Birch Press Design Blog Post #2

Hello, hello!  Can you believe that July is almost over?  Time is flying by way too fast for my liking, lol!  Today I'm on the Birch Press Design blog and here is a little peek of what I made:

I hope you will head over to the blog to let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design July 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 look at what I created.

I hope you will hop over to the BPD blog to check out what I created.  Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog and have a wonderful day!

sending hugs...

 Hello!  Popping in to share a card for a few challenges all of which will be closing very soon!  I have tried for days to get a card, any card made.  Finally, this one came together for me.   Let's have a look.

About a month ago I got this sweet little personalized stamp set in the mail from Altenew.  This is the second one they have sent me as I got the one they sent out last year.  It is a little surprising to me that I have gotten these sets as I don't often buy from Altenew.  They have beautiful products, but I find their selection overwhelming and honestly, I don't have a lot of money to spend on crafty supplies.   Anyway, this little stamp is so pretty that I just had to get something made with it.  Along came the current Color Hues challenge of coral and green.  Perfect!  Then I saw that the current Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge was feminine.  What is more feminine than a little flower cluster?  Then I decided to check out the Altenew April challenge.  The colors in the challenge work with my little flower!  Yay!

I stamped the flower using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored it with Copic markers.  I had to come up with my coral color myself and thankfully I had Copics that worked.  I think I did a pretty good job, too.   After I finished coloring the image I stamped it again to make the black lines a little bolder.  I did leave the image in my stamp positioner for that purpose.  I fussy cut the image which wasn't too hard to do.  Hoping they come up with a matching die.  The set I got last year has a matching die set so I am going to try to pick that up eventually.  I used my Simon Says Stamp Scalloped Arched Frames dies to cut white glitter cardstock and fog cardstock (both from Simon Says Stamp).  I adhered the glitter frame to the white cardstock panel, then added thin foam squares to the gray interior piece and inserted it into the frame.  I added the floral image using thin foam squares, as well.  I finished with the sentiment that is also in the set.  I die cut it with a labels die from my stash.   A simple card, but sometimes that is all you need!

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

Simon Says Stamp Sugar n Spice Release!

 Hello, hello!  I know that Simon Says Stamp just had a fantastic month of exclusive released for Stamptember, but they have a new release that dropped today called Sugar and Spice!  Simon was so kind and provided me with the absolutely adorable Cool Birthday stamp set.   This set features sweet little polar bears, penguins and seals and a cute little iceberg with an igloo and banner complete with a disco ball!  How fun is that?!  Let's have a look at what I created.

First up is a card featuring the two polar bears and a seal carrying a present.   I'm a stickler for things being correct and for my card to be correct I had to put the polar bears and seal together because despite what you see during Christmas and winter polar bears and penguins do not live in the same hemisphere!  Penguins only live at the south pole and polar bears only live at the north pole.  Seals, however, live at both the northern and southern poles so they can be used with the polar bears or the penguins.  Got it, lol?   Now that we have that out of the way let me tell you about the cards.  I stamped the images using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored them very simply with Copic markers.  I then stamped the iceberg/igloo image on a white cardstock panel and colored it simply as well.  It is hard to tell put I did use a very light blue Copic to create the water the iceberg is floating on.  I did use some Memory Box snowflake rub ons in the background, as well.  For a little sparkle I added some glue to the disco ball and the little pompoms on the party hats and then added some Rock Candy glitter.  Finished with the sentiment that I stamped and die cut with a sentiment strip.

For the second card I did some selective inking up of the iceberg image to remove to make the scene a little different.   I stamped the iceberg image a little too off center so I had to die cut it down alot more than the first card so I die cut a light blue cardstock panel and then added Memory Box snowflake rub ons.  I stamped the little party goers in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored simply (again) with Copic markers.  As with the first card I added Rock Candy glitter to the disco ball, and pompoms on the party hats and the sentiment that was stamped and then die cut with a sentiment strip.

