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Happy Easter!

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Well, it’s an Easter unlike any other, and with its disappointments as well as its eternal promises. I will miss our annual Easter egg hunt, usually here in Rochester with the three little girls, but on occasion in Illinois or Wisconsin with Caleb and Hannah. And I will miss our in-person worship service. Our sanctuary is always beautifully decorated and the music with full choir and trumpets truly inspirational. On the bright side, it’s sunny (for awhile at least) and warmer, so we’ll get out for a walk. I splurged and bought a small leg of lamb for dinner. I don’t think I’ve prepared one since my father died in 1998. It was always his menu choice for Easter, and I’ll use the same recipe from The New York Times Cookbook. The leftovers won’t go to waste as one of Tracy’s favorite dishes is Shepherd’s Pie, so that’s on the menu for this week, too.

All the Easter cards have reached their recipients, so it’s safe to share them now, although I’m quite sure none of the grandchildren ever see my blog! First off the cards for the little girls–three here in Rochester, and one in Wisconsin.

PinkBunny

I fell in love with this bunny from Waffleflower the minute I saw it! It’s called Rejoice Rabbit which is such a perfect name. I stamped it on watercolor paper and cut it with my Cameo. Then watercolored it with Altenew’s 36 pan watercolor set. I die cut a piece of paper from My Favorite Things paper pack, “Watercolor Wash,” with Reverse Confetti’s Pierced Round Top die. Then added that to a piece of white cardstock die cut with the “Pierced Plaid Cover” die by The Stamp Market. Finally it was all added to a Lovely Lady card (Papertrey Ink.)

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The next card is exactly the same except for the color choice–purple instead of pink.

PurpleBunny

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That darling bunny was clearly too feminine for a boy, so Caleb got a shaker card.

ShakerBunny

I love this “Peeking Rabbit” from Simon Says. I die cut it three times and inset the colored cardstock for the eyes, ears, and nose. I found the patterned paper in my stash from a long-ago Simon Says card kit and have no idea who manufactured it. It’s perfect, though with Easter sayings, and it determined the color choice for the card—Sea Glass by The Stamp Market. The greeting is from an older Papertrey Ink set, “Bunny Basket.”

ShakerBunnyFlat

When I got ready to mail the Easter cards to Wisconsin, I began to worry that Hannah would find her card lacking when Caleb got a shaker card. I called  Sarah to ask, and her answer was so sweet. “Hannah will love her Easter card, and Caleb will share, so don’t worry about it!” In fact, Caleb is a wonderful big brother and most likely will share. Hannah always loves her handmade cards, so hopefully she won’t be disappointed. 

There are still a couple of challenges open for Spring-themed cards so I’m posting one of the bunnies on the CAS Watercolor Challenge for Spring Flowers. With it’s layers, it may not qualify as CAS–but I saw a couple entries that made me believe it might be OK.

WatercolorApril 2020

I’m posting the shaker card in the Inspired By “Spring is Here” challenge. I wish spring was really here, but I think we have a few more weeks to go. We alternate between somewhat warmer temperatures and downright cold!

Inspired By Spring is Here April 9

Hopefully by next Easter, the pandemic will be a thing of the past, and we can go back to celebrating with our traditions. If you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful day–home though you probably must be!

 

Made in Minutes

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These cards were actually inspired by an article in our local paper on Thursday requesting cards that could be given to seniors who are feeling particularly isolated and fearful during this time of social isolation. Then I saw a post by Cathy Zielski that solved the problem of how to get a group of cards created in a short amount of time. All 12 cards follow the same design—a piece of patterned paper from my considerable stack of 6X6 paper pads, two frame dies (“Nordic Frames” and “Crimped Frames” by The Greetery), and a group of “Hello” dies (two from Simon Says and one from Mama Elephant.) Once the die cutting was done, each card was made literally in a few minutes. Then I remembered that the current AAA Cards Challenge is (guess what?)–Made in Minutes. 

