a three card share...

I almost put a three card monty as my title, lol!  I used to hear that saying, but never really knew what it meant.  So I looked it up and it is a confidence game or con game!  Learn something new, right?!  Anyway, I have three cards to share.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown.  Thanks to some enabling by the super talented Kelly Lunceford I finally broke down and purchased my first products from Ink to Paper.  I used the It's A Sign:  Love & Kindness set along with inks from Catherine Pooler.  The peach ink I used is called Bellini and is very dark so I did some second generation stamping so that the image had the light peach called for in the color combo.  I still have to do some work figuring out the correct way to die cut the little flowers, but felt they were good enough for now.  To make the sentiment stand out more I placed the second sentiment over the peach background and stamped with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist.  Arranged everything on a white cardstock panel and I was done.

The next card is for this month's Altenew inspiration challenge.  I wasn't going to enter anything as I couldn't figure out what the colors were, but decided to make something since I could use the sketch.  I stamped the Color A Flower Hydrangea with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne on watercolor paper, let it dry and then colored the image with Ranger distress inks in Bundled Sage and Chipped Sapphire.  I trimmed down the panel, added some score lines to mimic the sketch and adhered it to a light sandy colored cardstock base.  The sentiment is from the Altenew Label Love set, stamped three times with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist, trimmed out and popped up on the image to mimic the square element in the sketch.  I did manage to get gray in to my color scheme dispite not really know what the colors to be used were!  Think I will add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The final card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I had previously made a card using the gorgeous Floral Focus image, but had only used part of it because it is easy to cut the piece into two separate pieces.  I'm using the piece that I did not use on today's card.  I colored the image with Copic markers in shades of violet and green.  I die cut the banner using a MFT fishtail flag stax die and stamped the sentiment from another MFT floral set on the banner with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I adhered the image to the banner using glue.  The strips were cut from purple cardstock and for some reason I used the wrong purple!  I had another purple out that went with the colors better, but put it back instead of the one I used.   I adhered the strips and then attached the banner using foam tape and glue dots.  The panel was then adhered to a white cardstock base.  A nice clean and simple take on the sketch! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

A Glimmer Christmas...

Hello everyone!  I'm popping in with four Christmas cards that I made using my Spellbinders Glimmer hot foil system and lots of different Glimmer plates.   Spellbinders is currently having a great sale on the Glimmer systems as well as up to 40% off select Glimmer plates.  You can check it out here or just click on the banner.   There are lots of new Christmas Glimmer plates but the ones I'm using today were released last year.  I was able to purchase a Christmas Glimmer kit that included all the products I need to make the four cards that I'm sharing.  I had so much fun creating these cards and I think that I'm going to make additional cards based off of one of the cards I made.  This kit is no longer available, but there is a new Christmas kit featuring Glimmer products available on the Spellbinders website.

Now on to the card!  As I indicated above the kit included everything that I needed to make all the cards with the exception of one of the foils that I used.    Instructions are provided, as well.  At one point I thought I would just make my own cards, but then decided to go ahead make the cards per the instructions, with small changes to two of the cards.  The first card is the simplest one, but I think really packs a punch.   The stamp set that was included in the kit has two Christmas type trees in it and the instructions call for the largest one to be heat embossed in white on a light blue cardstock.  The banner was created by using foiling one of the included plates with red foil and then trimming out the banner portion, adhering it over the tree and then finishing off the card with gold flatback pearls.   This card would be so fun to create using several different foils and cardstock backgrounds.  Going to add this one to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The next card also features the Glimmer foil plate used in the first card, but this time you get to see the entire foiled image! The Glimmer plate used is called Merry Christmas Banner.  I made a couple of little changes to this card.  I foiled the image on the medium blue cardstock, but did not do any ink blending on the card as suggested in the instructions.  I die cut the piece and adhered it to a white cardstock base.  I foiled the sentiment, trimmed it down and then adhered it to the card front.  With the sentiment I also deviated from the instructions.  At first I wasn't going to add the leaves and little gold pearls, but decided to follow that part of the instructions and I do like how it turned out.   Again, this is a card that would be fun to foil in lots of different colors with different background colors.





