two cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with two cards today.  One card is for the Altenew monthly challenge and the other is for the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.  First up is the card for Altenew, take a look. 

The color combo this month for the Altenew challenge was definitely a challenge for me.  But I wanted to take up that challenge because isn't that what challenges are for, lol?   The colors are green and two shades of brown, but there is also a lovely old brick castle featured in the photo so I decided to take some inspiration from that and create a "brick" background for my green leaves.  I created my own stencil using a die that I have that creates a brick background.  I applied light brown ink first through my stencil and then blended on some light gray ink.  The inks I used are Pinkfresh Doe and Altenew Linestone.  I went back and forth between the two colors to get the look I was going for.  I stamped the leaves from the Leaf Canopy stamp set on watercolor cardstock using VersaFine Clair Acorn ink and then watercolored them with two shades of green from my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set.  Once everything was dry I die cut them with the matching dies.  I die cut down my background panel, stamped it with the sentiment from Mega Succulent stamp set with the Acorn ink.  The panel was adhered to the kraft card base with foam strips and then I added the leaf branches.  Now I have a nice masculine birthday card and I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

Now let's have a look at my card for the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.

The last time I ordered from Scrapbook.com they had a free gift opportunity that I couldn't pass up.  I pretty 6x6 pad of paper from Dress My Craft called Hydrangea Lawns.   I decided to use that along with many different Pinkfresh Studio dies for my card.  The Pinkfresh challenge is layers and boy do I have layeres, lol!  I started by die cutting the Modern Mosaic coverplate die from some of the patterned paper.  Using a rectangle die that I have that is the exact same sizes as the cover plate die I die cut a piece of patterned paper with a script design on it and adhered it behind the mosaic panel.  I then die cut another piece of patterned paper with the Fancy Oval frame.  I die cut a second frame and adhered it to the main oval.  I die cut a scalloped rectangle using the Essentials Scalloped rectangle die, adhered that and then added the oval frame.  I added foam squares to the back of the fall out oval and set it back inside the frame.   I had previously foiled some of the Pinkfresh butterflies on acetate and then adhered them to some patterned paper I used two of those on the card along with a sentiment that I foiled in gold on acetate, as well.  Nice to be able to use up some of those bits and pieces we all seem to have!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hang in there...

 Hello!  Got a clean and simple card to share today.  When I made this card I was only planning to post it to the Color Hues challenge, but then when I checked this morning the new Paper Players challenge is clean and simple spring!  My card fits perfectly.  I love it when that happens!  Take a look. 

It is a little bit of a weird weather day here in my neighborhood.  It is overcast, but the sun is trying to shine.  Makes for not so great photos.   I recently purchased Wisteria Wishes stamps and dies from Stampin Up! and really wanted to use it.  When I saw the colors at Color Hues I thought the combo would be perfect for the layered stamping required for the wisteria images.   There are several shades to the color turquoise.  I went with the brighter more blue version (think Sleeping Beauty turquoise) for my turquoise.  I stamped the main image using Altenew Turquoise ink and then detail layer with Pinkfresh Studio Blue Jay and then die cut with the matching die.  I stamped the leafy branch with Simon Says Stamp Fog ink, the sentiment with VersaFine Clair Nocturne and then die cut the panel.  I popped up the image with low profile foam squares and then added a few gems in a turquoise and dark blue.  Clean and simple as can be!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Simon Says Stamp Just For You Release!

 (To see my Birch Press Design post, please click here.)

Happy Thursday everyone!  The new Simon Says Stamp Just for You release is now available!  Simon was so kind and sent me the lovely stamp set called Herb Labels.   I have created two cards using this fun set and I have a few other ideas percolating in my little brain, lol!  Let's have a look at my cards.  

