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One Card; Two Challenges

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I have a card for two challenges: AAA Cards: Made in Minutes and The Flower Challenge: Summer Flowers.

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It’s not often I can make a card in just a few minutes, but this one came together very quickly, and is one of my CAS faves. I should have made multiples in different colors!

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It’s a simple watercolored flower from Altenew’s “Sketched Flowers” die cut, attached to white card cut with a “Stitched Rectangle” from Simon Says, and then to a Lovely Lady (Papertrey Ink) card base.

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I wish I had more sentiments with this font, which is a favorite of mine. It’s from Papertrey Ink’s “Never Enough Thanks” set.

 

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. 

Maddy’s Fourth Birthday

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Today Maddy turned four. There can’t be a friends party this year, but the family gathered to celebrate. To make it seem special, an ice cream truck arrived. To make it as safe as possible, Leon was the only one who interacted with the server. Maddy was quite excited, and we all enjoyed great ice cream from a Rochester local ice cream store. Here are the three cuties posing for me before their ice cream.

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Then it was on to opening presents. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as excited as Maddy who exclaimed over each and every gift. “It’s what I’ve always wanted!” “Look, Mom, it’s a rainbow dress!” 

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And, of course, there was the birthday cake. Maddy insisted she blow out the candles without help, and proudly announced, “That’s the first time I’ve ever done it all by myself.” Maddy took off her birthday dress so it wouldn’t get dirty during dinner.

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Here’s the card I made for her. When I saw this slimline die for a peek-a-boo windows by Lawn Fawn, I knew I’d find plenty of uses for it. I ended up using a number of stamp sets to complete it. Many of the images came from a Hero Arts Monthly kit from December 21018. I’ve only purchased two of the Hero Art kits, but they both had wonderful images, and come with the dies and lots of embellishments.

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I started by using the Simon Says “Falling Stars” stencil in a light pink and also stenciled the business envelope as well. I masked around the three flaps and then stamped images on each flap: Hero Arts fairy, sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Balloon Bash,” and the rainbow and cloud Simon Says “Best Ever”, and the cake with four candles from My Favorite Things, “Birthday Bears.” 

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Under the flaps, all the stamps came from the Hero Arts sets. Everything was colored with Copic markers. I added clear glitter pen to the fairies’ wings and the icing on the birthday cake. Three small purple pearls were added to the flowers.

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This turned out to be a great sentiment for a slimline card. It’s from the Winnie and Walter “Wish Big” set, and there’s glitter on all the alphabet flags.

Maddy’s card turns out to be a good entry for the current AAA Birthday Challenge: 3-D.

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We got home from Sarah’s last night so we’d be here for Maddy’s birthday. Making the trip during the pandemic seemed a bit daunting, but driving straight through didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought it would–helped, of course, by good weather. We stopped only for gas, to change drivers, and to get lunch which we ate in the car. Not our preferred way to travel, but as safe as we could make it. It took us about 11 hours each way. Once we were there, we stayed at home, as do Sarah and her family. They order most of their groceries, although Adam did go to the store once or twice while we were there. It was great to see them, and the grandchildren were thrilled to have us there, and sad to see us leave. It was also good to give Sarah and Adam some relief as they both work from home as well as entertaining and trying to provide enriching activities for Caleb and Hannah. It will take me a few days to settle back into routines here, but it’s good to be home.

Blue Watercolored Florals

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Seize the Birthday’s challenge is watercolors this time around. I had several (missed) opportunities to get a card up on their challenge site, but finally got one of the watercolored florals I created for the #100DayProject made into a card.

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For my birthday, I received a couple very generous gift certificates from my children to Pinkfresh Studios. In my first order, the “Keep Going” stamp set arrived with this beautiful floral image:

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I watercolored the image with the Karin brush markers. I’ve discovered, that for me, swiping the brush on a palette and picking it up with a brush or a waterbrush works much better than applying the watercolor directly on the image. I didn’t purchase the die for the set, so I fussy cut it before adding it to a Mix and Mat Oval frame by Papertrey Ink.

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Recently, in one of my perpetual reorganizing efforts, I came across this beautiful, subtly striped gray cards. I’m guessing they are from Memory Box, but I can’t be sure. I loved the blue and white against the gray. A simple sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions finished it off.

One Corner

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AAA Cards has a new challenge: one corner.

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I was coloring some more Simon Says “Spring Flowers” for my #100DayProject, and decided to design a card with the floral elements in one corner. Here’s what I came up with:

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I colored the images with Copic Markers and fussy cut the flower. I used the accompanying dies to cut out the leaves. The sentiment is from Altenew’s “Floral Frame.”

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I ended up needing to take the photos in two different locations which explains the difference in lighting and backgrounds. Not ideal, by any means. 

One Layer: Take Two

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There are actually two challenges that overlap by just a few hours that are both featuring a one layer challenge. This will be my second entry to AAA Cards, and my first to Addicted to CAS.

