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A New Challenge

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I found a new card challenge blog this week—as if I need another one—but the current challenge is one of my favorite techniques, so you'll probably see a couple of cards for it before the time expires. Just Us Girls is looking for cards with die cut windows.

JustUsGirls

My first share is a card made with one of the images I colored for the #100DayProject. There were several days when I needed a smaller project for coloring and this beautiful magnolia from Altenew's "Magnolias For Her," fit the bill. I watercolored it and then fussy cut it out.

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The die cut heart (My Favorite Things) was backed with a piece of black and white diagonally striped paper, also from My Favorite Things. I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Thank You Kindly" set, and adhered it to a white card base with dimensional tape.

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Finally I attached the magnolia to the bottom of the heart.  I love this clean and simple design, and the contrast between the beautiful pinks and the black and white stripes.

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It's been fun designing some challenge cards this week after focusing on coloring images for so many days lately. 

 

 

The Dog Days of Summer and Visual Triangles

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The Card Concept has a new challenge up called The Dog Days of Summer.

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And My Favorite Things is sponsoring a  Summer School series. The first lesson focused on using visual triangles in your design. It's something I think about almost every time I create a card. There are visual triangles in both the cards below, but one seems more apparent to me than the other.

Puppies

My granddaughter occasionally pretends to be a puppy. These cute puppies from My Favorite Things "Woof Pack" had "her name on them," so as soon as a sale popped up they were in my basket. I'm a big fan of the sentiments, too, I was told after sending ONE card for both kids that it was no longer a good idea. Hannah, the 3 year old, claimed the card as her own, so this time two cards were sent.

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The two puppies and the speech bubble create a visual triangle. This one seems to be a better example because both dogs are "looking at" the speech bubble. Sometimes it's the images that create a visual triangl, but often I use embellishments to form one.

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I die cut the circle with a Spellbinders circle die and backed it with patterned paper from Sunny Studios, The pups were colored with Copic markers.

If it's a "Dog's Life," these cuties seem to have it pretty good.

Altenew July Challenge

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I love my Altenew stamps and dies, and every month I think I'll join in their monthly challenge, but I think this might be a first. When I saw July's inspiration, I knew just what I wanted to do.

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Then I saw August's inspiration photo, and I thought I'd blown it once again. But, to my surprise, the July challenge is still open, so I made sure to get the card made. My inspiration came from the beautiful wreath, but I also loved how it was hung on the white window frame. I didn't have a die that cut a window, so I used the Skinny Stripes: Horizontal die by My Favorite Things. Bonus: that's another NBUS item in my stash, so my goal of using unused products gets another win.

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The wreath comes from one of my most used Altenew stamp sets, Weekend Doodles. I watercolored the leaves with Daniel Smith watercolors and splattered a bit of white gouache on it before die cutting it. 

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The sentiment is from Altenew's Sentiment strips which I stamped on a banner die cut. 

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Although a bit brighter, The Stamp Market's Teal cardstock seemed a good match for the inspiration color, and having matching enamel dots was a bonus. 

Good-bye July, Hello August

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It's time for the One Little Word recap for July. July was the first month I really didn't track my progress. I'll chalk it up to being away the first week of July so my routines didn't get established. The truth is, however, that July was the month last year that I more or less gave up on my OLW and just let it go. We're halfway through the year and it's been a tough one in so many ways, but I'm still COMMITED to working on the projects I set out for myself in January. Not all of them are calling to me right now, but there are enough to keep me going. Here's July in pictures:

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There are a couple of photos of grandchildren sent to me—Caleb on his new 8-speed bicycle (#19). His dad says he can't keep up with him any more; he's way too fast! The three little girls on a bench after they'd been berry picking (#24), and Hannah in her "hiding" place for hide-and-seek (#29). Sarah says Caleb is such a good big brother, he pretends that he can't see her for awhile. On the 6th, you can see the rocks Caleb, Hannah, and I painted with alcohol inks. They came out great and it wasn't anywhere as near messy as I expected it to be. On the 21st, Skylar and Ella came to bake sugar cookies. That was a first for me in the summer, but they disappeared as quickly as they do in December. The photo on the 26th shows our patio without the almost "dead" hedge that has surrounded it since we moved in 35 years ago. The 27th shows the new railing that was installed that day. Our patio sits at the top of a hill, and there needs to be some protection against folks stumbling or running off it and tumbling down the hill. I wasn't sure what I'd think of it, but I really love it. We have a much better view, and the patio actually seems bigger since some of the furniture can be placed right against the railing. I'll have more photos later. There are photos from our walks and bike rides, and the 31st shows some of the cards and images I colored over 115 days.

