Random Reflections

Five in Five on the 5th

by Karen
January 5, 2018September 6, 2025

Last night I thought I'd type up this post using some photos we took at the Albright-Knox Museum last month, and then realized that they were not taken within five minutes. When I woke up this morning, I immediately saw the beautiful patterns the ice had made on some of our windows, so decided to take five photos from five different windows. It was 0° when we woke up, with a wind chill of -20°. Last night, all the county schools closed for today in anticipation of unsafe wind chill numbers. The high is only forecasted to be 4°.

When we arrived home from Chicago on Wednesday night, our furnace was not working. We know it was working earlier in the day because we can change the thermostat from afar, and did so before we left Chicago. It wasn't nearly as cold that night (22°), and the house was still a little warm, but by 10:00 when the repairman appeared, the house was getting really cold. We needed a new motor, and fortunately, there was one in the truck! We still need another repair, one that will require the furnace to be off for six hours. It's scheduled for tomorrow, but Tracy is calling to reschedule for the middle of the week when it's supposed to be in the high 30's. This cold snap will last through tomorrow night.

All these photos were taken about 7:00 this morning with my iPhone.

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The last photo was taken from one of our kitchen windows. They are new windows, and better insulated so they don't frost up often. Nonetheless, while I was having breakfast sitting near them, it was much colder than in the living room! You can see that we've had a bit of snow, and if you look closely, you can see the red ribbon from the evergreen ball blowing in the wind. I'm intending to stick close to home today despite the fact that I badly need a workout at the gym.

I'm joining in with Sandie for her monthly 5 in 5. Yesterday I discovered that I never did a 5 in 5 in December, but managed every other month last year. Hope to be here every month this year.

Fusion Card Challenge: Mail Call

by Karen
January 4, 2018September 6, 2025

I'm excited to be the guest of Michelle Leon for the first Fusion Card Challenge of 2018: Mail Call. The inspiration piece at Fusion always has two parts: a photograph and a sketch. You can opt to use one or both. The Design Team has lots of inspiration for you right here. Each designer has invited a friend as a guest so there's twice the inspiration this time around. Be sure to check it out!

Fusion Challenge for January

I decided to use both the photograph and the sketch. Looking at the photo, I took three elements: the wooden boards, the color combination of turquoise, gray, and white and the keys.

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I scored the gray portion of the card to represent the gray boards in the photograph, and added two shades of turquoise to the right side of the card following the sketch. The key (Papertrey Ink "Lock and Key") was die cut three times from silver paper and layered for another bit of dimension. I didn't have any stamped sentiments that worked well, so went to my digital files and found this circle. It was filed without any reference to the designer. I resized it, added two words to the center to create a sentiment with the key filling in for the last "word," and die cut it with Simon Says "Stitched Circles." Finally I adhered the focal piece to a white card base, and then decided to add the three silver hearts that fell out of the key die.

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Join in with the Fusion DT and be sure to check out the gallery in a few days.

To play along:

1. Play with just the sketch challenge.
2. Play with just the inspiration photo challenge.
3. Or you can create FUSION by combining BOTH challenges into one card.
4. Use the challenge graphic and link back to Fusion in your post.

Time Out Challenge

by Karen
December 18, 2017September 6, 2025

This is the first time I've sat at my desk for the last four days. They've been busy, busy, busy, but not hectic. I did have a chance before all this holiday activity to make a few cards for my friends who do not celebrate Christmas. The inspiration piece at Time Out Challenges was perfect, and once again, I had a pile of silver snowflakes on my desk which made for some quick and easy, but I think, elegant cards.

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I seem to have a navy, white, and silver thing going for the holidays this year. The card I sent out to most folks (I'll post it when I'm sure everyone has received their cards) also followed the same color scheme.

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I made four cards, but there are two identical ones. All of them use Papertrey Ink's Dark Indigo cardstock and a sentiment from "Stylish Sentiments: Holiday." The snowflakes were cut with dies from Papertrey Ink's "Silver White Winters" and My Favorite Things ""Stylish Snowflakes." All the silver paper came from Michaels.

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And my favorite:

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I hope your holiday preparations are going well. The six-year-old and three-year-old granddaughters were here yesterday to make cut-out cookies. We had a great time, but it was good there were two of us present, as Ella lost interest long before Skylar who has had two years of previous experience in Grandma's kitchen. I should be able to finish the cookies today. Then there is just one last shopping run to get gifts for my son-in-law. I'm looking forward to lots of time with friends and family over the next week or two over lunch, breakfast, and visits. We'll be entertaining for lunch tomorrow, on Friday evening, and then again on Christmas night. That, truly, is the best part of the holiday!

