Thanks a Bunch

 

No card challenge today. In Friday's mail I received a very nice personalized spiral binder from a Portland hospitality furniture procurement firm that I worked with on my most recent hotel project. I want to send them a thank you note for their generosity, so I made this one. I'm madly in love with the Alexandra Renke dies that I bought recently at Craft Warehouse - this one is "Magic Flower 2". I cut it out from some PTI "Bitty Dots" paper in "Hawaiian Shores". I made the top band by blending some PTI "Blueberry Sky" ink and spattering a bit of water on it. Then I overprinted the leaf branches from a couple of different stamp sets (PTI "A New Leaf", W+9 "Botanical Bunch") in PTI inks - "Hawaiian Shores", "Ocean Tide", and "Blueberry Sky". The sentiment is Hero Arts. I punched 2 holes in the face of the card and threaded the flower stem through and then added gems and enamel dots from my stash.

 

 

 

 

This photo shows the card and lined envelope.

 

 

 

Coordinating envelope flap and close-up of die and sentiment.

 



 

Color Throwdown #544

 

This week's Color Throwdown is using the colors coral, aqua, and navy blue. The aqua rectangular background is cut from a previously-embossed piece of scrap. The flower die is "Magic Flower 2" by Alexandra Renke. I die-cut twice and then trimmed the 2nd cut to make the leaf. The stitching die on the right side is from PTI, as is the sentiment ("Winter Hills" stamp). Finished with Versamark Water Mark Ink, navy embossing powder, and Ranger Glossy Accents on coral tiny punched circles.

 

 

 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2019/05/color-throwdown-544.html

 

 

 



 

Check back on my blog on June 5th when I'll be Guest Designer for Color Throwdown #546! 

CAS(E) this Sketch #322

Here's today's offering to CAS(E) this Sketch. The little happy face that showed up when I glued "for you" onto the face of the card was an unintended surprise!

 

Stamps: Stampin' Up! "Hello, Doily"

Inks: PTI "Spring Rain" and "Enchanted Evening" and Versamark

Dies: Alexandra Renke "for you" and old square die from my stash (probably Sissix)

White embossing powder, white 100 lb. card stock, blue card stock scrap

 

 

 

http://casethissketch.blogspot.com/2019/05/case-this-sketch-322.html

 

 

 

Color Throwdown ctd543

 

Wow - 2 cards in one weekend! I'm still nursing this bronchial thing and it seems that crafting is the only thing I can manage to do.

 

I can't believe how long it took me to make this card. My process is usually to start designing and then edit, edit, edit - an old design school thing where I was taught to draw something and then determine how few pen or pencil strokes it takes to complete the idea. Although I have a strong preference for clean & simple, my personal style tends to be all over the board. I usually land somewhere between CAS and fancy. What's the descriptive word for card designs that are not CAS?

 

At any rate, here's this morning's offering to Color Throwdown - "Aqua, Green, and Gray".

 

 

 

 

I had a metallic graphic envelope in my stash, which I lined with green polka-dot paper and then stamped with PTI's "Songbirds" leaves. The dies on the card are from PTI "Songbird" for the larger branch and MFT's leaves in bright green. The bird (which you'll recognize from yesterday's card) is also MFT and I think the ovals are from Sizzix.

 

 



 

Here's another view in which I added bright green embossed leaves to the front of the envelope.

 

https://colorthrowdown.blogspot.com/2019/05/color-throwdown-countdown-543.html

 

 

   

Birthday Balloons

 

I'm playing with Seize The Birthday Challenge for the first time today. The topping is "Balloons" and I decided to make a birthday card for my soon-to-be 10-year-old grandson (I'll also need to come up with a card for his twin sister). I haven't had much experience with shaker cards, so I have a long way to go in that direction!

 

I'm continuing with using existing paper scraps and the balloon printed paper is from the twins' 2nd birthday invitation 8 years ago. The bird die is from MFT and the numbers are from PTI.

 

 

 

http://seizethebirthday.blogspot.com/2019/05/seize-birthday-165-balloons.html

 

"Balloons"

                                                 (selected by Shirley)

 

   

BIRTHDAY HUGS

 

Freshly Made Sketches 387

 

On Saturday my youngest granddaughter arrived at our home with a terrible cough, to spend a couple of hours with us. I thought she was having an allergic reaction to the dog and cats, but then the following day she ran a fever and was sick all day. Thank you, Kaitlyn! Yesterday I started coughing and today I feel like complete crap, with deep cough, headache, and muscle aches. If I hadn't gone to bed so early last night I would have stayed there this morning, but I felt the need to get up and move a bit. I managed to crank out this card, but this is all I've done all day. I'm sure that all of the work I should have done today will be sitting there waiting for me tomorrow...

 

 

I did a reverse of Cécile's banners for some dimension. The paper is all from my scrap bins, the leaf die is PTI's "Songbirds" and the stamp is from their "Stylish Sentiments: Birthdays", printed in "Ripe Avocado". The banners are a single die from Cricket Cuttlebug and it was quite a task to get each banner cut straight. 

 

 

https://freshlymadesketches.blogspot.com/2019/05/freshly-made-sketches-387.html

 

 

May 14, 2019

 



Turquoise & Red-Orange

One of my favorite color combinations on cards!

 

 

I had thought to enter this one in a CASology challenge but with the printed background I don't think this really qualifies as clean & simple. Ink: Versamark with white embossing powder and fill-in between petals is Copic marker. I had the turquoise envelope in my stack and lined it with the same red-orange paper as the face of the card.