a wreath and a bouquet...

 Hello friends!  Well... we survived the "bomb cyclone" here on the West Coast and now our usual Pacific Northwest weather of rain, rain, wind, rain and more rain has settled in!   When we had this "bomb cyclone" weather event on Sunday I thought it was just our regular weather kicking it, lol!  Anyway while all of this crazy weather was happening I was going a little crazy trying to figure out if I had actually purchased a set of stencils or not!  I remembered purchasing the stencils from Simon Says Stamp, but for the life of me could not find them!  Serious doubt that I had actually bought them had set in when lo and behold I found them!  So I immediately used them to make a card, lol!

I used the colors from Color Throwdown and distress oxide inks in Gathered Twigs, Frayed Burlap and Spiced Marmalade to stencil the wreath.   Once I was done I die cut it down with a rectangle die and adhered it to my card base.  The sentiment is a Simon Says Stamp die that came in the SSS September card kit.  So far it is the only thing from the September kit that I have actually used!   I die cut it from kraft cardstock three times, adhered them together using Bearly Art glue (it is really awesome glue!) and then used thin strips of foam adhesive to adhere them to the card front.  I covered the stenciled orange dots with Nuvo drops in Morning Due to finish off the card.   I'm also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

My second card is for the Pinkfresh Studio October challenge.  The theme is fall, but I decided to use the color combo to make my little bouquet.  I used the Modern Layered Floral stamp and die set.  Pinkfresh had a deal a week ago where you could get the die for free if you purchased the stamp set.  I have always wanted this set so I decided to go for it.  I also used the Essentials Stitched Scalloped Rectangle die set.  I die cut the smaller rectangle from white and the large from gray.  I put tape on the back to keep all the pieces together as that was the look i was going for.  After stamping the bouquet I popped it up in the center of the card front.  I had planned to stamp the sentiment on a strip of vellum and then wrap it around the die cut rectangles.  However, I got ahead of myself and adhered my panel to the card base.  I only realized my mistake after I stamped and embossed the sentiment.  So I just trimmed it down and adhered it to the card front.   

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

happy wednesday... owl-o-ween is coming!

 Hello everyone!  It is Wednesday and that means I have card up on the AJVD blog.  And since Halloween is right around the corner my card features a little Halloween fun!  Here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the AJVD blog to check out the card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

big spellbinders fun!

 Hey friends!  Did you see... Spellbinders has a new release available in the store (click here) and there are some super fun new dies that pack a BIG punch!  Today I'm sharing two cards that I made using two of these new dies: Be Bold Color Block Christmas and Be Bold Color Block Love.  First up is the Be Bold Color Block Christmas card.

These new dies are so cool and fun to work with.  As I was thinking about what I would make to share the new colors from Color Throwdown came out and so I decided to create a card using these non-traditional colors.   After die cutting the word from each color I used the largest slimline die from the Hemstitch Slimline die set to cut Silver Fox cardstock for the back drop for the large word.    To create some dimension (which I think you can see) I decided to stack all the lavendar letters 3 high, the pink 2 high and then leave the aqua at just one.   Doing the letters this way did create a tiny problem when it came to adding the merry, but it got it worked out!  I used Purple Mist and Pink Sand cardstocks for two of the letters.   The merry was die cut from plain white cardstock and white glitter cardstock, adhered them together and added to the front of my card.  To finish things off I die cut the flowers from the three cardstock colors using the small poinsettia die from the Christmas Blooms die set.  I adhered the flowers and then added white crystal gems from the Crystal Mix Color Essentials gems. 

