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25 Days of Christmas Tags: Part 2

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I'm back with tags for Days 7-11 for Tracey McNeeleys "25 Days of Christmas Tags." Going out of town definitely got me behind, but I managed to catch up over the weekend, before falling behind again this week due to a crazy schedule. Here's a look at all the tags together.

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Each day Tracey posts a group of tags from which you can choose one as an inspiration piece. Some days are much easier than others, not because there aren't beautiful tags to choose from each day, but because you might not have any stamp or die that seems to fit the bill. That was true for Day 7. Nearly all the tags were created with beautiful and intricate dies of Christmas ornaments. I own not a single stand-alone ornament die. But I was inspired by the neutral color and beautiful gold of Desiree Kuemmerle's ornament. 

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Ivory shimmer and gold mirror cardstock; "Winterland Tree" die by Memory Box, Papertrey Ink's "Stitched Tag;" banner sentiment from a past December Daily kit.

Here's a better look at the shimmer and gold:

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Day 8: Inspired by Beverly Brown.

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Cardstock: vellum, glitter paper; Patterned paper:My Minds Eye "Comfort and Joy" ; Dies:Papertrey Ink "Tag Sale #6- and W+9 "Hand Lettered Holiday"

Day 9: Inspired by Carol Maynes. I ended up making two tags on Day 9. When I stamped the trees the first time, I didn't place them high enough, so the cute polar bear covered too much of the trees. Didn't want the tag to go to waste so I colored it with Copics for a more modern look.

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Both tags: Papertrey Ink "Tag Sale #10;" Neenah cardstock; Copic markers
Tag 1: Papertrey Ink "Warmest Wishes" and Hero Arts "Happy Holly Days"
Tag 2: Papertrey Ink: Warmest Wishes

Day 10- Inspired by Joyce Mehlberg. Once again I didn't have any stamps that were much like the cute images on the tags for Day 10. Joyce's tags featured houses so I turned to an old favorite from Papertrey Ink – "Winter Hills." I was also inspired by the window in one of Joyce's tags.

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Dies: Papertrey Ink "Tag Sale #10;" Stamps: PTI "Winter Hills" and Simon Says "Merry and Bright."

Here's a closer look at the dimension.

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Day 11: Inspired by Kelly Griglione

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Premade tag; Stamps: Papertrey Ink "Spruce & Sprigs;" Dies: "Spruce & Sprigs" and Papertrey Ink "Bold Borders: Flurries;" washi tape, red glitter paper, Wink of Stella glitter pen

One of the best things about this challenge is using so many of the Christmas stamp sets and dies I've accumulated over the many years I've been stamping. Off to work on the next few days of tags!

 

25 Days of Christmas Tags

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Every year I make tags for the family gift exchange at Christmas. I'm never quite sure how many I'll need, but I am sure it will be less than 25. Nonetheless, I'll have no trouble using any additional tags for Christmas gifts. I've followed along with Tracey McNeeley's 25 Tags project other years, but this is the first time I've participated. I got a late start, so will have to post most of these on Instagram to link them up to the 25 Tags post. Here's a look at the first six:

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And a closer look at each tag. Day 1:

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One of the requirements is to choose one of the tags on Tracey's blog as an inspiration piece. For Day 1 I chose the tags by Ankita Agrawal. Here's a look at the two layers.

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Simon Says "Snowflake Tags," Papertrey Ink "Signature Christmas" & "Rustic Wreath," Studio Katia Clear Drop, printed vellum from stash, Aqua Mist cardstock

Day 2:

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Inspired by Norrine Borys– premade tag, Simon Says "Frozen Fractals," Papertrey Ink "Warmest Wishes," Winter Wonderland embossing powder (glittery IRL)

Day 3:

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Inspired by Tenia Nelson - Papertrey Ink "Shape Shifter Square 3," "Tag Sale 6," Essentials by Ellen "Mondo Holly," Gold Mirror, Aqua Mist and vellum cardstock

And a closer look at the Gold Mirror cardstock which I just love:

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Day 4: 

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Inspired by: Audrey Tokach - Neat & Tangled "So Foxy," Simon Says "Merry & Bright," "Stitched Dress Up Tags," & "Diagonal Stripes"

Day 5: 

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Inspired by: Zsofia Molnar - Simon Says "Stitched Dress Up Tags," "Merry & Bright," My Favorite Things patterned paper

And, finally, Day 6:

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Inspired by: Debbie Marcinkiewcz -  Tag by Graphic 45, Winnie & Walter "The Big, The Bold, and The Merry," Papertrey Ink "Holly Jolly," ribbon by Offray, unknown glitter paper

My guess is I'll be posting these a few at a time. It's already been a fun challenge!

