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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. 

Fusion Challenge: Let Us Remember

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The beautiful poppy photograph that’s one piece of the current Fusion Challenge inspired me to pull out the My Favorite Things “Flowers in Bloom” set I bought several months ago. I watercolored them as part of my two coloring challenges, and then turned it into a card for the challenge.

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You have the option with this challenge to use the sketch and/or the photograph. I chose just the photo.

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I liked the black edges around the photograph, and die cut Ink to Paper’s “Geometric Rectangles” in black to use as a frame for the poppies. Then I added it all to a black Memory Box card.

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The sentiment from Sugar Peas “Everyday Sentiments” was embossed in white on black cardstock. Finally I added a few Amuse black pearls that have been in my stash for years.

Coloring has been very therapeutic while observing our stay-at-home mandate, especially since winter still seems to have a grip on western New York. Yesterday we had temps in the 50’s but today it’s back to the 40’s and the 10 day forecast shows no improvement. At least the sun is out today, a big help. Nonetheless, spring is trying hard to burst through regardless. Here are a few photos from our walk yesterday through Highland Park and down a few city streets on our way home.

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Our forsythia isn’t doing particularly well this year, but the ones in the park are lovely.

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On the other hand, we’ve had gorgeous daffodils, and most of ours are near the end. The ones in the park are just beginning to open.

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I’m always happy to see the beginning of the flowering trees. Highland Park is known for its extensive lilac collection. They are just beginning to bud,
and very few trees have begun to leaf out.

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The magnolias need some warmth! I was playing around with adjusting the f-stop on my iPhone. It’s always been an available option, but I had been unaware of it until recently. Not wanting to hold up our walk, I took this photo a bit quickly. The background is appropriately blurry, but the magnolia blossom isn’t as sharp as it should be. 

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And finally, these bright red tulips are the first tulips we’ve seen blooming anywhere. Most of them are just beginning to show their buds.

 

 

 

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.

Happy Easter!

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Well, it’s an Easter unlike any other, and with its disappointments as well as its eternal promises. I will miss our annual Easter egg hunt, usually here in Rochester with the three little girls, but on occasion in Illinois or Wisconsin with Caleb and Hannah. And I will miss our in-person worship service. Our sanctuary is always beautifully decorated and the music with full choir and trumpets truly inspirational. On the bright side, it’s sunny (for awhile at least) and warmer, so we’ll get out for a walk. I splurged and bought a small leg of lamb for dinner. I don’t think I’ve prepared one since my father died in 1998. It was always his menu choice for Easter, and I’ll use the same recipe from The New York Times Cookbook. The leftovers won’t go to waste as one of Tracy’s favorite dishes is Shepherd’s Pie, so that’s on the menu for this week, too.

All the Easter cards have reached their recipients, so it’s safe to share them now, although I’m quite sure none of the grandchildren ever see my blog! First off the cards for the little girls–three here in Rochester, and one in Wisconsin.

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I fell in love with this bunny from Waffleflower the minute I saw it! It’s called Rejoice Rabbit which is such a perfect name. I stamped it on watercolor paper and cut it with my Cameo. Then watercolored it with Altenew’s 36 pan watercolor set. I die cut a piece of paper from My Favorite Things paper pack, “Watercolor Wash,” with Reverse Confetti’s Pierced Round Top die. Then added that to a piece of white cardstock die cut with the “Pierced Plaid Cover” die by The Stamp Market. Finally it was all added to a Lovely Lady card (Papertrey Ink.)

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The next card is exactly the same except for the color choice–purple instead of pink.

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That darling bunny was clearly too feminine for a boy, so Caleb got a shaker card.

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I love this “Peeking Rabbit” from Simon Says. I die cut it three times and inset the colored cardstock for the eyes, ears, and nose. I found the patterned paper in my stash from a long-ago Simon Says card kit and have no idea who manufactured it. It’s perfect, though with Easter sayings, and it determined the color choice for the card—Sea Glass by The Stamp Market. The greeting is from an older Papertrey Ink set, “Bunny Basket.”

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When I got ready to mail the Easter cards to Wisconsin, I began to worry that Hannah would find her card lacking when Caleb got a shaker card. I called  Sarah to ask, and her answer was so sweet. “Hannah will love her Easter card, and Caleb will share, so don’t worry about it!” In fact, Caleb is a wonderful big brother and most likely will share. Hannah always loves her handmade cards, so hopefully she won’t be disappointed. 

