C9 In Bloom, Take 2

Hi all!  As promised I've got more to share with you today using the In Bloom stamp and stencil set from Concord and 9th.

Today's cards feature a simple color blocking technique.

These are so easy to create and I love  the rustic look of them.

I started by taking a piece of Neenah solar white cardstock and cutting it in have widthwise.  

The stencil mask was sprayed with Pixie Spray and placed on the cardstock.

Then I used Post-it tape/Post-its to mask off portions of the panel for inking.  I started with the largest area, fully inked it, then masked off the smaller portions.  For the vertical card I used Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood, and Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.  For the horizontal card, I used Bundled Sage, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap.

Once my panels were inked, I removed the mask.  The Pixie Spray will sometimes leave a bit of residue on your cardstock, so I just used a gum eraser to remove any bits that were remaining.

Then I placed my panels into the MISTI, placed the image on top, and inked.  I like to experiment a bit with my inks, so I used Versafine for the vertical card and Altenew black ink for the horizontal.  I think I like the Versafine better as it gives a crisper look, but I wanted to see how the Altenew held up.  I think it stamped just fine, but shows a little lighter since it's dye, but htat worked with the more rustic colors I used on the horizontal card.

The vertical card was finished with a sentiment from Concord and 9th's Pretty Poppy stamp set, and I used a sentiment from Altenew's Arabesque Medallion set for the other.

I'm not done with these goodies yet.  I'll have some more to share next week!

*Affiliate Links Below

In Bloom, Concord & 9th Clear Stamps

In Bloom, Concord & 9th Stencils

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

VersaMark Ink Pad

White, Hero Arts Embossing Powder

ICraft Pixie Spray

Faded Jeans, Ranger Distress Ink Pad

Weathered Wood, Ranger Distress Ink Pad

Frayed Burlap, Ranger Distress Ink Pad

Bundled Sage, Ranger Distress Ink Pad

Antique Linen, Ranger Distress Ink Pad

C9 In Bloom, Take 1

I picked up the In Bloom stamps and stencils from Concord and 9th last year.  I love the fact that there are a whole set of stencils that coordinate with this stamp set, but for my first card I really wanted to focus on the stamp set and just do some fun coloring.

The image was stamped with Gina K Black Amalgam ink.  I chose four shades of red (R02, R05, R24, and R29) to color the large flowers, three shades of green (YG09, G09, G29) for the leaves, and three browns for the wooden stems (E74, E77, E79).  

The small flowers were colored with just the two lightest shades of red.  I added the tiniest bit of shading in the light stripes on those small flowers, but for the larger flowers I just rotated through the four shades of red with no shading.

Once the coloring was done I placed the stencil mask over the colored image and added a bit of inking using Altenew Pure Graphite ink.

Once the mask was removed, there were a few places where it had shifted and the inking didn't extend all the way to the edge of the stamped image.  To cover those spots I simply used a Copic (my cool grays) to add a bit of color in those areas.  

Then, to crisp up the stamped lines, I placed my panel back in my MISTI (the stamp was still in place), inked it with Versafine, and stamped again.

To finish the card up, I trimmed my panel down, added the thinnest black mat, and adhered them to my card base.

The sentiment, also from the set, was embossed in white on a strip of black cardstock and popped up in the center of the card.

That's all for today, but come back tomorrow to see this set in action again.

Colorado Craft Company Sending Tickles

The Wishing You Happiness set by Anita Jeram for Colorado Craft Company is another that I picked up last year.  The image in this set are much smaller than that big image I shared last week.  I really love the one of the little mouse writing on a notepad....I think that'll be perfect for a simple set of notecards.

I also really love this pair of images, especially the expression on the dog's face.  I'm not even sure what the little guy with the paintbrush is, hamster?  Whatever he is, he's cute.

The images were stamped with Gina K Black Amalgam ink on Neenah solar white cardstock, colored with Copics. and then fussy cut.  

I chose a simple patterned paper background ad added patterned paper borders and some stitching at the top and bottom along with a dark gray mat.  The sentiment is from the same stamp set.

It seemed like I still needed a little something else, so I added some die cuts stars using an old Neat & Tangled die set, adding a bit more stitching.

That's all for me today.  Hope this puts a smile on  your face!

Colorado Craft Company Better Together

One of the best things that happened in the stamping world last year was that Colorado Craft Company started producing designs from Anita Jeram.  Her illustrations have a special place in my heart, our daughters loved the Guess How Much I Love You? book.

I picked up a couple of her sets last year and this week got out the Better Together set.

The main image is this little vignette with all these critters together.  I love how this just fills up a card and really doesn't require much else.

