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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.

ColorWheel

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

CopicPage

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.

KarinMarkers

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. 

SendingLove

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

SendingLoveFlat

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.

Prayer

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. 

PrayerFlat

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. 

Wednesdayblog-logo

Time Out Challenge 158 Badge

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.

Sketch 363

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.

Time Out Challenge 158 Badge

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

PurpleFlower

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.

PurpleFlowerClose

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.

PurpleFlowerFlat

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.

DelicateFlowerYou

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

DFYouClose

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

DFYouFlat

I’m entering this card in these challenges:

TFChallenge#42

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes

AAABD#11

AAA Birthday: Flowers

Time Out Challenge 157 Badge

Time Out: Birthday 

Fan Friday

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. 

DelicateFlowerTrio

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.

DelicateFlowerJoy

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.

DFJoyFlat

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.

DFJoyClose

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.

DelicateFlowerHB

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.

DFHBClosejpg

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.

DFHBFlat

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

ATCAS - code word circle

The Flower Challenge: Anything Goes:

TFChallenge#42

And the AAA Birthday Game: Flowers:

AAABD#11

 

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. 

2020-02-27-SentimentAsFocalImage

HBX3

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. 

HB

 

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

HB-R

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.

Wednesdayblog-logo

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.

2020-02-27-SentimentAsFocalImage

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.

HHH

Here’s a better view:

HHHClose

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.”

HHHInside

One last look:

HHHFlat

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

 

Let There Be Cake

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Addicted to CAS’s current challenge is “Cake,” and I couldn’t wait to use my new stamps and dies from The Stamp Market. They are “cake focused!”

ATCAS - code word cake

This card has a fair amount of stamping, but all of it ends up being die cut before assembly.

CelebrateCake

Since I knew I’d be spending some time putting the card together, I decided to make three identical cards. Stamping and die cutting for three really didn’t take a lot more time, and now I have a few cards in my stash. I die cut the cake from some My Mind’s Eye metallic paper. The rest of the cake was stamped and then die cut. I love the added glitter on the icing, compliments of some Stickles.

CelebrateCakeFlat

The card seemed a bit plain so I embossed the front with the polka dots–the white on white texture is pretty subtle, but add some interest. 

I’m also linking this to the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Anything Goes.

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah, Paper Source 4 bar card
Patterned Paper: Joyful (My Minds Eye)
Stamps and dies: Party Pieces (The Stamp Market)
Embossing folder: Sizzix

 

 

Celebrate

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There’s lots to celebrate here today: warm temperatures, sunny skies, and time to write a blog post! I have a card to share for The Flower Challenge: Add Leaves.

TFChallenge#41

Although I haven’t been able to make a card every single day in February, by the end of the week, I will have completed at least 29 cards, so I’ll count that as a successful goal. One night after creating a birthday card for Tracy’s upcoming birthday in March, I had a piece of patterned paper laying on my desk. I looked through my collections of already stamped and die cut images, and found these pretty flowers from Papertrey Ink’s “Botanical Bounty.” I added some shading with Polychromos colored pencils, and assembled the card.

Celebrate

CelebrateClose

CelebrateFlat

Card Supplies:
Cardsttock: True Black (PTI), Neenah
Patterned Paper: Color Crush Patterns (The Stamp Market)
Dies: Botanical Bounty (PTI), Stitched Rectangles (Simon Says), Celebrate (in my stash, unsure)

 

Cute!

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I have a cute birthday card for a very CUTE three year old. The current AAA Birthday Card Challenge is CUTE–perfect timing!

AAA#10

One of my goals this year is to use products I’ve owned and not used often or at all. This wonderful “Happy Birthday” die from My Favorite Things has been in my collection over a year. This was the perfect time to pull it out. The other product here is a brand-new stamp set, also from My Favorite Things, called “Birthday Buds.” I chose just one image from the set, and you’ll see many more of them in the future.

BDShaker

BDShakerClose

The cute little bunny with the balloon was colored with Copic markers and fussy cut, and popped up with some dimensional tape.

BDShakerFlat

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Fresh Pink (Stamp Market), Neenah
Patterned Paper: Color Crush Patterns (Stamp Market)
Stamp: Birthday Buds (Stamp Market)
Dies: Large Nested Circles (Spellbinders). Birthday Circle (MFT)

I had a whole afternoon to craft this weekend, then came down with an ugly stomach bug which put me out of commission for two days. Fortunately, it’s long gone, and I’m not behind in my card-a-day efforts since I got four cards made on Sunday. That to say, I’ll be back soon with another one or two or three.

