There are finally enough signs of spring here to take hope, although today is once again breezy and rainy. I made this bright floral easel card a week ago, thinking I had plenty of time for the two challenges in mind. But actually, the Tic Tac Toe challenge closes today at noon, so I'm just sneaking it in at the last minute.

I chose the middle row across: Floral Bouquet, Spring, and Word Die for my inspiration. The Seize the Birthday inspiration is clear!

I don't have a lot of success with layering stamps, but layering stencils work just fine, so this wonderful bouquet of flowers called "Spring Mix" was a sure purchase for me during the last Greetery release. I used an assortment of Pinkfresh Studio inks to blend the colors. Then there is a set of stamps to use to create the centers of each flower. The possibilities are endless and there will be another of these cards to share very soon. The sentiment was die cut with a Pinkfresh Studio die. When Betsy did the intro video for this set, she created an easel card. I hadn't made one in years, and it was so easy that I'm sure that will show up again as well.

This card went in the mail yesterday to a good friend who's celebrating her 70th birthday. She's one of two friends who planned a trip to New York City for my 70th birthday. We're not going to NYC for their birthdays but we've scheduled a lunch in early May to plan some kind of get-away.

I'm celebrating the birthday today of one of my longest and best friends. Her birthday was last week, but we weren't able to get together. This morning, we're sharing a take-out breakfast at her home. Since she periodically visits my blog (but never comments!) I decided not to post her card until today. The main image of her card was actually one of my birthday presents a year ago. It comes from the Altenew Watercolor Coloring book.

This floral provided me with an opportunity to do some mixing of colors using both some new Winsor & Newton watercolors and some Daniel Smith watercolors. When I was immersed in Sarah Simon's watercolor class, I purchased a few small tubes of Winsor & Newton watercolors. I had previously tried to mix this color with my yellows from Daniel Smith, but I could never get the peachy color I wanted. The Yellow Ochre is just enough different to easily mix it.

I've also learned to walk away and let the watercolors dry before adding a new layer. Being someone who is used to completing a card in one session, it takes more patience than I usually exhibit!

After attaching the panel to a green card base, I added the sentiment from The Ton – "Easy Expressions: Birthday." I considered adding a few pearls, but decided to leave it very CAS.

I'm sending this off to two challenges: Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes and Happy Little Stampers: Watercolor.

For Christmas I received a Spellbinder's Hot Glimmer foiling machine. I knew it would be under the tree, so during sales events after Thanksgiving and Christmas I purchased a few foiling plates (all 50% off). Then I won the grand prize at Pinkfresh Studios which included several more. Traveling right after Christmas and devoting a lot of time when we returned to the watercolor class, it took me until this week to break out the machine. I'd seen some very helpful videos on Jennifer McGuire's blog*, but I'd also read on Instagram and elsewhere that the foiling process could have a rather steep learning curve. Luckily, the first two foiling projects were a success which resulted in the valentine below. Afterwards, I tried a couple other plates that didn't turn out so well, so I think it will be a process with mixed results for awhile.

The foiling is much easier to see here:

I foiled a piece of Raspberry Fizz cardstock with silver foil using the Pinkfresh Studio "Heart Grid" foiling plate and die cut it with one of MFT's "Nested Hearts." The foiled sentiment is one from Pinkfresh Studio's "Brush Sentiments." That set includes the foiling plate, the stamp set, a die, and a stencil you can use to color the dies. Lots of options and I would never have spent the money to purchase them all. Truthfully, when I saw the release I thought the sentiments would all be larger than I would like, so I wouldn't have any of them had I not won the whole release. I see now that they will get quite a bit of use. 

I used the Sunny Studio " Quilted Hearts" embossing folder for the background and a piece of silver glitter paper to frame it. To save on the glitter paper, I cut it the size I needed, and then die cut the middle of it with a smaller rectangle die and put that piece in my metallic paper folder. The small sentiment is from an old Simon Says stamp set "Love" which I use frequently. 

I'm sending this off to two challenges: Time Out's: In Love and Happy Little Stampers Dies: Anything Goes. 

*If you're a cardmaker and aren't aware of Jennifer McGuire's site, she provides wonderful videos showcasing all kinds of techniques as well as process videos. I rely on her advice for so many things.

