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#100DayProject-Day 2

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I really do enjoy how a project evolves as you work on it. Yesterday I decided to start a little notebook for the 100 Day Project.

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I set a 30 minute timer when I begin, and when it ends, I jot down how much I accomplished in that 30 minute period. Both yesterday and today I continued on and finished some cards. I can’t share yesterday’s cards yet but today’s is #1 for the stash. My internet friend, Darnell, has also started a project to help her work through her stash. Here’s her plan:

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Each week she choose one of the items on the list to focus on. She’s been working on one a week since the beginning of February so this week it’s Embossing Folders. No surprise, I had a new embossing folder in my NBUS box, so I pulled it out to play along.

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Spellbinder’s Tufted 3-D Embossing Folder is huge so I got two pieces from it. You can see both of them here. I ran the piece on the card through my die cut machine with Gina K’s Master Layout #1 and you can see how it flattened the pattern. I decided I was fine with that although I could have easily trimmed down the other piece to use. I used Smoky Shadow for the card base and the Waffle Flower Oval Frame. They appear a bit darker in the photo, but I’ve retaken the photos twice so I’m giving up on accuracy. Sadly, the card is much prettier in real life than in the photos. Some days are just like that.

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The floral die cut is also new–Simon Says Morning Blossom. I die cut it from white card stock and ink blended it using two orange, one yellow, and two green  Pinkfresh Studio inks. The oranges are accurate in the photo but turned out to be a much more yellow hue than I anticipated. The sentiment is from an old set by The Ton, Easy Expressions.

Good photos, not withstanding, I’m sending this over to Darnell’s NBUS Challenge and to the Can You Handle the Pressure Challenge which always wants embossing as a focus of the card. 

 

#The100DayProject

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Today is the first day of the 2024 #100DayProject. It’s been a few years since I participated, but I had an urge to find a project this year. It took me awhile because I wanted the project to move me ahead with one of my intentions for the year. On the top of that list is getting through all the unused, but beautiful product, I have in my craft room. I also know that my time from day to day varies a lot. I just started tutoring in an ESL Special Needs first grade two mornings a week, and continue to be involved in committees at church as well as other commitments. Finally, I think I’ve fashioned a project that should work for me.

GOAL: to use my unused stamps, dies, and stencils. Work a minimum of 30 minutes/day using unused products with the goal of creating a “stash” of cards during the 100 Day Project.

I also know that it’s perfectly legitimate to make up the time if there’s a day I can’t commit to 30 minutes. But actually, they should be pretty infrequent. There will be at least one week when we are away before the end of the project (May 28th) but I can certainly take some supplies with me to work on while I’m away.

I do have some cards to share today. These were completed yesterday. One of my dear friends passed away on Valentine’s Day. I almost never have a stash of sympathy cards made ahead of time, so I needed one to send to her husband of 59 years after the service this morning. It ended up being a two-fer:

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After I die cut the leaf for the sympathy card the green piece of Bazzil Prismatic paper looked perfect for another card.

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For the sympathy card, I die cut two rectangles from Ellen Hutson’s Essential Rectangle dies and layered them on top of one another. I then added the leaf before adding it all to the card base created with cold press watercolor paper. The gold embossed sentiment is from a new set from Honey Bee, Be Still.  I always love a CAS design, but I almost always rely on a CAS design for sympathy cards.

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The birthday card came together quickly. I trimmed the edges of the die cut piece and layered it twice-once with cold press watercolor paper and then with a piece of Bazzil Prismatic black cardstock. The Prismatic paper has a wonderful texture. I purchased it years ago, and rediscovered it when I redid my craftroom in the fall. This is the only piece of green I have, but I have a pretty large folder of it in different colors. I don’t know if it’s still available. 

The silver embossed sentiment was one that I had embossed earlier and was in one of my “sentiments to go” envelopes. It’s from Pink and Main’s Special Day sentiment set–one that’s seen a LOT of use. 

