cardmaking

Walkless Wednesday | 100DayProject Day 60 | Card 43a+b

100DayProject Day 60 | Card 43a+b

Phew, I stayed up way too late (it’s now almost 11:40), writing this post then deciding to finish off Cards 43a and 43b. I was pleased with how the ‘gold dipped’ effect on the bottom of my hello sentiments turned out using foil applied over the dried transfer gel. I had a sort of pinkish foil which turned out to go quite well with each of the pink colours as well as with the goldish/bronze of the pen that I had used to draw over the stitches on the die cut pocket as well as the stitches I drew in with a ruler around the edges of the cards. I should have used an uncut top cutting plate because the texture from the cutting plate came through onto the foil when I ran it through my die cut machine to better press the foil into the dry but still tacky transfer gel. It is also quite difficult to capture the foiled portions of the sentiment on the cards in photos, especially since I don’t yet have a new overhead light in my basement craft room.

I am using the Altenew blog inspiration challenge colours as well as the Color Throwdown challenge blog colours for inspiration as I make my way through the homework for my Altenew AECP classes. I’ve include the links to the April Altenew and the Color Throwdown challenge #831 blog posts in case you’re curious.

Card 43a | Altenew Let it Shine course | Lesson 6 | Foils | Altenew Inspiration Challenge colours
Card 43a | Altenew Let it Shine course | Lesson 6 | Foils | Color Throwdown Challenge #831

Walkless Wednesday

Heidi did a lovely job arranging the tulips that I bought for Jane’s retirement lunch tomorrow.

I fell back asleep after my 7:00 alarm went off this morning so didn’t have time for a walk with Luna before Roland and I set off for our 8:00-10:00 Pickleball. Roland did take her out for a short loop before we left and I did a wee bit of cleaning up of dead leaves and ornamental grasses that I had recently cut down to get a few minutes of sunlight into my eyes close to first thing in the morning. I did some some crafting when we got back. After lunch I went out with Roland to continue some yard cleanup, and boy did (and still does) our yard need a lot of cleanup. Lots of nutrients likely soaked into the soil in the portion of our backyard where all the leaves were still sitting since the fall. We definitely need to get on with a better, no maintenance backyard solution. The grass doesn’t grow that well in the shade of our trees so we are planning to put in a bit of a patio and some mulched areas. Just as we were calling it quits for the yardwork some neighbourhood friends, Donna and Jon, were finishing a chat with our neighbour so we had a great catch up talk with them. Roland put on my summer tires (and found a nail which luckily didn’t make the tire go flat over the winter but which I hope I can get repaired tomorrow) and I baked a date square then we had a quick dinner before heading to the RA centre for 7:00 for an Arctic Canoe presentation hosted by the RA’s Canoe Camping club (which used to be the Y Canoe Club – which we actually did a few white water trips with way back when). Our cottage neighbour, David Pelly, who will be a guest speaker on our upcoming September Arctic cruise with Adventure Canada spoke at the RA as did the owner of Jackpine Paddle. They both shared many stories and photos of the interesting landscape and people of the Arctic.

Of course I had to go up to look for a photo from the whitewater trip we did on the Petawawa with the Y Canoe Club back in June 1994. That’s Roland in the stern. I portaged that rapid and someone else went in the bow.

Happily, I didn’t end up actually having a walkless Wednesday because I took Luna out for a quick loop around the block while Roland gathered up a few things to head to the cottage tonight. I have a few things on for tomorrow (including a retirement lunch for Jane for which Heidi kindly arranged the bouquet of tulips that I bought when I was out at Costco buying desperately needed yard waste bags this afternoon) so I will head up to the cottage in the late afternoon tomorrow. As I took my selfie for today, I realized how impressive the night photography capabilities of our phones are these days. Crazy. And on the walk, I realized that while I love walking and do really feel off when I don’t get a good walk or two in during the day, an afternoon spent outside working on yard work goes a long way to compensating. And that I was still very happy to have a ‘less walking’ rather than totally ‘walkless’ Wednesday.

