Simon Says Stamp Hello Beautiful Release

 Hey everyone!  I'm popping in to share three cards that I made using the Mix & Match Circle stencil from the brand new Hello Beautiful Release.  You can shop the release right here (affiliate link used).   The first card is my favorite.   I wanted to create a soft, dreamy background so I pulled out distress oxide inks in Spun Sugar, Bundled Sage and Speckled Egg.  I taped down my piece of white cardstock, taped the stencil on top and began my inking with the Spun Sugar in one area.  I moved to Bundled Sage and made sure to overlap some of the Bundled Sage on to the Spun Sugar circles.  I finished with Speckled Egg and then did some additional blendings of the other colors.  I die cut the panel with a Spellbinders Essentials die and adhered the panel to a white cardstock base.    The sentiment is the Hello Crafty Friend die from Simon Says Stamp.  I die cut the shadow from vellum, the words from white cardstock (3 times) and then adhered everything.  I adhered the sentiment to the card base along with some Rainbow Fish embellishments from Trinity Stamps. (Sorry the photo is so washed out!)

For the second card I used silver embossing paste on a piece of light aqua cardstock.  After the piece dried I die cut it with circle dies.   I stamped the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Hexagon Greetings in Delicata Silver Shimmer in on the same aqua cardstock and die cut it with the Hexagon die.   I arranged the circles and the hexagon greeting on a white cardstock panel and adhered that to a light gray cardstock base.   I finished off the card with some matte silver sequins that my dear friend Greta sent me recently.

For the final card I used some Tim Holtz Nebula Stickles Glitter gel on kraft cardstock.  The glitter gel is really pretty, but I wasn't super pleased with how the background turned out.   To deal with that I cut the panel into two pieces and used the one that I liked the best.  I added a little strip of black cardstock to my stenciled panel.  I adhered that to a white cardstock base.  I die cut the SSS Eucalyptus Leaves die from gold cardstock and adhered them to the stenciled panel.  I stamped the sentiment from the Birthday Word Mix stamp set in watermark ink and heat set it with gold embossing powder.  The sentiment was die cut with the matching Word Mix die.  I adhered the sentiment to the card and I was done.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Don't forget to check out the new release from Simon Says Stamp.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!  (Affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.)

Happy Wednesday!

Hello everyone!  Happy Wednesday... where did February go?  Soon spring will be here and I have a spring inspired card up on the AJVD blog today.  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!

you are amazing...

 Hello!  Hope you had a great weekend!  I'm popping in to share a card that I made for this month's Pinkfresh Studio challenge.  The challenge this month is to use a word die or alphabet dies on your card.   I will also be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since I used another favorite technique of heat embossing on my card.   I recently got the new Pinkfresh Studio Choose Hope stamp, stencil and die set.  I decided that I wanted to use the stencils with the outline image from the stamp set, but I didn't want to use all the stencils.   Initially I stamped the outline image and then tried the stenciling, but learned that isn't the best way to do it.  So I flipped over my cardstock and started over.   Using only two of the stencils was really easy because Pinkfresh created their stencils with little corner guides.  You simply make sure that your cardstock is centered in those little guides and stencil away! 

I used Worn Lipstick distress ink for the flower and Mowed Lawn distress ink for the leaves.  Once the stenciling was done I stamped the outline image in watermark ink, applied gold embossing powder and heat set.  I absolutely love how it turned out!  I then die cut the Fancy Oval Frame die from gold glitter cardstock, three more times from white cardstock and adhered them together.  White cardstock was die cut with a Spellbinders Essential Rectangle die and then I used the detail die from the set to create the tiny circle openings to coordinate with the little circle opening in the frame.  I adhered pink cardstock behind the white panel and then adhered my gold frame and the floral cluster.  I die cut the word you from gold glitter cardstock, white cardstock and adhered them together.  The rest of the sentiment is from the Pinkfresh Abstract Builder set.   That was stamped in watermark ink on vellum and heat embossed in gold.  I trimmed it down into a strip and then wrapped that around the panel.  Finished with the gold glitter word and some gold flat back pearls. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

we do not remember days...

