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Spring Card Camp

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I enrolled in the Online Card Classes “Spring Card Camp,” thinking it would provide some additional inspiration for my #The100DayProject of daily coloring.

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The first three lessons focused on stamping rather than coloring, but today’s lesson by Julie Ebersole was perfect, and definitely a technique I had never tried before. Each lesson in the camp is focused on creating two cards using one technique. This one was called the “Coordinating Die Cut Trick.” It requires a stamp with a matching die cut. I have plenty of those so I was a bit surprised how few stamp and die sets I had that I thought would work with for this technique. I’ve pulled a few more sets to try later, so you may see more of these. 

The first step is to stamp an image on the front of a card and then die cut. You set that die cut aside for card #2. Then you restamp the image through the die cut on the inside of the card. Here’s a look at the front of the card:

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Before coloring the inside image, I masked off the cute little elephant and added two other images to the inside of the card.

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Here’s the second card. I opted to use an A4 card by Paper Source for this card, and added two die cut clouds.

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I popped the little guy up with some dimensional tape after stamping the sentiment. All the coloring was done with the Polychromos colored pencils.

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.

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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!

#100DayProject: Weeks 6 & 7 and Inspired By . . . Challenge

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50:100

Today marks the halfway point in the 100 Day Project—gotta say it went really fast. There were several prompts that arrived with the email this morning:  What are you learning (about yourself or your process)? What’s working? What isn’t? What would help? What do you want for the next 50 days?

I’ve definitely kept with my original goals for the project: trying new techniques, using new stamps and tools, digging out old favorites . . . Interestingly, I’ve also been inspired to do some purging, and a lot of reorganizing of my supplies to make it easier and quicker to find what I need/want. Traveling definitely put a damper on the process, so I added watching technique videos to the list of “acceptable” projects for a given day. And that’s proven to be helpful, too.

I’ve averaged a card every other day the last two weeks—most of them being made in the last week since things were really hectic when we first got home from Chicago. Some of them I’ve shared here, here, and here. Some days I worked on a technique but no card was made; some days I made cards with images I created earlier. I’m hoping to keep up the same pace for the next 50 days, knowing there are two trips during that time as well. 

For my birthday I received several gift certificates to online stores so have had some new playthings arrive in the craft room. I thought I’d share two cards made with one of them today. Some others will show up shortly. One of my good friends gave me a gift certificate to Simon Says, and I used it to purchase some new blending ink pads by Wendy Vecchi. Blending inks is one of the techniques I’ve been working on during the #100DayProject. My initial impression is that they are much easier to use than a regular dye ink pad, but we’ll see how they do in different situations. One of my next projects involves a technique which a bit more difficult than using them with a stencil.

Once I ordered the ink pads, I got busy and repackaged and rearranged my stencils so it would be easy to flip through them. They are now all in the clear storage envelopes by Avery Elle in an open box instead of piled up in a box with a cover. What a difference it makes. I’ve rarely used my stencils just because it took so long to dig through them.

I’m linking up the first card to this week’s challenge “Inspired By: Floral Clusters.“

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For the first card, I pulled out a Simon Says stencil, ” Zig Zag Dots,” and blended some Cornflower Blue ink creating a subtle ombre effect from the top to the bottom. The beautiful circular diecut is Papertrey Ink’s new “Shape Shifter Circle 2.” I layered flowers and leaves stamped and die cut with Papertrey’s “Botanical Bounty” set to the side, and added a sentiment from an older Simon Says set, “Thanks.” 

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I worked on blending inks here, too, with the Papertrey Inks, following a tutorial by Lizzie Jones for Papertrey’s Make It Monday challenge this week. I originally thought the Detail Blending tools would work well with these, but it turns out it they don’t work as well as the Mini Round blenders. Here you can see the difference the blending makes. (Excuse the glare from the lights; the photo was taken at night in my craft room.) No blending on the top flower; blending a second color on the bottom flowers. 

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I’ve certainly not mastered this technique but it’s a start. 

Here’s the second stenciled card. Another thank you note since I’m gratefully in need of a few more. 

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For this card, I blended two colors of ink through a Crafter’s Workshop “Mini Squirreley.” I die cut the main panel with a Simon Says “Stitched Rectangle,” and die cut a banner from the “Stitched Banners”set. 

