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One Card: Two Challenges

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One of my favorite challenge sites is Retro Sketches, and I'm just getting Challenge #88 posted under the wire. Once I saw the CASE Study challenge #165, though, I knew I wanted to create a card for one of our good male friends. The gray and black color combination of the CASE Study inspiration seemed perfect for a masculine card. Here are the challenge inspiration and sketch:

Challenges

In addition to the color combination, I like the polaroid frame in the CASE Study card. I substituted a sentiment banner for the bow since I was creating a masculine card.

HappyBD

The layering follows the Retro Sketch pretty well, too. All the patterned papers came from a 6X6 paper pad included in a Studio Calico Card Kit in February. The polaroid frame is one of the frames included in Papertrey's Fabulous Frames die set. I hand cut the sentiment banner, but used the Count Down Die cut for the smaller banner, trimming off a bit to layer two patterned papers. "HAPPY" was die cut with the Headliner alphabet, and the Wonderful Words: Birthday die and stamp finished it off. All the dies are from Papertrey Ink.

Here's a closer look:

HappyBDDetail

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: True Black & Smoky Shadow (PTI), Bazzill textured from scrap folder
Patterned Papers: Studio Calico
Dies: Fabulous Frames, Wonderful Words: Birthday, Headliner Alphabet, Count Down banner (PTI)
Stamp: Wonderful Words: Birthday 

Merry & Bright: CAS(e) This Sketch #52 & Simon Says

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It's been a wild couple of weeks, almost no creative time at all, and even less to get a blog post pulled together. But I really liked the sketch this week at CAS(e) This Sketch so I carved out enough time this afternoon to get a card made.

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Fortunately, this time the card came together relatively quickly just the way I envisioned it. I pulled out a new stamp and die, "Rustic Wreath," from Papertrey which I love.

Merry&Bright

Most of our Christmas cards this year are going to be photo cards that I ordered from Shutterfly. Nonetheless, I've decided I still need a few handmade Christmas cards. It's the first year in nearly 20 years that I haven't made all our cards, but we had a family photo taken this summer that I wanted to use on a card. The photo does not print particularly well on my printer, so I ended up at Shutterfly. It looks great on the screen, so I'm hoping I'll like it when it arrives.

Here's a closer look at the card:

MerryDetail

I think this card fits this week's Simon Says "Keep It Clean and Simple" challenge as well.

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Hope your week has been a bit less hectic. I'm looking forward to a pretty quiet weekend!

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Woodgrain (Simon Says), Bazzil
Dies: Rustic Wreath and Holly Jolly (Papertrey)
Stamp: Rustic Wreath (Papertrey)
Patterned Paper: Wonderland (Studio Calico) & a piece from the paper pack in the February Studio Calico card kit
Enamel dots: (Doodlebug Designs) 

Make It Monday

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Make-itMonday

Our recent trip was lovely and there will be photos to share, but for today I want to share a card I made for this week’s Make It Monday at Papertrey Ink. Although their stamps are my favorites, I don't often find time to play along with this challenge. This inlaid die-cut technique is one I’ve wanted to try for awhile, so I decided to put it to work for a thank you card for our friends in Charlotte. We spent a lovely day and a half with them at the end of our trip.

MakeItMonday

"Bubble Talk" was a rather impulsive purchase, but it's proving to be one of my favorite stamp sets with dies. I used it here as well as the "Wonderful Words: Thank You" die from Papertrey ink. After die cutting the main white panel with both dies, I cut the sentiment twice– once in Pure Poppy and once in Select White. Then I cut them apart, stamping the white "you" with one of the "Bitty Background Blocks II." They pop into the main panel as if they were one. The bubble die was stamped twice, once in Pure Poppy and then the sentiment was added in black.  It was a fun technique to try, and a great one for mailing since the card is flat. I'm sure I'll try it again.

Here's a closer look at the inlaid die cut:

InlaidDie

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Pure Poppy, Select White, Hawaiian Shores
Stamps: Bubble Talk, Bitty Background Blocks II (PTI)
Dies: Bubble Talk, Wonderful Words: Thank You (PTI) 

 

Happy Halloween!

