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#100DayProject: Week 3

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The past week was especially busy, so I had to fit in the project in littler pieces. My first card to share represents several days of experimenting with two new stamps sets (loaned to me by a friend) as well as with two new techniques.

VaseOfFlowers

Both stamp sets are relatively new ones from Papertrey Ink: "Vogue Vases" and "Simple Stems." You'll eventually see more of the vases and the flowers as I stamped a few extras of both. The techniques were both from Betsy Veldman of the Papertrey Ink Design Team: creating translucent vases, and adding detail to the flowers with pens. I've owned a set of Staedtler Triplus Fineliners for years. I think I bought them at the Princeton book store when Sarah and Adam lived there 11 years ago. They worked perfectly for this and made so much difference in how the flowers looked. On the yellow flower, I used the finer tip of a Tombow marker since I didn't have a good contrasting pen for that color. The sentiment is from the Simple Stems set.

FlowersClose

The translucent vases are created by stamping them on vellum in a relatively dark color (I used Tropical Teal as did Betsy), and then overstamping with watermark ink and embossing with clear embossing powder. A stamp positioner like the MISTI is invaluable for techniques like this.

VaseFlat

I also went back to color blending again as well as watercoloring a lot of flowers from an old set by Simon Says, "Artful Flowers." I've always loved this set, but have never had much luck with it. A video by Nichol Sporh was the inspiration for these cards—you'll see I duplicated much of her design on the first card.

WCFlowersTall

WCFlowersThankYou

WCFlowersCelebrate

The new die cutting technique I played with last week came in handy for die cutting the stems and the flowers for these cards. I'm much happier with these than with any earlier attempts using this set. 

One funny thing about this project is that I started it to work through the many techniques I'd pinned on my boards for Design and Techniques. What I'm finding is that I'm constantly adding to my list of things to try every week, so I am quite sure I won't run out of ideas before the challenge ends. 

I'll be back later today with another post to celebrate a special birthday. Off now to take a walk before the rain moves in later today. We've been blessed with three glorious days of warmer temperatures and sunshine, and I don't want to waste a minute of it!

Spring???

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There is finally hope of spring here. It was 60° today, and the forecast is for temperatures 50° or more for the next 10 days. The annual Lilac Festival is scheduled to begin in just a month so it's a good thing. We walked through the park this afternoon, and even the magnolia buds are still small and tight. There are buds on the lilac bushes as well, but it's going to take a long stretch of sunshine and warm temperatures for them to be at peak for the festival.
 
I have two spring inspired cards to share today, both were done with the same image from "Showers and Flowers" one of two stamp sets included in the March Simon Says card kit. Both were colored with colored pencils, the first with Prismacolor and the second with Lyra colored pencils which I've had in my collection for a long time.
 
HappyBDBoots
 
After stamping and coloring the image, I die cut it with a "Stitched Rectangle," and mounted on a slightly larger die cut of Sunshine and then on a card made from Green Apple (Simon Says).
 
The next card is one I referenced in Tuesday's post about the #100DayProject. This time I used a piece of Strathmore Toned Gray paper. I've seen several cards made with this paper and colored pencils and wanted to try it out. I'm not thrilled with the results, and have plans to try this again soon. Nonetheless, I made a card with it.
 
#100Day12Boots
 
This was also die cut with Stitched Rectangles before adding to a card made from Raspberry Fizz (PTI). I added a few rainstones (also from PTI).
 
I have more free time on my calendar this week than usual so I'm hoping to get a lot of crafting done. After being a year behind with my Project Life album, I'm now done to just two months (February and March) to do. I'd like to get a few cards made as well and, of course, keep up with the #100DayProject. 

#100DayProject: Week 2

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Today marks the end of the second week of the #100DayProject, and I'm trying to do a weekly update as I work through the project. I've already shared two of the cards here and here.

Header copy

I'll share a couple more today, and have a couple cards to post later for specific events. I tried some block watercolor smooching—a limited success, as well as some colored pencil work on gray toned paper—also a limited success in my opinion although I did make a card with it. Whether it gets sent or not is another matter. The first card for today is one using some of the block watercoloring effort. To do this, you add Distress Inks to an acrylic block, mist it with some water, and smoosh it onto some watercolor paper and weight it down for a few minutes. I watched Jennifer McGuire's video here, and thought it looked pretty easy. None of mine came out as nice as hers, but I haven't given up yet either. What I did this time, was die cut a circle from one of the attempts, and used it to create a background for another technique I tried at a friend's house on Saturday—using Nuevo drops as an embellishment.

