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Inspired By . . . Vintage Linens

I love the look of vintage linens so was drawn to this challenge at Inspired By . . .

Vintage linens

The photo reminded me of one of Papertrey Ink’s premade card fronts. I don’t often make use of them unless I’m in need of a very quick card, but I’m happy to have this in my stash of birthday cards, and I thought it mimicked the florals in the tea towels in the photo.

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I stamped and die cut the sentiment from Penned Elegance (one of my all-time favorite sentiment sets) in Pure Poppy, added a few pearls, and covered the flowers with the Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen for a bit of sparkle.

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It’s easier to see the glitter in this shot as well as the final touch of emphasizing the stamens of the pink flowers with a white glaze pen.

Off to link this up to the Inspired By . . . Challenge.

 

 

Happy Birthday, America, and Happy Birthday, Mom!

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Today is the Fourth of July, a celebration of all the good things that America is! Despite the multitude of serious problems in this country, we continue to be blessed in so many ways. I took this photo on Flag Day when Tracy’s family was at Honeoye Lake.

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Tomorrow is my mother-in-law’s birthday, but we celebrated today with a barbecue at my sister-in-law’s house. There are only two of the five siblings in town this week, so it was a smaller gathering than usual. But not less festive!

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Actually, Jill managed to get the brother from Austin on the computer and the one from Phoenix on Tracy’s phone to sing “Happy Birthday,” and watch Mom open her gift. Being 89, there’s not much Mom needs, but family time means everything to her. This year we decided to give her a series of dinners out when as many of us are in town as possible. She was delighted as you can see.

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Tracy’s sister excels in writing poems for such gifts. In the past we’ve gifted her with floral arrangements that arrive at her home several times during the year, and other group gifts. Jill always manages to come up with just the right words. Here’s this year’s:

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Ellie is a huge fan of flowers, so I chose one of my most elegant floral stamps, “Beautiful Flowers,” that was part of a recent Simon Says card kit. I only used a part of the floral arrangement and got my inspiration here. I love Yana’s work, but this time, I decided I didn’t like the way her background came out. I decided to see if I could pull off doing coloring between the flowers that would look good on black cardstock instead of coloring the entire background.

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I stamped the image in black waterproof ink on Bristol paper, and watercolored it with my Zig Clean Color and SAI Watercolor markers. Before I fussy cut around them, I colored the white spaces between the flowers with a black Copic marker which worked out perfectly. I knew I’d never be able to fussy cut the small opening between the flowers.

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I embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set in white before arranging the flowers and adhering them with liquid adhesive. I was so anxious about not smearing the glue that I didn’t pay close enough attention to the placement of the flowers, so the sentiment is closer to the arrangement than I would like. By the time I realized it, it was too late, the flowers were permanently attached.

We’re off to spend a few days with Matt and his family and to celebrate another birthday on Saturday.

 

Make A Wish

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Someone wondered how I was doing on the #100DayProject, and you probably noticed that there haven’t been any weekly updates in over a month. Although I planned for our travel in May, and managed to keep up, June was just too busy. There were literally just 5 days in the whole month that we were home without a guest or a family commitment. I packed a project box for our last trip to Chicago, but there was no time (and no clear spot) to work as we helped get Sarah’s house ready for their move to Wisconsin. Today I got an email from the project, and if I had kept up, there would be just nine days left. But there was also this question: If you fell behind, are you planning to catch up? And, the answer is, yes. Yesterday for the first time in over a month, I had time to play with new stamps and new techniques. As the project has gone on, my Pinterest board for Techniques has continued to grow, so I do intend to keep working on them in a consistent fashion. Yesterday I created 10 different backgrounds or stamped images. I only had time to get one of them made into a card.

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I spent a lot of time playing around with Copic markers and blending combinations yesterday. I had recently read this post, and set out to create my own blending chart. Before I could get very far, I got an email from Cathy Zielske offering a chart to her newsletter recipients she’d made after reading the same post. Let me just say, her chart looked a lot better than mine! The stamp for this card is a new one I ordered in May after a Simon Says release: “Center Cut Flowers.” I linked it here so you can see how it works. There’s an outer wreath, and an inner center. I used the inner part, and did a partial stamping on opposite corners. This is easy to do with the Misti stamping tool, once you’ve stamped one corner, you simply rotate the card to stamp exactly the same impression on the opposing corner. 