The next two cards are definitely more involved and feature lots of die cutting.   The first one features the elegant Faux Script Holiday Cheer glimmer plate.  This is another card that would be fun to create using different foils and colored cardstock.   The large sentiment, as well as the smaller sentiment were foiled on the red cardstock and adhered to the embossed panel.  The smaller sentiment is from the Glimmer plate set called Holiday Sentiments.    The poinsettia, leaves and little sprigs were die cut from various cardstocks and adhered to the card front as show.  The dies used for the flower and leaves are from another Glimmer plate set called Ornament.  You will see the ornament plate in action on the final card.   I could see making this card and using the sentiment "and Happy New Year" instead of the Merry Christmas sentiment used on the card I made.

The final card is the most ornate of the four and was lots of fun to create.  I made a few little changes to this card.  The Ornament Glimmer plate set includes the large ornament glimmer plate and then all the dies to cut the poinsettia, leaves, berries and little sprigs.  You can still get this set at a great sale price.  This card also uses the Merry Christmas Banner plate.  It is only in the background mostly covered up by the large ornament.  The ornament is foiled in green on green cardstock and then trimmed out.  There is an oval die in the Ornament set and I used that to die cut the oval center from the ornament.  I then foiled the sentiment (also included in the Ornament set) on blue cardstock, die cut it with the oval.  The ornament was adhered to the cardstock piece that I foiled with the banner plate and then I popped the oval sentiment in the center.  The poinsettia, additional leaves, and sprigs were die cut, layered together and then adhered to the panel.   The finished panel was adhered to a cardstock base along with a strip of embossed cardstock.   There is a lot of dimension on this card so I think I will just hand deliver this card instead of sending it through the mail.

I hope you enjoyed seeing all the Christmas cards I made.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Hello there...

Hope your week is going well.   Since it is Wednesday that means I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog and here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out my card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a dragonfly and birthdays...

Hello!  Hope you had a nice weekend!  I actually felt like making some cards this weekend and I'm sharing three that I made.  First up is a card for Fusion card challenge.  I often forget about Fusion so I decided to see if what the current challenge was and just loved the inspiration photo.   So I had to play along.  I tried a couple of ideas that went into the garbage before settling on doing some very simple watercoloring with distress inks on watercolor paper.  I tried to make the area where I the watercoloring have some thing of an arc to it.   Once it was dry I stamped the hydrangea image from the Colorado Craft Company Big & Bold Get Well Hydrangea with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  The sentiment from the same set was stamped using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and then I die cut the piece with an AJVD rectangle die.   The dragon fly is from a Stampin Up! set called Dragonfly Dreams.  I stamped it using Catherine Pooler Suede Shoes ink, die cut it with the matching die and then die cut a detailed dragonfly from the pretty purple glitter cardstock that I used on another card a few days ago.  I adhered the two dragonflies together and then adhered it to my card front.  I finished with some purply-blue sequins.

The next two cards were created with the layout from CAS(E) this sketch in mind.   I created a card for the last CTS challenge and used the Concord & 9th Thankful Leaves turnabout stamp and die set.  There is a fun little banner die in the set along with dies that you can use to create a happy birthday sentiment.   I knew I wanted to use the dies on my card, but wasn't sure how I would use the dies that cut out birthday.  At first I did die cut them and was going to go with that, but then I decided to use the dies to hot foil the sentiment.  The first go didn't turn out well so I decided to try it again on light gray cardstock instead of the white that I had originally used.   The foiling went much better with that version, but I realized that I could save the first one and end up with two birthday cards!  I used the same purple glitter cardstock for the white version and black glitter cardstock from C9 for the grey version.    With both of them I die cut the word happy from the glitter cardstocks and then a second time from a scrap of white cardstock, layered then and adhered to the panels (after they had been die cut with an AJVD rectangle die).  The banners were die cut and then popped up with foam dimensionals.     Definitely very clean and simple!  That purple glitter paper is almost gone.  I really like it so I think I will have to purchase some more... now to remember where it came from, lol!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a simple card...