I did finish the #100DayProject and continued coloring every day until the 30th in order to finish the second of the 30 Day Coloring Challenges that ended on July 3oth. Even more amazing to me than the completing the project was that almost all the projects were posted on Instagram—something I rarely did, but expect to continue to do on a less frequent basis. 

I made NO progress on purging the photos in my Photo Library, so that's high on the list for August. Also on the list is to get back on track with daily walking which fell by the wayside with the travel. By mid-June we'd walked a minimum of 2 miles every day for 57 days. Then we left for Wisconsin, and although we walked while we were there we definitely got out of the daily habit, and I've found it hard to get back to it. The goal for August is 5 days a week—6 would be better! On the crafting side, my goal this month is to use new stamps and dies that have piled up as I worked on coloring projects. I'm off to a good start already finishing two cards this week with unused (though one was hardly new) stamps and dies. 

Reading was not a problem. I read the five books I set out to read, and read two longer books to Caleb over Zoom. I counted them because I loved both novels, as did Caleb. Tomorrow we start Harriet the Spy. It's his request, and I hope I like it more this time than I did the last time I tried to read it. Unlike June, I enjoyed all of the books I read in July.

Lila Afterlife Authenticity Tenderland
Liturgy Ivan Bob

The Authenticity Project was just for fun. It and Liturgy of the Ordinary were part of The Unread Shelf Project. I also went through those shelves with a new question to ask: If I saw this book in a bookstore, would I purchase it? The answer for 12 of them was "no," and they're in a bag to donate to the library once they begin to accept donations. I'm guessing that won't happen until the pandemic is truly over. Fortunately, you can now pick up books curbside by appointment, and just this week you may enter the library after signing a document and getting your temperature taken. 

So now it's August, and today is Sarah's 40th birthday. I wonder if she's as surprised by that fact as I am. Her congregation held a birthday car parade yesterday afternoon through the church parking lot. (FYI: Sarah was wearing a mask for the parade, but took it off for this photo.) Someone made a huge sign, and it was delivered to their front yard this morning. They had a beautiful stained glass window hanging made for her, and brought a cake over as well. When we had our FaceTime call, the house had been decorated by Dad and the kids, so it was as festive an occasion as possible during the pandemic.

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Her birthday card this year featured hedgehogs (a favorite of hers) but I also thought the kids would like it as well. These are about as cute as you can find. I love them rushing up the hill with gifts.

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It's easier to see the "grass" in this photo. I can't remember the last time I pulled out my fringe scissors, but I'm glad they've survived the multiple purges since I bought them years ago.

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Two Cards, Three Challenges

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And the cards–as well as the two main challenges–couldn't be more different. The first is the new Less is More Challenge: Summer Flowers.

425 Theme Summer Flowers

Although I've been to the Gina K Designs retail store a few times when I've visited Sarah in Wisconsin, I didn't really follow her until recently. When I saw her most recent kit offer, I was intrigued, but held off too long and ended up on a wait list. The kit finally came in and about a week ago, it arrived in the mail. I am so impressed not only with the quality but the quantity of product in the kit. This is my first card using one of three stamp sets and I already have plans for both of the other sets. Hopefully, they'll see some love this weekend. 

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This beautiful flower is from "Best Flowers," which also include two larger blossoms and leaves which can be cut with the included dies. This is such an enjoyable flower to color, and you'll probably see it in a variety of colors in the future. The sentiment is from a second stamp set included in the kit, "Hands of Love." The font is different than any other I own, and one I know I'll use frequently.

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I also order the "Master Layout" dies, and have used them for the last several cards I've made (soon to come to the blog!) They die cut the focal image and then the 1/16" mat perfectly. 

The second challenge is The Card Concept's "Christmas in July." I'm happy to be in the season of summer flowers, but I know Christmas will be here before you know it.

