Summer Solstice Garden: Echinacea

 Here's the 2nd set of dies I received from Susan Tierney Cockburn's latest collection for Spellbinders  These are coneflowers.

supplies: white, Colorwheel Coral, rust, and green cardstock, a plaid dp, Echinacea dies, picked raspberry distress ink, sentiment from Thanks Enclosed Sentiments dies, oval die

Coneflowers used to come only in a bright pink color back when we started gardening, but have since evolved to many beautiful color combinations.  One of my favorites mimics a sunset, with shades of pinks and corals.  So I started with a coral cardstock and brushed on picked raspberry distress ink from the center outwards, then cut my centers from a rust cardstock.  This plaid design paper was subtle enough, yet had the right colors to complement my flowers, and then I just added a simple sentiment, suitable for so many occasions.

I hope you'll give Susan's Summer Solstice collection a look; this one also includes Anemones, Petunias, Begonias, a new sentiment pressplate, and a beautiful 3D embossing folder.

Thanks so much for coming by today!

Summer Solstice Garden: Cosmos

 Susan Tierney Cockburn has designed some more pretty flower dies for us in her latest collection that she calls Summer Solstice Garden.  I chose 2 of them; today I'll be showing you the Cosmos set.

supplies: white and pastel colors of cardstock, inks to match, Spellbinders Cosmos dies, Four Petal Floral 3D embossing folder, sentiment from Nature's Botanical Garden Sentiments BetterPress plates/dies

I've been repeatedly seeing an IG picture of cosmos in a color mix I'd never seen before, called Apricot Lemonade, so I thought I'd try and duplicate those colors for today's card. The Cosmos I'm familiar with are usually in shades of pale and rosy pink and white.  After I'd constructed my flowers, I remembered this gorgeous embossing folder, and sure enough, I think it sets off my flowers perfectly.  I wanted to get as many of the background flowers onto my card, so this is a 5 X 7 card for a change.  The sentiment is also by Susan.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll be back in a few days with the Echinacea (Coneflower) set that Susan included in her collection.

For Mother's Day

 Happy Mom's Day to all of you out there!  Hope it's special for you in every way.

Our Mom has been gone 3 years now, but lilacs are forever connected in my mind to Mother's Day because of her.  So I pulled out these dies and made a card for the occasion.  I was going to put "miss you" as the sentiment, but couldn't find one that was just right, so I'm leaving a sentiment off for now.

supplies: white, pale and medium aqua cardstock, Sunny Studios Frilly Frames Eyelet Lace dies, The Greetery Botanicuts Lilacs, Simon Says Stamp Pretty Bows die

These lilac dies are the most realistic of any I've seen - Betsy gives you individual florets to add to the body of the lilac flowers to add dimension and more color.  They are a treasure!  This year I added a new Simon bow to this sprig of them, popped up with a tiny adhesive foam piece.

Thanks for stopping by - have a lovely day!

Spellbinders Club Kits: Clear Stamp and Die, Embossing Folder, Caboodle dies, and BetterPress Plates

 The Spellbinders Club Kits for May are now available to new subscribers, through May 27.  The theme this month is Pages & Phrases.  Here are my final 3 cards.

Today I have the Clear Stamps and Dies to show you.  They're named Crayon Creations!  There are 15 stamps, including 5 sentiments and elements to put together these crayon cuties, and the 10 matching dies enable you to cut everything out.  Here's my card.

supplies: white and black cardstock, confetti/dotty patterned paper, Crayon Creations stamps and die, star sequins, adhesive foam squares

When I saw the "brightest" sentiment, I decided to use bright colors of inks.  I first did the pink one, using the appropriate die first, then stamping onto it.  The other 2 crayons were stamped onto my trimmed rectangle panel, leaving a space in the middle for the die-cut one.  Then I just stamped my sentiments, matted the panel, mounted it onto some paper that looked like confetti, and added some star sequins for glitz.

If you want to make the same kind of card, but use only dies, then the Caboodle item for this month, Yay! Crayons, is for you!  This is a set of 10 dies.  (I didn't use them all on my card today).  I mixed them with the embossing folder, Abstract Study, and used a sentiment/matching die from the stamps/dies of the month.

supplies: white, black, and colored cardstock,  black and white stripe pattern paper, Caboodle Yay! Crayons dies, Abstract Study embossing folder, Crayon Creations sentiment and matching die

Lastly is my BetterPress card.  The kit is called From A to Z.

supplies: green and white cardstock, a subtle-print from my stash, Spellbinders From A to Z Betterpress plates/die, leaves from Club Blooms, butterfly from my scrap basket, adhesive foam strips to lift sentiment

The plan was to surround the sentiment with leaves, but I felt it needed something else, so I got out my scrap basket and added this stamped butterfly.

