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Take Three Thursday

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I didn't anticipate having a Take Three Thursday post, but unexpectedly I do have three photos to share. I'm joining in with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards where she holds a weekly meme, posting three related photos. She started the meme in an effort "to notice more of the ordinary in {her} life." My take three this week are a result of my effort to take more steps each day.

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Last week I decided to purchase a FitBit in hopes that it would motivate me to get out and get moving! So far it has worked. This photo is not one of the three, but I decided to include it because there is another "unexpected reflection"—one of the prompts for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt. (Another of Mary-Lou's wonderful ideas!) At any rate, our original plan for today was to drive to Sturbridge, MA and visit Old Sturbridge Village. It's been over 20 years since we've been there. But the forecast was for 90° and neither of us had any desire to be out walking in that heat. We decided to leave after lunch instead, stopping in Lee at the outlets for a bit. So . . . I had time for a nice walk this morning before the heat hit Rochester, and snapped a few photos as I walked along.

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I was walking in the city, and this sunflower was one of several in a very tiny front yard.

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My Shasta daisies are just beginning to bloom, but these were a perfect opportunity to get a "where I stand" photo. I didn't realize there was a daisy covering most of my feet until I uploaded the photo.

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Finally, one more for the SPSH:  "a framed view." A peek into someone's patio.

We'll be on the Cape for most of tomorrow, until our ferry leaves for Nantucket in mid-afternoon. It's looking like we'll be "enjoying" thunderstorms for most of the day, but the extended forecast for the island looks delightful for the four days we'll be there, so I won't be complaining. Plus it will break the heat wave we've all been enduring for the last week.

Happy Birthday, America, and Happy Birthday, Mom!

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Today is the Fourth of July, a celebration of all the good things that America is! Despite the multitude of serious problems in this country, we continue to be blessed in so many ways. I took this photo on Flag Day when Tracy's family was at Honeoye Lake.

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Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday, but we celebrated today with a barbecue at my sister-in-law's house. There are only two of the five siblings in town this week, so it was a smaller gathering than usual. But not less festive!

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Actually, Jill managed to get the brother from Austin on the computer and the one from Phoenix on Tracy's phone to sing "Happy Birthday," and watch Mom open her gift. Being 89, there's not much Mom needs, but family time means everything to her. This year we decided to give her a series of dinners out when as many of us are in town as possible. She was delighted as you can see.

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Tracy's sister excels in writing poems for such gifts. In the past we've gifted her with floral arrangements that arrive at her home several times during the year, and other group gifts. Jill always manages to come up with just the right words. Here's this year's:

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Ellie is a huge fan of flowers, so I chose one of my most elegant floral stamps, "Beautiful Flowers," that was part of a recent Simon Says card kit. I only used a part of the floral arrangement and got my inspiration here. I love Yana's work, but this time, I decided I didn't like the way her background came out. I decided to see if I could pull off doing coloring between the flowers that would look good on black cardstock instead of coloring the entire background.

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I stamped the image in black waterproof ink on Bristol paper, and watercolored it with my Zig Clean Color and SAI Watercolor markers. Before I fussy cut around them, I colored the white spaces between the flowers with a black Copic marker which worked out perfectly. I knew I'd never be able to fussy cut the small opening between the flowers.

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I embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set in white before arranging the flowers and adhering them with liquid adhesive. I was so anxious about not smearing the glue that I didn't pay close enough attention to the placement of the flowers, so the sentiment is closer to the arrangement than I would like. By the time I realized it, it was too late, the flowers were permanently attached.

We're off to spend a few days with Matt and his family and to celebrate another birthday on Saturday.

 

Make A Wish

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Someone wondered how I was doing on the #100DayProject, and you probably noticed that there haven't been any weekly updates in over a month. Although I planned for our travel in May, and managed to keep up, June was just too busy. There were literally just 5 days in the whole month that we were home without a guest or a family commitment. I packed a project box for our last trip to Chicago, but there was no time (and no clear spot) to work as we helped get Sarah's house ready for their move to Wisconsin. Today I got an email from the project, and if I had kept up, there would be just nine days left. But there was also this question: If you fell behind, are you planning to catch up? And, the answer is, yes. Yesterday for the first time in over a month, I had time to play with new stamps and new techniques. As the project has gone on, my Pinterest board for Techniques has continued to grow, so I do intend to keep working on them in a consistent fashion. Yesterday I created 10 different backgrounds or stamped images. I only had time to get one of them made into a card.