There are still a couple of challenges open for Spring-themed cards so I’m posting one of the bunnies on the CAS Watercolor Challenge for Spring Flowers. With it’s layers, it may not qualify as CAS–but I saw a couple entries that made me believe it might be OK.

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I’m posting the shaker card in the Inspired By “Spring is Here” challenge. I wish spring was really here, but I think we have a few more weeks to go. We alternate between somewhat warmer temperatures and downright cold!

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Hopefully by next Easter, the pandemic will be a thing of the past, and we can go back to celebrating with our traditions. If you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful day–home though you probably must be!

 

Made in Minutes

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These cards were actually inspired by an article in our local paper on Thursday requesting cards that could be given to seniors who are feeling particularly isolated and fearful during this time of social isolation. Then I saw a post by Cathy Zielski that solved the problem of how to get a group of cards created in a short amount of time. All 12 cards follow the same design—a piece of patterned paper from my considerable stack of 6X6 paper pads, two frame dies (“Nordic Frames” and “Crimped Frames” by The Greetery), and a group of “Hello” dies (two from Simon Says and one from Mama Elephant.) Once the die cutting was done, each card was made literally in a few minutes. Then I remembered that the current AAA Cards Challenge is (guess what?)–Made in Minutes. 

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Here are the cards:

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Once I find out if Lifespan is planning to mail the cards I’ll be able to drop them off at their offices which are just around the corner from me. I’m just not sure if they need postage on the envelopes or not. All these are pretty feminine, and I’m thinking a set designed for men might be appreciated as well.

 

 

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!

5 in 5 and Watercolor Challenge

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Today’s the 5th of April, and time for Sandie’s meme 5 in 5—5 photos in 5 minutes. Sandie shared some of her projects during this time of isolation, and I thought I’d do a bit of the same. I shared a little on my last blog post, but today I’m focusing on coloring projects I’m working on. I lined up a bunch of projects and snapped away.

Improving my coloring skills with watercolors and Copic markers is always on my list. This increased time at home has given me ample opportunity to watch videos, pull out supplies and practice. Tracy gifted me with two Sandy Allnock classes for Christmas. I finished the videos for the colored pencil class in February, and continue to practice, but have moved on now to the Copic Jumpstart class. The first lessons focus on color theory as did the colored pencil class, but I created a new color wheel with Copics this week, and made notes on the essentials of color theory to add to a notebook I started a year or so ago. Sandy also suggested we make color wheels with a set of darker markers which I think I’ll try this week.

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I also updated my pages with a few markers I’ve purchased in the last six months or so.

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Last month I focused on watercolors, and I haven’t abandoned that effort at all. When a good sale arrived via my inbox a week ago, I decided to splurge and purchased a new set of watercolor markers. I spent one afternoon swatching out the 60 colors. It took a lot longer than I expected, but I learned a lot more than I expected as well. It was interesting to see how the colors blend out, some more easily than others, and to see in some markers a range of tones.

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Yesterday I spent some time watercoloring the Wild Rose Stem from Memory Box. It was my best effort so far in no-line watercoloring. It was all done with just three Karin Markers and a watercolor brush to draw out the colors. 

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Here’s another look at it. I’m taking this opportunity to share this at the CAS Watercolor Challenge which currently is “Spring Flowers.”

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CAS Watercolor April 2020

I hope you’re finding time to destress with a comforting hobby. Crafting is the one thing that is able to take my mind off all the terrible news, and understandable fears we all have.

Featuring Gina K Designs

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The Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is “Anything Goes.” There’s always a product focus on these challenges, and I don’t usually have anything to share. This time it is Gina K Designs. The warehouse and very lovely retail store are located in Greendale, WI, about 35 minutes from Sarah’s. A good friend of mine’s sister also lives near there, and Nancy and I got together for lunch during our early March visit. Afterwards I made a stop at Village Paper and Ink. I didn’t buy a lot, but I did pick up two small stamp sets. I used one to watercolor these hydrangeas from Heartfelt Hydrangea when we were at Sarah’s. Since we’ve returned, I needed a sympathy card, and these seemed appropriate.