 

Seize the Birthday: Foliage

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I have a second entry to the current Seize the Birthday challenge. For this challenge, you can create any birthday card, but each challenge has a "topping" with a specific theme.

Seize the toppings

The current one is "foliage."

I borrowed a Papertrey Ink Bold Borders: Foliage from a friend recently and die cut a whole slew of them from different papers. I thought I'd try using two of them slightly offset. Since the Bold Borders die covers the whole card front I needed to snip off the outermost border on the second one before I could offset it.

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The total frame was die cut with a relatively thin piece of gold textured paper from Michael's. The bronze paper is likewise lighter than the typical cardstock, and I think it, too, came from Michaels. I layered them on a card made from Simon Says "Burnt Orange" cardstock, and embossed the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Stylish Sentiments: Birthday" in gold.

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It's a bit easier to see the two layers in this photo. I added three gold sequins before I got the card in the mail for a friend's birthday.

Autumn Birthday Card

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My niece's birthday is coming up, and I wanted to make a fall birthday card to enter into two challenges: Seize the Birthday: Foliage, and the Fusion Card Challenge.

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The Fusion Challenge is a sketch/photo challenge. This time my inspiration comes from the beautiful fall colors on this wonderfully decorated porch:

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It had been awhile since I pulled out my Distress Inks for the "smoosh" technique, but the latest Simon Says Card Kit, ''Thanks and Leaves" seemed perfect for it. There are a variety of different sized and shaped leaves in the set. I smooshed several different Distress Inks on my glass mat, and simply smooshed the stamps in them, and stamped them on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper. I first tried spritzing the stamps with a mist of water, but decided I liked the effect better without it. After stamping, I trimmed the piece down and added it to the side of a Canyon Clay (PTI) top-folded card. A thin strip of bronze metallic card added a bit of glitz.

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Once that was completed, I hunted through my drawer of embossing powders and discovered an old one called Woven Tapestry. It was almost a perfect match for the strip of bronze paper. The sentiment is from a Simon Says set "Birthday Flowers," part of a card kit from 2016. 

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The card still needed a "little something," so I layered some gold and copper sequins and added them as a final touch. 

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After nearly a week of cold, rainy days we're having a glorious autumn day. Our Healthy Living class at the refugee center finally got outside to walk this afternoon instead of doing exercises in the gym! Hoping the rain holds off for treat and treating tomorrow night, but it doesn't look likely.

A CASE for an Anniversary

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I lost track of time, and needed an anniversary card ASAP. Sometimes I see a card on a blog, and it prompts me to buy the stamp set. That happened last month when I saw this card by Yana Smakula using a new set from Pretty Pink Posh. When my friend and I were in Buffalo spending our garage sale "money," this set was available and I picked it up. It's a very close CASE of Yana's card–I gold embossed the image, changed the sentiment, and used some different Copic marker combinations, but otherwise, stuck close to her design. One thing I loved about Yana's card was she took a wreath designed to be a circle and stretched it out into an oval which worked perfectly for my card as well. CASEing someone's design (which I try not to do too often) definitely shortens the time it takes to create a nice card.

Anniversary

I chose a lighter cardstock for the base, as well. This is Papertrey Ink's Rustic Cream which took the Copics quite well. It's not often I make a truly one-layer card, and I gave thought to added some embellishments but decided the business of the wreath was more than enough. I added some sparkle to a few of the larger images with a Nuevo clear glitter pen.

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The orange glittery envelope is from the latest Simon Says kit and was just perfect for getting this in the mail with a bit of sparkle, too.

The coloring gave me a chance to try a few new blending colors with my Copic markers. Earlier this summer I purchased the Waffle Flower "Color Swatches" stamp, and created a notebook for samples of my Copics. I expect to expand it to include my various watercolors as well. It's already proven to be a good reference.

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On the left are samples of the green Copic markers I own, and on the right blending combinations using those markers.

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I have a two-page spread for each color, and probably will have to add some more pages for blending charts. When I was coloring the school bus for Caleb's first day of school card, it was easy to come to this page and see which of the blending combos might work the best.

During my summer reorganization and purge, I also invested in an insert for my Raskog cart that holds Copic markers. It's designed to hold an entire collection of Copics which I will never have (nor do I need). I've been collecting Copics for about 10 years now, and have pretty much everything I will ever need. The insert came from Etsy, and holds all of my Copics as well as my set of Tombow markers. Now when I want to color, I pull the Raskog cart up to my desk and easily pull out (and replace) the markers easily. 