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The sentiment is from a new-to-me Papertrey Ink set, “Thank You Kindly,” that was on sale because it is being retired. I don’t ever remember seeing it before, and it is chock-full of great thank you sentiments in a wide array of fonts. I know I’ll use it a lot. I added three enamel dots as a tiny embellishment. 

I’m hoping to have a card ready for the Papertrey Make It Monday challenge and the Papertrey Blog Hop on Friday. Tomorrow is a busy day, so there won’t be much crafting time. Friday, however, is a rare day with nothing on the calendar, so I haven’t given up hope. 

 

 

CAS(e) This Sketch: Back-to-Back Birthdays!

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My great nephew and great niece have back-to-back birthdays this coming week. I think it’s so interesting that my niece has two children whose birthdays are one day after the other, and my daughter’s children share the same birthday. I needed to get the cards in the mail today. I made Finn’s a few weeks ago for one of my #100DayProjects. For Rowan’s card, I used this week’s sketch at CAS(e) This Sketch.

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Both cards used a similar technique: outline images and one colored focal point. Here’s Rowan’s card for her first birthday:

Rowan

As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew it would be a perfect first birthday card, but I wasn’t sure I had a cupcake image the right size. But in a quick search, I discovered this cupcake in “Tremendous Treats: Birthday” by Papertrey Ink—another set that I’ve had for a long time, but haven’t used in an equally long time. I started by die cutting a piece of Neenah Solar White cardstock with a “Stitched Rectangle” from Simon Says. Then I stamped the outline images with Hibicus Burst ink and set that aside. I stamped another image in black ink, added Nuvo Glimmer paste to the top of the cupcake and let it dry. Then I colored the cupcake liner and the star with Copic markers and fussy cut it.

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I embossed the sentiment from “Wishes Come True” (PTI) on Hibiscus Burst and created a banner with the Washi Chomper by We R Memory Keepers. The focal point was added with some dimensional dots and everything adhered to a Raspberry Fizz card. 

Here’s Finn’s card. Like many three year-olds, he’s obsessed with trucks, so the images from Papertrey Ink’s “Truckin’ It,” seemed just right. It’s a set I bought when Caleb was little, but had never used.

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The striped pattern paper on the bottom of the card was in my stash, but not with the paper pad it came from. The sentiment was stamped on a Pure Poppy banner die cut with Tag Sale #10 (PTI). The tiny three on the fire truck is from a Cocoa Daisy kit from my scrapbooking days before Project Life. I must say the goal of #100DayProject to try new techniques and make use of new or long neglected stamp sets is proving to be pretty successful! 

This past week was so busy I resorted to watching technique videos for my #100DayProject—not much to show for it so there wasn’t an update post this week. I have some time today and tomorrow to put some of those techniques to work so will hopefully have something to share on Tuesday. (I totally ruined all the colored pencil images I worked on while I was away, trying to overstamp them with black ink. Although I left the stamps in the MISTI while I was away, and thought they lined up perfectly—not. so. much. Very disappointing, but the object was practice with the new colored pencils after all.)

#100DayProject: Week 5

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Keeping up with the #100DayProject has been more challenging this week since most of the week we’ve been at Sarah’s. She has accepted a new position which means another move, this time to Wisconsin. We’re here helping to get organized, and Tracy is busy painting some walls Sarah and Adam painted when they moved into their rental. We’ve also been house hunting, and that has been successful. Their purchase offer on a lovely home was accepted on Saturday.

So the only card I have to share this week was made before we left home. It’s a card for Caleb’s kindergarten teacher who has been simply wonderful. We met her in October, and knew right away that she loved her job and loved kindergarteners. I give her a lot of credit. It’s the one elementary grade I never taught in my 37 years of teaching—absolutely by choice! We’ve been able to watch Caleb grow this year through an app called “Seesaw.” Nearly every school day, his teacher (or he) takes a photo and posts it to the app. We can see his work, watch videos, and hear him read his weekend reports each Monday. Tracy and I wanted to tell her how much we’ve appreciated her hard work.

