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!

CASE-ing Joy

My birthday was last month, and I got some gorgeous hand-made cards!  Among them was this beautiful one from my friend Joy.  I fell in love with it and wanted to make a stab at CASEing it.  Here's the result.

supplies: white, pink, and green cardstock, Simon Says Stamp (retired) Spring Flowers Background, Taylored Expressions (retired) Rosy Posy embossing folder, Paper Smooches (retired) Rad Roses die, Waffle Flower Full Bloom Sentiments, Scalloped Rectangle die, enamel dots and hearts

Joy's card was much more dramatic with black accents, and I loved how the stamped background coordinated with the embossed one and the focal image.  A tiny detail that I think made a big impact was Joy's shading here and there on her background stamp, just enough to make it a part of the design.  .So I used those elements, but different supplies and colors, with a Scribble Flowers theme instead.  All of my supplies except the sentiment are retired.  But it's a "joy" to pull out these oldies and show them some love once again.  

Thank you, Joy, for your beautiful inspiration!

Enjoy the Little Things!

 Last year in March I noticed a tiny clump of snowdrops that I had not planted under a Japanese Maple.  I've always admired pictures of them, but never got around to planting any.  So where did this one come from?  I still don't have a clue, but this year it was joined by a 2nd plant nearby, and I'm thrilled to think that someday I may have a clump of these to welcome spring! 

So when I saw Simon's Snowball Bouquet dies, which are snowdrops, I had to bring them home, too.  Here's their first outing.

supplies: white, blue, and greens cardstock, Simon Snowball Bouquet dies, Pink Fresh Studio (retired) Folk Edge Rectangle, sentiment from Newton's Nook Little Lilies, adhesive foam squares

The snowdrops were easy to put together; I used 2 flower dies for each blossom, layering them, and pulling the topmost layer forward.  Since this design is so simple, I decided to add some dimension by securing each stem only at the bottom and allowing the flowers and leaves to stand away from the backing.  I also popped the folk edge panel up above the rest of the card, using adhesive foam.

Now I have another sign of spring to look for each year!

Spellbinders April Club Kits: Dies, Embossing Folder, and Stamps/Dies

The April Club Kits are now available for new subscribers!  The theme this month is Stay in Touch.

Today I have 3 cards.  The first two feature the Small Dies, Snail Mail Post.  How cute is this idea?  I made my little snail into a post mistress - check out her little mailbag!

supplies: colored cardstock, Snail Mail Post dies, floral from Lock & Key Mailbox, Send & Seal sentiment and small envelope with heart

I decided to make this into a 4 1/4" square card for a change.  

The set also includes a large tulip, which I couldn't resist using for my next card.

supplies: white, pink, yellow, and green cardstock, green gingham dp, Snail Mail Post tulips and leaves, sentiment from All Seasons Spring BetterPress plate/dies  set, my own oval and ribbon dies

My last card today combines the Clear Stamps/Dies called Send & Seal with the regular Embossing Folder, Perforated Stamp Edges.

supplies: white and 3 shades of blue cardstock, Send & Seal stamps and dies, Perforated Stamp Edges embossing folder, Doodlebug tiny heart sprinkles, adhesive foam squares

The stamp set consists of a large panel with different kinds of letters, which stamps all at one time, and 8 different sentiments.  The 14-piece matching die set has all of the sentiments but 1, plus 7 of the motifs from the image.  I just popped up a few of the letters and my sentiment, and added some tiny hearts.

And the embossing folder makes the perfect background to reinforce the postage theme.  

Here are the kits that 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 April Club Kits: Large Dies, Stencils, Clear Stamps/Die, Glimmer

 The Spellbinders Club Kits for April are now available for new subscribers!  The theme this month is Stay in Touch, all about letters and postage.

