Easter Wishes...

 Hello!  Happy last day of February!  Look at me... posting three times in the last two days!  What is going on???   Guess the crafting bug got ahold of me, lol.  Today I have a very simple design that I'm sending off to the Sunday Stamps challenge (closes in mere hours, yikes!), Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Let's have a look.

The Sunday Stamps challenge features a gorgeous color palette designed to get us thinking spring!  The more I looked at the colors the more I wanted to create something that reminded me of the forsythia that grew beside the front porch of the house I grew up in.   It wasn't until I was older that I learned the name of those flowers, but I always loved seeing the bright yellow blooms that started appearing in the spring.  I thought the Birch Press Design Budding Twigs Contour Layers die set was perfect to create my budding forsythia.  There are two sizes in the die set and I went with the smaller of the two.  I used my favorite yellow cardstock (Lemon Tart from PTI) and my favorite dark brown cardstock (Dark Chocolate from PTI) to die cut my pieces.  There are three layers to each twig.  Two of the layers create the little buds.  I left the top bud layer the Lemon Tart color and the bottom layer was inked up with a dark yellow ink to create the contrast.  The pieces were adhered together and set aside to dry.   For the background I blended Speckled Egg distress oxide ink onto white heavy stock cardstock.  Heavy stock is super smooth and perfect for blending.  I arranged the twigs per the FMS sketch and then stamped the sentiments (from the new SSS Bunny Blessings stamp set).   Thought about adding something else, but decided I really liked the simplicity of the design.

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

Simon Says Stamp Favorite Things Release!

(To see my Birch Press Design post click here. Thanks!)

Hey friends!  I'm popping in to share two projects I made with the most adorable stamp set from the new Simon Says Stamp Favorite Things release.  Simon was so kind and sent me the Bunny Blessings stamp set to work with!  Let's have a look at what I created.

First up is this little decor piece that I made.   How cute is that little bunny and the carrot house?  I stamped the images using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink on watercolor cardstock, let the images dry and then watercolored them with my Jane Davenport watercolors.   After they were dry I trimmed them out with my scissors.   While the images were drying I worked on the frame.  I painted the frame with some yellow acrylic paint and let it dry.  The yellow was a little too bright for me so I dry brushed on some white acrylic paint to knock the color back a bit.   I then grabbed another piece of watercolor cardstock and did a simple color wash of bright green and bright blue to create the grass and sky.  I placed the piece while it was still wet inside a paper towel and placed something on top so that the piece would dry relatively flat.   When I removed the panel from the paper towel some of the blue in the sky was removed.  I love how it sort of makes it look like there are clouds!  I adhered my background to the backing panel that comes with the frame using collage medium.  Once it was dry I adhered the frame also using collage medium.   I glued the carrot house in place and then added the bunny and eggs using foam square on the eggs and sticky board on the bunny.   I finished with the green bow in the corner.  Still haven't decided if I will put a sentiment on it or just leave it as is.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

How cute are these little chicks?  I stamped the image in VersaFine Clair Nocturne and watercolored the chicks with Jane Davenport watercolors.  Once everything was dry, I added the simple wash of the bright green and bright blue.   I used the same drying technique on this panel that I used above to remove some of the blue from the sky.  I stamped the sentiment and then die cut down the panel using a Simon Says Stamp rectangle die.  Some yellow gingham paper was die cut with a large rectangle die from the same SSS set and adhered to a cardstock base.  I did add some hints of glitter to the bellies of the chicks and to the eggs.  I attached the panel to the card base using foam tape.  Simple, but I love how this turned out. 

If you want to see the entire Favorite Things release you can click here.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design Post

 Hey everyone!  I'm popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog.  

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

birthday flowers

 Hello!  I'm back with a card that I made for Color Throwdown and the Paper Players.  Let's have a look at what I created. 

I'm still in birthday card mode so I made another one, lol!  For this one I used the Pinkfresh Studio Beautiful Blooms stamps and dies.  I stamped the images on watercolor cardstock with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and then applied clear embossing powder.  The images were heat set and then I did very simple watercoloring using a Tonic Studio Aqua Flow pen in Aqua Splash (teal) and then Jane Davenport watercolors in pink and green.  I die cut the images with the matching dies and arranged them on white cardstock that I die cut with the Pinkfresh Studio Dotted Fancy Frames die.   I went with a patterned paper background that had all the colors from the ColorThrowdown palette in it.  I really like how it looks.  I finished with a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp EZ Strips Birthday stamp set.  Will be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

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

hey, friend...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a very simple card for several challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Just Us Girls and Inkspirational.   Let's have a look at what I made.

