Tracy and I managed to get to the park late last week before the rains came. We expected to see forsythia . . .

I’m not sure what kind of flowering bush this is. Highland Park is very good at identifying their plants with small signs, but we couldn’t find any indication of what this might be.

The big surprise of the walk was finding the early magnolias in bud and in bloom. 

I’ve been playing with the portrait mode on my iPhone recently, and love the blurred effect you can get. The trick is remembering the aspect ratio on the native app is not 4X6, so if you aren’t careful you end up having to crop more than you want. I’m used to filling the frame with the composition I want, so this is taking some practice.

Magnolias are among my favorites this time of year. We had warm, sunny temperatures again yesterday, so I’m guessing even more has burst out since Friday. You can see an increase in green every day now. I love the first days of spring!

We’re home, and we brought the freezing temperatures with us. The city schools closed for today, and several school districts have now closed for after-school and evening activities. The wind chill is -14°; not as cold as Chicago or Racine, but pretty bitter. Makes for a good day for crafting.

I have four cards to share today; no stamping in sight. While we were away, PinkFresh Studios had a wonderful release. One of the dies I ordered was the Gatsby. As soon as I saw it, I knew it had great potential for masculine cards. There are two dies, meant to be layered one on the other, although the top layer is lovely on its own. I die cut them from a variety of shimmer and metallic cardstock and came up with four variations.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s “Good Times” set. The stamp set came in an odd size, and so it’s stored at the back of my box for birthday stamps, and I often forget it. Over the weekend I organized dies, and started to inventory them, and rediscovered it.

I think this is my favorite. I found this card in a box; I’d already trimmed the front and added a black border to the inside of the card.

Gray, silver and black

White, bronze and black; I die cut the sentiment twice and layered them for a subtle shadow.

Black and silver; only the top layer die cut. This card proved to be very difficult to photograph!

This week’s challenge at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is “Anything Goes.” Perfect!

This week’s sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is perfect for the season.

And a perfect excuse to use the new “Floral Fantasy: Christmas” stamp set. Despite the fact that I didn’t make all of my Christmas cards this year, and I certainly didn’t need any more Christmas stamps, there were three sets (by three different companies) that proved to be too great a temptation. “Floral Fantasy” was one of them. The nice thing about this set is there are many images that can be used throughout the year. But for these two cards (variations on a theme) I used a Christmas image–perfect for the sketch.

I silver embossed the tree onto Weathervane cardstock by PTI and die cut it with a Simon Says “Stitched Rectangle.” Then I adhered it to a top-folded card made from the most elegant silver cardstock I’ve ever seen. I bought several sheets of gorgeous metallic cardstock at a lovely shop in the Third Ward District in Milwaukee when we were there in October. Finally I added a few rainstones (PTI).

 

Next up, a variation–same papers, slightly different design:

This time I silver embossed a sentiment from the same set onto a piece of vellum that I wrapped around the top layer.

I have a third variation of the card in a different color scheme, but I want to be sure the recipient has it in her hand before I post it. 

The CAS Watercolour Challenge has been on my to-do list since the day they posted it. It took me until the very last day of the challenge to get the card made.

I wanted the Essentials by Ellen “Mondo Holly” from the moment I saw it, but waited until there was a sale. I knew it was just waiting to be watercolored. 

I got out my Daniel Smith watercolors for this since I wanted to mix the right greens and reds. They are lovely watercolors, and I should keep them on my desk! 

Fussy cutting the holly on watercolor paper took awhile, but it’s such a large image, that seemed like the best alternative. Once that was done, I looked around for a base, and found the Papertrey Ink “Scallop Stackers-Small” which I had never used before. I layered it onto a Pure Poppy top-folded card, after stamping the sentiment which is from the same stamp set.

Last, I added some Nuvo shimmer to the berries, and a few Rainstones from Papertrey Ink. I think this might be the first Christmas card I’ve completed, although I have multiple in the works. I don’t need nearly as many this year, as we had photo cards printed for family and friends who know our family. They came yesterday, and I am really pleased with them.