That's it for me.  You can see the full release by clicking here.   I also have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today that you can see by clicking here.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Simon Says Stamp World Cardmaking Day!

 Hello, hello!  Today is World Cardmaking Day and I'm sharing a card that I made for a special event happening over on the Simon Says Stamp blog.  Crafters from around the world are sharing Christmas/holiday themed cards on the Simon Says Stamp blog.   So excited to be representing the good old USA!!  Here is what I made.

I used the super cute and fun Holiday Ornaments from Simon Says Stamp.  Have to share a funny little story about this set.  I received this set from Simon Says Stamp to create project with for a previous release.   Because I liked the set so much and knew I would use it, I decided to get the matching dies and purchased them when the full release was available.  Well, months later Simon Says Stamp offered the dies at a "super sale" price.  I had totally forgotten that I had already bought the dies and bought them for a second time, lol!  I realized my mistake when the second set arrived, I put them with the stamp set and the first set was already in the storage pouch!  I decided it was a good mistake because now if I decide to stamp two of each image I have dies for each one.  Anyway, for my card I stamped the three images using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored each one with Copic markers.  I then die cut a panel of white cardstock and embossed it with a SSS snowflake embossing folder.  The EF isn't available any more, but they do have a couple that are similar.  I die cut the strings from silver cardstock and then arranged all the ornaments on the front.  I finished with a sentiment from the set that I stamped and die cut with a small rectangle die.

That's it for me.  Don't forget to head over to the SSS blog to check out all the other holiday projects!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful World Cardmaking Day!

PaperTrey Ink September Release!

 Hello, hello!  Have you seen the September release from PaperTrey Ink?  It is absolutely amazing!!  PaperTrey Ink generously sent me products from the release.  I will be sharing projects that I have made with the release over the next few weeks.  Let's take a look at the first set of cards I made using release products.

Who doesn't love the Christmas poem Twas the Night Before Christmas?  When I opened the package from PaperTrey Ink and saw the Twas the Night Before Christmas products I was in heaven!  I loved reading the poem to my boys when they were little.  I would read it almost every night until Christmas day arrived.  I read it so much I could recite it from heart!   Besides using the Twas the Night Before Christmas products I also used the new, Nutcracker Magic stamps and dies, Storybook Scroll die collection and the Cover Plate:  Stitched Snowflakes die.   Kept things simple by using PTI Rustic Cream cardstock for everything.  The scroll and accompanying pieces were diecut and then inked with Antique Linen distress ink for an aged look.  I then assembled the scroll.   The Twas the Night Before Christmas stamp set includes the main sentiment and then a few small images to use with the sentiment.  I used one to place at the bottom of the scroll.  For the top of the scroll, I used an image from Nutcracker Magic for the swag at the top.   The sentiment and the larger swag were stamped in brown ink to keep the aged look going and then inked with Antique Linen distress ink. The larger swag was colored with Copic markers.  I stamped the smaller swag in green ink and the berries using a light red.  I then added red berries using Nuvo drops.    Rustic White cardstock was die cut with the Stitched Snowflake die and then I assembled the card.  Thought about adding some glitter, but decided against it.  Maybe next time!

For my second card I used the 2 Corinthians stamp, outline die and background dies and the Merry Motifs hot foil plate.  I used the color palette from Color Throwdown so I will be posting this card in their gallery.  I hot foiled the Merry Motifs on light blue cardstock using Skybright hot foil.  The larger of the two background dies was used to cut dark blue cardstock and the smaller one die cut the same light blue cardstock used for the foiled background.  The sentiment was stamped using Altenew Terracotta ink.  I did also use an image from the Merry Motifs stamp and die set stamping the image with the Terracotta ink.  Die cut the image and the sentiment and then layered everything on a card base. 

That's it for me, but I will be back soon with more projects made with this fabulous release.  Stay tuned, lol!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Simon Says Stamp/Memory Box STAMPtember Collaboration Release!