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but 
of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.
Thomas Merton

This post has been percolating for several weeks now, and the middle of January is quickly slipping by so it’s time to take a look at my OLW for 2022.  I had no trouble finding my word this year. In August we were in a lovely gift shop in Traverse City, MI and I spotted a series of books with single word titles. The one that jumped out at me was Balance, and I was pretty sure that described what I needed in my life. Interestingly, it turned out to be a repeat of the word I chose exactly 10 years ago. Time to revisit it again.

I’m prone to going all in on a project and by the time I’m done, I’ve let lots of other creative pursuits fall to the wayside. A blogging friend has decided to choose a word quarterly, and I’m wondering if that’s not also a way to balance the things you hope to do. I’ve just begun Atomic Habits after hearing references to it all over. I’m only a couple of chapters in, but already one of the big take-aways is that setting goals doesn’t help you create habits; it’s the process that changes who you are. And that change is what you’re really after. 

When I started thinking about balance I was looking for ways to incorporate learning, practice, and self-reflection into my days. I recognize that it’s an ongoing process. It’s the day-to-day, moment-to-moment choices you make for yourself. Creating balance means understanding that you can’t do it all.

So I’m going to practice balance—staying open to opportunities and reminding myself of the things that bring me joy.When we returned home from visiting Sarah and her family, I downloaded a Habit Tracker and laid out some of the things I’d like to pay attention to this year. I’m quite sure the list will change from month to month, but it’s already helping me find time for things that might fall off my radar. Although I divided some of them into weekly and monthly categories, that’s not really working the way I wanted. For example, this month I want to explore some possible photography projects, but I don’t expect to start working on one until next month. The one very important omission on the Habit Tracker is a list of all the things I do without thinking: household chores, errands, meal planning, volunteer work several times a week, and work for my three church committees. But, in fact, I'm looking for balance in my creative time. 

As I often do, I’ve made lists of ideas for things I’d like to do, and truthfully, most years by the summer I’ve stopped going back to the lists to review them. I think my friend’s idea to look at the OLW quarterly is a great idea. Although I’ve enrolled in Ali Edward’s OLW class a couple of times, doing a deep dive into it each month was really overload for me. 

As a "reward" for sticking with me for a very word-heavy post, here's a look at a cute little nuthatch at our feeder this morning, and a broader look at the landscape outside our kitchen window. By noon we had well over a foot of snow. Tracy went out to do the driveway this afternoon (fortunately neither of us had any reason to leave the house), and just as he finished our snow blower quit working. He did the sidewalk by hand, but our long and steep driveway requires a machine. Matt's coming over tomorrow with his truck to get it to the service provider. 

If you choose a word for the year, I’d love to hear about it. 

Losing someone at holiday time always seems harder since so many family traditions and gatherings happen during the late fall and early winter. Sadly, we have lost several more friends in the last several weeks, and in fact, I have another three sympathy cards to make this weekend. Two of them are for the children of one of our dearest friends who died very suddenly last week. She was 87, so had lived a long life. But as far as anyone knew, she was in good health, and was certainly as sharp as ever. We were just devastated when we heard the news.

But here are three sympathy cards that have been sent in the past two weeks. For all of them, I've relied on the Altenew's "Leaf Mix" dies, and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Warm Regards" set. This one has a different design which is my favorite. I'm throwing it into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More: Any Occasion. I imagine a sympathy card is not quite what they're expecting during this busy Christmas crafting time!

These two are very similar in design, but different in color.

A new Color Hues Challenge is live. Nancy chose Red and Kraft for this round.

It’s not a color combo I typically use for Christmas, but I love the way this ended up.

It’s really past time to start thinking about Christmas cards so I used this opportunity to create one using two dies I’ve never put to use. I purchased Altenew’s “Poinsettia 3D Die Set” last year at the end of the season after all my Christmas cards were made. The Waffle Flower “Triple Line Diamond Panel” die is newer, but it’s been in the stash for a couple of months.

I die cut the “Triple Line Diamond” panel from Kraft cardstock (Papertrey Ink) and added it to the card base. It needed a festive touch, so I die cut a second panel from gold and inlaid the tiny squares. Sadly, the poinsettia covers up quite a few of them. The bonus is that I’m left with a lovely gold panel you’re likely to see soon.