 

I got caught up yesterday with the latest set of tags for Tracey McNeely’s 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge. It’s continuing to be a lot of fun, and although I like some of these tags better than others, I would have never made any of them if not for the challenge.

I didn’t lay them out in quite the right order, because I didn’t make them in the right order. I made Day 13 before Day 12, and that’s how they were arranged for the photo. Nonetheless, I’ll start with Day 12 which was inspired by Melody Rupple. I like her square tags better than the one I came up with, but I’m guessing this one will look OK on the right package. It doesn’t show in the photo, but there is Rock Candy Glitter on the branches of the main tag.

Dies: PTI: “Shape Shifters Square 3,” Simon Says “Holiday Ornaments,” W+9 “Hand Lettered Holiday” & “Woodland Basics;” Stamp: “Holiday Ornaments;” Patterned paper: American Craft

Day 13: Inspired by Latisha Yoast

Dies: PTI “Tag Sale #1,” MFT “Deer Love;” Stamp: W+9 “Woodland Wreaths;” Patterned Paper: Lawn Fawn “Into the Woods;” white gel pen

Day 14: Inspired by Ardyth Percy-Robb. This was one of the most beautiful tags that’s been posted on the challenge. I had no idea if I could come up with anything that I liked. In the end, I’m pretty happy with it, although it will never rival Ardyth’s. 

Dies: PTI “Bookmark,” Pinkfresh Studio “Botanical Branch;” Stamp: PTI “Rustic Wreath; pearls, silk ribbon

Day 15: Inspired by Monica Taylor:

I was hoping a tag would show up that would give me the opportunity to use a new die by Essentials by Ellen, “Prize Stag.” Here’s a better look at it. I know just who’s name is going on the back of this one for the gift exchange on Thursday.

Premade tag, December Daily kit sentiment, Spellbinders “Label 4” die

Day 16: Inspired by Kelly Griglione. I’ve always love this set by My Favorite Things, so I was happy  to have a chance to use it again. This one will definitely go on one of the grandchildren’s gifts.

Dies: PTI “Tag Sale #1,” MFT “Polar Bear Pals;” Stamps: “Polar Bear Pals,” Simon Says “Merry & Bright;” Cardstock: Paper Source; patterned paper: MME “Comfort & Joy”

Day 17: Inspired by Kim Heggins. This one might be my favorite of the bunch, although it really is prettier IRL.

Dies: PTI “Tag Sale #5,” Simon Says “Kate Snowflake;” glitter tape, Simon Says “Sparkle and Shine” sequins

I’m entering the Day 17 tag in the Inspired By: Classy Christmas challenge. I focused on the colors (blue, gold, and white) of the beautiful photo for this challenge.

I haven’t had a chance today to look at the Day 18 tags, but should be able to keep up this week since my schedule is no where near as busy as it’s been the last several. Having a holiday really clears it out. Good thing, since the list of things to do grows longer daily. I’m really ready to decorate for Christmas despite the fact that Thanksgiving is as early as it can be. 

 

 

Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays, but I do enjoy crafting for my grandchildren. I posted their Halloween card here, but made some treat boxes for the little girls who live in town, and shipped a package off to the two in Wisconsin.

I found the purple and black boxes at Target as well as most of the contents (sticker books, pencils, tiny notepads, and temporary tatoos.) The little “snow” globes came from Walgreens and I didn’t realize that they weren’t all the same until I took this photograph. Later the middle one was exchanged so that all three were identical. 

I had all the ingredients for the tags in my stash: the orange tags, the stamps (“Monthly Moments” and “Friendship Jar: Fall” from Papertrey Ink, and the witch’s feet from an unnamed Hero Arts set). I painted three clothespins to match the boxes, and add a little witch’s hat (Little B sticker) to the clothes pin. The girls got their treat boxes over the weekend since tonight there will be ample excitement and too many treats as it is.  

