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Masculine Birthday Cards

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Recently I posted a card for a sailor who is about to turn 60. His avocation prompted the theme of the card, and it was one of the easier cards I've made for a man recently. Usually I struggle with masculine cards but I have two more to share today. Both are CAS cards, and were also very quick to make. I still have one to make sometime before the 25th for a close friend who is turning 70. I have something in mind, but it's likely to be a bit more involved.

BWBD

This card uses one of my favorite patterned papers ever–"Black and White All Over" by Papertrey Ink. Sadly, it's no longer available. The paper is exactly the size of an A2 card, and I added a border of True Black, two thin pieces of Pure Poppy, and a die cut from "Penned Elegance" to complete it. It truly was a quick and easy card with one of my favorite color combinations: red, black, and white.

BWBDFlat

Next up is another card that uses patterned paper from another of Papertrey's sets, "3 Piece Suits." It appears to have been discontinued as well.

TomBD

I used one of the Simon Says "Stitched Circles" to die cut a piece of the patterned paper, and added it to a piece of Smoky Shadow cardstock that I had scored every 1/2 inch. The same die cut sentiment from "Penned Elegance" fit into the circle perfectly, and I used a piece of fun foam behind the Smoky Shadow before adding it to a white top-folded card.

TomBDFlat

I love that the stitching in the patterned paper echoes the stitched die cut for the sentiment. I'm entering this one in the Addicted to CAS challenge: Masculine before the challenge closes on Friday.

ATCAS - code word MASCULINE

 

 

A Sunny Card for Two Challenges

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I have a bright and sunny card for two challenges today. It was first inspired by the CASology Challenge: Sunbeam,

Week 309 - Sunbeam

and then by the code word at AAA Cards: Friendship.

#121Friendship

Hopefully the sunbeam won't disqualify the card for lack of white space at CASology. I see this as a CAS card, but there isn't much true white space. It was fun to make, regardless. 

Sunshine

I recently purchased the MFT stencil "Radiating Rays" and was anxious to put it to use. I blended two Distress Oxide Inks–Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey–to create the sunbeam. It was, as often is the case, die cut with the Simon Says "Stitched Rectangle" die. Then I die cut a small circle with a Spellbinders die and stamped it twice, once with small rays and then the sentiment.

SunshineFlat

Both the rays and the sentiment are from Papertrey Ink's "Hello, Sunshine" set, and I chose the sentiment as it fit the Friendship challenge at the AAA Card Challenge. We're getting some much needed rain today, so this is probably the only sunshine we'll see.

 

 

Cards for Challenges

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I have two cards to share today and both were created for current challenges. The first card is for three separate challenges: Freshly Made Sketches, Addicted to CAS,  and Seize the Birthday.

Here's the sketch:

FMS Final 348-001

The challenge at Addicted to CAS is:

ATCAS - code word MASCULINE

And finally, the Seize the Birthday topping word this time around is: WATER.

SeizetheBirthday badge

Here's my card which is also for an upcoming 60th birthday of our friend who races sailboats.

SailboatBD

I'm really happy with how this turned out. I found the three sailboats from Papertrey's "Tiny Treats: Valentines" in my "extras" box and immediately knew just what I wanted to do. The patterned paper is from Authentique's "Seaside" pack which came in the July 2015 Simon Says card kit. The tiny anchors and navy blue were just perfect. I white embossed the sentiment from Papertrey's "Inside and Out: Birthday" on a stitched square die from Simon Says, and added the star from a Bella Blvd sticker sheet that I colored with a red Copic marker.

SailboatInside

The inside sentiment repeats the outside one, but I couldn't help myself. The W+9 set, "Dockside" was just too perfect.

The next card is for The Color Throwdown Challenge. I recently acquired a gorgeous new die by Pinkfresh Studio called "Botanical Branch" and thought it would be perfect for a simple sympathy card using this gorgeous color combination of black, copper, and white:

Swatch504

I die cut the Botanical Branch from copper cardstock from Paper Source. It's metallic, but with a subtle sheen rather than a bright reflective surface. It was adhered to a white textured card with spray adhesive. Getting this delicate die cut on the card was the only challenge in making the card. 

WithSympathyCTD

The image, stamped in black, is from Papertrey Ink's "Botanical Silhouettes." CAS is definitely my preferred style, and I'm especially careful to be sure sympathy cards follow that design. Fortunately, I have no need for a sympathy card at the moment, but I never seem to have one in my stash and now I have two since I made a second one while I was at it.

CTDFlat

Thanks for checking in today. I'll be back tomorrow to join Mary-Lou's "Me on Monday" meme, and have a couple more cards to share this week as well.