For my second card I used the Be Bold Color Block Love.  This die covers the entire front of a card and I could have used it that way, but I decided to go outside my comfort zone and I created a 5x7 card!  I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and the colors from Color Hues for the card.  I have not played along with Color Hues in way too long!  I need to admit that I poached the red/kraft polka dot idea from the amazing Lisa at My Paper Tales and her gorgeous card.  My is very, very simple.  I wanted to let the die shine!  I die cut all the letters from the red/kraft polka dot paper and then twice more from additional coordinating paper and stacked them.  I used the die from the Circle Stitch Background die set to cut the panel from off white cardstock and then layered on the letters.  I used a coordinating paper that is the reverse of the paper used to cut the letters for the strip behind the panel and adhered that to my 5x7 cardstock base.  I then added the main panel with foam strips.  To finish the card I die cut the small word you from kraft paper multiple times, adhered them and then added them to the center of the O.  Like I said very, very simple!

I will be back with one more card to share with a product from the new release so stay tuned!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

happy wednesday!

 Hello and happy Wednesday!  I have a post up on the AJVD blog today and here is a little peek of my project:

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

guesting at the waffle flower monthly challenge!

 Hey there!  Hope your week is off to a great start!  Mine is, lol!  I'm guest designing over on the Waffle Flower challenge blog!  I was so surprised and excited when I got a DM on Instagram from Galina asking me if I wanted to be part of her mini design team for their monthly challenge.  I am a huge fan of Galina!  She is a super talented papercrafter, she designs products for Waffle Flower and she has the most adorable cat named Sir Oliver!  Of course I said "Yes!"!   This month's challenge is to create a card with a shaker element.   Each week a Waffle Flower designer has a mini team and a specific theme within the main challenge.  This week it is to use to create a full card shaker.   I am totally up for that challenge!

For my card I used the Waffle Flower Crafts Nesting Rectangle Frames dies, the gorgeous Layered Poinsettia dies (designed by Galina!), the Mistletoe Branch die set, the Oversized Joy Combo and papers from the Half-Half Dots - Christmas paper pad.   All the die cut element were die cut from the patterned paper except for the Oversized Joy and I cut that from silver glitter paper.  I used the largest frame to make my full card shaker element.  I covered the card front with paper from the pad, stamped the sentiment from the Oversized Joy stamp set in gray ink and adhered the word joy.   After adding acetate to the back frame I arranged all the poinsettias that I created using red and pink papers from the pad on the front.   I tucked in the little mistletoe branches that were die cut from green paper from the pad.   I then got to the task of putting together the shaker element.  I placed white, pink, red and green sequins in the center of the card front, added thin foam strips to the frame and then carefully added the frame to my card front.  

You can find all the specifics for the Waffle Flower monthly challenge here and all the information regarding week 3 inspiration challenge here.

Thank you to Galina and Waffle Flower Crafts for asking me to be a guest designer!  If you have Waffle Flower Crafts products in your stash and love to make shaker cards we would love to have you play along!  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a couple more cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with a couple of cards today.  I got my Spellbinders Glimmer club kit for October the other day and I could not wait to fire up my Glimmer machine and create a card!  I hadn't used my September Glimmer club kit yet so I combine the two along with the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. 

I also did some embossing with this card.  I normally leave my background panel plain, but I decided to pull out the Spellbinders Falling Leaves embossing folder to jazz up my background.  I foiled all the images twice using Polished Brass foil, die cut with the matching dies and colored with Copic markers.  I should have colored everything before I did the diecutting, but it turned out in the end.  The sentiment and banner are from the September Glimmer club kit and I used kraft cardstock for the foiling.  I like how it turned out.  I assembled the banner and then adhered everything to the embossed panel.  I finished with tons of sparkly red gems from the Spellbinder Color Mix Red essentials gem pack.  

The second card is for Color Throwdown.  During Simon Says Stamp's Stamptember celebration I was able to pick up the SSS/Concord & 9th collaborative stamp and die set called Double the Thanks.  I really liked the uniqueness of the stamp set.  I stamped the two part thank you in dark brown and kraft, die cut it and adhered it to a white cardstock base.  I then tried to find an ink that I might have that was more on the green side of turquoise to stamp the sentiment and the leaves, but couldn't quite come up with one.  Oh well... that happens sometimes, right?  I added those to my card and it was done.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!