April Birthdays

April is birthday heavy for us.   Since it's been such a lovely Spring I went with a lot of floral inspiration for the last couple of birthdays.

 

This one features a turnabout stamp for the back panel.  I liked it enough to send it but there was a lesson learned about color distribution.  With the turnabout stamp you stamp the same image 4 times rotating the stamp 90 degrees after changing the color.  I stamped the two greens and then the two pinks and I probably should have alternated them.   

And here is a "slimline" card that fits perfectly into a business size envelope for mailing.  I used some of my favorite shades of blue for the flowers.  There are four pieces to each of those flower heads.  This is where a good tweezer comes in handy!

This last one wasn't for a birthday, but rather a thank you for a friend who met me for coffee for my birthday last month.  I came across this stamp in my stash while looking for something else and thought it would be perfect.  

 

We have a few more birthdays coming up in May including our youngest grandson who will be turning 2 very soon.  We had a great visit with them at the condo this weekend.  He is very much into playing "cars" lining them up and watching the wheels.  And he had his first visit to the beach.  It was a little cooler and windy by the time we got there but he loved walking in the sand and would have walked right into the water if we let him.  

Spring Notes

I made a few Spring notecards with a new to me (but old in availability) die.  I saw some cards on Pinterest using this die and immediately wanted to add it to my stash but it was first marketed in 2014 so I had to look around for it online and was lucky to find it on Ebay.  (There is a bigger version that I'm  contemplating purchasing also.) The stamped image is an older Unity stamp that I used a portion of for the center of the die cut.  I also dipped into some older colored cardstock in an effort to start using what has been collecting dust in my paper stash.  I only have a few sheets left of the Mint Macaron and Certainly Celery used on this first card.  Petal Pink and Cameo Coral were used on the others.  

The stamped image was colored with Copic Ciao markers.

I absolutely love the spring wildflowers that have taken over parts of our yard in recent years.  Some of it was planned and some was spontaneous.  It always makes me smile when I find them en masse or in in unexpected places.

Siberian Squills have spread this year like wild fire.  This is a portion of our "fake brook" and it makes me so happy to see the blue Squill water.

These are Marsh Marigolds and unfortunately they are very invasive and I will be trying to pull some of them out this year.

More Squills and a the white flower is called "Bloodroot" because the sap from the root is red.  These move around the yard as they seed themselves but there aren't many of them to be found.

Up closer to the Marsh Marigold and some Spring Beauty.

Spring Beauty in pale, pale pink.

Confederate Violets.

Yellow Violet.

More Confederates.

The primroses aren't wildflowers but they do come back each Spring.  HWNSNBP will buy them at Home Depot for the kitchen windowsill when they come out in late winter and we always try to transplant them to the garden when they are done blooming inside.  We have had some luck with them reviving in the outdoors which is not something you can count on when flowers are originally started in a greenhouse situation. 

I have forgotten the name of this pink flowering plant but I love that it has made a home in this bed.

The Chionodoxa's are scattered amongst the Squills.

  

I haven't seen a Puschkinia in this bed for years.  I even had to make sure that that was the name of it.  It might be confused with a Wood Hyacinth but it is much smaller.

This Anemone or Grecian Windflower was a surprise also where it decided to bloom.  There are a couple that have come up in the walkway and I'm glad that I decided to leave those clumps of leaves when I did some early weeding.

This flower is a mystery to me also.  I don't remember planting it and don't know it's name either but I was happy to find it in this bed.  I actually didn't even see it until I was weeding some the other evening.

The naturalized Daffodils are blooming on the hill and the Redbud trees are just about ready to pop.  I hope to have some pictures of them together soon.

We have daffodils planted in the garden to use for cutting purposes and HWNSNBP brought some in a couple of nights ago.  I say night because we often do yardwork at the end of the day when it is cooler and usually work until the sun goes down.  Anyway, he brought in a beautiful bundle of Daffodils in a large mason jar and put them on the kitchen counter.  Later on, when I was doing the dishes I looked over at them and there was the biggest spider I've every seen on one of the daffodils.  I don't do spiders.  I didn't even want to take a picture of it.  He got a tissue to catch it and I told him that he'd better not miss.  Thankfully he didn't, but I am so glad that we saw it sooner than later when it might have found another cozier place to hang out in.  Needless to say, I reminded him that he has to shake out and inspect those flowers before they come into the house!