Markers

I wasn't 100% sure I'd be happy with this, and ordering from Etsy is a bit of a risk since it couldn't be returned, but I couldn't be happier with the purchase. 

 

 

Papertrey Ink October 2018 Blog Hop & Time Out: Giving Thanks

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It's the 25th of the month, so it must be the monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, one of my favorite challenges. This month's inspiration piece features a chalkboard sign, pumpkins, and gourds among other fall motifs. 

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The main focus is the chalkboard sign, and it's been a long time since I played around with the chalkboard look on a card. I started there and once the background was "chalked," embossed a sentiment from "Giving Thanks," a new to me Papertrey set. I absolutely love the fonts in this sentiment; it's one of the reasons I added the set to a recent order. I attached a "Pierced Frame" in black to the chalkboard and tucked a pumpkin and two gourds from "Simply Gourd-eous" within the frame. Although I used the coordinating dies to cut the pumpkin and gourds I ended up fussy cutting them to eliminate the thin white borders from the dies.

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I originally thought I'd mount both pieces on a top-folding black card, but when I looked again at the inspiration piece, I decided to use Scarlet Jewel cardstock to mimic the frame on the chalkboard in the photo. It's hard to see, but I used my Chai distress cube to distress the Scarlet Jewel cardstock much like the frame in the photo. 

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The pumpkin and gourds needed a little more definition so I added some Polychromos colored pencils to areas to enhance them a bit. Off to PTI to see what others made of this photo.

I'm also entering this in the current Time Out Challenge. It's a quote this time about gratitude; perfect timing.

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Autumn Colors

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I certainly didn't anticipate that it would take me two weeks to get back to the blog after our trip to Michigan and Wisconsin. We had a lovely road trip and a wonderful stay with Sarah and her family. As frequently happens, after a good time away, our calendars were very full when we got home. Just now, I'm getting back to the craft room, and having some time to play. I have quite a few new products to try out, but today's card actually features some "oldie but goodies:"  Papertrey Ink's "Friendship Jar: Autumn," and a small stamp set that was part of a scrapbooking kit from Gossamer Blue several years ago. I can't remember the last time I ordered a scrapbook kit, but when I did I particularly liked those from Gossamer Blue. 

This card is for the current Time Out Challenge: Colorful.

Colourful

I wish the autumn colors here were as colorful as the ones on my card, but the trees have been very slow here to change colors. It's turned quite cold in the last few days so we'll see what effect that has on the colors. Here's my entry to the "Colourful" challenge.

Autumn

I started with a textured card I found in my closet looking for something else. It was prefolded, and as you will see in the next photo, a small border peeked out from the inside. The colorful pumpkins and leaves are from the Friendship Jar set, colored with Copic markers, and fussy cut. The sentiment and frame are from the Gossamer Blue set and I embossed them in gold.

AutumnFlat

I trimmed a small strip of patterned paper from a pack by Sunny Studio that I picked up in Buffalo the last time I was there, and adhered it to the bottom of the inside of the card. It accentuates the browns of the acorns in the fall cluster. Finally I added three small gold sequins to pick up the gold from the embossed sentiment. I'm not sure how I'll use this card. It could easily become a thank you note, or even a birthday card with the right inside sentiment. 

 

 

CASology Challenge: Gratitude

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I have a quick and easy card for this week's CASology Challenge on Gratitude.

Week 315 - Gratitude

I like to have small thank you notes on hand to send out whenever the occasion warrants. I love the 4-bar cards made by Paper Source and also like the ones by Memory Box. This card was a Paper Source card that seemed to be the perfect autumn shade of green. 

HerbThanks

The die cut is from Papertrey Ink's Make-It Market Kit, Herb Garden. I added a thin twine bow, and stamped a sentiment from my very favorite Penned Elegance set, also by Papertrey Ink. Couldn't be easier, although it would be even nicer if I had a whole set of these ready to set out—perhaps another goal for October!

September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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Today's the 25th and time for the September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. Right before we left, I managed to find time to make two fall birthday cards based on this gorgeous inspiration photo. I wasn't sure I'd have time to write a post from the road, but we're in our hotel after a lovely dinner and there's still two hours left before the link closes. 

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Both cards feature leaves and the beautiful fall colors in the inspiration photos. The first is my favorite.