As you might have guessed, the stamp set Herb Labels features images of different herbs, two label images and lots of sentiments.  Several sentiments in the set are punny.  I just had to use the image of mint with the sentiment "Mint to be".   I couldn't stop there... I had to the color mint for the card, as well, lol.   I went a little "old school", too, and used a vellum overlay that I attached to the main panel using a length of white satin ribbon.   Back when I first started stamping I would often see people using this method.  It was also (and may still be) very popular on wedding and/or baby shower invitations.  I stamped the mint image all over the mint cardstock using a green ink that was just a little darker than the cardstock.  I initially tried an ink that was very close in color to the cardstock, but once I laid the vellum on top, the stamping disappeared.  Not the look I was going for!  I die cut the vellum panel to be about a quarter inch smaller than the background panel and then using some repositionable adhesive I layered them together as you see and die cut two small holes.  I removed the repositionable adhesive and then secured the panels together with the ribbon.  I adhered the panel to my card base and then got started on the final part of the card.  For this I die cut more vellum using a very small rectangle die from a classic Spellbinders rectangle die set.  The mint image was heat embossed in white on vellum and then I colored the back with a mint green Copic marker.  Once the piece was dry I trimmed it out and use rolled up glue dots to secure it to the vellum piece.  The sentiment was stamped in black ink on white cardstock, trimmed out and then adhered.   I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps so I will be adding the card to their gallery. 

My second card is somewhat similar to the first card, but this time I used one of the labels images and did a little watercoloring. 

I used some patterned paper from the Simon Says Stamp March 2023 card kit for my background and adhered it to a kraft cardstock base.  I stamped the label on kraft cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink an then trimmed out the label.  The sentiment was also stamped on kraft with the Acorn ink and then die cut with another small rectangle die.  I stamped the tomato image on watercolor paper with the Acorn ink and then did some simple watercoloring.  Once dry I trimmed it out.  I decided to add a little distressing to everything using Vintage Photo distress ink for a more vintage look.  I then adhered the patterned paper to the card base.  I popped the tomatoes image up on the label and then tucked the sentiment in slightly behind the image.  The piece was then adhered to the center of the card.  I finished with three Memory Box Fairy jewels in a pretty red/gold color.  

Thanks for stopping by, make sure to check out the release and have a lovely day!

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello everyone!  Hope all is well in your world.  St. Patrick's day is tomorrow and with that in mind I created a spring green project for the Birch Press Design blog.  Here is a little peek of my project:

I hope you will head over to the blog and check out my card.  Have a wonderful day!

a little something

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick share of a card that I made for two challenges that I don't often find myself having the time to participate in:  Paper Players and Just Us Girls.  The Paper Players challenge this week is a color challenge.  The combo is another that just says spring so I was inspired to get a card made before the challenge ended.  I paired the colors up with the JUGs challenge to create a rainbow themed card.  Take a look at what I came up with.

When I saw the JUGs challenge I immediately thought of the fun Stampin Up! Rainbow of Happiness stamp set and coordinating dies.   I was going to make the rainbow out of blue, green and yellow, but since I wanted a sun in the mix I decided to just go with blue and green.  My green is the very old Stampin Up! Gable Green and is a little lighter than Granny Apple Green, but I think goes well with the SU! Tempting Turquoise I used instead of Tahitian Tide.   After diecutting each arch of the rainbow I had several pieces left over so I just adhered them behind the corresponding arch to create a little dimension on the card.  The sun was die cut from my favorite yellow, PTI's Lemon Tart.  I stamped the sentiment from the stamp set in black.  The little clouds were die cut from Simon Says Stamp glitter cardstock.  I adhered all the pieces and I was done.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

dragonfly...

 Hello!  Hope your week is going well.  It is very cold here in the PNW and it doesn't seem like spring is coming.  In fact, this morning I was outside and thought to myself that it felt more like December than March!  Hoping it starts to warm up soon.   Today's card is all about pretty spring colors and a dragonfly.  Take a look. 

