The pretty pink geraniums on today’s card were created for a blogging friend, but I wanted to be sure she received the card before I posted it. She’s a huge fan of pink so there was no choice about what color these geraniums would be. Luckily, the photo inspiration for AAA Birthday also features pink flowers.

When The Greetery introduced this most recent BotaniCut, I knew I would have lots of opportunities to use it. Geraniums come in so many colors, and they are a favorite of mine.

I added a soft ink blended background to one of The Greetery’s “Postal Frames” that matches the blue pot in the photograph, but my blue pot and the card base are a much brighter hue. I grounded the pot on some ink blended “Shiplap Builder” dies, also from The Greetery.

The geraniums and the “Pretty Pot” die were all cut from Bristol Smooth cardstock and colored with Distress Oxide Inks. I added some details to the dies with Polychromos pencils. The cute sentiment and label is from an earlier set by The Greetery, “Market Baskets.” Betsy Veldman definitely excels in designing the most beautiful floral dies and containers. 

I always hope I’ll get some crafting done while we’re away. I managed to do a little watercoloring one morning, but it’s a bigger piece so I don’t think it will get finished until we get home. I do have a couple pieces I colored for the current 30 Day Coloring Challenge before I left, so hopefully I’ll get those posted in the next couple of days. Thanks for visiting!

I have another card I’ve colored for Kathy Racoosin’s 30 Day Coloring Challenge. 

And, for me, this is a late night post, but one of the two challenges looking for blues ends in just a few hours. First up is the Less Is More Challenge looking for Shades of Blue. The second challenge is Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Summertime Blues. I’m also popping this in the CAS on Friday Challenge to use a Favorite Stamp.

This is one of my favorite florals. It’s from Pinkfresh Studios–“Keep Going.” When I was fussy cutting it once again, I realized that investing in the die might be an appropriate purchase. I chose to color it with Copic Markers in soft blues and greens, adding some shadows with my Polychromos pencils.

After fussy cutting it, I added it to an embossed polka-dot white panel that was in my box of panels and die cuts that I’ve stashed away. I die cut a thin green layer with the Gina K Master Layout dies and added it to a light blue card base. 

Once again the “Easy Expressions: Birthday” stamp from The Ton worked out perfectly. I tucked it under one of the leaves, and then added some gold gems from The Paper Studio. 

I’m just managing to keep up with the 30 Day Coloring Challenge, although I need to do a major catch-up post for Instagram. Today was the first day since Sarah and her family arrived that I managed to get in a full hour of crafting time. Tomorrow looks much less likely. If the weather’s good we’re headed to the zoo, then the beach for a picnic and a ride on the carousel, and finally pizza with friends for dinner. 

I’ve seen quite a few new stamps sets featuring citrus fruits and some lovely cards created with them, so I wasn’t surprised to see Happy Little Stampers CAS come up with this month’s challenge: Citrus and Zing.

I don’t have much in the way of citrus stamps, but a wooden stamp with a lovely image of lemons in a bowl has survived my multiple purgings. It was one of the few things I watercolored while we were away. It’s taken me some time to get it onto a card–more about that at the end of the post.

Finding a blue cardstock to match the blue watercolor I chose for the bowl turned out to be the most time consuming part of creating the card. I finally found a scrap in my scrap folder that worked perfectly. Luckily, I had an Altenew mini-ink pad that matched the blue as well for the sentiment.

I have a stash of prefolded cards on my shelves and generally, that’s the first place I look when I need a card. This yellow was the perfect color and was folded leaving a border at the bottom. I found a piece of yellow-striped patterned paper that worked well there.

I’m also throwing this in the ring at Simon Says Monday Challenge: Food or Drink.

Last week after spending a week with Sarah and Adam, and two days exploring Cleveland and visiting with cousins, we drove to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, about 30 minutes south of Cleveland. We spent the day exploring the park, taking photographs, and hiking. Our last hike of the day was at The Ledges. As we were hiking along, a woman emerged from two of the large rocks, and suggested we go inside. It was beautiful, and as I started climbing up a group of rocks, some folks started down the route. I stepped to my right to make room for them and my foot landed on a wet rock and down I went! I was able to walk back to the ranger’s table and get some ice, but my right shin was really scraped up. I’ve been keeping it elevated and icing it regularly but there hasn’t been a lot of improvement. 

