Hope Your Day Blossoms.....

I'm back today with another card using Penny Black stamps.  This lovely background stamp is called Glory of Modesty, and I stamped it using clear ink, then embossed it with a bright limey green.  Then I used a pink marker to give some detail to the flowers.  After trimming to the size I needed, to add a little more interest, I cut the panel into 4 equal parts, and then reassembled it onto a pink panel. I glued that onto my card base, stamped the sentiment from the Friendship set, and added some punched butterflies embellished with pearls.  

Really quite an easy card to make, but I think it will bring a smile to someone special.......

Thanks for visiting me today!  

Simon Says..........Anything Goes!

It's the end of the month, and that means Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp!  The Design Team are all using Craftwork Cards Candis on our projects - we'd love to see you using them, too, if you have them!  Here's my cards this week:

I used an older Hero Arts stamp, Stitched Flower Trio,  for my stems and leaves.  I used my Candis to make some flowers; I used these sets: Flower Power Mia for the petals, and Coconut Macaroon for the dotted centers.  I layered my stamped panel over an aqua chevron paper from Simple Stories Sn@p! Color Vibe, and stamped an aqua-embossed sentiment on vellum.

Here's another card using the hot pink Candis from the same pack:

I paired these up with a paper from MME's Lost & Found Two Blush paper pad, and the Hero Arts Starbursts stamp, embossed in white.  I framed my panel with a bracket punched edge (Fiskar's) and added a hot pink silk ribbon and my sentiment from My Happy.

I also got a pack of very pale pink and blue gingham Candis and here's what I did with them:

I first stamped my own background using elements from the Simon exclusive stamp set Flower Friend, coloring in the flowers with colored pencils, then using the Gingham Galaxy Candis as my flower centers.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts Truly Appreciated, stamped in Charcoal mid-tone ink.  The inks for the background are Brilliance Pearlescent Coral and Sky Blue.  

Our Heidi has provided another $50.00 gift voucher for the random winner of the challenge this week!

What would you get at the Simon Says Stamp Superstore?

A Sneak Peek

I have a post over at The Craft's Meow today - here's a little sneak peek of my card:

I'd love it if you'd hop on over to The Craft's Meow blog and leave me a little comment!  Thanks so much - have a GREAT day!

A Little Hello

Hello, all!  I trust your weekend is off to a great start!  I'm here today to share a card I made using some  Penny Black stamps, combining them with some design papers in colors that I love.

I knew I wanted to paper-piece this floral stamp called Flower Poetry, and since I love this little ditzy floral from MME's Collectable Notable collection, I pulled the colors from it.  So I stamped the Poetry stamp 5 times, on pale and medium aqua, a yellow, a gold and an orange solid, then cut the flowers and leaves out and pieced them back onto the pale aqua base, attaching the flowers only in their centers so I could lift the petals a bit for dimension.  (I also used a marker to add a bit of tone-one-tone color to them and added some MME enamel dots to the centers of 2 of the flowers).  Then I framed the pieced circle with a Nesties scalloped circle die in orange.  My other little panels are papers from MME's The Sweetest Thing Tangerine Collection that I thought went well with the floral panel.  Lastly I stamped my sentiment from the Friendship set and cut it into a little banner.

Thanks for taking the time to visit me today!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Blog Hop for The Craft's Meow June release

Welcome to the final day of our June release preview week at The Craft's Meow!  You've seen all 4 of our new sets each day this week, and today we're having our traditional Blog Hop to show you how you can mix these stamps together!  You should have arrived from Julie's blog, but if you'd like to start at the beginning, please go to The Craft's Meow blog for a list of all the blogs participating.  Once you get started, you should be directed from one blog to the next.  I know you'll love what my teamies have done with these sets!

Here's my card today, using 3 of our new sets this month:

I started with one of the frames from our Sweet Memories set:

And I added a sentiment from Beautiful Rose:

Lastly, I used the flowers and leaves from Kindred Spirits:

This time I turned the flower upside down from the way it appears on the stamp set, and I think they look even more like pansies!  I love that this is a set that I don't have to color.....I let my colored inks and the various stamps do my coloring  and detailing for me!

You can now see and purchase all of our June sets at The Craft's Meow store!  Would you like to win ALL of them?  Just leave a comment on each of our blogs (you'll increase your chances that way) by 8 PM PDT on Sunday, June 23, and Lisa will choose a random comment from one of our blogs!  The winner will be posted at The Craft's Meow Blog on June 24.  Good luck!