I’m sending the sympathy card to Simply Clean and Simple for my second entry this month, and to Time Out Challenge where they are celebrating their 10th birthday! (I’ll have another 
one for them later.) 

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.)

 

 

Good-bye July, Hello August

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It’s time for the One Little Word recap for July. July was the first month I really didn’t track my progress. I’ll chalk it up to being away the first week of July so my routines didn’t get established. The truth is, however, that July was the month last year that I more or less gave up on my OLW and just let it go. We’re halfway through the year and it’s been a tough one in so many ways, but I’m still COMMITED to working on the projects I set out for myself in January. Not all of them are calling to me right now, but there are enough to keep me going. Here’s July in pictures:

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There are a couple of photos of grandchildren sent to me—Caleb on his new 8-speed bicycle (#19). His dad says he can’t keep up with him any more; he’s way too fast! The three little girls on a bench after they’d been berry picking (#24), and Hannah in her “hiding” place for hide-and-seek (#29). Sarah says Caleb is such a good big brother, he pretends that he can’t see her for awhile. On the 6th, you can see the rocks Caleb, Hannah, and I painted with alcohol inks. They came out great and it wasn’t anywhere as near messy as I expected it to be. On the 21st, Skylar and Ella came to bake sugar cookies. That was a first for me in the summer, but they disappeared as quickly as they do in December. The photo on the 26th shows our patio without the almost “dead” hedge that has surrounded it since we moved in 35 years ago. The 27th shows the new railing that was installed that day. Our patio sits at the top of a hill, and there needs to be some protection against folks stumbling or running off it and tumbling down the hill. I wasn’t sure what I’d think of it, but I really love it. We have a much better view, and the patio actually seems bigger since some of the furniture can be placed right against the railing. I’ll have more photos later. There are photos from our walks and bike rides, and the 31st shows some of the cards and images I colored over 115 days.

I did finish the #100DayProject and continued coloring every day until the 30th in order to finish the second of the 30 Day Coloring Challenges that ended on July 3oth. Even more amazing to me than the completing the project was that almost all the projects were posted on Instagram—something I rarely did, but expect to continue to do on a less frequent basis. 

I made NO progress on purging the photos in my Photo Library, so that’s high on the list for August. Also on the list is to get back on track with daily walking which fell by the wayside with the travel. By mid-June we’d walked a minimum of 2 miles every day for 57 days. Then we left for Wisconsin, and although we walked while we were there we definitely got out of the daily habit, and I’ve found it hard to get back to it. The goal for August is 5 days a week—6 would be better! On the crafting side, my goal this month is to use new stamps and dies that have piled up as I worked on coloring projects. I’m off to a good start already finishing two cards this week with unused (though one was hardly new) stamps and dies. 

Reading was not a problem. I read the five books I set out to read, and read two longer books to Caleb over Zoom. I counted them because I loved both novels, as did Caleb. Tomorrow we start Harriet the Spy. It’s his request, and I hope I like it more this time than I did the last time I tried to read it. Unlike June, I enjoyed all of the books I read in July.

Lila Afterlife Authenticity Tenderland
Liturgy Ivan Bob

The Authenticity Project was just for fun. It and Liturgy of the Ordinary were part of The Unread Shelf Project. I also went through those shelves with a new question to ask: If I saw this book in a bookstore, would I purchase it? The answer for 12 of them was “no,” and they’re in a bag to donate to the library once they begin to accept donations. I’m guessing that won’t happen until the pandemic is truly over. Fortunately, you can now pick up books curbside by appointment, and just this week you may enter the library after signing a document and getting your temperature taken. 

So now it’s August, and today is Sarah’s 40th birthday. I wonder if she’s as surprised by that fact as I am. Her congregation held a birthday car parade yesterday afternoon through the church parking lot. (FYI: Sarah was wearing a mask for the parade, but took it off for this photo.) Someone made a huge sign, and it was delivered to their front yard this morning. They had a beautiful stained glass window hanging made for her, and brought a cake over as well. When we had our FaceTime call, the house had been decorated by Dad and the kids, so it was as festive an occasion as possible during the pandemic.

