps. I found the dies as I was cleaning out and organizing, but couldn’t locate the stamps quickly. It’s a set that originally came in a CD case, and so was stored a bit differently. I’ve repackaged most of them, but not that one. I finally have all my dies inventoried. All the dies associated with a stamp set are filed with the stamps now. It should prevent any duplicate buying which has happened occasionally in the past. I have quite a few stand-alone dies as well, and I organized them by category (Words, Nature, Animals, etc.) or by company. From my days on a design team for an internet store, I have a nice collection of Spellbinder dies, and of course, there’s the Papertrey Ink collection of stand-alone dies. 

I’m popping this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge which is “Anything Goes.“

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