The date squares I made turned out pretty well. I think it was a recipe I got from Elaine years ago. I checked with Diane and it’s not the one that she got from our mom, so you can be sure I’ll be making another batch of date squares once she sends me a copy of that recipe when she’s back from her Florida golfing trip.
Luna looking a bit stricken as she waited for Roland to come back out to the car to head up to the cottage.

Picture This Year | Prompt 113 (pinch) | Prompt 91 (window)

I’m continuing to follow along with Tracey Clark’s Picture This Year 2025 photo prompts. I only started on April 7th so I’m also slowly working my backwards through the 96 prompts before I started.

Picture This Year | Prompt 113 (pinch) | today’s prompt and photo taken today | I was hoping that the date square recipe called for a pinch of salt so I could (legitimately) use this for today’s photo. It actually called for a teaspoon, but I added a pinch for good measure.
Picture This Year | Prompt 91 | April 1 prompt, photo taken today | I had thought about making a card featuring a window for this prompt, but who knows how long it would take me to get to making such a card, so I just took a photo of my kitchen window. You may recognize some of the flowers that I’ve been photographing lately. I’ve decided to keep up my Swarovski crystal ornaments year round because they are so pretty, especially in the morning when the sun hits them and they reflect the light and cast rainbows on throughout the kitchen. I love looking at the stained glass ornaments that Josee has made. The backyard is now mostly free of the vast collection of leaves that were on that side of the yard over the winter.

Trim on Tuesday 100DayProject Day 59 | Card 42a+b

100DayProject Day 59 | Card 42a+b

I didn’t end up crafting as much as I had hoped today but I did get Card 42 completed which was using metallic papers.

When I am making the cards for homework in my Altenew courses, I’m continuing to take my colour inspiration from the Altenew blog monthly inspiration challenge colours as well as the Color Throwdown challenge blog colours. I’ve include the links to the current Altenew and the Color Throwdown challenge blog posts here in case you’re curious.

Card 42a | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 5c (Metallic Papers) | Color Throwdown Challenge 831
Card 42a | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 5c (Metallic Papers) | Altenew April Inspiration Challenge Colours
This is the card that we made in my Dementia Society class today. Vicki put together these kits. I am looking forward to making some more cards similar to this design in the future.

And I got a bit of a start on Card 43 which will be using some foiling. It seems like an interesting technique to add foil to create a ‘gold dip’ look on a die cut. The lesson showed ink blending the sentiment in place within the piece of cardstock you cut it from which you temporarily secure into place with low-tack tape (I expect putting them both onto a sticky mat would work well too). Game changing tip. I was always so frustrated trying to ink blend die cut sentiments in the past.

Starting Card 43 | Altenew Let It Shine course Lesson 6 (foils) | The tip of ink blending a sentiment with it in place within the cardstock from which it was cut was so helpful!
Starting Card 43 | Altenew Let It Shine course Lesson 6 (foils) | You can see the transfer gel I applied to the bottom portion of the hello. Tomorrow after it had dried, I will add foil to it. Fingers crossed it turns out okay.

And I got started on a ‘denim’ card because that’s my Picture This Year prompt for today and I don’t own anything denim because I don’t find jean that comfortable. So I had to clean my denim textured background stamp (which had white Stazon ink on it because last time I used it I couldn’t find my Stazon cleaner), get out some Dapper Denim ink and create some denim cardstock that I’ll use for my card background as well as to die cut out a cute jean pocket. When I saw the prompt for today I thought I might have a finished card to photograph for my denim prompt, but that’s not meant to be.

I may make some gray ‘neutral’ denim tomorrow and figure out how I can do some foiling so that I can have the cards that I make be part of my Altenew Let it Shine class homework as well as part of the colour challenges which do allow neutral colours such as gray.

Trim on Tuesday

Luna wasn’t thrilled that she had to wait for me to draw a flower using the sidewalk chalk that had been left behind in the park.

