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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.

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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. 

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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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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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. 

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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.

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!