First up today is my card using the Large Dies, Lock & Key Mailbox, with help from the Stencils, Stay in Touch, and a sentiment from the Clear Stamp kit, Send & Seal.

supplies: white, blue, and red cardstock, Lock & Key Mailbox dies, a tiny heart die,  Stay in Touch stencils, barn door and blueprint sketch distress inks, sentiment on envelope from Send & Seal 

The only thing not in the mailbox set is the heart, which comes from my own supplies.  How lucky that this sentiment fits perfectly on the envelope in the die set!  And I thought that the stencilled edging was a good way to tie everything together.  

The stencil design that I used above is one of two in the Stencil Club Kit; here's the other design in that set, which uses 4 of the 5 stencils to create.  This card also shows you one of the sentiments in the Glimmer Kit called Scattered Letters.  Here I used my letterpress machine instead of foiling it.

supplies: pink and white cardstock, Stay in Touch stencils, 4 pink inks, Lock & Key Mailbox letter die, a tiny heart die, Scattered Letters sentiment, Postage Edge Rectangle dies

I simply stenciled the design in 4 pinks, then added it to the largest of the Postage Edge Rectangle dies, and added the little envelope and my sentiment banner popped up with adhesive foam.  This card measures 4 3/4" X 6".

And finally for today, here is the Glimmer Kit, Scattered Letters, and it's matching stencils that you get in the Caboodle deal, Layered Scattered Letters.

supplies: white cardstock, Scattered Letters Glimmer kit, black glimmer foil, Layered Scattered Letters stencils

I foiled the design with black glimmer foil, then used the 4-piece stencil set, which is the Caboodle freebie, to color it in Easter-egg colors.  I didn't mean to, but I missed coloring one of the letters; I kind of like it like that, as it brings more white into the design, to reinforce the sentiment banner.  And here you can see the 2nd sentiment included in the Glimmer kit (the other is on my card above).  The kit also includes a double banner die to cut them out.

Here are the Club 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!

April Spellbinders Club Kits: 3D Embossing Folder, Stitching, and BetterPress

 The April Club Kits from Spellbinders are here!  The overall theme this month is Stay in Touch.

I'll start you out with the unique 3D folder called Postage Mosaic.  It's filled with little postage stamps, 17 different designs. You can emboss the whole thing and use it for a background, or you can cut out the individual pieces and put them back together to your liking.  My little sentiment banners came from this month's Stitching Kit, Stitched Taking Notes.

supplies: white and dark aqua cardstock, Postage Mosaic 3D embossing folder, markers to color, sentiment from Stitched Taking Notes, Postage Edge Rectangles dies

There are lots of designs to mix and match; today I chose some nature-related ones, colored them, cut them out, and then rearranged them for a little gallery!

Next up is the Stitching Kit, Stitched Taking Notes, a set of 8 dies.

supplies: white, teal, and 2 pink cardstock, Stitched Taking Notes dies, (includes sentiment tabs), pink and mint embroidery floss, 3 strands, rose spray from Lock and Key Mailbox die set

This is simply stitched, but a fun idea for this month!  There are 5 different sentiment tabs that you can use alone or mix them up.  I added the flowers in the bottom corner to make this look a bit more feminine. They're from the Large Dies of the Month, called Lock & Key Mailbox.  

Finally, here is my card using the BetterPress kit, Post Edge Expression.

supplies: peach, green, yellow, and kraft cardstock, a tone-on-tone dp, Post Edge Expression Betterpress plates/die (background and sentiment), Gorgeous You flowers and leaves, Postage Edge Rectangles, enamel dots, adhesive foam strip

I wanted to give this one a little bit of a vintage feel, so I pressed the script plate onto a tone-on-tone botanical swirl paper from my stash, then cut it out with a Postage Edge Rectangle die.  The set includes 3 sentiments and matching dies; this is the largest.  Then I just added some flowers for more color.

Here are the sets 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!