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The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s “Birthday Cheer” set. I’ve used it often, but I don’t think I’ve ever used this particular sentiment. The sequins aren’t really sequins. They came with a Simon Says card kit (I think) and the mix is designed for shaker cards. The colors were perfect, though, so I went ahead and used them. They are solid and sit a little higher which explains the shadow in the photograph. They’ll definitely need some protection if they go in an envelope to be mailed. 

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

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Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes

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The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is “Anything Goes.” Black and red is one of my favorite color combinations. As part of the #100DayProject, I pulled out a lot of stamps I hadn’t used in awhile, and this poppy stamp from Hero Arts was one of them.

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After stamping the image in black, I used my new Polychromos pencils to color the poppies and stems. I cut a piece of New Leaf cardstock to frame the image and adhered it to a square Lasting Impressions card (another item that’s been in my stash for years.) 

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I die cut a Spellbinders banner and stamped the sentiment from “Ways to Say: Birthday” by Papertrey Ink.  I added three tiny black pearls to the side of the banner. The Lasting Impressions cards came with polk-dot red envelopes which was just perfect for sending off to a friend.

Less is More: An Item from Your Bits Box

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This week’s challenge from Less is More is to use a bit from your “bits box.” I have multiple envelopes filled with bits that didn’t make it to a card when they were created. For this card, there were actually two:  the card itself where I had die cut a circle in the front of the woodgrain cardbase (Simon Says,) and the beautiful butterfly from Papertrey Ink’s “Butterfly Hope.”

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To create the card, I die cut a circular frame from two Simon Says “Stitched Circle” dies from Raspberry Fizz cardstock. The sentiment was stamped inside from the “It’s the Thought” set (PTI), and the butterfly attached to the side.

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Here’s a peek at the inside:

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I need a few more challenges like this to use up my stash of “bits.”

 

 

A Variation on Take Three Thursday

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I’ve gotten way behind in posting some of the cards I’ve made recently, so I thought I’d do a variation on Mary-Lou’s Take Three Thursday and share three thank you cards. All three cards feature florals and die cuts.

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Here I started with the beautiful Shape Shifters: Circle 1 die from Papertrey, using just two of the three pieces to use as a focal point for the leaves from Reverse Confetti’s Tall Blooms which I colored with Copic markers to match the Hawaiian Shores card base.

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The sentiment is from Papertrey’s Gathered Garden set. I tied the the three leafy sprigs together with a piece of my favorite white silk ribbon and added a few sequins.

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For this card I started by die cutting a piece of white card stock with the Stitched Rays die by Reverse Confetti. Then I die cut one of the Pierced Round Top dies (also Reverse Confetti) so the stitched rays radiated from the left-hand side.  A die cut vase from Papertrey’s Vogue Vases and more florals from Reverse Confetti’s Tall Blooms were added. All were adhered to a striped piece of paper from my stash of single papers and then to a Licorice card by Memory Box. 

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There wasn’t an easy way to add a stamped sentiment so I die cut one from the Swooshes set by Papertrey.

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For the final card, I scored an Amethyst Allure card at every 1/2 inch and added two die cuts by Papertrey Ink: “thank you”, and the February Corner Adorner stamp and die.

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I used some foam dots to the Corner Adorner to add a bit more dimension.

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Here’s hoping it’s a good one for you!

 

Happy Father’s Day!

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It’s Father’s Day in the U.S. Lucky me, I have three terrific fathers to create cards for on this special day. I’m celebrating with just one of them this year–Tracy. Adam is in St. Louis at the Presbyterian General Assembly, so we’re in Chicago helping Sarah with Hannah and Caleb as well as helping her clean out and organize for a move later this month. Matt is celebrating at home with his three lovely daughters, and I know Betsy is making it a special day. We’ll celebrate again here when Adam gets home later this week, and in Rochester when we get home.

First up, the cards for the younger dads.

