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Sending Hugs

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Creating an inventory of my crafting supplies has multiple benefits. I know what I have, and I know where it is. But in addition, I "find" things I've forgotten about. This beautiful Floral Focus from My Favorite Things is one of them. I embossed it in white on Altenew watercolor paper and colored it with my Zig Watercolor markers. Every time I get out the watercolors I remember how much I enjoy it. I need to do it more often. 

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When I finished the watercolors, I fussy cut the right side of the design and added it to this lovely purple/red cardstock which I can't identify. The sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio's Perfect Sentiments was hot foiled in gold. I added a few clear "rain drops" and called it done.

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I'm entering this in the Four Seasons Challenge: Spring and the Just Add Ink Challenge. Both challenges have a beautiful inspiration board with some lovely purple florals, although my purple is a different hue. Hope it doesn't matter.

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Garden Goodness

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The Greetery’s Garden Goodness suite of products has been sitting in my box of “need to use” products for nearly a year. I had tried to use it as soon as it arrived, but discovered I had two of one of the stencils and was missing one. Betsy, in typical customer service excellence, mailed me the stencil I didn’t have. Although the transaction really didn’t take very long, I was into something else, and never got back to it. Finally this week, I put it to use.

The card that I ended up with was definitely NOT the card I had in mind when I started but I do like it quite a bit. I first stenciled the whole panel with a variety of Pinkfresh Studio inks. The I used the die cut on a piece of black cardstock and used the negative to lay over the stenciled piece.

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I had a slight problem with the overlay and when I tried to correct it I made a mess of one side of the piece. The solution was to cut the piece down. After adhering it to an orange card base, I added a narrow strip of black cardstock to the edge.

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The sentiment, from Altenew’s Sentiment Strips II, was already embossed on black cardstock which I found easily since I had just reorganized how I keep pre-stamped or foiled sentiments. Little by little, I’m reorganizing and/or inventorying most of my supplies.

I’m sending this off to the Stencil Fun Challenge where the option is Flowers and to Addicted to Stamps and More where the challenge is Stencils or Die Cuts.

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Birthday Balloons

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Both Seize the Birthday Challenge and AAA Birthday Challenge are calling for balloons. I needed two birthday cards for kids this month so I pulled out a die set for one, and a favorite stamp set for the other.

For the first card I die cut some brightly colored balloons with one of the dies from Simon Says Balloons, all cut from scraps.

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Once I knew where I wanted the balloons, I stamped some strings from Papertrey Ink Birthday Balloons and Birthday Strings and then attached the balloons. Before adding them to the card front I adhered a piece of striped paper with many of the same colors in the balloons. I think this might be from a My Favorite Things paper pad, but it was filed away under stripes in my 6X6 patterned paper box.

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It’s interesting that the orange balloon appears a bit more red in the photo than IRL. If I’d thought of that possibility I wouldn’t have put them next to one another.

I love the critters on the next card, and added a heart-shaped balloon for the penguin to hold.

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All the critters were colored with Copic markers as well as the sentiment where I used two shades of blue for an ombre effect. I also added two balloons to the front of the envelope.

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The final touch was adding some Nuvo Crystal glaze to the balloon for some dimension and shine.

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Color Hues #63

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Hannelie is our hostess for the May Day Color Hues challenge. It's a bright and vibrant combo, and I cased myself this time around.

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In February I created a set of masculine cards using one hot foiled panel of Geo Blocks by Pinkfresh Studio. For those cards I used only one stencil and one color of ink to create the pattern. This time I used the same stencil but alternated colors–using Simon Says Positively Saturated Inks in Peony and Ocean. They were a good match for the two cardstock papers I that were closest to hot pink and cyan: Concord & 9th's Oceanside and Paper Source's Fuschia. Just by changing colors, the cards are much more feminine. 

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After cutting the hot foil panel in three pieces I added them to the card fronts with narrow strips of gold paper. The sentiments are exactly the same as I used on the earlier set. From the top:  a hot foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio's Wonderful Words, a gold embossed sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Banner Sentiments, and a gold embossed sentiment stamped and then die cut with Simon Says Hexagon Greetings. I did add some dimensional tape to the back of the hexagon greeting. 