#100Day11Butterfuly

I die cut a stitched frame from Simon Says "Stitched Circles" and mounted it on a card made from Simon Says "Sunshine" cardstock. I love that bright color, especially when we've had one cold, gray day after another for the last week. I scored three lines down the middle of the card before adhering the circle which I stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey's "Penned Elegance," surely a new favorite of mine! I'm also in love with "Butterfly Blooms," by Papertrey and you'll be seeing several more cards made with that set in the near future. This time the only color added to the die cut butterfly was a variety of Nuevo drops which are dimensional.

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As a final touch I added a few black pearls from Amuse. I have a little stack of watercolored smooched papers on my desk so may be able to use them eventually.

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My grandson missed a whole week of school last week with some kind of stomach "bug." By Thursday, I was feeling really bad for him and decided to make a card with a stamp set I bought with grandchildren in mind, but had never used. 

#100Day10Caleb

I love these cute little monsters from Your Next Stamps, "Silly Monsters," set. I stamped them on Neenah Solar White cardstock, my go-to paper for coloring with Copic markers, colored them, and fussy cut them. I embossed the sentiment on a piece of shimmery black cardstock, and then popped up the three monsters around the circle.

These guys definitely needed googly eyes and, fortunately, I found a little stash of them in my supplies.

Yesterday I worked on a new die cutting technique and have a pile of lovely butterflies to use on cards as a result. I didn't worry about trying to get the card(s) done as well. Tonight will probably be similar as it was a very busy day, so I'm hoping to do some stamping and die cutting with a stamp set a friend loaned me for a week or so. Although not all the results of my experiments were totally satisfying, I learned from each of them. It's likely I'll put them to the test again before the 100 days run out.

 

 

Make It Monday: Stitched Stems & Inspired By the Little Things

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Make-itMonday

Michelle Leon is up at Papertrey Ink this week with the Make It Monday challenge. She demonstrated how to make stitched stems for your florals, and created a whole series of great cards. One card is up on the Papertrey blog, but at the end of the video she shows you several other gorgeous samples.

Mine is rather last minute. The challenge closes in just a few hours, and we spent most of the day at my brother-in-law's for the Walker family Easter celebration. On Easter, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were on their way home from Florida. But, I wanted to be sure to give this a try since it certainly fits into my #100DayProject. So, a new technique and a much older die set that I haven't used in several years.

#100MIMDay13

The older die I used was the "Bitty Button Stacks" to create the flowers, adding some Nuevo drops to the centers. The leaves are die cut with the Memory Box "Tender Leaves" die from Simply Chartreuse cardstock. I stitched the stems onto a piece of Fresh Snow Linen die cut with the "Mix and Mat: Confetti" die. That was adhered to a piece of Bitty Big patterned paper and then to a Fresh Snow Linen card. The banner and sentiment are from Simon Says "Tilted Banners" set. 

#100MIMDay13Close

I had to photograph this after dark, so the shadows are a bit intense. It's impossible to see in the photographs, but I used the new Ranger Detail Blending Tools to add ink to the edges of each flower to add some dimension. It is visible in real life, and I really like the small blending tools. 

I'm linking this up to the Inspired by Little Things challenge as well. Seems like a great fit. Here's the inspiration photo:

Inspired 83

 

Belated Birthday Post

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The card was not belated, but the posting of it is. Yesterday was Adam's birthday, and although I had a text "conversation" with him, I didn't get a birthday post up. Recently I purchased a die from Reverse Confetti, "Stitched Rays." I was quite sure I could use it in a variety of ways, but doing a masculine birthday card wasn't my first thought. Until I pulled it out, though, I was struggling to come up with a card I liked. 

AdamBD

It isn't actually a die, but embosses the design without the use of an embossing pad. Under the circle sentiment is a smaller circle that is embossed. I used two of my favorite grays, Simon Says "Smoke" and "Slate," embossing an image from Papertrey's "Initial Sentiments: Birthday" in silver on a stitched circle die. The smaller sentiment is also from the same set. A simple, but somewhat graphic design, and one I'll probably use again.

AdamFlat

Once I settled on the "Stitched Rays" die the card came together very quickly. Sometimes the search is far longer than the actual execution of the card!

 

Less is More: CASE a Card

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This week's challenge at Less is More is to CASE this card:

Blue copic flowers main

I loved the blue flower and used it for my inspiration. I turned the card around so that it's vertical rather than horizontal since the flower I chose is a tall one from Altenew's "Beautiful Lady" set, a set I've owned for quite some time, and never used. Not sure why since I do like it a lot.