 

Make It Monday: Repeating the Greeting

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A quick post to share a card for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge. I had a lot of time today in the craft room and took the opportunity to play. As it often happens, a fair amount ended up in the circular file, and this card is a far cry from the original idea in my mind. Nonetheless, it ended up an extremely bright and cheery birthday greeting.

Celebrate

The card base is Bright Buttercup. I die cut a Pierced Frame from watercolor paper and used my watercolors create an ombre effect. The Pierced Frame dies are new and I think I'll get a lot of use from them. The balloons were die cut with dies from "Balloon Bash" from a piece of watercolored paper I'd embossed with the Cover-up Grid stamp (also new). It didn't work for the original plan, but it made pretty cute balloons. I die cut the "Balloon Strings" from watercolor paper as well.

CelebrateClose

The repeated sentiment is from "Ways to Say: Birthday." It's a $5 set that sees lots of action here. Before I added any of the elements to the card, I stamped it in white with Hero Art's "Tiny Ink Dots." I've had that so long, I don't think it's available any longer. I found all kinds of things when I purged my stamp collection earlier this week. You can't see it in the first photo, but it's visible in this one.

Tomorrow a friend and I are off to Buffalo Stamps and Things for their annual garage sale (hence the purging of stamps). Even if I don't sell many of them, I'm much better organized, and I've cleared out a lot of space, especially in my storage cabinet for wooden stamps. Hopefully, I'll restrain from buying any more stamps, though that probably won't be easy!

Seize the Birthday: Stripes

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The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is Stripes.

SeizetheBD

To create the stripes for this card, I die cut the My Favorite Things "Striped Sentiment Strip Cover" from PTI's True Black cardstock. I adhered it to a white card, and embossed the greeting from Papertrey Ink's "Wishes Come True" in white. I didn't glue everything down completely so I could tuck in some bright blue flowers stamped and die cut with Papertrey's "Warm Regards" stamps and dies.

BlueWarmRegards

I always find lining up two and three part stamps a challenge, but these flowers from the "Warm Regards" set are among the easiest I've found. I love the bright blue against the black and white. 

BlueWarmRegardsFlat

This is a two week challenge, and I LOVE stripes so I'm pretty sure I'll be back with another entry before the challenge ends.

Cards for Challenges

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Typically, I do a separate post for each challenge, although I notice many submit to several challenges at once. I finally had time to sit down and play for awhile yesterday. I started out playing with a new-to-me set from Simon Says called "Cups and Succulents." I used the opportunity to also play with my Copic markers and start a Copic Combo chart. Thanks to Cathy Zielske, I have a decent-looking chart. There is, however, some bleeding of the colors. I used Neenah Solar White cardstock to print the chart which is supposed to be Copic-friendly, but I also had some trouble with bleeding when coloring my images. If anyone has some suggestions to prevent bleeding, I'd appreciate them. Sorry for the shadow on the chart, I snapped this in a hurry with my phone and didn't even notice it until I uploaded it.

CopicChart

I pulled the succulent set out before we left when I saw the challenge on Fusion, called Cactus Door.

Fusion Cactus Door-001

Most often when I'm playing along with this challenge, I use just the photograph, but this time I used both the sketch and the photo.

Fusion

It's an Ripe Avocado card base with Bitty Big paper in Simply Chartreuse. I never realized how well those two green work together. 

FusionFlat

I played around with several Copic combinations, but I'm happy with the pot and the succulent. I attended a certification in Copics years ago, but never put the practice time in to be particularly good at it. Now I'm determined to improve!

The next card uses the same set and is for the Time Out Challenge which has a quote for the inspiration.

Timeout smile quote

This time I started with a Soft Stone card base and Bitty Big paper of the same shade die cut with a Stitched Rectangle from Simon Says. I put a very thin green mat of Pinefeather behind it.

Smile

The sentiment is from a Simon Says set that came with a card kit two years ago called "Happy and Smile." I'm not sure why I haven't used it much as it has some really useful sentiments. 

SmileFlat

The inside sentiment reads "It's Your Day!" 

Last, but not least, I wanted to play around with Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday, with Laurie Schmidlin, creating shadow backgrounds. I've used this technique before so I didn't think it would be particularly stressful. Just when you get cocky, you find out that's it's not so easy after all. I chose an oldie but goodie, "Friends Til The End." The focal flower in the set comes in two sizes. I used the smaller one for the background, and the large one for the colored focal point.

Friend

The problems started when I realized I needed to mask the background stamp. As it turned out, I needed two separate mask. Not that it's hard, but cutting these flowers is a bit time-consuming. I had already gold embossed the large flower on hot press watercolor paper and colored it with my Zig and SAI watercolor pens, so I wasn't willing to change directions then.