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It's easier to see the gold embossing and hot foiling as well as the gold pearls that were add to all three of the cards.

Please join us in the next two weeks and add some bright and happy pink and cyan cards to our gallery. For inspiration, be sure to check the Color Hues Blog to see what the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Kristin,  have created.

 

 

Curved Florals

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One of my most recent purchases was the Gina K Curved Floral stencil and die set. I set out to see how different combinations might work. I started with light colors, using Pinkfresh Studio inks for all the stenciling. For the first two cards, I stenciled first and then used the outline die cut to place over the stenciling.

For the light colored stencil, I chose a white die cut and placed the curved floral on a scalloped oval I found at Dick Blick’s several years ago.

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The sentiment is also from Gina K’s Wreath Builder set. I used that sentiment on the second card as well, choosing brighter colors and a black die cut.

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The last card doesn’t use stenciling at all. I die cut the solid die cut from a piece of patterned paper—Altenew’s Gel Printing, and used some light shading with a small brush to highlight a few spots in the centers of the flowers. I found a dark gray panel using the Altenew Deck Planks 3-D embossing folder in my box of precut panels, and was surprised at how much I liked it. Definitely a different look.

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The sentiment here was one I had foiled earlier from Spellbinder’s Everyday Sentiments II, and was die cut with a banner die from The Greetery.

I’m adding my brightly colored florals to the Paper Players Challenge. It’s a fun Tic Tac Toe challenge and I chose bright colors, die cut, and birthday running diagonally from left to right. I’m also adding one of the cards to Seize the Birthday Challenge—no topping, but I do expect to be back with one for the balloon topping soon.

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Woodblock Wednesday

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It's the April Woodblock Wednesday, and I had time this afternoon to put together a card.

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I love this challenge because it encourages me to look back through the wooden stamps I chose to keep. I wonder now how many I sold or gave away, I'd be glad to have back again. This Memory Box stamp has always been a favorite. I love it's artsy look.

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After coloring the image with Copic markers, I trimmed it down and mounted it on a piece of black cardstock and then onto the card base with some dimensional tape.

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The sentiment is also a woodblock stamp. It's so old I can no longer read the name of the company, but it was made in Redwood City, CA.

I'm in the process of making and addressing 17 birthday and anniversary cards that need to be mailed in May, so I'm happy to have another birthday card in the stash.

Many Thanks

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I’m basically in recovery mode after a very busy and emotional weekend. My MIL’s memorial service was on Friday. It was a beautiful service and brought the entire family to Rochester—all 38 of us from six different states, including, of course, Sarah and her family. Sarah was the liturgist for the service, and it was wonderful to see her participating in a service in the church where she grew up and was ordained.  We had a dinner Friday night and gathered together Saturday at the Air B&B my brother-in-law rented for his immediate family of thirteen. We hired a professional photographer who did a fabulous job of capturing every possible family configuration! She sent us over 100 photos. Here's one taken of the whole group. It was supposed to be a very rainy day, but the rain held off until late afternoon allowing for photos outside and lots of running and playing by the kids.

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These two cards were made last week prior to the memorial service to thank our pastor and organist for their participation in the memorial service.

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I pulled out one of my all time favorite Simon Says stamp sets, Be Kind. After stamping the leaves on white cardstock I colored them with Copic markers, using two blue markers that I blended with a yellow marker. I'm really pleased with how it worked.

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The sentiment is from another favorite set, Thank You Kindly, by Papertrey Ink.

These cards fit two Clean and Simple Challenges open now:  Less Is More: Anything Goes and Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion.

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Catching Up

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It's been hard to find time to get back to crafting, but I finally made one of the last two cards from the February Create and Connect event. It's an interactive slider card, and the dies make creating it so easy. The class event used a new Washi tape suite called Fruitalicious, but I opted to use a floral Washi tape suite, In the Meadow, that I already owned. The pink flowers were inspired by the Just Us Girls Moodboard this week. I haven't had a chance to play along since February when I was Guest Designer for a month, and I've missed playing along with their fun challenges. 

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Here's the card (almost) flat. It does easily fit into an A2 envelope.

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When you pull the tab, a second message emerges from the top, and another set of florals is revealed behind.