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Her birthday card this year featured hedgehogs (a favorite of hers) but I also thought the kids would like it as well. These are about as cute as you can find. I love them rushing up the hill with gifts.

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It’s easier to see the “grass” in this photo. I can’t remember the last time I pulled out my fringe scissors, but I’m glad they’ve survived the multiple purges since I bought them years ago.

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The Flower Challenge: Summer Flowers

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The Flower Challenge is for summer or winter flowers, depending on which hemisphere you live in. It’s definitely summer here, and I am grateful. The stay-in-place restrictions are so much easier to endure if you can be outside in your garden or on your patio. 

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I made this card for a friend who now has possession of it, so it can be shared on the blog. I used a newer Pinkfresh Studio set “Keep Going,” which I’ve used several times during the #100DayProject. Today was Day 100, and I have a stack of cards, and an even bigger stack of colored images ready to be made into cards. I enjoyed the challenge, and have 15 more days of coloring ahead of me in order to finish Kathy Racoosin’s current 30 Day Coloring Challenge. This is the second one she’s hosted since the pandemic started. 

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I colored the beautiful flowers with Copic markers and trimmed down the left side of the panel. I added a strip of black and white striped paper from My Favorite Things and a narrow strip of black cardstock to the white card base.

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The sentiment is from Altenew’s “Floral Frame” stamp set. There are still a few days left for this challenge, so I’ll most likely be back again more quickly than usual. 

One Little Word: May Recap

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Stay-at-home restrictions continued so taking on the #100DayProject was a good decision. I’ve enjoyed the excuse to pull out one of my coloring materials to use every day. I have an unusual stockpile of cards and an envelope of colored images for new cards, and I’ve sent a lot of cards as well.

I kept up with a photo-a-day. As you can see below, the majority of the photos were of flowers and the parks. No wonder! Winter kept a grip on us for the beginning of May, so green trees (not until after my birthday mid-month) and flowers were a very welcome sight. There are a couple of photos of the many birds that keep us entertained outside our kitchen window. We’re always glad to see the rose-breasted grosbeaks who only stay for a couple of weeks. Fortunately, the beautiful Baltimore Orioles stay most of the summer. We’ve seen a few hummingbirds, and have regular visits from two kinds of woodpeckers. The yellow finches, catbirds, and nuthatches also enjoy our feeders.

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I also set a goal to walk every day which we did, sometimes in the snow, and once on a 90° day. The extremes were rather amazing. According to our Runkeeper app, we totaled a little over 74 miles for the month.

I read five books, none of which I rated with five stars although I enjoyed most of them. I particularly liked Rebecca Solnit’s Whose Story Is It? –a group of thoughtful essays about feminism, discrimination, and power, and Eric Larson’s lengthy, but well-written, intimate portrait of Winston Churchill during his first year as prime minister during WWII.

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I intended to continue purging photos from my computer, but that fell by the wayside, so I’m taking that up in June with more concrete goals. I didn’t get back to my Copic Jumpstart class either, and know that will have to wait until the #100DayProject is complete.

As if the pandemic wasn’t enough, the month ended in tragedy and chaos—another Black life taken at the hands of the police resulting in peaceful protests that turned violent in over 140 cities, including Rochester. Our federal leadership does more to incite violence than calm—no sign of empathy or compassion. I fear for our future.

My June goals are much the same. I’ll continue with the #100DayProject, I have six books I want to read, and my study group is beginning our third project which would be book #7 for the month. I’m planning to set aside three times each day to tackle the reading. I want to purge another 5,000 photos (11,000 were purged by the end of April), and Tracy wants to reach 50 days of continuous walking. We’re planning a trip to Wisconsin at the end of the month which always alters our daily rhythms, so I hope to be particularly productive the first few weeks of the month.