Teacher

I started by die cutting a piece of Pure Poppy cardstock with the “Big Apple” die from Papertrey Ink and used New Leaf and a piece of Bitty Big patterned paper to cut the leaves. I found an old piece of Teresa Collin’s patterned paper in my scrapbook stash which I cut to fit a top folded white card. The large banner was cut from a piece of  striped vellum from Papertrey’s Sheer Basics, and embossed with a sentiment from PTI’s “Great Teachers” stamp set and attached it to the apple. The pencil was stamped with an old wooden stamp from Judith that I colored with Copic markers and fussy cut. I tied a piece of thin twine around the apple stem and used dimensional tape to add the pencil.

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I haven’t had this much fun making a card in a long time. Both the die cut and stamp set are “new to me”—borrowed from a friend. 

Knowing I’d be away this week, I came prepared to work on colored pencil techniques. Tracy gifted me with an early birthday present, so I have a new set of Polychromos colored pencils to play with. I’m quite happy with them, but they require a different set of coloring skills than I’m accustomed to. Before I came I stamped (and embossed) some practice material.

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Thanks to advice on Yana Smakula’s blog, I downloaded a color chart from the Faber Castell website, and used one of my #100DayProject times to color in the pencils I own. It’s already proven to be very helpful in choosing colors to layer.

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I’m hoping I’ll be able to use some of this practice material for cards once I get home. Here is last night’s practice session. I was pretty happy with the flowers, but not as pleased with the leaves. 

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Just one more day here before we head home. We had lunch with one of Tracy’s high school classmates today and then a wonderful visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I took lots of photos, so there will likely be a flower post once we get home. I don’t think we’ve ever been there in the early spring before, and I got lots of ideas for planters and our gardens.

#100DayProject: Week 4

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The weeks seem to be flying by, but I must admit to being happy to greet May with the warmest temperatures of the season. In just two warm days, we’ve seen the forsythia burst into bloom, and signs of the bushes and trees coming back to life. It really is late this year; frequently this happens mid-April. According to the meteorologist this was the 9th coldest April on record. Fortunately, I don’t remember the others!

I worked on several projects for the #100Day Project this week:  messy watercoloring, stamp layering techniques, and a new die cutting technique. The results of some of these projects haven’t yet been made into cards. I have a rather lovely file now of stamped images just waiting for the right occasion for a card. I broke open the May Card Kit from Simon Says and made three needed anniversary cards. I also pulled out a stamp set I’ve had for some time, but never used.

First off, the messy watercoloring technique. This is not my usual style, and it took awhile before I decided I liked it.

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The design came from the CAS(e) this Sketch challenge this week, although I had to move my sentiment to make it work. 

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Altenew’s “Charmed” stamp set has been in my collection for awhile. I liked it a lot, but have had a hard time figuring out exactly what to do with it. It turns out messy watercoloring works well. I stamped it on Tim Holtz watercolor paper and watercolored it with a water brush and Distress Oxide Inks (also a new technique). Once I finished, I added the sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Choose Joy,” another set that doesn’t get pulled out often. The card still needed something, so I did some paint splattering and misted it with Fallen Angels Glimmer Mist. You can see a bit of the glimmer in the close up. I approach splattering with a fair amount of trepidation because I’ve been known to totally ruin a perfectly good card with ugly splatters. This time it worked.

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Here are the three anniversary cards I made from the Simon Says May kit. The first one (my favorite) was a CASE of Nichol Spohr’s. I think you can easily see the influence, although mine ended up a bit more CAS. 

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I used the same patterned paper and the same basic design, but only three of the puffy hearts by Pink Fresh. I die cut “happy” from the Simon Says “Happy” set three times and stacked it for some additional dimension and then stamped the rest of the sentiment.

While I had the kit out, I pulled out some more of the Pink Fresh “Let Your Heart Decide” patterned papers and made two more cards with the papers and the puffy hearts.

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This time only the sentiments changed. The first one is from Mama Elephant’s “Bountiful Blessings” set, and the second from Reverse Confetti’s “Circle Wishes,” which I’d never used before. All three cards are addressed and ready to go in the mail later this month.

Next week we’ll be at Sarah’s. I’ve packed a little box with materials so I can work on colored pencil techniques and color layering techniques. I’ll be back tomorrow before we leave with another entry for the Seize the Birthday challenge. 

#100DayProject: Week 3

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The past week was especially busy, so I had to fit in the project in littler pieces. My first card to share represents several days of experimenting with two new stamps sets (loaned to me by a friend) as well as with two new techniques.

