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Colorful Butterflies

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My #100DayChallenge is proving to be very productive, so I have lots of images now to use for cards. This week I spent some time putting together some, so the blog will be more active than usual in the next week or so. I hoped to get this post up several days ago, but trying to keep up with both the #100DayChallenge and two Online Card Classes my days go by even faster than usual. Given the stay-at-home orders, I guess that's a good thing.

This coloring piece was lots of fun. It's a preprinted (on watercolor paper) design by Suzy Plantamura and sold by Simon Says Stamps. I've received several of these in the monthly card kits. For this one I used my Zig Clean Color markers.

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I really love the gorgeous colors, and wish I had another one of these to paint. Sadly, they come in packs of ten different designs, some of which I really like, and others I'd be unlikely to use. 

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I'm linking this up to AAA Birthday where the challenge is "Wings" and to Seize the Birthday without the optional twist.

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Multiple Cards with Die Cuts

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I have another entry into the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge to use a die cut. I made eight cards with The Stamp Market's "Rainbow Stripes" die and a sentiment from Sugar Pea's "Everyday Sentiments" which I seem to reach for over and over again.

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Once you die cut enough rainbows to create one, you've got a total of four cards just mixing the colors up. I did that twice, and sent them out to friends local and miles away. I wanted to be sure they reached everyone before I posted them. 

Here's a closer look at one of them.

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I think bright and cheery is the theme for cards during this unsettled time. Hope you're doing well!

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Happy Mother’s Day

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In normal times, which this is not, we'd be celebrating Mother's Day with Tracy's family at brunch. Last year I think there were 11 of us. This year we'll be delivering gifts and cards to his mom and Betsy. Sarah's went in the mail early last week, as did cards to my two sister-in-laws. I thought I'd share them here and enter some of them in some challenges.

First off, cards for Sarah and Betsy. As soon as I saw this die and stamp set by Concord and 9th, I ordered it. I knew I'd find lots of ways to use it, although Mother's Day didn't occur to me until later. Fortunately, after I ordered it, Kristina Werner posted a video using the die which saved me a lot of time since her directions for assembling it are so clear and explicit. The moms may wonder at first why there's a camera on their Mother's Day card—neither of them are photographers—but once they pull down the tab, I think they'll understand.

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I posted my mother-in-law's card quite some time ago, and put it aside. The cards for my two sisters-in law were watercolored early last week for the coloring projects, and turned into cards quickly. I drove them out to the main post office Wednesday so I'm pretty sure they arrived on time.

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Both cards are very similar and use a floral image from my newest stamp set, "Bouquet Builder 1" by Waffle Flower. I watercolored a background, let it dry and then stamped the floral image and watercolored it. The first one was embossed in white, and the second with Altenew's Obsidian Black Ink which stamps sharply in one go even on watercolor paper.

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I actually cut apart a sentiment stamp from Clearly Besotted to use on these cards. The attached sentiment was meant to be given to your mother, and my mother passed away over 50 years ago, so I knew I'd never have a reason to use it. It was a tedious process using a craft knife, but was worth it in the end. I tried it on vellum, but didn't care for it, so used an old banner die from Papertrey Ink.

If you're celebrating Mother's Day today, I hope you have a lovely day. Despite our social separation, I'm looking forward to FaceTime and Zoom calls later today.

I'm entering the pink floral card in CAS on Friday Challenge: favorite floral. This new set is definitely a favorite. I have lots of ideas for coloring the images for the 100 Day Project. I'm also entering it in The Card Concept Challenge–Mother's Day! The pink flowers in the photograph and the theme make it a very appropriate choice. It fits their category: Clean and Simple. 

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And finally, I'm tossing one of the camera cards in the ring at  Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Use a Die Cut or a Punch.

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Coloring Projects and Challenges

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Today is the last day of Kathy Racoosen's 30 Day Coloring Challenge, and Day 31 of the 100 Day Project. I've been faithful to both and have a whole envelope of images ready to be turned into cards. I have one to share today that fits three different challenges.

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The current challenge at The Flower Challenge is monochrome as is the new challenge at Seize the Birthday! The image is from Altenew's "Pen Sketched Flowers," and I liked the subtle yellow of these. Just a strip of black and white paper from a pad by My Favorite Things and a simple embossed sentiment. Although it's a birthday card, the design would be appropriate for any number of occasions. At AAA Cards the challenge is for a single image so I'll enter it there as well.

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Spring Card Camp Continued

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I have a few more cards to share based on the lessons in Spring Card Camp. Two of them were also part of my #100DayProject and the #30DayColoring Challenge. I want to get them posted before the galleries at the card camp close on Thursday. However, I probably won't get to all the cards I'd still like to try before then. First off is an open butterfly card, one I wanted to try after making this set of cards earlier based on Julie Ebersole's lesson on Day 4.

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The butterfly stamp is Butterfly Folk by Papertrey Ink and the sentiment is from Taylored Expressions.

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I had, of course, a second butterfly that was die cut from the front of the card. I decided to use it with a design by Kristina Werner from the class on Day 6.

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It's not often that I do ink blending, but I gave that a try here as well and then cut the pattern from Vintage Jadeite and Hawaiian Shores (PTI).

Here you can see them together:

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Finally, a card from the last class led by Ashlea Cornell who offered a whole range of cards using a multitude of stamps and techniques. She created an overall pattern card using a Pinkfresh Studio stamp set I owned, and I did a more CAS design, placing the florals on just the left side of the card.

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The stamp set is "Fancy Blooms" and the sentiment is from a Simon Says set "30 Days of Thankful." They were colored with Copics, and in the spirit of two cards for each lesson I did complete two pretty identical cards.

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I'm entering the Open Butterfly card in the AAA Birthday Challenge: Things with Wings. 

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Sandie’s 30 Day Photo Challenge

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I took a group of photos yesterday at the park thinking I'd get a May Day post up, but it didn't happen. I did, however, get the photos for Sandie's 30 Day Challenge edited today. Sandie had a prompt for each day of April. A couple of the photos didn't happen exactly on that date, but I did capture a photo for all 30 prompts.

Day 1: A Selfie—truly one of my LEAST favorite photos to take. They are never flattering, but here is one from the trail. We spent several days in April hiking part of the Lehigh Valley Rail Trail. We still have a few portions left to hike, but the one we hoped to hike today was flooded in areas, so we headed out in a different direction. We'll have to do that link another time.

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Day 2: Something that gives you joy—these daffodils bloomed in our back yard much earlier, and we brought them inside to enjoy. The ones in the front yard have been blooming for a couple of weeks. Our very cool temperatures (and even some snow) seemed to have agreed with them.

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Day 3: Centered–as we were walking on April 3rd, I told Tracy what the day's prompt was. Almost immediately, we came upon this lawn sculpture in front of an apartment building. The cerub is definitely centered.

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Day 4: A book you are reading/loved. I finished this book at the end of March. It's one of the best books I've ever read—imaginative, tragic, and uplifting. It's a novel based on a true story of two men–one Israeli and one Palestinian–both of whom lost a daughter to the fighting in Israel/Palestine. It's not everyone's cup of tea, however. Sarah is a voracious reader, and she's finding it hard to stick with it.

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Day 5: Window–we were walking along the Genesee River on the fifth, and I took a photo of the windows on the University of Rochester's Interfaith Chapel.

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Day 6: Prints–I try to keep current photos of my grandchildren on a board in our kitchen. These are the last three prints I made. All the photos were taken by their parents since we haven't seen anyone for the last seven weeks!

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Day 7: Favorite mug–Tracy and I pour coffee into thermal mugs each morning, and head to the living room to read for an hour–or two. This mug keeps coffee hot all morning.

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Day 8: Rainbow–a yard sign in a nearby neighborhood.

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Day 9: Reflection– in a puddle at the park.

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Day 10: Something that makes you laugh–a squirrel in our bird feeder—annoying, but funny to watch him maneuver himself around.

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Day 11: Pattern–shadows on the foot bridge

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Day 12: Look up

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Day 13: Look down–new signage at the park.

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Day 14: Self-care–one of my indulgences has been getting a pedicure. That's no longer possible so I purchased a foot spa. It costs about the same as a pedicure, and was worth every penny. I also bought a scented foot soak which softens your feet. Quite a lovely experience, and one that will get regular use during this stay-at-home time.

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Day 15: A door–ours.

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Day 16: Escape–crafting is the best one I know!

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Day 17: Food—my sister-in-law always serves deviled eggs on Easter. No family dinner this year, but I made some.

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Day 18: Digits–this prompt actually inspired a card for my great-nephew's birthday later in May.

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Day 19: Where I'd like to be–Hawaii, where I should have been in March!

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Day 20: Something with a scent or smell–soon these lilacs will be sending out a lovely scent in the park. This year's Lilac Festival is cancelled like every other festival in 2020.

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Day 21: What I am doing to relax—reading. I read seven books in April. I think that's a record number. These are the five I read for the Unread Shelf Project.

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Day 22: Communication—a family Zoom birthday party.

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Day 23: Outside. The one saving grace is that the parks and trails in our county have remained open. We walk for 2-4 miles every day we can. This is Genesee Valley Park.

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Day 24: Texture–a watercolor card with lots of texture.

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Day 25: Something that marks today–we walked another section of the Lehigh Valley Trail. It was a gorgeous day, and I could have taken photos of the ice cream cones we got on the way home, but I didn't! This part of the trail went through Rochester Junction—a stop on the Black Diamond Railroad.

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Day 26: Something you look forward to–we had a tour of Scotland scheduled for August. They've rebooked it for August of 2021. I hope it's possible by then.

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Day 27: A show of appreciation–a thank you card I made as part of my #100DayProject–coloring something every day.

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Day 28: Cozy–a corner in my craft room.

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Day 29: An achievement–finishing five books from my shelves of unread books for the Unread Shelf Project Bingo game.

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Day 30: A celebration–a great way to end the month. Matt and Betsy drove over. They all stayed in the car, and we got to talk to the girls from the sidewalk. It was the first time we'd seen them in seven weeks, although we have had a couple video chats.

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And an award to you if you lasted through this very long post! I gave thought to dividing it into two parts, but just kept on going. It's been a fun project, and ended up being a good summary of a month during the pandemic. Thanks, Sandie, for the inspiration!

 

Addicted to CAS: Silhouette

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ATCAS - code word silhouette

Recently Altenew had a day or two when shipping was free, and I took the opportunity to order two stamps and their Obsidian Black ink pad. I've already put both stamp sets to use, and as well as the stamp pad which I love for watercoloring. When Addicted to CAS came up with "Silhouette" as their current challenge I knew I had the perfect stamp for it. My one concern was the patterned paper I chose since I wasn't sure it would be considered CAS enough. However, several of the design team showcased cards with ink blended backgrounds, so I'm going to throw this card in the ring. I found the paper (from Pinkfresh Studio's Indigo Hills pad) while I was looking for something else entirely, and set it aside knowing I'd like it with this new set from Altenew, Line Art.

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I trimmed the patterned paper down just enough to add a thin strip of black cardstock to a card base of Raspberry Fizz paper (PTI).

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The sentiment is also from Line Art, one of many I like and will use with other stamp sets as well.

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Fusion Challenge: Let Us Remember

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The beautiful poppy photograph that's one piece of the current Fusion Challenge inspired me to pull out the My Favorite Things "Flowers in Bloom" set I bought several months ago. I watercolored them as part of my two coloring challenges, and then turned it into a card for the challenge.

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You have the option with this challenge to use the sketch and/or the photograph. I chose just the photo.

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I liked the black edges around the photograph, and die cut Ink to Paper's "Geometric Rectangles" in black to use as a frame for the poppies. Then I added it all to a black Memory Box card.

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The sentiment from Sugar Peas "Everyday Sentiments" was embossed in white on black cardstock. Finally I added a few Amuse black pearls that have been in my stash for years.

Coloring has been very therapeutic while observing our stay-at-home mandate, especially since winter still seems to have a grip on western New York. Yesterday we had temps in the 50's but today it's back to the 40's and the 10 day forecast shows no improvement. At least the sun is out today, a big help. Nonetheless, spring is trying hard to burst through regardless. Here are a few photos from our walk yesterday through Highland Park and down a few city streets on our way home.

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Our forsythia isn't doing particularly well this year, but the ones in the park are lovely.

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On the other hand, we've had gorgeous daffodils, and most of ours are near the end. The ones in the park are just beginning to open.

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I'm always happy to see the beginning of the flowering trees. Highland Park is known for its extensive lilac collection. They are just beginning to bud,
and very few trees have begun to leaf out.

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The magnolias need some warmth! I was playing around with adjusting the f-stop on my iPhone. It's always been an available option, but I had been unaware of it until recently. Not wanting to hold up our walk, I took this photo a bit quickly. The background is appropriately blurry, but the magnolia blossom isn't as sharp as it should be. 

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And finally, these bright red tulips are the first tulips we've seen blooming anywhere. Most of them are just beginning to show their buds.

 

 

 

A New Challenge

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By chance, I discovered a new challenge hosted by Penny Black. I don't have a lot of sets from Penny Black, but I do have a few and used one of my favorites to color for my #30DayColoringChallenge, and my #The100Day Project.

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I trimmed down the panel just enough to allow a the edges of the Royal Velvet card to create a border. This beauty is an older Penny Black cling stamp, "Botanical Notes." I hadn't pulled it out in a very long time, but it was perfect for coloring with my Polychromos colored pencils.

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There really wasn't any need (or space) for a sentiment, so this card is ready for whatever occasion arises. 

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We had a lovely, sunny day, a bit warmer than the last few. There's still snow in the forecast, but by the end of next week, it looks like Spring might make a lasting appearance. I'm ready for lovely flowers in the garden, and butterflies in the air.

Happy Easter!

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Well, it's an Easter unlike any other, and with its disappointments as well as its eternal promises. I will miss our annual Easter egg hunt, usually here in Rochester with the three little girls, but on occasion in Illinois or Wisconsin with Caleb and Hannah. And I will miss our in-person worship service. Our sanctuary is always beautifully decorated and the music with full choir and trumpets truly inspirational. On the bright side, it's sunny (for awhile at least) and warmer, so we'll get out for a walk. I splurged and bought a small leg of lamb for dinner. I don't think I've prepared one since my father died in 1998. It was always his menu choice for Easter, and I'll use the same recipe from The New York Times Cookbook. The leftovers won't go to waste as one of Tracy's favorite dishes is Shepherd's Pie, so that's on the menu for this week, too.

All the Easter cards have reached their recipients, so it's safe to share them now, although I'm quite sure none of the grandchildren ever see my blog! First off the cards for the little girls–three here in Rochester, and one in Wisconsin.

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I fell in love with this bunny from Waffleflower the minute I saw it! It's called Rejoice Rabbit which is such a perfect name. I stamped it on watercolor paper and cut it with my Cameo. Then watercolored it with Altenew's 36 pan watercolor set. I die cut a piece of paper from My Favorite Things paper pack, "Watercolor Wash," with Reverse Confetti's Pierced Round Top die. Then added that to a piece of white cardstock die cut with the "Pierced Plaid Cover" die by The Stamp Market. Finally it was all added to a Lovely Lady card (Papertrey Ink.)

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The next card is exactly the same except for the color choice–purple instead of pink.

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That darling bunny was clearly too feminine for a boy, so Caleb got a shaker card.

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I love this "Peeking Rabbit" from Simon Says. I die cut it three times and inset the colored cardstock for the eyes, ears, and nose. I found the patterned paper in my stash from a long-ago Simon Says card kit and have no idea who manufactured it. It's perfect, though with Easter sayings, and it determined the color choice for the card—Sea Glass by The Stamp Market. The greeting is from an older Papertrey Ink set, "Bunny Basket."

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When I got ready to mail the Easter cards to Wisconsin, I began to worry that Hannah would find her card lacking when Caleb got a shaker card. I called  Sarah to ask, and her answer was so sweet. "Hannah will love her Easter card, and Caleb will share, so don't worry about it!" In fact, Caleb is a wonderful big brother and most likely will share. Hannah always loves her handmade cards, so hopefully she won't be disappointed. 

There are still a couple of challenges open for Spring-themed cards so I'm posting one of the bunnies on the CAS Watercolor Challenge for Spring Flowers. With it's layers, it may not qualify as CAS–but I saw a couple entries that made me believe it might be OK.

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I'm posting the shaker card in the Inspired By "Spring is Here" challenge. I wish spring was really here, but I think we have a few more weeks to go. We alternate between somewhat warmer temperatures and downright cold!

Inspired By Spring is Here April 9

Hopefully by next Easter, the pandemic will be a thing of the past, and we can go back to celebrating with our traditions. If you celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful day–home though you probably must be!

 

Made in Minutes

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These cards were actually inspired by an article in our local paper on Thursday requesting cards that could be given to seniors who are feeling particularly isolated and fearful during this time of social isolation. Then I saw a post by Cathy Zielski that solved the problem of how to get a group of cards created in a short amount of time. All 12 cards follow the same design—a piece of patterned paper from my considerable stack of 6X6 paper pads, two frame dies ("Nordic Frames" and "Crimped Frames" by The Greetery), and a group of "Hello" dies (two from Simon Says and one from Mama Elephant.) Once the die cutting was done, each card was made literally in a few minutes. Then I remembered that the current AAA Cards Challenge is (guess what?)–Made in Minutes. 

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Here are the cards:

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Once I find out if Lifespan is planning to mail the cards I'll be able to drop them off at their offices which are just around the corner from me. I'm just not sure if they need postage on the envelopes or not. All these are pretty feminine, and I'm thinking a set designed for men might be appreciated as well.

 

 

A Change of Heart & Two Long-term Challenges

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Last night I left a comment on Honoré's blog post saying I wasn't planning to participate in the #The100DayProject this year. The next blog I read gave me an idea, and by the time I went to bed, I'd committed myself to another 100 Day Project. It will be my second one, although I think I did start one that I didn't finish. Today is the start date.

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As it turns out, today is also the day Kathy Racoosin starts a second run of her 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

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And that's what I'm basing my 100 Day Project on. Instead of 30 days, I'll be working on this for 100 days. For the first 30 I'll play along with both. The goal of Kathy's challenge, and my 100 Day Project, is to devote some time every day to doing some coloring. This means I'll get some practice with my Copic markers, watercolors (pens and pans) as well as colored pencils. When I thought of that last night I realized it's really a perfect thing to do, especially in this time of the pandemic when leaving your house is simply not an option except for essentials and some daily exercise. Kathy makes a point of saying just 10-15 minutes of coloring every day counts for the challenge, and I certainly don't expect to have a card to show for every day.

But today I do. I pulled out my Copic markers and a stamp set that's been on my list to try for several months. Choosing the colors for my project was made so much easier today because I had completed one of Sandy Allnock's Hex Charts with the markers I owned and could see exactly how they would look. The caps on the markers give you a ballpark idea, but the Hex Chart is definitely going to save me a lot of time.

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The lovely stamp is from Pink Fresh Studio and the Pierced Plaid Cover die is from The Stamp Market. I love the subtle texture it gives to the background without distracting from the main image. 

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In this photo you can see I added just a bit of texture to the sentiment strip using one edge of the Crimped Frame die from The Greetery. I'm going to link this card up with two current challenges: Addicted to CAS: Texture, and Simon Says Wednesday: Happy Birthday.

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I have to say I'm glad I had a second thought about these challenges. I'm looking forward to a commitment to color every day!

5 in 5 and Watercolor Challenge

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Today's the 5th of April, and time for Sandie's meme 5 in 5—5 photos in 5 minutes. Sandie shared some of her projects during this time of isolation, and I thought I'd do a bit of the same. I shared a little on my last blog post, but today I'm focusing on coloring projects I'm working on. I lined up a bunch of projects and snapped away.

Improving my coloring skills with watercolors and Copic markers is always on my list. This increased time at home has given me ample opportunity to watch videos, pull out supplies and practice. Tracy gifted me with two Sandy Allnock classes for Christmas. I finished the videos for the colored pencil class in February, and continue to practice, but have moved on now to the Copic Jumpstart class. The first lessons focus on color theory as did the colored pencil class, but I created a new color wheel with Copics this week, and made notes on the essentials of color theory to add to a notebook I started a year or so ago. Sandy also suggested we make color wheels with a set of darker markers which I think I'll try this week.

