Today's the 25th and time for the September Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. Right before we left, I managed to find time to make two fall birthday cards based on this gorgeous inspiration photo. I wasn't sure I'd have time to write a post from the road, but we're in our hotel after a lovely dinner and there's still two hours left before the link closes. 

Both cards feature leaves and the beautiful fall colors in the inspiration photos. The first is my favorite.

I've had the Mix and Mat Pinked Edges die laying out for several weeks, knowing it was perfect for a fall birthday card. I die cut it four times, first with kraft, and then again with Ripe Avocado, Terracotta Tile, and Canyon Clay. I carefully cut out two leaves from each of the colorful cardstock and adhered them to the kraft die cut.  Then I adhered that to a top-folding Saffron Spice card. I gold embossed the sentiment on a strip of Dark Chocolate cardstock.

The next card uses many of the same colors but I used both the leaf stamps and die cuts from Forest Floor: Autumn along with an oldie but goodie, Fillable Frames #4.

Once I had all the elements stamped and die cut, I felt like I needed something behind the frame. A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME die cut with a stitched rectangle fit the bill. Although there are acorns to stamp and die cut from the Forest Floor set, I chose two little three-dimensional acorns by Little B instead to finish off the card. 

We've had a wonderful three days on the road. Tomorrow we take the ferry across Lake Michigan and will be in Racine with Sarah and her family by dinnertime. Off to link up to the blog hop! Thanks for stopping in!

A quick post to enter a card in the current Less is More challenge: Black & White & Plus One.

Anyone who's followed my blog for awhile knows one of my favorite color combinations is black, white, and red. And it frequently shows up in anniversary cards.

One of the hallmarks of a Less is More card is white space, although it doesn't have to be white—non-patterned, clean space— which in this case is black. The beautiful die cut and shadow is from Simon Says and the sentiment is from an accompanying stamp set. a simple heart and three white enamel dots and it was done. Easy, but classic, I think.

It's a dark and cold Monday morning here, but the fall chill we've had for the last three days isn't supposed to last long. We had a lovely weekend, but I have no photos to show for it. I do have a card to share, however, for three different challenges. I made this card for one of our good friends who recently turned 70. He enjoys good food and good wine, and his wife hosted a wonderful party for him at a local restaurant. One of the highlights of the evening was seeing their children who now live and work in NYC and Denver, CO. Matt and their son, Ben, were best friends all through elementary school. They forged different paths come middle school (Scouts vs. sports), but we've maintained a lasting friendship with his parents.

Although I knew I wanted to use Papertrey Ink's "Uncorked" stamp set, the card I had in mind is a far cry from the one I ended up with. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy with the final result. I trimmed off the top of a ready-made tag to hold the wine bottle (embossed in gold) and the wine glasses (die cut from patterned vellum). After embossing the sentiment, I felt the card needed "a little something" so I added a few score lines to the Scarlet Jewel card before adhering the tag and rounded the top corners.

For the inside greeting, I die cut some numbers from Memory Box with gold adhesive paper from PTI, and embossed a sentiment from "Big Birthday Wishes," also by PTI.

I'm entering this card in three challenges:

Time Out's Quotation Challenge, focusing on the "wine in our hands:"

Seize the Birthday: 

And last, but not least, Simon Says Wednesday challenge: Stamp It! in celebration of their annual Stamptember event:

A generous friend gave me a gift certificate to Papertrey Ink for my birthday. I saved it for something special, something I wouldn't ordinarily order. When I saw the Fence Line: Summer stamps and die sets I knew I'd found the perfect way to use the gift certificate. I don't usually buy stamps that are so specific to a season, but I really love these, and I love how the cards turned out.

The first card went to my friend so she could see how I had used her gift certificate.

After I had stamped and die cut the elements from Fence Line, I die cut the outer two pieces to the Shape Shifters: Oval 2 die. The Shape Shifter dies are among my favorites because they are so versatile. Using a stencil brush, I added some Salty Ocean Distress Oxide ink to the top of the oval fro the sky, and some Fossilized Amber for the sand. Since I was writing a note I decided not to add a sentiment to the front of the card.

The second card is a top folded card. I like that you can use these elements in both a horizontal and a vertical format.

When I made this card, I had just finished watching all the videos for Kristina Werner's "Simply Watercolor" class. It was the week Sarah and her family were here. I was able to watch the videos, but had no time to play with the watercoloring techniques she demonstrated. Both the sky and the sand were done with watercolors, and I used Kristina's technique to create a sky filled with white clouds. Right as Sarah left, Tracy came down with what appeared to be a virus (and was diagnosed twice as such), but turned out to be mono. Who knew a 70 year old could get mono? It's the sickest I've ever known him to be. At any rate, he is still slowly recovering, so time in the craft room has been very limited. I'm hoping to get to Kristina's other lessons in the next week or so.

On top of the watercolored "sand" I stamped the sand image from the set to add some texture. Once again I used the Shape Shifter: Oval 2 as the canvas for the card. I did stamp a sentiment on this card which was given to my daughter-in-law for her generous invitation to stay with them in Nantucket in July. I used the MISTI and stamped it two or three times, but in retrospect wish I had used a die cut for the sentiment instead.

Unlike the first card, I didn't bother to "punch out" all the little die cut pieces from the frame. I think it works well either way.

I'm linking up the first card to Inspired By . . . Seascapes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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. 

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.

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.

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:

The challenge at Addicted to CAS is:

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

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

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.

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:

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is Stripes.

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.

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. 

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.