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This one gave me an opportunity to use another new stamp set, appropriately named "Poinsettia." This one is by Waffleflower, and it includes enough designs to make multiple holiday cards.

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I also used some of the new cardstock from Concord & 9th–Cranberry and Honeysuckle, and the beautiful oval and frame die cut with Ellen Hutson's "Essential Ovals."

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After embossing the design in gold, I carefully colored the floral with Copic markers. I've read that you must be very careful because embossing powder can ruin the tips of Copic markers. Luckily, I haven't had an issue with it yet. The "Merry" sentiment  (I love the font) came from the "Poinsettia" set, and the "Christmas" from W+9's "Hand Lettered Holiday" set. (Finding that required me to pull out all my Christmas stamps. I considered keeping them out, but although I hope to make a few more cards with this new set, I'm not ready to think about mass producing any cards quite yet.)

One of the requirements for The Card Concept Challenge is to identify your style. In thiscase, I'd call it "Clean and Layered." 

And since both cards use Never Before Used Stuff, I'm entering one in the new challenge which starts today.

We're off in a few minutes to go on a bike ride. Later tonight, rain is forecast and likely to extend into Monday. It's hot and sunny now.

 

Freshly Made Sketches

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This week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches is pretty wide open—make a slimline card. I made my first slimline card earlier this month. Slimline cards are the rage right now, and I have just two dies for them. The first card used the Lawn Fawn Lift the Flap die and today's card uses a beautiful die from Pinkfresh Studio.

Slimline

I started out by ink blending some Distress Inks on white card stock and then die cut it with the Braided Circle die. The butterflies from the Simon Says "Beautiful Butterflies" were colored with Copic markers. This was the set for the June Card Kit, and it's going to see a lot of use. It includes six beautiful butterfly images and twelve sentiments in a variety of lovely fonts. 

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For this card, however, I opted for a sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions. I fussy cut the butterflies since I don't have the dies. On the black card stock behind them, I scored three vertical lines which I could not get to show up in a photograph. I'm off to see what other ideas have shown up for the challenge.

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Happy Anniversary to Us!

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Today is our 47th anniversary. So hard to believe—it's gone by pretty fast! But there's no one I'd rather spend time with than my husband, and after all these years we're still very compatible—though, different, for sure! The pandemic has really emphasized how important compatibility is; we're spending WAY. MORE. TIME. TOGETHER! And, fortunately, enjoying it tremendously.

We didn't expect to do anything special today, but a new restaurant with an outdoor patio opened up just a few weeks ago on Canandaigua Lake. Two sets of friends have already been there for dinner, and said it was wonderful, and every safety precaution has been observed. 

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It is, for sure, a beautiful setting, and it was a gorgeous warm evening. The food was good, and our waitress was charming. There were, however, some details about the occasion which were less than ideal so it's unlikely we'll make the drive to eat there again any time soon. Nonetheless, neither of us regretted the trip tonight, and it definitely was a setting for a celebration. Here's an unobstructed view of Canandaigua Lake.

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And our version of a selfie:

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During one of the OCC Spring Card Camps, one of the techniques was Faux Dip Dye. I originally created this card for that class, and decided right then it would make a great anniversary card, given the sentiments. We're not regular bike-riders, but we do enjoy it. When I pulled the card out a few weeks ago, I realized the stamping of the bike was not as accurate as it should have been, so this is a recreated version of the first card. I'm not as happy with the faux dipping, but the bike is much improved. 

Bike

The bike and the sentiment (I love the font!) are both from an older Papertrey Ink set, "Pedal Pusher." Here's the inside sentiment, which was the deciding factor in making this our anniversary card:

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Here's hoping the next anniversary isn't celebrated with masks on!

In My Thoughts

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I seem to need many more "thinking of you" cards during the pandemic. I have several friends who live alone, and don't have much (or any) family nearby. I try to get cards out every now and then in addition to checking in with the phone or email. Among my many blessings during this difficult time is to live with my best friend!

The current challenge at AAA Cards is for a CAS design:

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I decided on a window card this time, using one of my favorite dies by My Favorite Things, the "Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window." I love the stitched lines around it. 