Edited to add: Wrote this post while watching the presidential debates last night, and entered it in the wrong AAA Challenge where patterned paper isn’t allowed. The AAA Birthday Challenge however doesn’t have that restriction. That will teach me to multi-task—something I pretty much gave up a couple of years ago.

 

Simple Leaves & A Peek at the Book Journal

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All the valentines have been received, and now it’s on to making all the birthday cards I need for the next month and a half. Yesterday I had a little while after we returned from our Valentine’s Day road trip to make a very  CAS birthday card for two challenges, one calling for no more than 1/3 of the card stamped, and one looking for white space. This card definitely fits the challenges, and is also a one layer card. Admittedly, that’s pretty unusual for me, but I’m pleased it, and decided it needed no additional embellishment. 

The first challenge is AAA Cards: Up to One Third. No optional challenge this time.

#158

The second challenge is Seize the Birthday.

 I hope to be contributing to this challenge on a regular basis for the next two weeks!

2020-02-13-ShowMeYourWhiteSpace

Simon Says recently offered a new stamp set called “Be Kind.” As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be really versatile, and ordered it when I needed some other card making supplies. Since then I’ve seen several wonderful cards created with the set, and am quite sure you’ll be seeing a lot of it.

SimpleLeaves

SimpleLeavesClose

You can see that I used Copics to color the leaves this time. I know I’ll be trying colored pencils (finished the Colored Pencil Jumpstart class this week), as well as watercolors. I thought all it needed was a simple sentiment, this one is from Papertrey Ink’s “Birthday Bash,” an oldie but a goodie.

SimpleLeavesFlat

For those of you following along with my OLW: COMMIT for 2020, you know I’m participating in the Unread Shelf Project. Whitney, who runs the project, shared a book journal she created for her project. I liked what I saw and had a lovely Filofax notebook I wasn’t making good use of, so I started one, too. I keep track of all the books I read on Goodreads, so I don’t have a page for the titles, but here’s what I included.

Journal1

This might be my favorite page. Since I photographed it, I’ve finished another book, and can see that I’ve read 3 fiction and 3 nonfiction books. As it turns out, those six books were written by 3 men and 3 women. Just coincidence, but I’ll be interested at the end of the year how those percentages end up. I’ll also be interested what genres I read. 

Journal2

I belong to two book groups. Our couples book group started in 1990, and my interfaith book group just about three years ago. I decided to devote a page to each group. The date following the title is the date we discuss the book.

Journal3

Since the point of The Unread Shelf Project is to read books we’ve already acquired, we’re encouraged to not make any purchases on alternate months. I did buy both these books during January (a shopping ban month), and have since purchased four others. Not a good beginning, but one of them was my Lenten devotional book, so that was necessary. 

Journal4

You can see here that I finished two books from my unread shelf in January. I’ve read one in February, and that is the goal of the project. Personally, I’d like to read two each month, but my reading time has been way down in February. We’re doing a lot of traveling in March, and usually that means more reading, not less, so I’m hopeful I can catch up!

Journal5

And finally, a page to record books loaned. I’ve “lost” several books I loved because I don’t remember who borrowed them, included a first edition copy of one of my favorite books. This, hopefully, will help me keep track of my books. Some books I keep because I want to be able to share them, but I do want them to be returned!

I’m also hopeful that the journal will be another way for me to keep track of my intentions for 2020. Thus far, the changes I’ve made in that regard seem to be working great, and it’s hard for me to see that I won’t be able to keep up with the tracking system I’ve created. Next month, while we’re away will be the first big challenge.

 

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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After crafting for Valentine’s Day for several weeks, the big day is finally here. Some gifts were mailed directly from the company to the grandchildren in Wisconsin, but the little girls who are here will get their valentine cards and goodies today. They’re happiest when the gifts are identical–a different color for each is fine, but they all like the same things. I suppose that will change as they get older, but it makes things easier (usually) for now.

Bags

Despite the weather (the high temperature today is supposed to be 12°), we decided some time ago to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a short road trip to Skaneateles Lake. We have reservations for lunch at an Italian restaurant recommended by several friends, and will make a stop at our favorite Amish market on the way home. 

