two cards...

 Hello!  Popping in to share two cards that I made for several challenges.  First up is a card I made for Color Throwdown and the May Pinkfresh Studio challenge of flowers.  Take a look.

I have had the Pinkfresh Studio Charming Floral Border set of products for along time and I think have only used it once.  Shame on me because how sweet is it?  I stamped the image twice and then used the stencils to color the flowers using Pinkfresh Studio inks.  When I initially did the stenciling of the purples the second shade was too close in color to the first one use so I had to re-stencil the image using a darker purple.   Didn't have to do that with the oranges and the aquas.  Once the stenciling was done I die cut the borders with the matching die.  I die cut additional borders from scrap cardstock to adhere behind the stenciled ones to give them more substance.  There were adhered to my favorite PFS Sparkling Diamonds cover plate die.  I decided that I didn't want to cover up any of the pretty stenciling I did so I used a sentiment from the Charming Borders set that I embossed in black on vellum and then trimmed down with a sentiment strip die.  I finished with these little clear droplets that I have.  I don't know where they came from, but I sure do like them!

This next card is for Freshly Made Sketches and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Take a look.

I found the FMS sketch to be a bit of a challenge for me.  I wanted to use patterned paper for the card and used some green and blue plaid paper from a Memory Box 6x6 pad.  I die cut the center rectangle and then flipped the paper over to cut the strips from the other side.  I think I got my strips too close to the center rectangle, but no going back now, lol!  The center rectangle was popped up with foam squares and the strips around the rectangle with thin foam squares.  I had previously inked up some white cardstock with brown and blue distress oxide inks (vintage photos, gathered twigs and blueprint sketch) so I used those to die cut my little Birch Press Design Budding Twigs from those.  Some of the pieces have alot of inking and some only a little.  I liked the variation it provided.  I adhered the twigs together and then attached them to the center rectangle.  I finished with the twine bow and an Open Studio "happy birthday" sentiment tab.  

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  Hope your week is going well.  I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today and here is a little peek.

I went outside my comfort zone with this card.  I hope you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog to check it out.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!.

simply flowers...

 Hello!  Hope your weekend is going well.  I have two cards to share today for several different challenges.  Both cards are pretty clean and simple.  Let's take a look at what I made.

This card is heading off to the Just Us Girls challenge to use lavendar, peach and gray.   Those are definitely not colors that I would put together, but that is what a challenge is all about... challenging yourself to do something outside your comfort zone!  I did direct to paper inking to get the colors that I wanted.  For the lavendar color I used Milled Lavendar distress ink, for the peach I used Pinkfresh Studio Peach Fuzz and for the gray I used Weathered Wood distress ink.  The wreath was created using PaperTrey Ink's Into the Blooms wreath die set.  For the background I used the A plate of the Birch Press Design Grace layering die set to emboss the white cardstock.  I then layered on the wreath and all the elements.  I finished with one the Memory Box/Open Studio sentiment tabs.  I will also be posting this in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to make a feminine card.

This card is for the Color Hues challenge to use lilac and lime green.  Now, I used Shaded Lilac distress ink for this flower, but to my eye the color looks more like lavendar and the Milled Lavendar on the first card looks more like lilac.  What do you think?  Anywho, I used a Simon Says Stamp floral die called Sunrise Stem and the same direct to cardstock inking that I did on the first card.   The layout for the card comes from the current Sunday Stamps challenge and I used one of my favorite die sets the Memory Box Curved Capped Pinpoint layers die set for the panels.  I layered those on a light gray cardstock base along with the white banner.  The sentiment is another Memory Box/Open Studio sentiment tab. 

That's it for me.   Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!