As I took my selfie on my walk with Luna I was again reminded of how much my hair needs a trim. So that became the theme for the day. Fortuitously I had a hair appointment this afternoon, so at least my hair trim was taken care of. While I walked I thought of all the things in my life that could use a bit of regular ‘trimming’ but sadly I didn’t end up clearing out any clutter from my home or calendar. But I do think I should trim some things back so it won’t be the last time I ponder this and hopefully actually execute some trimming on future Tuesdays.

I had a good swim then had 10:30 card making class, where we made a lovely sympathy card that Vicki had created for us to assemble. And we put together a few simple cards that I had created for which I didn’t actually end up with the kit to make one myself. We had a fun time catching up about Easter activities amongst other things.

You can find the apple crisp recipe here.

My hair appointment was at 1:45 then Roland and I took Luna for a walk then I went for a short 2k run. It’s been ages since I’ve run so I’m easing back into it. Then it was off to Metro to buy some potatoes and a few other things for dinner. I made an apple crisp for dessert as well as a banana bread. Kevin was over for dinner then I was out for a walk with the ladies at 7:00. A good group tonight, 7 of us plus 2 dogs.

You can find the banana bread recipe here.
There were so many of these tiny flowers on a few of the lawns on this evening’s walk.

Picture This Year | Prompt 112 (glow) | Prompt 92 (denim)

I’m continuing to follow along with Tracey Clark’s Picture This Year 2025 photo prompts. I only started on April 7th so I’m also slowly working my backwards through the 96 prompts before I started.

Picture This Year | Prompt 92 (denim) | April 2 prompt, photo taken today | I had hoped to have a finished ‘denim’ card, but I only got as far as making some ‘denim’ cardstock for my card backgrounds and to die cut out a pocket.
Picture This Year Prompt112 (glow) | Today’s prompt and photo taken today | There is always a nice glow in the kitchen with the overhead lights off but the blue and red growing lights still on and casting a blue/red glow over the plants on my windowsill.

Melting Monday | 100DayProject Day 58 | Card 41a+b

100DayProject Day 58 | Card 41a+b

It’s not so great that I remembered that Altenew has a monthly colour challenge on their card blog. Now I’m going to want to make cards using the Altenew inspiration challenge colours as well as the Color Throwdown challenge blog colours. I’ve include the links to the current Altenew and the Color Throwdown challenge blog posts here in case you’re curious.

Card 41a | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 5a | Metallic Paper | using Altenew April Inspiration Challenge colours
Card 41b | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 5a | Metallic Paper | using Color Throwdown Challenge #831 colours
starting Card 42a | Altenew Let it Shine course | Lesson 5a |Metallic Paper | using Color Throwdown Challenge #831 colours
starting Card 42a | Altenew Let it Shine course | Lesson 5a |Metallic Paper | using Altenew April Inspiration Challenge colours

Melting Monday

Luna was very happy that her favourite spring pond is now completely melted. She’ll have to enjoy it while it lasts, because it disappears again by summer. She likes being in water, but only when her feet can still touch the ground – she is a good swimmer (when tossed in) but never ventures into water deep enough to swim by herself.

Everything is continuing to melt at the cottage. There is still ice on the lake as well as the occasional patch of snow on our lot and in the woods. Luna takes advantage of the snow to roll in and it was handy to clean off the soles of my boots after I planted the ferns I dug up yesterday from the side of the road. I had an early morning walk with Luna and an early afternoon walk with Roland and Luna. She was thrilled to discover that her favourite spring pond is now completely melted. I did some crafting at the cottage and some more at home. Heidi went home last night and to a coffee shop to get some marking done. Roland helped her with some multiple choice this evening. I enjoyed a nice catchup talk with Ivonne when she came over to get some of our extra cilantro, mangos and jalapeno peppers. I’m glad that her volleyball is over and she’ll restart walking with us on Tuesdays.

