congrats!

Hey friends!!  Well... the weekend is upon us!  Have a card to share that I started last night and finished up this morning before I took my little to school.  Been struggling all week with one thing or another so I pretty darn excited that I actually got something made!  I used the current colors from Color Throwdown along with the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  This week is anything goes at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge so I will be posting my card there, as well.   Did some simple watercoloring of the background using SU!'s Night of Navy ink.  The die is from Simon Says Stamp that I die cut twice and adhered together.  I signed up for the current Online Card Classes Clear & Sheer class and during one of the lessons Jennifer McGuire showed a technique add some shine to your die cut words using embossing powder.  I followed the general idea, but used Judikins Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder to give the die cut some sparkle.  After my panel was dry I die cut it and some navy cardstock.  A quarter inch of the panel was cut off the end and a quarter in was cut off the end of the navy cardstock.  The two were adhered together in the back using some washi tape and then adhered to my card base.  Added the sentiment and some wood veneer stars that were ink and embossed with the same embossing powder.  Super simple, but given my week simple was about all I could manage, lol!  I included a close up of the die cut so you can see a bit more of the sparkle. 

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  SSS fog, Ranger watercolor paper, Bazzill navy blue, PTI Harvest Gold; Dies:  Simon Says Stamp and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Night of Navy, So Saffron (SU!), VersaMark watermark ink; Judikins Iridescent Sparkle EP

Wednesday with A Jillian Vance Design...

Hey friends... just popping in to let you know that my usual Wednesday post is up over on the AJVD blog.   And... I have a little peek for you:

I hope you will take the time to head over to the AJVD blog, have a look and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by today...

surf's up!!

Hey friends!  Popping in with a quick post of a card that I made for two Verve challenges:  Viva La Verve April sketch challenge (sketch #1) and Verve April Diva Inspirations challenge.  When I saw that the Diva Inspiration challenge was tropical chic I just had to use my Verve Learning to Sail stamp set.  This set comes with a fun surfboard image and the sentiment "surf's up".  I went a bit crazy with polka dot patterned paper, but not too crazy, lol!  I stamped the surfboard on pink and blue papers and then trimmed them out.  Some yellow polka dot paper was die cut with the largest die in the Frosty Flakes die set and stamped with the largest sun in the Learning to Sail set.  The sentiment panel was die cut using a Spellbinder's plain square die and then the mat was cut with a larger plain square die.  The panels were die cut with my AJVD Polka Dot Rectangle backdrop dies.  Layered everything up as you see and I was done.  Even though the card says "Surf's Up!" I think this would make a fun birthday card. 

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white; Patterned paper:  Echo Park (yellow) DCWV (pink and blue); Stamps:  Verve; Dies:  Verve and A Jillian Vance Design; Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black

celebrate today... pti april blog hop

Hey friends!!  Popping in to share the card I made for PTI's April blog hop.  I have to admit that when I saw the inspiration piece I was pretty darn stumped as to what I would be able to make.  Last night I tried an idea, but it didn't work so I went to bed and slept on it.   When I was doing my experimenting last night I had used my distress inks so when I got up this morning I realized that I could use them with one of the Color Pop kits.  I decided to go with the Color Pop Florals kit as the flowers are closer to the circular design of the piece.  I used the Soft Stone panel that was covered with the flowers that came with the kit.   As I stenciled the flowers I tried to create the lightest color values in the inspiration piece and then stamp the darker values with the companion stamps.  I left the leaves unstamped as I liked that look.  I know I said this before, but I really love the stencils that come in the kits.  They are nice and sturdy which makes it so much easier to stencil!  I die cut the "celebrate today" three times from Fresh Snow linen cardstock and then stacked them.  The panel was die cut and adhered to a Soft Stone card base.  Finished it with the die cut sentiment.  Super simple, but I like how it turned out.  I used a ton of distress inks... will try to list all of them down below!

 Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy the hop...

Supplies:  PTI Color Pop Florals kit - stamps, dies, cardstock panel and stencils; AJVD polka dot rectangle die; Cardstock:  PTI Soft Stone and Fresh Snow linen; Inks:  Distress Inks:  Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, Iced Spruce, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Ripe Persimmon

birthday tulips...

Hey friends!! Popping in with... yep... another floral birthday card!  A friend recently pretty much cleaned me out of all the birthday cards I had made so I needed to make some for birthdays that are coming up soon.  I absolutely love tulips so when PTI came out with the Tulip Time stamps and dies I had to have them.  I pulled them out for this birthday card that I will be giving to my mom later this week.  I used the colors from the current Color Throwdown.  Since this card is a celebration card and uses die cuts I will be adding it to the current Time Out challenge.  I did some second generation stamping in order to be able to use just the three colors in the Color Throwdown palette.  I did experiment with layering the orange and dark pink together, but didn't like the look.  The first layer of the tulips was inked up with Melon Mambo and then stamped off on scrap paper before stamping on to the die cut.  The second layer was stamped using the Melon Mambo at full strength.  Did the same thing for the stems and leaves using Gumball Green and the little butterfly using Pumpkin Pie.  Some orange twine was tied around the tulips before adhering them to the main panel and then the butterfly was adhered to one of the tulips.  After stamping the sentiment I decided to add some Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins for a little more interest.  As this is a girly card I will also be adding this to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  Simon Says Stamp fog; white; Stamps:  PTI; Dies:  PTI and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Stampin Up! and Memento; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh

happy birthday wishes...

Hey friends!!  Friday is here... yay!!  I'm especially excited for the weekend because my niece is here for her baby shower.  She lives in California and so I don't get to see her that often.  I'm sure that her mom, my sister, is working on trying to get her to move back here to Washington state once the baby is born.  Anyway... the card I'm sharing today isn't a card for her shower it is a birthday card that I made using the current layout from Freshly Made Sketches as well as the current ColourQ combo.  I pulled out three different Stampin Up! sets to create this pretty simple design.   I admit I love butterflies and flowers... my stamp collection is full of butterflies and flowers.  I could probably make a card a day for a month and make only a small dent in the number of flower/butterfly sets I have, lol!  And that collection is only growing... hee hee!   Before completing my card I fiddled around with the colors to get the layering right.   The hydrangea (from SU!'s Because I Care) was stamped in the coral color and then the little dotted strip (from SU!'s Watercolor Wings) was over stamped in black.  The butterfly (also from Watercolor Wings) was stamped using aqua and gold inks and then die cut with the matching die.  Stamped the sentiment (from Simply Sketched) , attached the butterfly and I was done.  I think I will also enter this in the current Paper Players challenge (CAS with a butterfly).   And since this is a rather feminine card I will also add it to the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (girly).

Thanks for stopping by today...


Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, Simon Says Stamp fog; Stamps:  SU! Watercolor Wings, Because I Care, Simply Sketched; Dies:  SU! Butterfly Thinlets, A Jillian Vance Design Polka Dot Rectangle; Inks:  SU! Calypso Coral and Coastal Cabana, Delicate Golden Glitz, VersaFine Onyx Black;