JUGS Guest Designer - Die Week - Easter or Spring

Hello everyone!  I'm so excited to be guest designing for Just Us Girls for the month of April!  Thanks so much for the JUGs team for having me.  It is week die week this week with a theme spring and/or Easter.  I went with Easter.  Let's have a look at what I made.

Since Easter is just a few days away I decided to make an Easter card for my pink loving great niece, Mia.  She absolutely loves pink!   You will pretty much always see her wearing something pink.   For the card I pulled out the super cute Bunny Ears die set from Waffle Flower.  This set is no longer available, sadly.  I die cut the majority of the pieces from white cardstock and then the ear fold over piece and the bow from a pink cardstock with little polka dots in it.  I added some Spun Sugar distress oxide ink to the interior piece and then adhered them to the main bunny ears, along with the fold over piece.   There is a little arched piece that covers up the bottom tips of the interior pieces and that was adhered with glue, as well, and then I added the little bow.  I used the Waffle Flower Happy Easter Duo stamp set for the large sentiment that was also stamped in pink ink (don't remember which one).  The sentiment was die cut with the matching die and then layered with two additional die cuts.  I also added two more layers to the bunny ears to give them a bit more substance.   For a little more interest and fun I embossed a white cardstock panel with the Simon Says Stamp Bouncy Bunny embossing folder and added it to a pink cardstock rectangle.  That was adhered to a white card base and then I added the bunny ears and sentiment.  I think Mia will love it!

Well, that is it for me!  I hope you will play along with JUGs this week and actually for the whole entire month of April.  They have a really good line up of challenges!   Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

just for you...

 Hello, hello!  I hope that everyone is doing well.  Spring is here and with the arrival of spring I got the worst cold I have had in about four years!   Knocked me on my butt cold!  This whole week has been a struggle to get anything done, but I did manage to make a card for a few challenges... only took me two days, lol!  I will be sending this card off to Freshly Made Sketches, JUGs (stencil week) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes).  Let's look at what I created.  

When I saw it was stencil week at JUGs I immediately thought of several Waffle Flower stencil sets that I have but have not used.   One of the sets is called Painted Flower.   I thought it was a fun and unusual looking flower when I purchased the stencil and die combo.    The large center element on the FMS sketch looked perfect to create using two of the flowers.  So, I pulled out some coordinating Altenew Fresh Dye inks and got to work between blowing my nose, lol!  I used additional Waffle Flower products to complete my card:  A preprinted sentiment strip, some patterned paper and A2 frames die set.  Simple, but given my week I think I did pretty good!

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

Birch Press Design March Blog Post #2

 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 of what I made.

I hope you will head over to the blog to check out what I made.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Bold Colors...

 Hello!  Popping in to share a couple of cards that I made using new products from Birch Press Design and some very bold colors!   Let's have a look at what I made.

This card will be heading to Freshly Made Sketches and Color Hues.  The Color Hues combo this time is a pretty bold one of purple and marigold.  Not colors that I normally use, but it is a challenge and so I gave it a go, lol!  I inked up some smooth bristol cardstock with Altenew Deep Iris and Snapdragon inks and then used the new Block Print Lovely Flowers die to cut the main flowers and round centers.  I used vellum to cut the stamens.  I then layered everything as you see.  I used an older Birch Press die set called Foliage Bunch to set out little stems from vellum.  I arranged everything on my card front and then finished with a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Inspiration Quotes stamp set.  Pretty bold, but it is growing on me, lol.

My second card is for the current Just Us Girls challenge which features a fun mood board of painted rocks.  I obviously didn't go with a rock theme, lol, but went with some of the bold colors found on the rocks, as well as the darker gray.   To create the peacock I die cut the feather portion from a white cardstock panel and then removed all the fall out pieces.  I die cut another set of feathers and used that as a stencil to ink up the feathers with different colors of ink (Altenew's Deep Iris, Shadow Creek, Blue Horizon and Galactic Stream).  Once the stenciling was done I trimmed out the portion I needed, added glue to the piece and then aligned it with the feather openings.  The body of the peacock was die cut from white cardstock, inked with the colors used for the feathers.  To darken up the body a bit I blended on some black ink.  I assembled the body using glue, added the highlights and then adhered it to the panel.  I finished with a sentiment from the Birch Press Elegant Sentiments stamp set and adhered the panel to a dark gray cardstock base.