Picture This Year

I’m continuing to follow along with Tracey Clark’s Picture This Year 2025 photo prompts. I only started on April 7th so I’m also slowly working my backwards through the 96 prompts before I started.

Picture This Year prompt 94 (hole) | April 4 prompt, photo taken today | It’s a bit hard to see the hole that I dug into which I place the 3 ferns that I dug up from the side of the road yesterday, but it is there!
Picture This Year prompt 93 (twist) | 3 April prompt, photo taken today | After I dug the hole, transplanted the ferns I had dug up and stomped down the earth my boot treads were filled with mud. Luckily there was still a patch of snow around to ‘do the twist’ with my feet to get most of the mud out of my boot treads. So interesting that I could immediately have a photo to take after I checked out the prompt which proceeded the ‘hole’ prompt once I had taken that photo.
Picture This Year prompt 111 (ribbed) | today’s prompt and photo taken today | It has been ages since I used this crimping tool to add some dimension and interest to the front of a card. I haven’t yet finished the card front, but I did at least get enough done to be able to take my ribbed photo for today. I did get all of the ink blending done on the envelopes, inner layers and back of the 2 cards.

Shadows on Sunday | 100DayProject Day 57 | Card 38 | Card 39 | Card 40a+b

100DayProject Day 57

Card 38 | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 4a | Shimmer and Sparkle Pens | Color Throwdown Challenge #831

I made reasonable progress today. 40 cards within 57 days has put me back up to just over 70% completion rate. I am beginning to accept the likelihood that it will take me well over 100 days to make my 100 cards. There was a lot of colouring on my first two cards. The third card had no colouring at all so it went more quickly, although I did make 2 versions of Card 40 so that added some time. I am continuing to try to use the current colour palette from the Color Throwdown Challenge when I am making my cards. CTD831 colours are sage green, yellow and coral.

Card 39 | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 4b | Shimmer and Sparkle Pens | Color Throwdown Challenge #831
Card 40b | Altenew Let it Shine Lesson 5a | Metallic Paper

Shadows on Sunday

It was lovely and sunny this morning when I took Luna out for a forest walk. I took a few photos squinting up into the sun then decided that it would be better to position myself in the shadow of a tree. Shadows can be a good thing. They can make interesting photos. Many years ago when I was following some photography blogs there was a Shadow Shot Sunday challenge that I did for a while. I still remember some of the photos that I took, perhaps because I also posted them on my blog at the time. But it has made me a lot more interested in capturing some shadow shots from time to time. I am fortunate that my family and friends are generally quite tolerant of my requests for shadow shots. It is a nice alternative to selfies to get yourself into a photo. No timer and running back into the shot involved either.

Roland and I took Luna for a forest walk in the afternoon once it had warmed up more; it had become quite windy after my morning walk which made a walk less enticing. I grabbed a shovel and a few buckets because I wanted to transplant a few of the tall ferns that grow along the side of the road near where we start our forest hikes. Unfortunately those ferns totally dry up rather than staying green and there are no fiddleheads appearing yet so I’m not 100% certain that I dug up the correct plants. Maybe I just have some weeds that I won’t actually want in my garden. I’ll plant them tomorrow. What reminded me to dig some up was that photo prompt 95 was ‘plant’. Roland took a saw up into the forest and started clearing some downed trees while I dug up my ferns. I helped him haul away some branches. There still needs to be another trail clearing session with a chain saw but we made some good progress. Luna was pretty bored sitting around waiting for us.

Heidi and I made shrimp tacos for dinner with mango salsa and grated cabbage. They were pretty good. Next time we will try to figure out a nice coleslaw recipe to slightly soften up the cabbage a bit and/or we’ll figure out a better creamy sauce recipe. Heidi headed back home after dinner. Luna was not pleased that one of the three new smoke detectors that Roland tried to install seemed to be faulty because it kept blaring. Roland had to entice her with peanut butter get come back inside. She is so afraid of sounds like that, thunder and fireworks since there was a particularly loud finale fireworks at Stefan’s cottage birthday cottage about 4 years ago. Before that she didn’t cower at all from such sounds, now she is terrified. That fireworks night she ran off into the woods and it took more than an hour of us all up on the roads nearby looking for her.