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Since the image was already watercolored, it was just a matter of choosing a card. I had both a purple and a dark navy Memory Box card, and the navy looked much better than the shade of purple I had. Having added blue to to the flowers, this worked out fine. 

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The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set, Sending You Comfort.  In addition to the Simon Says challenge, I’m entering this one in the Time Out Challenge: Purple as well. 

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The weather today is wild. To avoid the predicted rain, we took our walk around noon today following our church’s worship service on You Tube. Just as we came home, the sun came out, and less that 15 minutes ago, I went out on the patio to see if it were warm enough in the sun to spend some time out there. It was too breezy for me, so I came in. Tracy, however, went out to do some yard work. In less than 10 minutes, it started to pour. Blue skies vanished immediately! It’s the beginning of a cold front—a drop from near 70° today to the 40’s tomorrow. Ahh, March!

Start with a Sketch

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I don’t often start with a sketch. In fact, it’s a rare event. One of my card-making friends excels at this, but I’ve always struggled a bit with it. When I saw the new sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches, however, I immediately had an idea, (and having plenty of time on my hands) pulled out a new stamp set by Memory Box called Wild Rose Stem.

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At about the same time, a new challenge appeared at Time Out: use a little or a lot of purple, so that determined the color scheme.

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Here’s the card that resulted from the two challenges:

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The Wild Rose Stem stamp set includes a very large double bloom with stem and this single bloom. Since the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge calls for a “clean and simple” card, I opted for the single bloom, which is still quite large. After watching a video the other day with watercoloring with watercolor markers, I pulled out my Zig Clean Color markers. It took a bit to get adjusted to them. They definitely don’t react the same way my pan watercolors do to a wet on wet technique, so I had to be ready quickly to pull the color out with a damp brush. I used just two purple markers and a touch of a blue one on the petals.

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Since I had gold embossed the flower and leaves before coloring them, I decided to back the Nordic Frame by The Greetery with some gold paper for a subtle shine and elegance. I also gold embossed the sentiment from The Greetery’s Sentiment Suite: Birthday.

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After mounting the flower on the frame, I adhered it all to a card made from Gina K’s Wild Lilac cardstock. It appears a bit darker in the last photo than it is IRL. 

Hope you are finding satisfying ways to keep busy in this time of seclusion. I’ve managed to cross two LONG overdue projects off my list. More on that at the end of the month when I write up my OLW post for March.

 

Watercolored Flowers: Take Three

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This is card #3 from my watercoloring session last week. It’s another birthday card, but I couldn’t find the perfect Happy Birthday to fit in the oval, so I chose a sentiment from an older, and not much used set, by Papertrey Ink, Scripted. Now that I’ve “found” it again, I think you’ll see more of it. One of the items on my list of things to do during this time of forced seclusion is to use newer stamps and dies, and older less used ones. Of the three cards I made, I think this is my favorite. It also caused the most trouble. Just after I glued the beautiful Geometrix: Oval frame to the card front, the stamped message smeared. I can’t remember the last time that happened, but it required starting over. Fortunately, the flowers had not been glued.

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For all three cards, I used a wet on wet technique for watercoloring. I’m happiest with the shading that happened on this one.

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I also used a Gelly Roll #10 white pen to add some accents on the pistils. 

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I’m entering this card in these challenges:

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The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

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AAA Birthday: Flowers

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Time Out: Birthday 

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CAS on Friday: Birthday

Here’s a look at all three cards I’ve posted over the last few days. One thing I love about a versatile stamp set is the very different looks you can achieve by changing the color and the design of the cards. 

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Watercolored Flowers: Part 2

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I’m back with the second of the watercolored flowers from my afternoon of playing with the Altenew 36 pan watercolors. Like yesterday, the images are from Simon Says Delicate Flowers set which was part of the May 2019 card kit.

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The sentiment is from a relatively new Ink to Paper set called It’s a Sign: Birthday. I’m a fan of orange and gray so created a top-folding card from PTI’s “Soft Stone” cardstock. The sentiment was stamped with Smoky Shadow ink.

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After die cutting the flowers and leaves with the accompanying dies, I popped up one of the flowers with dimensional tape for a little interest.

