When I saw the challenge for Just Us Girls go up, I knew I'd make a floral card for my sister-in-law who had major surgery today. She came through it well, and actually went home this evening. Knowing her, that's what she'd want to do. I think I would have opted for a night of nursing care before leaving. I also thought I had plenty of time to enter the card in the challenge. I finished it yesterday, and realized tonight that the challenge ends tomorrow! So another late entry into a challenge. 

The challenge is Flowers. Perfect for this time of year, and perfect for an encouragement card.

Some time ago, I stamped a bunch of florals from Pinkfresh Studio's Beautiful Blooms on watercolor paper and on Neenah for Copic coloring. The other night I pulled out my Zig watercolor pens and a waterbrush and colored a variety of them. It's another one of the stamp sets that has been on my table for weeks, so I was happy to finally put it in use. I included two of the flower sprigs on this card.

On an Enchanted Evening card base, I added the Pinkfresh Studio Floral Grid coverplate which I had backed with a piece of white cardstock and cut down so there would be a blue border. 

The sentiment is also from Pinkfresh Studio. It's called Perfect Sentiments and you stamp a group of them all at once, and one die cuts them all out. Perfect, indeed! I did a group of gold embossed, one of which you see here as well as a group of black sentiments so I have a ready stash of them for cards. It's another NBUS! I'm finally making progress on getting all these stamps and dies in use.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy watercoloring with Zig markers. I expect to put them into heavy use in the next few weeks!

In addition to Just Us Girls, I'm sending this off to the May Pinkfresh Challenge which is "Anything Spring," and I'll be adding it to NBUS. I'm hoping to flood the gallery at NBUS in the next few months!

 

Today is Mother's Day in the States, and I have one last card to share. 

While we were in Hawaii, I got an order from The Greetery which included the earlier released Bontani-cut Strawberries. The Postal Frame was also in that order. A friend had die cut a few of them for me, and I knew they'd be a useful addition to my collection of frames.

With the exception of the tiny sentiment, everything is die cut. I die cut the strawberries and leaves from colored cardstock and added some shading with blending brushes and Distress Oxide inks. 

I added a small yellow pearl to the center of the sweet little blossoms. The berry basket is from The Greetery as well–one of their Market Baskets, and the patterned paper insert for the basket was from my scrap file. 

I'm entering this in the current TicTacToe Challenge, where I used the bottom row across: Die Cut, Leaves, Pearls.

I'm also sending this to NBUS since I've never used my strawberries dies before.

 

 

 

 

 

This blog post has been a long time coming. I intended to get these cards posted in two separate posts early this week. My desktop computer, however, has been giving me problems for the last several weeks. Apps weren’t syncing the way they should, and one of the photo editing apps I use wasn’t working at all. Tracy is very good with computers, but even he has been baffled by the problems. Finally today, he cleared the whole computer and reinstalled everything.

Here are four of the Mother’s Day cards I made.  Two of them ended up in the mail. We had planned brunch here on Sunday, but on Tuesday evening Matt and two of the girls tested positive for Covid, and when we tested the next morning, I was also positive. With both vaccinations and both boosters, it tells you just how contagious the new variant is. I would have never tested for Covid as the symptoms seemed like a bad day for allergies. Tracy, Betsy, and Skylar all continue to test negative. So random, really. Ella was the sickest, and it was her symptoms that prompted the testing. Everyone is doing fine now. 

All four cards were created with Pinkfresh Studio’s Washi tape and die sets. The sunflowers were part of a fundraiser for Ukraine early in the war. All the proceeds were donated to those serving mothers and children uprooted by the fighting.

The oval die is Pinkfresh Studio's "Braided Tag" and I embossed the sentiments from Papertrey Ink's "Simple Stems" in gold. The Washi tape is also edged in gold. 

 

 

This card uses the same Washi tape, but I arranged the floral on a Pinkfresh Studio "Braided Circle." The sentiment is from Pink and Main's "Special Day."

Finally, the gold edges of the Washi tape show up here in the close-up. It's really beautiful in person.

I used the Pinkfresh "Into the Meadow" Washi tape for the next two cards.

I already had a die cut panel of the Pinkfresh "Floral Grid" coverplate and I trimmed it down and layered it on a white card base. After adhering the florals with dimensional tape, I added tiny pink gems to the centers of the florals. The sentiment from Pinkfresh's "Always Uplifting" was stamped on one of the PFS "Basic Frames"

The next card turned out to be my favorite. I laid the white die cut "Geo Tiles" coverplate on the bright pink cardstock and immediately thought of an elaborate trestle. 

After arranging the florals, I die us a Reverse Confetti "Lacy Scalloped Circle" and stamped the sentiment from The Stamp Market's "Fresh Cut" stamp set.

I'm entering this card in The Card Concept Challenge: How Does Your Garden Grow.

 

 

We've been home from a fabulous trip to Hawaii and San Francisco for about four days now, and I'm still adjusting to the differences in time as well as the environment. All but one of our days were warm and sunny. Everything was green and flowers were gorgeous both in Hawaii and San Fran. Here, not so much. There have been snow flurries two days, and the daffodils are just starting to bloom. It's supposed to warm up again, but only for a few days. I am spoiled!

It will take awhile to edit all the photos we took, but eventually I'll have a few posts about the trip. I did post a few photos every day on Instagram, so you can hop over there for a preview if you'd like.

I finally got to the crafting desk this afternoon will a challenge from Just Us Girls on my mind. It's Trend Week there and they are looking for foiling on alcohol inked backgrounds. I knew I had a small stash of alcohol ink backgrounds, but wasn't at all sure whether the Glimmer Foiling machine would like alcohol inks. It took two tries, but the second one worked beautifully.

I die cut the alcohol ink piece with an Ellen Hutson Essential Squares die and then a slightly larger one with gold mirror cardstock. The foiling plate for the sentiment was one that arrived with my Glimmer machine and is a NBUS! You can see the glimmer a bit better here:

I decided it didn't need a lot of embellishment, but I like the three shiny gold pearls on the righthand corner.

This is going, of course, to the Just Us Girls Challenge, but also to Addicted To Stamps and More (Make Your Mark) and the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Happy Birthday.) And off to the April NBUS Challenge as well.

Today is the birthday of a very sweet little girl who is turning five. Before we left on vacation, I gave the card to her "Nana" who will give it and a gift to her during the birthday celebration. 

Having granddaughters this age, I was pretty sure a shaker card would be a hit! I did learn (the hard way) that to give a shaker card to a three year old is a big mistake. They are more interested in gettin at the sequins that just shaking them. 

I die cut the sentiment circle from Simon Says three times, twice in white, and once in pink and layered them so there would be some definition around the shaker.

The bear, his cupcake, and the present are all from Ellen Hutson and colored with Copic markers. I'm throwing this in the ring at Addicted to Stamps and More where the theme is "Make Your Mark," and at AAABirthday where the challenge is "Critters.
Today's the last day of our epic trip. We'll be in airports and airplanes for the better part of the day tomorrow, but home in time for bed. I've got lots of crafty ideas once I get back to the crafting desk.