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Happy Birthday and a Challenge

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First off, a card for the Color Throwdown Challenge. I'm really getting this in under the wire. I made the card last night, but haven't had time to write a post until now. The challenge closes in a hour! Talk about cutting it close. Love the colors for this challenge:

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I pulled out an old, old embossed card by Lasting Impressions and added a vase of flowers and a banner sentiment to make a birthday card. 

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I used some "Simple Stems" and a "Vogue Vase" by Papertrey Ink to pull together the focal point. All the stamped images were an earlier part of my #100DayProject. The sentiment was embossed in white on a vellum banner cut with a Spellbinders die and attached to the card with liquid glue under the two pearls at the ends of the banner. I left the middle of the banner slightly curved.

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The Lasting Impressions card came with a lovely red envelope, which worked out perfectly.

It's also my birthday which we celebrated yesterday with a Mother's Day brunch. Today has been really busy, but it's a lovely spring day, and I've received many birthday greetings in the mail, on email and via texts. I'm a very lucky lady.

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This is the first birthday that's ever given me pause. This card from a blogging friend might explain it.

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But truthfully, I'm very grateful to have had 70 fabulous years, and hope to see many, many more. 

Bold Flowers: Two Challenges

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It's down to the last few days, but I finally have a card for The Card Concept Challenge—Bold Flower.

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And since the stamped images are from Concord and 9th, a entry into this month's challenge: "Floral" at Where Creativity Meets C9.

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The main flower in the inspiration photo for The Card Concept is red, but mine are bright yellow. They were stamped with Concord and 9th's "Wildflower" stamp set on watercolor paper that I had tried the smoosh technique with Distress Oxide ink for the #100DayProject. I really didn't love them until I added some highlights with Copic markers, and laid them on the Memory Box licorice card. Suddenly, I saw a card!

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Just by chance I found the die cut "Celebrate" in my die cut envelope cut in just the right color. I'm pretty sure it's a Papertrey Ink die cut, but I can't find the die nor can I identify it by looking online. I have a much larger die in the same font, but not one this small. So strange. . .

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The only embellishment were three black Amuse pearls in the center of each flower. One thing I love about Memory Box cards is the white interior which makes it so much easier to add an inside greeting. I'll wait until I know who the card is going to before adding that.

#100DayProject: Week 5

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Keeping up with the #100DayProject has been more challenging this week since most of the week we've been at Sarah's. She has accepted a new position which means another move, this time to Wisconsin. We're here helping to get organized, and Tracy is busy painting some walls Sarah and Adam painted when they moved into their rental. We've also been house hunting, and that has been successful. Their purchase offer on a lovely home was accepted on Saturday.

So the only card I have to share this week was made before we left home. It's a card for Caleb's kindergarten teacher who has been simply wonderful. We met her in October, and knew right away that she loved her job and loved kindergarteners. I give her a lot of credit. It's the one elementary grade I never taught in my 37 years of teaching—absolutely by choice! We've been able to watch Caleb grow this year through an app called "Seesaw." Nearly every school day, his teacher (or he) takes a photo and posts it to the app. We can see his work, watch videos, and hear him read his weekend reports each Monday. Tracy and I wanted to tell her how much we've appreciated her hard work.

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I started by die cutting a piece of Pure Poppy cardstock with the "Big Apple" die from Papertrey Ink and used New Leaf and a piece of Bitty Big patterned paper to cut the leaves. I found an old piece of Teresa Collin's patterned paper in my scrapbook stash which I cut to fit a top folded white card. The large banner was cut from a piece of  striped vellum from Papertrey's Sheer Basics, and embossed with a sentiment from PTI's "Great Teachers" stamp set and attached it to the apple. The pencil was stamped with an old wooden stamp from Judith that I colored with Copic markers and fussy cut. I tied a piece of thin twine around the apple stem and used dimensional tape to add the pencil.

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I haven't had this much fun making a card in a long time. Both the die cut and stamp set are "new to me"—borrowed from a friend. 

Knowing I'd be away this week, I came prepared to work on colored pencil techniques. Tracy gifted me with an early birthday present, so I have a new set of Polychromos colored pencils to play with. I'm quite happy with them, but they require a different set of coloring skills than I'm accustomed to. Before I came I stamped (and embossed) some practice material.

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Thanks to advice on Yana Smakula's blog, I downloaded a color chart from the Faber Castell website, and used one of my #100DayProject times to color in the pencils I own. It's already proven to be very helpful in choosing colors to layer.

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I'm hoping I'll be able to use some of this practice material for cards once I get home. Here is last night's practice session. I was pretty happy with the flowers, but not as pleased with the leaves. 

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Just one more day here before we head home. We had lunch with one of Tracy's high school classmates today and then a wonderful visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I took lots of photos, so there will likely be a flower post once we get home. I don't think we've ever been there in the early spring before, and I got lots of ideas for planters and our gardens.