I do have four valentines left to share today, one of which I’m entering in the CASology challenge: Sweetheart. 

Week 361 - Sweetheart

First off, the valentine for Skylar. Several months ago, she was in my craft room and saw my collection of Copic markers. She wanted to watch me color something, so I pulled out one of these balloons that I had already stamped. We colored most of it, and then I put it aside. I added the shiny hearts and the sentiment to make it a valentine for her.

Soar

SoarClose

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah, Blueberry Sky (PTI)
Stencil: Rectangular Masking (Taylored Expressions)
Stamp: Up in the Air (MFT)
All the images were fussy cut.

Next up, another little bear valentine, with lots of sparkle thanks to some glimmer spray.

HVDBear

I ink blended some paper and then die cut the heart and used the Quilted Hearts embossing folder once again.

HVDBearFlat

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah, Hibiscus Pink (PTI), silver embossed (Michael’s)
Stamps: Sentiment Suite: Love (The Greetery), Bear Hugs (The Stamp Market)
Dies: Nested Hearts (Spellbinders), Sentiment Suite Basics (The Greetery), Bear Hugs (TSM)

I had stamped three versions of this background stamp from Simon Says on different papers, thinking I’d use some different mediums to color them. This one was stamped on pale pink paper and colored with Copics. The paper isn’t necessarily Copic-friendly, but it worked out pretty well.

OverlappingHearts

OverlappingHeartsFlat

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Sweet Blush (PTI), Doll Pink (SS)
Stamp: Heart to Heart Background (SS), Sentiment Suite: Love (The Greetery)
Dies: Stitched Rectangles (SS), Sentiment Suite: Basics (The Greetery)

Lastly, a valentine for the seventh grader I see twice a week after school. I’ve been working with her in a couple different settings since she was in fourth grade. She’s now on a full scholarship to an all girl’s Catholic high school here, and doing extremely well! Coming from the Rochester City Schools which struggle at every level, her success is a testament to a work ethic that is unsurpassed. In addition, she could not be a sweeter person.

BeMine

Here’s a look at the inside of the card. I can’t list the supplies since everything I used came out of the “already cut or stash” folders. The sentiment and banner are from The Greetery’s Sentiment Suite series. 

Hope your day is LOVEly!!!

 

Lots of Hearts: Part 3

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Today I have a card for two challenges. First off another entry for The Card Concept: Be Mine, Valentine. 

TCC128 0205

The second challenge is the Fusion Challenge: Valentine which also features the colors red, white, and black.

Fusion 200206 Valentine-001

I actually made two of these cards, one red, black and white, and the other pink, black, and white—one for my grandson in Wisconsin and the other for his sister. Once again this card fits the Layered CAS style for The Card Concept challenge.

PaperHugRed

Here’s a look at both cards:

PaperHugX2

I love the inside sentiment which reads: “I’m not just a card, I’m a hug with a fold in it.”

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Select White, True Black (PTI), Doll Pink (Simon Says)
Patterned Paper: Black and White Dots (MFT)
Dies: Hugs and Hellos, Bear Hugs (The Stamp Market), Holiday Shapes (Simon Says)
Stamp: Bear Hugs (The Stamp Market)

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of Hearts: Part 2

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Back again with some cards for the Valentine-themed challenges out there. One of them ends today, so we’ll start with The Time Out challenge: Affectionate.

154 Time Out Challenge Badge

Sarah is a huge fan of hedgehogs so when I saw the Hedgie Love stamp set from Penny Black I couldn’t resist. I stamped several of the cute hedgehogs to practice with my colored pencils and fussy cut them out. I posted the first one here. Here’s the one for Sarah and Adam:

InTheAir

InTheAirFlat

If you look closely, you might be able to see the glitter I put on the balloon with my Spectrum Noir glitter pen.

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Fresh Snow Linen, Blueberry Sky, Pure Poppy (PTI) 
Die: Cloudy Day Cover (Mama Elephant)
Stamps: Hedgie Luv (Penny Black), Up in the Air (MFT)

CASology also has a Valentine theme: Sweetheart.

Week 361 - Sweetheart

Here’s a card for one of mine:

HeartHappy

HeartHappyFlat

Card Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah, Cherry Red (Gina K)
Die: Nested Hearts (Spellbinders)
Impression Plate: Quilted Hearts (Sunny Studio)
Stamp: Just Sentiments: Valentine (Ink to Paper)