 Hello!  Hope most of you had a good week.  I'm popping in with a card for a couple of challenges:  Color Throwdown and Inspired By.   The color combo at CTD this week is so beautiful I just had to make a card.  I recently purchased Concord & 9th's Fresh Cut Florals edition 3 die set and I used that to make my little flowers.  I didn't have a blush cardstock so I used the lightest pink cardstock that I had.   The leaves were die cut from gold mirror cardstock.  I couldn't find any cardstock in a sage color so I inked up some smooth bristol cardstock with Bundled Sage distress oxide ink and then die cut it with a die that is also from Concord & 9th.  I cut a thin strip of gold mirror cardstock and placed in along the edge of my white card base.  The challenge at Inspired By is to use a quote or saying.  Mine is the saying by Cesare Pavese "We do not remember days, we remember moments."   And I think that is so very true.  A long time ago I was able to find the sentiment in red rubber mounted on a wood block so when I stamped it on my vellum I had to make sure I did it perfectly.  Thankfully I was able to get a good impression with my watermark ink on vellum the first time!  I heat embossed the sentiment in gold and then trimmed it down.  I arranged the sentiment strip along with the sage colored die cut that I cut in half as you see on the card front.  I adhered the flowers and the leaves.  To add in a little more gold I added a gold flat back pearl to the center of each flower.  I was going to leave the card that way, but I thought it needed something else.  So I added lots of tiny flat back gold pearls.  Now I'm wondering if it was too much!   Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since die cutting is a favorite technique.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely day!

Happy Wednesday!

 Happy Wednesday everyone!  Hope your week is going well.   We got our winter blast over the weekend and now most of the snow is gone.  That is the way it works where I live.  We get two or three days of snow... enough to make us miserable... then the rain returns and everything goes back to normal!   Anywhoo... I have a post up on the AJVD blog and here is a little peek:

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

happy hellos...

 Hey there!  Well... we survived our yearly two days of snow here in the Pacific Northwest!   The snow is pretty, but I really don't like driving it in.  Since I didn't go anywhere except the store because of the snow I had some time to spend making a couple of cards.  Both feature the word hello.  First up is a card for the Inspired By challenge.   It is a lovely inspiration photo of a pink pitcher full of what look to me like tiny purple flowers and greenery.  It was so pretty I just had to play along.   I thought I had an image in my stash that was similar, but I don't so I used some images from the Reverse Confetti Tall Blooms to create my little bundle of flowers.  I stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored simply with Copic markers.   I then die cut all the images with the matching die.  I die cut the Reverse Confetti cover panel from pink cardstock and then several times from thin white cardstock.  Everything was adhered together and then attached to a white cardstock card base.  I arranged my floral images on the panel and then added the sentiment from the Tall Blooms set that I stamped with VersaFine Clair Nocturne in and die cut using a banner die from Reverse Confetti.  I finished off the card with some little pearls from Trinity Stamps.   I will also add this to the Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge for February. 

The second card was made just for fun and I used the sweet little stamp set called Happy Mail from Honey Bee Stamps.  I stamped the image on watercolor paper and did simple watercoloring with the Altenew 12 pan watercolor set.  Once everything was dry I die cut it with the matching die.  Before I watercolored the envelope that the flowers are coming out of I had colored a patch of the cardstock to determine if I liked the color I had mixed up.  I used that little patch to die cut the tag from and stamp the hello sentiment from Happy Mail on it.  The tag was a little freebie from Trinity Stamps!  I embossed the kraft panel with a swiss dot embossing folder and then adhered the envelope image to the panel.  I finished off the card with some little jewels that I had also purchased from Trinity Stamps.   I'm really loving the pearls and jewels I bought from them and can't wait to buy more!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

you melt my heart...