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Here are the cards:

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MIM2

MIM3

MIM4

MIM5

MIM6

Once I find out if Lifespan is planning to mail the cards I’ll be able to drop them off at their offices which are just around the corner from me. I’m just not sure if they need postage on the envelopes or not. All these are pretty feminine, and I’m thinking a set designed for men might be appreciated as well.

 

 

A Change of Heart & Two Long-term Challenges

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Last night I left a comment on Honoré’s blog post saying I wasn’t planning to participate in the #The100DayProject this year. The next blog I read gave me an idea, and by the time I went to bed, I’d committed myself to another 100 Day Project. It will be my second one, although I think I did start one that I didn’t finish. Today is the start date.

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As it turns out, today is also the day Kathy Racoosin starts a second run of her 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

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And that’s what I’m basing my 100 Day Project on. Instead of 30 days, I’ll be working on this for 100 days. For the first 30 I’ll play along with both. The goal of Kathy’s challenge, and my 100 Day Project, is to devote some time every day to doing some coloring. This means I’ll get some practice with my Copic markers, watercolors (pens and pans) as well as colored pencils. When I thought of that last night I realized it’s really a perfect thing to do, especially in this time of the pandemic when leaving your house is simply not an option except for essentials and some daily exercise. Kathy makes a point of saying just 10-15 minutes of coloring every day counts for the challenge, and I certainly don’t expect to have a card to show for every day.

But today I do. I pulled out my Copic markers and a stamp set that’s been on my list to try for several months. Choosing the colors for my project was made so much easier today because I had completed one of Sandy Allnock’s Hex Charts with the markers I owned and could see exactly how they would look. The caps on the markers give you a ballpark idea, but the Hex Chart is definitely going to save me a lot of time.

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The lovely stamp is from Pink Fresh Studio and the Pierced Plaid Cover die is from The Stamp Market. I love the subtle texture it gives to the background without distracting from the main image. 

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In this photo you can see I added just a bit of texture to the sentiment strip using one edge of the Crimped Frame die from The Greetery. I’m going to link this card up with two current challenges: Addicted to CAS: Texture, and Simon Says Wednesday: Happy Birthday.

ATCAS - code word texture (1)

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I have to say I’m glad I had a second thought about these challenges. I’m looking forward to a commitment to color every day!

5 in 5 and Watercolor Challenge

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Today’s the 5th of April, and time for Sandie’s meme 5 in 5—5 photos in 5 minutes. Sandie shared some of her projects during this time of isolation, and I thought I’d do a bit of the same. I shared a little on my last blog post, but today I’m focusing on coloring projects I’m working on. I lined up a bunch of projects and snapped away.

Improving my coloring skills with watercolors and Copic markers is always on my list. This increased time at home has given me ample opportunity to watch videos, pull out supplies and practice. Tracy gifted me with two Sandy Allnock classes for Christmas. I finished the videos for the colored pencil class in February, and continue to practice, but have moved on now to the Copic Jumpstart class. The first lessons focus on color theory as did the colored pencil class, but I created a new color wheel with Copics this week, and made notes on the essentials of color theory to add to a notebook I started a year or so ago. Sandy also suggested we make color wheels with a set of darker markers which I think I’ll try this week.

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I also updated my pages with a few markers I’ve purchased in the last six months or so.

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Last month I focused on watercolors, and I haven’t abandoned that effort at all. When a good sale arrived via my inbox a week ago, I decided to splurge and purchased a new set of watercolor markers. I spent one afternoon swatching out the 60 colors. It took a lot longer than I expected, but I learned a lot more than I expected as well. It was interesting to see how the colors blend out, some more easily than others, and to see in some markers a range of tones.

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Yesterday I spent some time watercoloring the Wild Rose Stem from Memory Box. It was my best effort so far in no-line watercoloring. It was all done with just three Karin Markers and a watercolor brush to draw out the colors. 

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Here’s another look at it. I’m taking this opportunity to share this at the CAS Watercolor Challenge which currently is “Spring Flowers.”

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CAS Watercolor April 2020

I hope you’re finding time to destress with a comforting hobby. Crafting is the one thing that is able to take my mind off all the terrible news, and understandable fears we all have.

