A new Color Hues Challenge is live. Nancy chose Red and Kraft for this round.

It’s not a color combo I typically use for Christmas, but I love the way this ended up.

It’s really past time to start thinking about Christmas cards so I used this opportunity to create one using two dies I’ve never put to use. I purchased Altenew’s “Poinsettia 3D Die Set” last year at the end of the season after all my Christmas cards were made. The Waffle Flower “Triple Line Diamond Panel” die is newer, but it’s been in the stash for a couple of months.

I die cut the “Triple Line Diamond” panel from Kraft cardstock (Papertrey Ink) and added it to the card base. It needed a festive touch, so I die cut a second panel from gold and inlaid the tiny squares. Sadly, the poinsettia covers up quite a few of them. The bonus is that I’m left with a lovely gold panel you’re likely to see soon.

The poinsettia was die cut from red cardstock (Concord and 9th) and splattered with gold watercolors from Gansi Tambi’s “Starry Colors.” I added some dimensional tape under some of the bracts of the poinsettia.

The sentiment from The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite: Christmas” was gold embossed and die cut with one of the “Sentiment Suite Basic” dies. Instead of using the tiny die from the poinsettia set for the center, I chose some gold pearls from The Paper Studio.

I hope you’ll hop over to the Color Hues Challenge and join in the fun, checking out the cards made by my awesome Design Team members and our Guest Designer, Ma-Mi.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 Tracey

I’m back with another CAS Autumn themed card. 

More leaves, this time from Papertrey Ink’s “Lovely Leaves” which has not had anywhere near enough love! I smooshed Distress Inks in Crushed Olive, Dried Marigold, and Spiced Marmelade on my glass mat, added a spritz of water and then laid down a piece of watercolor paper. Once it dried, I gold embossed the leaves and fussy cut them out.

The colors weren’t quite as bright as I wanted so I used a small paintbrush and added a bit more of the oranges to the leaves.  I used my well-loved “Crimped Frames” from The Greetery to die cut a piece of Gina K’s Asparagus cardstock. It’s become my favorite green. The sentiment from Pretty Pink Posh was embossed in gold in the lower right corner and I arranged the leaves in the upper right corner, leaving plenty of open space. I added thin gold bow and attached it to a cream card base. 

This is my first entry to the Addicted to CAS Challenge: Autumn, and my second entry into the Inspired By . . . Colorful Fall Challenge.

Getting back into the craft room has taken me longer than I hoped. Earlier this week I finished a very important birthday card which I’ll be sharing later this week. Today, however, I finally had time to make a card for several challenges all focused on fall colors. While we were in Wisconsin, an order from The Greetery arrived, and in that order was the “Curio: Autumn” collection of dies. I pulled it out this morning and die cut quite a collection of the leaves and other fall items. I pulled out my Altenew 36 pan watercolor set and painted them in a variety of colors. Today, you’ll see just three leaves, but I have an envelope with others that I hope you’ll also be seeing soon.

The design of this card comes from last week’s Freshly Made Sketches. It was designed by Cécile whose card designs are among my very favorites. I had hoped to get this card made in time to enter it in her challenge, but there was no way I could manage that. But I’m happy to adapt it here. The three squares were die cut with Ellen Hutson’s “Essential Dies: Squares.” Her Essential shape dies are among my most used dies. I adhered two of them directly to the card, and added dimensional tape to the third. The colorful leaves are from the Curio set and the sentiment from a very old Papertrey Ink set “Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers.” (Another good investment!)

I’m entering this into four challenges all focusing on fall colors:  Inspired By: Colorful Fall, The Paper Players: CAS Fall Fun, and a second entry into Addicted to CAS: Leaf, and CAS Mix-up: Autumn Colors and Watercolor.