Thoughts

This time, I'm playing along with the optional challenge of including flowers. These are from Pinkfresh Studio's "Fancy Blooms" set. I colored them with Copics, and fussy cut them since I don't own the dies.

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I added a few clear drops to the inside of the card surrounding the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "It's the Thought." 

It's been an almost ideal weekend in terms of weather, sunny, breezy, and warm. Well, today would qualify as hot, but we got a lovely walk in earlier this morning before the temperature got too high. Even now, though, on the patio it's very comfortable in the shade, thanks to the breeze. Yesterday we took our bikes to the Lehigh Valley Trail and did one section of the trail we hadn't covered walking. Just one more section, and we'll have covered all 25 miles (times 2.) 

 

Color Throwdown

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I'm not sure I've ever managed to make a card for a challenge on the day the challenge went live, but today I did. As soon as I saw the colors, I knew what I wanted to do. Here's the new Color Throwdown inspiration.

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I have a lovely stash of colored images from the #100DayProject, and knew there were some bright yellow and orange flowers, and spring green leaves. They're all from Simon Says "Spring Flowers" line. I have two of the sets, but I think there may be four or five now. 

Loved

I die cut the front of the card with an oval die cut and backed it with a piece of patterned paper from the Papertrey Ink "Lovely Lace" pack. It went with one of their Make It Market kits. I never owned the kit, but purchased one of the paper packs when there was a huge sale. I was actually looking for something else when I found this which is much better than my original idea. 

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The sentiment strip is from Taylored Expressions "Simple Strips." I resisted purchasing that for a long time, but so glad I decided to buy it as I reach for one of them over and over again.

The Flower Challenge-Summer Flowers

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The current challenge at The Flower Challenge is just too good to pass up so here's another entry. I colored this floral design early in the #100DayChallenge, but didn't make it into a card until recently. It was in a pile of previously stamped images, and once I colored it I rescued the stamp from the "donate pile." It ended up in that pile because I hadn't used it in so long. But I loved coloring it, and was glad it hadn't gotten out of the house yet. It's going to be back in rotation now.

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The stamp is an older Hero Arts cling stamp, "Large Blossom." The rubber stamps do stamp beautifully, and I love the black background. 

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It was colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is from one of The Greetery's Sentiment Suite sets: Birthday. I love all the different fonts Betsy includes on these sentiment sets.

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Hope you're having a good start to your week!

 

A Second Two Challenge Card

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This might be one of my favorite birthday cards—so clean and simple—and yet classy enough for a very special birthday!

90

A very good friend turned 90 while we were away, and I made sure this card arrived on time. I started with the navy blue shimmer card and then die cut the numbers from a scrap of silver metallic cardstock with The Stamp Market's "Skinny Upper Numbers." 

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The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set I've used over and over again, "Big Birthday Wishes." It has all kinds of great sentiments designed to accompany whatever year is being celebrated. 

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And I must say, that if I had a photo of my friend, you would never know that he was 90 years old!!!

This card is for the CAS on Friday Challenge: Anything But White, and the Seize the Birthday Challenge: A Non-neutral Card Base.

 

 

 

 

One Card; Two Challenges

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I have a card for two challenges: AAA Cards: Made in Minutes and The Flower Challenge: Summer Flowers.

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It's not often I can make a card in just a few minutes, but this one came together very quickly, and is one of my CAS faves. I should have made multiples in different colors!

Thanks

It's a simple watercolored flower from Altenew's "Sketched Flowers" die cut, attached to white card cut with a "Stitched Rectangle" from Simon Says, and then to a Lovely Lady (Papertrey Ink) card base.

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I wish I had more sentiments with this font, which is a favorite of mine. It's from Papertrey Ink's "Never Enough Thanks" set.

 

The Flower Challenge: Summer Flowers

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The Flower Challenge is for summer or winter flowers, depending on which hemisphere you live in. It's definitely summer here, and I am grateful. The stay-in-place restrictions are so much easier to endure if you can be outside in your garden or on your patio. 