FriendFlat

Fussy cutting the large flower was also more of a problem than I expected since watercolor paper is pretty heavy and cutting into the small areas is risky when the image is embossed. In the end I was pretty happy with it. I love the "Penned Elegance" sentiment as well. It's the first time I've used this particular sentiment, and I realize it works for a thank you note or a birthday card so there's no inside sentiment for now.

All three of these challenges expire in the next two days, so I'm off to link up, and look for more inspiration.

Inspired By . . . Vintage Linens

I love the look of vintage linens so was drawn to this challenge at Inspired By . . .

Vintage linens

The photo reminded me of one of Papertrey Ink's premade card fronts. I don't often make use of them unless I'm in need of a very quick card, but I'm happy to have this in my stash of birthday cards, and I thought it mimicked the florals in the tea towels in the photo.

FloralBD

I stamped and die cut the sentiment from Penned Elegance (one of my all-time favorite sentiment sets) in Pure Poppy, added a few pearls, and covered the flowers with the Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen for a bit of sparkle.

FloralBDFlat

It's easier to see the glitter in this shot as well as the final touch of emphasizing the stamens of the pink flowers with a white glaze pen.

Off to link this up to the Inspired By . . . Challenge.

 

 

Happy Birthday, America, and Happy Birthday, Mom!

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Today is the Fourth of July, a celebration of all the good things that America is! Despite the multitude of serious problems in this country, we continue to be blessed in so many ways. I took this photo on Flag Day when Tracy's family was at Honeoye Lake.

IMG_9618ed

Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday, but we celebrated today with a barbecue at my sister-in-law's house. There are only two of the five siblings in town this week, so it was a smaller gathering than usual. But not less festive!

IMG_9798ed

Actually, Jill managed to get the brother from Austin on the computer and the one from Phoenix on Tracy's phone to sing "Happy Birthday," and watch Mom open her gift. Being 89, there's not much Mom needs, but family time means everything to her. This year we decided to give her a series of dinners out when as many of us are in town as possible. She was delighted as you can see.

IMG_9807ed

Tracy's sister excels in writing poems for such gifts. In the past we've gifted her with floral arrangements that arrive at her home several times during the year, and other group gifts. Jill always manages to come up with just the right words. Here's this year's:

IMG_9810ed

Ellie is a huge fan of flowers, so I chose one of my most elegant floral stamps, "Beautiful Flowers," that was part of a recent Simon Says card kit. I only used a part of the floral arrangement and got my inspiration here. I love Yana's work, but this time, I decided I didn't like the way her background came out. I decided to see if I could pull off doing coloring between the flowers that would look good on black cardstock instead of coloring the entire background.

EllieBD

I stamped the image in black waterproof ink on Bristol paper, and watercolored it with my Zig Clean Color and SAI Watercolor markers. Before I fussy cut around them, I colored the white spaces between the flowers with a black Copic marker which worked out perfectly. I knew I'd never be able to fussy cut the small opening between the flowers.

EllieBDFlat

I embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set in white before arranging the flowers and adhering them with liquid adhesive. I was so anxious about not smearing the glue that I didn't pay close enough attention to the placement of the flowers, so the sentiment is closer to the arrangement than I would like. By the time I realized it, it was too late, the flowers were permanently attached.

We're off to spend a few days with Matt and his family and to celebrate another birthday on Saturday.

 

Make A Wish

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Someone wondered how I was doing on the #100DayProject, and you probably noticed that there haven't been any weekly updates in over a month. Although I planned for our travel in May, and managed to keep up, June was just too busy. There were literally just 5 days in the whole month that we were home without a guest or a family commitment. I packed a project box for our last trip to Chicago, but there was no time (and no clear spot) to work as we helped get Sarah's house ready for their move to Wisconsin. Today I got an email from the project, and if I had kept up, there would be just nine days left. But there was also this question: If you fell behind, are you planning to catch up? And, the answer is, yes. Yesterday for the first time in over a month, I had time to play with new stamps and new techniques. As the project has gone on, my Pinterest board for Techniques has continued to grow, so I do intend to keep working on them in a consistent fashion. Yesterday I created 10 different backgrounds or stamped images. I only had time to get one of them made into a card.

