Wednesday work in progress adventure

 As I loaded my YouTube Watch Later list this morning, I noticed that two of the videos are titled #WorkInProgressWednesday.  I expected them to be related, but they're not.  I have a personal "rule" that if two unrelated people tell me to do something, that's my sign that I'm really supposed to do it.  Last week I spent some time with a friend (masked, and mostly six feet apart).  One of the things we discussed is having too much pretty paper, and as we made plans for another visit, she said, "We'll have some of that paper used up and can share our projects."  Lisa My Eclectic Life challenged us at the end of July to #UseThatPreciousStuff over the next few months.  That just happens to be what's on my work table this week:

 This is what's left of the first designer series paper "stack" (48 pieces of double-sided paper!) I bought, Sweet Pea (2010 Occasions mini catalog).  Some of it is "precious", including the last three sheets of Taken with Teal card stock it coordinates with.  Some of it (notice all the pink?) qualifies more for #NoPaperLeftBehind (started by Daniella Hayes)  because I don't like it and found it harder to use.  Both are being made into cards - here are some of the first ones, using the bigger pieces of paper:

And, two I already mailed away:

So I'm keeping up pretty well with #createveryday2020 and #keeponmaking this week.  There are three more cards in progress at the end of the work table, but just now it's cat-lap time.  Unlike people telling me to do something, it only takes one cat!

April adventures

The U.S. Postal Service officially designated April National Card and Letter Writing Month in 2001 “to raise awareness of the importance and historical significance of card and letter writing.” A month dedicated to cards sounds like it was just made for me, doesn't it?  Sending and receiving cards makes people feel good, and snail mail deserves a more love.  So far this month I've mailed three or four cards, and today is only the 5th!  I'm not going to attempt one every day, it's just worked out that way so far.  I needed one more for a quick note, and the Atlantic Hearts sketch was perfect:

stamp set - Better Together; ink - Grapefruit Grove; card stock - Daffodil Delight, Grapefruit Grove, Granny Apple Green; designer series paper - Botanical Butterfly (Sale-A-Bration, retired); punch - Sprig

 

I'll use it to mail this Artist Trading Card.  I made a set of four but only needed two.  One will go in my own collection and the other is for an April swap with a Greek mythology theme.  A lovely Facebook friend expressed interest in receiving one of the extras - that made my heart happy!

 I hope something makes your heart happy today!

some new challenge adventures

I've found some new challenges recently that appeal to my sense of adventure - I hope you enjoy them, and maybe even join in? 

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda had a booth at the Scrapbook Expo I attended last year, and I bought some stamps I think will be great for art journaling.  They have very unique rubber stamp designs, and I've recently discovered they also have a challenge blog - yay!  This card from Fiona Bradley was so perfect for the orange and yellow prompt, I just used the same Stampin' Up! design she used:

stamp set - Flourishing Phrases; ink - Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight; Stampin' Write marker - Pumpkin Pie; card stock - Whisper White

Crazy Rebecca at Dances With Pit Bulls is doing her second year of #DWPB100ThingsChallenge.  The rules are pretty simple - make 100 things with the craft supplies you already own before you buy any more!  I needed a little book in which to record my 100 things, so my thing number one is these paper-napkin-covered journals made of flattened toilet paper roll tubes:

Thing number two is a sign for Rebecca to use in her YouTube videos. I don't want to post it before she sees it; if I remember I'll show you later, although it's not really all that special - just some clip art I copied and pasted, with a fun font, on metallic card stock.

Thing number three is a junk journal page for a swap - another new thing I've gotten involved with this year:

The base page is long-retired Flirtatious specialty designer series paper; the tags and pocket are bits and bobs from my stash.  It's not complete in this photo - I added a mini envelope to the front that I made from a scrap of deli paper.  I could have used vellum, but the deli paper was on its way to the bin, and seemed like a better choice for a junk journal.  I'm looking for something that says Mother's Day to put in the envelope, to tie into the monthly swap theme.  I hope to also add a decorated paper clip when I work on that challenge later this month.