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

Simon Says Stamp In My Heart Release Day 1 Blog Hop!

 Hello, hello!  Simon Says Stamp's brand new release called In My Heart is now available on their website and today is day 1 of their two day blog hop!  I'm so excited to be participating in the blog hop this month.  Thank you to Simon Says Stamp for the opportunity.  You can click here to see the entire release.   As you can see from the banner SSS is offering an exclusive free set when you make any purchase from the new release.  And since this is a blog hop SSS is offering a $25 gift certificate at each stop on the hop!   You can find the full list of hoppers on the Simon Says Stamp blog.   You should have arrived here from Dana Joy's blog.

Simon Says Stamp generously sent me several products to work with.  My first card uses the fun new Scalloped Arches Frames dies, the Bows for Days suite of products (stamps, stencil and dies) and the Thanks, Mom stamp set.  I also used a SSS tag die and beautiful papers from the Paper Rose Studio collection called Arabella's Garden.  Let's look at what I made.

When I started making my cards using the In My Heart products I wanted to use some of the patterned paper that I have (which is a lot, lol!) and came across the Arabella's Garden papers.  I think I got them in a SSS card kit a few years ago.  I found one piece that had this pretty bouquet of flowers on it and decided to die cut out the bouquet.  After die cutting the paper with the Scalloped Arches Frames die I die cut additional sets using thin cardstock.  I cut more for the frame so that the piece with the floral image would be slightly recessed.  I glued everything together and set them aside to dry.  I used the SSS A2 Frames die set to diecut the background from a piece of the patterned paper with a light pink pattern on it.  I used the same paper to stamp the sentiment in gray ink and then die cut with the tag die.  I used the Bows for Days stencil to create a pink bow, stamped the image over the stenciling and then die cut it with the matching die.  I then adhered everything to a white cardstock base.   This card will be going to my mom for Mother's Day!

When I started this card I thought it would be an Easter card because of the cute little bunny but went with Mother's Day instead.  This little guy is called Flower Bunny.  I die cut him from light gray cardstock and white cardstock.  I used residual ink on my blending brushes to add light pink for the nose and ears and light brown for the eyes.  The flower was die cut from pink glitter cardstock, the stem from green and then assembled it.  I used more patterned paper from the Arabella's garden papers for the background that I then embossed with a SSS embossing folder called Bloom Field.  I adhered that to a white cardstock base and then added the arched piece that I created using more patterned paper and two of the smaller Scallopped Arched Frames dies.  I added the bunny and flower to the background.  I had done a test run of stenciling all the bows in the Bows for Days suite of products using blue ink for the stenciling.  I thought the bow you see on the bunny would be the perfect size and I was right!   I added the bunny and then the sentiments that are from the Reverse Mom preprinted strips pack.  I just love that sweet little bunny!

Well, that is it for me!   Your next stop on the hop is Carol Hintermeier.  Don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the hop!

Birch Press Design March Post #1

 Hello, hello!  Hope your March is going well.  Ours has been a little up and down.  Sunny and warm one day, cold and rainy the next!   I'm just glad that we seem to have dodged snow where I live!  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 what I created.

I hope you will head over to the blog to check out this spring inspired design!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

More St. Patty's Day

 Hello!  I back with a card for three challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, Just Us Girls and Color Hues.  It is die week at JUGs and this time the challenge is green/luck so I decided to use the fun Printmaking Clovers stamp set for the card.  I didn't die cut anything from green cardstock, but there is green on the die cut tag so I hope that works for the challenge.  Anyway, let's see what I made.

The Color Hues combo is green and gold.  So pretty together, right?  Sometimes I struggle with this combo, but I think this time around I came up with a good balance for the colors.  I used Altenew Fresh Dye inks in Green Fields and Shadow Creek for two-thirds of the clovers and then VersaMark watermark ink for the final one-third so that I could emboss it with gold embossing powder.  I really like how it turned out.  I die cut the clovers with a Simon Says Stamp rounded top tag.  I die cut a white panel of cardstock, a portion of gold mirror cardstock and then trimmed down a strip of green glitter cardstock.  I adhered everything and then finished with the sentiment that features the word lucky (luck) in the sentiment and a bow made up of metallic gold twine and dark green twine.   I don't often make cards for St. Patrick's Day, but now I have two and so they will be going to a couple of friends. 