MakeAWish1jpg

I spent a lot of time playing around with Copic markers and blending combinations yesterday. I had recently read this post, and set out to create my own blending chart. Before I could get very far, I got an email from Cathy Zielske offering a chart to her newsletter recipients she'd made after reading the same post. Let me just say, her chart looked a lot better than mine! The stamp for this card is a new one I ordered in May after a Simon Says release: "Center Cut Flowers." I linked it here so you can see how it works. There's an outer wreath, and an inner center. I used the inner part, and did a partial stamping on opposite corners. This is easy to do with the Misti stamping tool, once you've stamped one corner, you simply rotate the card to stamp exactly the same impression on the opposing corner. 

MakeAWish

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Cheer" set. I've used it often, but I don't think I've ever used this particular sentiment. The sequins aren't really sequins. They came with a Simon Says card kit (I think) and the mix is designed for shaker cards. The colors were perfect, though, so I went ahead and used them. They are solid and sit a little higher which explains the shadow in the photograph. They'll definitely need some protection if they go in an envelope to be mailed. 

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Wednesdayblog-logo

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes

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SeizetheBD

The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is "Anything Goes." Black and red is one of my favorite color combinations. As part of the #100DayProject, I pulled out a lot of stamps I hadn't used in awhile, and this poppy stamp from Hero Arts was one of them.

Poppies

After stamping the image in black, I used my new Polychromos pencils to color the poppies and stems. I cut a piece of New Leaf cardstock to frame the image and adhered it to a square Lasting Impressions card (another item that's been in my stash for years.) 

PoppiesFlat

I die cut a Spellbinders banner and stamped the sentiment from "Ways to Say: Birthday" by Papertrey Ink.  I added three tiny black pearls to the side of the banner. The Lasting Impressions cards came with polk-dot red envelopes which was just perfect for sending off to a friend.

Less is More: An Item from Your Bits Box

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374 ItemFromBitsBox

This week's challenge from Less is More is to use a bit from your "bits box." I have multiple envelopes filled with bits that didn't make it to a card when they were created. For this card, there were actually two:  the card itself where I had die cut a circle in the front of the woodgrain cardbase (Simon Says,) and the beautiful butterfly from Papertrey Ink's "Butterfly Hope."

OpenButterfly

To create the card, I die cut a circular frame from two Simon Says "Stitched Circle" dies from Raspberry Fizz cardstock. The sentiment was stamped inside from the "It's the Thought" set (PTI), and the butterfly attached to the side.

OpenButterflyClose

Here's a peek at the inside:

OpenButterflyInside

I need a few more challenges like this to use up my stash of "bits."

 

 

A Variation on Take Three Thursday

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I've gotten way behind in posting some of the cards I've made recently, so I thought I'd do a variation on Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday and share three thank you cards. All three cards feature florals and die cuts.

ThanksTallFlowers 

Here I started with the beautiful Shape Shifters: Circle 1 die from Papertrey, using just two of the three pieces to use as a focal point for the leaves from Reverse Confetti's Tall Blooms which I colored with Copic markers to match the Hawaiian Shores card base.

ThanksTallFlowersFlat

The sentiment is from Papertrey's Gathered Garden set. I tied the the three leafy sprigs together with a piece of my favorite white silk ribbon and added a few sequins.

ThanksVase

For this card I started by die cutting a piece of white card stock with the Stitched Rays die by Reverse Confetti. Then I die cut one of the Pierced Round Top dies (also Reverse Confetti) so the stitched rays radiated from the left-hand side.  A die cut vase from Papertrey's Vogue Vases and more florals from Reverse Confetti's Tall Blooms were added. All were adhered to a striped piece of paper from my stash of single papers and then to a Licorice card by Memory Box. 

ThanksVaseFlat

There wasn't an easy way to add a stamped sentiment so I die cut one from the Swooshes set by Papertrey.

MaryThanksTall 

For the final card, I scored an Amethyst Allure card at every 1/2 inch and added two die cuts by Papertrey Ink: "thank you", and the February Corner Adorner stamp and die.

MaryThanks

I used some foam dots to the Corner Adorner to add a bit more dimension.

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Here's hoping it's a good one for you!

 

Happy Father’s Day!

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It's Father's Day in the U.S. Lucky me, I have three terrific fathers to create cards for on this special day. I'm celebrating with just one of them this year–Tracy. Adam is in St. Louis at the Presbyterian General Assembly, so we're in Chicago helping Sarah with Hannah and Caleb as well as helping her clean out and organize for a move later this month. Matt is celebrating at home with his three lovely daughters, and I know Betsy is making it a special day. We'll celebrate again here when Adam gets home later this week, and in Rochester when we get home.

First up, the cards for the younger dads.

CoolDad2

I had another stamp set on my desk, and this one by Simon Says "Ice Cream Dream" was stored on the back side of the envelope. I thought it would make a fun card, and I'm happy with how they turned out. I started by stamping, coloring, and fussy cutting the ice cream bars. I embossed a frame on a piece of Neenah Solar White with the Papertrey Ink "Mix and Mat Postal," and then added a computer generated sentiment to the bottom. 