And then thing number four is a postcard for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge I've just started following.  This week they're looking for crowns & wings - I added a bit of fun & fantasy:

stamp sets - Lucky Elephant (retired), Favorite Thoughts (retired), Extreme Elements (retired), Timeless Textures, Touches of Texture; ink - Pineapple Punch, Wisteria Wonder, Elegant Eggplant, Tangerine Tango, Peekaboo Peach, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Strawberry Slush (retired), Lemon Lime Twist, Island Indigo, Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, Hello Honey (retired); card stock - Whisper White and Wisteria Wonder; punch - Pretty Label; Big Shot with Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die (retired) and White Tea Lace paper doilies (retired)

This is the first postcard I've ever made from scratch.  In retrospect I think I probably should have coated it, and possibly also added a second layer of card stock.  I mailed it in an envelope, though, so it will arrive safely in spite of my oversights.

retiring butterfly adventures

I've been meaning to play along at the Butterfly Challenge ever since I found it, because I love butterflies and have several dies and stamps.  None of them are new, though, and new stamping tools seem to get used more often than old favorites, sometimes.  Since all of the tools (and colors! other than Soft Suede) I've used below are retiring, and will be unavailable after next month to become your favorites, I decided it was past time to show them off a bit:

stamp set - Butterfly Basics; ink - Wild Wasabi, Rose Red, Soft Suede; card stock - Wild Wasabi, Pink Pirouette; Big Shot with Butterflies framelits

The butterfly wheel landed on the letter d this spin, so I've used a die and dirt brown.  I also used the sketch from Match the Sketch.

I saw this lunch bag for sale last week, and was inspired to use other retiring stamps, ink, paper and dies to make a one-layer card:

stamp set - Watercolor Wings; ink - Rose Red, Pink Pirouette, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant; card stock - Pink Pirouette; Big Shot with Butterflies and Bold Butterfly thinlits

new product adventures

OK, I know you've seen these products before, including here (assuming you've been here before) but my Stampin' Blends and Brusho Colour Crystals are still new enough to me that I feel I need a lot more practice.  I loved this card of Amy O'Neill's, but couldn't bring myself to make any more blue cards; for some reason, half of the cards I've made and added to my display stand recently have been mainly blue!  I changed the colors and also changed the layout a bit, using the new one from Sketch Saturday:

stamp sets - Flying Home, Yay You (hostess); ink - Memento Tuxedo Black; Soft Suede; Stampin' Blends; card stock - Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede; designer series paper - Wood Textures; Big Shot with Stitched Circles and Layering Circles framelits  

Looking at it now in the photograph, it seems like it just needs a little something more - maybe a spray of leaves tucked under the right side of the circles?  I'll try that...

Before I go, though, I also wanted to share this card, which I made with my favorite color of purple for Tuesday Throwdown:

stamp sets - Beautiful Day, Yay You (hostess); ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Melon Mambo; stampin' emboss powder - Clear (I think, maybe White?); Brusho Crystal Colours - Brilliant Red, Prussian Blue; card stock - Watercolor, Very Vanilla, Dapper Denim, Perfect Plum  

I'm pretty pleased with it, other than having inadvertently shortened the butterfly's body.  The Stampin' Up! set of Brushos doesn't include purple (whaaaat!?), so I mixed my own by combining blue and red crystals on a palette and mixing them together with water.  I used an Aquabrush to painting the watercolor onto the butterfly, which is stamped and embossed on watercolor paper.  I used the same two colors for the background by simply sprinkling them onto dry Very Vanilla card stock and spraying water at an angle across them.  I've found that I can use the less expensive plain card stock without an issue if I don't try to "work" the colors.  The red spread and lightened more than the blue, so to give it more definition, I stamped the flower image over it using stamped-off Melon Mambo.

returning to challenge adventures

If you've been following along, you know I'm really busy at work during the first quarter of the year, and by March/April I'm ready for vacation - we took three this year, one week and two long weekends!  I've kept up with Card Buffets and haven't had to skip one yet this year.  In order to have choices at the buffets (it wouldn't really be a buffet if there weren't choices) I've made lots of cards.  As always, I use challenges for inspiration, but - this is where something had to give - I haven't had time to write up any descriptions for blog posts.  I finished the taxes today, so now I can get back to playing and posting - yay!  Of course, I went to one of my favorite sites first, and found a color challenge at the Watercooler:

I had a request for wedding cards on the buffet, and personally I forget to have anniversary cards on hand, so this is what I came up with:

stamp set - Best Birds; ink - Calypso Coral, Pool Party; card stock - Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party; Big Shot with Happy Hearts embossing folder and Birds & Blooms framelits

For some reason, most of the choices I prepared for Card Buffet this month are in the blue-green-yellow range.  When I noticed that, I was inspired to try the rainbow challenge from CAS-ual Fridays, using this fun idea from Rachael Tessman:

stamp set - Sunburst Sayings; ink - Basic Black, Perfect Plum, Tempting Turquoise, Cucumber Crush, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Real Red; card stock - Whisper White thick and regular; Big Shot with Sunburst thinlit

I maaaaaay have had a little too much fun with the sponge-dauber dots :)

And finally, I took another shot at the wedding card idea, using the sketch from TGIF Challenge and this fun idea from Carol Payne:

stamp set - Flourishing Phrases; ink - Sweet Sugarplum, Rich Razzleberry; card stock - Sweet Sugarplum, Shimmer White; Fluttering embossing folder

Another case where I may have been having too much fun - when I pressed the Shimmer White card stock down on the inked Fluttering embossing folder, I intended to leave more white space around the edges to better correspond with the sketch.  It's pretty sweet this way, too, though.

back to challenges adventure

I've been much busier than expected lately and I knew it had been some time since I'd played along at any challenges, but more than a month?  I didn't even notice.  I did notice a bit of a paradox in my pair of cards today.