Take Three Thursday: Christmas Decorations

by Karen
December 14, 2017September 6, 2025

I'm joining in with Mary-Lou today with her Take Three Thursday meme at Patio Postcards. Every week I intend to join in, and so frequently it just doesn't happen. If she continues it next year, I'm hoping to be more consistent.

I LOVE Christmas and Christmas decorations. Like many folks, I've pared down the decorations over the last few years, but that hasn't kept me from picking up a few new ones. This year I found a delightful tin house and church one day when I was "window shopping" with a friend; both are candle holders. Before I had time to decide where to put them, I found a tin lamp at Pottery Barn. It was on sale, and I had a coupon, so I got it for less than half price. I love the three of them together on the side table in the dining room.

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I'm not counting the next photo as one of the three, but wanted you to see the darling deer ornament I picked up at Crate and Barrel in October. He was the perfect finishing touch.

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Next up, an oldie but goodie. Ten or fifteen years ago, I picked up a centerpiece at Pottery Barn. We had it on the dining room table each year, and there was no need to splurge on fresh flowers for Christmas dinner. About three years ago it began to looked very "tired" and I took it to a local florist who transformed it. It's now way more beautiful than the original. I took this photo one morning because I loved the light shining on it.

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Lastly, a white poinsettia that sits on the end table in the living room. This, too, had beautiful light one sunny morning.

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CASology: Gray

by Karen
December 13, 2017September 6, 2025

After the combo red, black, and white, gray might be one of my favorite colors. Strangely enough I don't often pull that color for cards very often. But this week's CASology Challenge encouraged me to change that.

Week 279 - Gray

My favorite gray cardstocks are all made by Simon Says. There are three gradations of it, and this time I pulled the darkest of the three: Slate. The patterned paper came from the Pinkfresh Studio "Live More" collection, and both were part of the Simon Says Card Kit from August. (I have three boxes of papers and embellishments from old Simon Says kits, and need to pull them out more often.) The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Wet Paint II" die collections. I die cut three of them and layered them for some dimension. Couldn't be a simpler card.

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It's a frigid day here in Western New York, in the teens with an even colder wind chill. A friend treated me to lunch at the Monroe Golf Club. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas, and the food was superb. Home now, snuggled in with a bit of crafting time.

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Part 1

by Karen
December 9, 2017September 6, 2025

There's been no snow to speak of yet. Luckily the storm moving up the East Coast isn't going to get as far west as Rochester. They're predicting several inches by early next week, though, so I think winter's on its way. We had blue skies with lots of sunshine today so I thought I'd look around the house while there was some decent light for photographs and see what I could find for Eileen's Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt.

First off #8: "Silver."

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This silver bowl was a wedding gift. For the last several years I've filled it with bells and ornaments. This year I found this silver bell garland at Crate and Barrel. I just love it!

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And three predominately silver ornaments from our tree.

Number 19 is "A pair of . . ."

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One of my favorite pairs of gloves. I put them on the typewriter that sits on the dresser in our front hall at Christmas.

Number 13 is "A line of . . . "

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This line of leather camels has resided on the window sill for many, many years. Tracy's mom and stepfather brought them back from Egypt when they visited there.

The first item I found for the scavenger hunt was last night on our way home from friends. We passed this amazing display of blow-up Christmas decorations. It's perfect, I think, for #17 "Many."

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Another view:

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Number 11, "A book shop" is probably the most interesting item I've found. I was at Barnes and Noble this morning to pick up a book. A volunteer from Wild Wings, a group dedicated to the care and housing of injured birds of prey was there as a fund raiser.

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I have ideas for several more items, and know that some of them will be easy to find in February when we're away. For now, I'm glad to have five crossed off the list. The scavenger hunt goes from now until the 21st of March, so if you'd like to join in, there's plenty of time. The list is right here.

Two Cards; Two Challenges

by Karen
December 3, 2017September 7, 2025

As soon as I saw the Color Throw Down Challenge this week, I knew I'd want to get a card made for it. Gold, Silver, and Black—what's not to like?

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There was still a pile of silver snowflakes laying on my desk from a previous project as well as a piece of True Black cardstock with a gold sentiment that didn't make the cut for another project.

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All it took then was to die cut the black piece with a Stitched Rectangle die (Simon Says), adhere it to a piece of gold cardstock (Michael's) and add the snowflakes. I also added two gold sequins and some PTI rainstones to the center of the snowflakes for a little bling.

