Birch Press Design December Post #1

 Hello, hello!  Popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek at what I created:

Hope you will head over to the BPD blog to see what I created.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

More SSS DieCember Release Cards

 Hello from really wet and really wild Western Washington!  The rain has been crazy here for the last few days.  Many rivers are at flood warning or have flooded.  Haven't seen this much rain in such a short period of time in many, many years.   Hoping things calm down here in the next few days.  I'm popping in to not just talk about the weather, but to share two more cards that I made with products from the Simon Says Stamp DieCember release.  Let's have a look at what I made. 

This card was made with the new Birds in the Pine embossing folder that also includes die to cut out the little birds.   I decided to emboss a piece of light blue and white patterned paper from Paper Rose Studio with the embossing folder so that the embossed pines are a little more subtle.  I then used a coordinating piece of patterned paper that had a red watercolor look to it to die cut out the birds and then emboss them.  I attached the little birds in their respective spots using glue and just a few areas on the birds so their wings would pop up slightly.  The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Christmas Cheer stamp and die set.  I stamped the banner and then the sentiment.  Die cut with the matching die and then used thin foam squares to attach it in the center of the card.  You really can't see it in the photo, but I did add glossy accents to some of the pine branches and then covered it with Rock Candy glitter.  It provides a nice subtle sparkle.  

This card was made with the Stitching Holly and Berries die set from the release.  I die cut the holly leaves and then added stitching to them using three strands of a dark green DMC floss.  The berries had glossy accents applied to them and then I covered them with chunky Rock Candy glitter.   The large you sentiment is from a CZ Design Christmas stamp set.  After stamping in red ink and then die cutting I embossed the word with a snowflake embossing folder for a little bit of texture.  I adhered everything to a light gray panel and then finished with the little sub-sentiment.  Since you can actually see the sparkle on this card I'm going to enter it into the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of sparkle and shine. 

Well, that's it for me.  I hope the weather is a little bit saner in your part of the world!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Simon Says Stamp DieCember Blog Hop Day 1!

Hello, hello!   I'm so excited to be participating in the day 1 blog hop celebrating Simon Says Stamp's DieCember release!  It is huge and full of wonderful new products!   You should have arrived at my blog from Bonnie Crane's blog.    As you can see from the graphic Simon Says Stamp is offering a free gift with any purchase from the DieCember release and that free gift is an absolutely adorable snowman!  And Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 gift certificate at each stop on the hop!!  YAY!  

Simon Says Stamp was so kind and sent me several different products from the release.  Today I'm sharing cards that I made with a few of those products.   Let's take a look at what I created. 

First up is a card that I made using the really cool Forest Background die.  The die cuts out multiple tree lines and a thin border.  You can create a background like I did by keeping all the pieces together or create more depth to the layers by adding dimensional foam.   I started my card by coloring a piece of watercolor cardstock with Rustic Wilderness reinker.   I squeezed out the color from the bottle on to my Tim Holtz glass mat and then applied it to the cardstock with a wet paint brush.   Before applying the reinker I did wet the watercolor cardstock lighty with water.   I tried to have the bottom darker than the top.  It worked, sort of, lol!  Once my cardstock was dry I die cut it and then placed tape on the back to keep everything in place.   I did discard the top portion of the cut as I had created a second watercolor piece using Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot reinkers.    I let that piece dry and then die cut it with the top portion of the die.   Both pieces were then placed in my splatter box, liberally splattered with Simon Says Stamp white splatter medium and set aside to dry.  For the sentiment I used an older Simon Says Stamp peace die and two sub-sentiments from the SSS Stained Glass Greeting stamp set.  I die cut the word three times from glossy black cardstock and layered them.   To assemble the card I added foam squares to the back of the main portion of the background and adhered it to my card base.   For the top portion I used glue so that portion was flush with the card base giving a little dimension to the card.  I finished with the sentiments placed in the center.

For this card I used the new Radiant Burst die and the poinsettia image and sentiment from the SSS Holiday Gift Giving stamp and die set.  I placed the Radiant Burst die slighty off center on a white cardstock panel and then die cut it.   I stamped the poinsettia with Memento Tuxedo Black and then colored the image with Copic markers.   Die cut the poinsettia, two additional layers and glued them together.  Same was done for the sentiment.  I added some glossy accents to the center of the flower and then covered it with Rock Candy glitter.   I'm trying to be mindful of postage costs so I adhered the Radiant Burst panel to my pink cardstock base with glue.   I then adhered the poinsettia and sentiment.  My card is based on the sketch from Sunday Stamps so I will be adding it to their gallery. 

This card is a duplicate of the first card just with a different image, sentiment and color palette.   I couldn't decide which image I wanted to use for the initial card and so decided to just create two.  That means two more cards for my Christmas card stash.  The image was also stamped in Tuxedo Black and colored with Copic markers.   Diecutting and assembly is exactly the same as the first card.    

Which card do you like best?  I like both versions, but I'm a little more partial to the second card as I like bold jewel tone colors more than softer pastel colors.  

My final card is a departure from Christmas and a move to birthday.  This card was made with the Sweet Treat Critters stamp set and the Scalloped Shaker Shapes die set.   I did some masking to keep my card fairly flat for mailing.  Everything was stamped with Tuxedo Black ink and then colored with Copic markers.  I then die cut the image with the larger scalloped shaker shape.  Pink cardstock was die cut with an SSS A2 Frames die and then embossed with a fun puffy heart embossing folder.  I adhered the pink panel with double sided tape and the image with glue.  I finished with the speech bubble sentiments that were popped up with thin foam squares.  

Well, that is it for me.  Your next stop on the hop is Heejung Hunsberger.    A full list of blog hop participants can be found on the Simon Says Stamp blog.  I also have the list below.  You can find the full release right here.

• Simon Says Stamp Blog 
• Heather Hoffman
• Barbara Tarayao
• Cathy Zielske
• Jennifer McGuire
• Emily Midgett
• Amy Rysavy
• Heather Ruwe
• Lisa Addesa
• Miriam Prantner
• Cheiron Brandon
• Kath Stewart
• Caryn Davies
• Bonnie Crane
• Rosemary Dennis
• Heejung Hunsberger

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the hop!

December 25th

 Hello!  Posting has been sporadic, again, lol!  Have been making things and will be sharing some of them on Friday so stay tuned!  I did want to try to play along with JUGs before they take a break until January.  The challenge there is anything goes with stenciling.  I'm also playing along with the Paper Players which is a tic tac toe board.  I went with stenciling, Christmas and patterned paper.  Finally I will be adding this to the SSS Wednesday challenge.   In case you didn't know it is now DieCember over at Simon Says Stamp and so the Wednesday challenge is to use dies.   Whew that was a lot, lol!  Let's take a look at what I made.

Going through my stuff (I have too much!) and I found the Waffle Flower Postage Collage Christmas stencil set.   I honestly did not know that I had even purchased it.  Is that bad?   Well, now I know I have it and so I put it to use making today's card.  Since I was pressed for time I used the suggested distress ink color combo on the Waffle Flower website.   Blue wasn't included in the color combo, but I added it in for the sky behind the house and the reindeer.  Once I was done stenciling I also added some light gold embossing paste to the image with the trees.     I die cut the entire panel with the Postage Collage die and then layered it on some dark green plaid patterned paper.  To bring in a little bit more patterend paper I die cut some red with tiny dots using the smallest poinsettia die from an older Waffle Flower die set.   I created my poinsettia and added a drop of Nuvo drops in Limoncello.  Once that was dry I added everything to a card base along with a Memory Box sentiment tab and I was done.

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