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Both stamp sets are relatively new ones from Papertrey Ink: “Vogue Vases” and “Simple Stems.” You’ll eventually see more of the vases and the flowers as I stamped a few extras of both. The techniques were both from Betsy Veldman of the Papertrey Ink Design Team: creating translucent vases, and adding detail to the flowers with pens. I’ve owned a set of Staedtler Triplus Fineliners for years. I think I bought them at the Princeton book store when Sarah and Adam lived there 11 years ago. They worked perfectly for this and made so much difference in how the flowers looked. On the yellow flower, I used the finer tip of a Tombow marker since I didn’t have a good contrasting pen for that color. The sentiment is from the Simple Stems set.

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The translucent vases are created by stamping them on vellum in a relatively dark color (I used Tropical Teal as did Betsy), and then overstamping with watermark ink and embossing with clear embossing powder. A stamp positioner like the MISTI is invaluable for techniques like this.

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I also went back to color blending again as well as watercoloring a lot of flowers from an old set by Simon Says, “Artful Flowers.” I’ve always loved this set, but have never had much luck with it. A video by Nichol Sporh was the inspiration for these cards—you’ll see I duplicated much of her design on the first card.

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WCFlowersThankYou

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The new die cutting technique I played with last week came in handy for die cutting the stems and the flowers for these cards. I’m much happier with these than with any earlier attempts using this set. 

One funny thing about this project is that I started it to work through the many techniques I’d pinned on my boards for Design and Techniques. What I’m finding is that I’m constantly adding to my list of things to try every week, so I am quite sure I won’t run out of ideas before the challenge ends. 

I’ll be back later today with another post to celebrate a special birthday. Off now to take a walk before the rain moves in later today. We’ve been blessed with three glorious days of warmer temperatures and sunshine, and I don’t want to waste a minute of it!

Spring???

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There is finally hope of spring here. It was 60° today, and the forecast is for temperatures 50° or more for the next 10 days. The annual Lilac Festival is scheduled to begin in just a month so it’s a good thing. We walked through the park this afternoon, and even the magnolia buds are still small and tight. There are buds on the lilac bushes as well, but it’s going to take a long stretch of sunshine and warm temperatures for them to be at peak for the festival.
 
I have two spring inspired cards to share today, both were done with the same image from “Showers and Flowers” one of two stamp sets included in the March Simon Says card kit. Both were colored with colored pencils, the first with Prismacolor and the second with Lyra colored pencils which I’ve had in my collection for a long time.
 
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After stamping and coloring the image, I die cut it with a “Stitched Rectangle,” and mounted on a slightly larger die cut of Sunshine and then on a card made from Green Apple (Simon Says).
 
The next card is one I referenced in Tuesday’s post about the #100DayProject. This time I used a piece of Strathmore Toned Gray paper. I’ve seen several cards made with this paper and colored pencils and wanted to try it out. I’m not thrilled with the results, and have plans to try this again soon. Nonetheless, I made a card with it.
 
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This was also die cut with Stitched Rectangles before adding to a card made from Raspberry Fizz (PTI). I added a few rainstones (also from PTI).
 
I have more free time on my calendar this week than usual so I’m hoping to get a lot of crafting done. After being a year behind with my Project Life album, I’m now done to just two months (February and March) to do. I’d like to get a few cards made as well and, of course, keep up with the #100DayProject. 

#100DayProject: Week 2

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Today marks the end of the second week of the #100DayProject, and I’m trying to do a weekly update as I work through the project. I’ve already shared two of the cards here and here.

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I’ll share a couple more today, and have a couple cards to post later for specific events. I tried some block watercolor smooching—a limited success, as well as some colored pencil work on gray toned paper—also a limited success in my opinion although I did make a card with it. Whether it gets sent or not is another matter. The first card for today is one using some of the block watercoloring effort. To do this, you add Distress Inks to an acrylic block, mist it with some water, and smoosh it onto some watercolor paper and weight it down for a few minutes. I watched Jennifer McGuire’s video here, and thought it looked pretty easy. None of mine came out as nice as hers, but I haven’t given up yet either. What I did this time, was die cut a circle from one of the attempts, and used it to create a background for another technique I tried at a friend’s house on Saturday—using Nuevo drops as an embellishment.