When I started making this card I was only going to post it to Freshly Made Sketches, Just Us Girls and the Simon Says Stamp February Instagram challenge.  The SSS IG challenge is to use watercolors this month so I decided to do so simple watercoloring on a die cut.  The die I used is from Simon Says Stamp and I have had it for a long time.  I don't even know what it is called, but I immediately thought of it when I saw the FMS sketch.  I die cut the image from watercolor cardstock and then chose two colors from my Jane Davenport watercolors set to color up the die cut.  I went with blue/green color called Mermaid and a dark blue called Indigo.   

After I had finished up watercoloring the image I left it to dry and decide to check out a few additional challenges to see if there was another one I could enter.  I was delighted to find that I could also add this to the current Inkspirational challenge.  They are sharing a pretty mood board this week.  So, I'm using some of the colors in the mood board, as well as woodgrain.  The challenge at JUGs is to use the word friend, so I went with the sentiment "Hey, Friend Happy Birthday.    I put all the elements together and then finished with some tiny gems in a blue-green color. 

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

The BPD Blog is Back!

 Hello!  The Birch Press Design blog is back!  I have a post on the blog today and here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over there to take a look at the full card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

clean and simple birthday cards...

 Hello!  Popping in today with two cards for several different challenges.  Both cards ended up being very clean and simple and birthday cards.  Let's have a look at the first one. 

This card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  I wanted to use some of my stash that hadn't been out in a while.  I pulled out the Simon Says Stamp Fab Flower die set and to my surprise I had a set of the solid and outline flowers in brown in the envelope!  With that I had a start on this card.  I die cut the flowers from Hero Arts Peony Pink cardstock and another flower from PaperTrey Ink Dark Chocolate and then layered the flower as you see on the card.  Pulled out my oldie, but goldie Swiss Dot embossing folder for the background.  The sentiment is one from the EZ Strips Birthday stamp and die set from Simon Says Stamp.  I thought it would be fun to attach the sentiment as you see and I'm glad I did.  I really like it.  I added gems to the center of the flowers.  The gems are dark brown and pink, but only the brown one looks brown.  I adhered the panel to my cardstock base and I was done!

On to the next card!  This one is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (have a heart) and the JUGs challenge to use a die (heart).  

Again, I used an older product on this card, the Simon Says Stamp Deco Heart die set. I had some scraps of cardstock in shades of blue on my desk so I used those for the heart.   Just like the first card I didn't want a plain background so I pulled out the Simon Says Stamp Blossom Swag embossing folder to add the interest.  I placed the heart on its side inside the swag and then added the sentiments, also from the EZ Strips Birthday stamp and die set.  Those two products are really getting a work out, lol!  I really like how this card turned out.   

Well, that is it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wondeful day!

happiest birthday...

 Hello from snowy Western Washington!  Thankfully in the lower Puget Sound area where I live there isn't a lot of it.  Rain is set to return soon.  That is the PNW!  I have a card today for a few challenges:  Color Hues/Inkspirational collaboration challenge and Pinkfresh Studio February challenge.  Let's have a look at what I made.

My sweet friend, Greta, was the lucky winner of the Pinkfresh Studio essentials dies release and she was so kind and offered the Blanket Stitched Bracket dies set to me.  I was intrigued by these dies and the possibilities they presented so I said "yes"!    After a rather long trip from her home in Oregon to my home in Washington (a trip that should take about 2 days but took 7 days this time!) they landed in my mailbox on Friday, January 31st.  I immediately put them to work making my card using the colors from Color Hues/Inkspirational.  I pulled out my favorite pink cardstock (Hero Hues Peony) and a dark red Memory Box cardstock and die cut my layers using the small Blanket Stitched Bracket die.  To provide a finished look I die cut some of the dark red using a label die to create the stop strip.  Everything was layered together and then adhered with glue and thin foam squares to a white cardstock base. 

Then I got started on the second part of my card and this is where the Pinkfresh Studio challenge comes in.  They recently changed their monthly challenge to anything goes, but they will still have colors and a theme that you can use on your project.  The theme this month is Transparent Treasures so I decided to use some thick vellum combined with touches of the pink and red cardstock for my cherry blossom branch from Pinkfresh Studio.  As I was working on the cherry blossom branch, I wasn't sure if it would work, but once I had it completed, I was really pleased with the look.  That branch was adhered using glue and then I finished with the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp EZ Strips Birthday stamp and die set.

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