It’s a very vibrant color combo this time around at Color Hues:

Coral is a tricky color. I “Googled” it to see what shades might come up–some look pretty orange, and my husband thought my choice was definitely orange. I, however, chose a Gina K cardstock called “Coral Reef” so I was able to defend my choice without question! For the turquoise, I chose two papers: Papertrey Ink’s “Hawaiian Shores” and Concord & 9th’s “Oceanside.” I have to thank Kristie Goulet, one of my DT teammates for the inspiration for this card. After seeing several different designs she created with the “Mosaic Tiles” die from Catherine Pooler, I had to order it. 

There must be hundreds of possibilities with this die set, and I love that it’s easily customized for males or females.

I dry embossed the background with an Alexandra Renke embossing folder, and die cut three sets of the Mosaic Tiles–one with each color. Then I had to decide which triangles I would use. The one above is one of my favorites, but you’re sure to see this die show up here again and again with different designs. 

The sentiment is a Simon Says die that arrived with a kit. I die cut it twice, cutting the coral piece in half to create the half-and-half look. Amazingly, I found three enamel dots–one matching each three of the cardstocks I used to finish the card off.  

I hope you’ll take a look at the fantastic designs the DT and our Guest Designer, Linda Snodgrass, have created:

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

And come join the fun!

I’m participating in Kathy Racoosin’s 30 Coloring Challenge by doing just a little bit each day.

I’m focusing on watercoloring and adding new layers each day to deepen the colors. Patience is not always my virtue–especially when approaching watercolors. And that is a mistake. Letting each layer dry completely makes a huge difference. This card represents three days of coloring. I posted each day’s progress on Instagram, but after posting the finished card there, decided to add three raindrops to the card which I like. 

To expedite matters, I used a page from Altenew’s Watercolor Coloring Book. I also used Altenew’s 36 pan watercolors. 

The images in the coloring book are larger than I’d like them to be, but I was able to die cut the floral and then a narrow frame with Hero Arts “Rounded Rectangles Infinity” dies. The frame is one of my favorite greens from Gina K called “Asparagus.” The card base is a “Pale Pink” from Memory Box which has a white interior–great for writing a thank you note. The sentiment strip was in my “already stamped and die cut” basket, and I’m not sure which of the many sentiment stamps I used for this one.

I’ve watercolored the past two days as well, but probably won’t share any of it here or on Instagram as I’m hoping to use it for a future Color Hues post. 

Need to get back to the cleaning and organizing I want completed before Sarah and her family arrive this weekend. We’re having absolutely perfect summer weather here. I hope it continues.

Sarah turns 41 today, and that fact is almost as perplexing as celebrating our 48th wedding anniversary. Sarah will get this card when she arrives here on Saturday with Adam, Caleb, and Hannah. They’ll be here a week, and then we’re all headed to a cottage on a lake in Michigan for a week. She doesn’t read my blog, so I’m not worried about her seeing the card online before she receives it. Even if she did, her day is so busy that’s it’s unlikely that she’d have time for blog reading anyway. Shortly after they return home, they’re moving to a “new” house. Actually, it’s a much older home in a lovely area in downtown Racine. It’s a much friendlier neighborhood with sidewalks, lots of kids nearby, and just a block and a half to Lake Michigan. It’s a good move for the kids—and for the adults who already have friends in the neighborhood. Getting ready for a move before a two-week vacation was not what they planned for when their vacation dates were set.

This card was inspired by (and is a very close CASe) of one by Carissa Wiley. It was created when Ellen Hutson released two new die sets–“Abstract Sunset” (which I used here) and “Abstract Mountain.” Most of the cardstock used is from Concord and 9th.

I’m hoping it will remind Sarah of her two summers working at The Ghost Ranch. She absolutely love it there, and we were lucky enough to visit her for a few days the first year she was there. If you click through to the link, be sure to click around so you can see some of the beautiful landscapes. Georgia O’Keefe lived at The Ghost Ranch for part of many years, and painted some of the landscapes.

I love these colors together and chose a gold metallic paper for the moon (or sun depending on your inclination). Both the gold embossed sentiment and the die cut “you” are from Simon Says.