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I actually needed two anniversary cards and altered them only by the color of the cardstock I used. Only one of them qualifies as one layer, though, because I added a few pearls to the pink card.

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After stamping Altenew’s “Flower Vine” in light ink, I colored both images with colored pencils, and then embossed the images in gold. This works as long as you keep the stamp in your MISTI. I’m always a bit nervous that the card won’t be in quite the same place.

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The sentiment from The Greetery’s Sentiment Suite: Love was also embossed in gold.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the Father’s Day cards I’ve been working on this week.

 

The Flower Challenge: Navy plus One

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I have a sympathy card to share for The Flower Challenge–Navy + One. In my case, it’s navy plus gray—a neutral (white) is also allowed.

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Aside from the stamped image from Pinkfresh Studios, everything on the card was die cut.

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And all of the die cuts come from The Greetery: Nordic Frames, Inside and Out Berry Branches, and Fit to be Tied. 

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I layered the Nordic Frames, cut in white, on one another, and then adhered to a dark navy card. The berries and leaves were die cut from the same navy cardstock and two colors of gray card stock, with some shading done with colored pencils.

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It’s always a challenge to create a sympathy card. I’m averse to bright florals for sympathy cards, but don’t want the card to be too dark either. This seems to hit a good balance, and I can see using the design again.

A One Layer Card

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It seems like it would be easiest to make a one layer card, but actually it’s pretty difficult not to put a simple frame, layer, or embellishment on a card. I was playing around with colored pencils a few nights ago for my #100DayProject and ended up with a card that worked for me, so I’m entering it in the AAA Cards Challenge for one layer cards. I’m not using the optional photograph for inspiration.

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It had been awhile since I used colored pencils on kraft cardstock, so that’s where I started. I stamped Altenew’s “Needlework Motif” in black ink on a kraft card base. 

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The next step was to color the entire image with white pencil so that the colors will appear bright as well as providing some highlights. Given the nature of the stamp, choosing colors was clearly personal preference, and I liked the pinks, oranges, and bright greens together.

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The final step was to choose a sentiment. I wanted one that would balance the design on the top a bit since I had decided not to stamp anything from the opposite corner. Papertrey Ink’s two-step sentiments from “Scripted” worked well.

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Time Out: Let Us Be Grateful

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The quote for inspiration at Time Out is one of my favorites:

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In the top five things I’m grateful for are a list of friends, some of whom I’ve know for over 40 years now. This card went to one of those long-time friends.

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She’s a country girl at heart and decorates her home with lots of country-themed accessories so I thought this mason jar and the gingham check would be perfect for her. I die cut the gingham paper from My Favorite Things with the Papertrey Ink Shape Shifter Oval, and tied a piece of twine around it, finishing with a bow. 

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I fussy cut the flowers from Simon Says “Mandy’s Flowers” and popped it up with some dimensional tape. The card base is PTI’s Summer Sunrise. Tulips are done here, now, but we’re blessed with lots of flowers both in our yard and in pots in the front of our house and around the patio. Here’s a peek at some near the front door.

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The sun is out, and although it’s exceptionally cool today, we’ve had lovely weather and have spent a lot of time outside walking, hiking, and sitting/eating on the patio.

Color Throwdown—Week 3

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For the third week in a row, the Color Throwdown Challenge has called my name. I love these bright party colors:

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And it was a perfect opportunity to play with some new products from The Greetery’s latest release. Admittedly, I’d change a couple of things about this card if the challenge didn’t end in just an hour or two, but it’s colorful and cheerful, and I love Betsy’s new pinwheel stencils. I purchased the dies as well, and have lots of things to try with this set as well as the “Birthday Blooms” set which I used for the sentiment.

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I added just a couple enamel dots as embellishment as well as using some dimensional tape for the centers of the orange pinwheels and the die cut sentiment. Betsy’s die cut designs for the sentiments in “Birthday Blooms” are sheer genius!

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Hope your week is off to a good start! The weather here is cooler than it’s been, but just about perfect in my opinion—warm enough to eat on the patio, but not too hot to walk a couple of miles without sweating.

 

Card Concept: Bright Flowers

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The Card Concept photo inspiration is bright and colorful. 

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I had stamped all the flowers and the vase from Pinkfresh Studios Fleur 2 and decided to pull them out, color them with Copic markers, and arrange them in the vase for a friend’s birthday card.

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I arranged everything on a Nordic Frame from The Greetery and then to an Aqua Mist (PTI) card. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Simple Strips.

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The Card Concept identifies a series of card styles from which to choose. I think this one falls under Clean and Layered. There’s still lots of white space, but there are a lot of flowers layered as well as the beautiful Nordic Frame layered on the card base. 