 

Color Throwdown 2

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After rarely playing along with the Color Throwdown Challenge, I have a card for the second week in a row. When I saw the color combination, I knew I’d try to do something. Like last week, the combo spoke to me.

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So today when I sat down to do some coloring for the #100DayProject, I picked out three turquoise Copic markers and stamped a butterfly from “Beautiful Butterflies,” the stamp set in the June Simon Say Card Kit. It’s a wonderful set, and this is the second card I’ve created with it this week. I’m posting nearly every day on Instagram as part of the #100DayProject, but eventually, most of the cards will show up here as well.

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I found the turquoise paper behind the heart in one of my folders of precut papers. I have no idea where that circle die came from—I certainly can’t find it today. I have done a couple big purges since the beginning of the year, but I don’t think I’ve given away any dies. The heart was cut with a nested set of heart dies by My Favorite Things. 

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Both the white panel and the butterfly are adhered with dimensional foam/tape. The sentiment is another from Taylored Expressions “Simple Strips.” I love that you can stamp, emboss, and then die cut a whole group of sentiments at one time. I keep them in a little bag and can pull them out when needed. 

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Hope your weekend is a good one! As usual, during this stay-at-home time, ours will be pretty quiet. Tracy is doing a lot of yard work. He’s taken down four straggly trees along our property line in preparation for extending the fence he started last year. A nearly dead hedge along the edge of the patio also went to the curb today. Things are looking brighter–literally. I have a few more flowers to plant, but most of my to-do list is inside. 

Color Throw Down

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I follow The Color Throw Down challenge and often intend to create a card for it, but it rarely happens. By the time the challenge shows up in my Feedly account, the end date is just five days away. You would think that during this stay-at-home time, five days would be plenty of time to get a card made. It just doesn’t happen, but today after I finished my earlier post, I worked on my #100DayProject. I deliberately chose the colors yellow, gray, and white for this week’s Color Throw Down challenge. Three colors, I might add, that I really love together. So I was not totally surprised when I check the date for this week’s challenge to discover it ends tomorrow, so here is a second post in one day—a rarity to be sure.

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Day 18 of the Spring Card Camp 2 was about ink swiping backgrounds. Being a CAS fan, most of the backgrounds were a bit busy for my tastes. But Seeka created a series for part 2 of the lesson that I loved, and this is one of the designs I particularly liked. I swiped down the side of Bristol cardstock with two ink cubes in gray and two ink cubes in yellow from Pinkfresh Studios.  It’s easier to see the ombre effect in this photo:

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Then I used a Y35 Copic marker to add just a touch of dimension to the leaves. After die cutting the panel with a stitched rectangle die, I mounted it on Simon Says Smoke cardstock. 

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The beautiful vine is from Simon Says’ “Stronger Together” set and the sentiment from Simon Says “Sketched Flowers.” Both sets were part of the Simon Says Card Kit series, and have wonderful images and great sentiments. 

Off to link this up before the challenge closes!

Clean and Simple Flower

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A quick post to enter a card into Addicted to CAS’s current challenge, “Flower,” which ends later today. Purchasing and planting flowers has definitely put a dent in my crafting time, but the warm weather is finally here to stay, and since we’ll be spending lots of time outdoors in our yard this summer, the flowers and herbs I’ve planted will surely improve the stay-at-home situation.

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The “white space” this time is a lovely dark gray which matched the border of the stamp. I colored both the border and the rose with Copic markers and then did some simple layering with a pink paper. Since I have many more cards than usual because of my daily coloring for the #100DayProject, I’ve started leaving sentiments off the cards if they can be used for more than one occasion. I’m thinking this card has multiple possibilities.

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The stamp is an older Papertrey Ink stamp, “Botanical Blocks.” Another benefit of the #100DayProject is I’m pulling out older stamp sets and using some sets that have seen little or, sometimes no, love.