Freshly Made Sketches #335

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Mother's Day in the U.S. is just one week from today. Typically, I would save my Mother's Day card to share on the actual date, but since it was inspired by the Freshly Made Challenge, and the challenge ends tomorrow, here I am! My mother-in-law does not read my blog to my knowledge, so I think it's a safe move. It's a great sketch with lots of possibilities.

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It's the beautiful "Butterfly Blooms" and "A Bit More Butterfly Blooms" by Papertrey Ink again. This time I embossed the butterflies in gold on vellum,  I found the perfect piece of patterned paper in my stash and die cut it with a stitched oval from Papertrey's "Noted:  Scalloped A2 Vertical" die set.

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I used the Simon Says "Reverse Polka Dot Background" stamp to create a subtle, tone on tone background and die cut that with a "Stitched Rectangle," also from Simon Says. I then layered the pieces onto a Vintage Cream card.

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The sentiment from "Delightful Dahlias" (PTI) was embossed in gold and die cut with an old Spellbinders banner die. A few beautiful new-to-me sequins from Simon Says "Sparkle and Shine" collection finished it off. Here's a closer look:

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Off to check out how others have interpreted the sketch.

Five in Five on the Fifth

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I don't often manage to do my five photos in five minutes on the 5th of the month, but I lucked out today taking a walk on the most beautiful day we've had so far this spring. Granted we're in Chicago, not Rochester. But nearly every yard is filled with beautiful flowering bushes and trees. So, joining in with Sandie, with her Five in Five meme.

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I admit to being spoiled. It was not easy to edit these photos on my tiny laptop after being used to editing on my iMac! All iPhone photos. Hope it's as beautiful where you are as it is here.

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes Round 2

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One of my intentions (which has not been realized very often) was to make two identical cards when I sat down to craft so I would have a bit of a stash. The #100Day Project is definitely helping in that regard, but I don't often make two of the same card. This time I did.

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I'm entering them in the Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes challenge.

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"Butterfly Blooms" might be my favorite new stamp set (although "Butterfly Folk" runs a close second.) Both are relatively new sets from Papertrey Ink. I think you'll be seeing lots of both sets this spring and summer. I posted another one last week that I made for Besty. This time I embossed the images in white on vellum and colored the images on the back with Zig watercolor markers. I die cut a tag from "Made with Love Tags #1" (PTI) and layered the top of it with some Bitty Big patterned paper in Amethyst Allure. Using an old Cuttlebug embossing folder, I embossed some Royal Velvet paper and die cut it with a Stitched Rectangle (Simon Says.) All of it was adhered to a white card.

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The sentiment from "Ways to Say: Birthday" (PTI) was stamped in Amethyst Allure on the bottom of the tag. Some sequins and a pretty silk bow finished it off. I have a lot of ideas for these butterflies, and a whole envelope of pre-stamped ones waiting for cards!

#100DayProject: Week 4

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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.

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

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

Seize the Birthday

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Another quick post for an entry to Seize the Birthday Challenge. This round is "Anything Goes." Although today was sunny and bit warmer, the last couple of dreary, gray days I've been concentrating on bright and cheerful colors for my cards. This one certainly filled the bill.

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I often forget about my stencils, but I pulled a polka-dot one from Simon Says out and inked it up with Orange Zest ink on Orange Zest cardstock. I love the tone on tone look, and it makes a subtle background for the focal point. From Neenah Solar White, I die cut the two outer shapes (one cuts, one embosses) from Papertrey's "Shape Shifters Circle 1" die and stamped the sentiment from Simon Says "Birthday Flowers" set. After stamping and die cutting the "Corner Adorner" (February) from Papertrey Ink, I adhered that with some dimensions tape.

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Finally I used some fun foam to mount my piece onto a card also made from Orange Zest. I'm not sure the recipient of the card will need a bright and cheery card since she lives in Denver, CO where they get a LOT more sunshine that we do, but I'm pretty sure she'll be glad to get some happy mail.

Addicted to CAS: Gold

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A quick post to link up to the Addicted to CAS challenge blog. This week's code word is GOLD. 

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This card is for a friend's 70th birthday. Simple, and I hope CAS enough for this challenge.

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I love the gold embossed papers in MME's "Yes, Please," paper pack. This one seemed perfect for a square card so I die cut it with a "Stitched Square" from Simon Says. The sentiment and focal point were stamped, embossed in gold, and then die cut with Papertrey Ink's "Splits: Best Wishes." One of the things I love about the series of "Splits" stamp sets is that the sentiments are interchangeable. I used some dimensional tape to adhere it to the patterned paper, which was then adhered to a white square card.

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I added some of my favorite AMuse black pearls as a final embellishment.

Hope you've had a good weekend. Mine was busier than usual until today when I had a lot of (needed) crafting time. 

