Birch Press Design Post

 Hello and happy end of June!  I'm popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of my card:

I hope you will head over to the blog to see the full card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Simon Says Stamp Out of this World Release!

 Hello!  Hope your summer is off to a great start!  Simon Says Stamp is starting the summer off right with a fabulous new release called Out of this World.  You can find the entire release here.  Simon was so kind and sent me the super cute Folksy Cats stamp set.  This set happens to coordinate with the previously released Happy Hello stamp set.  I have Happy Hello and the matching Happy Hello dies.  To my delight I discovered that a few of the dies from Happy Hello worked with images from the Folksy Cats set!  Yay!  I have created two cards to share with you.  Let's have a look.

At the time I started to make my cards with this new set I had out inks that I used to make my card for the previous Color Hues challenge.  Since they were right there I decided to use them to create my card.  I used two shades of red Pinkfresh ink to do a two-tone effect on my cats.  They fit perfectly inside the large heart from the Happy Hello die set making for a nice focal point on your card.  I inked up white cardstock with my aqua inks and then die cut one into a strip.  The rest was used for my sentiment strip.  I stamped the heart in the dark red ink and die cut it with the small heart die from Happy Hello, popped it up on the heart and then added some Glossy Accents.  I found an old heart embossing folder to create my background.  I adhered the panel to my white cardstock base, added the strip, heart and sentiment.  

The Folksy Cats set features the cats that I used on the first card, but also has a large frame image that I really wanted to use, as well.  The image is very large and I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do.  One option was to make a 5x7 card, but I don't really have a need for that size card so I thought on it and worked on other ideas.  I finally settled on creating a wreath of sorts around one of the large sentiments.  There are small floral dies in the Happy Hello set that will also cut out small flowers in the Folksy Cats set.  I used the Simon Says Stamp Instagram June challenge colors for my palette and stamped the flowers in those colors.    I die cut a frame using two rectangle dies nested together as a place for my flowers.  It was at this point that I realized I could use the large frame image as a backdrop for my rectangular wreath.  I stamped the image using Simon Says Stamp Fog ink on white cardstock and then die cut it with a rectangle die.  I positioned the sentiment and stamped it in black ink.  I then adhered the floral frame with foam strips.  I had a few flowers and hearts left over so I added those to the top of the card to balance things out.  Dots of Nuvo drops in Morning Dew were added to the centers of the tiny flowers.  

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Simon Says Stamp Out of this World release

Folksy Cats stamp set

Folksy Cats die set

Folksy Cats bundle

Happy Hello stamp set

Happy Hello die set

Happy Hello bundle

Simon Says Stamp Fog ink

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Citrine ink

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Ocean ink

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

simple stripes

 Hello!  Look at me posting for the third time this week, lol!  I have been spending more time making cards and a little less time cross-stitching!   I had cards to make for my mom and my niece graduated from high school on June 14th.  So I have been making birthday cards and graduation cards.  My niece is off to the Naval Academy on the 22nd of June.  So very proud of her!  My card today is a simple one that I made for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  Take a look.

If you are on Instagram you know that there are lots of Instagram hops and opportunities to win prizes.  I don't often participate in most of these hops because they can get a little confusing to me.   A few weeks ago a fellow Instagramer had an opportunity to win $25 gift certificates from Altenew.  I left a comment on her Instagram post and then forgot about it.  Well, I own!  So I used the certificate to pick up the Altenew gouache paints.  I wanted to try them out with something simple.  The Freshly Made Sketches layout was a perfect way for me to give them a try.   Thankfully the set had all the colors from the Color Throwdown combo.  After creating my strips of color I let the panel dry.  I used the Simon Says Stamp Fruitful Berries die set and cut the leaves from vellum and the berries from white cardstock.  I adhered the berries and then added Nuvo drops in Morning Dew.  Once the berries were dry I arranged the stems so I could stamp the sentiment in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I then adhered the stems in place with liquid adhesive.   Very simple, but I really like it.  Looking forward to trying out the paints on something more complex.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Birch Press Design