It will be a strange Memorial Day weekend. We’re usually with family for a big picnic, but not this year. There’s some rain forecast, but it appears to be off and on, so I’m hoping for a good mix of crafting time, and time on the patio.

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Colorful Butterflies

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My #100DayChallenge is proving to be very productive, so I have lots of images now to use for cards. This week I spent some time putting together some, so the blog will be more active than usual in the next week or so. I hoped to get this post up several days ago, but trying to keep up with both the #100DayChallenge and two Online Card Classes my days go by even faster than usual. Given the stay-at-home orders, I guess that’s a good thing.

This coloring piece was lots of fun. It’s a preprinted (on watercolor paper) design by Suzy Plantamura and sold by Simon Says Stamps. I’ve received several of these in the monthly card kits. For this one I used my Zig Clean Color markers.

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I really love the gorgeous colors, and wish I had another one of these to paint. Sadly, they come in packs of ten different designs, some of which I really like, and others I’d be unlikely to use. 

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I’m linking this up to AAA Birthday where the challenge is “Wings” and to Seize the Birthday without the optional twist.

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Happy Mother’s Day

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In normal times, which this is not, we’d be celebrating Mother’s Day with Tracy’s family at brunch. Last year I think there were 11 of us. This year we’ll be delivering gifts and cards to his mom and Betsy. Sarah’s went in the mail early last week, as did cards to my two sister-in-laws. I thought I’d share them here and enter some of them in some challenges.

First off, cards for Sarah and Betsy. As soon as I saw this die and stamp set by Concord and 9th, I ordered it. I knew I’d find lots of ways to use it, although Mother’s Day didn’t occur to me until later. Fortunately, after I ordered it, Kristina Werner posted a video using the die which saved me a lot of time since her directions for assembling it are so clear and explicit. The moms may wonder at first why there’s a camera on their Mother’s Day card—neither of them are photographers—but once they pull down the tab, I think they’ll understand.

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I posted my mother-in-law’s card quite some time ago, and put it aside. The cards for my two sisters-in law were watercolored early last week for the coloring projects, and turned into cards quickly. I drove them out to the main post office Wednesday so I’m pretty sure they arrived on time.

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Both cards are very similar and use a floral image from my newest stamp set, “Bouquet Builder 1” by Waffle Flower. I watercolored a background, let it dry and then stamped the floral image and watercolored it. The first one was embossed in white, and the second with Altenew’s Obsidian Black Ink which stamps sharply in one go even on watercolor paper.

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I actually cut apart a sentiment stamp from Clearly Besotted to use on these cards. The attached sentiment was meant to be given to your mother, and my mother passed away over 50 years ago, so I knew I’d never have a reason to use it. It was a tedious process using a craft knife, but was worth it in the end. I tried it on vellum, but didn’t care for it, so used an old banner die from Papertrey Ink.

If you’re celebrating Mother’s Day today, I hope you have a lovely day. Despite our social separation, I’m looking forward to FaceTime and Zoom calls later today.

I’m entering the pink floral card in CAS on Friday Challenge: favorite floral. This new set is definitely a favorite. I have lots of ideas for coloring the images for the 100 Day Project. I’m also entering it in The Card Concept Challenge–Mother’s Day! The pink flowers in the photograph and the theme make it a very appropriate choice. It fits their category: Clean and Simple. 

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And finally, I’m tossing one of the camera cards in the ring at  Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Use a Die Cut or a Punch.

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April OLW Recap

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COMMIT has remained a good word for these unusual times, although the goals for April evolved as the month progressed. This, I’m sure, will be the new normal for the summer ahead. All our plans for travel and special events have now been cancelled through the end of August. I’m still holding out hope for a trip to Wisconsin before summer ends, but we’ll have to wait and see what things are like, not only here but in all the states between here and there. If things were normal, we’d be there now to celebrate Mother’s Day and my birthday. Thank goodness for FaceTime and Zoom. 

