Sharing a Valentine

 My friend Mary Anne sent me a Memory Box die and we decided to use it for each other's Valentine cards this year!  Here's mine for her:

supplies: white and grey cardstock, Doodlebug tiny floral dps, Memory Box Scrollwork Heart Circle Frame, sentiment from Tammy Tutterow (retired) Tiny Sentiments

This is a retired die from 2019; it cuts out all that you see, including 2 of the little wispy heart sprigs, plus a large stitched circle, which I didn't use this time.  I cut it multiple times to paper-piece in the hearts and "leaves", then affixed it to a 4 1/4" square card base and stamped my sentiment.  

Those heart sprigs are perfect for adding to a wreath.  You'll see that idea in an upcoming post. 

Here is Mary Anne's card that she sent to me - so elegant!

She used a red foil paper with gold marbling, red glitter paper (little heart sprigs), and both shiny and matte gold metallic papers for this beauty!

Mary Anne was the person that got me interested in making cards, about 20 years ago now, and she still inspires and teaches me today.  Thank you, my friend!

Spellbinders Club Kits for February: Luxe Damask BetterPress

 My BetterPress kit came a little later than my other Club Kits this month, but it was worth the wait!  It's called Luxe Damask; here's what I made with it.

supplies: pink and grey cardstock, Spellbinders Luxe Damask BetterPress Plates, Hero Arts Soft Granite and Charcoal inks, rectangle dies, Be Bold Blooms, Floral Spray dies, enamel dots, adhesive foam squares

This lovely set has a registration template to help place the design all over your card, or you can just center it.  Along with the pretty damask design, there are 3 sentiments: the Easter one you see here, plus one for Spring and a Thank You.  This is a keeper!

After completing my design in grey ink on pink card, I cut a rectangle out from its center, matted it in a darker shade, then popped it back into place with foam squares.  Then I added my flowers and sentiment.

You can look HERE for information on Spellbinders Clubs.  Each is available for new subscribers only from the 6th until the 27th of each month.  If you click on my links under each card, you can see the specifics of each product.  You can subscribe to each of our 10 kits separately, (and you can "unjoin" a subscription at any time without any penalty), or you can get them all, plus a free bonus item each month, and save 60% by choosing the Deluxe Caboodle!

Happy Valentine's Day

 Today is one of my favorite holidays!  

supplies: white cardstock, green gingham dp, Penny Black (retired) Flower Teddy, sentiment from Simon (retired) Only Have Eyes for You, Spellbinders Perfect Touch rectangle die

Penny Black has done many Teddies down through the years; this one is dated 2019.  Today I colored the flowers in various colors, the way I like my real bouquets to be, and added a bit of gingham in the background for some added color.  Who couldn't resist this little cutie?

Thanks for stopping by - hope your day is a special one!

Butterfly Heart

 Today I have a Valentine's card using a lovely, but sadly retired, stamp.

supplies: white and black cardstock, Stampendous (retired) Laurel Burch Butterfly Heart cling stamp, sentiment from Hero Arts (retired) Sending Love Mail, tiny colored gems

It's always fun for me to color this one, because everything is so small scale.  This time I added some tiny sparkly gems to the centers of the flowers.

I'll enter this into the new Neglected Stuff Challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Spellbinders Club Kits for February: Stencils, Clear Stamps and Dies, 3D Embossing Folder

 Today I have several cards to share with you.  First are the Stencils of the Month: Nature's Canvas.  These layering stencils are always favorites of mine; add a spring theme and I'm all in!  Unfortunately this month's set is already sold out.  

supplies: white and yellow cardstock, Nature's Canvas set of 5 stencils, pastel inks, sentiment from Spring Canopy glimmer plate

Next up is a card made with the Stamps/Dies of the Month: Spring Smiles and the 3D folder Petite Bow.

supplies: white, pink, and green cardstock, Spring Smiles stamps and and dies, Petite Bow 3D folder, white pigment ink, Essential Arches dies

The stamp set consists of 2 bunnies, 2 chicks, and 4 floral sprigs, plus 6 sentiments, all in a petite size.  I chose a sampling to stamp and color, and used the matching die to cut out the floral sprig.  I cut the panel with the critters with an arch die, then cut off a good part of the bottom.  This gave more room for the Petite Bows to show in the background.  

Here are the Kits I used for my cards today:

You can look HERE for information on Spellbinders Clubs.  Each is available for new subscribers only from the 6th until the 27th of each month.  If you click on my links under each card, you can see the specifics of each product.  You can subscribe to each of our 10 kits separately, (and you can "unjoin" a subscription at any time without any penalty), or you can get them all, plus a free bonus item each month, and save 60% by choosing the Deluxe Caboodle!