 Hello friends!  I'm popping in to share a couple of cards that I created with the new collaboration stamp and die set from Simon Says Stamp and Memory Box!   This super cute set is called Good Cheer and you can find it here.  Don't forget that it is a limited edition set so once it sells out it is never coming back.   Let's have a look at what I made.

This card was made with the sweet little snowman from the set along with the cute little tree and snowflake images from the set.  I also used the Birch Press Design Wavy Hillside die set.  Memory Box glitter cardstock with a light blue sparkle was die cut with the Wavy Hillside die for my snowy background.  I stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored them with Copic makers.  I arranged the hillside pieces and then stamped the snowflakes.  Once that was done I adhered the hills using thin foam tape for the bottom hill so I could slip the snowman behind and glue for the rests of the pieces.  I stamped the sentiment, die cut it with the matching die and then adhered it with thin foam squares.  I finished with a little bit more sparkle from distress Rock Candy glitter.

The stamp set also has two cute penguin images.  I did stamp and color both images with Copic markers, but I haven't gotten around to make a card with the second image.  I just love this cute little penguin holding a cup of hot cocoa!  There is even the image to stamp the steam... love it!  I used Memory Box Yuletide Plaid patterned paper for the background.  Die cutting the papers with Poppystamps Simple Rings (top circle) and Nordic Heart Pattern Rings dies.  I adhered them to a kraft cardstock panel die cut with a Memory Box rectangle die, stamped the sentiment and then added my little penguin, cup and the trees.  To give the card a little more of a Christmas feel I added the little yellow stars to the tops of the tree.  

That's it for me.  Make sure you check out this limited collaboration stamp and die set here on the SSS blog.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

It's a STAMPtember Blog Party!!

Hello, hello!  Can you believe that it is already September?  And with the arrival of September that means STAMPtember has also arrived!!  Today I'm participating in a BLOG PARTY hosted by Simon Says Stamp to celebrate the start of STAMPtember. And because it is a celebrate there are party favors!  I have a code to share that allow you to get a free word die with ANY PURCHASE!  Check out all the deets in the banner at the end of this post.  Simon Says Stamp was so kind and provided me with the super adorable Best Witches stamp set to create with.   You can kind all the new STAMPtember products right here.  Let's have a look at what I created with the Best Witches stamp set.

When I pulled the stamp set out of the mailer it arrived in, I saw the stack of books and thought how fun it would be to create a little scene with one of the critter witches (that's what I call them, lol) sitting on top of the stack.   I love this card turned out.   A little side note, thanks to Simon Says Stamp I have done more masking and coloring of images in the last two months than I have done in the last FIVE years!   I figured out my scene, created my masks and then stamped all the images.  Once stamped I colored everything with Copic markers and then die cut the panel with a SSS A2 Rectangle frames die. I stamped the little book in the magic spell (or at least that is how I see it, lol!), colored it and then trimmed it out.  To finish the card I placed the masks back on the images and then used some distress mica spray in Harvest Moon in the approximate spot where the little book would be floating.  Once everything was dry I stamped the sentiment and then added the little book.   

As you can see, there is a bit of similarity between the two cards.  This card is the one that I actually made first and it gave me the idea to keep going in the same vein with the card shared above.   I created the tag using the largest Simon Says Stamp Label Tag die.  I stamped the little critter witch on the tag and colored it with Copic makers.  I then made a mask of the little critter witch, covered up my coloring and spritz the tag with distress mica spray in Bubbling Cauldron and Fortune Teller.  I stamped and colored the bubbling cauldron with Copics, trimmed it out and then adhered it to my tag.  To keep the sparkle going I trimmed down strips of purple, bright green and black glitter card stock and adhered them to my rectangle panel.  The tag was added to the card front along with a bright green twine bow.  I stamped the sentiment, die cut it with a sentiment strip die and adhered to the card front. 

That's it for me!  Make sure you check out the full release at Simon Says Stamp.  There is a link in my sidebar that will take you directly to Simon Says Stamp.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!