CoolDadFlat

Next I added the ice cream bars with some adhesive dots, and adhered it all to a card with some Hawaiian Shores "Bitty Big" striped paper from Papertrey. The last touch was some Glossy Accents on each of the ice cream bars.

I went with a golf theme for Tracy's card. He's been a golf enthusiast for many years, and enjoys golf once a week with two friends. 

FathersDayTee

This is my usual CAS style, based on two cards I pinned a long time ago—here and here. I found the card base–an Amuse paper-in my stash, and die cut the Mat Stack 3 (Papertrey) from Memory Box "Apple Green" paper. The golf ball was embossed on white, and in real life looks just like a golf ball. The texture just didn't show up in either photograph. Both are from Papertrey Ink's "On the Links" set which has come in handy for quite a few masculine cards over the years. 

FathersDayTeeFlat

"Dad" was die cut from a Memory Box alphabet that appears to have gone out of production. The rest of the sentiment is also from "On the Links," and was stamped onto the banner from "Tag Sale 10" by Papertrey.

We've celebrated this afternoon with ice cream cones from Hartigan's, a local ice cream shop with homemade ice cream. It's 97° here, so we were lucky the ice cream shop wasn't too crowded. If we'd had to leave with the cones, they would have melted long before we could have eaten them! Hope it's a bit cooler where you are.

 

May 2018 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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The monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is one of my favorite card-making activities. It's probably because I have such a lovely collection of Papertrey products, so coming up with a design usually isn't too challenging. This month it was really easy. Here's the inspiration photo:

Bloghop-may2018

First off, I'm a huge fan of black and white and gingham, so that combination was a draw. And then there are those gorgeous pink flowers. What's not to like? I have a gingham background stamp from another company which I've never used, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get it out. It was, however, a big disappointment. After five different black ink pads, and five pieces of paper, I still didn't have a clean image. No black and white gingham in my paper collection either, so I went digital, finding just what I needed at The Lily Pad–a gingham collection by Allison Pennington.

MayBlogHop

Once I had the gingham paper, the rest of the card came together quickly. The bouquet of flowers was stamped and die cut with the "Mixed Bouquet" set and put in a "Vogue Vase" stamped in black. I arranged the flowers in the vase and added it to a "Mix and Mat Scalloped" die cut on Fresh Snow Linen. I layered that onto the gingham, and then onto a top-folded card cut from Lovely Lady paper. All that was left to do was emboss the greeting from "Birthday Basics" on a vellum banner. It's a bit hard to tell, but the tiny pink flowers have Nuvo drops in yellow added to the center of each flower for a little dimension.

MayBlogFlat

I think I'm likely to use this design again with different colors of gingham paper and any variety of flowers in a vase. Much more my CAS style than yesterday's Make It Monday card.

I'm also linking this up to Seize the Birthday. The topping challenge this round is Patterned Paper.

SeizetheBD

Make It Monday: Above and Below

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As soon as I watched Lizzie's Make It Monday video, I knew I had to try it. I left her a comment saying I knew I'd be doing a close case of her card, as the Botanical Bounty stamp set was already laying on my desk. I'd borrowed it from a friend to play with, and have since ordered myself a set with one of my birthday gift certificates. Here's Lizzie's fabulous card:

LizzieJones_MakeItMonday_AboveBelow_ThankYouForYourHospitalityCard

And here's my very close copy, although I wouldn't presume to say my flowers were anywhere near as well stamped and blended. It was my first attempt and it was a bit of trial and error. 

MIM

I covered a card made from Spring Rain with a piece of striped vellum from the Sheer Basics pack, and used the stripes to guide the placement of the sentiment strip which was stamped with another of the sentiments from "Thank You Kindly" that I used in yesterday's post. All the flowers and leaves are from the "Botanical Bounty" set. I like them a lot more than I expected I would, and am anxious for mine to arrive so I can play with them without the die cuts. Getting accurate die cuts has definitely been on the technique list for the #100DayProject, and I think I finally have that pretty much under control. 

MIMFlat

All the leaves were adhered directly to the vellum, but I used dimensional tape on most of the flowers. The design is a bit of a departure from the clean and simple style I usually produce, but I think I'll find someone who will appreciate the most elaborate card.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for the Papertrey Ink blog hop. Today has turned out to be a lot less busy than anticipated—mainly because I cancelled one commitment due to an unusual allergy attack. Turns out I can make cards even with burning, drippy eyes!