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I had another stamp set on my desk, and this one by Simon Says “Ice Cream Dream” was stored on the back side of the envelope. I thought it would make a fun card, and I’m happy with how they turned out. I started by stamping, coloring, and fussy cutting the ice cream bars. I embossed a frame on a piece of Neenah Solar White with the Papertrey Ink “Mix and Mat Postal,” and then added a computer generated sentiment to the bottom. 

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Next I added the ice cream bars with some adhesive dots, and adhered it all to a card with some Hawaiian Shores “Bitty Big” striped paper from Papertrey. The last touch was some Glossy Accents on each of the ice cream bars.

I went with a golf theme for Tracy’s card. He’s been a golf enthusiast for many years, and enjoys golf once a week with two friends. 

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This is my usual CAS style, based on two cards I pinned a long time ago—here and here. I found the card base–an Amuse paper-in my stash, and die cut the Mat Stack 3 (Papertrey) from Memory Box “Apple Green” paper. The golf ball was embossed on white, and in real life looks just like a golf ball. The texture just didn’t show up in either photograph. Both are from Papertrey Ink’s “On the Links” set which has come in handy for quite a few masculine cards over the years. 

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“Dad” was die cut from a Memory Box alphabet that appears to have gone out of production. The rest of the sentiment is also from “On the Links,” and was stamped onto the banner from “Tag Sale 10” by Papertrey.

We’ve celebrated this afternoon with ice cream cones from Hartigan’s, a local ice cream shop with homemade ice cream. It’s 97° here, so we were lucky the ice cream shop wasn’t too crowded. If we’d had to leave with the cones, they would have melted long before we could have eaten them! Hope it’s a bit cooler where you are.

 

May 2018 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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The monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is one of my favorite card-making activities. It’s probably because I have such a lovely collection of Papertrey products, so coming up with a design usually isn’t too challenging. This month it was really easy. Here’s the inspiration photo:

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First off, I’m a huge fan of black and white and gingham, so that combination was a draw. And then there are those gorgeous pink flowers. What’s not to like? I have a gingham background stamp from another company which I’ve never used, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get it out. It was, however, a big disappointment. After five different black ink pads, and five pieces of paper, I still didn’t have a clean image. No black and white gingham in my paper collection either, so I went digital, finding just what I needed at The Lily Pad–a gingham collection by Allison Pennington.

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Once I had the gingham paper, the rest of the card came together quickly. The bouquet of flowers was stamped and die cut with the “Mixed Bouquet” set and put in a “Vogue Vase” stamped in black. I arranged the flowers in the vase and added it to a “Mix and Mat Scalloped” die cut on Fresh Snow Linen. I layered that onto the gingham, and then onto a top-folded card cut from Lovely Lady paper. All that was left to do was emboss the greeting from “Birthday Basics” on a vellum banner. It’s a bit hard to tell, but the tiny pink flowers have Nuvo drops in yellow added to the center of each flower for a little dimension.

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I think I’m likely to use this design again with different colors of gingham paper and any variety of flowers in a vase. Much more my CAS style than yesterday’s Make It Monday card.

I’m also linking this up to Seize the Birthday. The topping challenge this round is Patterned Paper.

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Make It Monday: Above and Below

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As soon as I watched Lizzie’s Make It Monday video, I knew I had to try it. I left her a comment saying I knew I’d be doing a close case of her card, as the Botanical Bounty stamp set was already laying on my desk. I’d borrowed it from a friend to play with, and have since ordered myself a set with one of my birthday gift certificates. Here’s Lizzie’s fabulous card:

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And here’s my very close copy, although I wouldn’t presume to say my flowers were anywhere near as well stamped and blended. It was my first attempt and it was a bit of trial and error. 

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I covered a card made from Spring Rain with a piece of striped vellum from the Sheer Basics pack, and used the stripes to guide the placement of the sentiment strip which was stamped with another of the sentiments from “Thank You Kindly” that I used in yesterday’s post. All the flowers and leaves are from the “Botanical Bounty” set. I like them a lot more than I expected I would, and am anxious for mine to arrive so I can play with them without the die cuts. Getting accurate die cuts has definitely been on the technique list for the #100DayProject, and I think I finally have that pretty much under control. 