 Hello!  Can you believe it is already the middle of June?!  I'm having a hard time with that one.  The months are going a little too fast for me.   I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today and here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog to see the full card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hello friend

 Hello!  Hope all is well in your part of the world.  I'm popping in with a card the current Paper Players challenge.  It is a color challenge and I love me a good color challenge!  Plus, I haven't had the chance to participate in their challenge for a very long time.  I'm also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   ETA:  Realized that my card also works for the current JUGS challenge.  Take a look at what I made.

I recently made several mini slimline cards for my mom.  She likes the size because they are perfect size for a birthday check.  Since I had some premade mini slimline card bases on my desk, I decided to make one for the PP challenge.  I went through all my Simon Says Stamp dies until I found the Etched Layered Daisy Stem die set and pulled it out.  I did direct to paper inking to get the colors I wanted for the flower and the stem.  I used Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks in Citrine and Ocean.  Once the cardstock was fairly dry, I die cut out the stem and the flowers.  There are two flowers to layer together to make the full flower.   The center of the flower is part of the top layer die so I simply inked up some white cardstock with black ink, positioned the die so I would just get mostly the center cut and die cut it.  The bits of the petals that were still attached were trimmed out and I adhered that layer to the center of the flower.  I added Nuvo drops in Morning Dew for some shine.  The sentiment is from Memory Box and I die cut the shadow layer from heavy weight vellum and the sentiment from Memory Box glossy black cardstock twice.   Then I adhered everything together.  I cut Memory Box cream woodgrain cardstock to fit the front of my mini slimline cardbase, adhered it and then layered on all my elements.   My colors are a little bit darker than those in the inspiration photo, but hopefully that is okay.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

sending hugs...

 Hello!  Popping in today with a card for the current Color Hues challenge, as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Let's have a look.

Everything used on this card is from Birch Press Design.  I did direct to paper inking to get the colors that I wanted using Pinkfresh Studio inks.  I wanted the flowers to be two close shades of red and the stems on dark shade of aqua.  I then used a lighter aqua shade on white cardstock for the word hugs.  The sentiment was stamped using the dark aqua ink and trimmed out.  For added interest I used Layer C from the Viola plate layering die set.   I layered that on a white cardstock base and then added the flowers and sentiment.  The white on white background provides interest to the flowers, but doesn't overpower them. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a little drama...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a card for yes, Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches!  I have actually combined those two challenges in awhile and almost didn't this time but decided to make it happen.  Also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   It is a little dramatic, but I like how it turned out.  

I decided to go through my small collection of Pinkfresh Studio products and came across the Modern Layered Florals stamp and die set.  I used Pinkfresh Studio inks in Lemon Whip, Sweet Mustard, Fresh Pear and Grassy Knoll for the flowers and stems.   I was quite pleased with myself because I got everything lined up perfectly the first time.  That almost never happens!   Once I had the image stamped I die cut it with the matching die.   Prior to starting my card I had decided to clean things up a bit and put away items from a couple of Simon Says Stamp cardkits that I had purchased months ago.  In that process I found the patterned paper that I used for the card front.  I think it is from Simply Stories, but I don't know the name.  Anyway, I die cut the paper with the Pinkfresh Sparkling Diamond cover die and then trimmed it down on the diagonal.   At first I was just going to place it on the front of my card and leave it at that, but I wasn't in love with that look.  So I decided to die cut black cardstock using the same Sparkling Diamond die and adhered it to the card base.  I then lined up the patterned paper piece and absolutely loved it.  The bouquet of flowers was adhered with liquid glue and thin foam squares.  The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Garden Fresh stamp set.  I stamped birthday greetings in black ink on white cardstock and then die cut the birthday with the matching die and used a label die to cut out greetings.   I adhered those with liquid glue and then added some Trinity Stamp sequins to finish the card. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!