Here are the Club Kits I used today; just click on the picture and you'll be whisked away to the Spellbinders store!

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: Large Dies, Glimmer Plates

 The May Club Kits from Spellbinders are now available, through May 27.  This month's theme is Pages & Phrases.

My first card showcases the Large Dies, Spell It Out Fridge.  And there's an upsell die set called Fridge Staples so that you can stock your fridge inside!  Here's my card.

supplies: colored cardstock, Spell It Out Fridge dies

This set has 17 dies, everything from the body of the fridge (with a hinge so that you can make an inside version also, see below), to handles, fridge magnets, a polaroid picture, and various notes and ledgers.  But the star of the show is the mini alphabet included so that you can make your own message!  Here I chose to say "Love You!", and then grouped more of the letters down at the bottom, including those in my Grands' first names.

This month we have an upsell set of dies called Spell It Out Fridge Staples.  You can use it to populate the inside of your fridge!  Here's the inside of my card before I attached it to the front above.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, Spell It Out Fridge body and shelves, Spell It Out Fridge Staples

How fun is this!  I used everything from the Staples die set and had fun coming up with color combinations using cardstock colors.  My favorite is the jam jar, complete with gingham cover!

My last card today features the Glimmer plates, called Scribbled a Note.  The kit includes Satin Pewter foil, which is what I used for the pencils, then switched to black glimmer foil for the banner sentiment.

supplies: white, black, bright yellow, red, and navy cardstock, Scribbled a Note glimmer plates and die, Satin Pewter and Black glimmer foils, (retired) Everyday Sentiments stamp and die

I glimmered the pencils on bright yellow, red, and navy, then used the included die to cut out some individual pencils.  There are 4 different small sentiments that complete the scribbled sentence, but I chose to use a larger hello from a retired stamp and die kit from last year instead.

Here are the kits that I used today.  If you click on the picture, you'll be taken to the Spellbinders store.

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! 

 

May Spellbinders Club Kits - Dies, Stencils, Stitching, 3D Embossing Folder

 The Spellbinders Club Kits are available for new subscribers, now to May 27.  The overall theme this month is Pages and Phrases!

My first card features the Dies of the Month, Classroom Chronicles, and Stencils, Write On.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, vellum, Spellbinders Write On stencils, distress inks, Classroom Chronicles dies, adhesive foam squares and strips

The dies are a 19-piece set this month that feature this apple, and a variety of books with school-related words on their spines.  And once again the stencils have 2 designs; this one uses 4 of the stencils.  I love these chubby pencils so much that I didn't want to cover them up, so I chose to  put my focal image on a vellum panel, which I then popped above the surface.

Next up are the Stitching dies, Stitched Study Nook, paired with the remaining stencil from the stencil kit.

supplies: colored cardstock, a plank patterned paper, Write On stencil, Stitched Study Nook stitching dies, purple and beige embroidery floss, 3 strands

There is minimal stitching this month.  I had earlier stenciled the "wallpaper", so I built the rest of the scene around it.  Didn't add a sentiment this time, but there's plenty of room in the upper left for one when it is used.

My next card shows you the 3D embossing folder, Stacked Stories.  

supplies: kraft cardstock, vellum, Stacked Stories 3D embossing folder, flower and leaves from Mini Blooms & Sprigs, a retired Impression Obsession sentiment

This month's folder has 11 different book spines all stacked up on top of each other.  I embossed just half of the folder, and turned my panel so that the books appear to be on a shelf, then carefully colored in the raised parts of the design.  This old sentiment from my stash seemed perfect, so I added some garden elements to reinforce it.  

Here are the Club Kits I used for my cards today - just click on the picture and you'll be taken to the Spellbinders store.

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!  

 

Some Hero Studio Monthly Mini Cards for May!

 I was so tickled to be asked to help showcase this month's Hero Studio products!  They have a floral theme going on, so of course I said YES!  The collection is called Flower Shoppe.

