When thinking about creating a card, I rarely think to use a sketch. I'm usually more inspired by a photograph, a set of colors, a theme, or a design element. This time, however, when I saw the sketch on The Paper Players, I knew it would be perfect for a piece I colored as part of the 30 Day Coloring Challenge. Here's the sketch:

In a recent reorganization project (more on that to come later) I found some patterned papers I thought would go well with the small stamped piece I had created earlier. 

The paint brushes come from a very old Papertrey Ink set, "Friendship Jar Fillers." The Friendship Jar sets have long been a favorite, and I come back to them over and over. This card is for my nine year old grandson who gave me two handmade gifts when he came to visit. He's a budding artist, so the paintbrushes seemed appropriate. The patterned papers come from an older 6X6 pad by Sunny Studio, "Gingham Jewel Tones."

The paintbrushes were partially stamped to fit on the PTI die, "Spiral Notebook Page," and colored with Copic markers. I used some Glossy Accents to add some dimension on the paint. The sentiment is from The Stamp Market. I embossed it on black and added a narrow cardstock strip to the bottom of it. 

My crafting time seems to get divided between my reorganization efforts and card making. Hoping to get more of both done this weekend.

Thanks to a friend who cut and shared some of her daisies from the Altenew "Daisy Layering Set," I have a card for the current The Flower Challenge—use a die. The entire card was created with dies.

The first step was to create an ink blended background for these pretty daisies. I added that to a Dark Chocolate (PTI) cardbase and then set about creating the daisies. 

Getting the daisies and leaves arranged on the card took a bit longer than I expected. I wasn't sure what to do about a sentiment, but found this "Smile Circle" from Simon Says which worked out perfectly. It was die cut from Dark Chocolate cardstock as well. 

It's good to be back in the craft room. I'm in another purge and organize phase. Sometimes I think that's as much a hobby as card making! But, in fact, I found a few things which inspired some cards. Off to link up with The Flower Challenge which ends this afternoon.

The pretty pink geraniums on today's card were created for a blogging friend, but I wanted to be sure she received the card before I posted it. She's a huge fan of pink so there was no choice about what color these geraniums would be. Luckily, the photo inspiration for AAA Birthday also features pink flowers.

When The Greetery introduced this most recent BotaniCut, I knew I would have lots of opportunities to use it. Geraniums come in so many colors, and they are a favorite of mine.

I added a soft ink blended background to one of The Greetery's "Postal Frames" that matches the blue pot in the photograph, but my blue pot and the card base are a much brighter hue. I grounded the pot on some ink blended "Shiplap Builder" dies, also from The Greetery.

The geraniums and the "Pretty Pot" die were all cut from Bristol Smooth cardstock and colored with Distress Oxide Inks. I added some details to the dies with Polychromos pencils. The cute sentiment and label is from an earlier set by The Greetery, "Market Baskets." Betsy Veldman definitely excels in designing the most beautiful floral dies and containers. 

I always hope I'll get some crafting done while we're away. I managed to do a little watercoloring one morning, but it's a bigger piece so I don't think it will get finished until we get home. I do have a couple pieces I colored for the current 30 Day Coloring Challenge before I left, so hopefully I'll get those posted in the next couple of days. Thanks for visiting!

I have another card I've colored for Kathy Racoosin's 30 Day Coloring Challenge. 

And, for me, this is a late night post, but one of the two challenges looking for blues ends in just a few hours. First up is the Less Is More Challenge looking for Shades of Blue. The second challenge is Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Summertime Blues. I'm also popping this in the CAS on Friday Challenge to use a Favorite Stamp.

This is one of my favorite florals. It's from Pinkfresh Studios–"Keep Going." When I was fussy cutting it once again, I realized that investing in the die might be an appropriate purchase. I chose to color it with Copic Markers in soft blues and greens, adding some shadows with my Polychromos pencils.

After fussy cutting it, I added it to an embossed polka-dot white panel that was in my box of panels and die cuts that I've stashed away. I die cut a thin green layer with the Gina K Master Layout dies and added it to a light blue card base. 

Once again the "Easy Expressions: Birthday" stamp from The Ton worked out perfectly. I tucked it under one of the leaves, and then added some gold gems from The Paper Studio. 

I'm just managing to keep up with the 30 Day Coloring Challenge, although I need to do a major catch-up post for Instagram. Today was the first day since Sarah and her family arrived that I managed to get in a full hour of crafting time. Tomorrow looks much less likely. If the weather's good we're headed to the zoo, then the beach for a picnic and a ride on the carousel, and finally pizza with friends for dinner. 