OLW: March Recap and April Intentions

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I continue to be grateful that I chose to set intentions month by month this year since March certainly was not the month we expected. By the time we returned from a wonderful week with Sarah and her family, it was clear that traveling to Hawaii and California were out of the question. Fortunately we took care of most of our cancellations before the wait time on phones reached an hour or more. In just a week we were in self-isolation where we have stayed except for a daily walk and a weekly trip to the grocery store. 

Once I realized I was going to be home WAY more than normal, I took a second look at my intentions for my OLW, COMMIT, for March. After about a week of having difficulty staying focused, I made a list of “To Do Items for Imposed Seclusion.” Being a list maker at heart, I immediately felt better and began to be more productive. I didn’t put organizing, cleaning, or purging on the list, but I’ve been doing little bits and pieces of that as well.

First on the list were two items that have been on my mental to-do list for months, even a year or two. About two years ago, I realized that I could be cutting my stamped images with my Cameo. I watched a few videos, but frankly I’m intimidated by technology I don’t really understand. In August, Sarah gave me a tutorial, but I never felt independent. Finally, with another tutorial from Sarah at the beginning of the month, I have mastered the art of cutting out my stamped images. I’m still working out some details, but here’s a look at two bunnies I die cut with the Cameo and then watercolored.

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The second task has been copied over and over and over on my weekly lists. At long last, I have all our photos from our road trip in September edited and up on SmugMug. If you’re interested, you can find them here. There are a lot of photos, but the format on SmugMug allows you to look at them very quickly. 

I kept up with my watercolor practice, watched a series of videos on layering stamps (and started practicing with those), and kept up with the Photo-a-Day project.

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A note on the photo of Hannah on the top row with a Band-aid on her forehead. She woke up in the middle of the night and told Sarah her head hurt. Sarah asked if a Band-aid would help, and she thought it would. She wore it for several days! I must say the hardest thing about this isolation is not being able to see my grandchildren. We stay away from everyone now, although we do, gratefully, get to video chat with everyone. It’s clear there will be no personal photos of grandchildren in April, but hopefully I’ll get a few from their parents. Although there was snow in March (see the snow on the daffodils on the 23rd), there quickly were signs of spring in the park, and the daffodils on the kitchen table are from our back yard, as is the hellebore. I found the hanging basket of pansies at the grocery store that are now outside our kitchen window. Many of the photos are from our daily walks.

Last, I kept up with The Unread Shelf Project, finishing Ann Patchett’s debut novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. It had been on my shelf for years, a paperback copy that I purchased at a used book store somewhere. I also finished four other books: Apeirogon, Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say, The Hope of Glory, and Dear Edward. I enjoyed all of them, but was especially fascinated with Apeirogon by Colum McCann. It’s the most inventive novel I’ve ever read, and a tragic commentary on a true story of two fathers, one Israeli and one Palestinian, whose daughters were killed as a result of the ongoing conflict. The two men now travel around the world telling their stories, hoping to inspire an end to the bitter conflict. 

 

PatronSaint Apeirogon TellMe
HopeOfGlory DearEdward

So April. It’s going to be a lot of the same: daily walks (fortunately the parks and trails here are still open and people have been great about keeping appropriate distance from one another), lots of reading (I have a list of six–two new and four on the unread shelf), continuing to play with watercolor (I have a new set of watercolor markers I’m anxious to try), and working on the second online course Tracy gave me for Christmas—Copic Jumpstart with Sandy Allnock. So it looks like lots of coloring is in store. The biggie on the list is getting started on making a photo book. Some of you know well, I’ve been promising to do this for years! Like the Cameo, for some reason I’ve always been intimidated by making a serious photo book. I figure now is the time. I’m also going to keep up the photography habit, including in my daily search items from Sandie’s 30 Day Photo Challenge, and Kim Manley Ort’s 30 Days of Perception.

I hope you are well, and keeping busy. It’s easy to get discouraged during this unprecedented time. Every day I lift up my gratitude to all those in the front lines of this pandemic, and all the workers providing essential needs. And my prayers for all those who have lost their livelihood, are ill, frightened, overwhelmed, lonely, and in need of comfort. I’m blessed to be where I am, and who I am with right now. And I certainly don’t take it for granted. 