Like the pandemic, winter has still not lessened its grip on western New York. Trees have still not leafed out, but the birds are returning. In the last two weeks, we’ve had rose-breasted grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, many yellow finches, and a red-winged blackbird and a cowbird at our feeders. The last two are new are new to our yard. 

I finished Sandie’s 30 Day Photo Challenge, and managed a photo-a-day–again all on my iPhone.

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In the middle, you’ll see a couple photos of grandchildren I did not take, but were sent to me by my kids. Twelve of the photos were from our almost-daily walks and hikes. We tallied over 57 miles during April, 24 of them on the Lehigh Valley Trail. There are also three photos of food. I’ve really enjoy cooking, and there could have been many more photos. I’m trying 2-3 new recipes each week, and doing some baking which is really unusual. The walking seems to be offsetting the increased calories!

So back to goals, on the 7th of April I committed to doing a 100 Day Project–daily coloring in any medium which coincided with Kathy Racoosen’s 30 Day Coloring Challenge. It’s a good project, challenging me to try some new techniques as well as get out a variety of coloring mediums. Amazingly enough, I’ve managed to post on Instagram regularly as well. I also signed up for an Online Card Class which I’ve enjoyed. I completed several projects, and have several more I want to tackle.

Another new goal emerged a week or two later when I received notice that my iCloud storage was about full. After offloading about 90% of my documents to an external hard drive, I started to tackle the incredible numbers of photos in my Photos app that go back to 2006. I’m about halfway through (now working on 2013) and have purged over 11,000 photos. It’s been a good trip through memory lane and a reminder to henceforth delete duplicates and blurry photos as you go. (As well as the multiple photos I take solely for my blog.)

I read seven books:

ThingsseenLent Light of the world Writerslovers

Wonder Dearlife Gallagher

I particularly enjoyed Writers and Lovers, the only romantic novel on the list. I found some of Alice Munro’s short stories challenging, but in the end understand why she has received so many accolades. Although I found the first of Nora Gallagher’s book slow-going in the beginning, by the end I had marked so many pages, I ordered her second memoir and enjoyed it as well. Five of those are books for my Unread Shelf Project. April’s goal was to read five books and complete a BINGO sheet. Done! (See the photo for Day 17; one of the books was finished late in March which met the requirements for the BINGO game.) Now I’m engrossed in two long, but interesting books, so I’m thinking I won’t finish seven books in May. 

So my goals for May: keep working on the 100DayProject, and begin to assemble cards with all the coloring I’ve done so far; participate in Spring Card Camp 2 which started Wednesday; read another book from the unread shelves (reorganized by genre during April); complete the purging of photos in the Photos app, and move on to one or more projects I keep pushing ahead month after month. We’ll see which ones win the battle! I’m also determined to walk every day in May. This weekend will be the biggest test as snow is predicted Saturday night. Mother’s Day (celebrated here on Sunday) is going to be really cold!

Coloring Projects and Challenges

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Today is the last day of Kathy Racoosen’s 30 Day Coloring Challenge, and Day 31 of the 100 Day Project. I’ve been faithful to both and have a whole envelope of images ready to be turned into cards. I have one to share today that fits three different challenges.

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The current challenge at The Flower Challenge is monochrome as is the new challenge at Seize the Birthday! The image is from Altenew’s “Pen Sketched Flowers,” and I liked the subtle yellow of these. Just a strip of black and white paper from a pad by My Favorite Things and a simple embossed sentiment. Although it’s a birthday card, the design would be appropriate for any number of occasions. At AAA Cards the challenge is for a single image so I’ll enter it there as well.