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The blog hasn’t been as quiet as it might have been since I planned some posts to go love while we were away. I didn’t expect it to be so quiet when we returned, but as always after being away for nearly two weeks I returned with a long to-do list, and a miserable cold as well. I shouldn’t complain because I don’t remember the last time I was ill, but it definitely has slowed me down.

I have to admit that Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. I have a few Halloween decorations I put out each year, and I loved getting together costumes for Sarah and Matt when they were little, but otherwise it leaves me rather uninspired. 

This year I was determined to come up with more age-appropriate cards for Caleb and Skylar than I managed last year. When I saw this cute ghost during one of Papertrey's recent releases, I grabbed it, and I'm glad I did. The card design is lifted from one of Maile Belles' always creative designs.

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Ghosts1

I love that the little bow can be a hair bow—

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or a bow tie.

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I found the perfect Halloween board book for two year olds at Barnes and Noble. I'm quite sure they'll love it.

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The story is in rhyming verse, there are doors to open to see who is there, but the best is a door bell you press to hear the trick 0r treaters arrive at your house. If you celebrate this holiday, I hope it's filled with treaters and not many tricks!

 

Santorini Note Cards

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After we returned from our trip to Turkey and Greece, I made a set of note cards to send to a couple we spent some time with in Santorini. I didn't share them at the time since I hadn't shared my travel posts, but that's done, and before I come back with more vacation photos to share I thought I'd get these posted.

CardSet

I embossed Select White cardstock by Papertrey with a Spellbinders die, and then cropped the photos to sit inside the embossed frame. It's a technique that would work with almost any photo you'd like to turn into a note card.

The first photo is of the bottle of wine they gave us to celebrate our anniversary. They had done quite a bit of wine tasting on the island, and brought us this bottle as an anniversary gift one night when we met for dinner. I used it as a thank you note.

Card1

The rest of the cards were some of my favorite images from Santorini.

Card2

Card3

Card4

Card5

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I was very pleased with the way they turned out, and need to make a set to use myself. Just seeing them brings back such wonderful memories of that vacation!

 

Congratulations, Juan and Rachel!

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Today is the day! The wedding is this afternoon, and if the weather holds, the reception will be on the beach! We're so delighted to be able to be present at such a special event. Here's the card I made for them.

BestWishes

Simple and elegant; the way I expect Rachel will look this afternoon. Although I don't anticipate taking a lot of photos, I hope I'll have a few to share with you when we get home.

BestWishesDetail

The flourish (Inkadinkadoo) was stamped with Delicata ink. It has a beautiful sheen which is hard to see in a photograph. The narrow strip of gold paper is from the last of many sheets that I purchased nearly 15 years ago. I admit to hoarding it now. The sentiment is from Mat Stack 2 Collection (Papertrey Ink).

Tuesday Trigger: Apache Tears

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When I first saw the inspiration piece for last week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Neither of these two cards come even close to the original idea. 

Autumn Arrows

I loved the arrows, and knew I had several stamps that might work. I decided on one of the arrows from Papertrey Ink's "Live Love Life," and stamped and hand cut multiple arrows in colors represented in the inspiration piece. I could not, for the life of me, get them put together in any way that I liked. Finally I just gave up. Later in the day I laid one of the arrows on some black cardstock, used a few die cuts from my "left-over die cuts" caddy, and came up with this.

HBArrows2

ArrowsDetail

Then yesterday after completing a card for another blog post, I used some of the supplies left laying on my desk to create this card. The Washi tape and tag from American Craft both have a chevron arrow design so I think it works for the challenge as well. Personally, I like this one a lot better!

XO

XODetail

 

Card Recipes:

Card #1: Cardstock: True Black, Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold, Orange Zest (PTI)
                   Stamp: Live Love Life (PTI)
                  Dies: "You" (Simon Says), Headline Alphabet (PTI),  Typewriter Numbers (Memory Box)
                  Corner Punch 

Card #2: Cardstock: Select White, Pure Poppy
                  Patterned Paper: Hip Hip Hooray (American Craft)
                  Clothespin (American Craft)
                  Stamp: Balloon Bash (PTI)
                  Die: Fabulous Frames (PTI) 
                  Twine: unknown

Happy Birthday, Cathy!