Featuring Gina K Designs

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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.

Prayer

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. 

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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. 

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Time Out Challenge 158 Badge

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

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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.

Sketch 363

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.

Time Out Challenge 158 Badge

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

PurpleFlower

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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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

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

DFYouFlat

I’m entering this card in these challenges:

TFChallenge#42

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

AAABD#11

AAA Birthday: Flowers

Time Out Challenge 157 Badge

Time Out: Birthday 

Fan Friday

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. 

DelicateFlowerTrio

Watercolored Flowers: Part 2

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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.

DelicateFlowerJoy

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.

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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.

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I’m entering this in three challenges:

TFChallenge#42

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

AAABD#11

AAA Birthday: Flowers

Time Out Challenge 157 Badge

Time Out Challenges: Birthday

 

Playing with Watercolors

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

ATCAS - code word circle

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes:

TFChallenge#42

And the AAA Birthday Game: Flowers:

AAABD#11

 

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!

 

 

The New Normal

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We arrived home from Wisconsin two weeks ago Sunday afternoon. By Monday morning, news of the coronavirus had become dire enough that we began cancelling all the moving parts of a planned 17 day vacation to California and Hawaii. It’s taken almost two weeks to get everything taken care of as best we can. As disappointing as it is, it pales in significance to the people whose lives have been totally disrupted and upended by the virus. My prayer list now includes all those whose livelihood is jeopardized by the closure of almost all businesses and cancellations of major events, those suffering from the virus, and the many, many health care workers and caregivers offering their skills and risking their lives to those who are ill.

We have gone from one confirmed case of the virus in our county last week to a total of forty-six this afternoon. The governor of New York and our local officials have moved swiftly and consistently to the current situation where people involved in non-essential services/businesses are required to stay home. We are allowed to leave our homes to get groceries, go to the pharmacy, and take a walk—as long as we stay appropriately distant from anyone we encounter. It’s all transpired so quickly. A week ago Thursday night, my interfaith book group met here. No one would consider such a meeting today.

On Monday we felt comfortable walking outside with Matt and the girls, but now even that level of contact is gone. We cancelled Tracy’s birthday dinner celebration, and are relying on video contacts now even though they live just over a mile away.

Walks are the saving grace. It’s good to get out of the house once a day, and we’re accumulating steps in numbers we haven’t seen in a long time.

We try to find a new route each day. Monday it was the Brickyard Trail with the girls.

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Betsy had given Skylar (8) and Ella (5) a list of 10 things to look for on their walk. All the schools in New York are closed indefinitely, and both of my children are now homeschooling their children. Sarah is also trying to work from home, so it’s a challenge. Her church (as well as ours) is also closed indefinitely, but both churches are providing worship experiences for their congregations online. Our church is live streaming a service each Sunday. My Lenten Study Group met via Google Meet on Tuesday.

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Maddy (3) walked part way, and rode part way.

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The end of the trail.

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On Wednesday, we walked the Erie Canal path from the Jewish Community Center to the lock on Clover Street.

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Not a sign of spring on this walk. You can see the lock in the distance.

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Thursday, we took our longest walk. We walked to Mt. Hope Cemetery. Frederick Douglass (famous abolitionist) and Susan B. Anthony (women’s rights activist) are both buried here.

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Yesterday the temperature was in the 60’s, and we took an early walk before the high winds and rain began. The high today is not quite 30°.

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There were, however, some signs of spring walking through the city neighborhoods.

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It’s taken me some time to adjust to the new normal, and get productive. I finally made a list early this week of creative projects to work on and as part of my OLW, COMMIT, decided that working on two different projects each day would be a good start. So far, so good, so there will be some blog posts coming more regularly now.