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I've had the Mix and Mat Pinked Edges die laying out for several weeks, knowing it was perfect for a fall birthday card. I die cut it four times, first with kraft, and then again with Ripe Avocado, Terracotta Tile, and Canyon Clay. I carefully cut out two leaves from each of the colorful cardstock and adhered them to the kraft die cut.  Then I adhered that to a top-folding Saffron Spice card. I gold embossed the sentiment on a strip of Dark Chocolate cardstock.

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The next card uses many of the same colors but I used both the leaf stamps and die cuts from Forest Floor: Autumn along with an oldie but goodie, Fillable Frames #4.

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Once I had all the elements stamped and die cut, I felt like I needed something behind the frame. A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME die cut with a stitched rectangle fit the bill. Although there are acorns to stamp and die cut from the Forest Floor set, I chose two little three-dimensional acorns by Little B instead to finish off the card. 

We've had a wonderful three days on the road. Tomorrow we take the ferry across Lake Michigan and will be in Racine with Sarah and her family by dinnertime. Off to link up to the blog hop! Thanks for stopping in!

Happy Birthday, Skylar

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It's been a crazy week. I had at least three blog posts planned, but didn't end up with time to write any of them. This is being written at the last minute as we pack up for a short road trip and then a ten day stay with Sarah, Adam, Caleb, and Hannah. I'm looking forward to the time away, and to spending time with family!

Yesterday, Miss Skylar turned seven! It seems like just yesterday she was turning three. Betsy hosted a family dinner party last night for her, and today there was a kids' party at a trampoline center (I think.) Matt told us not to bother to come to that since we'd never get any time with the kids and it would be "crazy." He was probably right, and I definitely needed the time today to finish getting ready for the trip. 

Here are some pics from the party last night.

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The birthday girl with her "best gift ever"—an American Girl doll!

And because I don't want to leave out the little sisters:

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Ella, taking photos. Check out the heart-shaped flash!

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Miss Madelyn, who has grown 3 1/2 inches since January. She LOVES the monkey bars, the swings, and the slide.

The theme for Skylar's party was mermaids. September's Simon Says Card Kit featured mermaids, and I almost passed on it. Then I remembered I have four granddaughters seven years and under so I chose to have it sent. So glad I did. It was perfect for this year's birthday card.

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I purchased the Simon Says "Waves" stencil which I'm sure I'll use again, and blended a variety of blue Distress Oxide inks on a piece of watercolor paper. Then I stamped the mermaid and colored her with Copic markers. The sentiment on the front of the card comes from a Stampendous set called "Ocean Wisdom." After adding some glitter to the mermaid's fins with a Spectrum Noir glitter pen and three sequins, I adhered the stamped piece to a card made from Hawaiian Shores. 

Here's a closer look at the sparkly mermaid.

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I'm taking my laptop and external hard drive with me, so hope to get the planned blog posts up mid-week when we get to Sarah's. Hopefully, there'll be some photos from the road trip as well. For sure, I'll be seeing you next week with the last of the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt photos—the last of which I snapped last night!

Less is More

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A quick post to enter a card in the current Less is More challenge: Black & White & Plus One.

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Anyone who's followed my blog for awhile knows one of my favorite color combinations is black, white, and red. And it frequently shows up in anniversary cards.

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One of the hallmarks of a Less is More card is white space, although it doesn't have to be white—non-patterned, clean space— which in this case is black. The beautiful die cut and shadow is from Simon Says and the sentiment is from an accompanying stamp set. a simple heart and three white enamel dots and it was done. Easy, but classic, I think.

A Birthday Celebration

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It's a dark and cold Monday morning here, but the fall chill we've had for the last three days isn't supposed to last long. We had a lovely weekend, but I have no photos to show for it. I do have a card to share, however, for three different challenges. I made this card for one of our good friends who recently turned 70. He enjoys good food and good wine, and his wife hosted a wonderful party for him at a local restaurant. One of the highlights of the evening was seeing their children who now live and work in NYC and Denver, CO. Matt and their son, Ben, were best friends all through elementary school. They forged different paths come middle school (Scouts vs. sports), but we've maintained a lasting friendship with his parents.

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Although I knew I wanted to use Papertrey Ink's "Uncorked" stamp set, the card I had in mind is a far cry from the one I ended up with. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy with the final result. I trimmed off the top of a ready-made tag to hold the wine bottle (embossed in gold) and the wine glasses (die cut from patterned vellum). After embossing the sentiment, I felt the card needed "a little something" so I added a few score lines to the Scarlet Jewel card before adhering the tag and rounded the top corners.

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For the inside greeting, I die cut some numbers from Memory Box with gold adhesive paper from PTI, and embossed a sentiment from "Big Birthday Wishes," also by PTI.