Matt sent us photos last night of this year’s pumpkin carvings. They always amaze me. The message was “This year’s pumpkins. So far.” Usually, the girls pick out the designs and Dad carves them. This year it’s a pony, one of the characters from “Frozen,” and interestingly, a car.

Hopefully, I’ll have some photos of the grandchildren dressed up by tomorrow, but I never count on it. They’re usually far too busy to pose for a photo. Finally, here’s the fourth photo I took for last week’s “Take Three Thursday,” the perfect Halloween scene.

 

 

I’m so pleased and honored to be asked to be the guest designer for this week’s CASology challenge! Here’s the cue card:

 

Once my grandchildren were old enough to appreciate getting a card in the mail, I began to accumulate a few stamps for each of the holidays. Since they are still quite young, there was nothing truly scary in my collection, but I decided I could increase the scare factor a bit by drawing spooky mouths on each of the die cut ghosts from Poppystamps, “Group of Ghosts. Then I found the perfect sentiment in a Papertrey Ink Mini-Market kit, “Halloween Pin-ups,” and had the basic elements for my card.

CASology specializes in clean and simple cards—one of the reasons I enjoy the challenge. Typically, a significant amount of “white space” is required. In this case, that space needed to be black to enhance the “scary” factor.

 

I wanted the ghosts to be emerging into the night sky, so chose some pumpkins from Papertrey Ink’s “Friendship Jar: Autumn” to set before the ghosts. They were colored with Copics and fussy cut. They also add a bit of needed color to the card.

Finally, I embossed the sentiment in white. I ended up making two identical cards, one for each set of grandchildren. Many thanks to Melissa for the kind invitation to guest design this week.

I’d also like to enter this card in the Inspired By: Halloween challenge.

There are three gift shops in small towns east of Rochester that I visit at the change of each season. Today was the Fall Open House for two of the shops, so having a free morning, I took a little drive. I found nothing of interest at my favorite shop in Palmyra, but picked up a few fall decorations at the second shop. On my way back to Rochester, I stopped in Macedon to take some photos for Sandie’s Five in Five meme:  five photos taken within five minutes. It was easy to do because they have lots of outdoor decorations. Perhaps I should have stayed outside, but I decided to take a look inside as well. It was very crowded, but I joined the long line at the check-out to purchase a new fall wreath for the front door and a beautiful handmade wool felt pillow for the living room. I’ll share those when the fall decorating gets done. For now, here are five photos from the Main Street Trading Company to get you in the mood for fall.

I spotted the pick-up truck on my way out to Palmyra, and knew I’d be stopping for some photos on my way home.

The trip put me in the mood to switch out the summer decorations for the fall ones, but first I need to finish a major purge and reorganization of my crafting space/office which I started yesterday.

 

Yesterday I happened upon two challenges I wasn’t familiar with at the Desert Diva’s blog. Both challenges focus on birds this month/week. 

I love the idea of a watercolor challenge, and Seize the Birthday has an optional “topper” and this week it is birds. That discovery set the subject for today’s #100DayProject. A few weeks ago, a friend loaned me her “Brushed Birds” stamp and die set. While I had it, I stamped several birds and die cut them. I never did make a card with any of them so I’m please to have a chance to use some of them. I watercolored the background, and then watercolored a brand new die I purchased from Impression Obsession called “Leafy Branch.” I’ve never thought to watercolor a die before, but in this case, I think it was perfect.

I love this sentiment from “Year of the Flower: Violet,” another set I haven’t had out in over a year. The inside sentiment is a birthday greeting, but I didn’t photograph it. Here’s a closer look:

The second card started out the same way, but ended up being a landscape design with two different birds.

The sentiment on this card also came from an oldie, but goodie, Papertrey Inks “Autumn Abundance.” I stamped the sentiments on both cards with Dark Chocolate Ink which seemed to coordinate well with the watercolored branch.

One big advantage of the #100DayProject is the number of birthday cards I’m creating. With 25 birthdays and anniversaries to celebrate in April and May, I need them all! Off to link up with the CAS Watercolour and Seize the Birthday challenges.