My CAS butterfly card for Watercooler Wednesday was inspired by the colors of Global Design Project's CASE the designer, Steffi Helmschrott's, card:

stamp sets - Watercolor Wishes, Papillon Potpourri, Botanical Blooms, Touches of Texture; ink - Sahara Sand, Tip Top Taupe, Pear Pizzazz, Versamark; Stampin' Emboss powder - gold card stock - Whisper White thick; other tools - Big Shot with Botanical Builder framelits, heat gun, embossing buddy, masking tape, Post-It® notes

Four stamp sets, four ink pads and multiple tools for a one-layer, two-color clean and simple design that took more than 30 minutes to complete after thinking for two days.  On the other hand, only one stamp set and two ink pads for Christmas in July at Stamp Ink Paper using Stephanie's sketch from Jingle Belles, which came together in about 15 minutes as soon as I decided on the designer series paper:

stamp set - Time of Year (hostess); ink - Real Red, Garden Green; Stampin' Write markers - Real Red, Garden Green; card stock - Garden Green, Very Vanilla, Real Red; paper - This Christmas specialty designer series, Delicate White Doilies; embossing folder - Holly; punches - 3/4" circle, 1" circle

No wonder I struggle with Clean and Simple!

ThinkBack Thursday adventure

I was thinking back (I like ThinkBack Thursday better than Throwback Thursday, just sayin') about when I first started blogging.  I had been posting Jingle Belles challenge cards on Flickr and I wanted to play along at the new Less is More challenge.  They didn’t have a Flickr option, so I decided to be brave (it will be an adventure, I told myself) and start a blog.  For many months I followed several other bloggers but only those two challenges, and I played along most weeks.  I learned so much!  Of course, being new, I had a lot to learn, but there’s always a lot to learn.  One of the things I learned was that I’m not particularly good at Clean and Simple. I was feeling a bit discouraged about my submissions at Less is More, so I checked out some other challenges, and joined in, and learned a lot more! 

Fast forward to now – if you peeked at my feed reader you’d see 66 card-making bloggers and 98 challenge sites.  Well, no wonder I don’t play along more regularly at any one site – whew!  But what I was thinking about all this was, if I only play along with challenges that “inspire” me, am I learning as much as if I play along with possibly less “inspiring”, probably more “challenging” prompts?  So, maybe I’ll try playing along more often at a limited number of challenges (I won’t say every week, because I have this “day job” thing, and grandchildren, and kite festivals, and <bleh> housekeeping), and at other challenges just when I can fit them in.  For now, I’ve decided on Jingle Belles and the Watercooler, because I have sentimental ties to both.  Wouldn’t you know, after all that thinking (and remember, it included thinking that I’m not particularly good at Clean and Simple), the challenge for Watercooler Wednesday is Clean and Simple to celebrate spring!  

I needed some colors - Color Throwdown has a bright spring selection - and a sketch that will work for CAS, like Amy's at Freshly Made Sketches:

stamp set - Kinda Eclectic; ink - Tangelo Twist; Cucumber Crush, Watermelon Wonder; card stock - Watermelon Wonder, Whisper White, Cucumber Crush, Tangelo Twist; punch - Bitty Butterfly

OK, maybe I'm challenge-addicted - this "fits in" at Stampin' Royalty, and The Paper Players, too (except they only allow entries linked to 4 challenges or fewer).  My name is Kathe...

adventures in yellow

April is National Card and Letter Writing Month, and since cards are something I "do", I thought I should join in.  Some bloggers are planning to write and send a card every day, but I'm not sure I know 30 people who wouldn't think I was stalking them if I just sent a card for no reason.  I don't even mail that many birthday cards in a year, but I thought I'd just see how many days I could keep up.  Even if they're not all in a row, at least it's more than I would have done otherwise.  And when I mail my brother-in-law's birthday card later this month, I'm totally counting that.

