Stencil on a Birthday Card

(I LOVE the "Seize the Birthday" theme image!)   In spite of my heavy purge of supplies, stamps, and tools recently, I did keep all of my stencils.  They take up very little space and I haven't used most of them.  I used one with lots of angular designs for my card.  

 

The Pressure of Weather

The OPTIONAL TWIST for today's challenge is:

WEATHER
(clouds, sunshine, rain, snow, etc.)

When I saw "weather" as the theme for Can You Handle the Pressure? I was sure that I didn't have any "weather-related" images...but then I found this old-but-unused Deep Red "Retro Umbrella Girl."  I chose the clouds embossing folder and tried to accent the clouds with some white ink. Adhesive "raindrops" were the perfect accent.  (So sorry that the cloud embossing doesn't show up on black)

Freshly Made Sketch #684

 

It's been a month since I've made a card for this blog; I realize that I am simply slowing down with my card-making.  Because I recently purged my tools and supplies, I didn't have a punch for the shaped edge.  I resorted to a partial rectangular die for the shape of this Freshly Made Sketch.

Spring is at Color Throwdown

 

Generally, I seem to struggle with color challenges; this was no exception.  The colors for Color Throwdown are definitely ones I associate with Easter.  I chose the tulip die with the idea of making the flowers colored on a green stem.   I struggle because of larger, arthritic hands...so it was a challenge. 

A Large Birthday Tag

 

I "went off the rails" a bit with this challenge.  I'm preparing to leave for 10 days as we celebrate the 8th birthday of our only grandchild.  Of course, I wanted a birthday card, but cards for Ava are actually tags. Her mother has dedicated a wall in the upstairs hall with the cards/tags I have sent to Ava.  This is my "milestone" birthday greeting. 

Here is the wall of cards and tags I have made for Ava over the years.  

Freshly Made Branches and Leaves

I always enjoy using dies that I've accumulated over the years. This Freshly Made Sketch gave me that opportunity.  

 

Circles and Lines

 

For this Sunday Stamps challenge, I chose black and white...all based on a piece of DSP in a pad that's all black and white.  It's a very simple construction, using a Memory Box die to create the "circles" in the sketch.  One of the circles is a double...black cardstock and iridescent cardstock.