Spellbinders April Release - Take 2

 Hello there!  Hope things are well in your world.  We have been having some crazy weather here in the Pacific Northwest.  And when I say crazy I mean crazy like snow in April!  We can get snow in April in the mountains, but not down where I live!  Thank goodness it didn't hang around.  Anywhoo... I have more projects to share using new products from the Spellbinders April release.  (Compensated affiliate links used where possible.  Using my links allows me to earn a small commission at no cost to you.  I truly appreciate you using my links.  A list of affiliate linked products used in this blog post will be provided at the end of the post.)

First up is this sweet little tag that I created using the colors from Color Throwdown and the inspiration photo from the Fusion challenge.  Originally, I was going to add the tag to a card (and I may still do that) but decided to just keep it as a tag.   The tag was created using the new Decorative Tag die set from the Inspired Basics collection.  The tag comes with three inserts and a die that allows you to cut fringe.  As you can see I used one of the inserts to die cut the bottom of the tag.  I die cut a second solid tag from lavender cardstock and adhered that to the white tag.  I used the tulip and leaves dies from the Artful Tulip die set to die cut the Simple Stories patterned paper for my little tulips.  The little butterflies are from the Butterfly Burst die set and they were cut from blue polka dot paper.  I arranged my little tulips and leaves and then adhered them along with the butterflies to my tag.  I added silver pearls to the butterflies and then one additional one.  The sentiment is from the Celebrate Sentiments Glimmer plates set and was foiled in black.   I added the sentiment and the white bakers twine to finish off my tag.  I love how it turned out!

This next card uses the new Solid Square Glimmer hot foil plate.  I was super excited when I saw that Spellbinders was coming out with solid Glimmer plates.   As you can see for my card I used the plate to foil a solid square using Aura foil as it is intend.   The square was then die cut down to a slightly smaller size with a Spellbinders square die.   But you can also use the solid plate in a different way.   As many of you know a solid plate allows you to foil what would be the negative image left after you have foiled an image (I hope that makes sense).   Because I receive my products well in advance of each month, I was able to experiment with the solid square foil plate and I created this card for the March release (2nd card in the post) using the plate.   I hope to share another card soon using this technique.  To finish off this card I die cut the the flowers and leaves from the Stitched Flower die set from various cardstock and adhered them to the square.  A strip of the blue cardstock was adhered to my card front and then I adhered the foiled square.  I finished with a sentiment from the Sentiments for Everyday set foiled with Aura foil.  

Supplies used:

Aura foil

Black foil

Platinum 6

Glimmer Hot Foil Machine

Sentiments for Everyday 

Celebrate Sentiments

Stitched Flower

Decorative Tag

Solid Square Glimmer Hot Foil Plate

Butterfly Burst dies

Artful Tulip dies

Bearly Art Glue

Silver Fashion Pearls

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

sending smiles...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for a couple of challenges:  Color Throwdown and Fusion.   The inspiration photo at Fusion is so sweet with the butterfly touching the cat's nose.  My card doesn't feature a cat, but it does feature a butterfly and the colors in the inspiration photo are similar to the CTD palette.  

A few months ago I purchased the Birch Press Glimmer Butterfly die set, but because of other things I had to do I wasn't able to make anything with it.  That was really bothering me so I was determined to get something make with this beautiful set.  Creating this neutral butterfly with the CTD colors was the perfect opportunity.  I die cut the bottom layer from gray, the middle layer from kraft and the top from white.  I used pattern paper from the P13 Always and Forever paper pad for the two block elements in the Fusion sketch and adhered them to my card base.   To determine where the sentiment would go I placed the butterfly on the card front and then placed the sentiment from the SSS Friendly Flowers on the card front.  I removed the butterfly and stamped the sentiment with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  The body of the butterfly was die cut from silver glitter cardstock and adhered to the butterfly.  I then attached the butterfly.  To give the card a bit more feminine look I added crystal clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Easter Blessings...

 Hello!  Hope you are having a good day.   Popping in with a card for a few challenges:   Paper Players, Fusion and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   The Paper Players challenge is to create a clean and simple card with an animal.  I have a butterfly on my card and so I hope that counts, but if you look really closely at the light blue oval there are tiny rabbits on it.    The inspiration photo at Fusion features eggs.  Obviously I didn't use eggs on my card, but I did use the sketch and I tried to capture some of the colors found in the inspiration photo.  Finally, I used three different patterned papers per the SSS Wednesday challenge to use two or more patterned papers.  The papers and the butterfly are from a Spellbinders kit from 2020 called Feeling Hoppy.   I die cut the two rectangles using the Spellbinders Essentials Rectangle dies.  The oval was cut with an original Spellbinders classic oval die.   The sentiment is from A Jillian Vance Design and was heat embossed in white on vellum.  Even with the patterned papers the card is very clean and simple. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a dragonfly and birthdays...

