We’ve been home from a fabulous trip to Hawaii and San Francisco for about four days now, and I’m still adjusting to the differences in time as well as the environment. All but one of our days were warm and sunny. Everything was green and flowers were gorgeous both in Hawaii and San Fran. Here, not so much. There have been snow flurries two days, and the daffodils are just starting to bloom. It’s supposed to warm up again, but only for a few days. I am spoiled!

It will take awhile to edit all the photos we took, but eventually I’ll have a few posts about the trip. I did post a few photos every day on Instagram, so you can hop over there for a preview if you’d like.

I finally got to the crafting desk this afternoon will a challenge from Just Us Girls on my mind. It’s Trend Week there and they are looking for foiling on alcohol inked backgrounds. I knew I had a small stash of alcohol ink backgrounds, but wasn’t at all sure whether the Glimmer Foiling machine would like alcohol inks. It took two tries, but the second one worked beautifully.

I die cut the alcohol ink piece with an Ellen Hutson Essential Squares die and then a slightly larger one with gold mirror cardstock. The foiling plate for the sentiment was one that arrived with my Glimmer machine and is a NBUS! You can see the glimmer a bit better here:

I decided it didn’t need a lot of embellishment, but I like the three shiny gold pearls on the righthand corner.

This is going, of course, to the Just Us Girls Challenge, but also to Addicted To Stamps and More (Make Your Mark) and the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Happy Birthday.) And off to the April NBUS Challenge as well.

Today is the birthday of a very sweet little girl who is turning five. Before we left on vacation, I gave the card to her “Nana” who will give it and a gift to her during the birthday celebration. 

Having granddaughters this age, I was pretty sure a shaker card would be a hit! I did learn (the hard way) that to give a shaker card to a three year old is a big mistake. They are more interested in gettin at the sequins that just shaking them. 

I die cut the sentiment circle from Simon Says three times, twice in white, and once in pink and layered them so there would be some definition around the shaker.

The bear, his cupcake, and the present are all from Ellen Hutson and colored with Copic markers. I’m throwing this in the ring at Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is “Make Your Mark,” and at AAABirthday where the challenge is “Critters.
Today’s the last day of our epic trip. We’ll be in airports and airplanes for the better part of the day tomorrow, but home in time for bed. I’ve got lots of crafty ideas once I get back to the crafting desk.

As soon as I saw the Altenew “Magnolia Ballerina” I knew I would find a home for it. When Ellen Hutson had a sale a week or so ago on all Altenew products, I put the embossing folder (and the accompanying stamp set) in the cart. I’m not disappointed. Altenew’s 3-D embossing folders are just gorgeous. I ran this one through my die cutter with watercolor paper, and with the March Altenew Challenge in mind. Here’s the inspiration photo. It’s definitely a CASE of Therese at Lost in Paper with a change in orientation, size, and sentiment.

Watercoloring a white flower on white paper is, needless to say, a bit of a challenge. Looking at the light purple in the color triad, I used the lavender in my Daniel Smith palette. The palette is not one I use too often, but it included all three of the colors in the challenge, and required no mixing. It’s hard to see the watercolor on the petals, but I think that’s the point.

The embossing folder is larger than a standard card, so this was cut down considerably to make a square card. You can see the folder here.

The sentiment is from The Ton’s “Easy Expressions: Birthday.” I keep a collection of these sentiments ready to go in a small basket, and it’s amazing how often they work.

After cutting the image down, I cut a very narrow mat from Gina K Asparagus cardstock, and added it to a card made with Simon Says “Ivory” cardstock. Some time ago I read that Ivory almost always is a good match for watercolor paper, which I’ve found to be true.

In addition to the March Altenew Challenge I’m entering this in the new Paper Players Challenge for CAS Blooms. Despite the large image, this fits my definition of CAS since the majority of the image is white.

I’m on a mission to get cards created for the challenges I’ve been thinking about all month. Today’s card is for the Pinkfresh Studio Monthly Challenge, and the emphasis is on frames. In addition there is a color palette to use as well.

I knew right away I wanted to use one of my new hot foiling plates, and it’s thanks to two big wins at Pinkfresh Studio that I have the foiling plates to design with! “Lush Vines” is one of my favorites. Although I’ve foiled previously, I’ve never tried to color with Copic markers on the Hammermill paper I use for foiling. Turns out it’s easy as can be.

The first step was to create the oval frame with one of Ellen Hutson’s Essential Ovals. After marking where it would go, I colored jus the parts of the design that would show through the frame. Once that was done I die cut the next largest oval in gold and adhered just the frame around the oval. Then I attached that piece to the foiled piece with dimensional tape.

Up to that point everything was going as planned, but I hadn’t decided on a sentiment. It was clear that part of the sentiment needed to go on top of the oval and I had a collection of Pinkfresh “Brushed Sentiments” already foiled. The “You” fit in perfectly, and I finished the sentiment with a phrase from Altenew’s “Build a Flower: Magnolia” which I embossed in gold and cut with an “Itty Bitty Strip” from My Favorite Things.

There have times recently when the finished card is totally unlike my original vision, but this time it’s just about perfect!

I keep a running list of current card challenges that I follow regularly. Just Us Girls is one of my favorites, but because it is a one week challenge, I often miss the opportunity to play along. When I saw the current challenge was their Trend Week and Embossing folders was the challenge, I wanted to find time to create a card for it.

I’ve done a pretty good job recently of using products that have been in my collection for awhile, but never used. There was only one embossing folder that hadn’t seen the light of day, and it was Altenew’s  “Decorative Florals.” 

The embossing folder is a large one with multiple blooms. I started out with a card that used the whole embossing folder, but switched gears after my husband (who rarely has a suggestion) felt that the foiled sentiment and gold embellishments detracted from the beautiful embossed flowers. 

I switched then to a tag, embossing it with only one of the florals. Then I lightly tapped a white pigment ink pad over the embossed elements. I used this technique for the first time last year on a Christmas card and loved it, and I like it here as well

The trick then was to decide how to add the sentiment, and I chose a Pinkfresh Studio die cut from their “Scripted Greetings,” using some vellum for the shadow die. I’m adding this to the NBUS Challenge since my embossing folder fits the category perfectly.

I have two more challenges I’d like to enter this week. We’ll see how the time goes. Tomorrow I’ll be back with the new Color Hues Challenge which features some wonderful spring colors.

Pinkfresh Studio’s “Mirrored Triangles” offers multiple design options. I had my first opportunity to play with it this week, and know I’ll be returning to it with different color combinations, and different configurations. 

Although my first idea was to create an ombre effect, I ended up cutting the design in half and using the two sections for separate cards. For sure, it created a much more CAS design which I like a lot. 

As you can see in the photo above, the design is created with just one stencil that you rotate for each new color.

After cutting the stenciled design in half I cut two very narrow borders of black and mounted the piece on a white card with dimensional foam.

A simple banner (MFT’s “Itty Bitty Strips”} with a white embossed sentiment was all the cards needed. Two cards for the stash with guys in mind!

I’m sending these off to three challenges: