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Summer School At My Favorite Things

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There were five days of Summer School at My Favorite Things. I posted Day 1's lesson here, and today I have cards for Day 2: Rainbow and Day 4: Ombre.

I used a favorite die from last Christmas to create a rainbow wreath. It was fun to transform the die into a summer design.

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I die cut the wreath from five colors of card stock: Pure Poppy, Orange Zest, Buttercup, New Leaf, and Blueberry Sky. All except Buttercup, which is one of the new Concord & 9th colors, are Papertrey Ink papers. Then I reassembled the wreath on a piece of Neenah card stock. 

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The sentiment is also from My Favorite Things stamp set "You're Super." Then I die cut the panel with a Hero Arts "Rounded Rectangle Infinity" dies. 

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Finally I found a piece of patterned paper that repeated the rainbow theme in an old paper pack by Pebbles, "Fun in the Sun." Finally I added five enamel dots to finish the card.

Day 4's subject was creating a card using ombré coloring. It took me awhile to find a product from My Favorite Things that would work, but then I remembered I had their "Big Balloons" stencil.

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Getting the ombré effect with ink blending wasn't quite as easy as I expected, but I think it worked out fine in the end. I used the new Concord and 9th inks, Aqua Sky, Buttercup, and Marmalade which are so bright and colorful. The blending brushes didn't work as well as the old ink blenders which applied the ink with a much softer, smoother look.

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It is a bit harder to see the yellow ombré effect on the yellow balloon because of the overlapping blue and orange balloons. I used Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Balloons" stamps for the strings. What you can see more clearly in this photo is the embossed edge of the white panel created with the Hero Arts "Rounded Rectangles." It was an accidental happening. I had the die upside down, but when I took it out of the die cutting machine, I rather liked the effect. I pulled out my corner rounder from my scrapbooking days to finish off the panel.

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The sentiment is from one of the Simon Says packs of sentiment strips. So easy to cut out and use. Finally I added the panel to a Buttercup card base. I am loving the Concord and 9th inks and papers. So glad I splurged on the assorted pack (2 sheets of each color) when they were introduced. Now to decide which ones I "need" in full packs. Buttercup is definitely on the list. It's almost a perfect shade.

I'm also linking this card up with Seize the Birthday, skipping the optional challenge this time, for Anything Goes.

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A New Challenge

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I found a new card challenge blog this week—as if I need another one—but the current challenge is one of my favorite techniques, so you'll probably see a couple of cards for it before the time expires. Just Us Girls is looking for cards with die cut windows.

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My first share is a card made with one of the images I colored for the #100DayProject. There were several days when I needed a smaller project for coloring and this beautiful magnolia from Altenew's "Magnolias For Her," fit the bill. I watercolored it and then fussy cut it out.

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The die cut heart (My Favorite Things) was backed with a piece of black and white diagonally striped paper, also from My Favorite Things. I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Thank You Kindly" set, and adhered it to a white card base with dimensional tape.

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Finally I attached the magnolia to the bottom of the heart.  I love this clean and simple design, and the contrast between the beautiful pinks and the black and white stripes.

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It's been fun designing some challenge cards this week after focusing on coloring images for so many days lately. 

 

 

The Dog Days of Summer and Visual Triangles

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The Card Concept has a new challenge up called The Dog Days of Summer.

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And My Favorite Things is sponsoring a  Summer School series. The first lesson focused on using visual triangles in your design. It's something I think about almost every time I create a card. There are visual triangles in both the cards below, but one seems more apparent to me than the other.

Puppies

My granddaughter occasionally pretends to be a puppy. These cute puppies from My Favorite Things "Woof Pack" had "her name on them," so as soon as a sale popped up they were in my basket. I'm a big fan of the sentiments, too, I was told after sending ONE card for both kids that it was no longer a good idea. Hannah, the 3 year old, claimed the card as her own, so this time two cards were sent.

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The two puppies and the speech bubble create a visual triangle. This one seems to be a better example because both dogs are "looking at" the speech bubble. Sometimes it's the images that create a visual triangl, but often I use embellishments to form one.

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I die cut the circle with a Spellbinders circle die and backed it with patterned paper from Sunny Studios, The pups were colored with Copic markers.

If it's a "Dog's Life," these cuties seem to have it pretty good.

Altenew July Challenge

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I love my Altenew stamps and dies, and every month I think I'll join in their monthly challenge, but I think this might be a first. When I saw July's inspiration, I knew just what I wanted to do.

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Then I saw August's inspiration photo, and I thought I'd blown it once again. But, to my surprise, the July challenge is still open, so I made sure to get the card made. My inspiration came from the beautiful wreath, but I also loved how it was hung on the white window frame. I didn't have a die that cut a window, so I used the Skinny Stripes: Horizontal die by My Favorite Things. Bonus: that's another NBUS item in my stash, so my goal of using unused products gets another win.

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The wreath comes from one of my most used Altenew stamp sets, Weekend Doodles. I watercolored the leaves with Daniel Smith watercolors and splattered a bit of white gouache on it before die cutting it. 

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The sentiment is from Altenew's Sentiment strips which I stamped on a banner die cut. 

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Although a bit brighter, The Stamp Market's Teal cardstock seemed a good match for the inspiration color, and having matching enamel dots was a bonus. 

Two Cards, Three Challenges

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And the cards–as well as the two main challenges–couldn't be more different. The first is the new Less is More Challenge: Summer Flowers.

425 Theme Summer Flowers

Although I've been to the Gina K Designs retail store a few times when I've visited Sarah in Wisconsin, I didn't really follow her until recently. When I saw her most recent kit offer, I was intrigued, but held off too long and ended up on a wait list. The kit finally came in and about a week ago, it arrived in the mail. I am so impressed not only with the quality but the quantity of product in the kit. This is my first card using one of three stamp sets and I already have plans for both of the other sets. Hopefully, they'll see some love this weekend. 

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This beautiful flower is from "Best Flowers," which also include two larger blossoms and leaves which can be cut with the included dies. This is such an enjoyable flower to color, and you'll probably see it in a variety of colors in the future. The sentiment is from a second stamp set included in the kit, "Hands of Love." The font is different than any other I own, and one I know I'll use frequently.

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I also order the "Master Layout" dies, and have used them for the last several cards I've made (soon to come to the blog!) They die cut the focal image and then the 1/16" mat perfectly. 

The second challenge is The Card Concept's "Christmas in July." I'm happy to be in the season of summer flowers, but I know Christmas will be here before you know it.

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This one gave me an opportunity to use another new stamp set, appropriately named "Poinsettia." This one is by Waffleflower, and it includes enough designs to make multiple holiday cards.

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I also used some of the new cardstock from Concord & 9th–Cranberry and Honeysuckle, and the beautiful oval and frame die cut with Ellen Hutson's "Essential Ovals."

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After embossing the design in gold, I carefully colored the floral with Copic markers. I've read that you must be very careful because embossing powder can ruin the tips of Copic markers. Luckily, I haven't had an issue with it yet. The "Merry" sentiment  (I love the font) came from the "Poinsettia" set, and the "Christmas" from W+9's "Hand Lettered Holiday" set. (Finding that required me to pull out all my Christmas stamps. I considered keeping them out, but although I hope to make a few more cards with this new set, I'm not ready to think about mass producing any cards quite yet.)

One of the requirements for The Card Concept Challenge is to identify your style. In thiscase, I'd call it "Clean and Layered." 

And since both cards use Never Before Used Stuff, I'm entering one in the new challenge which starts today.

We're off in a few minutes to go on a bike ride. Later tonight, rain is forecast and likely to extend into Monday. It's hot and sunny now.

 

Freshly Made Sketches

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This week's challenge at Freshly Made Sketches is pretty wide open—make a slimline card. I made my first slimline card earlier this month. Slimline cards are the rage right now, and I have just two dies for them. The first card used the Lawn Fawn Lift the Flap die and today's card uses a beautiful die from Pinkfresh Studio.

Slimline

I started out by ink blending some Distress Inks on white card stock and then die cut it with the Braided Circle die. The butterflies from the Simon Says "Beautiful Butterflies" were colored with Copic markers. This was the set for the June Card Kit, and it's going to see a lot of use. It includes six beautiful butterfly images and twelve sentiments in a variety of lovely fonts. 

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For this card, however, I opted for a sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions. I fussy cut the butterflies since I don't have the dies. On the black card stock behind them, I scored three vertical lines which I could not get to show up in a photograph. I'm off to see what other ideas have shown up for the challenge.

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In My Thoughts

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I seem to need many more "thinking of you" cards during the pandemic. I have several friends who live alone, and don't have much (or any) family nearby. I try to get cards out every now and then in addition to checking in with the phone or email. Among my many blessings during this difficult time is to live with my best friend!

The current challenge at AAA Cards is for a CAS design:

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I decided on a window card this time, using one of my favorite dies by My Favorite Things, the "Rectangle Peek-a-Boo Window." I love the stitched lines around it. 

Thoughts

This time, I'm playing along with the optional challenge of including flowers. These are from Pinkfresh Studio's "Fancy Blooms" set. I colored them with Copics, and fussy cut them since I don't own the dies.

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I added a few clear drops to the inside of the card surrounding the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "It's the Thought." 

It's been an almost ideal weekend in terms of weather, sunny, breezy, and warm. Well, today would qualify as hot, but we got a lovely walk in earlier this morning before the temperature got too high. Even now, though, on the patio it's very comfortable in the shade, thanks to the breeze. Yesterday we took our bikes to the Lehigh Valley Trail and did one section of the trail we hadn't covered walking. Just one more section, and we'll have covered all 25 miles (times 2.) 

 

Color Throwdown

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I'm not sure I've ever managed to make a card for a challenge on the day the challenge went live, but today I did. As soon as I saw the colors, I knew what I wanted to do. Here's the new Color Throwdown inspiration.

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I have a lovely stash of colored images from the #100DayProject, and knew there were some bright yellow and orange flowers, and spring green leaves. They're all from Simon Says "Spring Flowers" line. I have two of the sets, but I think there may be four or five now. 

Loved

I die cut the front of the card with an oval die cut and backed it with a piece of patterned paper from the Papertrey Ink "Lovely Lace" pack. It went with one of their Make It Market kits. I never owned the kit, but purchased one of the paper packs when there was a huge sale. I was actually looking for something else when I found this which is much better than my original idea. 

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The sentiment strip is from Taylored Expressions "Simple Strips." I resisted purchasing that for a long time, but so glad I decided to buy it as I reach for one of them over and over again.

The Flower Challenge-Summer Flowers

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The current challenge at The Flower Challenge is just too good to pass up so here's another entry. I colored this floral design early in the #100DayChallenge, but didn't make it into a card until recently. It was in a pile of previously stamped images, and once I colored it I rescued the stamp from the "donate pile." It ended up in that pile because I hadn't used it in so long. But I loved coloring it, and was glad it hadn't gotten out of the house yet. It's going to be back in rotation now.

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The stamp is an older Hero Arts cling stamp, "Large Blossom." The rubber stamps do stamp beautifully, and I love the black background. 

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It was colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is from one of The Greetery's Sentiment Suite sets: Birthday. I love all the different fonts Betsy includes on these sentiment sets.

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Hope you're having a good start to your week!

 

A Second Two Challenge Card

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This might be one of my favorite birthday cards—so clean and simple—and yet classy enough for a very special birthday!

90

A very good friend turned 90 while we were away, and I made sure this card arrived on time. I started with the navy blue shimmer card and then die cut the numbers from a scrap of silver metallic cardstock with The Stamp Market's "Skinny Upper Numbers." 

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The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set I've used over and over again, "Big Birthday Wishes." It has all kinds of great sentiments designed to accompany whatever year is being celebrated. 

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And I must say, that if I had a photo of my friend, you would never know that he was 90 years old!!!

This card is for the CAS on Friday Challenge: Anything But White, and the Seize the Birthday Challenge: A Non-neutral Card Base.

 

 

 

 

One Card; Two Challenges

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I have a card for two challenges: AAA Cards: Made in Minutes and The Flower Challenge: Summer Flowers.

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It's not often I can make a card in just a few minutes, but this one came together very quickly, and is one of my CAS faves. I should have made multiples in different colors!

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It's a simple watercolored flower from Altenew's "Sketched Flowers" die cut, attached to white card cut with a "Stitched Rectangle" from Simon Says, and then to a Lovely Lady (Papertrey Ink) card base.

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I wish I had more sentiments with this font, which is a favorite of mine. It's from Papertrey Ink's "Never Enough Thanks" set.

 

The Flower Challenge: Summer Flowers

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The Flower Challenge is for summer or winter flowers, depending on which hemisphere you live in. It's definitely summer here, and I am grateful. The stay-in-place restrictions are so much easier to endure if you can be outside in your garden or on your patio. 

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I made this card for a friend who now has possession of it, so it can be shared on the blog. I used a newer Pinkfresh Studio set "Keep Going," which I've used several times during the #100DayProject. Today was Day 100, and I have a stack of cards, and an even bigger stack of colored images ready to be made into cards. I enjoyed the challenge, and have 15 more days of coloring ahead of me in order to finish Kathy Racoosin's current 30 Day Coloring Challenge. This is the second one she's hosted since the pandemic started. 

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I colored the beautiful flowers with Copic markers and trimmed down the left side of the panel. I added a strip of black and white striped paper from My Favorite Things and a narrow strip of black cardstock to the white card base.

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The sentiment is from Altenew's "Floral Frame" stamp set. There are still a few days left for this challenge, so I'll most likely be back again more quickly than usual. 

Maddy’s Fourth Birthday

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Today Maddy turned four. There can't be a friends party this year, but the family gathered to celebrate. To make it seem special, an ice cream truck arrived. To make it as safe as possible, Leon was the only one who interacted with the server. Maddy was quite excited, and we all enjoyed great ice cream from a Rochester local ice cream store. Here are the three cuties posing for me before their ice cream.

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Then it was on to opening presents. I don't think I've ever seen anyone as excited as Maddy who exclaimed over each and every gift. "It's what I've always wanted!" "Look, Mom, it's a rainbow dress!" 

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And, of course, there was the birthday cake. Maddy insisted she blow out the candles without help, and proudly announced, "That's the first time I've ever done it all by myself." Maddy took off her birthday dress so it wouldn't get dirty during dinner.

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Here's the card I made for her. When I saw this slimline die for a peek-a-boo windows by Lawn Fawn, I knew I'd find plenty of uses for it. I ended up using a number of stamp sets to complete it. Many of the images came from a Hero Arts Monthly kit from December 21018. I've only purchased two of the Hero Art kits, but they both had wonderful images, and come with the dies and lots of embellishments.

Fairies

I started by using the Simon Says "Falling Stars" stencil in a light pink and also stenciled the business envelope as well. I masked around the three flaps and then stamped images on each flap: Hero Arts fairy, sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Balloon Bash," and the rainbow and cloud Simon Says "Best Ever", and the cake with four candles from My Favorite Things, "Birthday Bears." 

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Under the flaps, all the stamps came from the Hero Arts sets. Everything was colored with Copic markers. I added clear glitter pen to the fairies' wings and the icing on the birthday cake. Three small purple pearls were added to the flowers.

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This turned out to be a great sentiment for a slimline card. It's from the Winnie and Walter "Wish Big" set, and there's glitter on all the alphabet flags.

Maddy's card turns out to be a good entry for the current AAA Birthday Challenge: 3-D.

AAABD#15

We got home from Sarah's last night so we'd be here for Maddy's birthday. Making the trip during the pandemic seemed a bit daunting, but driving straight through didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would–helped, of course, by good weather. We stopped only for gas, to change drivers, and to get lunch which we ate in the car. Not our preferred way to travel, but as safe as we could make it. It took us about 11 hours each way. Once we were there, we stayed at home, as do Sarah and her family. They order most of their groceries, although Adam did go to the store once or twice while we were there. It was great to see them, and the grandchildren were thrilled to have us there, and sad to see us leave. It was also good to give Sarah and Adam some relief as they both work from home as well as entertaining and trying to provide enriching activities for Caleb and Hannah. It will take me a few days to settle back into routines here, but it's good to be home.

Blue Watercolored Florals

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Seize the Birthday's challenge is watercolors this time around. I had several (missed) opportunities to get a card up on their challenge site, but finally got one of the watercolored florals I created for the #100DayProject made into a card.

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For my birthday, I received a couple very generous gift certificates from my children to Pinkfresh Studios. In my first order, the "Keep Going" stamp set arrived with this beautiful floral image:

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I watercolored the image with the Karin brush markers. I've discovered, that for me, swiping the brush on a palette and picking it up with a brush or a waterbrush works much better than applying the watercolor directly on the image. I didn't purchase the die for the set, so I fussy cut it before adding it to a Mix and Mat Oval frame by Papertrey Ink.

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Recently, in one of my perpetual reorganizing efforts, I came across this beautiful, subtly striped gray cards. I'm guessing they are from Memory Box, but I can't be sure. I loved the blue and white against the gray. A simple sentiment strip from Taylored Expressions finished it off.

One Corner

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AAA Cards has a new challenge: one corner.

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I was coloring some more Simon Says "Spring Flowers" for my #100DayProject, and decided to design a card with the floral elements in one corner. Here's what I came up with:

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I colored the images with Copic Markers and fussy cut the flower. I used the accompanying dies to cut out the leaves. The sentiment is from Altenew's "Floral Frame."

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I ended up needing to take the photos in two different locations which explains the difference in lighting and backgrounds. Not ideal, by any means.