And one more note in this long post.  We have been looking all over for a particular Lavendar variety called Dilly Dilly which we had success with in one of our borders last year.  The other two varieties that we had in that border didn't fair well and we wanted to replace them with the one that did.  Of course the nursery that we originally got them from didn't have them again this year (we've been back there three times checking) so it's been a bit of a wild goose chase until yesterday.  Even though it was raining off and on, HWNSNBP suggested that we take a ride to the Great Swamp Nursery.  On the way there I finally saw an eagle in the wild.  It was in a field with the carcass of what looked like a deer on the side of the backroad we were taking and HWNSNBP even turned around so I could try to take a picture of it, if only with my phone.  I usually take my camera with me when we go that way but because it was raining I had decided not to.  Well, by the time we turned around to get close again, it had flown off, or so we thought because turning back around to go in the original direction I saw it again a little bit of a distance away but at that point we were again past it and he wouldn't turn around again.  So no picture, but the other good news is that a last peek at the labels of the Lavendar plants amongst the many that they had at the GS before we gave up rewarded us with the last few Dilly Dilly plants that they had.  Success on a rainy day!

Recent Cards

Rachel asked if I could make her a couple of wedding cards kind of last minute.  They're not attending the weddings, but she still wanted to wish them well.  She didn't give me anything to go on this time like she usually does so I kept it pretty neutral.  White, ivory, and kraft with a little hint of gold.

The gold strip was in the scrap box and I decided to use my gold shimmer paint to give some sparkle to those flower centers.

I was pretty proud of myself for coming up with a mailer for these, although I didn't take a picture.  I used a Cheez-It box turned inside-out.  I took the box apart at the seam and cut off the parts that were the top and the bottom. I then flattened it out so that the piece that was the seam attachment became the flap.  I just used some of my decorative duct tape to tape up the sides and the flap - packing tape was an option.  It was very sturdy as a mailer so those cards did not bend.  I'll take pictures next time.

The next two cards were for anniversaries.  My son and daughter-in-law's and ours.  I had stamped this shell frame earlier this year and finally got around to coloring it about a month ago in preparation.  I almost forgot about it when I was trying to think of a design for their card.  I usually try to do a beach theme for them as they were married on the beach.  And I still have a bunch of Bermuda Bay cardstock from the invitations.  The lovebirds below are similar to the two that I made earlier in September.  

This card was for my mother's birthday.  I got the Concord & 9th Painted dots turnabout stamp earlier this summer and just got around to trying it out.  There are four different shades of blue in the circles and you need a MISTI for this which I'm lucky to have.  Each time you stamp a color you turn the paper a quarter turn and use the next color and turn, and so on and so forth.  The MISTI keeps the stamp in one place on the lid with the paper snug in the corner on the bottom so it's perfectly lined up each time.  I made several of those backgrounds so you may see some more of this in the future.

The next two are currently just card fronts - I have two people in mind for these which will be thank you notes and I'm finishing up something that I'll be sending along with them.  Those dotted backgrounds look kind of like my stamp from up above but they're not stamped.  They're recycled from a tissue box as are the pumpkins.   Sometimes the boxes are so pretty and they just scream to me to be repurposed.  I took out a Hero Arts kit from a few autumns back for the sunflower stamp and pumpkin dies.  I really love the way these came out.

I have some additional tissue boxes saved for some more cards - stay tuned.

Cards Not Index

I've not posted a lot lately other than my ICAD's (Index Card A Day Challenge) and going through some photos I thought I should post some of these.  Some thank you and birthday cards.

These first two are actually part of a trio.  I couldn't find the picture of the third one which was basically the same card except that the base was gray and the circle panel was blue (just the opposite of the first one).  I had seen a color challenge somewhere using these three main colors.  I had to look up whether peonies came in yellow and they did so I felt okay coloring them all So Saffron.  