I stamped the image on some Neenah Solar White cardstock with Gina K Black Amalgam ink and then colored it with Copics.  I was trying to achieve a less smooth, more textured look that mimics the images in her book illustrations.  

I used E30, E31, E33, and E35 for the bunny, E13, E15, E37, and E07 for the fox, C0, C1, and C3 for the squirrel, W0, W1, and W2 for the mouse, and W1, W3, W5, and W7 for the hedgehog.  For the sky, I used B0000, B000, and B00, and YG61, YG63, and YG65 for the grass.

Once I was done coloring there really wasn't too much else to do, I added a sentiment from the set and a simple die cut frame in kraft using an older MFT die.

Such an easy card to put together!

The Greetery Mimosa Musings

I picked up this Mimosa Musings set back during the Greetery's Black Friday sale, and am finally getting around to using it.  I just love these unique flowers, so different.  I like that they work as a focal point, but because of their size can also be used to fill out other floral arrangements.

I wanted to create a simple stamped panel for my cards.  I used the MISTI to create these, so I could try a couple different color schemes.  Because I was stamping on kraft and I wanted that lighter layer of color to really show up, I stamped the initial flower layer first with white pigment ink and then with the lighter shade of dye ink.  

I used Altenew inks for the colors - Misty Morning and Dark Night for the blue card and Wisteria and Andromeda for the lavendar card.  I used Evergreen ink for the leaves on both cards.

The large spray of flowers was used first to frame two corners of the card, and then I used the smallest spray on the inside to frame out the center of the card where the sentiment would be.

The sentiments are from my old Foliage Frame set for Neat & Tangled and were stamped with Versafine.

Originally I was going to just have these be one layer cards, but I wanted a bit of accent/defiition/texture, so I trimmed down the long ends just a hair and added stitching along those borders.

Thanks for visiting!

SSS Love You, Too Magnolia Cottage

Hi all, today I'm sharing a card using the Magnolia Cottage set from Simon Says Stamp's new Love You, Too release.

This is a really cute set where you can create a little cottage from the jug that holds the magnolias.  That's actually what I was planning to do, but then I got totally sidetracked by those pretty magnolias and decided to do a 'cute' card another time and just make a 'pretty' card today.

I started by stamping all my images with Gina K Black Amalgam ink and then coloring them with Copics.  I used G21, G24, G28, and G29 for the greens; R00 and R000 for the flower petals;  YR30, Y28, and E23 for the flower centers; and W0, W1, and W3 for the jug.

After coloring the images, I fussy cut them, and then worked on arranging them in my jug.  Once I was happy with the arrangement, I snapped a photo for reference.  This makes it so much easier to recreate where everything went

I used a scrap of natural cardstock to ground the jug and adhered all the pieces in place.  I'm not super careful about getting adhesive on every inch of my pieces because I like the dimension that you get when the tip of a petal or leaf sticks up a bit.

I added a simple patterned paper mat and a sentiment from the set to finish things off.

Just loving how delicate and sweet these flowers are.  Be sure to check out the rest of the release over at Simon Says Stamp!

SSS Geometric Builder Circles (Take 4)

OK, I couldn't resist just one more card with these Geometric Builder Circles.  This time I used just the inner circle die that cuts a ring and a small circle.  

I chose four shades of cardstock from my scrap bin.  Three blues and an orange, and cut the circle several times from each and then mixed and matched the small circles and rings to get a design I liked.  

The pieces were adhered to a white mat and then to a dark blue card base, and then I added a sentiment from SSS's Just Miss You set.

So quick and easy and another great way to use up your scraps.  This is a perfect card design to make with kids too....just die cut a bunch of the shapes in all different colors and see what they come up with.

OK, I'm going to put these circles away, just for a while, because there are all sorts of other things here that I want to create with, but this definitely isn't the last you've seen of them!

SSS Geometric Builder Circles (Take 3)

Hey everyone!  I've got another card to share today using the Geometric Builder Circles.  When you first look at this one, you might not think that I used that die set, but that's the beauty of it.  It's just so versatile!

This card uses the inner circle that cuts two halves.  I die cut the circle several times using five different shades of cardstock.  

The great thing about this card?  I pulled all the cardstock pieces out of my scrap pile.  I used Limeade Ice and Simply Chartreuse from PTI, Lagoon and Blueberry from MFT, and an old teal color from who knows what company.

I knew I wanted to line up the half circles, and played with some different configurations,  Originally I had them laid out more like little bowls, but then I looked at them from the side and really loved the vertical look.   