#100Day8

I embossed the image in black and then watercolored it with my Gansai Tambi watercolors. The original card had a die cut sentiment cut from silver glitter. It's hard to see in the photograph but I added silver dots to the tops of the stamens in the stamped image. I didn't think a silver sentiment (also from "Beautiful Lady") would be as attractive on this card as the black embossed one. 

#100Day8Flat

I die cut the watercolored image with a WPlus9 stitched rectangle from their "Gift Card Layers" set and adhered it to a white card. It doesn't get a lot more CAS than this, and I'm very happy with it.

#The100DayProject: Week 1and 2 Challenges

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Today marks the beginning of Week 2 for #The100WeekProject. I managed to create a new card every day last week with a new technique, a new stamp set, a new design, or a long-neglected stamp set. The email today from the organizers of this creative project asked if we needed to make any adjustments to our project. I'm not sure a card-a-day is a realistic goal, so there may be days when I work on a technique, and it may (or may not) result in a card. One technique I tried this week appeared to be a fail, but I ended up being able to use it for a card after all. Failed techniques will count, too. Actually I ended up with eleven new cards for the week, some of which I posted here, here, and here. Today I thought I'd share two more cards I made for current challenges.

One of the techniques high on my list to try was color blending. I've tried it several times with the sponge blenders by Rangers, but have never been really happy with the results. This week I used the two new Distress Oxide inks that came with the April Simon Says stamp kit:  "Squeezed Lemonade" and Mermaid Lagoon." Instead of the sponge blenders, I pulled out my Clarity Stencil Brushes, and I was much happier with the results. These colors are the two main colors in the current Time Out Challenge: 

TimeOut

Here's the card. I photographed it with the brushes so you could see them. They are unlike any of the older stencil brushes I own. I also used the stamp set from the kit, "Beautiful Day."

#100Day4

After blending the two colors, I added stamped images in black as well as a sentiment in the bright yellow space. I colored in a few places on the butterflies with Copic markers and added a few colored sequins.

#100Day4Flat

Another "top of the list technique" was to try the Gina K Wreath Builder set. This is a unique set that comes with two stencils to help you build a wreath that can be used with a wide variety of stamps. As always, it took me a couple of tries before I came up with a design I liked. This card fits the bill for the Inspired by the Little Things Challenge this week.

Inspired 83

#100.2

All the stamps are from the Wreath Builder stamp set. The sentiment circle was cut with a "Stitched Circles" die from Simon Says, and then it was all adhered to a mat of Bright Buttercup and a square card made from Green Parakeet (both PTI.)

#100.2Flat

The finishing touch was the addition of a tiny white pearl in the center of each main flower. 

One way I've managed to keep up with the project along with my other commitments is to decide on a technique or stamp set the night before. Then, at least, I'm not on a search the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

Freshly Made Sketches

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As soon as I saw the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches, I knew I wanted to participate. Nonetheless, it took me nearly all week to get to it. I finally had a few extra minutes this afternoon.

FMS Final 331-001

It's definitely a "clean and simple" sketch, so right up my alley. I recently bought Reverse Confetti's "Tall Blooms," and thought a couple of the images would be perfect for this. I started with  premade A4 card by Paper Source, and added two black strips of paper. I die cut and stamped two of the blooms and colored them with Copic markers. 

FMSThanks

I tied the blooms together with a piece of white baker's twine before adhering them to the card. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Gathered Garden." The reorganization of my stamps a couple of weeks ago has proven to be a great move. All of a sudden, I'm "discovering" stamp sets I haven't touched in quite awhile.

FMSThanksFlat

I'm quite sure I'll use this sketch again. It was a quick, easy card to complete, and I love the A4 size for thank you notes. Off to see what others have created with this sketch before this challenge closes tomorrow. 

A Little Sunshine

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Yesterday’s card was not part of my #100DayProject, but today’s is. It’s a new technique introduced (to me) on Monday by Papertrey Ink’s Stephanie Gold for their Make It Monday challenge, using outline images.

Make-itMonday

My card uses two older stamp sets by Papertrey Ink. The first, “Still Life: Summer,” is a Mini Market Kit, and although I’ve used the dies and the patterned papers, I don’t think I’ve ever broken out the stamp set. The other is “ Hello, Sunshine,” a set that’s been idle for a number of years. It's one of the sets that resurfaced when I reorganized my stamps a few weeks ago.

#100.3

For the solid image, I used two circles from Simon Says’ “Scribbled Flowers” set. They were stamped in Bright Buttercup, and the outline image in Harvest Gold . I added a few outline leaves from “Still Life: Summer” in Green Parakeet. The sentiment is from "Hello, Sunshine" and seems a perfect fit for the card.