Hello!  Hope you had a nice weekend!  I actually felt like making some cards this weekend and I'm sharing three that I made.  First up is a card for Fusion card challenge.  I often forget about Fusion so I decided to see if what the current challenge was and just loved the inspiration photo.   So I had to play along.  I tried a couple of ideas that went into the garbage before settling on doing some very simple watercoloring with distress inks on watercolor paper.  I tried to make the area where I the watercoloring have some thing of an arc to it.   Once it was dry I stamped the hydrangea image from the Colorado Craft Company Big & Bold Get Well Hydrangea with VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  The sentiment from the same set was stamped using VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne and then I die cut the piece with an AJVD rectangle die.   The dragon fly is from a Stampin Up! set called Dragonfly Dreams.  I stamped it using Catherine Pooler Suede Shoes ink, die cut it with the matching die and then die cut a detailed dragonfly from the pretty purple glitter cardstock that I used on another card a few days ago.  I adhered the two dragonflies together and then adhered it to my card front.  I finished with some purply-blue sequins.

The next two cards were created with the layout from CAS(E) this sketch in mind.   I created a card for the last CTS challenge and used the Concord & 9th Thankful Leaves turnabout stamp and die set.  There is a fun little banner die in the set along with dies that you can use to create a happy birthday sentiment.   I knew I wanted to use the dies on my card, but wasn't sure how I would use the dies that cut out birthday.  At first I did die cut them and was going to go with that, but then I decided to use the dies to hot foil the sentiment.  The first go didn't turn out well so I decided to try it again on light gray cardstock instead of the white that I had originally used.   The foiling went much better with that version, but I realized that I could save the first one and end up with two birthday cards!  I used the same purple glitter cardstock for the white version and black glitter cardstock from C9 for the grey version.    With both of them I die cut the word happy from the glitter cardstocks and then a second time from a scrap of white cardstock, layered then and adhered to the panels (after they had been die cut with an AJVD rectangle die).  The banners were die cut and then popped up with foam dimensionals.     Definitely very clean and simple!  That purple glitter paper is almost gone.  I really like it so I think I will have to purchase some more... now to remember where it came from, lol!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hello...

Hello... hope everyone is doing well and keeping busy while at home!  In that regard I have been trying to make some projects.  I finished up a card that was pretty labor intensive, but won't be sharing for awhile, only to start on another labor intensive card that I'm sharing today.  This card is for someone who will really not be expecting it, but I hope that it makes their day!  The card is heading to the following challenges:  Altenew March Inspiration challenge and Fusion.  Even though I used the Altenew Mega Succulent stamp set for my Altenew February Inspiration challenge card when I saw the inspiration photo I just had to use it again!  I stamped it on watercolor paper with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink and then on white cardstock with same ink.  The one stamped on watercolor paper was then colored with my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils in a minty green, light blue and purple.  The blue sort of got lost between the minty green and purple, but you can just barely see it in person.  After it was dry I added a little shimmer using my Altenew Metallic watercolor paints.  That was done the previous night and left to dry.  Today I did the part of the card that turned a little labor intensive, but in the end I like how it turned out.  I used a die to cut my strips from the watercolor piece, trimmed down the image stamped on white cardstock and then lined up the watercolor strips.  I adhered them with foam tape.  Because the blue got a little lost I added it back in with my hello from the Altenew Half-Tone Hello set that I stamped using Altenew Sea Breeze ink.  The finished panel was adhered to a white cardstock base.

Thanks for stopping by today!

cards with just a splash of color...

Hello!  Today I have two cards to share and both have just a splash of color on them.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown, Fusion (I mainly used the Fusion sketch) and Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge.   When I saw the color inspiration photo for CTD I noticed that there was woodgrain in the background behind the string heart so I looked through my patterned paper collection and finally found a piece with a woodgrain design.  I die cut that with the smaller scalloped square from the Reverse Confetti Scalloped Squares Confetti Cuts.   Some white cardstock was die cut with an AJVD rectangle die and then I adhered the scalloped frame to the white panel.  The center cut piece was adhered with foam tape for dimension.  The floral image from the RC Something Wonderful was stamped on white cardstock with Catherine Pooler Flirty Fuchsia ink and die cut with the matching die.  I adhered that to the raised square.  I placed the panel in my stamping tool and stamped the sentiment from the Mod Floral Stack stamp set.    I finished things off with a little black twine bow and then adhered to a light gray cardstock base.