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I spent a lot of time playing around with Copic markers and blending combinations yesterday. I had recently read this post, and set out to create my own blending chart. Before I could get very far, I got an email from Cathy Zielske offering a chart to her newsletter recipients she'd made after reading the same post. Let me just say, her chart looked a lot better than mine! The stamp for this card is a new one I ordered in May after a Simon Says release: "Center Cut Flowers." I linked it here so you can see how it works. There's an outer wreath, and an inner center. I used the inner part, and did a partial stamping on opposite corners. This is easy to do with the Misti stamping tool, once you've stamped one corner, you simply rotate the card to stamp exactly the same impression on the opposing corner. 

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The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Cheer" set. I've used it often, but I don't think I've ever used this particular sentiment. The sequins aren't really sequins. They came with a Simon Says card kit (I think) and the mix is designed for shaker cards. The colors were perfect, though, so I went ahead and used them. They are solid and sit a little higher which explains the shadow in the photograph. They'll definitely need some protection if they go in an envelope to be mailed. 

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes

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The current challenge at Seize the Birthday is "Anything Goes." Black and red is one of my favorite color combinations. As part of the #100DayProject, I pulled out a lot of stamps I hadn't used in awhile, and this poppy stamp from Hero Arts was one of them.

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After stamping the image in black, I used my new Polychromos pencils to color the poppies and stems. I cut a piece of New Leaf cardstock to frame the image and adhered it to a square Lasting Impressions card (another item that's been in my stash for years.) 

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I die cut a Spellbinders banner and stamped the sentiment from "Ways to Say: Birthday" by Papertrey Ink.  I added three tiny black pearls to the side of the banner. The Lasting Impressions cards came with polk-dot red envelopes which was just perfect for sending off to a friend.

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt: First Check-in

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Tomorrow's the last day of June, and today is the first check-in for Patio Postcard's Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt. The hunt runs from June 1 to the last day of summer. It took me awhile to get going, but I have seven of the items on the 20 item list to share.

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The Rosiness of Red. I spotted these beautiful roses on the Landmark House and Garden Tour the second weekend in June.

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Wings: Another beautiful butterfly from the Chicago Botanic Garden.

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Glorious Green: Hannah in her new yard in Wisconsin.

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An Unexpected Reflection: Standing in the kitchen at the house Tracy's family rented for a week, I spotted the reflection of the lake in the oven door.

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Pretty in Pink:  Stunning roses at Trader Joe's

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Picture Postcard Perfect:  Sunset on Honeoye Lake

And finally, a card to share that I think would qualifiy for "Pedal Power." I made this card in June just before leaving for Chicago to send to Sarah's father-in-law, an avid biker. I'm quite sure he doesn't have a basket on the front of his bike, but I loved this small image from a new stamp set by Pinkfresh called "Itty Bitty Elements." 

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I stamped five bikes across the bottom part of the card, and then die cut a sixth bike to color and pop up in the middle. I already had a sentiment die cut in red from Papertrey's "Penned Elegance" that said, "let's celebrate." It was quite easy to trim the "let's" away from the celebrate. I added a strip of patterned paper from MFT "Black and White Stripes" paper pad and a thin strip of Pure Poppy cardstock.

I'm quite sure I'll find other candidates for some of these selections before the end of summer, but for now, it's a start. I have another 13 to find.

 

 

Take Three Thursday: Butterflies and Blooms

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Sunday we spent a couple of hours at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. There are several things I will miss on the North Shore now that Sarah and Adam are moving to Wisconsin, and the Botanic Gardens are high on that list. We visited a special exhibit called "Butterflies and Blooms," and I thought three of those photos would fit right in with Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday meme.

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This butterfly landed among many of the blooms.

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If you look closely, you'll see two butterflies on this beautiful orange flower.

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This butterfly was almost transparent.

I have to admit the butterflies were easier to photograph than my grandchildren who weren't much interested in having their photographs taken!

Less is More: An Item from Your Bits Box

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This week's challenge from Less is More is to use a bit from your "bits box." I have multiple envelopes filled with bits that didn't make it to a card when they were created. For this card, there were actually two:  the card itself where I had die cut a circle in the front of the woodgrain cardbase (Simon Says,) and the beautiful butterfly from Papertrey Ink's "Butterfly Hope."

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To create the card, I die cut a circular frame from two Simon Says "Stitched Circle" dies from Raspberry Fizz cardstock. The sentiment was stamped inside from the "It's the Thought" set (PTI), and the butterfly attached to the side.

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Here's a peek at the inside:

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I need a few more challenges like this to use up my stash of "bits."

 

 

A Variation on Take Three Thursday

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I've gotten way behind in posting some of the cards I've made recently, so I thought I'd do a variation on Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday and share three thank you cards. All three cards feature florals and die cuts.

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Here I started with the beautiful Shape Shifters: Circle 1 die from Papertrey, using just two of the three pieces to use as a focal point for the leaves from Reverse Confetti's Tall Blooms which I colored with Copic markers to match the Hawaiian Shores card base.

