A Spring Post at Birch Press Design

 Hello!  Hope all is well in your part of the world.  I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek:

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

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!