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Here's the message that pulls up:

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I made this card for one of my best friends, and knew she'd love the pretty florals. The sentiments are also from Pinkfresh Studio: Friendship Blooms, and Beyond Happy.

I'm also sending this off to Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes. This is another challenge I've missed playing along with. I keep forgetting that you always have the option to use any kind of birthday card!

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Color Hues #62

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Cindy has chosen a great color combination for this round of Color Hues: Purple and Green.

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I couldn't resist the chance to break out Pinkfresh Studio's Nothing But the Best stamp, stencil, and die set. It was part of the package that I received for the February Create and Connect event. We used watercolors in class, but I chose the stencils this time. 

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Over time I've acquired a few sets of Simon Says Pawsitively Saturated Inks which are fabulous for ink blending and come in set of three. I used the two lighter shades for the large flowers and then the darkest shade for the centers of the small flowers. The centers were colored with a gray Copic marker, and I added some dimension with a black Glaze pen.

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After die cutting them, I arranged the florals on the large Rounded Braided Rectangle that was also included in our kit, but was made available during the March release. The gold foiled sentiment and Gold Glitter Drops are also from Pinkfresh Studio.

I hope you'll check out all the amazing cards created by our Guest Designer, Amanda, and the Design Team on the Color Hues blog, and then add your own creative take to the gallery. 

New Arrival

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I'm attending a baby shower for a friend's daughter on Saturday, so the Card Concept Challenge: New Arrival was so timely.

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The expected baby is a boy, so I took my inspiration from the theme rather than the colors. I decided against a sentiment on the front of my Clean and Simple card.

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I embossed both the card front and the white layer with Spellbinder's Star Gazer embossing folder. The images are from Waffle Flower's Little One Baby set which I colored with Copics and then die cut. I added some dimensional tape behind the baby.

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We're having unusually warm weather with lots of sunshine. Even though it won't last quite yet, it's such a welcome change. I've managed a bit of crafting between packing and then unpacking all the items on a built-in desk in my office/craft room. The painting is done for that portion of the project, and I took the opportunity to organize and purge my book collections on photography, watercolor, sketching. There are two big bags ready to donate to our library. Like working on the inventory of my stamps and dies (still ongoing), one of the biggest bonuses to this kind of organizing is knowing (once again) what I have! 

Easter Bunnies

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There's a lot going on here, including some painting in my craft room/office which is complicating my efforts to get some serious card making done. Some of it I can't share for awhile, but two of these Easter bunnies are now on their way to Wisconsin, and the rest will be hand delivered on Sunday.

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I'm trying to get away one more year with giving each of the grandchildren the same card with different colored backgrounds. Next year, there will be two in middle school, and I may have to find some more sophisticated images. Nonetheless, I love this new Bunny Kisses die cut that was part of the most recent release from The Greetery.

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I die cut all the pieces from white cardstock, and then ink blended each piece with Distress Oxide inks. They were arranged on one of the Tag Team Duo tags also from The Greetery. The grass was die cut with one of  the Simon Says dies in the collection Box Card Borders. Three of the bunnies got a tiny pom-pom added for the tail. I decided against that for the two that needed to be mailed.

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The patterned paper backgrounds from very old AMuse papers were die cut with The Greetery Postal Frame die.

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Here's a bunny without the pom-pom tail. The sentiment is from Sugar Peas Everyday Sentiments.

As you might expect there are quite a few challenges calling for Easter/Spring cards. One of these is headed to: 

Colorful Options: Pastels (some of these definitely qualify) or Rainbow
The Four Seasons: Anything Spring
Inkspirational with a Moodboard for Spring and Easter
NBUS – This is the first run for Bunny Kisses

We're expecting rain and very warm temperatures today, then chilly again through the Easter weekend. I hope the long range forecast is accurate which call for temps in the 50's and 60's for the week after Easter. I'm so ready for some green to show up!

 

Color Hues #61

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It's April first, and there's no fooling around here! I'm back to share the next Color Hues Challenge chosen by Stef:

Color Hues #61 Peach and Kraft Anim.

One of the things I love most about this challenge is working with color combinations I would never think of myself. This is one of them, and I turned to a new favorite coverplate of mine,  Decorative Circles by Papertrey Ink. I waited a long time for this to be back in stock, and it was worth the wait. It covers an A2 sized card, but this time I cut it down to create a square card.