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I die cut a stitched frame from Simon Says “Stitched Circles” and mounted it on a card made from Simon Says “Sunshine” cardstock. I love that bright color, especially when we’ve had one cold, gray day after another for the last week. I scored three lines down the middle of the card before adhering the circle which I stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey’s “Penned Elegance,” surely a new favorite of mine! I’m also in love with “Butterfly Blooms,” by Papertrey and you’ll be seeing several more cards made with that set in the near future. This time the only color added to the die cut butterfly was a variety of Nuevo drops which are dimensional.

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As a final touch I added a few black pearls from Amuse. I have a little stack of watercolored smooched papers on my desk so may be able to use them eventually.

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My grandson missed a whole week of school last week with some kind of stomach “bug.” By Thursday, I was feeling really bad for him and decided to make a card with a stamp set I bought with grandchildren in mind, but had never used. 

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I love these cute little monsters from Your Next Stamps, “Silly Monsters,” set. I stamped them on Neenah Solar White cardstock, my go-to paper for coloring with Copic markers, colored them, and fussy cut them. I embossed the sentiment on a piece of shimmery black cardstock, and then popped up the three monsters around the circle.

These guys definitely needed googly eyes and, fortunately, I found a little stash of them in my supplies.

Yesterday I worked on a new die cutting technique and have a pile of lovely butterflies to use on cards as a result. I didn’t worry about trying to get the card(s) done as well. Tonight will probably be similar as it was a very busy day, so I’m hoping to do some stamping and die cutting with a stamp set a friend loaned me for a week or so. Although not all the results of my experiments were totally satisfying, I learned from each of them. It’s likely I’ll put them to the test again before the 100 days run out.

 

 

Less is More: CASE a Card

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This week’s challenge at Less is More is to CASE this card:

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I loved the blue flower and used it for my inspiration. I turned the card around so that it’s vertical rather than horizontal since the flower I chose is a tall one from Altenew’s “Beautiful Lady” set, a set I’ve owned for quite some time, and never used. Not sure why since I do like it a lot.

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I embossed the image in black and then watercolored it with my Gansai Tambi watercolors. The original card had a die cut sentiment cut from silver glitter. It’s hard to see in the photograph but I added silver dots to the tops of the stamens in the stamped image. I didn’t think a silver sentiment (also from “Beautiful Lady”) would be as attractive on this card as the black embossed one. 

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I die cut the watercolored image with a WPlus9 stitched rectangle from their “Gift Card Layers” set and adhered it to a white card. It doesn’t get a lot more CAS than this, and I’m very happy with it.

#The100DayProject: Week 1and 2 Challenges

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Today marks the beginning of Week 2 for #The100WeekProject. I managed to create a new card every day last week with a new technique, a new stamp set, a new design, or a long-neglected stamp set. The email today from the organizers of this creative project asked if we needed to make any adjustments to our project. I’m not sure a card-a-day is a realistic goal, so there may be days when I work on a technique, and it may (or may not) result in a card. One technique I tried this week appeared to be a fail, but I ended up being able to use it for a card after all. Failed techniques will count, too. Actually I ended up with eleven new cards for the week, some of which I posted here, here, and here. Today I thought I’d share two more cards I made for current challenges.

One of the techniques high on my list to try was color blending. I’ve tried it several times with the sponge blenders by Rangers, but have never been really happy with the results. This week I used the two new Distress Oxide inks that came with the April Simon Says stamp kit:  “Squeezed Lemonade” and Mermaid Lagoon.” Instead of the sponge blenders, I pulled out my Clarity Stencil Brushes, and I was much happier with the results. These colors are the two main colors in the current Time Out Challenge: 

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Here’s the card. I photographed it with the brushes so you could see them. They are unlike any of the older stencil brushes I own. I also used the stamp set from the kit, “Beautiful Day.”

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After blending the two colors, I added stamped images in black as well as a sentiment in the bright yellow space. I colored in a few places on the butterflies with Copic markers and added a few colored sequins.

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Another “top of the list technique” was to try the Gina K Wreath Builder set. This is a unique set that comes with two stencils to help you build a wreath that can be used with a wide variety of stamps. As always, it took me a couple of tries before I came up with a design I liked. This card fits the bill for the Inspired by the Little Things Challenge this week.