#100.3Flat

I’m also entering this in the current Time Out challenge. The inspiration for my card actually came from the lemons under the pretty Forsythia bouquet in their inspiration photo.

TimeOut

Although we’re just a few days in, I’m enjoying the #100DayProject. It’s nice to be focusing on a new technique or stamp set each day and not thinking about where it might take you in the end.

Happy Birthday–Simon Says

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It's Simon Says 9th birthday, and the party is starting on the Wednesday Challenge Blog with birthday cards.

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It's also the first birthday of one of our good friend's daughters. Not long ago, I purchased the Mama Elephant's "Fly With Me" set. I just couldn't resist the cute little elephants flying with balloons.

EvaBD

I stamped and colored the images with Copic markers. I didn't purchase the dies, so I had to fussy cut them, but it didn't turn out to be too difficult. The clouds die cuts are by Papertrey Ink. I die cut a #1 with a PTI "Block Numbers" from one balloon, colored it, and inlaid it. Once that was done, I arranged the images on a piece of MFT: Watercolor Wash paper that had been die cut with a WPlus9 die from the "Gift Card Layers" set, and adhered to a white card base. 

EvaBDFlat

Finally, I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Bash," (an oldie but goodie) on the front. Happy Birthday to Simon Says. It's a great place to shop online now that there are no longer any independent stamp stores in our area, and their blog provides daily inspiration! 

 

#The100DayProject: Day 1

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Header copy

Last year I took on the #The100DayProject for the first time, completing 100 sketches over the 3+ months of the project. I thought about taking on the same project again this year, since sketching seems to be one of my creative endeavors that often ends up on the back burner.

Recently, however, I reorganized (and purged) my large collection of stamps. In the process I found multiple sets that have seen little (or no) love. Then I realized that my Pinterest board titled Cards: Techniques had over 150 pins. Not all those pins represent new techniques for me, but many do. So this year I've decided to try the #100DayProject again by committing to try a new technique, or use a new or unloved stamp set every day. Some days (most, I hope) will result in a card or two. But some days it may just be an opportunity to play around with the creative process. One goal is to master the art of ink blending which always seems to be a challenge for me. I’d also like to improve in my use of layering stamps, as well. Then there are all those pins . . . some represent style more than technique, but each time I pinned the card it was something about the technique that appealed to me. I also have a Pinterest board titled: Cards: Design, so I may take on a few of those as well. Hopefully, at the end of the project, I’ll have a stash of cards put away.

Today is Day 1. The project's goal is to post one photo every day to Instagram, but we all know how reliable I am about that! I am planning to blog at least once a week with some of the techniques I’ve tried, and a couple of the cards I made. That seems a bit more doable.

Today I started with a design I saw just this week on Heather Nichols blog. It's a new design for me (the white outline with a colored image on top) and a new technique (watercoloring on Bristol paper with Zig pens). When I went to find a stamp that would work with this design I was surprised to discover that with all the floral images I own, I have almost no floral stamps that include a grouping of flowers. I was short on time, so trying to mask and stamp a floral group seemed out of the question. Then I discovered the Penny Black "Botanical Notes." It's a stamp I've owned for several years and used only once or twice—a long time ago. So there it is: a new design, a new technique, and a seldom used stamp. I doubt I'll hit all of those categories each day, but it should be a fun project.

#100.1

I love the bright orange on the gray paper, and I like the white outline images as well. I'm curious to see if I can get this design to work with other stamps sets. 

#100.1Flat

I haven't decided yet whether to add a sentiment strip to the front or not. If I do, I'll emboss one on a black or vellum banner. The card itself will work for more than one occasion, so I'll just wait and see.

I've given some thought to how I might keep up with this project when we travel, which we certainly will during the next 100 days, but I think it will be doable. If some days don't work out, I'll double up—I have no issue with that, but I do expect to have attempted 100 techniques, designs, or cards with an unused/unloved stamp set.

Fusion: Easter Bunny

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This week's inspiration photo at the Fusion challenge is a cute one: an Easter bunny wreath. There's also a sketch that you can follow, but I stuck to the Easter bunny theme with an Easter card for my Chicago granddaughter.

Fusion Mar 29 Easter Bunny-001

Awhile ago, I ordered three of the Simon Says Picture Book dies. One of them was the cutest bunny. It seemed perfect for a 14 month old little girl's Easter card.