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

St. Patty's Day and Easter

 Hello!  Popping in to share the other two projects I made with products from the Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Moments release.  Let's look at what I made. 

This first card was made with the fun Printmaking Clovers stamp set.  I will be honest and tell you that I had a bit of a hard time figuring out exactly how the three different clover stamps in the set went together.  Once I got it figured out I was able to create this panel.  Still need a little bit of work on lining things up, but I like how it turned out.  I used three different Altenew Fresh Dye inks in Firefly, Grass Field and Shadow Creek.  I think this is my new favorite set of green inks!  Once done with the stamp I die cut the panel and then added glossy accents to a lobe of each clover and then poured on Rock Candy glitter.   I used my SSS A2 Frames to die cut green glitter cardstock to make a frame.  A larger rectangle was die cut from white cardstock, adhered to the green cardstock base and then I added the glitter frame.  The image panel was placed in the center and the I finished with the sentiment that I diecut with a banner die from my stash.

I just love how this Easter card turned out!  The Bouncy Bunny embossing folder and matching die are so much fun.  I embossed a piece of white cardstock with the embossing folder.  I then die cut the bunny from the four cardstocks you see (I was thinking pastel Peeps) and then embossed them in the embossing folder.  I die cut the white embossing panel down to a smaller size and covered it with all the little embossed bunnies.  I finished with the sentiment from a Simon Says Stamp Easter set from last year.  Simple, but so cute I think.  Going to add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of make it cute.  

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

Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Moments Release!

 Hello, hello!  Simon Says Stamp has a new release on their website and it is full of some beautiful products!  You can see the entire release here.  Simon was so generous and sent me several products to create with.  Today I'm going to share two of those projects with you.  Let's see what I made.

First up is a little decor piece that I created using the new Retro Daisies stencil, Ribbon Loop Frames dies and Inspiration Quotes stamp set.  Blue is my favorite color (along with green) and so that was my jumping off point.    I used Altenew Fresh Dye ink in Blueberry and Blue Horizon to stencil the daisies.  The Ribbon Loop frame was die cut from a bright green cardstock, as well as two additional layers from white.  The frames were then adhered together.  I tried several options of embossing on vellum and finally settled on white.  It is a little hard to read in the photo, but it looks really pretty in real life.  The frame is a Tim Holtz distress frame that I painted light blue.  Before the paint was dry I wiped some of it off for a little bit of a shabby look.   The stenciled piece was trimmed to fit behind the frame and then adhered to the backing piece using collage medium.   The frame was adhered using collage medium as well.  Once the main piece was dry I adhered the green ribbon frame using liquid adhesive, trimmed down the sentiment and adhered it using rolled up glue dots.  I finished things off with dots of Limoncello Nuvo jewel drops.  I will be sending this little gem off to the new Just Us Girls challenge as it is stencil week.  Thank you so much to JUGs team member Lisa for picking my card as the winner of last week's challenge! Will also be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Now for my second project.  This one uses a fun new background stamp called Pinwheel Party and will be heading over to the current Color Hues challenge of peach and teal.  Let's have a look.

I'm going to be real honest and tell you that peach is not my favorite color to work with, but I always like a good challenge and so I was determined to make something with those two colors.  When I saw the Pinwheel Party I thought it would be perfect to use for those two colors.  I decided to go with using more peach than teal just because teal is a much stronger color.   After stamping both colors I diecut the teal one with a SSS tag die, layered it on a shadow layer tag and added the tab and twine.  The peach background was die cut with a rectangle die and then added to a white cardstock base.  I adhered the tag and then finished with a sentiment from the Inspirational Quotes and some Nuvo drops in Morning Dew.

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out the new Beautiful Moments release!

Birch Press Design February Post #2

 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 of what I made.