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All the leaves were adhered directly to the vellum, but I used dimensional tape on most of the flowers. The design is a bit of a departure from the clean and simple style I usually produce, but I think I’ll find someone who will appreciate the most elaborate card.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a card for the Papertrey Ink blog hop. Today has turned out to be a lot less busy than anticipated—mainly because I cancelled one commitment due to an unusual allergy attack. Turns out I can make cards even with burning, drippy eyes!

 

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

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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.“

Floral clusters copy

 

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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:

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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.)

Happy Birthday and a Challenge

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First off, a card for the Color Throwdown Challenge. I’m really getting this in under the wire. I made the card last night, but haven’t had time to write a post until now. The challenge closes in a hour! Talk about cutting it close. Love the colors for this challenge:

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I pulled out an old, old embossed card by Lasting Impressions and added a vase of flowers and a banner sentiment to make a birthday card. 

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I used some “Simple Stems” and a “Vogue Vase” by Papertrey Ink to pull together the focal point. All the stamped images were an earlier part of my #100DayProject. The sentiment was embossed in white on a vellum banner cut with a Spellbinders die and attached to the card with liquid glue under the two pearls at the ends of the banner. I left the middle of the banner slightly curved.

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The Lasting Impressions card came with a lovely red envelope, which worked out perfectly.

It’s also my birthday which we celebrated yesterday with a Mother’s Day brunch. Today has been really busy, but it’s a lovely spring day, and I’ve received many birthday greetings in the mail, on email and via texts. I’m a very lucky lady.

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This is the first birthday that’s ever given me pause. This card from a blogging friend might explain it.

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But truthfully, I’m very grateful to have had 70 fabulous years, and hope to see many, many more. 

Bold Flowers: Two Challenges

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It’s down to the last few days, but I finally have a card for The Card Concept Challenge—Bold Flower.

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And since the stamped images are from Concord and 9th, a entry into this month’s challenge: “Floral” at Where Creativity Meets C9.

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The main flower in the inspiration photo for The Card Concept is red, but mine are bright yellow. They were stamped with Concord and 9th’s “Wildflower” stamp set on watercolor paper that I had tried the smoosh technique with Distress Oxide ink for the #100DayProject. I really didn’t love them until I added some highlights with Copic markers, and laid them on the Memory Box licorice card. Suddenly, I saw a card!

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Just by chance I found the die cut “Celebrate” in my die cut envelope cut in just the right color. I’m pretty sure it’s a Papertrey Ink die cut, but I can’t find the die nor can I identify it by looking online. I have a much larger die in the same font, but not one this small. So strange. . .

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The only embellishment were three black Amuse pearls in the center of each flower. One thing I love about Memory Box cards is the white interior which makes it so much easier to add an inside greeting. I’ll wait until I know who the card is going to before adding that.

#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.

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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.

Freshly Made Sketches #335

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Mother’s Day in the U.S. is just one week from today. Typically, I would save my Mother’s Day card to share on the actual date, but since it was inspired by the Freshly Made Challenge, and the challenge ends tomorrow, here I am! My mother-in-law does not read my blog to my knowledge, so I think it’s a safe move. It’s a great sketch with lots of possibilities.

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It’s the beautiful “Butterfly Blooms” and “A Bit More Butterfly Blooms” by Papertrey Ink again. This time I embossed the butterflies in gold on vellum,  I found the perfect piece of patterned paper in my stash and die cut it with a stitched oval from Papertrey’s “Noted:  Scalloped A2 Vertical” die set.

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I used the Simon Says “Reverse Polka Dot Background” stamp to create a subtle, tone on tone background and die cut that with a “Stitched Rectangle,” also from Simon Says. I then layered the pieces onto a Vintage Cream card.

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The sentiment from “Delightful Dahlias” (PTI) was embossed in gold and die cut with an old Spellbinders banner die. A few beautiful new-to-me sequins from Simon Says “Sparkle and Shine” collection finished it off. Here’s a closer look:

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Off to check out how others have interpreted the sketch.