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The second challenge was inspired by left-over pieces on the desk, as well. As soon as I saw the Freshly Made Sketches design, I knew I had the start of a card.

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There was a plaid oval left over from the card I posted here and I found the silver JOY in my drawer of previous die cut images. I added a second silver oval, and some Holly Jolly dies with red Amuse pearls to finish off the design.

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I brushed the holly leaves with a Spectrum Noir clear glitter pen. This angle shows the glitter in the plaid paper by My Mind's Eye ("Comfort & Joy") as well.

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Although I've finished the bulk of the Christmas cards that we send out each year, I'm glad to have a few extras to add to the mix.

Fusion: Red Christmas Challenge

by Karen
December 1, 2017September 7, 2025

A quick post for the Fusion: Red Christmas challenge. I've admired the challenges here for a long time. One of the things I particularly like is there are always three choices. You can use the photo, the sketch, or combine them.

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My card follows the sketch this time. I was also attracted to the photo, and although I have a sizeable collection of pitchers I don't own any good stamps so I took the plaid runner for my inspiration. I think it's the sketch, however, that is the real inspiration here.

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I die cut an oval with one of my old Spellbinder sets from a piece of plaid paper from the My Mind's Eye "Comfort and Joy" paper pad. I silver embossed the sentiment from Papertrey's "Rustic Wreath" set, and added two snowflakes cut from a shimmery paper from my stash. The snowflakes are from My Favorite Things "Stylish Snowflakes." I admired them last year but they were out of stock until after the holiday, but I picked them up on sale later. I'd forgotten about them until I reorganized my dies last week.

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Sadly, you can't see in any of the photos that the white line in the plaid is a glittery one. It makes the card much more festive than it appears here. To finish off the card, I added two rhinestones.

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Hope your weekend is a lovely one. I'm looking forward to a little time with my oldest granddaughter tomorrow afternoon, and a day of crafting. Our tree is finally up, lit, and decorated and just in time as we have family coming for supper on Sunday, and the book group on Monday evening.

Take Three Thursday: Outdoor Christmas Decorations

by Karen
November 30, 2017September 7, 2025

Despite many good intentions, I have not gotten a blog post up in nearly a week. I thought a good way to get "back into the game," would be to join Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards for her Take Three Thursday meme. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I did a lot of inside decorating. It's not done because we've had serious issues with the lights on our Christmas tree. After many hours and multiple phone calls, Tracy has finally given up trying to fix the ones we have and is now trying to replace the strings that blink incessantly off and on with lights the same size with the same quality of light. Not an easy task. I'm hoping it will all get resolved before Monday when one of my book groups meets here.

We stayed away from the stores and the malls on Black Friday, but did venture out to the Garden Factory for poinsettias, a cyclamen, and an outdoor arrangement for the front garden bed.

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We had hoped to find an evergreen ball to hang on the wrought-iron hook, but they didn't have anything of interest. The next day, however, when I pulled into the Wegman's parking lot to buy groceries, I found just what we wanted. One of the things we love about this is that it is clearly visible to us from the kitchen table.

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The last decoration near the front door is a beautiful new McKenzie-Child wreath. It's original price was way over our budget, but I picked this up at the warehouse sale for a tiny fraction of the original cost. What I like most about it is that it is clearly visible from the street. Our previous wreath was a simple grapevine wreath with red berries which you really couldn't appreciate unless you came to the front door.

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It's quite a bit more ornate than my usual style, but I'm really glad I purchased it. My Christmas cards are nearly finished, and hopefully Tracy will have the envelopes ready for mailing by early next week. This weekend I have several Christmas crafting projects I want to get started as well as starting to wrap gifts for the grandchildren.

Papertrey Ink November Blog Hop & Time Out Challenge

by Karen
November 25, 2017September 7, 2025

It's the 25th of the month, and that means it's time for the November Blog Hop at Papertrey Ink. The inspiration piece this month was really lovely.

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I took my cues from the plaid napkin, the beautiful swag on the chair, and the large gold sentiment in the middle of the table.

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With the exception of the plaid paper (unknown from stash) and the large gold sentiment (Technique Tuesday), all the supplies are Papertrey Ink: Winter Berries (transformed to fall berries with Canyon Clay and Terracotta Tile inks), Leaf Prints, and the tiny sentiment from Gathered Garden—all adhered to a Canyon Clay card base.

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This card also fits a new-to-me challenge: Time Out Challenges. The current challenge is Inspired by Words: Gratitude.

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For those celebrating in the U.S., I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

Fall Cards: Part 3

by Karen
November 22, 2017September 6, 2025

I'm back to share the last of the fall birthday cards.