I did some ink blending on the top die cut pieces but decided not to to any on the other layers. I made several of these cards, and they are all just a bit different. 

My blogging was erratic in July, and likely to be again in August as most of my time for the next two weeks will be spent with family and friends. I’m working on Kathy Racoosin’s 3o Day Coloring Challenge, so there’s likely to be a few new cards–as well as some for challenges if I can get some time in the craft room. The day to day posts for the challenge are beinf posted in my Instagram account. One of the options for the challenge is to do a little bit each day. So far I’ve done some watercoloring on a floral for the past two days, and expect to finish it tonight. 

Amazed at the number and amazed by my great good fortune–today is our 48th anniversary! The inside sentiment (shown below) says it all. We have a quiet day planned at home with dinner out at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Canandaigua which means  a walk along the lake afterwards I’m sure. 

About a month ago, I ordered the Ellen Hutson “Abstract Sunset” and “Abstract Mountain” dies. I used the “Abstract Sunset” die here turning it into an ocean (or lake). The MFT Cloud stencil was used on the largest piece from the die, and I die cut the rest of the pieces from various blues found in my scrap folders. 

The stamps are from W+9’s “Dockside” set. I fussy cut the two sailboats. The sentiment is from my fave Pink and Main “Special Day” set—today certainly is special!

The inside sentiment is from the newer Papertrey Ink (Ink to Paper) set “Seas of Life,” and not only fits the theme of the card but expresses exactly how I feel about spending nearly half a century with one of the kindest, most loving men I know.

I’m entering this in the Card Concept Challenge:Long Summer Days–the inspiration is, of course, the nautical theme, but also the color scheme. It wasn’t as easy to decide on the design style this time, I think it’s closest to Clean and Layered–though most of the layers are flat. The description of the styles are here, and I’d love to know what others think!

I’ve kept my eye on Reverse Confetti’s “Stock Your Stash” for some time now, but this is the first time I’ve played along. Being away half of  April has meant that crafting time was very limited. Now we’re home, unpacked, and trying to get back into our regular routines (such as they are.) The challenge this month is for “Moms, Dads, and Grads. So I took some time this afternoon to make another Mother’s Day card. (Two down, three to go!)

I don’t own any appropriate stamps for dads from Reverse Confetti, and I don’t know anyone graduating this year. I do, however, have several floral stamps and chose one I don’t believe I’ve every used called “Pattern Blocks.”

Once it was stamped, I colored it with some bright, happy Copic markers. I added some gel pen accents in white and black, and then matted it with a thin black frame.

I added it to a premade square card with embossed polka-dots (easier to see in the first photo), and an embossed sentiment from Pink and Main. 

It was good to be away after being home-bound for so long, but it’s also nice to be home, although I’m missing the warm weather from South Carolina. Photos from the month coming soon.

In the midst of packing to go away, I had an idea for the current Paper Players Sketch Challenge and I needed a birthday card. So this afternoon, I used my Paul Rubens metallic watercolors to create a “patterned” paper. After dinner, I had time to do the die cutting and assembly. Here’s the sketch:

For the horizontal stripe on the sketch I decided to do a group of score lines. Photographing them at night turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I die cut two small rectangles from my watercolored paper with Ellen Hutson’s “Essential Rectangles” for the vertical shapes and used my favorite Gina K “Master Layout” dies to cut the focal piece and a thin border of metallic silver paper.

I die cut the Simon Says “Stitched Butterfly” from silver metallic paper (so much prettier IRL than in the photograph.) The body of the butterfly was die cut from the watercolored paper as well. Finally I silver embossed the sentiment from The Stamp Market’s “Tons of Type.” The card base is a shimmer paper from Papertrey Ink.

I had to use a desk lamp to get the lighting right to show the score lines. If we weren’t leaving first thing in the morning, I’d be waiting until tomorrow to try again! I’m not sure if waiting until I get to Sarah’s would help or not, so I’m posting it as is!