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The sentiment is from Papertrey's Gathered Garden set. I tied the the three leafy sprigs together with a piece of my favorite white silk ribbon and added a few sequins.

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For this card I started by die cutting a piece of white card stock with the Stitched Rays die by Reverse Confetti. Then I die cut one of the Pierced Round Top dies (also Reverse Confetti) so the stitched rays radiated from the left-hand side.  A die cut vase from Papertrey's Vogue Vases and more florals from Reverse Confetti's Tall Blooms were added. All were adhered to a striped piece of paper from my stash of single papers and then to a Licorice card by Memory Box. 

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There wasn't an easy way to add a stamped sentiment so I die cut one from the Swooshes set by Papertrey.

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For the final card, I scored an Amethyst Allure card at every 1/2 inch and added two die cuts by Papertrey Ink: "thank you", and the February Corner Adorner stamp and die.

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I used some foam dots to the Corner Adorner to add a bit more dimension.

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. Here's hoping it's a good one for you!

 

Happy Father’s Day!

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It's Father's Day in the U.S. Lucky me, I have three terrific fathers to create cards for on this special day. I'm celebrating with just one of them this year–Tracy. Adam is in St. Louis at the Presbyterian General Assembly, so we're in Chicago helping Sarah with Hannah and Caleb as well as helping her clean out and organize for a move later this month. Matt is celebrating at home with his three lovely daughters, and I know Betsy is making it a special day. We'll celebrate again here when Adam gets home later this week, and in Rochester when we get home.

First up, the cards for the younger dads.

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I had another stamp set on my desk, and this one by Simon Says "Ice Cream Dream" was stored on the back side of the envelope. I thought it would make a fun card, and I'm happy with how they turned out. I started by stamping, coloring, and fussy cutting the ice cream bars. I embossed a frame on a piece of Neenah Solar White with the Papertrey Ink "Mix and Mat Postal," and then added a computer generated sentiment to the bottom. 

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Next I added the ice cream bars with some adhesive dots, and adhered it all to a card with some Hawaiian Shores "Bitty Big" striped paper from Papertrey. The last touch was some Glossy Accents on each of the ice cream bars.

I went with a golf theme for Tracy's card. He's been a golf enthusiast for many years, and enjoys golf once a week with two friends. 

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This is my usual CAS style, based on two cards I pinned a long time ago—here and here. I found the card base–an Amuse paper-in my stash, and die cut the Mat Stack 3 (Papertrey) from Memory Box "Apple Green" paper. The golf ball was embossed on white, and in real life looks just like a golf ball. The texture just didn't show up in either photograph. Both are from Papertrey Ink's "On the Links" set which has come in handy for quite a few masculine cards over the years. 

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"Dad" was die cut from a Memory Box alphabet that appears to have gone out of production. The rest of the sentiment is also from "On the Links," and was stamped onto the banner from "Tag Sale 10" by Papertrey.

We've celebrated this afternoon with ice cream cones from Hartigan's, a local ice cream shop with homemade ice cream. It's 97° here, so we were lucky the ice cream shop wasn't too crowded. If we'd had to leave with the cones, they would have melted long before we could have eaten them! Hope it's a bit cooler where you are.

 

Five in Five: June Reds

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It's been twelve days since I posted. It was an unintentional break, and I do have plenty to share from the #100DayProject, but not today. It was raining on the 5th, and I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to get out for five shots in five minutes to join in with Sandie's Five in Five monthly meme. Yesterday was gorgeous, though still very cool for June, and I managed to take and edit the photos, but ran out of time to write a blog post. 

Last month I posted five shots of the emerging signs of spring in Evanston/Skokie while we were visiting Sarah. This month I'm sharing photos from our yard and garden. Once I had a selection of shots to choose from, I realized I had five in different shades of red. 

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First, some stunning dahlias. We have two good-sized pots of them on the front porch, and they are blooming profusely.

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For the past several years, I've tried unsuccessfully to grow lupines in my cutting garden. When we were at the Chicago Botanic Garden, I noticed they had planted lupines in many of their containers. We now have lupines in three different containers—two in the front and one on the patio. Of course, after doing that, the lupines from last year showed up in the cutting garden for the first time. I am thrilled, and have a beautiful vase with lupines and snapdragons in the living room.

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Two years ago, we planted this beautiful red rhododendron on top of the wall to the side of our house. We're thinking of moving it away from the house a bit, hoping it will have more room to spread out.

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Much to my surprise, I found this clump of carnations blooming among the weeds in one of the beds that has yet to be cleaned out. I'm hoping they will spread out over the years to come.

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Last year, I found this amazing plant at one of the garden stores. It was already quite large, so I called Tracy to see if we could find a place for it in our shade garden. This year it is close to 5 feet tall. I know I have the name of it somewhere, but can't put my fingers on it. I know this is #5, but here's a close-up of the blooms.

