Wintry Birthday Cards

 Hello everyone!  Did you see that Simon Says Stamp's Diecember release is out?  You can find the entire new release here.  Simon Says Stamp was so kind and sent me another fun die set to create with.  The set is called Happy Bday by CZ Designs.    Both cards are pretty simple as I just wanted to let the die set shine.  (Affiliate links used where possible.  Using my links allows me to earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.)

Around the time I started thinking about what I would make with this new die set I received the Simple Stores Vintage Rustic 6x8 pad of papers in the mail.  I decided to use this fun plaid one to die cut out the sentiment and then cream cardstock for the shadow.   Then I got stumped as to what to do next.  I finally settled on using the rest of the piece of patterned paper for the background, as well.  Things were looking a little plain so I pulled out a favorite Simon Says Stamp die set from 2019 called Christmas Foliage.  There is a small holly leaf and then the larger one.  As I was die cutting out the holly I lost the smaller leaf!  I think I have an idea as to where it is, but I need help moving something to check.   So I had to use three large holly leaves, but I think it looks good.  I adhered those to the card front and the added the little bow and some gems.  Even though I'm heavy on the red and light on the green I'm going to post this to the current Color Hues challenge of red and green. 

For my next card I went with a soft blue design.  I cut a piece of light blue cardstock to A2 size and then stamped it with the Simon Says Stamp Etched Snowflake background stamp in a light blue ink.  I then placed a Spellbinders rectangle die and the Happy Bday die on the panel and ran it through my die cutter.  I then die cut the die from white cardstock three more times.  I adhered the panel directly to my cardstock base and then fit all the die cut pieces back in ending with the light blue die cut Happy Bday.  I finished off the card with some snowflakes that I die cut with the snowflake dies from the CZ Designs Merry & Bright die set.  This card fits the current Inspired By challenge in the Holiday/Winter Beauty slot and so I will be posting it there.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Spellbinders November Card Kit Makes

 Hello!  I'm popping in with cards that I made with the Spellbinders November card kit.  Normally I post these cards at the beginning of the month, but unfortunately the card kit was delayed.  It finally arrived in the store and now I can share my makes.   Before I get to my cards I wanted to let you know that because the card kit was delayed it was not part of the clubs for this month.  What this means for you is that if you are not getting the kit on a monthly basis you can pick this kit up as a separate purchase.   The kit is called Joyful Christmas and it is gorgeous!  You can pick your kit, along with many of the kit contents separately, right here. (Compensated affiliate links used where possible.  Using my links allows me to earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.)

I'm not going to spend alot of time explaining my cards.  For this one I used the sketch from Sunday Stamps so I will be posting it there.  I used lots of patterned papers from the kit, as well as die cut pieces, puffy stickers and epoxy stickers to create my card.  I really love the soft, feminine look that this kit.  

This next card was inspired by the sketch and photo at Inspired By challenge.  I used the beautiful die set that is included in the kit, along with patterned paper, gold metallic cardstock, a sentiment from the included stamp set and lots of Spellbinders Color Mix gems.   I love a good poinsettia die and the die set includes one.  I couldn't wait to use it to make a card!  

The die cut pack included these pretty old fashioned ornaments.  I pulled out three of them, along with the die cut pine branches to create my card.  I used the music print patterned paper for my background and more of the puffy sticker sentiments.  I also added Color Mix gems to the ornaments for a bit of bling. 

The final card also uses die cut pieces and puffy stickers and more of those gems!  I die cut that pretty plaid paper from the pad as a back drop for the beautiful poinsettias.  I added the simple words as my sentiment and finished with the gems.  

You have a few more days in which to join any one of the Spellbinders clubs.  You can find all the clubs right here.   Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Happy Holidays...

 Hello!  I'm back with another project using new dies from the Becca Feeken for Spellbinders Fluted Classic collection.  This time I am using the Fluted Classics Ovals etched dies.  (Compensated affiliate links used where possible.  By using my links I earn a small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.)