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I’m entering this in three challenges:

TFChallenge#42

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

AAABD#11

AAA Birthday: Flowers

Time Out Challenge 157 Badge

Time Out Challenges: Birthday

 

Playing with Watercolors

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As part of my OLW, COMMIT for March, I’m still playing with watercolors. Over the next three days, you’ll see three cards that resulted from one afternoon session. I’m learning quite a bit: I need to work more slowly, and I’m better off with a good #4 watercolor brush. Patience, too, is important. Waiting for one section to dry before moving on is also important. All the flowers I watercolored came from the same Simon Says set, Delicate Flowers, which was part of the May 2019 card kit. 

Here’s the first card, another for the birthday stash.

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I used Altenew’s 36 pan watercolors for these flowers. It’s one of my favorite watercolor sets for painting flowers. Almost no mixing needed since the colors are so fresh and bright.

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Because I wanted to play along with the Addicted to CAS challenge: Circle, I used a PTI Shape Shifter Circle #2 die as a backdrop for the flower. I think most CAS blogs now accept a color as the “white space” and this one is Spring Rain, also from PTI. The blue cardstock is its truest color in this photo.

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I’m entering this in the Addicted to CAS Challenge: Circle.

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The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes:

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And the AAA Birthday Game: Flowers:

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We made an early grocery store run this morning, needing to purchase a gift card for RAIHN (Rochester Interfaith Hospitality Network). My friend and I provide dinner each time our church hosts families from RAIHN. Needless to say, during this time of seclusion, we are not hosting families. We are, however, providing dinners for a family that is residing in the RAIHN apartment. We arrived just as Wegmans opened, and were pleasantly surprised to find the shelves reasonably full. A week ago there was no meat except for a few packages of hamburger, no salad dressing, no bananas . . . you get the picture. Today I was able to pick up ingredients for several of our favorite meals as well as some cleaning supplies we needed. It was relatively easy to stay appropriately distant from other shoppers, too. We go to the Wegmans flagship store which has wide aisles and ample cashiers so I feel as safe as I could be under the circumstances. We won’t need to return again for at least a week, if not longer. I am a fan of fresh produce so am likely to make a quick run once every week or 10 days.

Hope you are finding good things to occupy your time. Sarah gave Tracy a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle for his birthday, and in three days, he’s just about completed it. I’d like to say I helped, but if I put in 50 pieces that would be saying a lot. Granted, I also have not put in the time!

Stay safe!

 

 

Happy Birthday X Three

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Here’s another entry for Seize the Birthday’s current challenge: Sentiment as the Focal Image. It also uses the same tall skinny alphabet used on my first entry. 

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I’ve been trying, when I could, to make multiples of cards so I have a few in my stash ready to go. It doesn’t always work, but in this case, I had to die cut five different colors in order to made the card so I had the opportunity to make five cards. Since I layered two letters of each color to give them a bit of height, it took a little longer, so I only managed to complete three cards. I saved the letters, though, so there’s the possibility of two more. 

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So that the HAPPY was truly the focal point, I centered the word on a navy 4-bar card from Paper Source. 

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All three of these cards are headed to men whose birthdays are upon us. I think it would be just as appropriate for a teenager, or a woman—a very versatile design. 

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Color Crush (The Stamp Market), True Black (PTI), Paper Source A4 card
Dies: Skinny Upper Alpha (The Stamp Market)
Stamp: Birthday Basics (The Stamp Market)

I’m also entering this in the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Anything Goes.

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A Big Happy Birthday

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The new challenge at Seize the Birthday is “Sentiment as Focal Image.” I have the perfect card to share for this challenge. The sentiment is all there is to the card. It’s already been gifted to my daughter-in-law’s niece who just turned 18.

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This card, like yesterday’s, uses some new-to-me products from The Stamp Market. Tracy gave me a gift certificate for Christmas, and top on my list was the tall “Skinny Upper Case Alpha.” Die cut from metallic gold paper they really make a statement. Although hard to see in this photo the card itself is black shimmer paper adding just a bit more sparkle. “Hooray” was embossed in silver on black cardstock and then die cut.  It’s also from The Stamp Market.

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Here’s a better view:

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I used the tall skinny number dies for the inside sentiment along with a die from Papertrey Ink’s “By the Number Suffixes.” The stamped greeting is from The Stamp Market’s set called “Hip, Hip, Hooray.”

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One last look:

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The card got high marks from the teenager—always a good sign.