Birthday Card for a Friend

 I recently tried out some Brass & Bliss goodies for the first time, taking advantage of their sale on older products.  I'm very pleased with their quality!  Here's what I made for a friend's birthday.

supplies: white cardstock, Brass & Bliss Someone Like You rose, matching stencils, and die, Simon Trio 12 pinks, Dublin green inks, Honey Bee Stamps Daisy Layers stamp sentiment, Spellbinders Floral Expressions 3D folder

I knew I wanted to keep the design fairly simple, so I went looking for an embossing folder for the background; isn't this one perfect with it's large florals?  I used a Jen McGuire trick and cut out 2 more plain die-cuts to layer behind the colored one to save on using adhesive foam, which I go through like there's no tomorrow!  

I'll enter this into this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Birthdays.

How is your day going?  Hope it's a good one.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Spring Plaids

I was in the mood to make some plaid backgrounds, so I went looking through my own cards for some inspiration.  

One nice thing about Blogger blogs is that you can label each post with as many descriptions as you like.  Then when you're looking for something, you just type in a label you know you've used before, and  - voila!  -  all those posts pop up for you!  (this is only if the blog owner has added a gadget for such a search; mine is over there on the right sidebar: Search this blog.) So I did a search for "plaid" and found a couple examples that I made using an Impression Obsession cling called Painted Stripes.  When I used them before, I used just 2 colors, so this time I tried lots of spring colors, and here's my result.

supplies: white cardstock, Impression Obsession Painted Stripes cling stamp, Spellbinders Glimmer Bouquet plate/die, rose gold glimmer foil, sentiment from Betterpress Nature's Botanical Garden Sentiments, adhesive foam squares

The cling stamp was first stamped horizontally, one stripe at a time, then vertically the same way, using 5 different springy colors of mini ink cubes in my Misti.  Then I went looking in my scrap basket and found this already foiled but uncolored floral bouquet, and also this sentiment - don't you just love that?!  I colored my flowers to match the stripes as best I could, then mounted the bouquet above my card front with adhesive foam squares.

Impression Obsession has closed for business, but I found this painted stripes cling still available in a few places, The Frantic Stamper and Amazon.  If you're interested, HERE and HERE (second card) are older cards where I used it to make plaids. AND it makes a great stripe, too - love the brushstroke effect!

For my next card, I used The Greetery's Tartan Builder Diagonal Stencils, and more finds from my scrap basket, and followed the same sketch as above.

supplies: white cardstock, The Greetery Diagonal Tartan Plaid stencils, various ink colors, Spellbinders (retired) Hexi-Gem Bloom Glimmer Plate/die, Curved Everyday Sentiments foiling plate/die, Matte Gold glimmer foil, adhesive foam squares

Once again, my blooms were pre-colored and worked beautifully with my newly-created plaid!  And I loved mixing all these colors together; like flowers, I guess everything works together!  This one used 6 different colors: Wplus9 Bloomsbury, Altenew Sweet Leaf, Volcano Lake, Warm Sunshine, Frosty Pink, Dusty Pink.

"Sweet Day" would work for a birthday, so I'm entering this into this week's Simon Wednesday challenge: Birthdays.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Birthday Jubilee

 I've been needing to replenish my birthday cards, and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge pushed me over the edge!  It's their 16th birthday, so the challenge is to make some birthday cards.  Here's one:

supplies: white and Cotton Candy card, Simon's Jubilee embossing folder/die set, white pigment ink, markers, sentiment from Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice Sentiments, adhesive foam squares

This is such a pretty embossing folder, and it also includes a die to cut out the square motif, which is exactly what I did, coloring it in more pinks, and then popping it back in place.  I've used this die back when it first was released HERE, and still think that a whole set of these in different colors with different sentiments would make a lovely gift for someone!

Thanks for stopping by!

Some Postage Collage Cards

 Playing with Waffle Flower Postage Collage goodies today, using the main die as a novel background and foregoing the postal details just this once.  I have 2 cards.