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

Cherry Blossoms

 Hello!   Can't believe it is already the end of February and spring will soon be here.  To be honest we haven't had much of a winter here in the Pacific Northwest.   I have a begonia on my front porch that is still green and blooming!   And because we have had a mild winter the cherry blossoms are already blooming on the Japanese cherry trees!    But enough talk about our non-existent winter I'm here to talk about a card that I made for the following challenges:  Just Us Girls (mood board), the Paper Players (sketch) and one more entry for the Pinkfresh Studio February challenge (I went with the anything goes option).   Let's look at what I made.

My sweet bloggy friend, Lisa, picked the mood board this month as a member of the JUGs team and she picked a photo of a yummy pink mug of hot cocoa.  I don't have any mug stamps, but I did zero in on the branch of what looked to me like cherry blossoms in the background as my inspiration along with the color pink.  I used the appropriately named Pinkfresh Studio Cherry Blossom die and stencil set.  I wanted soft colors so I used the residual ink left on the blending brushes I use with pink, green, brown and yellow distress oxide inks.  Love the soft look that provides.  I then die cut everything and assembled my little branch of cherry blossoms.  I used the Pinkfresh Studio postage stamp dies to create the elements of the sketch using white, pink and pink glitter cardstock.  I adhered everything to my card base and then finished with a gold foil Memory Box sentiment tab.   

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Hello!  I'm popping in to share a little Valentine that I made for my great nephew.  I hadn't planned on it, but when I saw that the JUGs challenge was valentine I decided to share it.  I'm also posting it to Freshly Made Sketches because the layout of my card is does lend itself to the sketch.   Let's have a look at what I created.

Back in the summer my niece convinced her husband to fly to California and bring home a mini Aussiedoodle that they named Coco.  She is cutest little thing and my great nephew and great niece adore her.  I was thinking of Coco when I made this card for my great nephew.    The puppy face is from the Simon Says Stamp set called Hello Animals.  She fit perfectly on top of the happy Valentine's Day setntiment that is from a very old SSS stamp set called Hello Beautiful.  I stamped her using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored her with Copic markers.   I had just planned to stamp the sentiment and then place the puppy as you see it but decided to add the pale blue heart for a little bit more interest. I used a SSS stencil for the heart.  I like how it turned out.  I hope my great nephew likes it too!  Can you see the sketch in there?  Let me know.

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

Birch Press Design February Post #1

 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 of what I made.

Hope you will head over to the blog and take a look at what I made.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

wishing you...

 Hello!  Finally back with a card for a few challenges:  Color Hues (pink and red) and Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.  Let's have a look at what I made.

Recently Scrapbook.com had an offer involving a stamp, die and stencil set from Pinkfresh Studio that is exclusive to Scrapbook.com (I think!).  Spend $25 and you get the stamp set for free.  I couldn't pass up that deal.  Unfortunately, by the time I was able to make my purchase the die was all sold out.  So, I got the stencils and couple other things and my free stamp set!     The Pinkfresh Studio challenge is anything goes now, but they do still provide a color combo and another inspiration.  This month it was geometric.   For the geometric part I decided to use the Pinkfresh Studio dazzling diamond (I think that is the name) impression plate and their Elegant Circles dies.  

I centered the stamp on a panel of white cardstock, stamped and then stenciled the image using Pinkfresh Studio inks in Ballet Slipper, Sparkling Rose and Bubblegum and Altenew Silverstone for the gray.  Once the stenciling was done I centered my panel on the die and ran it through my die cutter.  It worked like a charm!  I then die cut the Elegant Circles from red cardstock (twice and glued together) and then adhered them over the two larger flowers in the image.  Finished with the sentiment that I stamped and die cut with a banner die.

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

for you...

 Hello!  I am popping in to share a card that I made with more papers from the January Your Paper Insider subscription box.   This card will be heading off to Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Let's look at what I made.

The January subscription box contained this absolutely gorgeous Yuzenshi Chiyogami paper in Dusty Pink.  I just had to use it on a card.   The soft yellowish flowers on the paper have a wonderful velvety touch to them.   I also used Glama Natural Clear vellum from the box for the circle element.  The butterflies were die cut using the new Linear Boho Butterflies from Birch Press Design.  I die cut the larger ones from light pink cardstock from my stash and the smaller ones and butterfly bodies from the Light Pink Non-shed glitter cardstock from the subscription box.  I die cut the vellum using Poppystamps Simple Rings die.  I adhered the butterflies to the vellum circle before adhering the circle to my cardfront so I could hide the glue behind the butterflies.  Per the FMS layout I adhered a strip of

the Yunzenshi Chiyogami paper to a panel of white cardstock, added the butterfly circle and then finished with the sentiment from the BPD Plain and Simple Birthday Greetings stamp set.   