Spellbinders February Club Kits: Large Dies, Stitching Dies, and Embossing Folder

 Here are some more cards using more of the Spellbinders Club Kits for this month: Large Dies, Dancin' Happy Bunnies Everywhere, Stitching Dies, Stitched Scallop Card Front, and the regular Embossing folder, Wicker Basket.

supplies: white, blush, and various colored cardstock, a printed design paper, Stitched Scallop Card Front die, white embroidery floss, teeny Peach Blush gems, Dancin' Hoppy Bunnies Everywhere dies

The Stitching set comes with a smaller frame, and a tag.  

Don't you love those flirty little eyes we got this month?  Here's a little boy bunny to go along with her, paired with this month's embossing folder..

supplies: kraft cardstock, various colored cardstock, Dancin' Hoppy Bunnies Everywhere dies, Wicker Basket embossing folder

There are so many fun accessories in this Large Die kit: clothes to dress your bunnies, or bows, this fun chick, a carrot, flowers. I adapted the paint can to a little basket for the bunnies to collect their flowers or carrots. And I didn't even use the eggs that you can decorate!  The bunnies are called "Dancin'" because they are made with a separate die for their legs, with the hinged dancing feature that Spellbinders has used before.  Today I chose not to use that feature, and just glued the legs on to their bodies.

Here are the Kits I used today: 

You can look HERE for information on Spellbinders Clubs.  Each is available for new subscribers only from the 6th until the 27th of each month.  If you click on my links under each card, you can see the specifics of each product.  You can subscribe to each of our 10 kits separately, (and you can "unjoin" a subscription at any time without any penalty), or you can get them all, plus a free bonus item each month, and save 60% by choosing the Deluxe Caboodle!

Spellbinders Club Kits for February: Glimmer and Small Dies

 Time to share my cards using this month's Spellbinders Club Kits!  Today I have the Glimmer of the Month: Spring Canopy.  It comes with Lavender Petal foil. And keep on scrolling to see what I did with the Small Dies of the month, Step into Spring.  

I tried the glimmer plate first with Rainbow Confetti foil.

supplies: white cardstock, Spring Canopy Glimmer plates, Rainbow Confetti glimmer foil

The glimmer plate is actually half of what you see above - there I foiled it at the top, then again at the bottom.  The sentiment is one of 2 this size, with some smaller straight ones included, also.

The set also includes a cutting die to trim the end of the branches.  Here's a 2nd card, using the Lavender Petal foil included in this month's kit.

supplies: white and purple cardstock, Spring Canopy Glimmer plate and matching die, Lavender Petal glimmer foil, sentiment and flowers from Dancin' Hoppy Bunnies Everywhere dies

You'll just have to take my word that the branches are foiled lavender on this one.  Here you can see the die that cuts out the edges of the branches.  I used a die from the Large Dies of the Month kit for my sentiment, cutting it directly into the purple panel and then allowing the white card backing to show through instead of making a banner out if it.  It looked a bit too small, so I added some flowers from the same set.

Next I used just a part of the Small Dies and made a little bouquet, borrowing the bow from the Large Die set.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, Step Into Spring floral dies, Dancin' Bunnies bow, Spring Smiles pieced sentiment

I did a Jennifer McGuire, and cut apart "spring" from one of the small sentiments from the stamp set to make my customized sentiment here.

You can look HERE for information on Spellbinders Clubs.  Each is available for new subscribers only from the 6th until the 27th of each month.  If you click on my links under each card, you can see the specifics of each product.  You can subscribe to each of our 10 kits separately, (and you can "unjoin" a subscription at any time without any penalty), or you can get them all, plus a free bonus item each month, and save 60% by choosing the Deluxe Caboodle!

Happy Heart Day!

 February is the month for Valentines, so I'll be sharing some cards all month with that in mind.  For today's card, I dug out a clear stamp from Wild Rose Studio dated 2016.  I collected Teddy Bears for many years, so this one tugs at my heart.

supplies: white and pink cardstock, Wild Rose Studio (retired) Teddy with Flowers, Spellbinders Wendy Vecchi Scalloped rectangle die, Taylored Expressions (retired) Flower Power embossing folder, sentiment from Simon (retired) Just a Love Note

I'd like to enter today's card into a new challenge called The Neglected Stuff; my neglected item is this Teddy stamp.

Do you make cards for Valentine's Day?

Some Valentines, inspired by Tim

It's February, the month for Valentines! 

I was inspired by Tim Holtz's Valentine video last month to pull out my Valentine supplies and make some cards.  

supplies: watercolor cardstock, various pink and yellow cardstock, Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations (retired) Doily die, Spun Sugar distress ink, Altenew Mini Flower Cluster Layering die set, stamped leaves from my scrap basket, Tim Holtz Sentiments Label sticker

Isn't this embossing folder a treasure?  The dimension is wonderful!  I took Tim's example and inked the flat side of it with spun sugar distress ink before embossing it in my machine.  I wanted to simulate a kind of tussy-mussy, a little bouquet of posies wrapped in a lacy doily, and I think this mini flower cluster does the trick.  Then I just added a sentiment label.  