When I saw the color combo at Color Throwdown I knew I was not going to miss the opportunity to make a card with it.  It is just so bright and fresh.   I wasn't so sure, however, that I was going to make a card using the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.   Sketches with lots of things in the center terrify me, lol.  But I decided to give myself the challenge of coming up with something.   I think things turned out pretty well.   All products are from the Greetery, except for the ink which is from Pinkfresh Studio.   Toward the end of last year the Greetery had a sale.  There was one thing in particular that I wanted, but I didn't want to do an order by myself.  Then a friend contacted me about doing an order together and so I had her get me what I wanted:  Jumbo Curiosity: Dragonfly stencil and die set.  I thought that was the only Jumbo Curiosity stencil and die set that I owned.  As I was looking through my Greetery products I discovered that I also own Jumbo Curiosity:  Butterfly!  Had no idea!  Anywhoo...  I die cut the dragonfly from white cardstock, used some low tack tape on the back to keep them in place and stenciled them with the CTD colors.  Then I had to figure out the other shapes I was going to use.  At first I didn't want to use circles, but in the end they looked the best with the dragonfly.  The circles are from the Pinwheel Party suite of products.  I die cut the pinwheels from white cardstock and stenciled with the matching stenciled.  The smallest blue pinwheels were stamped with a image from the Pinwheel Party stamp set and then die cut.  I arranged everything on a white cardstock panel and then added some Nuvo drops in Morning Dew and Yellow Bird.  I wasn't going to add a sentiment, but then decided to add the small hello from the Bittersweet stamp set.  Simply stamped in black, trimmed out and popped up. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

a wreath and flowers...

Hello!  I'm popping in with two cards for a few challenges.   And as you can tell from my blog title, one card features a wreath and the other features flowers.  First up is the card featuring a wreath.

The current color combo at Color Hues is gold and green and I thought they would be perfect to pair up with the Freshly Made Sketches layout.  I used the wreath image from the Birch Press Design Classic Sentimental Wreath stamp and die set for the circular image in the FMS layout.  I stamped the solid wreath using Pinkfresh Studio Grassy Knoll and then the detail image using VersaMark watermark ink.  Gold embossing powder was applied, heat set and then I die cut the wreath.   In order to get a green that matched the stamping I used the Grassy Knoll ink pad to apply ink directly to white cardstock and then trimmed off a strip.  I adhered the strip behind the strip of embossed white cardstock and then added that to the card front.  The sentiment is a new foil plate and die set from Birch Press Design called Thank You Noted Script.  That was foiled in gold and then die cut.  I adhered the wreath with foam squares and then added the sentiment.  I wanted something else on the card and so I decided to use some tiny gold stars.  

My next card is for Color Throwdown.  It is a rather fun combo of coral, yellow, navy and blue.   I had just received the Simon Says Stamp March card kit and I decided the fun folk art like flowers in the stamp set were perfect for this combo.  Take a look.

I started by deciding which colors I wanted to put together.  I decided to use the navy blue with coral and the bright blue with the yellow.   I used Pinkfresh Studio inks of Coral Reef, Lemon Whip, Sapphire and Summer Shower.   To ground the flowers I used the long wavy stamp from the stamp set (I actually cut it down to a small size to fit better) and stamped it in Simon Says Stamp Fog Gray ink.  The sentiment is also from the stamp set and was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and then die cut with a banner die.  I die cut down the stamped panel and then matted it with a panel of black cardstock slightly larger than the main panel.  I added everything to a Fog Gray cardstock base.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

a rainbow and flowers...

 Hello!  Hope all is well in your world.  It has been pretty cold here in the PNW (Pacific Northwest), but thankfully little to no snow!  Hoping it stays that way.  I'm popping in with two cards today.  I'm very proud of myself for making two cards because lately I have not felt like making even one card.    Sometimes I think I suffer from "too much stuff syndrome" (I made that up!).   Because I have too much stuff I get a little paralyzed and can't decide what to do.  Do you suffer from this same syndrome?  Let me know!  Here is my first card for Sunday Stamps:

Birch Press Designs has a new release out and it is full of beautiful floral die sets including the Sprouting Crocus Contour Layers die set.  I love seeing Crocus flowers sprouting up during the early spring, don't you?   I die cut the flowers and the stems from white cardstock and then inked them up with distress oxide ink in Mowed Lawn and Prize Ribbon.  I then assembled the flowers per the little assembly sheet that comes with the dies.  I set them aside to dry and worked on my sentiment.  I inked up some white cardstock with Bundled Sage distress oxide and then positioned the Big Thanks Sugar Script die so that the inking was darkest at the bottom and die cut the word.  I die cut two additional words and adhered them to the inked one for more stability.  There is a shadow die for the work, but I decided not to use it for my card.   For the background I placed one of the flowers along with the word on a panel of white cardstock to determine where I was going to blend on some Speckled Egg distress oxide.  Once I had that figured out I inked up the background and then adhered all the elements.  I decided to add a sub-sentiment to the card.  The sentiment is from Reverse Confetti and was stamped in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I finished with a scattering of Memory Box Fairy Drops.  I think I captured several of the colors in the palette fairly well.  

The next card is for Color Throwdown:

The colors for this week's Color Throwdown had me thinking "rainbow" and so I pulled out the fun Stampin Up! Rainbow of Happiness bundle and did a little stamping.  I used Pinkfresh Studio and Simon Says Stamp inks for the rainbow.  The pink and blue inks are from Pinkfresh Studio and the yellow and aqua inks are from Simon Says Stamp.  I die cut the little clouds from Simon Says Stamp velvet luxury cardstock in snow white.  I layered those on with liquid adhesive and foam squares after I stamped the sentiment in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I added the little blue hearts and some crystal clear sequins.   I will add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

happy friday...

 Happy' Friday everyone!  I'm popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press blog today.  Here is a peek at the card I created. 

I hope you will check out the card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

you are amazing...

 Hello!  Hope all is well in your world.  I have a clean and simple card to share for a few challenges.  Clean and simple seems to be my mode these days, but that is okay.  I love clean and simple cards!  This one is for Freshly Made Sketches, Color Throwdown and Pinkfresh Studio February challenge.   Take a look.

The February challenge at Pinkfresh Studio is to use stripes on your project.  The FMS sketch was the perfect vehicle for that challenge.   And who doesn't love a pretty pastel color combo?  Things are very gray here in my corner of the world (we even got snow the other day!) so I was keen to create with a palette that makes me think of spring.  Bonus that the colors in the PFS challenge and the CTD challenge are very similar!  I cut stripes of pink and yellow cardstock and adhered them to a panel of scrap cardstock.   I used the Pinkfresh Studio Leafy Branch die to the green cardstock.  I then trimmed it down to fit the card front and added it to the striped panel along with the foiled sentiment.   I used two of the trimmed off pieces and added them to the card front to fill things out a bit.  

Simon Says Stamp Be Creative Release!

 Happy Thursday everyone!  The Simon Says Stamp Be Creative release is now available at the SSS website.  You can see the entire release right here.   Simon Says Stamp was so kind and sent me the lovely You Did stamp set from CZ Design.   This set is perfect for any wedding themed card that you might need, but some of the images would work for birthday cards, as well.  I created two wedding themed cards.  Take a look. (Affiliate linked list of products is at the end of this post.  Using my links allows me to earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for using my links.)

For the first card I went with a coral and gold color palette with a little bit of vellum thrown in.  The background was embossed using the Simon Says Stamp Blossom Field embossing folder.  I had originally embossed this panel for another card idea that didn't work out, so I was glad to put it to use on this card.  I die cut circles from white and gold cardstock and then layered them.  The cake and rings were heat embossed on vellum using WOW gold embossing powder and then trimmed out.  I arranged the two images per the sketch from Sunday Stamps but didn't like all the empty space on the white circle.  There is a sweet little image of hearts in the You Did stamp set so I used some coral ink to stamp the hearts all around the circle.  That did the trick!  I added the images and adhered everything to the embossed panel.  I originally stamped the sentiments with the same coral ink, but they just kind of disappeared into the background.  So, I stamped and embossed the sentiments in the WOW gold, die cut them and layered them on top of the original sentiments.  So much better!   This card also works for the SSS Wednesday challenge so I will add it to the gallery.