My first card was really fun to put together, using May's Studio Fancy Dies, Village Florist!

supplies: white, various shades of aqua, pinks, yellows, purples, and greens cardstock, Village Florist dies, sentiment from Flowers Bloom, my own tiny alphabet, a few teensy gems in flower centers

These dies are a set of 32 - everything you need to make your own little shop!  It went together very easily.  I couldn't resist naming mine "Lin's", using a tiny alphabet set that you will see in a few days.  I would love to work in such a shop, being surrounded with all those colors and scents every day!

My next card today features the May Cling Stamp, Floral Tiles.

supplies: white, yellow, and green cardstock, Hero Arts Hero Studio Floral Tiles cling, yellow ink, Village Florist flowers and leaves, Thinking of You Stamp & Cut, tiny pastel pearls

I made a tone-on-tone design with happy yellows, then just added a large sentiment die and some of the flowers from the Dies of the Month that you'll see more of below.  

Next up is the Stamp and Cut Studio Set, Flowers Bloom.

supplies: white and black cardstock, HA Studio Flowers Bloom stamps and matching dies, aqua enamel dots, my own leaf dies

This set consists of 15 stamps, 4 of which are sentiments, and 11 dies to cut out the flowers.  After coloring the flowers with markers, I arranged them across my card, used some Press n' Seal to hold them together until I could secure them on the back, then added a thin black strip to separate the sentiment, and sprinkled some enamel dots.  

And here is my last card that uses the Layering Stencils, Roses are Red.

supplies: white, pink/coral, and black cardstock, Roses are Red stencils, kitsch flamingo, worn lipstick, and mowed lawn oxide inks, picket fence distress crayon, Hello Stamp & Cut 

We had a little hiccup with this set, as I only received 3 of the 4 stencils, missing the one that puts down the solid parts of the leaves.  I decided to try it anyway, and I don't think it looks too bad!  The stencils will make a nice big 5 X 7 card, but I used an A2 size cardbase.  After doing my stencilling, I put the detail flower stencil back on and ran it through my machine with an embossing mat and plate.  And I used a white distress crayon for the centers of my flowers; that worked better than any white ink I had here on hand.  

Hero Studio items are revealed on the first of every month, and the subscription window remains open until the 27th.  You can subscribe any time and cancel hassle-free. Prices are discounted 6 - 14% off retail, and you get FREE shipping! Any leftover kits are available a la carte to anyone the following month, but they tend to disappear quickly during their debut.

I want to thank Kelly at Hero Arts for reaching out to me with these wonderful new goodies - I've thoroughly enjoyed playing with them!  

Birthday Cards from the Garden

 Time to replenish my birthday card stash, so I pulled out this favorite Hero Arts Flower Garden fancy die and made a couple cards.

supplies: black and white cardstock, Hero Arts Flower Garden cover die, markers, Simon Painted Happy Birthday dies, irridescent gems

I have used this cover die lots and lots, but not with a black background until today; I am always astounded how much the colors pop against it!  I layered the sentiment 3 times to make it stand out against all the busy-ness behind it.

Here's another one, going pastel this time.

supplies: white, yellow, pink, lavender, and green cardstock, Flower Garden cover plate, My Favorite Things (retired) Stitched Mini Square Square Stax die, sentiment from Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice Sentiments, adhesive foam squares

For this card, I cut the Flower Garden twice, attaching the first one to my pieced pastel backing, then cutting the 2nd one apart and coloring it to match the backing colors.  I attached the floral clusters to my sentiment square, then popped the whole thing above the card front.

It's amazing how different these cards can look!  That's why I love this cover die so much!

Thanks for stopping by - have a wonderful day!

Woodblock Wednesday: Wallpaper Flowers

 Here's my card for this month's Woodblock Wednesday over at Amy's blog.  The woodblock stamp I chose this month is from Hero Arts, called Wallpaper Flowers, dated 2009.

supplies: white, greens, and peachy coral colors of cardstock, Hero Arts Wallpaper Flowers, Simon Picnic Floral embossing folder, white pigment ink, Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms flower and leaf dies, sentiment from Waffle Flower Full Bloom Sentiments

And a bit of a closer look:

It is truly a treat to get out these old lovelies and use them again!  Be sure to visit Amy's blog HERE to see the other cards made for this month!