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (black, white and one color).  I have to admit that when I see a sketch I often can't get past the shapes that are used for the sketch and really have to push myself to use other shapes.  However when I saw the FMS layout I immediately wanted to make a card using triangles!  I have a set of triangle dies from MFT that I have never used so I pulled those out to make my card.  The floral image is from the beautiful Honey Bee Stamps Winter Anenome set.  I decided to use the largest image from the set, but didn't need part of it as it would have gone off the edge of my panel and did not look right.  So I did a little masking on my stamp and then inked up the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Before I started coloring the image I laid out the larger triangle and then placed the smaller one on top to determine where I would need to die cut the second image that I needed to stamp.  Once everything was stamped I colored the one flower with Marvy Uchida alcohol ink markers.   Then I die cut the large triangle from the main panel.  I die cut the smaller triangle from the second image and then colored it.  Finally I die cut the main panel, stamped the sentiment and assembled everything on a light gray cardstock base.   I'm pretty pleased with how my idea turned out.  I only wish that my triangles were just a little bit taller and thinner.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card #1:  Cardstock:  PTI white, SU! Smoky Shadow; PP:  My Mind's Eye; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti; Dies:  Reverse Confetti and AJVD; Inks:  Catherine Pooler and VersaFine CLAIR; Black twine:  Stampin Up!

Card #2:  Cardstock:  PTI white; SSS Fog; Stamps:  Honey Bee Stamps; Dies:  MFT and AJVD; Inks:  Memento and VersaFine CLAIR; Coloring medium:  Marvy Uchida alcohol ink markers

more cards to share!

Hello!  Hope you had a good weekend!  This weekend I got the opportunity to make three cards!  For me that is absolutely amazing because for months I was lucky if I got three cards made in the course of a week!    First up is a card that I have made for the current Fusion challenge.  They have a cute inspiration photo of penguins so I immediately thought of the Simon Says Stamp January card kit.   The kit came with the super cute Snow Much stamp set that has two different penguin images in it.  I used the larger one.  Because I used patterned papers that came in the kit I decided to stamp my penguin in dark blue ink (Catherine Pooler Juniper Mist) to coordinate with those colors.  A little heart was stamped on the penguin's chest in the same blue ink, colored with a red marker and then covered with Glossy Accents.  I added googly eyes, as well.  Once everything was dry I trimmed out the penguin.  A piece of patterned paper was trimmed and adhered to a white cardstock base per the Fusion sketch.  Another piece of the coordinating paper was die cut with a banner die (from Verve), stamped with the sentiment in the same dark blue ink and adhered to the card base.  I then adhered the little penguin with foam tape.  Also adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of have a heart.

The second card is for the MFT sketch challenge and the MFT color challenge.  I used the MFT Beautiful Butterflies and Amazing stamp sets for my card.   The butterfly was stamped using PTI Winter Wisteria and Catherine Pooler Black Jack inks and die cut with the matching die.  Black Jack isn't black it is actually a dark gray similar to the gray in the MFT color challenge.  Some light pink cardstock was die cut with the MFT Stitched Mini Scallop Oval die set.   The sentiment was stamped in Black Jack and then die cut with an MFT fishtail flag stax die.   I trimmed some white cardstock per the sketch and adhered that to a light gray cardstock base.  The oval was adhered along with the sentiment strip and then I added the butterfly with some foam tape.   Super excited that I was actually able to participate in the MFT sketch challenge two weeks in a row!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Card 1: Cardstock:  MFT white; Patterned paper:  Echo Park; Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp; Dies:  Verve; Ink:  Catherine Pooler

Card 2:  Cardstock:  MFT white; SSS pink and light gray; Stamps and dies:  MFT; Inks:  Catherine Pooler and Simon Says Stamp

love you...