I decided I should jump into a daily photograph challenge this month, too.  I'm following the prompts for #DNDphotoaday, and posting on Instagram as KatheDMI.  We have forsythia in our backyard, so that was my fresh flowers.  After I photographed my cute cats coffee mug on the second day, I realized that the next two prompts were going to involve the color yellow.  Me being me, I thought I'd just add the yellow constraint to all the prompts, if possible, so I re-staged my coffee shot using my yellow brick road mug.  

For today's photo I wanted a card, ready for writing and mailing, on my desk, next to my Paper Pumpkin calendar with its April background of Hello Honey.  I didn't have any cards already made in that color, but all I needed was a little nudge, and Elizabeth's sketch at Can You Case It was perfect:

stamp set - Watercolor Wishes; ink - Delightful Dijon; card stock - Hello Honey, Delightful Dijon; Big Shot with Bold Butterfly framelits and Spring Flowers embossing folder (retired); Stampin' sponge

I mailed this off today to my sister, because her favorite color is yellow.  I'm pretty sure there will be lemon-frosted cookies or cupcakes on my to-buy list tomorrow.  Oh, and I wonder if there's a card in the box I can dash off to my friend in Texas...

CAS butterfly adventure

When I saw the beautiful design team cards at Color Throwdown Monday, I was inspired to play along.  I especially loved the stenciling several of them used, and thought I should try that, because it would fit the then-current challenge at CAS on Sunday.  But I didn't think I had any "lime" and couldn't make up my mind about the other components, either, until just before I fell asleep last night, when it all came to me:

stamp set - Another Thank You; ink - Bermuda Bay, Cucumber Crush; card stock - Cucumber Crush, Whisper White thick; stencil - Happy Patterns; Big Shot with Bold Butterfly framelit; Stampin' sponge

Of course, the CAS on Sunday challenge closed Friday.  :(  This is one of my best efforts (if I do say so myself) at Clean and Simple, and it doesn't qualify at any current CAS challenges.  I'm going to try sneaking it in for "As You Wish April" at One Layer Simplicity though, on the chance that the butterfly is "a bit of embellishment" and not a layer?

one adventure leads to another

After I posted yesterday's bright butterfly birthday card, I noticed that I had overlooked the butterfly prompt at Cards in Envy.  When I remembered that I still need sympathy cards, I used the same supplies, with neutrals from The Colour Tree:

stamp sets - Butterfly Basics, Wetlands; ink - Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake; card stock - Soft Suede, Tip Top Taupe, Very Vanilla; Wink of Stella - gold; Tea Lace paper doily; Big Shot with Hexagon Hive embossing folder, Butterfly and Bold Butterfly thinlits

While I had sympathy cards on my mind, I remembered thinking how well the Watercooler Wednesday reflection technique challenge and the House of Cards silhouette prompt would work together:

stamp sets - Teeny Tiny Wishes, World of Dreams; ink - Blackberry Bliss, Elegant Eggplant; card stock - Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant; washi tape - Bohemian; Big Shot with Ovals collection framelits

Edited to add: I forgot to link the stunnin Fine Art America photo, which inspired my card.

bright spring butterfly adventure

It's not spring yet. We don't even have robins yet, and certainly no butterflies.  But we have had some bright sunny days and a bit more warmth, so we're thinking about spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  That's where I went with the colors from Color Throwdown and the Spring theme from Crazy 4 Challenges, with the Crazy 4 Challenges sketch, as well:

stamp set - Butterfly Basics; ink - Crushed Curry, Cucumber Crush, Tangelo Twist; card stock - Crushed Curry, Tangelo Twist, Whisper White (regular and thick); designer series paper - It's My Party; Big Shot with Hexagon Hive embossing folder, Butterflies, Bold Butterflies, and Deco Labels framelits 

I always think the butterflies in these sets need something more for the bodies.  I thought about pearls, ribbon,or  twine and finally remembered the Stampin' Royalty prompt for sequins - just right!

adventure in blues

I was looking for some color inspiration for a completely different project (more about that tomorrow) when the colors at Just Us Girls, and the Clean And Simple 'up, up, and away' theme from The Paper Players sent me off in this direction instead:

stamp set - Watercolor Wings; ink - Lost Lagoon, Pool Party, Night of Navy; card stock - Whisper White regular and thick; Big Shot with Brick Wall embossing folder and Butterflies framelits

fancy fold adventure

The very day that I posted my joy fold card the newly posted challenge at the Watercooler was for special folds, but I didn't read that until later in the week.  While I was debating whether to do another joy fold or something different, I went to a Star Struck Stampers team meeting where one of my fellow demonstrators taught us this beautiful twisted easel card:

stamp set - Butterfly Basics; ink - Crumb Cake, Soft Suede; card stock - Very Vanilla, Gold Foil, Crumb Cake; punches - Bitty Butterfly, Extra-Large Oval; Big Shot with Butterflies Thinlits