Next, I left my heart do the choosing, picking things from my stash that have meaning to me: script, gingham, blues, lace, lilies of the valley and forget-me-nots.  

supplies: white card base, unknown script patterned paper, Tim Holtz Idea-ology Lace Baseboard Frame, ephemera from Botanical Layer , SmallTalk Occasions sentiment strip, blue gingham ribbon, blue pearls

After I'd glued the largest ephemera piece to the lace baseboard, I glued the smaller one to the script backing, then added adhesive foam pieces to the frame to make it stand up even more from the card base.  I wanted to accent the blues, so I added a small blue gingham bow and some blue pearls.

These Lace baseboard frames are really lovely, and I'm so glad that they're still available!

Thanks for stopping by!  Will you be making some Valentines this month?

Gilded Viola

 Memory Box/Poppy Stamps/Birch Press Design have the best sales at the end of the year!  And these companies are so generous!  I placed an order then and they sent along some freebies.  This Gilded Viola stencil set was one of them.  I decided to take the title to heart and used inks for the first 2 layers, and foiled the third.

I tilted this first photo so you could see the gold foiling better.

supplies: white cardstock, metallic gold cardstock, Birch Press Design Gilded Viola stencils set, Simon Violet and Iris inks, DecoFoil Transfer Gel , gold foil, and Stencil Pal tool, laminator, Simon Happy Wishes die

These stencils have a little white border built right into them for A2 size cards, what a nice detail!

And a second shot straight on.

I also wanted to give kudos to DecoFoil; the transfer gel I used is years old, and it was still just as creamy as when I first got it!  That has NOT been my experience with most gels after some time has gone by.  No special attention to it, I just kept the seal as intact as I could, screwed the lid on really tight, and stored it in a plastic bag with a twistie.

I encourage you to foil something if you have the capabilities - sure does give a pretty boost to your creation!

Abstract Triangles

 My dear friend Linda had an extra foiling plate, and generously sent it to me!  She also came up with the idea for both of us to use this plate to make a Valentine's card and post our cards on the same day, what fun!

Here's mine.

supplies: white and Cotton Candy cardstock, Pink Fresh Studio Abstract Triangles hot foil plate, Gold Matte glimmer foil, Paper Rose Lace Heart Frame die, Pink Fresh Studio (retired) English Garden washi tape, Spellbinders/Tammy Tutterow (retired) Sew Tiny Sentiments, gold embossing powder, tiny gold sequins

I like the modernity of the abstract triangles background against the traditional heart and flowers motif.  The gold foiling is subtle, as is the gold highlights in the washi flowers, so I also embossed my sentiment in gold and added some tiny gold sequins to the centers of each flower.  

Here's Linda's version - she used hers with her BetterPress machine, isn't it cute?  Thank you, Linda, for this fun challenge!

Woodblock Wednesday!

 Here's my card for this month's Woodblock Wednesday at Amy's blog.  Choosing a snowman seemed right to wind up my mini snowman series this month.

supplies: white and aqua cardstock, 2002 Anita's Sugarloaf, Inc snowman stamp, bird from (retired) MFT Tweet Holidays, sentiment from Simon Snow Love stamp set, Simon Stitched Rectangle die, Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangle die

This stamp isn't labelled very well, just with a peel-off sticker that says "Anita's Sugarloaf, Inc., Lithonia, GA", with a 2002 date.  I got it at a local craft store here called Pat Catan's, which has since sadly closed its doors.  They carried lots of woodblocks with the name Anita's on them.

I wanted a flash of red, so I stamped and fussy-cut this adorable little bird from a favorite MFT clear set.  I like the font of the Simon sentiment, too!

You can see all the other entries at Amy's blog HERE.

More Snow Friends

Another snowman card today, this time featuring a retired set from Art Impressions and a new (to me) heart stencil.

supplies: white and soft navy cardstock, Art Impressions (retired) Sparkle & Cheer clear set, Taylored Expressions Rotating Hearts stencil, Pink Fresh Studio Morning Sky blue inks, Spellbinders Perfect Touch die

The hearts stencil is just one that you turn 90 degrees 4 times, changing inks as you go.  I decided to do it in blues for its first outing.  The snowman and friends is part of a set that features snowmen, and my sentiment is part of that set, too.  

It's cuteness overload with these little creatures, don't you think?  Sure to bring a smile!

Snow Friends

 Today's card was made using a favorite snowman set of dies.

supplies: white, black, pink cardstock, green plaid dp, Whimsy Stamps Blurry Flurries pink snowflake dp, Lawn Fawn Build a Snowman dies, Taylored Expressions Birch Tree cutting plate, sentiment from Simon Snowflake Season, adhesive foam squares

I thought it would be a bit different to use pinks and green this time.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today - have a lovely day!