Hey there!  Have you ever created a card that when you were done you just weren't really very happy with how it turned out?  Well... this card is just that kind of card.  Overall there isn't any thing really wrong with it, but I'm just not super happy.   Maybe it is just too plain...  Anyway I used the color combo from Color Throwdown, the layout from Freshly Made Sketches and the new Spellbinders/Becca Feeken Nested Clipped Squares.   After initially diecutting the squares I was going to use I decided that they were just way too plain looking so I die cut frames for the two larger squares.   I wasn't able to do that for the smallest square and I think that is part of the problem.  It just looks a little out of place without a frame.  The sentiment was hot foiled using my Glimmer and black foil.  I really like how it actually looks like stamping.   I adhered the purple square to my white cardstock panel and then adhered the blue one on top.  The yellow one was adhered with foam dimensionals.  I then adhered the frames to the squares so that they look like they are interlocking.  The sentiment was foiled, die cut and then adhered.  Still looked too plain so I die cut a small square from the dark blue cardstock and adhered it to the center of the large blue square.  Looked a little better, but still not happy.   But... I made it so I need to own it and just go with it!   Just wanted to mention that Spellbinders is having a deal going on right now.   Just click on the banner in my side bar to go to the Spellbinders website.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Wednesday!

Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog today and here is a little peek of the card:

Before you head off to check out my card I wanted to let you know that Spellbinders has a new offer going on.  You can check it out here or at the link in my side bar.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

purple leaf...

Hello!  Hope your week is off to a great start.  I'm popping in with a quick post sharing a card that I made for a few challenges:  CAS(E) this Sketch, Sunday Stamps and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   The colors for the current Sunday Stamp challenge were so pretty I just couldn't pass them up and they included blue so it was a great fit for the Simon Says Stamp challenge, as well.  I pulled out one of my favorite Concord & 9th stamp and die sets Thankful Leaves turnabout set.  I used three shades of blue and a light gray for all the stamping.  Once the piece was stamped I die cut it with the sort of diamond shape die from the C9 Blooms Fill In stamp and die set.   I adhered that to a white cardstock panel that I die cut with an AJVD die and trimmed off the excess.  I die cut the leaf from purple glitter cardstock (purple is one of the colors in the SS color combo) and adhered that to the stamped piece.  The sentiment is also from Thankful Leaves.  I stamped it with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne, trimmed it out and adhered it to the center of the leaf.  I finished off with some sequins in shades of blue and a little bow made from a dark blue twine.

Must acknowledge that the team at CTS picked the last card I entered as a favorite!  How fun is that?! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Pinkfresh Studios and MFT...

Hey there!  Popping in with two cards.  The first one is for this month's Pinkfresh Studio challenge to use florals.   I recently got the Pinkfresh Studio/Altenew colloboration stamp and die set called Celebrate today from Scrapbook.com.  At the time I purchased the set they were offering a special Pinkfresh Studio/Scrapbook.com thank you die set for free with purchase!  So I also used that on my card.  I stamped the beautiful floral image on smooth bristol cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink and then watercolored it very simply with ZIG markers using colors from the challenge color palette.   Once I was done I die cut the image with the matching die and then adhered it to a white cardstock base.  The thank you was die cut from white glitter cardstock (although it is hard to tell in the photo) and from scrap white cardstock several more times.  Everything was stacked and then I adhered the sentiment on the floral image.  Very simple, but I love how it turned out!