Hello there!  I have another Valentine's day card to share.  Most months I barely get a card made for the Reverse Confetti stock your stash challenge, but this month I have managed to get two done!  Yay me, lol!  I combined the stock your stash challenge with the current Fusion challenge to make my card.  I used both the layout and the colors from the inspiration photo for my card.  I did some simple watercoloring on some watercolor paper with a blue and purple ZIG marker and then die cut the RC Heart Love Pretty Panel from that when it was dry.  I die cut a second one from some scrap paper to make it a little more substantial because I decided that I wanted to create a shaker element with the die cut.   Cutting the foam tape thin enough was a little tricky, but I managed to get it done in most spots.   I adhered my die cut pretty panel to some acetate and then trimmed it out when everything was dry.   A simple strip of blue gingham patterned paper was adhered to a white cardstock base, I added some sequins from Pretty Pink Posh and then adhered the panel over the top.  For the butterflies (die cut using the Butterfly Dreams Confetti Cuts) I did some additional simple watercoloring with blue, purple and pink ZIGs and when the paper was dry die cut the butterflies.  The largest one was stamped with the word you (I used part of a sentiment from the Whole Lotta Thanks stamp set) using VersaFine CLAIR ink in Nocturne and adhered to the shaker element.  I then arranged the rest of the butterflies. In retrospect I think I should have arranged the butterflies differently, but I still like how it turned out.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  MFT white; watercolor paper; Paper:  gingham patterned paper; Stamps and dies:  Reverse Confetti; Ink:  VersaFine CLAIR; Watercolor Medium:  ZIG Clean Color Real Brush makers; Sequins:  Pretty Pink Posh; Acetate

Christmas cards...

Hello!  Well... the rush for me to make and send out Christmas cards is on, but thankfully I have two more made!  Both of these were made with the fun November Spellbinders small die kit.   I think the name is a bit of a misnomer because the kit comes with 14 dies... that isn't a small number to me, lol!  Anyway the first card is very, very simple.  I used the layout from Freshly Made Sketches to help me along.  I used glitter cardstocks in bright green, bright blue and sparkly white for all the top die cuts and then made additional cuts using plain white cardstock.  All the cuts were stacked together and then adhered to the black cardstock panel along with the little dots (another one of the dies).  Another panel of cardstock in a color similar to the bright blue was layered behind the black panel and I was finished with the card.    This card will also be heading over to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The second card will be heading over to the Fusion challenge as most of the colors found in the inspiration photo are also used on my card.   I used more dies from the November Spellbinders small die kit to make this one, as well.  When I originally started working on this card I die cut the words Merry and Christmas from the kraft cardstock because I just wanted to have the words to move around and place where I liked them.  But then I decided to actually go with that color as part of my design.  I die cut that sweet little deer from the same kraft cardstock and brown glitter cardstock and then pieced the glitter cardstock inside the kraft outline.  The bow was die cut from red glitter cardstock and adhered to the deer.  I die cut the berry branches from dark red cardstock and adhered them together.  I die cut additional words from the same dark red cardstock that was used for the berry branches and then stacked them together with the kraft words.  I love how you can just see the red peeking out from underneath!   Then everything was arranged on an off white cardstock panel.  I finished by adhering the berry branches to the deer. I really like the rustic look of this design.    Will be sending this one over to the Visions of Sugar Plum Christmas/Winter challenge.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  SU! Crumb Cake, Tempting Turquoise, Cherry Cobbler, Cherry Cobbler glitter, bright green and bright blue glitter cardstocks; Lawn Fawn brown glitter cardstock; PTI Rustic White, True Black; Dies:  Spellbinders and A Jillian Vance Design

Thank you... so very much

Hello!  Popping in with a last minute card for this month's Altenew Inspiration challenge, as well as the current Fusion challenge (I used colors and the leaves as my inspiration and did not use the sketch... obviously!).   Just the other day I received some happy mail from Altenew in the form of the Leaf Canopy stamp and die set.  I have wanted this bundle for ages and finally got to make it mine!  So obviously I used it to make my card, lol!   I stamped the outline images from the set on some off white cardstock using a dark taupe ink.  I then stamped the solid images using a medium yellow ink.  To bring in the orange I pounced the solid image with orange ink to create a blended look on the leaves.   The sentiment was stamped in the same dark taupe color.  Splatters of dark brown watercolor paint were added along with the yellow and orange sequins.   Can't wait to make something else with this fabulous stamp set!  Decided to post this to the current Time Out challenge to be inspired by words in the quote below as I think this card fits.

Have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  PTI Rustic White, Stampin Up! Tiptop Taupe; Stamps:  Altenew; Dies:  Altenew and AJVD; Inks:  Stampin Up! Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Tiptop Taupe; Sequins:  Lawn Fawn, Pretty Pink Posh

let your dreams...