For my second card I decided to create something a little more masculine even though I stamped the floral bouquet image in the background using Simon Says Stamps Fog ink.   I then over stamped the sentiment using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I have done overstamping in a very long time, but it is a technique that I really like and should use more often.  I added little dots of a light blue Nuvo drop (no long available) and then adhered the die cut panel to a light blue panel that I embossed with the Simon Says Stamp Geometric Lattice embossing folder.  To bring everything together I adhered the panel to a Fog gray cardstock base.  

Affiliate linked products used:

Simon Says Stamp Be Creative release

Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design You Did stamp set

Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design You Did die set

Simon Says Stamp/CZ Design You Did bundle

Simon Says Stamp Blossom Field embossing folder

Simon Says Stamp Geometric Lattice embossing folder

Simon Says Stamp Fog ink

Simon Says Stamp Fog cardstock

Wow Pale Gold embossing powder

VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink

VersaMark watermark ink

Spellbinders Platinum 6

Bearly Art Glue 

Simon Says Stamp foam squares

Make sure you check out the new release!  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Happy Friday!

 Happy Friday everyone!  I'm popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press blog today.  Here is a little peek (or not so little peek, lol) of the three cards that I'm sharing on the blog. 

I also have a post on the blog from the end of January.  You can check out that post here if you would like.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a birthday card...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card that I made for my great niece who turned one this past Sunday (February 5th.)  I used the colors from Color Hues for the card so I will be posting it there.   Take a look at what I made.   The door is almost closed on the current Seize the Birthday, but I will post it there, too.   I did want to say thank you to the Color Hues team for picking the card I entered in the last challenge for a shout out.

I used the Spellbinders alphabet stitching dies and a Spellbinders embossing folder for the background. I used more coral than sage green, but sometimes that is the way things work out right?  Honestly, I couldn't find any sage green cardstock so I just had to go with the sage green floss that I used for the stitching and then added little sage green sequins to the center of the flowers.   The sentiment is from A Jillian Vance design and was embossed in white on vellum.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

hello friend

 Hello!  Popping in with a clean and simple card for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.   I used the Concord & 9th Eclectic Garden stamps and dies for this one.  Take a look. 

I like challenging myself to use colors in ways that are a little different, but still pleasing to look at.  T To that end I spent sometime thinking about how I wanted to use the colors with the hummingbird dies from the Eclectic Garden die set.  I finally settled on using pink, red and brown for the birds and brought the green in using one of the circle images from the stamp set.  I die cut the birds from a light brown cardstock and then alternated the pink and red cardstocks on each bird.   I trimmed a strip of white cardstock, temporarily adhered it to the white cardstock rectangle and then stamped the circular image.  I then popped up the strip with foam squares.  To bring in more of the brown I stamped the sentiment on the brown cardstock with watermark ink and heat embossed it in white.  That was trimmed down and adhered to the card front using foam squares.  I adhered the hummingbirds and then added some Memory Box Fairy Jewels in pink, red, green and brown to the card.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

you deserve...

 Hello!  Another quick post sharing a card for a challenge that I haven't participated in for a very long time:  Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.   I'm going to try to participate more this year so I can use the lovely Pinkfresh Studio products that I have.  Take a look at my card:

The January challenge at Pinkfresh Studio is always a "year in review" challenge.  I decided to go with the May challenge of anything spring although it also works for the frame it up challenge.  Anyway, I used a stamp and stencil (there is also a die I just don't have it, yet) that I believe is only available at Scrapbook.com called Life is Good.  I stamped the image on white cardstock and then stenciled the image using Pinkfresh Studio inks:  Sparkling Rose, Candied Apple, Lemon Whip, Fresh Pear and Grassy Knoll.  Once I was done stenciling I placed the Sparkling Diamond cover die over the image and then ran it through my die cutter.   I then further die cut the image using the Folk Art Frames die set.    This gave me three pieces.  I glued the largest piece flat to my cardstock base.  I used foam strips to adhere the frame into its spot and then thin foam squares to adhere the remaining panel into place.  The sentiment is also a Pinkfresh Studio product that is exclusive to Scrapbook.com:  Foiled Sentiments.  I used a silver one and adhered it with foam strips.  I finished off the card with some Nuvo jewel drops in Limoncello for the flower center and Morning Dew.   I'm also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

sylvan hello...