 

 

Five in Five & the OLW March Editions

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Today’s the fifth of March, and for once, I am ready with my Five in Five photos for Sandie’s meme. The task is to take as many photos as you can (or want) in five minutes and post just five of them. Knowing I needed to publish my intentions for March, I thought I’d photograph some of what I’ve been working on while we’re visiting Sarah. My creative intention this month is to spend some time exploring watercolors. One way I’m doing it, is with this book:

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I’ve purchased other books on watercolors, but this is the best one, by far! I’ve read and reread some of the introductory pages, and just started some of the exercises. Here’s one of the first:

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The author recommends buying a set of student grade watercolors, but I’ve owned some Daniel Smith, professional grade watercolors for a long time. The next exercise requires some mixing, and it will probably take me some time to figure out the “recipes” for the specific colors we’re going to need for later lessons. The smaller palette in this photo was a recent purchase the bottom six wells were prefilled with colors I didn’t own, and I filled the top three with new colors I’d recently bought.

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I discovered this lovely brush and pen holder on a calligraphy blog I follow, and it’s perfect for traveling.

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After playing around yesterday, and throwing out quite a few experiments that didn’t pan out, I had an urge to paint something that could eventually become a card. This lovely hydrangea by Gina K fit the bill.

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I”m also watching some Altenew videos in watercolor classes I’ve subscribed to and never finished. So there’s the five in five and the major intention for March.

In addition, I’ll be trying to finish one book from my unread shelves. I’m in the midst of Lenten devotional reading (Lent in Plain Sight: A Devotion Through Ten Objects and The Hope of Glory: Reflections on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross) as well as reading two library books, so I’ll be grateful to get just one book off the unread shelf. And because I enjoyed the photo-a-day project last month, I’m planning to continue that as well. 

OLW: Commit-February Recap

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I’m really enjoying setting intentions on a monthly basis. For February, I started out with four, and added a fifth shortly after the month began.

  1. Complete the Simplified Photos class: I watched all the videos. Frankly, I knew 85-90% of the material presented. I did learn about a new iPhone app called Color Story. No surprise to me, I already had it on my phone and had never used it. I’ll be giving it a try, but most of the time I upload the photos to my computer and edit them in Lightroom and/or Photoshop Elements.

        2. Take a photo-a-day. Accomplished! Here are 29 of them; there were several more.

FebruaryPhotoaDay

It’s a good mix of wintery photos, home activities, a couple family events, and quite a few wildlife photos which surprises me some. 

  1. Complete the Colored Pencil: Jumpstart class. Also done; I learned a lot in this class and will be applying what I learned over many months. I started a sketchbook for practice images some of which I’ll probably use for cards.
  1. Read one book for the Unread Shelf Project. I finished five books in February and three of them were from my unread shelves: Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith, and Hashtag Authentic: Be Your Best Creative Self via Your Instagram Online Presence.

Tender          Hashtag      Pigrimage

I enjoyed all of them, but I particularly liked Timothy Eagan’s A Pilgrimage to Eternity which includes among many other things, a wonderful history of Christianity and Europe—much of which I didn’t know well. I also got a lot out of Hashtag Authentic. I don’t post much on Instagram, but much of the information in the book was a wonderful refresher about photographing the mundane and the everyday.

In addition to the unread shelf books, I read two new books I borrowed from the library Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains, and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God. After reading the last book, I enrolled in Sarah Bessey’s email subscription program. I’m already using her Forty Simple Practice for Lent and am enjoying the emails she sends with links to many fascinating and inspiring articles and videos.

HillWomen    Miracles

  1. After reading about Honoré’s LOAD (A scrapbook Layout A Day) project, I decided to do a card-a-day. By the end of the month I had completed 29 cards—most of which have been mailed or are ready to be mail in the next month. I didn’t made a new card every day, but some days I made several. You can see some of them here, here, and here. And more will be posted once the recipients have them in their hands.

All in all, it was a great month for the the OLW commitments. March will be much lighter in intentions as we are only at home for 12 days, and most days are pretty packed with appointments, volunteering, meetings, and of course, some social engagements. 

Happy Birthday X Three

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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. 

2020-02-27-SentimentAsFocalImage

HBX3

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. 

HB

 

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

HB-R

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.

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A Big Happy Birthday

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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.

2020-02-27-SentimentAsFocalImage

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.

HHH

Here’s a better view:

HHHClose

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.”

HHHInside

One last look:

HHHFlat

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