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You can check out what other folks have found for their 5 in 5 right here.

I hope to be back with more consistent posting soon. When I look at the calendar for the last two weeks, I'm not surprised that blogging took a back seat to all that has been going on. The rest of June, however, doesn't look much different. We have a house guest who arrived on the first and will be here until Monday. Next week is the annual "week at the lake" for Tracy's family. We'll only be here for part of that before heading out to Chicago for our last visit before Sarah and her family move to Racine, WI where she will begin tenure as a co-pastor (with a friend!) at a Presbyterian church there. We're going out to help with Caleb and Hannah while Adam is away for a week, and hopefully, help organize and purge for their move at the end of the month. 

May 2018 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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The monthly Papertrey Ink Blog Hop is one of my favorite card-making activities. It's probably because I have such a lovely collection of Papertrey products, so coming up with a design usually isn't too challenging. This month it was really easy. Here's the inspiration photo:

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First off, I'm a huge fan of black and white and gingham, so that combination was a draw. And then there are those gorgeous pink flowers. What's not to like? I have a gingham background stamp from another company which I've never used, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to get it out. It was, however, a big disappointment. After five different black ink pads, and five pieces of paper, I still didn't have a clean image. No black and white gingham in my paper collection either, so I went digital, finding just what I needed at The Lily Pad–a gingham collection by Allison Pennington.

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Once I had the gingham paper, the rest of the card came together quickly. The bouquet of flowers was stamped and die cut with the "Mixed Bouquet" set and put in a "Vogue Vase" stamped in black. I arranged the flowers in the vase and added it to a "Mix and Mat Scalloped" die cut on Fresh Snow Linen. I layered that onto the gingham, and then onto a top-folded card cut from Lovely Lady paper. All that was left to do was emboss the greeting from "Birthday Basics" on a vellum banner. It's a bit hard to tell, but the tiny pink flowers have Nuvo drops in yellow added to the center of each flower for a little dimension.

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I think I'm likely to use this design again with different colors of gingham paper and any variety of flowers in a vase. Much more my CAS style than yesterday's Make It Monday card.

I'm also linking this up to Seize the Birthday. The topping challenge this round is Patterned Paper.

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Make It Monday: Above and Below

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As soon as I watched Lizzie's Make It Monday video, I knew I had to try it. I left her a comment saying I knew I'd be doing a close case of her card, as the Botanical Bounty stamp set was already laying on my desk. I'd borrowed it from a friend to play with, and have since ordered myself a set with one of my birthday gift certificates. Here's Lizzie's fabulous card:

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And here's my very close copy, although I wouldn't presume to say my flowers were anywhere near as well stamped and blended. It was my first attempt and it was a bit of trial and error. 

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I covered a card made from Spring Rain with a piece of striped vellum from the Sheer Basics pack, and used the stripes to guide the placement of the sentiment strip which was stamped with another of the sentiments from "Thank You Kindly" that I used in yesterday's post. All the flowers and leaves are from the "Botanical Bounty" set. I like them a lot more than I expected I would, and am anxious for mine to arrive so I can play with them without the die cuts. Getting accurate die cuts has definitely been on the technique list for the #100DayProject, and I think I finally have that pretty much under control. 

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All the leaves were adhered directly to the vellum, but I used dimensional tape on most of the flowers. The design is a bit of a departure from the clean and simple style I usually produce, but I think I'll find someone who will appreciate the most elaborate card.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for the Papertrey Ink blog hop. Today has turned out to be a lot less busy than anticipated—mainly because I cancelled one commitment due to an unusual allergy attack. Turns out I can make cards even with burning, drippy eyes!

 

#100DayProject: Weeks 6 & 7 and Inspired By . . . Challenge

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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."

Floral clusters copy

 

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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." 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

 

 

CAS(e) This Sketch: Back-to-Back Birthdays!

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.)

Take Three Thursday: The Lilac Festival

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I'm joining Mary-Lou this week for her meme, Take Three Thursday. This week I had several options, but decided to share three photos from the Lilac Festival. It's in the middle of it's 10 run, and we walked over last night to grab a bite to eat, and see the flowers. With the cold April, I wasn't expecting to see one of the most beautiful displays of lilacs we've seen in many years, but there it was. In addition to lilacs, there are gorgeous magnolias (usually finished by now, but not this year,) and a lovely path through azaleas (and soon to open rhododendrons.) It was hard to decide which photograph of the lilacs to share. I have some beautiful close-ups, but this one gives you an idea of how lush the bushes are this year.

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We're really enjoying almost perfect spring weather right now. Tuesday we had a day of much needed rain, but it's been clear and sunny with that exception. I finally got our pots for the front yard and the patio planted this morning. We've already begun enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of wine on the patio. That's when I know winter is over!