SomeBunny

I photographed the card on a cute stuffed bunny from Target. All five grandchildren are getting one of these bunnies (in brown and pink or white and blue) for Easter. First I die cut the bunny in three colors and pieced it together. I popped it into a heart die cut with a My Favorite Things heart from a white stitched square backed with some patterned paper from the Avery Elle collection, "The Sorbet Collection." That was all adhered to a square card made from Cotton Candy cardstock from Simon Says.

SomeBunnyFlat

Although the photograph makes the Spellbinder banner look as if it's been cut from a different cardstock, in real life, the banner matches the card perfectly. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Bunny Basket." 

Easter is likely to be snowy. Matt and Betsy are planning to have the Easter egg hunt inside this year. We'll enjoy it wherever it happens. There'll be lots of inspiration for sure at the Fusion Challenge, and I'm thinking of trying the sketch for another card.

Papertrey Ink March Bloghop & Time Out Take #2

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It's the 25th of March, and that means today is the monthly blog hop at Papertrey Ink. Despite my intentions I don't always complete as many card challenges as I hope, but I rarely miss a Papertrey Ink Blog Hop if I'm not traveling. Today's inspiration piece is charming, as always.

Blog-hop-march-2018

I don't own a single nest die or stamp, so arranging flowers in a nest was not an option. I decided to go with the soft pastel colors of the flowers and make another (needed!) birthday card. That means I can also link this up to the current birthday celebration challenged at Time Out.

Timeout birthday quote

So here's my take on the Papertrey Inspiration photo:

PTIBlogHop

Starting with the soft, pastel colors led me to create a very feminine birthday card. The "Friendship Jar Flowers" set seemed perfect, and I stamped the flowers with Bright Buttercup, Pale Peony, Lovely Lady (all PTI), and Soft Lilac (Altenew). The stems and leaves were stamped with Green Parakeet. Once the stamping was done, I deliberated for awhile about the rest of the card, finally settling on die cutting the image with the stitched oval from the Noted: Scalloped A2 Vertical Die. I used the same die cut set to cut a stitched rectangle from Bitty Big Lovely Lady patterned paper, and a scalloped card from white cardstock. 

PTIBlogFlat

I still have a partial roll of the white silk ribbon Papertrey used to sell (I'd love more if anyone knows where to find it), and tied a ribbon around the die cut pieces with a bow. The sentiment from "Just Desserts" was embossed in white on a scrap of Lovely Lady, cut out by hand, and adhered over the ribbon.

PTIBlogClose

Finally I added a few sequins. Once I finished the card, I knew just who was going to receive it for their April birthday! Thanks for stopping by. There's sure to be lots of inspiration for spring cards on the Papertrey Ink blog.

Time Out: Happy Birthday

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It's the Time Out Challenge's 4th birthday, and here's the challenge:

Timeout birthday quote

There are twenty birthdays on my birthday/anniversary calendar in April and May so making a birthday card seems like a good idea! I was playing around with some new Papertrey Ink stamp sets this weekend, and came up with a very springy card for one of my best friends. Hopefully, by the beginning of April the card will be appropriate.

BlueFlowers

With the exception of a few sequins the stamped panel is a one layer event—no dies–unusual for me. I stamped one of the flower images from the new anniversary set, "Mixed Bouquet," in New Leaf, Spring Rain, and Blueberry Sky. 

BlueFlowersFlat

The sentiment is from the "Penned Elegance" stamp set, one of my new favorites for sure. When the stamping was done, I adhered the panel to a Blueberry Sky card.

The Time Out challenge lasts for another week, so I'm certain to be back with another entry before too long.

 

Inspired By . . .

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There are two challenge sites now with "Inspired By" in the title. I enjoy the inspiration pieces for both, and have a card to enter in the newest challenge at Inspired By . . . H is for Hoppy. I think my last three posts have been for these two challenge sites.

H is for Hoppy

Like Tracy's birthday card, I'm sharing an Easter card ahead of Easter to meet the challenge. This one is for Caleb. I think he'll appreciate the pun.

Hoppy

Both the dies and the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Huggables: Bunny & Chick" were perfect for this challenge. I die cut all the pieces for the bunny from Soft Stone (PTI), Neenah Solar White, Orange Zest, New Leaf, and Lovely Lady (all PTI). I die cut a piece of Soft Stone "Bitty Big" patterned paper for the background and die cut it with the W Plus 9 "Gift Card Layers" die. The heart was die cut with the "Stitched Hearts" from My Favorite Things. 

HoppyFlat

I used two small black pearls from Amuse for the bunny's eyes.

HoppyClose

I'll have one more Easter card to share before the holiday. Caleb and Hannah's cards need to get in the mail in the next few days.