Hey there!  Hope all is well in your world.   I'm popping in with a card for two challenges:  The Card Concept and Fusion.  Both challenges happen to have a similar feel to them... non-traditional Halloween/Fall and so I thought I would combine them on my card.  I did not use pumpkins (which are featured in both inspiration photos), but feathers.  As a nod toward the Card Concept photo I stamped my feathers (from the February My Monthly Hero kit) in two shades of pink and then inked up portions of each feather with VersaMark watermark ink, applied gold embossing powder and then heat set.  A piece of white cardstock was die cut and then splattered with a light blue/green acrylic paint that I thinned down with water.   When the panel was dry I arranged my feathers per the sketch from the Fusion challenge.  The sentiment was stamped in VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink.  To bring in the crystals found on one of the pumpkins in the Card Concept photo and the color blue from the Fusion photo I added Pretty Pink Posh light blue crystals randomly around the feathers.   I'm going to admit that I often struggle with the categories at the Card Concept, but I think this one would fit into the Clean and Layered category.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  MFT smooth white; Stamps:  Hero Arts; Dies:  A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Stampin Up!, VersaFine CLAIR, VersaMark; Arcylic paint: Plaid FolkArt; Crystals:  Pretty Pink Posh

summer coffee lover's blog hop...

Hey!!  Happy summer!!  Are you hopping along with the Summer Coffee Lover's blog hop???  I am even though I'm not a coffee drinker!!  Lately my drink of choice has been a London Fog tea latte... super yummy!!  Anyway... I do like joining in on the Coffee Lover's blog hop fun as it gives me an opportunity to get out the coffee/tea related stamps and dies that I own!  Today I combined stamps and dies from two of the sponsors for the hop:  Clearly Whimsy Stamps and A Jillian Vance Design.  I used the current Fusion challenge to create my card.  I put together the sketch with the inspiration photo and created a patriotic cup of coffee!!   And since I used patterned paper for my little coffee cup I will also be adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   I stamped the cup with red ink and then die cut it with the matching die.  The top of the cup and the wrap were die cut from this fun patriotic patterned paper that I found in my stash.   Did some second generation stamping using the coffee ring image from the AJVD But First Coffee stamp set and then added the sentiment (from the same set) using red ink.   

Have a wonderful day... and happy hopping!!

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white and red; Patterned paper:  Bo Bunny??; Stamps:  Clearly Whimsy, A Jillian Vance Design; Dies:  Clearly Whimsy and A Jillian Vance Design; Inks:  Hero Arts and My Favorite Things

sharing some valentines...

Hello!!  Stopping in this rainy day in the Pacific Northwest with some Valentines that I made over the last few days.  I generally don't make a ton of Valentines, but for some reason this year I'm really having a lot of fun making them!   First up are a set of cards that I made using the colors from the current Color Throwdown.   I will also be adding them to the current SSS Wednesday challenge of the color of love.  I decided to use a Reverse Confetti die that I bought last year around Valentine's day, but never got around to using.  I die cut one from pink cardstock and one from red cardstock and then swap the colors out as you see.  The sentiment is from the Reverse Confetti set Forever Fall.  The you is actually part of a sentiment that says thank you.  I simply masked off the thank, inked up the you with black ink, removed the mask and stamped.  Super simple.  Each panel was then matted with brown cardstock die cut with another Reverse Confetti die.  I die cut some white glitter paper using an AJVD die for the larger panels and then adhered everything to white cardstock bases. 

Next up is a card that I made for the current MFT sketch challenge. I started with a panel of woodgrain cardstock that was trimmed down on one side and then blended on some dark red ink.  The MFT heart border was die cut from light pink cardstock and adhered to the woodgrain panel.  The HUG (from the Word for Friends die set from the Fancy Flowers card kit) was die cut from white glitter cardstock and then adhered over the top of the heart border.  I stamped the Love & from the MFT stamp set Geometric Greenery in black ink, trimmed it out and then adhered to the card using foam dimensionals.  I finished the panel off with some black enamel hearts and then adhered the panel to a dark red cardstock base.  I'm going to add this to the current SSS Wednesday challenge, as well.  I'm going to add this one to the current Fusion challenge of interlocking hearts.  I went with the inspiration photo and hearts theme.

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, dark red, brown, pink, white woodgrain, white glitter; Stamps:  Reverse Confetti, My Favorite Things; Dies:  Reverse Confetti, My Favorite Things and A Jillian Vance Design; Ink:  VersaFine Onyx Black, Stampin Up! Cherry Cobbler; My Mind's Eye black enamel hearts