Sunny Thoughts

 Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a challenge blog named The Play Date Cafe.  One of my favorite recurring challenges there was called "Black and White and a Splash". Here's a card inspired by that challenge.

supplies: white and bright yellow cardstock, Winnie & Walter (retired) Audrey's Cutaways scalloped rectangle, Honey Bee Stamps Daisy Layers Bouquet stamps and matching stencils, yellow inks, a Simon reverse sentiment strip, adhesive foam 

The stamp set includes 2 stamps, the large one which makes the full bouquet, and a smaller one which duplicates most of the flowers in it.  I stamped each of them on white card, then colored in the smaller with the matching stencils and 4 yellow inks.  This sentiment strip continues the black and white theme, but it's nice and skinny so that it doesn't cover up much of the design!

Wishing you a sunny day!

Spring Breeze Hello

I thought the Waffle Flower Spring Breeze stencils would be a fun addition to my collection, especially because of the butterflies.   I enjoyed bringing the design to life, and then gave it an overnight to decide how I wanted to proceed with my card.  

This morning I decided to try the eclipse/hidden message technique.

supplies: white and black cardstock, Waffle Flower Spring Breeze stencil set, Simon Saturated inks trios 3, 9, 12, 15 and 17, Winnie & Walter (retired) In a Word: Hello die, Wplus9 (retired) Hand Lettered Hello stamp

Can you see the hidden "hello"?  There are 6 layers of it, the topmost cut from my stencilled panel, then layed back into the design.  Here's another shot.

Hopefully this will brighten someone's day!  

Enjoy your weekend - it's turned chillier here again, after an 80 degree day recently.  That's too hot too soon for me, so I'll take this moderation. 

CASEing Donna

 Earlier this year a challenge blog featured a card by my Hero Arts sister Donna Mikasa.  I couldn't play at the time, but pinned her card, and today I have a card that CASEs it.

I loved her idea of mixing a stenciled panel with a similar embossed one, but she went a step further, and carried the embossing onto the stenciled panel.  Here's my version of her design.

supplies: white cardstock, Simon Layered Flowers stencils, distress inks, Spellbinders/Wendy Vecchi Flowers & Foliage 3D embossing folder, sentiment from Hero Arts (retired) Frames & Messages clear set, Doodlebug tiny sprinkles

Donna used an interesting sentiment block, so I went looking through my stash for something, having in mind a vertical sentiment, but found this old Hero Arts one instead. It's dated 2009, but stamped perfectly once again after all these years!  It tickles me to make these treasures new again! 

Donna's cards have inspired me forever - thanks once again, my friend!

Washi and a Turnabout!

 It's gardening season!  From now through June is the best time of year for enjoying our gardens, before they get to the "jungle" stage!  Recently I was in the mood for making a turnabout background, but then set it aside until now, when I paired it with some washi florals.

supplies: white and green cardstock, Concord & 9th In the Garden Turnabout stamp set, Sunny Studio Fancy Frames Circle die, Hero Arts Infinity Nesting Circle die, Waffle Flower Full Bloom Sentiments, Pink Fresh Studio Fluttering Butterfly Washi and matching die,  (retired) English Garden washi, adhesive foam squares

I don't use circles enough, so I chose this pretty scalloped one and one from a nested set to use as my focal point.  After stamping my sentiment, I added the bits of washi, then lifted the whole thing above my garden background.

Are you a gardener?  My husband does all the hard work, and I just choose the flowers and admire them!  Thanks for stopping by!

A Card for Easter

 My friend Mary Anne sent us a beautiful card for Easter, and I couldn't wait to try and make one, too!  Here's my first attempt, using papers from my stash.  I think the floral one is Webster's Pages......

supplies: white cardstock, 3 patterned papers, sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Faith

This kind of fancy fold card is not my usual, but I did enjoy trying to duplicate Mary Anne's card.  I used 3 different patterned papers.  The finished card measures 3" X 5 1/2", so it looks kind of like a slim-line, except that when it folds down for mailing, you'll still need an A2 envelope.  Here's 1 more picture, to show you the 3rd pattern paper, just a blue dot.

I'm so glad I have this tiny sentiment stamp from Simon Says Stamp - there were several options I could have used.  

If you search "pop-up cross cards", you'll find lots of examples and I'm sure some directions for how to make a card similar to this.  I saw some lovely ideas when I searched!

The Simon Wednesday Challenge is asking for cards using patterned paper, so I'll be entering this card there. 

Happy Easter!