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!

i'm smiling...

 Hey there!  A quick post to share a card that I made for the April Pinkfresh Studio challenge.  I will also be posting this to the Paper Players and the Simon Say Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Here is what I made.

The Pinkfresh Studio challenge closes soon so I went with a very simple design that uses a sweet little Pinkfresh Studio wreath die for the circle element called for in the challenge.  I also used one of the colors choices:  pink.   The layout is from the Paper Players.   I also used the PFS Curvy Foliage die.  Along with all the white I threw in a bit of gold metallic cardstock.  For the little squares in the back I die cut the PFS Sparkling Diamond cover plate from white cardstock and then die cut individual squares using a small square die.  The sentiment is from a PFS stamp set called Charming Floral Border.  

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

Floral Cards

 Hello!  Stopping in to share a couple of cards.  I will be posting one of the cards to the following challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Color Throwdown and Just Us Girls.    The other card will be going to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Here is the first card.

The challenge at JUGs is anything goes with stencils.  I have quite a few stencils, but don't often use them.  I looked through my stencils, but then decided to use an older Hero Arts stamp and stencil set that came from one of their My Monthly Hero card kits.  I don't remember what year or month.  I did the stenciling using the CTD colors, but accidentally got ink on the image during the process, so I set that one aside and decided to use the Simon Says Stamp Groovy Blooms stencil set with the CTD colors and the FMS layout.  I stenciled flowers and leaves and then die cut the panel down to fit the FMS layout.  I was able to trim out one of the large flowers and adhered that to the main panel.  I then decided to stencil some of the smaller flowers and leaves to add to the panel.  I used a scrap of the original stenciled piece to die cut the word "hello" from.  I die cut a few more of the hello from other scraps of cardstock, adhered them together and added it to the shadow die cut from vellum.  I used some pretty yellow glitter cardstock for the other elements in the sketch, then adhered everything to a white cardstock panel and then to a card front. 

This card was made with the first round of stenciling that I mentioned above.  After I finished the above card I decided to figure out a way to make this image work.  I thought about just trying to cover up where I had gotten ink on the image, but didn't really like that idea.  Then I covered up part of the image with a strip of cardstock and I liked that look.  So I cut the floral image into two pieces.  I cut the strip of black glitter cardstock and adhered it directly to a cardstock base using thin foam squares.  I added glue to the back of the floral piece and tucked it underneath the glitter strip.  I die cut the work thanks from the yellow glitter cardstock I used on the first card and vellum for the shadow and adhered it to the card front.  I think I was able to create a pretty decent save.   

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

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  Popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today and here is a little peek.

I hope that you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog to check out my projects.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!