I was inspired by one of the inspiration photos for the Inspired By challenge of white Christmas.  I tried to pull in various elements from the inspiration photo into my card.  The largest oval in the Fluted Classics ovals set is bigger than an A2 sized card so I decided to create a shaped card with it.   To create the card I scored a 8.5 x 11 sheet of thin white cardstock in half.  I then placed the large oval cutting die and the die that creates the fluted edge on the cardstock making sure that part of the die hung over.  This allows me to create a hinge on my card base.  I then found some patterned paper that had a woodgrain pattern with white snowflakes on it and die cut the oval again.  This was layered on my card base.  I then used a plain oval to die cut white glitter cardstock and layered that on my card base.  The final oval was die cut with a smaller oval die and the coordinating fluted edge from white cardstock.   The sentiment is from the Becca Feeken Mosaic Bracket Card Builder die set.  The words were die cut from silver glitter cardstock, once more from white cardstock and then adhered together.  I die cut the shadow die from white cardstock as well.   I used the Christmas Blooms die set to create the little poinsettias from white cardstock and the leaves and little pine branches from the silver.  I added Crystal Mix Color Essentials gems to the centers of the flowers.  I popped up the white oval on the card base and then added the sentiments and flowers, branches and leaves. 

Here is a photo of the card showing how is stands quite nicely.  I just love how this card turned out!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

autumn blessings

 Hello!  I hope your week is getting off to a good start.   I'm popping in with a quick post to share a card that I made for the Inspired By challenge.   Inspired By always has really fun inspiration photos and sketches.  Over the last few months I have often wanted to play along with their challenges, but due to other commitments I have not had the time.  But this weekend I was able to find that time... YAY! 

I love leaves and especially leaves during the fall.  I have several different die sets that I can use to die cut leaves.  For this card I used the BotaniCuts Mighty Oak die set from the Greetery along with sentiments from the Bittersweet stamp set from the Greetery.  I started by laying down water on watercolor cardstock and then adding in yellow, red and brown using Nuvo Aqua Flow watercolor pens.  I blended the colors to my liking and then dried the panel with my heat tool.  I die cut leaves twice and branches once and then assembled my leaves.  There are also cut little acorns in the die set!  There is some purply colors in the inspiration photo so to bring that in I watercolored more watercolor cardstock with purple and blue Nuvo Aqua pens.  My first panel was way too purple so I went back to the drawing board and made one with a more subtle wash of color.   Maybe this one was too subtle, lol!

After the panel was dry I die cut it and adhered it to a kraft cardstock base.  I stamped the word autumn using light and dark yellow inks and the word blessing in brown.  I then adhered my branch and the two additional leaves.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a shamrock and a peony...

 Hello!  Hope your week is off to a good start!  We have had a little bit of snow here in my corner of the Pacific Northwest.  The weather report actually calls for rain, but it is cold enough that the rain is coming down as snow!  Won't be sticking around, tho... thankfully!  I have two more cards to share.  I have been in a crafting mood lately and finally participated in a couple of challenges that I always want to take on, but mostly never seem to get the chance to do.  First up is a card for the current Inspired By challenge.   I have a couple of rainbow dies from MFT and used one that is sort of wonky to create my rainbow.  I die cut green glitter cardstock and gold mirror cardstock then alternated the two for my rainbow.  I die cut scrap white cardstock three more times with the die and adhered those to my top pieces to create a nice sturdy rainbow.   I die cut three small hearts using the AJVD Stitched Dot Hearts die set from green glitter cardstock to create my shamrock and the stem from the gold mirror cardstock.  I adhered the rainbow  to a panel of white cardstock and then added the shamrock.  I couldn't find one sentiment in my large collection of stamps that had anything to do with luck!  So I ended up using this lovely verse that is part of a sympathy stamp set from AJVD.  Originally I stamped it in green directly on my panel under the rainbow, but it wasn't straight!  I didn't like the look of the green so I when I restamped it on my banner I used watermark ink and embossed it in gold.  I like that much better!  Also sending this off to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use green.

This next card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I always want to play along with that challenge because I love a good sketch, but never seem to find the time.  I did this weekend... yay!    I pulled out the MFT Peony Perfection stamp as it is perfect fot the sketch and I had never used it!   I love floral images, but get a little intimidated by how complex they can be.  I never know if I'm putting the shadow in the right place, but I decided that I just needed to get over that and color things how I think they should be and so I did!  I used my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers for the coloring as well as a couple of Polychromos color pencils.  I stamped the image using VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink on smooth bristol cardstock and started coloring.  Once the coloring was done I trimmed out the flower.  That was a trick, but I got it done!  I used the MFT Rectangle Extraordinaire to create the element across the card.  I blended on distress oxide in Tumbled Glass.  Going heavy on the top and fading down to the bottom.  I then die cut the panel with a rectangle die.  I adhered the flower in the center and then stamped the sentiment (from Simon Says Stamp) in Tumbled Glass distress oxide underneath.  I also discovered that apparently I do not own any stamps that actually say Happy Easter!  So funny!  Anywhoo.... I finished off the card with lots of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

we do not remember days...