The half circles were adhered to a white mat, and I added a sentiment from Simon's Just Miss You set.

Such an easy card to create and you could easily make a whole set of these with your cardstock scraps mixing up the colors based on what you have.

Thanks for visiting!

SSS Geometric Builder Circles (Take 2)

I'm working with the Geometric Builder Circles set again today.  This time I used just the basic die that cuts the square background and segments the inner circle into eight pieces, four in a ring surrounding the four quadrants of the inner circle.

I decided to go monochromatic with my circle shapes, using white, black, and three shades of gray cardstock.  For this first card, I created three squares using black as the outside border and three using white as the outside border.  

For the black squares, I used my darkest shades of gray on the ring, and then in the inner quadrant the white and lightest gray.  I kept the lighter colors together in each quadrant, so white and the lighter of the two dark grays, and the darker colors together, the darkest gray with the lightest gray.

The white squares were assembled similarly, but in reverse.  White on the outside, then the lightest two shades of gray for the ring sections, then the darkest gray and black for the inner quadrants.  Again, I grouped lightest and darkest together in each quadrant.

The finished pieces were adhered to a white mat, and then to my card base.

I used Altenew's Waterbrush Hello die for the sentiment.  I die cut the sentiment three times with white cardstock and once with red.  The red was a little lighter than I wanted, so I used a Copic to add a little more color to it.  The four layers were adhere together and then to the card.

The second card I made follows the same basic format.  I had so many leftover pieces that I figured I might as well make another card.  I created a black and white square just as I did for the first card, and then added a square with the lightest gray for the outside and one with the darkest gray for the outside.  Again, I kept the quadrants light and dark.

The four squares were again adhered to a white mat and then to my card base.

This sentiment was created the same way as in the first card, but this time I used the You Matter sentiment die from Simon Says Stamp.

I love the pop of red against that neutral background.

I am really having a hard time putting these dies away....I'll have some more cards to share with you next week!

SSS Geometric Builder Circles (Take 1)

I had been pining after these Geometric Circles since they were released and I took advantage of Simon's Black Friday sale to pick them up.  

These are just so much fun to play with and there are so many possibilities.

For this card I used the basic die which has the circle in the square, and used the pinwheel inside circle die.

I selected an autumnal rainbow of colors from Papertrey Ink (Limeade Ice, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Terracotta Tile, and Pure Poppy), and cut the pinwheel circle once from each of the colors and the basic square frame six time from white cardstock.

I then cut six squares of white cardstock (I used a thinner cardstock for this) just under 1 1/2" (which is the size of that basic square die) and ran them through my Xyron machine to get an even coat of adhesive on them to use as bases.

Then it was just a matter of adhering all the little pieces to my bases.

Once these were done, and I had decided on the basic layout of my finished squares, I decided to create a color blocked background that would match the diagonal lines of some of the circles.  To do this I cut three pieces of cardstock, using a few of the darker colors from the pie shapes, into 4" squares and then cut them in half diagonally from one corner to the other.  These were then adhered to a scrap piece of cardstock to create the color blocked pattern, and then trimmed down as needed.

Once the background was done, I adhered the six die cut squares with foam tape.

The sentiment is from my old So Many Sentiments set for Neat & Tangled and was embossed in white and popped up with foam tape.

I am loving these dies, and have several other cards in the works...I got the Geometric squares too, so be prepared for lots of geometric cards!

Concord and 9th Wildflower Fields

Hi folks!  I ended up taking an unplanned, but much needed crafty break in December.  I hadn't planned to not make anything for weeks, but it just ended up happening.  We were busy with lots of holiday fun, family, and just relaxing.  I definitely missed creating though, and have been happily working with all the new things I picked up during Black Friday.

This Wildflower Fields set was the first one I pulled out to use.  I thought it would be the perfect way to get back into my crafting groove.  This little set of cards really came together in a snap.

I decided to stamp on kraft because it gives you such a pretty rustic look, perfect for these wildflowers.  

All the colored inks are Altenew.  For this first card, I used Rouge and Velvet for the flowers, and then Green Fields and Shadow Creek for the leaves/stems.  Pure Graphite was used for the center of the flowers on all the cards.

The sentiments, all from the set, were stamped with Versafine and then embossed with Ranger Frosted Crystal Antiquities embossing powder.  I use this powder a lot, I love that it gives you a more matte vs. shiny look.

I'm not showing closeups of all the cards, but for the second pink card I used Coral Berry and Grapevine for the flowers and then Green Fields and Mountain Pine for the leaves/stems.