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I'm entering this card in three challenges:

Time Out's Quotation Challenge, focusing on the "wine in our hands:"

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Seize the Birthday: 

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And last, but not least, Simon Says Wednesday challenge: Stamp It! in celebration of their annual Stamptember event:

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First Day of School

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Well, actually, Caleb attended full-day kindergarten last year, but today marked the first day of first grade and his very first school bus ride. For both pre-school and kindergarten he could walk to school. It's a new town as well, and he's attending a magnet school with grades K-8 in the same building. Sarah was a bit concerned about putting him on a bus with 8th graders and wondered if she should drive him the first day, but Caleb decided he wanted to ride the bus. In anticipation of this very big first day, I sent Caleb a card. As soon as I saw the "School Bus Messages" set during the July or August release at Simon Says, I knew I had to have it. (There are still three more very first days to come for my grandchildren!)

School Bus

I stamped the bus and colored it with Copic markers before cutting it out by hand. Then I stamped, cut, and colored two cute critters—one from Simon Says " Quite the Pear," and one from Simon Says "Wild Cuddly Critters," I cut them to fit into the school bus windows. Another new product from that Simon Says order was the "Diamond Pattern" card cover die. (I already have lots of ideas for using that.) I layered it on a card made from Papertrey's "Bright Buttercup," and then adhered the school bus, adding some Crystal Nuvo to the lights on the school bus. The sentiment is also from the "School Bus Messages" set.

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We were anxious to hear about Caleb's first day, and had a great FaceTime conversation with him when he got home. The bus ride was fine (and not as long as anticipated), and he had a great first day just as we wished for him.

 

Watercolor Basics and Beyond: Part 3

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Back again with another project from Altenew's "Watercolor and Beyond" class. This has been such an easy class to keep up with. Jennifer's video's are short and to the point, but with enough detail to easily understand the concept she's teaching. I have just two more lessons to complete—the one that failed the first time (I think now I know how to correct my problems), and the last lesson of the class which I watched this morning. I should be able to meet my self-imposed goal of being done by the weekend.

This lesson was about coloring a detailed embossed image with watercolor. It's a technique I've used before but not with such a detailed image. Jennifer used the new Altenew "Needlework Motif" set. I'd seen a lot of beautiful projects using the stamp during Altenew's release week, and ordered it. It was sitting on my desk awaiting this opportunity.

Motif

I'm very happy with the results. I took my time and used a very small watercolor brush, following the advice to move around the image letting one area dry before watercoloring the area next to it. It's advice I've read many times before, but haven't always heeded. It's clear it's advice worth following. I stuck to four colors of blue and two colors of green all from my Gansai Tambi watercolors. I do think I'm about to splurge on the Altenew set because of it's compact size and the wide range of bright colors. I embossed the image with rose gold embossing powder which is so lovely. Here's a closer look.

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We're off to lunch with our couples book group–discussion of Killers of the Flower Moon at one of the member's home afterwards. Later this evening, we're going to the Food Truck Rodeo at the Public Market with good friends. It's our first of the rodeos this summer. Although summer days are waning, the heat and humidity are not, so it still feels like summer for sure. 

Watercolor Basics and Beyond: Part 2

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The next lesson in Altenew's watercolor class was on using watercolors as ink. It's important in this technique to use concentrated amounts of watercolor which you apply directly to the stamp, and then lightly spritz the stamp with water before stamping onto watercolor paper. Following that you can use a small brush to distribute some of the watercolor and enhance some of the details. I don't have a lot of Altenew's layering stamps (it's a technique I'm still learning to master), but using the detail stamp for the layering was recommended. Actually, the "Build a Flower" Magnolia" worked out pretty well for this technique.

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I actually had a lot more trouble turning the piece into a card than I did executing the watercolored flower. I added some black and gold splatters after stamping the sentiment (from Altenew's "Floral Frame" stamp set) and let them dry for over three hours. When I went to adhere the watercolor piece to a card I weighted it down and when I picked it up, some of the black splatters had smeared in the upper left-hand corner! I finally found a Spellbinders die that was the right size to incorporate the flower, the sentiment, and eliminate the smeared splatters. What a pain! I added a gold border and used a Memory Box licorice card. Here's a closer look at the gold border and splatters.

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I'm halfway through the videos for the class, and hope to finish it before the weekend. The next technique we learned was watercoloring an embossed sentiment. Looks easy, probably should be easy, but three attempts have hit the circular file. I'm moving on, although I'll probably come back later and try again.