Picture This Year | Prompt 95 (plant)

I didn’t bother to take another photo for today’s prompt 110 (sign) because I decided yesterday’s photo was good enough. So I just took a photo for the plant prompt. After I took that photo I looked back to see what prompt 94 is; it turns out to be ‘hole’ which will be quite handy for me since I’ll have to dig a hole to plant those (hopefully) fern plants that I dug up today.

Picture This Year prompt 97 (April 5 prompt, photo taken today). I dug up some fern plants from a nearby ditch to transplant along our driveway. I hope these turn out to be the ferns that I want and not some type of weed that I don’t want.
My shadow on the rock reminded me of the old Shadow Shot Sunday photography challenge that I did for a while way back in 2011-2012. I have enjoyed taking shadow shots since then. I’ll try to keep an eye out for shadow shot opportunities on Sundays again.

Shadow Shot Sunday – Throwbacks

Since my theme today is Shadows, I decided to look back on my old blog to find some photos that I took as part of a Shadow Shot Sunday photography challenge.

2011 03 30 | Just a few days after discovering Shadow Shot Sunday I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom and noticed my shadow on the wall, and the reflection of that shadow in the mirror. I wish I’d had more time to experiment with creative photos of these shadows
2012 01 15 | Another beautiful day for a walk – clear and crisp. I fit my walk in the neighbourhood by Jim Durrell before Stefan’s hockey game
2012 01 12 | I was so happy that Roland and Heidi took a few photos of their brief visit to the cottage (since they were sort of in the vicinity) after Heidi’s ringette game in Buckingham. I would have loved to be with them, the snow-covered forest looks so magical against the brilliant blue sky.

Step Back Saturday | 100DayProject Day 56 | Card 36 | Cards 37a+b

100DayProject Day 56 – Card 36 | Card 37a | Card 37b

I am continuing to try to use the current colour palette from the Color Throwdown Challenge when I am making my cards. CTD831 colours are sage green, yellow and coral.

Card 36 | Altenew Let it Shine course Lessons 2 + 3; embossing powder and embellishements | The lesson featured a nice gold frame embellishment. I didn’t have one so improvised by die cutting a few circle dies out of gold foil cardstock. Overall I’m pleased with the way the card turned out. | Color Throwdown Challenge #831
Card 37b | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 3b | Embellishments and gradient blending | I had an extra white background so I decided to make another similar card. I changed it to portrait, heat embossed the friend sentiment on vellum and added a narrow black matting behind the white background. | Color Throwdown Challenge #831
Card 37a | Altenew Let it Shine course Lesson 3b | Embellishments and gradient blending | I was quite pleased with how the gradient blending on the hello die cut turned out. And how nicely the friend looks. I stamped it with black ink and heat embossed with clear powder, It is big enough to look great even though it was then run through the die cutter with an embossing folder. I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do for the back of the card, inner layer and to decorate the envelope but I was happy with how the gradient ink blended grid stencil turned out. | Color Throwdown Challenge #831
I did some prep for Cards 58 and 59 and decided to make quite a few extra packages using that stamp set. I just used a variety of black, silver, clear, gold and white embossing powders. It will be great to have the envelopes, inner layers, back of card base as well as an image pre-stamped and ready to go to make the card fronts for tomorrow’s and future projects. Kind of a few steps forward today to go along with my step back.