 Hello!  Hope you are having a great week.   It is trying to snow here in my corner of the world.   Fingers crossed that we won't get alot of it.   Since it is pretty darn cold outside so that is a good reason to stay inside and make cards!   I have managed to make four cards!  I will be sharing three of them toward the end of the month.   The card I'm sharing now is for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  I just can't help it... I love combining those two challenges, lol!   There is absolutely no stamping on this card.  Everything was done with my Glimmer hot foil system from Spellbinders and hot foil plates from the Spellbinders January and February Glimmer kits.    I foiled the heart and sentiment using black foil.  Both were then die cut with the matching heart die and a sentiment strip die.  Those dies are from the January Glimmer kit.   To add a little bit more interest to the card I used the largest die from the February kit along with the foil that came with the kit to Glimmer the border around the perimeter.   I love how the foiling around the edge of the rectangle looks sort of pink even though it isn't!  The rectangle was die cut with the largest Spellbinders Essentials die.  A strip of pink cardstock was die cut with the same die I used to die cut the sentiment.  I then layered up everything up on the panel and then added a few little pink sequins. (Affiliate links used where possible at no cost to you.)

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Hello... Wednesday!

 Hello everyone!  Hope you are having a good week.  We have snow in the forecast for the rest of the week and I am not very excited about that at all.  Hopefully we won't get much and it will melt quickly!  Anywhoo... I have a card up on the AJVD blog today 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 unicorn and a snowman...

 Yes... you read that one right, lol!  I have two cards to share and one features a unicorn while the other a snowman.  And they are both valentines!  First up is the unicorn and this valentine is for my great niece Kaia who lives in California.   I have had the idea for this card ever since I made this unicorn card a few months ago.  The unicorn is made with various dies from the Spellbinders Season's Greetings Deer die set that I modified to turn the deer into a unicorn.  The modifications are simple.  Trim off the ears so they can be repositioned and then use the little santa hat die from the set to create the horn.  Easy peasy!  The color palette for this card comes from this week's Color Throwdown challenge.  Since this card is going to a little girl I had to add some sparkle so I die cut the horn and the piece that creates the nose from yellow glitter paper.  I die cut the flowers from the pink, lavendar and mint green cardstock and assembled them.  All the main pieces of the unicorn were adhered together and then adhered to a heart die cut from white cardstock.  I used my Stitched Dot Heart dies from A Jillian Vance Design for the hearts.  I finished off the unicorn by adhering the eyelashes, the cheeks, flowers and the little pink nose.   I die cut a larger heart from lavendar cardstock and adhered the unicorn heart to that one and placed it in the center of my card.  The sentiment was hot foiled in siliver using my Spellbinders Glimmer hot foil system and a sentiment from the Spellbinders January Glimmer kit.  I adhered that to the card and then added a few more hearts die cut from pink and mint cardstock.  I added light yellow sequins to the hearts and silver half pearls to the centers of the flowers.  I absolutely adore how this card turned out!  I hope Kaia loves it!

The second card is for my great nephew Max.  Since it is still winter I thought a snowman would be fun.   The layout for my card is based on the sketch from Freshly Made Sketchs.  I used two hearts from the AJVD Stitched Dot Heart die set to create my large heart from red cardstock.  Additional frames were cut from white cardstock and adhered to the red heart frame.  I adhered that to an aqua panel and added the interior heart also cut from red cardstock.  The little snowman was created using the Spellbinder small die kit for November.  Once I had him assembled I added him to the heart frame.  The sentiment is from A Jillian Vance Design and was stamped on a banner die also from AJVD.  I adhered that and thought I was done, but my little snowman looked a little too plain.  So I added some hearts in aqua and red and liked things much  better.    I hope Max likes his card!  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, too. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

happy wednesday...

 Hello there!  Hope you are having a great week!  It is Wednesday and that means I have a post up on the AJVD blog today.  Here is a peek of my card:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to see the full project and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!