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Today is one of my good friends' 60th birthday. She's celebrating in Florida with her family as they enjoy a week together before Rachel (her oldest daughter) and Juan's wedding on Saturday in Boca Raton. We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to drive to Florida for the wedding. Then we're spending a couple of days exploring southern Florida (Miami's Art Deco architecture, the Keys, and the Everglades) which we've never seen. On our way home, we're stopping to see our good friends in Charlotte, NC and visiting the Biltmore Estate in Ashville with them. I've been to Ashville several times, but never to the Biltmore which is supposed to be amazing. I'm excited about the whole trip! 

Here's the card I made for Cathy. It's one of my favorite birthday cards. 

60BD

A little Washi tape, a tag cut with a Tremendous Tag die from Papertrey Ink and edged with a gold leaf pen, some gold sequins and a bow with some gold twine I bought years ago. The numbers were cut with the Typewriter Numbers by Memory Box. They were the perfect size for the tag. I gave the card to her husband before I remembered to take a photo of the inside which says in gold letters "and fabulous!"

60Detail

It's going to be a very busy 12 days so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to read and comment on blogs, but I'll be sure to catch up with you when we return. 

World Card Making Day

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Today is World Card Making Day, and it seemed like a great reason to sit down and work on the cards I need for upcoming birthday and special events. Most of them can't be shared on the blog quite yet, but I did make a card set to share.

BDCardSet

Once I finished the first one, I decided to make a couple more in different colors. The Flourish is a wooden stamp I picked up at The Paper Source a year or so ago, and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Botanical Silhouettes." I scored the bottom with the Martha Steward ScoreBoard which I use nearly every time I do some crafting, and finished them off with a couple of rhinestones from Hero Arts. 

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GreenBD

BlueBD

As well as cards, I've been working on the journaling cards for the September Project Life pages. My friend, Mary, is coming over to craft on Monday and I want to have the photos printed and the cards ready so I can get September finished before too much happens in October. 

Hope you're having a great weekend. It's gray, chilly, and dreary here—a good day for crafting!

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Bazzill (green and blue), Plum Pudding (PTI)
Stamps: Paper Source, and Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)
Gems: Hero Arts 

Happy Fall: Two Challenges and Fall Foliage

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When I saw this week's CAS(e) This Sketch I knew exactly what stamps I wanted to pull out. 

CTS_Sketch_48

I've always love the "Take Three" series by Papertrey Ink, and the fall images are great. I chose pumpkins for this card.

HappyFall

You can see by the shadows that the pumpkins were attached with some dimensional tape. This card also meets the challenge at Addicted to CAS:  Autumn/Fall.

ATCAS - code word autumn

We had a fabulous weekend in the Adirondacks this past weekend. We left at 6:00 am, stopped in Old Forge for a hearty brunch, and dropped off the intrepid backpackers around noon.

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Bob and Tracy have been working to hike most of the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks. Cathy and I have done a few as well with our kids when they were growing up, but we gave up serious backpacking quite a few years ago. After dropping the guys off, we head for Keene Valley for a bit of shopping (turned out neither of us bought a thing), and then checked into our hotel in Wilmington, NY. This was the view of Whiteface Mt. from our balcony.

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We drove into Lake Placid, did some window shopping and had a lovely dinner overlooking Mirror Lake. The next morning we had a fabulous breakfast at our favorite diner, did a bit of shopping, and then changed into our sneakers to walk around Mirror Lake. 

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It was a stunning day, in the mid-70's and sunny. By the time we got around the lake (about 2 1/2 miles) we were pretty warm and headed back to our hotel. We sat on our balcony, had some veggies and dip, and enjoyed the wonderful fall day. We decided not to drive back into Lake Placid and went to a lovely restaurant just a mile or so from our hotel. We'd been there before. The food is great, and very reasonable. I'll leave you with one last photo of the stream that runs by the parking lot of the restaurant.

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The leaves are beginning to turn here, but it will be a couple of weeks before it's as beautiful here as it was in the Adirondacks. (The guys, by the way, had a great time, and added another peak to their list.)