I had found a sheet of these stamped bluebirds in my stash and used an oval die to cut them out.  We were monitoring our bluebirds at the time and these were very timely.  

And one last birthday/get well card for a Teapot Tuesday Challenge at the end of June for someone very special.   

One more week of work (three days actually) and with the end of ICAD I will have more time to catch up on card making.  I have a little mental list going as to what I want to accomplish.  I think it's time to write things down so I stay on track.

Thank You's and Art Attempts

When my sister passed away last month we were gifted with food, mass cards, and other remembrances and these are some of the thank you cards that I quickly put together.  

While looking for something else in my craft stash I came across a package of water soluble wax pastels and gave them a try late one night laying the colors down first and then blending with an aquapainter. 

I sent away for a black sketch pad to try to work with the moonlight gel pens on.  This was done while on several phone calls - a different color for each call.  I'll continue to add to it until the page is full.  

I saw a post from Ann Martin of All Things Paper posted a link to a tutorial on her FaceBook page that I wanted to give a try.  The materials were something I knew I had - circle punches and an old book (in this case a student dictionary) and some mini clothespins.  Oh, and paper glue.

And here is the result.  I think it might need a partner.  

These days I sit at my dining room table surrounded by much "stuff" including a laptop (mine), a chromebook (work), and my cell phone on it's new stand that HWNSNBP was generous to use his time making for me since I left my little metal one at work.  There's my daylight floor lamp over my left shoulder and Kirby in his cage behind my aching right shoulder.  And then there's the art supplies.  Zentangle pens, markers, pencils, colored pencils, stacked sketchbooks, a new box of Arteza paints to try, my olfa cutting mat for sewing or puzzles, occasionally my camera, and other various bits and bobs.  At my feet are canvas bags full of more choice items - one for paints of all kinds, another for markers of all kinds.  There's a set of wax pastels and a set of oil pastels on one of the empty chairs along with some tissue paper for another project.  Behind me is an east facing window where all, or most of our orchids are on the sideboard.  I can look across the room right into the kitchen where HWNSNBP works at the kitchen island.  This has been my quarantine space for most of the time.  It's a mess, but it's a comfortable mess.  It gets straightened up every couple of days, but no chance of company coming so there's not much urgency in tidiness.  

I venture up into the stamp cave every now and then after my "working hours" when I need to get something, or make a card or two.  We have a birthday coming up on Sunday - a 1st birthday - and Mother's Day is right around the corner.  There's also Teacher Appreciation Week - which deserves some acknowledgement - I know the teachers have been working their butts off at home, most of them balancing family and students.  

There are a couple of jigsaw puzzles still waiting to be done and some various piles of clothing scattered about as well as items found during "cleaning out spurts" that need to find homes (and some of them need to runaway from home).  I get fully dressed up 2-3 times a week.  And by that I mean pants that button and zipper and socks with real shoes.  Otherwise, it's lounging clothes and sweatshirts and sandals.  

I posted a picture of this on FB and a local friend said she could use one.  I actually had asked HWNSNBP to make one for her before I saw a post from her the next morning that she scored some Lysol spray at Costco and had extra if anyone needed at cost.  I messaged her thinking they were probably all spoken for but said I would be leaving a stand in her mailbox.  She said she still had a can and we could trade.  The Lysol cost a lot more than the stand did - it was pennies of scrap wood and 15 mins of his time at most - so I think we made out in the long run.  It was nice to barter.  Cleaning products have been hit and miss here lately.  

Summer Cards

Rachel needed a girl baby card and luckily I made two of these because our daughter-in-law's cousin had a baby girl too and I wanted to congratulate the first-time grandparents.  

Just fooling around with some $1 stickers from Mike's. A lama mandala inspired by my friend Lauren who has a way with stickers and with mandala's too.  I think I might have to add a little bit of pen doodling before making this into a card, but it's a nice start.

Some no line coloring for a Thank You note for friends. 

I used Arteza gouache to color this.

Some more no line coloring/painting for these two anniversary cards.

It's been a slow card-making summer for me.  I have a lot of catching up to do with my Christmas cards - yikes!