Today marks the halfway point in the 100 Day Project—gotta say it went really fast. There were several prompts that arrived with the email this morning:  What are you learning (about yourself or your process)? What's working? What isn't? What would help? What do you want for the next 50 days?

I've definitely kept with my original goals for the project: trying new techniques, using new stamps and tools, digging out old favorites . . . Interestingly, I've also been inspired to do some purging, and a lot of reorganizing of my supplies to make it easier and quicker to find what I need/want. Traveling definitely put a damper on the process, so I added watching technique videos to the list of "acceptable" projects for a given day. And that's proven to be helpful, too.

I've averaged a card every other day the last two weeks—most of them being made in the last week since things were really hectic when we first got home from Chicago. Some of them I've shared here, here, and here. Some days I worked on a technique but no card was made; some days I made cards with images I created earlier. I'm hoping to keep up the same pace for the next 50 days, knowing there are two trips during that time as well. 

For my birthday I received several gift certificates to online stores so have had some new playthings arrive in the craft room. I thought I'd share two cards made with one of them today. Some others will show up shortly. One of my good friends gave me a gift certificate to Simon Says, and I used it to purchase some new blending ink pads by Wendy Vecchi. Blending inks is one of the techniques I've been working on during the #100DayProject. My initial impression is that they are much easier to use than a regular dye ink pad, but we'll see how they do in different situations. One of my next projects involves a technique which a bit more difficult than using them with a stencil.

Once I ordered the ink pads, I got busy and repackaged and rearranged my stencils so it would be easy to flip through them. They are now all in the clear storage envelopes by Avery Elle in an open box instead of piled up in a box with a cover. What a difference it makes. I've rarely used my stencils just because it took so long to dig through them.

I'm linking up the first card to this week's challenge "Inspired By: Floral Clusters."

 

For the first card, I pulled out a Simon Says stencil, " Zig Zag Dots," and blended some Cornflower Blue ink creating a subtle ombre effect from the top to the bottom. The beautiful circular diecut is Papertrey Ink's new "Shape Shifter Circle 2." I layered flowers and leaves stamped and die cut with Papertrey's "Botanical Bounty" set to the side, and added a sentiment from an older Simon Says set, "Thanks." 

I worked on blending inks here, too, with the Papertrey Inks, following a tutorial by Lizzie Jones for Papertrey's Make It Monday challenge this week. I originally thought the Detail Blending tools would work well with these, but it turns out it they don't work as well as the Mini Round blenders. Here you can see the difference the blending makes. (Excuse the glare from the lights; the photo was taken at night in my craft room.) No blending on the top flower; blending a second color on the bottom flowers. 

I've certainly not mastered this technique but it's a start. 

Here's the second stenciled card. Another thank you note since I'm gratefully in need of a few more. 

For this card, I blended two colors of ink through a Crafter's Workshop "Mini Squirreley." I die cut the main panel with a Simon Says "Stitched Rectangle," and die cut a banner from the "Stitched Banners"set. 

The sentiment is from a new-to-me Papertrey Ink set, "Thank You Kindly," that was on sale because it is being retired. I don't ever remember seeing it before, and it is chock-full of great thank you sentiments in a wide array of fonts. I know I'll use it a lot. I added three enamel dots as a tiny embellishment. 

I'm hoping to have a card ready for the Papertrey Make It Monday challenge and the Papertrey Blog Hop on Friday. Tomorrow is a busy day, so there won't be much crafting time. Friday, however, is a rare day with nothing on the calendar, so I haven't given up hope. 

 

 

My great nephew and great niece have back-to-back birthdays this coming week. I think it's so interesting that my niece has two children whose birthdays are one day after the other, and my daughter's children share the same birthday. I needed to get the cards in the mail today. I made Finn's a few weeks ago for one of my #100DayProjects. For Rowan's card, I used this week's sketch at CAS(e) This Sketch.

