My dear friends celebrated their 66th anniversary yesterday. They no longer live in the same building (but are at the same facility) so this year I made an anniversary card for both of them to have in their rooms. 

I was anxious to put this new die from Papertrey Ink to work, and I'm sure it's going to get a lot of use. I love the simplicity of it, and the accompanying stamps make it very versatile. I die cut it from Simon Say's woodgrain cardstock and added the wood veneer heart, colored with a Copic marker so I could enter them in the CAS-ology Challenge this week:  Wood.

Here's a closer look.

I'm also linking up to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes.

The inspiration for Papertrey Ink's June Blog Hop was a photo, sketch, and color challenge. This was the way Nicole described it:

You can choose to work with any of the ideas above or use other components of the inspiration photo to jump start your creation.  Have fun with it and challenge yourself to work outside of your comfort zone!

I created three cards, using each of the sketches, and combined one of the sketches with one of the downloadable color combinations. In my ongoing attempt to use stamps that haven't seen enough (or any) love, each card uses at least one stamp or die that I've never used before.

Here's the first sketch and the color inspiration.

And my interpretation:

This color combination is definitely not in my comfort zone (nor is trying to combine five different colors on one card.) I began by die cutting frames from Framed Out #1 and Framed Out #12 as well as a collection of flowers from Button Stacks II. (The Button Stacks II dies are my unused item.) I took a little liberty with the sketch and stamped the sentiment from "Fillable Frame #4 inside one of the frames. The Spring Rain color was added with the enamel dot from MME. The rest of the colors were die cut from the corresponding paper in the inspiration piece.

For the second card I used a sketch, but choose my own colors from a pile of scraps laying on my desk waiting to be filed into the scrap paper folders.

I used a Nestability Small Circles die to cut the circles from Pure Poppy, Tropical Teal, and Summer Sunrise. The star is from Impress, and the sentiment is from another unused (but new) stamp set "Wet Paint II."

The last card is my personal favorite (CAS design), and a masculine one, to boot! I used this sketch:

I started by stamping a variety of the"Square Prints" designs on Fine Linen cardstock. I've owned the "Square Prints" set since it came out, and don't believe I've ever used it. Liked it when I bought it, and I still do. I cut each square on the diagonal and mounted the resulting triangles under a thin strip of True Black cardstock. The sentiment is from "Botanical Prints."

I'm linking up all three cards to the Simon Says Monday Challenge to use products we ought to use more often. True, true, true.

I was hoping to link up to the blog post this morning, but either TypePad or my internet service were being disagreeable. So now I'm off to check out the inspiration linked here.

One of my goals this year is to try to use all the stamps in my collection. Truthfully, it will probably take me more than a year, but I'm making progress. As soon as I saw the current challenge at Curtain Call, I knew I had the perfect stamp, and one that hasn't seen much use.

Papertrey Ink had a series of stamps several years ago called Year of the Flower. I only purchased two of the twelve, but one of them was "Sweet Pea."

I'm also entering the card into the Less Is More challlenge:  Watercolour. It's a relatively new challenge for me, but one I see frequently on my inspiration journeys around the internet. The cardstock base is a beautiful shimmer one from Papertrey Ink, but it's not showing up well in photographs. The sentiment is also from the Year of the Flower:  Sweet Pea, embossed in white on vellum and stitched down. 

Usually I have a receipient in mind when I make a card, but this one originated with the challenge call. It's nice to have a few cards in the file when I need one but don't have the time to create one.

It's that time of year, and two people I've worked with are retiring in June. The first is the program secretary at the Presbytery office. Jan has been a huge help to me during the six years I've served on Presbytery committees, and especially the three years I was chair of one of the committees. A group of us took her out to dinner a week or so ago, and I made this card for her.

Embossing and then doing a watercolor wash is becoming a favorite (and quick to do) technique. This time I used Dylusion sprays. I dipped my brush into the spray and applied it to the watercolor paper. I love how bright (almost neon) they are. The sentiment is an old wooden stamp by PSX. It's been in my collection for a very long time. The assortment of sequins came in a kit, but I'm not sure which one. I'm entering this card in the Less Is More challenge:  Watercolour.

The second card is for our Assistant Music Director at our church. I was on the hiring committe that chose Chris nineteen years ago! My original idea for this card didn't work out, but the end result is one of my favorites in quite some time. Totally CAS, but elegant.

I almost didn't purchase the "Life is Beautiful" stamps and die from Papertrey Ink, but they are already a favorite. The sentiment is from a Papertrey set, "Congratulations," that I've never used before, but it was the perfect size and font.