The poinsettia was die cut from red cardstock (Concord and 9th) and splattered with gold watercolors from Gansi Tambi’s “Starry Colors.” I added some dimensional tape under some of the bracts of the poinsettia.

The sentiment from The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite: Christmas” was gold embossed and die cut with one of the “Sentiment Suite Basic” dies. Instead of using the tiny die from the poinsettia set for the center, I chose some gold pearls from The Paper Studio.

I hope you'll hop over to the Color Hues Challenge and join in the fun, checking out the cards made by my awesome Design Team members and our Guest Designer, Ma-Mi.

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

 Tracey

I'm back with another CAS Autumn themed card. 

More leaves, this time from Papertrey Ink's "Lovely Leaves" which has not had anywhere near enough love! I smooshed Distress Inks in Crushed Olive, Dried Marigold, and Spiced Marmelade on my glass mat, added a spritz of water and then laid down a piece of watercolor paper. Once it dried, I gold embossed the leaves and fussy cut them out.

The colors weren't quite as bright as I wanted so I used a small paintbrush and added a bit more of the oranges to the leaves.  I used my well-loved "Crimped Frames" from The Greetery to die cut a piece of Gina K's Asparagus cardstock. It's become my favorite green. The sentiment from Pretty Pink Posh was embossed in gold in the lower right corner and I arranged the leaves in the upper right corner, leaving plenty of open space. I added thin gold bow and attached it to a cream card base. 

This is my first entry to the Addicted to CAS Challenge: Autumn, and my second entry into the Inspired By . . . Colorful Fall Challenge.

Getting back into the craft room has taken me longer than I hoped. Earlier this week I finished a very important birthday card which I'll be sharing later this week. Today, however, I finally had time to make a card for several challenges all focused on fall colors. While we were in Wisconsin, an order from The Greetery arrived, and in that order was the "Curio: Autumn" collection of dies. I pulled it out this morning and die cut quite a collection of the leaves and other fall items. I pulled out my Altenew 36 pan watercolor set and painted them in a variety of colors. Today, you'll see just three leaves, but I have an envelope with others that I hope you'll also be seeing soon.

The design of this card comes from last week's Freshly Made Sketches. It was designed by Cécile whose card designs are among my very favorites. I had hoped to get this card made in time to enter it in her challenge, but there was no way I could manage that. But I'm happy to adapt it here. The three squares were die cut with Ellen Hutson's "Essential Dies: Squares." Her Essential shape dies are among my most used dies. I adhered two of them directly to the card, and added dimensional tape to the third. The colorful leaves are from the Curio set and the sentiment from a very old Papertrey Ink set "Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers." (Another good investment!)

I'm entering this into four challenges all focusing on fall colors:  Inspired By: Colorful Fall, The Paper Players: CAS Fall Fun, and a second entry into Addicted to CAS: Leaf, and CAS Mix-up: Autumn Colors and Watercolor.

It's a very vibrant color combo this time around at Color Hues:

Coral is a tricky color. I "Googled" it to see what shades might come up–some look pretty orange, and my husband thought my choice was definitely orange. I, however, chose a Gina K cardstock called "Coral Reef" so I was able to defend my choice without question! For the turquoise, I chose two papers: Papertrey Ink's "Hawaiian Shores" and Concord & 9th's "Oceanside." I have to thank Kristie Goulet, one of my DT teammates for the inspiration for this card. After seeing several different designs she created with the "Mosaic Tiles" die from Catherine Pooler, I had to order it. 

There must be hundreds of possibilities with this die set, and I love that it's easily customized for males or females.

I dry embossed the background with an Alexandra Renke embossing folder, and die cut three sets of the Mosaic Tiles–one with each color. Then I had to decide which triangles I would use. The one above is one of my favorites, but you're sure to see this die show up here again and again with different designs. 

The sentiment is a Simon Says die that arrived with a kit. I die cut it twice, cutting the coral piece in half to create the half-and-half look. Amazingly, I found three enamel dots–one matching each three of the cardstocks I used to finish the card off.  

I hope you'll take a look at the fantastic designs the DT and our Guest Designer, Linda Snodgrass, have created:

Nancy

Hannelie

Cindy

Julie

 Sheri

Kristie

Lindsey

And come join the fun!