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

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello!  I'm popping to let you know that I have a card posted on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of the card:

Hope you will head over to the blog to check out the full card. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

grateful for all you do...

 Hello!  Popping in on this cold, but sunny day to share a card that I made for the current JUGs challenge, as well as the Pinkfresh Studio monthly challenge.  I haven't participated in a PFS challenge in a very long time.  The challenge is year in review and so I went with April:  Flower Frenzy and May: Frame it Up.  The JUGs challenge is stenciling.  The SSS Wednesday challenge is also stenciling so I will add it to that gallery, too.  Let's have a look at what I created.

Back at the beginning of January, PFS had a weekly special of buy the die set For Never Give Up and get the stamp or press plate and stencil set free.  I couldn't resist especially since the image is so pretty and who wouldn't like buying one product and getting two more in the process!  I used PFS inks in Coral Reef, Passionfruit, Berrylious and Grassy Knoll to stencil the image.    After diecutting the image and the sentiment I pulled out the PFS Dotted Fancy Frames and Folk Edge Rectangles to create my backgound.  I used some light coral cardstock to die cut the thin frame using two of the Dotted Fancy Frames together and then glued it to the white base layer.  Since I'm in my "no dimension era" I glued everything flat to my card base.

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

Snowflakes and hearts!

 Hello, hello!  I'm popping in today with two cards that I made using beautiful papers from Your Paper Insider Box 14!   Your Paper Insider contacted me through Instagram and asked if I was interested in creating with one of their boxes.  Of course I said yes!  Who wouldn't want to play with pretty cardstock and specialty papers?!?  The cardstock and specialty papers came beautifully wrapped in teal tissue paper and included a little sheet that shares information on some of the specialty papers and provides a list of everything in the box.  Boxes arrive 4 times a year (January, April, July and October) and cost just $29.95!  Shipping is included, too!  I think that is an amazing deal.  

The cards I made today will be heading to several different challenges:  Sunday Stamps (sketch), Color Hues (blue and white) and Inspired By challenge (I was inspired by the sketch).  The first card also works for the Paper Players clean and simple winter card challenge.  Let's have a look at what I made with some of the papers.

This card was made with shades of blue.  Specifically, Sapphire Colorplan cardstock, Baby Blue Thai Unryu (mulberry paper) and Blue Moon Cocktail.   I die cut the large center snowflake from the Blue Moon Cocktail.  It has this pretty subtle sparkle to it and is so pretty!  The smaller snowflakes were die cut from Sapphire Colorplan.  I cut a strip of the Baby Blue Thai Unryu and then used my wet fingers to pull off small pieces to give the strip that wispy look.  I do admit that I was worried that the strip would be too light, but it looks so pretty against the white cardstock.  I also like how it provides a nice softness to the overall design.   The sentiment is one that I hot foiled ages ago and I believe it is from Pinkfresh Studios, but I'm not sure.

Here is a shot of the two cardstocks and Thai Unryu paper I used along with the dies.  This card will be going to Sunday Stamps and Color Hues. 

 This card will be going to Inspired by Challenge and as stated above I used the sketch for my inspiration.  I used all speciality papers from the box for the main elements on the card.  The white cardstock used in both cards is what I purchased from PaperTrey Ink.   The papers I used are Magenta Thai Unryu, Magenta Non-Shed glitter and Light Pink Non-shed glitter.   I used two heart dies to cut the hearts from the glitter papers and then layered them using a thin foam square.  I trimmed down the Magenta Thai Unryu and used the same process I used on the Baby Blue Thai Unryu to create the wispy look.  I embossed white cardstock with a puffy hearts embossing folder, layered on the Thai Unryu paper and the hearts.  I finished with the little sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Locket of Love stamp set.  Going to add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use embossing.

This is a photo of the specialty papers I used for the second card.

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