The second two cards I went with more muted colors.  This one uses Amethyst and Plum for the flowers and Forest Glades and Evergreen for the leaves and stems.  To get some more variation in the greens, I used both first and second generation stamping for the green accents.

For the blue card, I used Cloudy Sky and Dark Night along with Forest Glades and Evergreen again.

These were such easy cards to create.  They were mass produced using the MISTI.  I just had all my color choices out and ready and stamped each portion of the image using all four colors before moving onto the next.  

Feels great to get back to crafting again!

December 2020 in Books

I can't believe that another year is over!  Not as many books this month, or frankly blogging as I've been in the thick of the holidays and family time, but it has been a nice break, and I did read some pretty fantastic books this month.  Here's the rundown:

The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore - historical fiction - five stars - This was such a great book to start off the month with.  Based on the life of Donaldina (Dolly) Cameron, superintendent of the Occidental Mission Home, which rescued asian women from lives of prostitution and slavery.  The book talks about how Dolly came to work at the home to begin with, originally agreeing to work there as a year, teaching embroidering/sewing, but then staying on and making it her life's mission.  The book tells how Dolly and the Chinatown police squad would rescue women from the tongs, and how over time they had to be more and more creative to deal with the various legal challenges that occurred.  Dolly had a wonderful vision for her work, and shepherded the home through the devastation of the San Francisco earthquake, rebuilding the home and also building homes for the young children who were rescued from slavery as well.  An amazing story!

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett - fiction - five stars - This is the story of a kidnapping gone wrong.  In a South American country, famous opera singer Roxanne Coss has just performed at a birthday party for Mr. Hosokawa, a Japanese businessman that the country is wooing, hoping that he will bring business to their country.  In come a band of rebels, there to kidnap the President, who at the last minute decided not to attend the party.  Now what to do?  The book details the days and weeks following the botched kidnapping as the kidnappers and the hostages must live together to figure out a way out of this situation, to come to a new normal.  The hostages get to know one another, the kidnappers get to know one another better, and the hostages and the kidnappers grow to know one another.  The story did drag a bit in the middle, but it was a good one and definitely worth the read.  I found out that the scenario is actually loosely based on actual events that occurred in Peru in 1996 which I now need to read a little more about.

Flush - Carl Hiaasen - juvenile fiction - four stars - Another of Hiaasen's animal stories, in this one Noah's father is in jail for sinking the Coral Queen, a casino boat which he says is dumping raw sewage into the harbor.  This is in turn contaminating the local beach.  Noah needs to get to the bottom of this and prove that the Coral Queen is actually to blame both in order to clear his father's name, but also to save his family as his mom has had it with his father's antics and is ready to file for divorce.  As always, Hiaasen's characters are funny and endearing, a fun read.

Winnie's Great War - Lindsay Mattick - historical fiction - five stars - It was hard to classify this book since it's kind of history and kind of not.  It's the story of the bear that Winnie the Pooh was based on.  Winnie, short for Winnipeg, was a bear purchased by Captain Harry Colbourne, of the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade.  Winnie was adopted by Henry at a train station while the brigade was en route to Europe, she traveled across the ocean with the troops and went through training with them, but when it was time to go to war, Henry dropped Winnie off at the London Zoo to keep her safe.  It's there that she met Christopher Robin Milne.  It's a vey sweet story, Carina and I both read it and loved it.

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng - fiction - five stars - The Richardson family lives in Shaker Heights outside Cleveland, they are solidly suburban, mostly happy, and predictable.  Then Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl move into the Richardson's rental property and things change.  Pearl and her mother's lives become intertwined with the Richardsons.  Everything is fine until an old family friend of the Richardsons begin the process of adopting a Chinese baby abandoned at a local fire station.  The mother, now wants her child returned and is a friend of the Warrens.  Such an interesting look at people thrust into a difficult situation, their motives, the choices they make, and what follows.  Excellent book.

The Nerviest Girl in the World - Melissa Wiley - juvenile historical fiction - four stars - This is one I had borrowed at the library for Carina.  She liked it and I decided I should read it too.  Kind of a cute book about a girl named Pearl who becomes a stuntgirl for silent films.  It's a neat look at the early days of silent films as well as life on a farm in California during that time.  My one complaint is that I feel like it went out with a whimper, the premise was good, and I enjoyed it, but it was almost like the author didn't really know how to end the book.  