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All the stamps are from the Wreath Builder stamp set. The sentiment circle was cut with a “Stitched Circles” die from Simon Says, and then it was all adhered to a mat of Bright Buttercup and a square card made from Green Parakeet (both PTI.)

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The finishing touch was the addition of a tiny white pearl in the center of each main flower. 

One way I’ve managed to keep up with the project along with my other commitments is to decide on a technique or stamp set the night before. Then, at least, I’m not on a search the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

#The100DayProject: Day 1

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Last year I took on the #The100DayProject for the first time, completing 100 sketches over the 3+ months of the project. I thought about taking on the same project again this year, since sketching seems to be one of my creative endeavors that often ends up on the back burner.

Recently, however, I reorganized (and purged) my large collection of stamps. In the process I found multiple sets that have seen little (or no) love. Then I realized that my Pinterest board titled Cards: Techniques had over 150 pins. Not all those pins represent new techniques for me, but many do. So this year I’ve decided to try the #100DayProject again by committing to try a new technique, or use a new or unloved stamp set every day. Some days (most, I hope) will result in a card or two. But some days it may just be an opportunity to play around with the creative process. One goal is to master the art of ink blending which always seems to be a challenge for me. I’d also like to improve in my use of layering stamps, as well. Then there are all those pins . . . some represent style more than technique, but each time I pinned the card it was something about the technique that appealed to me. I also have a Pinterest board titled: Cards: Design, so I may take on a few of those as well. Hopefully, at the end of the project, I’ll have a stash of cards put away.

Today is Day 1. The project’s goal is to post one photo every day to Instagram, but we all know how reliable I am about that! I am planning to blog at least once a week with some of the techniques I’ve tried, and a couple of the cards I made. That seems a bit more doable.

Today I started with a design I saw just this week on Heather Nichols blog. It’s a new design for me (the white outline with a colored image on top) and a new technique (watercoloring on Bristol paper with Zig pens). When I went to find a stamp that would work with this design I was surprised to discover that with all the floral images I own, I have almost no floral stamps that include a grouping of flowers. I was short on time, so trying to mask and stamp a floral group seemed out of the question. Then I discovered the Penny Black “Botanical Notes.” It’s a stamp I’ve owned for several years and used only once or twice—a long time ago. So there it is: a new design, a new technique, and a seldom used stamp. I doubt I’ll hit all of those categories each day, but it should be a fun project.

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I love the bright orange on the gray paper, and I like the white outline images as well. I’m curious to see if I can get this design to work with other stamps sets. 

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I haven’t decided yet whether to add a sentiment strip to the front or not. If I do, I’ll emboss one on a black or vellum banner. The card itself will work for more than one occasion, so I’ll just wait and see.

I’ve given some thought to how I might keep up with this project when we travel, which we certainly will during the next 100 days, but I think it will be doable. If some days don’t work out, I’ll double up—I have no issue with that, but I do expect to have attempted 100 techniques, designs, or cards with an unused/unloved stamp set.

#The100DayProject

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When I took on the #100DayProject I knew it would be hard for me to commit to doing a sketch every day for 100 days. I also allowed myself some slack so if I missed a day, it would be OK to catch up the next day. It didn’t happen often, and I did really well, until Day 75. At that point, we had company here, and then were on vacation. Despite the fact that I’ve taken some online courses on sketching while traveling, it’s not anything I’ve been comfortable doing. I always feel like my photography takes enough personal time while traveling, and to ask fellow travelers to find something to do while I sketch has never seemed reasonable.

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But over the last month, since we’ve returned I’ve been working to complete the project, and now have 100 sketches done between April and August. Since I hadn’t done any sketching for nearly a year, I’m pleased with the outcome. Page2

Some of the sketches I like quite a bit, some I wouldn’t think of sharing! I found some of the images to sketch on Pinterest, some came from photographs I took, some are objects I found around our house, or flowers from our garden.

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More than half the sketches were done in ink, then watercolored. I used my good Daniel Smith watercolors, my Inktense watercolor pencils, and my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. Some were left as pencil sketches, and a few were just pen and ink, or colored with markers or colored pencils.

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All in all, it was a good project. I don’t expect I’ll be able to maintain a daily habit even now, but I do hope to get 3 or more sketches done each week.