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I made this card for a friend who now has possession of it, so it can be shared on the blog. I used a newer Pinkfresh Studio set "Keep Going," which I've used several times during the #100DayProject. Today was Day 100, and I have a stack of cards, and an even bigger stack of colored images ready to be made into cards. I enjoyed the challenge, and have 15 more days of coloring ahead of me in order to finish Kathy Racoosin's current 30 Day Coloring Challenge. This is the second one she's hosted since the pandemic started. 

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I colored the beautiful flowers with Copic markers and trimmed down the left side of the panel. I added a strip of black and white striped paper from My Favorite Things and a narrow strip of black cardstock to the white card base.

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The sentiment is from Altenew's "Floral Frame" stamp set. There are still a few days left for this challenge, so I'll most likely be back again more quickly than usual. 

Maddy’s Fourth Birthday

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Today Maddy turned four. There can't be a friends party this year, but the family gathered to celebrate. To make it seem special, an ice cream truck arrived. To make it as safe as possible, Leon was the only one who interacted with the server. Maddy was quite excited, and we all enjoyed great ice cream from a Rochester local ice cream store. Here are the three cuties posing for me before their ice cream.

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Then it was on to opening presents. I don't think I've ever seen anyone as excited as Maddy who exclaimed over each and every gift. "It's what I've always wanted!" "Look, Mom, it's a rainbow dress!" 

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And, of course, there was the birthday cake. Maddy insisted she blow out the candles without help, and proudly announced, "That's the first time I've ever done it all by myself." Maddy took off her birthday dress so it wouldn't get dirty during dinner.

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Here's the card I made for her. When I saw this slimline die for a peek-a-boo windows by Lawn Fawn, I knew I'd find plenty of uses for it. I ended up using a number of stamp sets to complete it. Many of the images came from a Hero Arts Monthly kit from December 21018. I've only purchased two of the Hero Art kits, but they both had wonderful images, and come with the dies and lots of embellishments.

Fairies

I started by using the Simon Says "Falling Stars" stencil in a light pink and also stenciled the business envelope as well. I masked around the three flaps and then stamped images on each flap: Hero Arts fairy, sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Balloon Bash," and the rainbow and cloud Simon Says "Best Ever", and the cake with four candles from My Favorite Things, "Birthday Bears." 

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Under the flaps, all the stamps came from the Hero Arts sets. Everything was colored with Copic markers. I added clear glitter pen to the fairies' wings and the icing on the birthday cake. Three small purple pearls were added to the flowers.

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This turned out to be a great sentiment for a slimline card. It's from the Winnie and Walter "Wish Big" set, and there's glitter on all the alphabet flags.

Maddy's card turns out to be a good entry for the current AAA Birthday Challenge: 3-D.

AAABD#15

We got home from Sarah's last night so we'd be here for Maddy's birthday. Making the trip during the pandemic seemed a bit daunting, but driving straight through didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would–helped, of course, by good weather. We stopped only for gas, to change drivers, and to get lunch which we ate in the car. Not our preferred way to travel, but as safe as we could make it. It took us about 11 hours each way. Once we were there, we stayed at home, as do Sarah and her family. They order most of their groceries, although Adam did go to the store once or twice while we were there. It was great to see them, and the grandchildren were thrilled to have us there, and sad to see us leave. It was also good to give Sarah and Adam some relief as they both work from home as well as entertaining and trying to provide enriching activities for Caleb and Hannah. It will take me a few days to settle back into routines here, but it's good to be home.

Blue Watercolored Florals

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Seize the Birthday's challenge is watercolors this time around. I had several (missed) opportunities to get a card up on their challenge site, but finally got one of the watercolored florals I created for the #100DayProject made into a card.

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For my birthday, I received a couple very generous gift certificates from my children to Pinkfresh Studios. In my first order, the "Keep Going" stamp set arrived with this beautiful floral image:

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I watercolored the image with the Karin brush markers. I've discovered, that for me, swiping the brush on a palette and picking it up with a brush or a waterbrush works much better than applying the watercolor directly on the image. I didn't purchase the die for the set, so I fussy cut it before adding it to a Mix and Mat Oval frame by Papertrey Ink.

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Recently, in one of my perpetual reorganizing efforts, I came across this beautiful, subtly striped gray cards. I'm guessing they are from Memory Box, but I can't be sure. I loved the blue and white against the gray. A simple sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions finished it off.