Step Back Saturday

I took Luna out for a short walk on the road when I got up; there was a bit of sprinkling but luckily not too much rain. I did quite a lot of crafting today, including some during a great catch-up call with Nancy who had been away travelling and whom I am looking forward to seeing on Wednesday for a retirement lunch for Jane. I started my crafty time taking a step back from creating and instead focused on organizing. For a long time I have been wanting to reorganize my Altenew products in a better way (the same envelope system as I’m using for my other supplies). I’m keeping those products separate because I need to have them all handy since the AECP (Altenew Certified Educator Program) does want cards that feature Altenew products which totally makes sense. We can use other products as well, but they do want the cards to look like they are Altenew cards. I am so much happier with how they are organized now. I haven’t actually numbered them yet, I’m just storing them in alphabetical order. I also got some other products that I recently acquired (Scrapbook and Cards today classes as well as purchases on the recent outing to the wonderful paper crafting store in Plantagenet, east of Ottawa with Vicki. I actually have long neglected my organization system and have a lot of new product to get organized (and a lot of product that was previously organized that need to get filed back into their proper storage location). I will be taking more steps back to organize rather than craft in the coming days. I am getting very frustrated with my crafting disaster areas (as is my family). I waste way to much time searching for products. I could do a full 100DayProject just on organizing.

I am so glad that I took a step back from making cards to spend some time better organizing my Altenew supplies. For now I’m keeping them in alphabetical order rather than mixing them in with my other products which I simply assign a one-up number as I put them into an envelope and include them in my catalogue.

Roland and I took Luna for quite a long walk on the road to the bridge in the afternoon, again missing rainy periods. It ended up getting reasonably warm so I was down to short sleeves by the end of the walk. We bumped into our neighbour, Laurie, who invited us for wine and cheese about 5:30 where we met an interesting woman, Andrea, from Australia who is house and dog sitting for other neighbours. We’re looking forward to seeing Laurie and her husband, David, in town on Wednesday evening for a presentation on the Arctic. Those are the friends who will be guest speakers on the Arctic cruise we are doing at the beginning of September. Heidi stayed with Luna who doesn’t like to be left alone at the cottage. Our stuffed turkey breast (that we won at a Christmas Bonspiel) was ready when we got home along with some veggies and potatoes (take 2 since the first ones that Roland had peeled and got ready earlier in the afternoon had boiled dry – the pot is still out in the woodshed – I’m not sure if the pot will be salvageable).

Picture This Year | Prompt 109 (float) | Prompt 110 (sign) | Prompt 96 (three)

Picture This Year prompt 109 (float) | today’s prompt, photo taken today | There is definitely still lots of ice floating on the lake, and lots of debris from the trees mixed in.

I was a bit disappointed that there didn’t seem to be any of the very interesting shards of ice that often form in the melting ice at this time of year, but there was definitely still lots of ice floating that I could use as the subject of today’s prompt which is float. There were definitely starting to be some signs of spring on our walk with Luna this afternoon. The dandelions seemingly appeared out of no where and seem to be everywhere along the ditches at the side of the road, especially where there is a southern exposure. And, Roland changed the road signs from saying ‘winter conditions – 4 wheel drive only’ to ‘private road – use at own risk’. I wasn’t quite on the ball because the change over sort of would have had a dual meaning for tomorrows Picture This Year Prompt 110 (sign). I was busy taking some dandelion photos as my sign of spring photo in advance for tomorrow’s prompt. Maybe I’ll come up with something more creative for that prompt tomorrow. I did realize that I had taken a photo of 3 dandelions before I decided that I should be trying to do 2 prompts a day and gradually work my way back through the first 96 prompts since I only started the challenge on prompt 97 on 7 April. Interestingly enough prompt 96 was 3 so I can use that photo.

Picture This Year prompt 110 (sign) | tomorrow’s prompt, photo taken today | dandelions are a sure sign of spring and they were abundant along the side of the road on this afternoon’s walk with Luna to the bridge. I wasn’t lucky enough to capture any of the water drops that were dripping from above but I do like the glistening backdrop to the flowers.
Picture This Year prompt 96 (three) | photo taken today, prompt from 6 April. I decided today that I would start working my way back through the 96 prompts I missed since I only started the challenge on 7 April at prompt 97. The insects are already hanging out on the blooms.