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Spring Card Camp Continued

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I have a few more cards to share based on the lessons in Spring Card Camp. Two of them were also part of my #100DayProject and the #30DayColoring Challenge. I want to get them posted before the galleries at the card camp close on Thursday. However, I probably won’t get to all the cards I’d still like to try before then. First off is an open butterfly card, one I wanted to try after making this set of cards earlier based on Julie Ebersole’s lesson on Day 4.

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The butterfly stamp is Butterfly Folk by Papertrey Ink and the sentiment is from Taylored Expressions.

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I had, of course, a second butterfly that was die cut from the front of the card. I decided to use it with a design by Kristina Werner from the class on Day 6.

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It’s not often that I do ink blending, but I gave that a try here as well and then cut the pattern from Vintage Jadeite and Hawaiian Shores (PTI).

Here you can see them together:

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Finally, a card from the last class led by Ashlea Cornell who offered a whole range of cards using a multitude of stamps and techniques. She created an overall pattern card using a Pinkfresh Studio stamp set I owned, and I did a more CAS design, placing the florals on just the left side of the card.

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The stamp set is “Fancy Blooms” and the sentiment is from a Simon Says set “30 Days of Thankful.” They were colored with Copics, and in the spirit of two cards for each lesson I did complete two pretty identical cards.

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I’m entering the Open Butterfly card in the AAA Birthday Challenge: Things with Wings. 

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Spring Card Camp Fun

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I’ve been sharing my cards and coloring on Instagram as part of the #100DayProject (coloring) and the #30DayColoringChallenge, but it’s time to share one of finished projects here. I wasn’t quite sure ink blending counted as a coloring technique, so I’ll catch up today with that. I’m definitely counting these as part of my 100 Day Project.

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Yesterday’s lesson by Cathy Zielski was one of my favorites. (Today’s lesson with Laura Bassett is equally great; there will be more on that later.) One of Jennifer and Kristina’s objectives in creating this card class was to showcase techniques that create multiple cards. Cathy’s resulted in four cards—one of them went in the mail this morning to Caleb and Hannah!

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Cathy used a “Thanks” die cut for her cards, but once I found the Papertrey Ink “Big Hugs” stamp and die set in my collection I knew exactly what I wanted to do. After ink blending a piece of cardstock to put behind the die cut word, I stamped the sentiments, and then mounted it on a Limeaid Ice card (PTI),

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For the next card I found a piece of glittery cardstock I purchased at the Broadstreet Paper store in Milwaukee during our last trip to Wisconsin. The second sentiment on the next two cards is slightly different as they’ll be mailed locally.

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This is another piece of the glittery cardstock. 

After die cutting three pieces for these cards, you’re left with three die cut “HUGS” which I stacked together for the fourth card. Cathy used a piece of patterned paper for her’s, and despite my rather extensive collection of patterned paper, I couldn’t find just what I wanted, so I returned to an earlier class by Kristina Werner who provided two patterns for paper piecing, and found three sheets of coordinating colors from Sunnyside Studio’s pack of “Gingham Jewel Tones.” I have two more backgrounds from that process to use on future cards as well.

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I have a couple more projects completed to share here soon, and a list of several more I hope to try. Spring Card Camp has been a good diversion during these unsettled times. 

A New Challenge

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By chance, I discovered a new challenge hosted by Penny Black. I don’t have a lot of sets from Penny Black, but I do have a few and used one of my favorites to color for my #30DayColoringChallenge, and my #The100Day Project.

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I trimmed down the panel just enough to allow a the edges of the Royal Velvet card to create a border. This beauty is an older Penny Black cling stamp, “Botanical Notes.” I hadn’t pulled it out in a very long time, but it was perfect for coloring with my Polychromos colored pencils.

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There really wasn’t any need (or space) for a sentiment, so this card is ready for whatever occasion arises. 

PurpleFlowersFlat

We had a lovely, sunny day, a bit warmer than the last few. There’s still snow in the forecast, but by the end of next week, it looks like Spring might make a lasting appearance. I’m ready for lovely flowers in the garden, and butterflies in the air.