As you can probably guess from my blog post title the second card is for a MFT challenge (or 3, lol!).  I haven't often played along with the week long challenges that MFT host each summer.  This year it is called Summer School.  Alot of the challenges were up my alley and so I decided to make a card for two of them.  Day 1:  Visual Triangle and Day 5:  White space.   I will also be posting this to the MFT color challenge and was going to add it to the sketch challenge, but realized that my layout did not really follow the sketch challenge layout!  Anyway, that is still three challenges!   I used the super cute MFT Meant to Bee stamp and die set for my card.  I colored the bee hive and little bees with ZIG markers and then added a little more depth with my Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils.  The images were stamped with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink.  I die cut everything with the matching dies.  To create my branch I used the little tree from a no longer available MFT set called Sweet Forest Friends.  I colored that with a brown ZIG and a brown Polychromos.   I adhered the bee hive and the little bees.  The sentiment was stamped in the bottom corner and I added Nuvo Glitter drops in clear to the bees wings.    Lots of white (well... in this case cream!) space on this card, as well as the little bees created one visual triangle.  Being that the bee hive is actually triangular in shape that makes a second one.   Going to try to make one more card before the Summer School challenges close... fingers crossed I get my homework done in time, lol!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Happy Wednesday!

 Hello and happy Wednesday everyone!  I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog and I will just let you know that it is another slimline card, lol!  Here is a little peek:

Even though I let the cat out of the bag I hope you will still head over to the AJVD blog to see the full card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Spellbinders/Becca Feeken Halloween Collection

Hello!  Halloween?!  Yes, I know it isn't even the middle of August, but the new Halloween collection by Becca Feeken just dropped on the Spellbinders website and I have two cards to share using two of the die sets that are now available!  The collection can be found here.   I created two cards using the Spooky Boo die set and the super cool Nestabilities Nested Clipped Square die set.   For the first card I decided to create a shaker element using two of the Nested Clipped Squares.  I taped them together on some patterned paper that had bats on it and ran it through my die cutting machine.   Because I wanted to use the element in the more diamond shaped way I made sure to die cut the paper with the bats flying in the right way.  I didn't do that originally and realized that it wouldn't look right.  A small detail, but I'm all about the details... even the small ones, lol!  I die cut some additional paper using a Spellbinders classic rectangle die and then using the frame and the inner piece I lined it up on the rectangle and adhered it.  I die cut some bats and spiders from white and orange glitter cardstock to place in the center of my shaker element.  I die cut acetate to create my window, adhered it to the back of the frame with glue and then adhered thin strips of foam tape to the frame.  This was carefully place directly over the interior piece that I had adhered and my little shaker bits.  I trimmed out the sentiments from some Halloween patterned paper and adhered then to the shake element along with a cat I die cut from black glitter cardstock.  A small piece of the orange glitter cardstock was adhered behind the cats eyes and mouth.  Additional patterned paper was trimmed to fit a card base, adhered and then I added the shaker element.

The second card is a bit more simple.  I trimmed down some patterned paper to fit my card base and adhered it.   I then die cut the largest Nested Clipped Square die from some patterned paper with a spider web design on it.  I decided to place the die cut on my card front not in the diamond orientation, but as you see it.  I die cut the spider web from white glitter cardstock (although it doesn't look very glittery!) and adhered them in the opposite corners.  I die cut two spiders from black cardstock and adhered then on the webs.   The word boo was die cut from the white glitter cardstock and then several more times from scrap white cardstock.   All the word were adhered together and then I adhered the word nestled between the two webs.  To balance things out a bit I added three bats die cut from black glitter cardstock.




Here are the two cards together.  I think these will be going to my little niece and nephew when Halloween finally rolls around!   Before I go I want to let you know that Spellbinders has a new offer going on this week.    Simply spend $75 and you will receive a set of Wonderland Storytime Paint Pen FREE (a $39.99 value!)    You can also click on the banner below to be taken to the Spellbinders website.   Affiliate links are used.  Should you decided to use the links I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for using my links!

Thanks for sticking with me this far, for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

have a beautiful day...

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I'm popping in with a card for a couple of challenges:  Color Throwdown and Fab Friday.  I finally created a card using the super sweet Sketched Florals stamp and die set from Reverse Confetti.   I stamped all the little floral images multiple times using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then stamped all the solid parts of each image using inks from Catherine Pooler (Coral Cabana, Samba and Blue Suede).   Die cut everything with the matching dies.  I created a wreath using two circle dies from A Jillian Vance Design and then layered on all of the floral images.  I finished the wreath off with a little bow tied from white twine.  I was going to use the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches, but determined the wreath was a little too big and would have looked weird so I went with the layout from Fab Friday.  I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set in the Nocturne ink after diecutting the panel using the largest Stitched Dot rectangle die from AJVD.  The panel was popped up on a white cardstock base with foam tape and then I adhered the wreath using glue.  Ended up a little heavy on the blue, but I love how fresh and crisp the card looks!  Adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use your favorite tool.   I used one of my favorite tools:  my stamp positioner!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a wedding card...