 

Take Three Thursday: Helleborus

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It's been a few weeks since I joined Mary-Lou in her Take Three Thursday meme. Although we've had warmer temperatures, and some sunny days, not much is blooming in our yard. The helleborus are an exception, but they are planted off our patio and it's only been warm enough one day to sit out there. In addition, the blooms hang downward so it's hard to see how lovely they are. Last year, Maggie posted a photo of some floating in a bowl, so thanks to her, we have some on our living room table which we've enjoyed all week. 

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It's not often that I overbook myself, but today is one of those days. When I leave here for my discussion group at noon, I won't return until after 9:00 this evening. It's a gray, rainy day so I guess being cooped up inside at meetings and with tutoring isn't interfering with any outdoor activities.

April 2018 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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It's the 25th of April, and time for the April blog hop at Papertrey Ink. Here's the inspiration piece:

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I only own one tea cup stamp set from Papertrey, and it didn't speak to me this month, so I looked for inspiration at the colors and the beautiful flowers. That took me to an old favorite, one that hasn't been used in awhile, "Delightful Dahlias." I started by arranging two of the flowers and leaves and masked and stamped them on Bristol paper with Versamark ink, stopping to emboss each one in gold (from the edge of the teacups in the painting). Then I painted them with a combination of Zig Watercolor pens and SAI watercolor pens from Japan that were a gift two or three years ago. 

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In looking at the inspiration piece again today, I see that the pink I chose isn't quite the same tone as those on the teacups. I should have paid better attention and gone to my other watercolors to find the "right" pink. Nonetheless, I like the pink I chose with the aqua, so there it is. 

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After embossing the sentiment (from another much older set, Fillable Frames #4), I die cut the piece with a stitched rectangle, and mounted it on a card of Soft Stone. I added some gold sequins from a Simon Says mix, "Sparkle and Shine."

I'm also linking up with the Less is More challenge this week, "Bring Something Back." This card brought back two stamps sets that have been in my collection for a long time.

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 And unusually, I'm linking up to a third challenge, the Simon Says "Work It Wednesday" which is celebrating mothers.

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Happy Birthday, Betsy!

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Today is Betsy's birthday, and we celebrated with her family and some close friends at a Korean restaurant. I knew it was one of their favorite restaurants but I had never been there. Skylar's favorite dish is the pickled radishes which I have to admit are pretty good. The fried dumplings were also excellent as well as the shrimp and rice dish I had. We had a great time. Here are the three little girls helping Mama blow out the candles. The cake was large enough for at least four more families, so Pam is taking the left-overs to the refugee center tomorrow. The students there will make short work of it!

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I made Betsy's card with new sets from Papertrey Ink called "Butterfly Blooms" and "A Bit More Butterfly Blooms." The card is one of several I've made recently with these butterflies so you'll be seeing more of them in the week(s) to come. This might be my favorite though.

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I stamped the two butterflies on Neenah Solar White and colored them with Copic markers. Once I prepared the Select White card base, I added a piece of patterned paper from Paper Studio's "Petals and Blooms" paper pack that I picked up at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago. In my stash I found a gorgeous piece of black embossed paper which I die cut with a stitched oval and used as the focal point for the butterflies. Here's a closer look at the embossed paper.

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I've had the pretty flower sequins for a long time, too. I think they might have come from Impress stamps, but I can't really remember for sure. 

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The sentiment was stamped on a banner die cut with an old Spellbinders die, and comes from Papertrey's $5 "Ways to Say: Birthday" mini-set. I'll be back tomorrow with a card for the Papertrey Ink blog hop.

 

#100DayProject: Week 3

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The past week was especially busy, so I had to fit in the project in littler pieces. My first card to share represents several days of experimenting with two new stamps sets (loaned to me by a friend) as well as with two new techniques.

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Both stamp sets are relatively new ones from Papertrey Ink: "Vogue Vases" and "Simple Stems." You'll eventually see more of the vases and the flowers as I stamped a few extras of both. The techniques were both from Betsy Veldman of the Papertrey Ink Design Team: creating translucent vases, and adding detail to the flowers with pens. I've owned a set of Staedtler Triplus Fineliners for years. I think I bought them at the Princeton book store when Sarah and Adam lived there 11 years ago. They worked perfectly for this and made so much difference in how the flowers looked. On the yellow flower, I used the finer tip of a Tombow marker since I didn't have a good contrasting pen for that color. The sentiment is from the Simple Stems set.

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The translucent vases are created by stamping them on vellum in a relatively dark color (I used Tropical Teal as did Betsy), and then overstamping with watermark ink and embossing with clear embossing powder. A stamp positioner like the MISTI is invaluable for techniques like this.