Both cards used a similar technique: outline images and one colored focal point. Here's Rowan's card for her first birthday:

As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew it would be a perfect first birthday card, but I wasn't sure I had a cupcake image the right size. But in a quick search, I discovered this cupcake in "Tremendous Treats: Birthday" by Papertrey Ink—another set that I've had for a long time, but haven't used in an equally long time. I started by die cutting a piece of Neenah Solar White cardstock with a "Stitched Rectangle" from Simon Says. Then I stamped the outline images with Hibicus Burst ink and set that aside. I stamped another image in black ink, added Nuvo Glimmer paste to the top of the cupcake and let it dry. Then I colored the cupcake liner and the star with Copic markers and fussy cut it.

I embossed the sentiment from "Wishes Come True" (PTI) on Hibiscus Burst and created a banner with the Washi Chomper by We R Memory Keepers. The focal point was added with some dimensional dots and everything adhered to a Raspberry Fizz card. 

Here's Finn's card. Like many three year-olds, he's obsessed with trucks, so the images from Papertrey Ink's "Truckin' It," seemed just right. It's a set I bought when Caleb was little, but had never used.

The striped pattern paper on the bottom of the card was in my stash, but not with the paper pad it came from. The sentiment was stamped on a Pure Poppy banner die cut with Tag Sale #10 (PTI). The tiny three on the fire truck is from a Cocoa Daisy kit from my scrapbooking days before Project Life. I must say the goal of #100DayProject to try new techniques and make use of new or long neglected stamp sets is proving to be pretty successful! 

This past week was so busy I resorted to watching technique videos for my #100DayProject—not much to show for it so there wasn't an update post this week. I have some time today and tomorrow to put some of those techniques to work so will hopefully have something to share on Tuesday. (I totally ruined all the colored pencil images I worked on while I was away, trying to overstamp them with black ink. Although I left the stamps in the MISTI while I was away, and thought they lined up perfectly—not. so. much. Very disappointing, but the object was practice with the new colored pencils after all.)

The weeks seem to be flying by, but I must admit to being happy to greet May with the warmest temperatures of the season. In just two warm days, we've seen the forsythia burst into bloom, and signs of the bushes and trees coming back to life. It really is late this year; frequently this happens mid-April. According to the meteorologist this was the 9th coldest April on record. Fortunately, I don't remember the others!

I worked on several projects for the #100Day Project this week:  messy watercoloring, stamp layering techniques, and a new die cutting technique. The results of some of these projects haven't yet been made into cards. I have a rather lovely file now of stamped images just waiting for the right occasion for a card. I broke open the May Card Kit from Simon Says and made three needed anniversary cards. I also pulled out a stamp set I've had for some time, but never used.

First off, the messy watercoloring technique. This is not my usual style, and it took awhile before I decided I liked it.

The design came from the CAS(e) this Sketch challenge this week, although I had to move my sentiment to make it work. 

Altenew's "Charmed" stamp set has been in my collection for awhile. I liked it a lot, but have had a hard time figuring out exactly what to do with it. It turns out messy watercoloring works well. I stamped it on Tim Holtz watercolor paper and watercolored it with a water brush and Distress Oxide Inks (also a new technique). Once I finished, I added the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Choose Joy," another set that doesn't get pulled out often. The card still needed something, so I did some paint splattering and misted it with Fallen Angels Glimmer Mist. You can see a bit of the glimmer in the close up. I approach splattering with a fair amount of trepidation because I've been known to totally ruin a perfectly good card with ugly splatters. This time it worked.

Here are the three anniversary cards I made from the Simon Says May kit. The first one (my favorite) was a CASE of Nichol Spohr's. I think you can easily see the influence, although mine ended up a bit more CAS. 

I used the same patterned paper and the same basic design, but only three of the puffy hearts by Pink Fresh. I die cut "happy" from the Simon Says "Happy" set three times and stacked it for some additional dimension and then stamped the rest of the sentiment.

While I had the kit out, I pulled out some more of the Pink Fresh "Let Your Heart Decide" patterned papers and made two more cards with the papers and the puffy hearts.

This time only the sentiments changed. The first one is from Mama Elephant's "Bountiful Blessings" set, and the second from Reverse Confetti's "Circle Wishes," which I'd never used before. All three cards are addressed and ready to go in the mail later this month.

Next week we'll be at Sarah's. I've packed a little box with materials so I can work on colored pencil techniques and color layering techniques. I'll be back tomorrow before we leave with another entry for the Seize the Birthday challenge.