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My best match for peach cardstock was Concord & 9th's Grapefruit which I paired with Classic Kraft and Rustic Cream, both by Papertrey Ink. I created a frame using Simon Says "Stitched Squares" die.

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I wanted a simple sentiment on a circle die to coordinate with the coverplate, so used Ellen Hutson's Essential Circles die. The sentiment is from Waffle Flower's Classic Sentiments. Finally I added some Pinkfresh Studio Metallic Enamel Dots to the center of each circle. 

Please hop over to the Color Hues blog to see what our Design Team has created with this color combo. It's sure to inspire you, and I hope you'll add your cards to our gallery in the next two weeks!

Color Hues #60

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It's hard to beat a prettier combination that Blue and Turquoise. There are so many way to go with this set of Color Hues chosen by Marcia.

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It will be no surprise to you that I went the Clean and Simple route and chose die cuts once again.

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I started by die cutting a stitched square by Simon Says from Paper Source's Royal cardstock. I first discovered this cardstock last fall, and used it for one of my favorite Christmas cards. I then layered two more stitched squares from turquoise paper (from my scrap file) and another from the Royal cardstock. I die cut Poppy Stamps' "Leaf Sprig" from the turquoise and adhered it to the square.

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I ink blended a bit of blue ink on some of the leaves, but I'm not sure I really love that. I do like the pretty sentiment from The Greetery's Spring Mix stamp set. 

I hope you'll hop right over to the Color Hues Challenge and check out the great cards created the Design Team. We'd love to see the gallery filled with your pretty Blue and Turquoise creations!

 

 

The Flower Challenge: Die Cuts or Stencils

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Or both, I hope. I used a favorite Pinkfresh Studio floral hot foil plate, coordinating coloring stencil, and die to create a card today for the current Flower Challenge.

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As much as I like coloring with Copic markers, coloring with stencils is quite a bit quicker, and there's not much room for error.

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I chose a very different color palette this time: aqua blue and shades of browns, but I quite like it. I foiled the image in gold, then colored it with stencils before using the die to cut it out. 

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It's quite easy to add a bit of dimension with the stencils by using a heavier touch with the color to the base of the leaves or the centers of the flowers. I also added three gold pearls to the centers of three flowers.The florals and sentiment which I gold embossed and die cut to create the banner were arranged on a diamond cover plate, with a thin brown border on a beautiful piece of textured aqua paper that I found in my stash. The sentiment and banner die are by The Greetery.

This is a great challenge, and I'm sure I'll be back with some other entries before it closes.

 

 

 

Crafty Weekend: Part 1

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Last weekend I spent two days immersed in card making with Pinkfresh Studio. There were six classes with two hour videos for each, as well as printed instructions for “Make & Takes” for each set of products. I didn't deviate much from the instructors' card designs, but I thought over the next week or so, I’d share some of the cards I created during the event. All the products were created especially for these classes, although many of them will eventually be released for purchase. I definitely had my favorites, but with one possible exception, you'll see lots more of these products.

First off, Nothing But the Best. This set was the focus of a two-hour class on watercolor technique. Before the classes began, I created the Make & Take. All the instructions and sample card designs for the Make & Takes as well as the class instructions were sent ahead of time in a lovely booklet. There were also lists of card bases and die cuts to prepare as homework for each class which enabled you to keep up during the class instruction.

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For the Make & Take, I used layering stencils instead of watercoloring. I followed the card design, but my coloring was more vibrant that those suggested. 

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All the participants received a packet of pre-foiled sentiments. The one used in the sample covered a large portion of the floral design so I chose a simpler, smaller one knowing it could easily be used for a birthday or another celebration. The lovely Rounded and Braided Rectangle (in three sizes) was used over and over in the card designs, and is one of my favorite products. 

The two-hour class time for this set was spent learning about watercoloring: mixing colors, finding the right water/paint ratio, and layering watercolors. It reminded me of how much I enjoy that medium, but don’t use it often enough. 

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There was no assembly of the card as part of the class, and I used the same design I used for the Make & Take which I preferred to the suggested design. For this card, I used a foiled sentiment from Spellbinders.

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We completed a second watercolor panel, but I wasn't happy enough with it to create a card. I'll definitely return to this again!