Here you can see the beautiful vellum, streaked with silver glitter from Cosmo Cricket's "Simple Surfaces" paper pack. The glittery enamel dots are from MME. The gold paper has been in my stash for a long time. This is the perfect card for the Fusion part of the CAS(E) this Sketch collaboration this week.

I'm also entering both cards in the Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Anything Goes.

I sent off two anniversary cards the end of May. I'm entering the first one in Curtain Call's current challenge "Something Simple." 

This card was made with the wonderful die (Simon Says) I won on Melissa's blog several months ago. I sprayed a piece of watercolor cardstock with Dylusions sprays and then added a spray or two of Sheer Shimmer Spritz.

I cut a piece of the cardstock and put it behind the three die cut hearts. Sadly, I couldn't find any light that really showed the glimmer of the red watercolored piece. 

I add three die cut hearts (Simon Says) cut from metallic gold paper and finally the sentiment from "Round and Round" by Papertrey Ink. The cardstock is a textured one from my stash—probably American Craft.

The second card is a total CASE of a card on Danielle Flander's blog so I won't be entering that in any challenge. It's such a great design, however, I thought I'd share it for those who don't follow Danielle's blog. She's a wonderful designer, not only of cards, but of scrapbook pages as well.

The black die cut is Papertrey's Building Blocks coverplate, layered over Select White with another metallic gold die cut heart (Simon Says). The sentiment is the same as the first. 

We're off to Ithaca tomorrow for our annual spring trip to the Farmer's Market. We're hoping to visit the Johnson Museum on the Cornell campus as well, but just discovered it's reunion weekend there so we may not find anywhere to park! I'll be trying to finish my last assignment for my photography course, and maybe a few photos for Rinda's scavenger hunt.

Yesterday I received an email saying a gentleman who serves with me on a Presbytery committee had been admitted to the hospital. I wanted to get a card and note off to him.

This card actually fits three current challenges, although I didn't start out to meet the requirements of any of them. The first is one I've never entered before, "The Card Concept." There's an inspiration piece and in addition, you need to identify your card by type. This card fits the "Clean and Layering" category, and includes the following color challenge:

The CAS-ual Friday challenge is to create a masculine card with the following catch: no kraft cardstock, and you must use some ribbon.

And finally, the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is to create a masculine or Father's Day card.

I started out with the cute Savvy die cut typewriter which was  already in my die cut basket. I pulled out an Avery tag, and used some Tim Holtz Distress Ink with a Crafter's Workshop stencil to createsone interest on the tag. The sentiment on the tag was stamped with Papertrey Ink's "Just The Ticket." When I looked through my patterned paper I found the perfect match for that from Pink Paislee's "Vintage Vogue" collection. After tying on some gray grosgrain ribbon, I layed the tag on the patterned paper and realized I needed some plain cardstock between it and the patterned paper. I hand cut a larger tag with Simon Says "Smoke Gray" cardstock, and adhered it all to a Rustic White cardbase (Papertrey Ink). Since the sentiment wasn't stamped perfectly in the center, adding the yellow enamel dot emphasized the sentiment, and was the final color needed for the Card Concept challenge. I hope it cheers up my friend, Ben.

Not that any month seems to drag along any more, but May has really flown by. We spent all day yesterday helping Matt and Betsy move to a new (to them) house just five houses away from their previous home. They're expecting #2 in November (!!!!) and this house has quite a bit more room, and a fabulous, huge, fenced-in yard. They're going to love it there. We'll be back there again today helping them get settled. When I got home last night, I had time to play around with some watercolor techniques and a new stamp and die set from Papertrey Ink.

This month's blog hop challenge was a color challenge: Aqua and Melon.

My first card meets the challenge with both colors. 

I love this new butterfly set, "A Beautiful Life." The darkest of the butterflies was die cut from a piece of Bristol paper on which I did a watercolor wash with some Peerless watercolors. The other two butterflies were stamped after coating them with Gelatoes and spraying them with water. Then I die cut the stamped images which were amazingly easy to line up. The sentiment is also from the same set stamped in Aqua Mist.

I decided the butterflies were a bold enough statement that they didn't need any other embellishment.

My second card is my favorite, and although I tried adding some melon accents I really like it better without them. So here it is, even though it really doesn't meet the challenge.

I stamped the butterfly image with Aqua Mist on a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper, and then "bled" the ink around the image much the way Betsy Veldman did here. Then I added a butterfly die cut from dotted vellum, and a die cut from an aqua watercolor wash with Peerless watercolors. This time a few white sequins seemed in order.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!