bird's nest...

 Hello!   Wishing everyone a very happy Easter!  I'm popping in to share a card that I made using the current Freshly Made Sketches layout.  And since the challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge is anything goes I will also be posting the card there.  Take a look at what I made.

Lately I have been trying to make a point of using products that I purchase as soon after I receive them as I can instead of getting and then putting them away.   This card uses one of my my recent purchases, PaperTrey Ink's Into the Blooms:  Nest die set.  In February I was the lucky winner of a $100 gift certificate for commenting on their release day blog post!  I had been eyeing the Into the Blooms: Nest die set and so picked it up along with a few other new items.   When I saw the layout for Freshly Made Sketches I thought a bird's nest would be perfect.  I started by using my Crooked Broom distress mica spray and some old Tsukeniko walnut stain spray on distress heavy stock.  I sprayed the heavy stock with water first and then added the other sprays letting them mix.  Because I wanted to get working on the card I used by heat tool to dry the piece of heavy stock.  Then I die cut out the pieces of the nest.  I had lots of pieces of heavy stock that I had sprayed with a combo of other mica sprays and so I used those for the leaves, eggs and flower.  Once I had everything die cut and assembled I dug through my large supply of 6x6 paper pads and came across this very old Basic Grey Serenade pad.  The colors in the pad were perfect for my little nest.  I die cut two different pieces and layered them on my kraft cardstock base.  I layered on the nest and then finished with a Memory Box pre-foiled sentiment tab.  

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

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  Hope all is well in your world.  Can't believe that Easter is just a few days away.  With that in mind I have an Easter themed post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

He is Risen!

 Hello!  Posting agin, lol!  This time I'm sharing a card for the Pinkfresh Studio March challenge to frame it up.  I will also be posting this to the Color Throwdown gallery and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   Let's take a look at what I made.

I recently purchased the new Pinkfresh Studio Cherry Blossom stencil and die set.  The concept of having a stencil to work with a die is pretty neat.  I used Pinkfresh Studio inks for the cherry blossoms, leaves and stem.  The die cut super close so you don't have any white outlines left behind after diecutting.  I really like that!  You can also just die cut all the pieces from colored cardstock to layer.  For the frame it up part of the challenge I used the PFS Fancy Oval frame and the Stitched Scallop Rectangle die set.  I die cut the Fancy Oval frame from yellow cardstock several times and adhered them together for more stability.  I die cut the Stitched Scallop rectangle from a very light pink glitter cardstock and adhered that directly to my card front.  I then adhered the oval frame with thin foam strips.  The drop out ovals from the Fancy Oval frame set were also adhered together with a white one on top and then inserted back inside the frame.  I then added the cherry blossom stem to the frame using a combination of glue and foam squares.  I finished with the sentiment from a very old Simon Says Stamp Easter stamp set.  

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

Simon Says Stamp Be Bold Release

 Hi friends!  Popping in to share some cards I made with a product from the Simon Says Stamp Be Bold release.  Simon Says Stamp kindly sent me the fun Groovy Blooms stencil set.   Simon Says Stamp has recently added opportunity to purchase items in a bundle.   There is the "want it all stamp and die" bundle, the "want it all extras" bundle and several others.  Now, let's take a look at what I made.

For the first card I used Altenew Fresh Inks in aqua shades to stencil the flowers.   Fresh inks in shades of green were used for the leaves.  For the final layer I used some Tonic Studio Nuvo paste in a bright sunny yellow.   The Boho Celebrate die is from another release and was die cut from aqua cardstock and then layered on a white shadow layer.  The sub-sentiment is from an older SSS stamp set.

For the second card I used the third layer of the stencil to create an overall polka dot look.  I used Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage distress oxide inks.  The sentiment is another Simon Says Stamp word die Fancy Hello.  I finished with some clear sequins. 

The last card was made using a strip that was left over from the first card.  Didn't want it to go to waste so I made this fun Easter card that I will send to one of my great nieces or nephew.  I used the bunny from the Simon Says Stamp Hello There Animals and stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored it very simply with Copic markers in gray and aqua.  I used a scalloped border die and cut some aqua cardstock to layer below the strip.  I added the strip and then the little bow that I also colored with Copic markers.   The sentiment is from the SSS Bunny Kisses stamp and die set.   Adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of Easter/Spring.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Easter Bird...

  Hello!  Hope all is well in your part of the world.  I have a card to share today for several challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Time Out, JUGs and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  JUGs and Time Out are doing a collaboration and the theme is "birds of a feather".   I recently received an order from Simon Says Stamp that included the sweet little bird die set called Sitting Sparrow from Memory Box.  Perfect timing, right? Here is what I made.