 

Going Around in Circles

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The Monday Simon Says Challenge is Going Around in Circles. One of my projects for the Online Card Class Spring Card Camp 2 was to create some watercolor washes. This one was done with Tombow markers which I never would have used for this technique. (That’s why I love these classes. All kinds of little tidbits and new ideas are introduced.) Once it was done, it was very vibrant, and I wanted something to tone it down a bit. I found this circle coverplate by Papertrey Ink, and I love how it turned out.

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I know just who it’s going to. A friend of mine is scheduled for a bone marrow transplant next month, and I’m thinking this might brighten up one of the many days he has to spend in the hospital.

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The sentiment from Simon Says “Hello Darling” set was stamped on Gina K Melon cardstock and cut out with a circle die, then backed with a slightly larger black circle. Off to link up with the challenge:

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Color Throwdown 2

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After rarely playing along with the Color Throwdown Challenge, I have a card for the second week in a row. When I saw the color combination, I knew I’d try to do something. Like last week, the combo spoke to me.

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So today when I sat down to do some coloring for the #100DayProject, I picked out three turquoise Copic markers and stamped a butterfly from “Beautiful Butterflies,” the stamp set in the June Simon Say Card Kit. It’s a wonderful set, and this is the second card I’ve created with it this week. I’m posting nearly every day on Instagram as part of the #100DayProject, but eventually, most of the cards will show up here as well.

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I found the turquoise paper behind the heart in one of my folders of precut papers. I have no idea where that circle die came from—I certainly can’t find it today. I have done a couple big purges since the beginning of the year, but I don’t think I’ve given away any dies. The heart was cut with a nested set of heart dies by My Favorite Things. 

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Both the white panel and the butterfly are adhered with dimensional foam/tape. The sentiment is another from Taylored Expressions “Simple Strips.” I love that you can stamp, emboss, and then die cut a whole group of sentiments at one time. I keep them in a little bag and can pull them out when needed. 

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Hope your weekend is a good one! As usual, during this stay-at-home time, ours will be pretty quiet. Tracy is doing a lot of yard work. He’s taken down four straggly trees along our property line in preparation for extending the fence he started last year. A nearly dead hedge along the edge of the patio also went to the curb today. Things are looking brighter–literally. I have a few more flowers to plant, but most of my to-do list is inside. 

Color Throw Down

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I follow The Color Throw Down challenge and often intend to create a card for it, but it rarely happens. By the time the challenge shows up in my Feedly account, the end date is just five days away. You would think that during this stay-at-home time, five days would be plenty of time to get a card made. It just doesn’t happen, but today after I finished my earlier post, I worked on my #100DayProject. I deliberately chose the colors yellow, gray, and white for this week’s Color Throw Down challenge. Three colors, I might add, that I really love together. So I was not totally surprised when I check the date for this week’s challenge to discover it ends tomorrow, so here is a second post in one day—a rarity to be sure.

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Day 18 of the Spring Card Camp 2 was about ink swiping backgrounds. Being a CAS fan, most of the backgrounds were a bit busy for my tastes. But Seeka created a series for part 2 of the lesson that I loved, and this is one of the designs I particularly liked. I swiped down the side of Bristol cardstock with two ink cubes in gray and two ink cubes in yellow from Pinkfresh Studios.  It’s easier to see the ombre effect in this photo:

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Then I used a Y35 Copic marker to add just a touch of dimension to the leaves. After die cutting the panel with a stitched rectangle die, I mounted it on Simon Says Smoke cardstock. 

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The beautiful vine is from Simon Says’ “Stronger Together” set and the sentiment from Simon Says “Sketched Flowers.” Both sets were part of the Simon Says Card Kit series, and have wonderful images and great sentiments. 

Off to link this up before the challenge closes!

An Almost Double Birthday

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This weekend my niece’s two children both celebrated their birthdays–one day apart. On Friday, Finn turned five, and on Saturday, Rowen turned three. I love making birthday cards for kids. Finn’s card was inspired by Sandie’s photo prompt, “Digits” for the 30 Day Photo Challenge. It’s an almost perfect entry for AAA Cards Birthday Challenge. Finn turned five and the AAA Card Challenge just turned six.

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I’ve used this number border by Papertrey Ink many times, but I think this is my favorite card so far. The green and orange seem to work wonderfully together.

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All the numbers except the five are “empty.” I stacked three orange 5’s before inlaying them in the border so it stands out both in color and dimension.

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The sentiment is from My Favorite Things, “Bitty Birthday Wishes” and the arrow on the banner points to the inside where it says, “For the Birthday Boy.”

Rowan’s card is another entry to the AAA Birthday Challenge: Wings. The previous entries were cards with butterflies as the focal image. This is a more imaginative entry–a unicorn with wings.

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The stamped and die cut images are from My Favorite Things “Fairy Tale” set and the sentiment is from the same set I used for Finn’s card. 

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The glittery stars were stenciled with Nuvo Silver Gem Glimmer Paste and the Altenew “Milky Way” stencil. Lots of sparkly dimension.

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Too coordinate with the sparkly stars, I embossed the greeting in silver on black cardstock. 

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