 Hey there!   Popping in with a card that will be heading to the Altenew January inspiration challenge, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   I haven't participated in an Altenew challenge in a very long time for various reasons.  But I have decided that this year I will try to participate more so that I can use the Altenew products that I have.  For this card I used a new to me 3D embossing folder from Altenew called Sylvan Baroque.  

When I purchased this embossing folder I specifically had in mind the idea to emboss the image using watercolor cardstock and then watercolor it.  I think for my first try at this technique it came out fairly well.  I used my Jane Davenport watercolors and tried to take my time in order to get a good result.  I did try to uses colors from the color palette, but in a more softer tone.  Once the panel was dry I trimmed it down and added it to a ivory cardstock base.  The sentiment is the Altenew Fancy Hello.  I die cut it from scrape cardstock and from Simon Says Stamp glossy black cardstock, adhered them together and then added it to my card front.   Sometimes simple is the best, right?

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Waffle Flower Sneak Peek Club Inspiration Hop & Giveway!💕

*****GIVEAWAY CLOSED*****

***WINNER IS:  BUNNY! ***

Bunny please contact me with your full name, email address and mailing address.  Waffle Flower will send your kit out to you.

 Hello everyone!  Have you heard that Waffle Flower now has a new subscription club?  It is an innovative concept in that unlike most clubs that send you a themed kit the Waffle Flower sneak peek club allows you the subscriber to get the chance to receive not yet released products.   How fun is that?!   Each kit cost $29.99 and consists of select products that will be available in an upcoming release.   You can find out all the details regarding the club here on the Waffle Flower website.   

Today I am sharing projects that I created with the sneak peek kits that Waffle Flower generously sent me.    This blog post is part of an inspiration hop and link party put together by Waffle Flower and I will be giving away a sneak peek club kit to one commentor! Commenting to win closes on January 30th.  I will announce the winner of the kit on this blog post on Tuesday, January 31st.  Please make sure to check this blog post on January 31st.  I do need to let you know that unfortunately this giveaway is only open to commentors here in the US.   Let's take look at what I created.

The sneak peek kit contained a super cute die set called Bunny Ears and a stencil set called Layered Bow stencil.  I used both products on the first card.   Both of these products will be available for purchase from Waffle Flower on February 5, 2023.  When Waffle Flower created the Layered Bow stencil set, they added an outline for an A2 sized card.  Adding the outline makes it so easy to line up the stencils.   For my background I started with the second layer of the stencil and inked up that layer with Shabby Shutters distress oxide ink.  I used some Nuvo Glacier paste in Pineapple Delight for the top layer.  Once the background was dry, I die cut it with a rectangle die.  All the pieces of the bunny ears dies were cut from Memory Box glitter cardstock in a very light shade of yellow and an off-white.   I layered everything up and then added them to my card front.  The sentiment is from the Waffle Flower Anemone stamp set and was stamped with the Shabby Shutters distress oxide ink and die cut with the matching die.

I had so much fun creating the first set of bunny ears that I decided to do a pink set.  I used two shades of pale pink glitter cardstock from Memory Box.  The sentiment is from the Waffle Flower  Hey There hot foil plate and die set.  I foiled the sentiment using matte gold foil.  Even though it says hello friend I think this would make a super cute Easter card.  

I hope you enjoyed my projects and don't forget to comment for a chance to win the same sneak peek club kit that I shared in today's post.   One additional note:  Waffle Flower will hold the kit for the winner until February 15th.