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop #2

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The afternoon flew by, but I did have time while watching The News Hour tonight to get another card made for the Papertrey September Blog Hop. "A Wreath for All Seasons" has long been a favorite, but I haven't pulled it out in a while. This month's challenge to include a wreath on your card was the perfect opportunity. Here's another look at the inspiration photo:

PTISeptBlogHop

I still have several October birthday cards to make, so that's the direction I took.

FallBD

I did the stamping on a piece of Rustic Cream Cardstock and then embossed it with my new Burlap Impression Plate.  The Brilliance Pearlescent Ink for the berries and part of the sentiment has a lovely sheen, so I chose some shimmer cardstock in rust and brown for the card itself. Here's a closer look at the pretty shimmer.

FallBDDetail

I found some rhinestones the perfect color and added a strip of them below the sentiment. I think my friend will like this tribute to her fall birthday!

I'm also linking this up with this week's CAS-ology Challenge which is Autumn.

Week 63 - Autumn

 

Papertrey Ink September Blog Hop

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Knowing I'd be arriving home from Chicago late last night, I got one project for today's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop done before we left. The challenge was to create a project with a wreath, and it was the perfect opportunity to get a head start on the gift exchange tags I need for Tracy's family. Here's the beautiful inspiration piece:

PTISeptBlogHop

I got so busy this morning unpacking and organizing for a new project, that I nearly forgot to get this posted.

ChristmasTags

I pulled out an old favorite, "Rustic Branches," which works perfectly on the Tag Sale #4 die. I tried a couple different techniques for embellishing the berries, but settled on adding a drop of Glossy Accents to each one.

TagsDetails

Each tag is tied with a piece of Pure Poppy Dotted Ribbon.

I'm hoping to find time before the links close to make another card. I've pulled out two more stamp sets with wreaths that I love. We'll see how the afternoon goes!

Who, Me?!?!

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Yes, me! Four years ago I got an amazing email from Cath Edvalson who hosts the wildly popular Moxie Fab World blog asking me if I still had a card from a challenge I entered. She wanted to publish it in an upcoming Paper Crafts magazine. Did I have it? Was I interested? YES! I had never submitted anything for publication, and was so excited to see one of my cards in print!

An equally exciting email arrived in my inbox while we were visiting Sarah and Adam in August. Would I be interested in being featured as the Moxie Fabber of the Week? WOW! Never in a million years, did I ever expect to have that honor! But today you can find me on Moxie Fab World. Thanks, Cath, for one of the biggest honors of my papercrafting career!

Since it's all about cards, I thought I ought to share one I made recently but haven't posted here on the blog, though I just realized it was one that got posted on Moxie Fab! I'm in Chicago this weekend, so there's no chance of making a new one!

AnniversaryCard2

This card uses stamps that have been in my collection for years. The bench is from a company called Design a Little. The date on the stamp is 1995. The sentiment is from Saavy stamps, and I've had it almost as long, I think. The punched heart is from the Simon Says Holiday Shapes die that I popped up with a dimensional glue dot.

 

Happy Birthday, Skylar!

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Skylar is two today. Now, how did that happen so quickly? Betsy took this photo of her in her cute birthday shirt.

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And here's her birthday card. The pink polka dots match the cute chair we bought her for her birthday. It's out being monogrammed, so I don't have a photo with her in her new chair yet.

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I cased the design of the card (sentiments to make the shape of a birthday cake) from Maile Belles.

Here's a close-up of the sparkly details. Skylar is definitely a fan of sparkly. The other night when she stopped by for a quick visit, she had on new sneakers that flash on and off.

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And here she is on one of her birthday gifts.

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We love you, Skylar!!!

Runway Inspired #43

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The minute I saw it, I fell in love with the colors and and the grid pattern of this Runway Inspired challenge piece. So I've been thinking about it, and finally just under the wire, I got a card made. 

YouDetail

The die cut "you" was laying on my desk from a previously "failed" attempt on another card, and I found the black and white grid paper in my scrap drawer. I think it's an old Paper Loft paper. 

You

And then the rest came together easily. A perfect card for all kinds of occasions depending on what is stamped on the inside. Most likely it will be a birthday card.

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Select White, Summer Sunrise, True Black (Papertrey Ink)
Patterned paper from scrap drawer
Die: Thinking of You (Simon Says); Double-ended Banner (Papertrey Ink)
Sentiment Stamp: You (Simon Says)