I had a few scraps of the watercolor paper I created for an earlier card, and didn't want to throw them out. I love the unusual sentiments in Papertrey's "Initial Sentiments: Birthday" so started with that, and added a strip of the watercolor paper and a strip of beautiful metallic gold paper from Michael's. I'd used up all that gold paper, and couldn't replace it at our local Michael's, but found four sheets of it at a Michael's in Chicago, and brought them all home. They are 12 x 12 sheets, so I think I'll be good for a long time.

Another new die, Pretty Pink Posh's " Stitched Foliage" was perfect for a fall accent. I did cut two of them, and tied them with some fine gold string.

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Last, a CAS design, once again with the Pretty Pink Posh "Stitched Foliage" leaves.

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After some simple scoring on the Classic Kraft card base, I added three die cut leaves with a bow from PTI's twine, and a die cut sentiment from "Wet Paint II" in Dark Chocolate.

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All the cards are now off in the mail to their recipients. Now I need to get busy with the early December birthday cards. (To say nothing of all the Christmas cards that need to be made!)

Fall Cards: Part 2

by Karen
November 20, 2017September 6, 2025

I'm back with another post featuring some fall birthday cards. The first one uses a new Cover Plate die from Aletnew. When I first saw it featured on their blog, I knew I'd find good use for it. This is the only card I've made so far, but I have more ideas for it.

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I started by watercoloring a piece of watercolor paper with a variety of fall colors using my Daniel Smith watercolors. When that dried, I splattered some gold watercolor onto the piece using one of the "Starry Colors" from Gansai Tambi. Then I used the die on both the watercolor paper and a piece of Canyon Clay.

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I popped out the leaves from the Canyon Clay piece and adhered it to a Rustic White card base and a piece of Stick It, which makes putting the watercolored pieces into the piece much easier. Using the Quick Stick also helped get all the tiny pieces of watercolored paper where they needed to be. I cut a banner from vellum and embossed the sentiment from "Birthday Bash Sentiments" (PTI) in bronze, and added a few sequins and pearls to finish it off.

Next up is another new die set from Papertrey Ink's Mix and Mat series. I didn't think I was going to purchase this one, but I broke down and I'm glad I did.

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I kept all three dies together for this one, cutting them from Classic Kraft. I backed the die with a piece of bronze specialty paper that's been in my stash for years. It needed some contrast so I added a black mat before adhering it to a Saffron Spice card. The sentiment (same as above) was embossed in bronze on True Black.

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This gives you a better view of the beautiful specialty paper, and if you look closely you might be able to see the glitter on the leaves which I added with a clear Spectrum Noir marker.

There are still two more fall birthday cards to share next time.

Fall Cards: Part 1

by Karen
November 18, 2017September 7, 2025

November brings a long list of folks with birthdays and anniversaries, so I spent much of my free time the last two weeks getting cards made. There was a group of people for whom I thought I could create the same or similar cards. I pulled out some favorite Papertrey Ink products and papers and set to work. You'd think they would have come together quickly, but it didn't turn out that way.

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All four cards share the die cut from "Rustic Wreath" and preprinted diecuts from the "Color Pop: Autumn" Mini-Market Kit from last fall.

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The card base here is Classic Kraft with the "Celebrate" from "Birthday Cheer" cut from Terracotta Tile and the wreath from Soft Stone. I added a few Amuse pearls in brown to finish it off.

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Essentially the same, this card uses a piece of Simon Says Woodgrain paper, the wreath from Classic Kraft as well as a die cut bow from "Gathered Garden" and some enamel dots from Freckled Fawn.

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Same design, but a different greeting from the Color Pop kit, and some scored lines as an accent.

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This is probably my favorite. A different orientation but all the elements remain the same. The card is Canyon Clay, and the wreath and sentiment were die cut from Fine Linen.

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I have some more to share next time.

Take Three Thursday: Three Views

by Karen
November 16, 2017September 7, 2025

I'm joining in with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards for Take Three Thursday. I have three different shots of the same subject from our trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden. I loved the beautiful red vines twisted around the stone railing.

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So I'd be curious to know which one you prefer.

Chicago Botanic Garden—Mostly Photos

by Karen
November 15, 2017September 7, 2025

It's been a crazy few days– lots of social engagements and the usual volunteer commitments have meant very little time at home. So here's a post I thought I'd have up early last week! We've made many trips to the Chicago Botanic Garden in summer, spring, and winter, and it's always been beautiful. Although I hoped for more colorful foliage, autumn was also lovely there. I thought I'd share some of my favorite views.

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