The Book of Lost Friends - Lisa Wingate - historical fiction.- five stars - I loved this book.  I was so excited to read it, Wingate's Before We Were Yours was one of my favorites books from a couple years ago, and I was not disappointed.  It was inspired by 'Lost Friends' advertisements placed in southern newspapers in the years after reconstruction.  I'd never heard of these ads, but they were placed by African Americans looking for relatives, they would include details about their former masters, names of mothers, siblings, where/to who people were sold.  The story is about Hannie, a girl who has essentially lived at the same plantation her whole life, working the land through reconstruction with a 'family' of other former slaves in order to own a piece of it after ten years.  Her actual family was all sold off, and she hasn't seen them since she was a child.  She inadvertently sets off on a journey to Texas, following the young miss of her plantation as well as the illegitimate daughter of the master.  Along the way she learns about these ads and wonders if her family is still out there and could be found.  The story is interleaved with the modern day story of Benedetta Silva, a first-year teacher in a rural school in Louisiana struggling to make headway with her students.  A must read.

The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones - Daven McQueen - young adult historical fiction - five stars - Since Ellie is starting to get a little older, we're starting to delve into a little more YA reading.  I've tried to steer away from YA in general just because I feel like you very quickly delve into waters that younger teens don't necessarily need to read about, so I've been trying to choose those books with care.  This one was just so good.  We both loved it.  Ethan Harper, who has a white father and African American mother (who are divorced), got into a fight at school and was expelled.  His father thinks he needs a change of scenery and sends him to live with his aunt and uncle for the summer, in rural Alabama.  This segregated world is not something he understands, but then he meets Juniper Jones, a quirky local girl who is just as much an outcast as he is.  She decides they should be best friends, and her friendship changes his life forever.  Such a sad, sweet, story.  A must read.

When We Were Young & Brave - Hazel Gaynor - historical fiction - five stars - I absolutely loved this one.  It's based on true events about the children at Chefoo School, a school for missionary/diplomat kids in China.  After the Japanese seize control of China, things at the school become difficult, they are essentially under house arrest, cut off from supplies and news, but then Japan attacks the U.S., and declares war on the U.S. and Britain, and things become much worse.  The children and teachers are moved inland to an internment camp, through it all the teachers work to make sure that schooling continues, that the children maintain a sense of order and discipline.  A wonderful story of perseverance, determination, and survival.

Love to Everyone - Hilary McKay - juvenile historical fiction - four stars - Clarry Penrose's mother died just days after her birth, and children seem to be an inconvenience to her father.  Despite these challenges, Clarry is the sweetest, kindest, most overlooked daughter, sister, cousin, and friend.  Set in the years around WWI, the book follows Clarry's childhood and path as she manuevers herself into an education and a life beyond what others picture for her.  There's nothing particularly notable about this book except that it's just a heartwarming sweet story of a girl that you root for throughout.  Lovely and sweet. 

The Ickabog - J.K. Rowling - juvenile fiction - four stars - This book was a bit of a weird one for me.  It was probably closer to a 3.5, but I rounded up.  I think that part of the problem for me was that it felt a little bit disjointed and choppy, but that's by design.  The book chapters were originally published weekly online.  I think that if it had been written to be published as a book to begin with as opposed to a serial it would have flowed better.  It's not that I didn't enjoy it, it just lacked some continuity for me.  Anyway, it's the story of a country called Cornucopia whose king is a vain self-centered man whose authority has been usurped by his two 'best friends' who keep him occupied while they are running the country into the ground taxing the people based on the need to protect them from a fictional monster called the Ickabog.  As a result, the once wealthy, happy, nation is impoverished.  OK, but I had expected a lot more.

Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other - Ken Dryden - biography - four stars - I'm a huge fan of Dryden's The Game, and was really excited to see this newest book from him. Add to that the fact that the Detroit Red Wings are my second favorite hockey team, and I am a huge fan of Scotty Bowman.  This was a really great look at Scotty's life and how he learned the game as well as he did, how he thought, etc.  That said, while I enjoyed the book, it was a pretty dense and slow, sloggy read at times.  Interspersed with Scotty's story, Dryden tells the story of the eight teams Bowman considers the greatest of all time.  I found those chapters really interesting - the teams he chose and how he talked about how the team was formed, the buildup to that great year that they had, what things had to happen, which players had to come/leave, I thought those little mini histories were really fascinating.  At the very end of the book though Dryden stages a sort of 'playoff' between those teams which I thought was kind of weird and just didn't really work.  A slow read, but if you love hockey and history, it's definitely worth reading.

Lost of historical fiction this month.  I think my favorites were The Paper Daughters of Chinatown, The Book of Lost Friends, and The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones.  I've got a lot of work ahead of me as a whole bunch of library holds showed up.  I just finished the The Daughters of Erietown, and I'm currently working on Agent Sonya.  Hope you had a wonderful holiday and as always please share what you've been reading!