I ♥LOVE♥ this card!  I'm so lucky there are such very creative, talented women on our team!  If you live in our area, we'd love to have you join us.  You can just check back here to see the fabulous things I learn every month, but then you'll be missing the fun & laughter & give-aways :)

adventure of another CAS and a CASE

Those acronyms I mentioned yesterday?  Today's examples are Clean And Simple (again) and Copy And Share Everything.  First, the CASE was a card I loved the minute I saw it.  It's perfect, but rather than copy it exactly, I thought I'd wait for a different color combination to capture me.  Jean Fitch, at the Watercooler Challenges, handled that for me this week, so here's my version:

stamp sets - Sheltering Tree, Sassy Salutations; ink - Marina Mist, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake; card stock - Whisper White, Crumb Cake 

My second card, a return to CAS, was more of a challenge.  TGIF Challenges, a new challenge blog, has a "Chopped" style Throwdown challenge that I think is incredibly clever, in spite of having never seen Chopped.  I waited for my new catalog order to arrive so I could use our new heavier weight white card stock as a base, since only white card stock is allowed (as a pantry item) for #TGIFCTD01, but I forgot to order the card stock. :/  I don't like using Whisper White as a card base unless I'm going to layer it up, and there's no other card stock listed, so I was going to skip the challenge.  Then I remembered Shimmery White card stock - I think that's allowable as white card stock.  It was still a bit difficult for me, as I don't own the only stamp set allowed (Work of Art), but I gave it a go anyway:

Throwdown ingredients: Gold Foil, Hello You Thinlits, Butterfly Thinlits, Blushing Bride ink, Blackberry Bliss ink

Pantry items: white card stock, doily, Big Shot, sponges, adhesives

I had the "thanks" whisper white die cuts set aside on my craft table from another project.  When  I saw the "Just Us Girls" Challenge prompt - stacked die cuts - I remembered that a little sponging (or a lot, in this case) would add color to make it stand out even more from the white base.

CAS challenge adventures

Do you sometimes forget the card making acronyms we bloggers toss around with abandon?  Some of my favorite blogs have "decoders" in their sidebars, but I've not been that ambitious.  Today I have a CAS - Clean and Simple - offering that I think works for the challenges at both Addicted to CAS and CAS(E) this Sketch!.  I did take some liberties with the sketch, though, substituting the starburst for the four squares and adding the lines of dots element.

stamp sets - Kinda Eclectic, Another Thank You; ink - Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise; card stock - Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise; punch - Elegant Butterfly

Edited to Add - Today (Wednesday, June 17) I suddenly remembered that the color & theme inspiration for this set of cards initially came from The Card Concept!  That made me think maybe this style is more Clean and Graphic than Clean and Simple?  I can't really decide, but I hope it's not too late to link up!

I couldn't make up my mind which color worked best for background, middle ground, or foreground, and since I needed 3 thank you notes, I tried it each way.  While I was working, I remembered to stamp off the excess ink before cleaning the stamps so that I would have some bases for my ICAD work.  ICAD is an acronym for Index Card a Day (a bit different than the cards you're used to seeing here) - a fabulous annual summer challenge to create something daily in a small format.  Learn more at Daisy Yellow, and join in, it's amazing!  Here are my #11 and #13 that grew out of this stamping session:

I have to give myself permission to create "bad art," which I learned from a fellow participant at the Daisy Yellow 2015 Index-Card-A-Day Facebook page.  Another thing I have to work at remembering is that it's a daily creative challenge, not an art competition.  The other participants are 100% supportive and encouraging, though, so it's not too hard to remember unless I spend too much time offline. ;)

adventure with lace and butterflies

Two posts in one evening - I know! - sometimes things happen like that around here.  Just as I walked away from the computer, I remembered that I needed to send out a gift certificate.  I decided to decorate it with stamps from Everything Eleanor, and then it needed a coordinating card in which to be mailed.  I combined The Friday Mashup! prompt "create a project using butterflies and lace" with the Paper Players sketch:

stamp sets - Everything Eleanor, Another Thanks, Papillon Potpuorri; ink - Versamark, Wisteria Wonder (Pear Pizzazz on envelope); card stock - Naturals Vanilla, Pear Pizzazz, Wisteria Wonder, Blushing Bride, Marina Mist; punch - Bitty Butterfly; Venetian Crochet 5/8" lace trim (retired)

I'm really pleased with this card, since it nearly put itself together and it's one of my rare "original" ideas.  I wish I'd positioned the lace/flower/butterfly line a little higher, though.