My first card is inspired by a childhood memory of watching a momma wren teach her babies to fly.  It uses a potpourri of supplies from lots of companies; unfortunately, many of them are discontinued.  The good news is that you can almost certainly substitute something that is current with a little searching.  I really love these birds with the heart wings from an old Wplus9 set.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, Waffle Flower Postage Collage die, Postage Collage Coloring Stencil, tumbled glass distress ink, Spellbinders (retired) Sweet Birds on a Branch (branches and leaves), Paper Smooches (retired) Birdhouse die, Wplus9 (retired) Folk Art Florals birds, a tiny flower die, sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Butterflies, natural twine, Doodlebug tiny heart sprinkles, tiny pearls for bird eyes

My second card uses my new Wildflower Silhouettes stamps that I finally got.  I love the idea of making various colored backgrounds for them!  

supplies: white, black, and gold cardstock, Postage Collage die, Postage Collage Coloring stencil, scattered straw, carved pumpkin, and seedless preserves distress inks, blending brushes, Wild Flower Silhouettes, sentiment from (retired) Impression Obsession In a Garden

Do you have any of these postage collage goodies?  They certainly bring a breath of fresh air to our designs!

I'll enter these cards into this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Birthday Card

 Playing today with a set of stencils, some of the first that Pink Fresh made years ago, but now retired.

supplies: white cardstock, wood plank dp, Pink Fresh Studio (retired) Daisy Wreath stencils, Altenew Golden Sunset, Lime, and Fresh Leaf inks, Simon (retired) Big Scripty Greetings sentiment, Doodlebug enamel dots, adhesive foam squares

This is a fun set of layering stencils; sadly, I've only used them a few times in the past.  The finished wreath was fairly easy to cut out, and I just popped it above a wood plank background.

Thanks for visiting me today!

Sweet Spring

 I'm still playing with my new Hero Arts February Fancy Dies, this time using more of the other flowers in the set.  And I added some Greetery things to the mix this time.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, Hero Arts February Fancy dies, The Greetery BotaniCuts Pussy Willows and Fit to Be Tied, sentiment from Newton's Nook (retired) Woodland Spring

I cut 3 daffodils and 3 crocus flowers plus some leaves and arranged them along with the pussy willows and a pretty bow to make my spring bouquet.  

Hopefully spring won't be too long coming now!

Woodblock Wednesday

 I really enjoyed making my card for this month's Woodblock Wednesday!  The idea of mixing a collage postage die with small floral Hero Arts woodblocks came to mind as I was looking through my woodblocks to use this month.  Then I saw Linda's cards (rcwidow on IG) doing the same thing, and Colleen's cards from last month, and that made up my mind.  Here's my contribution for this month.

I had to do a wee bit of masking, but these smaller stamps fit into the openings perfectly! Here's a picture with the stamps I used, all of them Hero Arts from the early 2000s.  The "first class mail" and postage amounts are from  a Waffle Flower Postage Collage stamp set.  As you can see, I used the same colors that Hero Arts suggested on their stamps: yellow, pink, lavender, and green. 

supplies: white and purple cardstock, Waffle Flower Postage Collage die and stamp set, Hero Arts Angels in a Vase, Artist's Heart Leaves, Happy Spring (I believe part of a 2-piece set), Garden Blooms set of 3, punched butterflies

It was such a joy to use these again, as they were all favorites way back then!  Since the Simon Wednesday Blog is featuring Waffle Flower this week, I'll enter this into their challenge.

And because I had to know what these would look like cut apart, here's a bonus card.

supplies: white and green cardstock, Memory Box Pinpoint Leaf cover plate, Waffle Flower Postage Collage die and stamp set , Hero Arts Garden Blooms stamps, Winnie & Walter Spring cutaway

This time I only used the 3 stamps from Garden Blooms set, coloring each one in only one of the same colors I used above.  Then I arranged them on a panel of green cardstock cut with the Pinpoint Leaf cover plate, and added a die-cut sentiment.

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