Today I decided it was time to seek some medical attention. Luckily, it is not broken, but I’m going to have to continue with the elevation and icing. Sad to say, there’s not much beside reading and working on my laptop that can get done with one leg elevated! I have a huge list of ideas, and new stamps and dies to play with, but it’s going to be slow going. My brother-in-law recently commented that most of our health complaints are a result of “AR disease.” When I asked for a translation, he said it stood for “age-related.” The recovery from this might be, but the accident was clearly not. Could have happened in my 30’s! Mostly, now, I’m just annoyed.

Whenever I travel I pack a few crafty items to create with while I’m gone. I rarely accomplish much, and this trip was no exception. I did a bit of watercoloring, but haven’t had time to do anything with it yet. It’s good to be back in the craft room, although the “to do” list is pretty long. There’s been a lot going on, both here and while we were away, and I hope to have a catch-up post written by the middle of next week. (I’m waiting for one of the big projects to be completed.)

For now, I have a card for the current Flower Challenge: Add Spots or Stripes.

This was a quick card to create. All the stamps are from Simon Says “Leafy Frames,” a card kit set from some time ago. I stamped and colored the wreath with Copics, and then die cut a circle to hold the sentiment from the same set.

The pretty striped paper is from a Carta Bella pad, “Botanical Garden” which I added to a die cut panel slightly smaller than the card base and popped it out with some foam.

I added a few A Muse pearls and that was it. 

Hope your weekend is off to a good start. We’re expecting a lot of rain tomorrow, but we’ll have plenty of entertainment since the three girls are coming for the afternoon. We’ll be making cupcakes for Maddy’s fifth birthday celebration. She turned five while they were on Nantucket and we were in Wisconsin, so this is birthday dinner #2!

The topping at Seize the Birthday Challenge now is “Framed.” This pretty coneflower (again!) is definitely framed, but framed from behind the coneflower. I noted the same technique among some the designers for the challenge as well as some of the current entries. Even if it doesn’t qualify as “framed,” there’s always the option at Seize the Birthday to use the “Anything Goes” prompt. 

This is the last of the Altenew Coneflowers that I watercolored a week or so ago. I didn’t want to post it until my friend received it for her birthday.

This is my favorite of the cards because of the framing which came about in a rather haphazard way. When I went to dry emboss Papertrey Ink’s “Border Bling: Tin Stiched” it slipped in the die cutting machine. I didn’t want to throw it out so I cut it down and then used the center piece to add some dimension for the coneflower.

I added both to a card base of Amethyst Allure and then added the coneflower that had been die cut as well as another sentiment from The Ton’s “Easy Expressions: Birthday.” I’m quite sure I’ll cut down more of the Border Bling frames in the future. 

I’m throwing this in the Happy Little Stampers: Die Cuts and Watercolor Challenges, both of which are Anything Goes.

 A quick post to enter a card in the Just Us Girls current challenge: Script. Many of my favorite fonts are script, but my newest sentiment set from The Ton combines print with a lovely script that you can highlight thanks for The Ton’s innovative “grouped layering” stamps. You won’t be surprised to see another Altenew Coneflower, either. (There’s still one more to come.)

This is one of the coneflowers I watercolored, using my Daniel Smith watercolors. The card base was created with a piece of cardstock that had already been cut. Sadly, I can’t find a match for it anywhere in my cardstock collection so I can’t tell you where it came from nor can I order any more of it! It’s  a little brighter than most of the magenta cardstock I own.

I do like these sentiments from The Ton, Easy Expressions: Birthday, and recently ordered “Easy Expressions,” which includes sentiments for many other occasions.  I added a thin gold mat and three gold embellishments to finish the card. 

I’m also entering this in the Happy Little Stampers: Watercolor challenge for July which is “Anything Goes.”

I’m really enjoying my new Altenew “Build-a-Flower: Coneflower” stamp set, and when I saw the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge come up with this sketch, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I’m also entering this in the AAA Birthday Challenge: Flowers.

I colored this image with Copic markers last night while I listened to a video (no need to watch!) Finding the patterned paper I wanted was the most time-consuming part of the process, but when I remembered my folder of (very old) AMuse papers, the card came together quickly.

I die cut the gingham paper with a Simon Says “Stitched Square” die and added it to a pre-embossed square card. I added the coneflower with some dimensional tape.

The sentiment came from my favorite Pink & Main “Special Day” set.

Off to tackle the HUGE pile of things on my desk that need to be dealt with. I’ve been super busy with church business the last few days, but think I tied up most of the tasks for that today.