I used a MFT brickwall stencil and some grit paste that I tinted with Hickory Smoke distress ink re-inker for the background.  The little bird is sitting on the Memory Box Magnolia Leaf Branch that I die cut from watercolor cardstock and then colored with distress ink re-inkers in Brushed Corduroy and Bundled Sage.  I tried to do the same thing with the bird not once, but twice and both times it was an abysmal failure.  So, I went back to my tried and true technique of inkblending with my Waffle Flower 0+ blending brushes and distress oxide inks.  This time success!  Once the grit paste had dried (with a little help from my heat gun!) I assembled the card.   Since I wanted the card to be an Easter card I finished with the Happy Easter sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Bunny Love stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by and have a 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.  Here is a little peek of what I created:

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

bunny kisses...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a card for Color Throwdown and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  I used a new Simon Says Stamp and die set called Bunny Kisses to create a little scene.  Take a look.

The CTD colors this week are peach, sage and cream.  I focused more on the peach and sage colors, although I do think my peach is more of a pinky peach than an orangy peach.  I used Pinkfresh Studio Coral Berry to stamp the larger (momma) bunny and then Stampin Up! Flirty Flamingo to stamp the inside of the ear, nose and cheek.  The smaller bunny was stamped using Bundled Sage distress ink and the inside of the ear was stamped with PTI's Ocean Tides.  Originally I had the nose and cheek for the smaller bunny stamped in the Ocean Tides, but I changed it to Coral Berry.  I think it looks better.  I used an MFT cloud stencil to add the background clouds using a warm grey ink and then an MFT grass line stencil to stencil in the grass using Bundled Sage.  I used a very light hand with both colors.  The little hearts were also stamped in Coral Berry.  I added little pom poms to the bunnies' tales for a little bit of fun.  The sentiment was stamped, die cut and adhered with thin foam squares.   Simple, but cute I think.  This will be going to one of my great nieces for Easter.

turquoise flower...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Color Hues and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.  Couldn't resist the lovely Color Hues combo so I pulled out a pretty Memory Box floral die and made this:

Memory Box recently came out with 6x6 pads of beautiful color coordinated cardstocks.  I used the Lagoon and Greenery 6x6 pads to die cut my flower and leaves from.   The arched die cut is also from Memory Box.  After I die cut it from white cardstock I die cut it in half for the split element from the FMS layout.  After adhering all the pieces of the flower together I layered everything to a white cardstock panel that I embossed with a sweet floral embossing folder from Simon Says Stamp.  The embossing folder is a 3d one, but I ran it through my die cutting machine with only the embossing folder and my base plate.  The image was embossed, but not deeply and I really liked it.  I finished the card with a new Open Studio Greeting Tab Happy Birthday sentiment and some turquoise fairy jewels.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

mixed media tag...

 Hello and happy March!  Can you believe it is already March?  Where is the time going?!  Spring isn't quite here, yet, but I'm definitely in a spring-like mood!   With that in mind, I decided to play along with the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of fur or feathers.  And I will add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  The amazing Emma William, who is on SSS Monday challenge design team, created a beautiful tag featuring a bird.  Her tag is a bit more moodier than mine, but I was 100% inspired by her tag.  Take a look at what I made.

I started off my tag by spritzing a #8 distress heavy stock tag with a combination of Speckled Egg, Salvaged Patina and Antique Linen distress spray stains and Frozen Fog distress mica spray.  I dried the tag in between the layers of color.  Once the tag was dry I uses a Simon Says Stamp pine bough stencil and some grit paste to add more texture to the background.  I also added some crackle paste.  Once both pastes were dry I scribbled some distress crayons in ground espresso and crushed olive onto an acrylic block, spritzed on some water, mixed the colors and then dabbed them onto the pastes with my finger.  I then adhered my tag to a #8 Etcetera thickboard tag.  Once that was dry I rubbed more of the ground espresso/crushed olive mix around the edge of the tag.   

For the bird I used my favorite Backyard Wren die set from Memory Box.  The twiggy wreath, feathers blossom stem and budding stems are from the Greetery.   For the wreath I sprized heavy stock with walnut stain and Crooked Broomstick distress mica spray.  I spritzed on water to move the colors around.  Once the panels were dry I die cut them with the wreath die and two dies that cut twiggy branches for layering on the wreath.  There is a wreath stamp that coordinates with the wreath base and I used that to stamp on some Scorched Timber distress ink.  Once that was dry I adhered on the branches.  The other pieces were inked with distress oxide inks in Speckled Egg, Pumice Store, Vintage Photo, Spun Sugar and Bundled Sage.   I assembled everything, let them dry and then adhered them to the tag as you see.  I finished off the tag with some chunky twine and a small key that I tried to grunge up with some grit paste and ground espresso distress crayon.  A small pin was used to attach the key to the twine.    I'm super pleased with how my tag turned out.