 Hello!  Hope most of you had a good week.  I'm popping in with a card for a couple of challenges:  Color Throwdown and Inspired By.   The color combo at CTD this week is so beautiful I just had to make a card.  I recently purchased Concord & 9th's Fresh Cut Florals edition 3 die set and I used that to make my little flowers.  I didn't have a blush cardstock so I used the lightest pink cardstock that I had.   The leaves were die cut from gold mirror cardstock.  I couldn't find any cardstock in a sage color so I inked up some smooth bristol cardstock with Bundled Sage distress oxide ink and then die cut it with a die that is also from Concord & 9th.  I cut a thin strip of gold mirror cardstock and placed in along the edge of my white card base.  The challenge at Inspired By is to use a quote or saying.  Mine is the saying by Cesare Pavese "We do not remember days, we remember moments."   And I think that is so very true.  A long time ago I was able to find the sentiment in red rubber mounted on a wood block so when I stamped it on my vellum I had to make sure I did it perfectly.  Thankfully I was able to get a good impression with my watermark ink on vellum the first time!  I heat embossed the sentiment in gold and then trimmed it down.  I arranged the sentiment strip along with the sage colored die cut that I cut in half as you see on the card front.  I adhered the flowers and the leaves.  To add in a little more gold I added a gold flat back pearl to the center of each flower.  I was going to leave the card that way, but I thought it needed something else.  So I added lots of tiny flat back gold pearls.  Now I'm wondering if it was too much!   Going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge since die cutting is a favorite technique.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely day!

happy hellos...

 Hey there!  Well... we survived our yearly two days of snow here in the Pacific Northwest!   The snow is pretty, but I really don't like driving it in.  Since I didn't go anywhere except the store because of the snow I had some time to spend making a couple of cards.  Both feature the word hello.  First up is a card for the Inspired By challenge.   It is a lovely inspiration photo of a pink pitcher full of what look to me like tiny purple flowers and greenery.  It was so pretty I just had to play along.   I thought I had an image in my stash that was similar, but I don't so I used some images from the Reverse Confetti Tall Blooms to create my little bundle of flowers.  I stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored simply with Copic markers.   I then die cut all the images with the matching die.  I die cut the Reverse Confetti cover panel from pink cardstock and then several times from thin white cardstock.  Everything was adhered together and then attached to a white cardstock card base.  I arranged my floral images on the panel and then added the sentiment from the Tall Blooms set that I stamped with VersaFine Clair Nocturne in and die cut using a banner die from Reverse Confetti.  I finished off the card with some little pearls from Trinity Stamps.   I will also add this to the Reverse Confetti Stock Your Stash challenge for February. 

The second card was made just for fun and I used the sweet little stamp set called Happy Mail from Honey Bee Stamps.  I stamped the image on watercolor paper and did simple watercoloring with the Altenew 12 pan watercolor set.  Once everything was dry I die cut it with the matching die.  Before I watercolored the envelope that the flowers are coming out of I had colored a patch of the cardstock to determine if I liked the color I had mixed up.  I used that little patch to die cut the tag from and stamp the hello sentiment from Happy Mail on it.  The tag was a little freebie from Trinity Stamps!  I embossed the kraft panel with a swiss dot embossing folder and then adhered the envelope image to the panel.  I finished off the card with some little jewels that I had also purchased from Trinity Stamps.   I'm really loving the pearls and jewels I bought from them and can't wait to buy more!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hearts and leaves...

 Hello!  Hope everyone had a nice weekend.  I'm popping in with two more cards to share.  First up is a card for the current Inspired By challenge.    The inspiration photo is all about hearts and so I went with hearts, as well.  I fiddled around with a background for the hearts I die cut from a gingham type patterned paper, a woodgrain patterned paper and some silver metallic cardstock.    I finally decided to try doing to dry brushing with acrylic paint.  It took me a couple of tries to get the look I was going for.  I used some off white textured cardstock so that the background has a sort of woodgrain look to it.  Once I had that piece finished I die cut it with a small rectangle die from Spellbinders.   The hearts were die cut with Stitched Dot hearts from A Jillian Vance Design.  I die cut additional woodgrain patterned paper with the largest Spellbinders rectangle die and layered that on a cardstock base made from the same cardstock that I used for my dry brushed background piece.  The hearts were arranged on the smaller rectangle along with a sentiment from A Jillian Vance Design that I heat embossed in white on vellum die cut with an AJVD banner die.   

