happy holiday...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for the Altenew November challenge.  I will also be posting it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Haven't done an Altenew challenge in several months, but couldn't pass up the chance to use my favorite poinsettia stamp set that just happens to be from Altenew!  

I love the Altenew Festive Poinsettia stamp and die set because it is one of the most realistic poinsettia stamp sets out there.  Most poinsettia stamp sets depicit the poinsettia looking more like a traditional flower.  The flowers on a poinsettia aren't the red bracts, but the tiny yellow dots in the center of each plant.   Anyway, like I said, the Festive Poinsettia is a very realistic depiction of a poinsettia.  I stamped the image twice with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink on watercolor cardstock and then used my Jane Davenport watercolors to color in the images.  Once they were dry I splattered them with black paint, let them dry, again, and then die cut.  I layered them together for the front of my card.  I used Antique Linen distress oxide ink and the MFT rectangle stencil to create the background for the flowers.  I love the soft golden background it created.  I stamped the sentiment from the set in the Nocturne ink, die cut it with a tag die, inked the edges with the Antique Linen DO and then added the little red twine bow.  Another Christmas card done!  Since I did stencil the background I will also add this to the last JUGs challenge for the year.  

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

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the US celebrating!  I'm popping in with my second Birch Press Design post for the month.  Can't believe that we are less than a month away from Christmas.  Thanksgiving coming so late this year really speeds things up doesn't it?   Since Christmas is so close I thought I would share a Christmas card today.  Let's have a look.

I started my card by picking out two shades of red to use with the new Rosebud Arch Contour Layers die set.  Even though this die is a more spring-like die I thought it would be lovely used for a Christmas card.  I did also use two shades of green for the stems.  I die cut everything and adhered all the pieces together.  I did add a bit of sparkle to the buds with some Rock Candy glitter.  I love that stuff!   The Merry Christmas was die cut from the darker of the two reds three times, layered together and then adhered to the shadow layer that was die cut from white cardstock.   

I wanted something a little more for the background so I decided to pull out my Herbarium Layering die set.  At first I was going to use layer A to emboss the background, but then decided that I would do a little hot foiling with it.  I used silver matte foil and I love the pretty background it provides to the card.  Fun fact:  I have NEVER actually used all of the Herbarium layers together on a card!  I have only used the top layer for embossing and now hot foiling!  Need to use all the layers together soon.

With all the pieces completed it was time to put everything together.  The Rosebud Arch creates the perfect spot for a sentiment, even one as large as the Merry Christmas.   Well, that is it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Autumn Greetings

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick share of a card that I made using the Color Throwdown colors (sort of?).  I will also be posting it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to add sparkle and shine.   Here is my card.

The colors at CTD are rust, amber and kraft.  I thought I had picked an ink that would provide a more rusty color, but it ended up being more dark orange.  But I think it will still pass muster.  I used the Greetery Autumn Sketch stamp and die set.  I die cut the branch first and then lined up the stamps and it worked perfectly.  I also stamped the little berry(?) image as well as additional single leaves.  I used an MFT rectangle stencil to add some kraft ink to the one corner of my off white panel.  I then stamped the greeting using the dark orange ink.  I added all the images.  The branch was popped up with thin foam squares and the berries and leaves were adhered with glue.  For the sparkle I added tiny Memory Box fairy jewels in dark orange and amber. 

sending joy...

 Hello, hello!  Popping in with a card for several challenges:  Just Us Girls (word week: Joy), Color Hues (Pink and Aqua), Sunday Stamps (sketch) and Paper Players (clean and simple Christmas).  Lets have a look at what I made.

It is rare that I make a card for four different challenges, but this card is one.   It started out that I was only going to make it for Sunday Stamps and Just Us Girls, then I saw the color combo at Color Hues and had to add it to the mix.   Then I saw the challenge from Paper Players and couldn't pass up the opportunity to make a clean and simple card!   Several years ago I purchased a pretty Stampin Up! set called Joy of Noel.  I had used a few of the dies from the set, but never the stamps.  I pulled it out for this card.  Stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored with Copics in shades of aqua and pink.    The die cut "joy" is a very old Simon Says Stamp die that I cut from white cardstock three times and adhered together.  I then colored the top layer with the light pink Copic marker I used to color the berries.  Embossed a white rectangle with the pretty holly swirl embossing folder.  I trimmed that panel down a little bit and then added the aqua cardstock strip to the one side.  I tried to use a strip of pink cardstock on the card, but neither color I tried worked with the Copic colors I used.  So I used sparkly silver glitter cardstock!  Really like how it looks.  Layered on the colored image and the sentiments that are from an older Simon Says Stamp set that I just love.  One more Christmas card to add to my stash!

Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design...

 Hello everyone!  The Birch Press Design blog is still down so here I am with my first of two BPD blog posts.  I hope you enjoyed what I made.  Let's have a look.

Memory Box recently released two new fall themed 6x6 paper pads (Nutmeg Forest and Nutmeg Plaid) and I just had to use them for my card.  I used a plaid for the background and one of the gold foiled patterns for the scalloped circles (Poppystamps Scallop Pinpoint Rings).

For the acorns and oak leaves I used the new Oak Leaves Contour Layers die set.  I had a piece of cardstock that I had layered several different distress mica sprays on and used that for the acorns and leaves.  The hello sentiment is the brand new Hello Scripted die and I die cut that from kraft cardstock three times then layered together.  

I layered on the plaid background and the die cut circles on to a kraft cardstock base.  I arranged the acorns and leaves and then added the sentiment.  I love the rustic look of this design. 

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

autumn blessings

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for the current Color Throwdown challenge.   For this card I combined a newly released Simon Says Stamp die set with a very old (but favorite) Simon Says Stamp stamp set.  Let's have a look.

As I have said before I love pumpkins and when I saw this super cute Autumn Arrangement die set from Simon Says Stamp I had to get it (didn't hurt that it was reasonably priced, too!).   To get the colors that I wanted I used distress inks in Rusty Hinge, Aged Mahogany and Forest Moss.  I inkblended each color onto white cardstock and then die cut the pieces.  Because this is a smaller die set I was able to use up pretty much all of the inkblended cardstock and get enough pieces for my arrangment.  I used the Memory Box pierced arched die set for the background layers, stamping the sentiment (from the very old SSS stamp set by the same name) on the smaller arch with VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink.  I then arranged all my pieces.  I layered the small arch onto the larger one and tucked the left-over leaves in the corner.  I finished by adding all the flowers and a tiny drop of Morning Dew Nuvo drops to each flower center.  I adhered the panels to my kraft cardstock base and I was done.  This also works for the Card Concept so I'm going to add it to their gallery.   My card would probably fall into the clean, but somewhat layered category, lol!

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

Old Fashioned Christmas

 Hello everyone!  I had a post ready to go for the new release from Simon Says Stamp and once, again, Blogger flagged it and unpublished it.  When I read the email it said that I was engaging in SPAMMING!  I had about 7 affiliate links in my post and that is all.  I tried removing those links and republishing, but it flagged me, AGAIN!  So... here I am writing a completely new post and hoping that it gets published.   So incredibly tired of Blogger!   Here are the cards I made:

SSS generously sent me a stamp set called Old Fashioned Christmas.  It features four images and several sentiments.  For this card I stamped the image of a decanter on watercolor cardstock with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then did very simple watercoloring to make it look like there was some type of alcohol in the decanter.  The bow was also stamped on watercolor cardstock (twice) with the Nocturne ink and then watercolored.  When the image was dry I trimmed out the full bow and then just the top portion of the bow (if that makes sense, lol) and layered them together with thin foam squares for a little dimension.  I die cut some Christmas foliage from watercolor cardstock and added a wash of color to the pieces.  Once everything was dry I adhered the pieces to my decanter and finished with the sentiment from the stamp set.

For the second card I stamped both of the drink images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored very simply with Copic markers.  I die cut the panel with a rectangle die and layered it on glitter cardstock with a light peach hue to it.  I added a bit of more sparkle to each drink by adding glossy accents and Rock Candy glitter to the ice cubes, cherry and orange slice.  

That's it for me.  If you want to check out the release, please click the link to Simon Says Stamp that is over on my side bar.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

autumn frame...

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick share of a card that I made for Color Throwdown and Paper Players.  Will also add it to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  Let's have a look.

I used the Simon Says Stamp Autumn Frame stencil and inks from Altenew (Terracotta) and Pinkfresh Studio (Doe and Sweet Mustard) to create the autumn frame.  Once down with the stenciling I die cut it with a rectangle die.  The sentiments are from the SSS stamp set Cozy Autumn Hugs.  I stamped them with the PFS Doe ink and die cut with matching dies.  I die cut additional layers and layered them behind the sentiment.   I added the panel to a kraft cardstock base, adhered the sentiments and then added some tiny gems. 

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