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I also went back to color blending again as well as watercoloring a lot of flowers from an old set by Simon Says, "Artful Flowers." I've always loved this set, but have never had much luck with it. A video by Nichol Sporh was the inspiration for these cards—you'll see I duplicated much of her design on the first card.

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The new die cutting technique I played with last week came in handy for die cutting the stems and the flowers for these cards. I'm much happier with these than with any earlier attempts using this set. 

One funny thing about this project is that I started it to work through the many techniques I'd pinned on my boards for Design and Techniques. What I'm finding is that I'm constantly adding to my list of things to try every week, so I am quite sure I won't run out of ideas before the challenge ends. 

I'll be back later today with another post to celebrate a special birthday. Off now to take a walk before the rain moves in later today. We've been blessed with three glorious days of warmer temperatures and sunshine, and I don't want to waste a minute of it!

Spring???

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There is finally hope of spring here. It was 60° today, and the forecast is for temperatures 50° or more for the next 10 days. The annual Lilac Festival is scheduled to begin in just a month so it's a good thing. We walked through the park this afternoon, and even the magnolia buds are still small and tight. There are buds on the lilac bushes as well, but it's going to take a long stretch of sunshine and warm temperatures for them to be at peak for the festival.
 
I have two spring inspired cards to share today, both were done with the same image from "Showers and Flowers" one of two stamp sets included in the March Simon Says card kit. Both were colored with colored pencils, the first with Prismacolor and the second with Lyra colored pencils which I've had in my collection for a long time.
 
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After stamping and coloring the image, I die cut it with a "Stitched Rectangle," and mounted on a slightly larger die cut of Sunshine and then on a card made from Green Apple (Simon Says).
 
The next card is one I referenced in Tuesday's post about the #100DayProject. This time I used a piece of Strathmore Toned Gray paper. I've seen several cards made with this paper and colored pencils and wanted to try it out. I'm not thrilled with the results, and have plans to try this again soon. Nonetheless, I made a card with it.
 
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This was also die cut with Stitched Rectangles before adding to a card made from Raspberry Fizz (PTI). I added a few rainstones (also from PTI).
 
I have more free time on my calendar this week than usual so I'm hoping to get a lot of crafting done. After being a year behind with my Project Life album, I'm now done to just two months (February and March) to do. I'd like to get a few cards made as well and, of course, keep up with the #100DayProject. 

#100DayProject: Week 2

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Today marks the end of the second week of the #100DayProject, and I'm trying to do a weekly update as I work through the project. I've already shared two of the cards here and here.

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I'll share a couple more today, and have a couple cards to post later for specific events. I tried some block watercolor smooching—a limited success, as well as some colored pencil work on gray toned paper—also a limited success in my opinion although I did make a card with it. Whether it gets sent or not is another matter. The first card for today is one using some of the block watercoloring effort. To do this, you add Distress Inks to an acrylic block, mist it with some water, and smoosh it onto some watercolor paper and weight it down for a few minutes. I watched Jennifer McGuire's video here, and thought it looked pretty easy. None of mine came out as nice as hers, but I haven't given up yet either. What I did this time, was die cut a circle from one of the attempts, and used it to create a background for another technique I tried at a friend's house on Saturday—using Nuevo drops as an embellishment.

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I die cut a stitched frame from Simon Says "Stitched Circles" and mounted it on a card made from Simon Says "Sunshine" cardstock. I love that bright color, especially when we've had one cold, gray day after another for the last week. I scored three lines down the middle of the card before adhering the circle which I stamped with a sentiment from Papertrey's "Penned Elegance," surely a new favorite of mine! I'm also in love with "Butterfly Blooms," by Papertrey and you'll be seeing several more cards made with that set in the near future. This time the only color added to the die cut butterfly was a variety of Nuevo drops which are dimensional.

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As a final touch I added a few black pearls from Amuse. I have a little stack of watercolored smooched papers on my desk so may be able to use them eventually.

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My grandson missed a whole week of school last week with some kind of stomach "bug." By Thursday, I was feeling really bad for him and decided to make a card with a stamp set I bought with grandchildren in mind, but had never used. 

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I love these cute little monsters from Your Next Stamps, "Silly Monsters," set. I stamped them on Neenah Solar White cardstock, my go-to paper for coloring with Copic markers, colored them, and fussy cut them. I embossed the sentiment on a piece of shimmery black cardstock, and then popped up the three monsters around the circle.

These guys definitely needed googly eyes and, fortunately, I found a little stash of them in my supplies.

Yesterday I worked on a new die cutting technique and have a pile of lovely butterflies to use on cards as a result. I didn't worry about trying to get the card(s) done as well. Tonight will probably be similar as it was a very busy day, so I'm hoping to do some stamping and die cutting with a stamp set a friend loaned me for a week or so. Although not all the results of my experiments were totally satisfying, I learned from each of them. It's likely I'll put them to the test again before the 100 days run out.