My niece is supposed to get married on September 5th.  Plans have been changing rapidly so I talked to my mother-in-law (my niece's grandmother) about what was happening.  She told me that they are going to have a small wedding with just immediate family and then another small gathering for those who couldn't attend the wedding.   Since they are moving forward I made their wedding card today.  I wanted to enter the card in the Paper Players challenge to make a wedding or anniversary card so I had to get it done.  I used the layout from CAS(E) this Sketch so I will be posting it there, as well.   I used a Stampin Up! set called Forever Blossoms.  I actually bought this stamp set with this particular niece in mind.   I stamped the large blossom branch on smooth bristol with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink and then colored very simply with a light pink ZIG marker and a light green ZIG marker.  The sentiment was also stamped with the Acorn ink.  I then die cut the piece with the largest AJVD plain rectangle die and adhered it to a kraft cardstock base with foam tape.  I may add some sequins, but I really like the simplicity of the design.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Simon Says Stamp Let's Connect Release

Hello everyone!  You probably already know, but Simon Says Stamp has a new release called Let's Connect.   You can find the new release here.   Simon was so kind and sent me the really sweet Anna's Flowers stamp set.  I created three cards using the set.  First up is a card that I did some watercoloring on.  One of the flowers in the set really lends itself to doing faux no line watercoloring (at least I think that is what is called!).  I stamped the flower across a panel of watercolor cardstock at varying heights using Old Paper distress ink.  I then applied clean water to the petals and colored them with Pick Raspberry and Abandoned Coral distress inks.  The leaves and stems came from another old Simon Says Stamp set and were colored in the same manner.   Once that portion of the coloring was done and dry I added in grass and a sky using Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean distress ink.  The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark watermark ink and then embossed with WOW embossing powder in Ebony.   It was trimmed down to a strip, wrapped around the card and secured on the back.   I adhered the panel to a white cardstock.  I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

The second card is very simple.  I stamped the large sunflower like image on off white cardstock using four different yellow inks from Altenew.  It is a little hard to tell that I used four, but I did, lol!  The panel was die cut down with a rectangle die.  I arranged where I wanted the sentiment to be and then stamped it with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.   I used some bright yellow twine to create a border on either side of the sentiment and then added a little bow using the same twine.  The panel was then adhered to a kraft cardstock base.  Clean and simple!  I think this one is my favorite of the three.







The final card didn't turn out exactly how I thought it would, but it was fun to create!  I started by randomly stamping three of the sunflower like images on white cardstock with various different yellow inks (the same inks used on the second card).   I then prepped the cardstock with an antistatic powder and stamped over the images with watermark ink.  I didn't get them exactly over each image, but I wasn't going for perfection.   I then applied a dark yellow/orange ink over the top and the wiped off the excess ink.  I split the panel and adhered then to a kraft cardstock base leaving a gap that I used to wrap some twine around and tied in a bow.  The sentiment was stamped on a small tag using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then inked with the same ink that I used for the background of the panel.  That was then adhered to the card front.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Hello... August!

Hello everyone!  Can you believe that we are already in August?!  Crazy, right!  It is Wednesday and that means I have a post up on the A Jillian Vance Design blog and here is a little peek of my card:

I hope you head over to the AJVD blog to see the full card and thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget about the Spellbinders BOGO sale going on right now!

Spellbinders BOGO Sale!

Hey everyone!  Popping in to let you know that Spellbinders is having a BOGO sale on select dies.  The sale starts today and runs through Sunday, August 9th.  Just click on the banner to go directly to the sale.   The link provided is an affiliate link. Should you purchase through this link I will earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for using my affiliate link.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!