handmadecards

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.