I've seen quite a few new stamps sets featuring citrus fruits and some lovely cards created with them, so I wasn't surprised to see Happy Little Stampers CAS come up with this month's challenge: Citrus and Zing.

I don't have much in the way of citrus stamps, but a wooden stamp with a lovely image of lemons in a bowl has survived my multiple purgings. It was one of the few things I watercolored while we were away. It's taken me some time to get it onto a card–more about that at the end of the post.

Finding a blue cardstock to match the blue watercolor I chose for the bowl turned out to be the most time consuming part of creating the card. I finally found a scrap in my scrap folder that worked perfectly. Luckily, I had an Altenew mini-ink pad that matched the blue as well for the sentiment.

I have a stash of prefolded cards on my shelves and generally, that's the first place I look when I need a card. This yellow was the perfect color and was folded leaving a border at the bottom. I found a piece of yellow-striped patterned paper that worked well there.

I'm also throwing this in the ring at Simon Says Monday Challenge: Food or Drink.

Last week after spending a week with Sarah and Adam, and two days exploring Cleveland and visiting with cousins, we drove to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, about 30 minutes south of Cleveland. We spent the day exploring the park, taking photographs, and hiking. Our last hike of the day was at The Ledges. As we were hiking along, a woman emerged from two of the large rocks, and suggested we go inside. It was beautiful, and as I started climbing up a group of rocks, some folks started down the route. I stepped to my right to make room for them and my foot landed on a wet rock and down I went! I was able to walk back to the ranger's table and get some ice, but my right shin was really scraped up. I've been keeping it elevated and icing it regularly but there hasn't been a lot of improvement. 

Today I decided it was time to seek some medical attention. Luckily, it is not broken, but I'm going to have to continue with the elevation and icing. Sad to say, there's not much beside reading and working on my laptop that can get done with one leg elevated! I have a huge list of ideas, and new stamps and dies to play with, but it's going to be slow going. My brother-in-law recently commented that most of our health complaints are a result of "AR disease." When I asked for a translation, he said it stood for "age-related." The recovery from this might be, but the accident was clearly not. Could have happened in my 30's! Mostly, now, I'm just annoyed.

Whenever I travel I pack a few crafty items to create with while I'm gone. I rarely accomplish much, and this trip was no exception. I did a bit of watercoloring, but haven't had time to do anything with it yet. It's good to be back in the craft room, although the "to do" list is pretty long. There's been a lot going on, both here and while we were away, and I hope to have a catch-up post written by the middle of next week. (I'm waiting for one of the big projects to be completed.)

For now, I have a card for the current Flower Challenge: Add Spots or Stripes.

This was a quick card to create. All the stamps are from Simon Says "Leafy Frames," a card kit set from some time ago. I stamped and colored the wreath with Copics, and then die cut a circle to hold the sentiment from the same set.

The pretty striped paper is from a Carta Bella pad, "Botanical Garden" which I added to a die cut panel slightly smaller than the card base and popped it out with some foam.

I added a few A Muse pearls and that was it. 

Hope your weekend is off to a good start. We're expecting a lot of rain tomorrow, but we'll have plenty of entertainment since the three girls are coming for the afternoon. We'll be making cupcakes for Maddy's fifth birthday celebration. She turned five while they were on Nantucket and we were in Wisconsin, so this is birthday dinner #2!

The topping at Seize the Birthday Challenge now is "Framed." This pretty coneflower (again!) is definitely framed, but framed from behind the coneflower. I noted the same technique among some the designers for the challenge as well as some of the current entries. Even if it doesn't qualify as "framed," there's always the option at Seize the Birthday to use the "Anything Goes" prompt. 

This is the last of the Altenew Coneflowers that I watercolored a week or so ago. I didn't want to post it until my friend received it for her birthday.

This is my favorite of the cards because of the framing which came about in a rather haphazard way. When I went to dry emboss Papertrey Ink's "Border Bling: Tin Stiched" it slipped in the die cutting machine. I didn't want to throw it out so I cut it down and then used the center piece to add some dimension for the coneflower.

I added both to a card base of Amethyst Allure and then added the coneflower that had been die cut as well as another sentiment from The Ton's "Easy Expressions: Birthday." I'm quite sure I'll cut down more of the Border Bling frames in the future. 

I'm throwing this in the Happy Little Stampers: Die Cuts and Watercolor Challenges, both of which are Anything Goes.