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I also updated my pages with a few markers I've purchased in the last six months or so.

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Last month I focused on watercolors, and I haven't abandoned that effort at all. When a good sale arrived via my inbox a week ago, I decided to splurge and purchased a new set of watercolor markers. I spent one afternoon swatching out the 60 colors. It took a lot longer than I expected, but I learned a lot more than I expected as well. It was interesting to see how the colors blend out, some more easily than others, and to see in some markers a range of tones.

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Yesterday I spent some time watercoloring the Wild Rose Stem from Memory Box. It was my best effort so far in no-line watercoloring. It was all done with just three Karin Markers and a watercolor brush to draw out the colors. 

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Here's another look at it. I'm taking this opportunity to share this at the CAS Watercolor Challenge which currently is "Spring Flowers."

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CAS Watercolor April 2020

I hope you're finding time to destress with a comforting hobby. Crafting is the one thing that is able to take my mind off all the terrible news, and understandable fears we all have.

Featuring Gina K Designs

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The Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is "Anything Goes." There's always a product focus on these challenges, and I don't usually have anything to share. This time it is Gina K Designs. The warehouse and very lovely retail store are located in Greendale, WI, about 35 minutes from Sarah's. A good friend of mine's sister also lives near there, and Nancy and I got together for lunch during our early March visit. Afterwards I made a stop at Village Paper and Ink. I didn't buy a lot, but I did pick up two small stamp sets. I used one to watercolor these hydrangeas from Heartfelt Hydrangea when we were at Sarah's. Since we've returned, I needed a sympathy card, and these seemed appropriate.

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Since the image was already watercolored, it was just a matter of choosing a card. I had both a purple and a dark navy Memory Box card, and the navy looked much better than the shade of purple I had. Having added blue to to the flowers, this worked out fine. 

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The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set, Sending You Comfort.  In addition to the Simon Says challenge, I'm entering this one in the Time Out Challenge: Purple as well. 

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Time Out Challenge 158 Badge

The weather today is wild. To avoid the predicted rain, we took our walk around noon today following our church's worship service on You Tube. Just as we came home, the sun came out, and less that 15 minutes ago, I went out on the patio to see if it were warm enough in the sun to spend some time out there. It was too breezy for me, so I came in. Tracy, however, went out to do some yard work. In less than 10 minutes, it started to pour. Blue skies vanished immediately! It's the beginning of a cold front—a drop from near 70° today to the 40's tomorrow. Ahh, March!

Start with a Sketch

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I don't often start with a sketch. In fact, it's a rare event. One of my card-making friends excels at this, but I've always struggled a bit with it. When I saw the new sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches, however, I immediately had an idea, (and having plenty of time on my hands) pulled out a new stamp set by Memory Box called Wild Rose Stem.

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At about the same time, a new challenge appeared at Time Out: use a little or a lot of purple, so that determined the color scheme.

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Here's the card that resulted from the two challenges:

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The Wild Rose Stem stamp set includes a very large double bloom with stem and this single bloom. Since the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge calls for a "clean and simple" card, I opted for the single bloom, which is still quite large. After watching a video the other day with watercoloring with watercolor markers, I pulled out my Zig Clean Color markers. It took a bit to get adjusted to them. They definitely don't react the same way my pan watercolors do to a wet on wet technique, so I had to be ready quickly to pull the color out with a damp brush. I used just two purple markers and a touch of a blue one on the petals.

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Since I had gold embossed the flower and leaves before coloring them, I decided to back the Nordic Frame by The Greetery with some gold paper for a subtle shine and elegance. I also gold embossed the sentiment from The Greetery's Sentiment Suite: Birthday.

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After mounting the flower on the frame, I adhered it all to a card made from Gina K's Wild Lilac cardstock. It appears a bit darker in the last photo than it is IRL. 

Hope you are finding satisfying ways to keep busy in this time of seclusion. I've managed to cross two LONG overdue projects off my list. More on that at the end of the month when I write up my OLW post for March.