birthday cards...

 Hello!  Took some time out from stitching and made two birthday cards.  First up is a card for the following challenges:  Color Throwdown and Seize the Birthday.   For Seize the Birthday I'm going with anything goes since I used kraft and two colors.   I think I will also add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.  Take a look.

For this card I did a little inkblending on patterned paper.  In her most recent video Jennifer McGuire did inkblending on patterned paper.   Something that is super simple to do and creates a pretty look.   I used patterned paper from the Memory Box Anemone Plaid 6x6 pad and inks from Hero Arts.   I kept the background very simple.  I die cut a circle using the largest die from the PoppyStamps Simple Rings die set.  This set cuts a circle and a very thin border ring around the circle.  This allowed me to use the kraft ring around the white circle.  So that the kraft circle didn't go to waste I glued it behind white one to give the circle a little bit of height.  Then I added the kraft ring.  The sentiment is from Memory Box and was also die cut from white and kraft.  I finished the card with tiny light blue gems as the dot for the "i" and on the little stamens on the flowers. 

My next card is heading to Just Us Girls and Color Hues challenges.  Both challenges happen to have the same color combo this week.    Yay!  Two challenges with one card, lol!   Take a look.

Recently I purchased the super sweet Poppystamp Nordic Bird die set.   I hadn't put it away because I really wanted to use it.  I thought it perfect for the challenges.   The die is all one piece so I die cut it from red, pink and white cardstock.  As I was putting the bird together I noticed that my bird is not facing in the same direction as the bird on the packaging.  The bird on the packaging faces to the right and mine faces to the left.  Obviously some kind of mistake occurred with my die, but I don't mind!  I used a little branch die from another Poppystamps die set and the same Simple Rings dies.  The ring dies were still out so why not use them?   I stamped the sentiment from a Spellbinders stamp set on the white arched cardstock piece and then added the circle, branch and bird.  This piece was popped up with thin foam squares on a light gray cardstock rectangle and then added to the white cardstock base.  Another clean and simple design!

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

magnolia birthday...

 Hello!  Hope that your August is off to a great start.  Honestly, I really can't believe that it is August already.   Things are moving way too fast if you ask me, lol!  Anyway, I'm popping in to share a card that I made for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  Take a look at what I made.

I have been in a bit of a creative slump lately.  Sometimes things come together and sometimes the just don't.   Last week I made a card using the CTD color combo and the FMS sketch that I absolutely hated!  To the point where I didn't even post it because I hated it just that much!  That doesn't often happen, but it was just indicative of where my creatively was at last week... no where, lol!   So when I saw the new sketch and color combo I had to try, again.  I'm happy to say that I do really like the card that I created.  This one uses the Magnolia Blooming Bud die from Memory Box that I purchased several months ago.  It has been sitting on my desk waiting patiently to be put to use.   I used Memory Box white and kraft woodgrain cardstock for parts of the bloom and then created custom colored cardstock for the leaves.  I die cut all the pieces and assembled them using liquid adhesive.  The whole MB magnolia line is gorgeous and so someday I would like to get the other dies.   After the fact I realized that I could have used white woodgrain cardstock to make my custom colored cardstock, but I like the contrast of the smooth leaves with the woodgrain stem and flowers.  I did custom color a piece of the woodgrain cardstock so I could cut a strip from it for the sketch.  I used a Hero Arts ink that was a nice sage green for the custom coloring.   The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Happy Hello stamp set.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a mother's day card...

Hello!  Popping in with a card for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.  I love the folk art style florals in the Simon Says Stamp Happy Hello stamp set from their March 2023 card kit.  I finally got the matching dies and just had to use them to make a card. 

I had the light gray oval from another project and since the central element of the FMS layout is an oval it was perfect for my card.  I stamped all the stems using a sage green ink from Hero Arts, don't know the name, and the flowers using Lemon Whip from Pinkfresh Studio.  I glued all the stems flat on the oval and then popped up the flowers with different levels of foam squares.  For a little sparkle I added clear sequins to the centers of two flowers and some Nuvo drops.  Three additional clear sequins were added around the sentiment strip to tie things together.  The sentiment is from a now retired Simon Says Stamp mother's day stamp set and was heat embossed in white on vellum.  The strip was adhered using rolled up glue dots.  Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!