The second card is for the last challenge at CAS(E) this Sketch.  I took some license with the sketch, but hopefully you can see the over all idea of the sketch in my card.   I have the Simon Says Stamp Stronger Together stamp set and there is a long image in the set that I have never been able to use because I didn't have a stamp positioning tool big enough to use it.  Now I do... yay!  I stamped the image using Memento Bamboo Leaves ink and then colored the leaves with four shades of green Copic Markers.  The sentiments were also stamped with Bamboo Leaves, trimmed out and adhered to the panel once it was die cut with a Spellbinders rectangle die.   As a finishing touch I stamped the little heart, added some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Morning Dew to the heart and a few sequins in green and gold.   

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a couple cards...

 Hey there!  Hope you are well and are ready for Christmas.   As usual I'm really not ready for Christmas, but that's okay.  Have a couple of cards to share.  First up is a card for Freshly Made Sketches and the Reverse Confetti stock your stash challenge.  The challenge this month is thank you cards.  I was still feeling in a aqua/red mood so I used those colors along with the Reverse Confetti Thank You stamp and die set, as well as the Sketched Florals stamp and die set.  I created a wreath of sorts on the main panel of the FMS sketch from two of the images from the Sketched Floral stamp set.   I stamped the large Thank You from the Thank You stamp set in aqua ink and then die cut it with the matching die.  The shadow layer was die cut from red cardstock.  I cut additional thank yous from white cardstock to layer behind the stamped one and then adhered them to the shadow layer.  I nestled the thank you into the main panel and adhered that to the card front.  

The second card is for the current Inspired By challenge.  I went with the idea of the clock and some of the colors from the balloons with a little silver thrown in there.   The clock was created using a die from PaperTrey Ink.   There were other products that went along with this particular die, but I only bought the clock face.  I die cut it from some really pretty silver marblized paper from Spellbinders.  The paper is pretty thin so I die cut a second clock face from white cardstock and adhered it to give the clock more stability.   The numbers were die cut from some light purple patterned paper that is also from Spellbinders (both papers came in a card kit from them called Sparkling Holiday).  When you die cut the clock face many of the pieces come out like the little circles.  I saved some of the pieces to place back inside the clock face.  I adhered the clock to a panel of white cardstock and then pieced back in the circles popping them up with foam dots.  I then added the numbers to the circles.   The sentiment is from the Happy New Year stamp set from A Jillian Vance Design.  I had only one opportunity to get it stamped and thankfully it worked!  I finished off the card with little bits of silver striped and silver glitter washi tape and some silver fashion embellishments from Spellbinders.   Must say thank you to the team at Inspired by for picking my snowman thank you card as the honorable mention for the Melted Snowman challenge!

Thanks for stopping by!  Here's to hoping that 2021 is alot better than 2020!  Have a wonderful day!

thanks snow much...

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick post to share a card that I made with one of the new dies from Simon Says Stamp's DIEcember release that went live on December 1st.  I'm super thankful to Simon Says Stamp for sending me product to use for their releases!  This time they sent me a gorgeous die set calld Snowflake Frame.  It includes a large rectangular die with snowflakes around the edges and five small snowflake dies that can be used separately.  I have not used those little snowflakes on a card... yet!  This card will be heading off to the current Inspired By challenge as well as the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use dies.  The Inspired By challenge always has really fun themes and every week I think I will play along and then the next thing you know it is Thursday, again, and I didn't play along!   I die cut the frame from aqua cardstock and then stamped the sentiment (from an SSS stamp set that is no longer available) with watermark ink and heat embossed in white.  The small thanks is from another Simon Says Stamp set and was stamped with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink on a thin strip and then trimmed down.  I stamped the snowman (he is from the same set as the sentiment) on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored him with Copic markers.  I cut him out and popped him up on the frame with foam dots.  The frame was then adhered to a white cardstock base.  My snowman isn't melting, but he is a snowman and I do have snowflakes!  

 Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

reindeer and pumpkins!

 Hello!  Hope your week is off to a great start!  I'm popping in with several cards that I made using some products from Spellbinders.  First up are two cards that I made using the absolutely adorable Seasons Greetings Deer etched die set.  This die set was originally available in a Spellbinders card kit from 2018, but so many people were requesting the die set they brought it back as a stand alone product!  You can make all different types of reindeer with the set.   I made a girl reindeer and a boy reindeer.  These cards will be going to my great niece and great nephew at Christmas time.  I used a layout from Mojo Monday for both cards so I will be posting one of them there.   The card for my niece uses patterned paper from a company that is no longer around.  They were from Poland, I believe, and I just fell in love with their line of Christmas papers called Cozy Christmas.  I still have one 6x6 pad that I am hoarding, but I busted it out for this card, lol!  After die cutting all the of the pieces for each dear from the same cardstock (except her nose is pink and she has pink cheeks!) I assembled them.   I created a little pink poinsettia using the included dies for the little girl and a Santa hat and bow tie for the boy.  He also got a red nose that I cover with Glossy Accents to give it some shine.   The patterned paper I used for the boy is from PhotoPlay and is called Kringle & Co.  I cut all the papers, using Spellbinders classic squares and circle dies for those elements on each card and then layered everything up.  The sentiments were hot foiled on coordinating papers using my Glimmer Hot Foil system from Spellbinders.   

Think I'm going to try making this cute little deer into a unicorn!  The main part of the Santa hat would work perfectly for that!

This next card was created using my Glimmer Hot Foil system and I just love how it turned out.  I'm going to post it over at the Inspired By challenge of pumpkin spice.  I was inspired by the theme and pumpkins!  I foiled everything using Polished Brass foil.  Once I was finished with the foiling I die cut the main panel down with a rectangle die.  I colored the pumpkins and foliage with Copic markers.  It works fine and doesn't seem to damage the nibs.  I tried it after seeing Yana Smakula use her Copics to color in foiled images.  I die cut all the images with their matching dies and adhered to the panel.  I added a few sequins in fall colors of brown and yellow to finish off the card.  Love how it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

golden sakura...

Hello!  Got some crafty time in and made a card for the two challenges that I pretty much always combine:  Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches!    The FMS sketch is a square one and generally I don't like to make square cards (not sure why), but I decided to go with the square on the finished card.  I stamped the Essentials by Ellen Mondo Sakura on smooth bristol with VersaMark watermark ink and then embossed using WOW embossing powder in Metallic Gold Rich Pale and then colored with ZIG markers.  I used Pink Flamingo and Orange to create my peachy color.   And then finished with little touches green.  I will admit that I had to start over because I added little touches of color to the stamens and then die cut the image.  The little bit of color wasn't dry and it smeared on to the image.   Another live and learn, lol!  With the second image I didn't add the color to the stamens until after I had done the die cutting!  I created a background piece by scribbling two shades of blue ZIGs (Blue Hazel and Persian Blue) on some bristol cardstock and then blended it out with water.  After it had dried I die cut it with a Spellbinders classic square die.  The piece was adhered to an off white cardstock base and then I added the flower image.  Finished off the card by stamping the sentiment with VersaMark on vellum and heat embossing with the same embossing powder used for the image.  Sometimes simple is the best.  With my floral image I think this will also work for the current Inspired By challenge so I shall post it there, as well.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

hello there

Well... hello there!   Hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  I attended my niece's bridal shower and had a nice time.  She is will be getting married in early September and is fortunate that her venue is moving forward with her wedding.   I did get time this morning/afternoon to make a card for several different challenges:  Fab Friday (sketch), Sunday Stamps (colors) and Inspired  By (inspiration).   When I saw the inspiration photo at Inspired By I immediately thought of the pineapple themed stamp sets and settled on one from Simon Says Stamp (no longer available) called One Cool Pineapple.  This set also includes a watermelon slice making it perfect for the inspiration.   I stamped the pineapple and watermelon slice on watercolor paper with VersaFine CLAIR Nocturne ink.  I filled in some of the gabs with a little flower from the set, as well.  I then did simple watercoloring with distress inks.  I used Mowed Lawn, Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade for the pineapples.   The watermelon slices were colored with Mowed Lawn and Picked Raspberry.   The little flowers were colored with Mermaid Lagoon.  Once the piece was dry I die cut it with a rectangle die.  I didn't want to cover up all the coloring that I had done so in order to keep with the Fab Friday sketch I die cut the smaller rectangle directly from the main rectangle.  I then adhered the main rectangle flush on my card base and popped up the smaller rectangle with foam tape.  The sentiment is from the SSS set called Hello Darling.  I heat embossed it with black embossing powder from WOW Embossing on vellum and then die cut it with a fishtail flag die.  That was adhered using rolled up glue dot so that the adhesive wasn't as noticeable.   A simple take on the sketch, but I like how things turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a great week!