Now, hop on along to Nina's blog!

The Craft's Meow June Release Preview Day 4: Fancy Flourishes

Welcome to another day of our June releases at The Craft's Meow!  Today we're featuring a Nina B set called Fancy Flourishes and I know you're going to love this one!  It includes the gorgeous flourish I'll show you in a second, plus some smaller motifs in the same style, and two sentiments.  This set will be our free set this month with a $50.00 purchase.  Here's my first card:

Didn't I tell you you'd love this flourish?  Here I let it take center stage, stamping it on some ivory cardstock, along with one of the sentiments, and then just added a store-bought rose and colored in the letters.  I thought this My Mind's Eye paper was the perfect background, as it has swirls and flourishes in a much more subtle manner.

For my second card, I stamped the same flourish twice on white cardstock, to be more in the background for this vellum flower I made, using the last of some thick beautiful pink vellum and Spellbinder's Rose Creations dies.  I wanted an equally flourished sentiment, so I chose this one from our Lark Additions set, sprinkled some pearls, and added it to a pink card base.  Wouldn't this design work nicely for a wedding card, using the bride's wedding colors? (Edited to add:) I'd also like to enter this card into the Moxie Fab World's Birthday Card Challenge, since this was created within a month of the challenge.  

Please visit The Craft's Meow blog to see what my team-mates did with this lovely stamp set.  Leave a comment there by 8:00 PM PST tonight for a chance to win it!  Lisa will be giving away a set to one lucky commenter at The Craft's Meow Blog!  And please come back again tomorrow for our traditional blog hop featuring all of our 4 new sets this month (with a chance to win them ALL)! 

Simon Says............Summer Fruits

If you're here to see my cards for The Craft's Meow June release previews, please scroll down 1 post or click HERE.  

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for another challenge at Simon Says Stamp!  This week our theme is "Summer Fruits".  The Design Team are using products from American Crafts, and we'd love to see them on your creations, too, but it's not mandatory to enter our challenge; just follow along with the theme.

For my card, I chose products from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line: some 12" papers (for the strawberries, the jar, and the graphed background), (here's the 6" pad),  stickers (line of hearts and "sweet" tag), and Thickers.  I cut out one of the canning jars and lots of strawberries, and filled my jar with them, wrapped some twine around the top of the jar, and added a heart button and my "sweet" tag.  What's better than fresh strawberry jam? (minus the stems and leaves of course)

As usual, Heidi has offered another $50.00 gift voucher for the random winner of this challenge.

What sweet things would you get there?

The Craft's Meow June Release Preview Day 3: Sweet Memories

Welcome back to another day of showcasing our June release of new stamps!  Today's set is called Sweet Memories, and it's been designed by Nina B. to be used for your Project Life creations.  The size of each frame/block is 3 X 4, and can be used for journaling or as a decorative element on your cards.  The first thing I did was pick out some pretty design papers to stamp these blocks on, and then added just a few of the sentiments in the set and a few simple embellishments.  These could be used for journaling:

Or they can be used as a focal point on a card:

And here's another:

I know you'll want to visit The Craft's Meow Blog to see my teamie's ideas on how to use this fun set!  While you're there, don't forget to leave a comment by tonight at 8:00 PM Pacific time, for a chance to win it!  I hope you'll come back tomorrow to see the last of the new releases!

The Craft's Meow June Release Preview Day 2: Kindred Spirits

Welcome!  I'm glad you're visiting to see one of our new June stamp previews at The Craft's Meow!  Today we are debuting a set by Karen Baker called Kindred Spirits.  It's a fantastic set, with flowers that can be stamped in several stages, plus some lovely sentiments to go along with them.  Here's the first card I made for you today:

I put together several of the flowers, a bud, and some leaves, stamped them with colored inks, then cut out my little vignette.  It was simply popped above a doily with some striped paper, ribbon, and I added one of the sentiments in this set.

For this card I omitted the outline stamping to show you that these flowers are just as pretty without it, and give a bit of a water-colored effect when you don't use the outlines.  This one uses my favorite sentiment from this set, bringing to mind the phrase that Anne of Green Gables used often.

Don't forget to visit The Craft's Meow blog to see what all my team-mates did with this new stamp set.  Leave a comment at The Craft's Meow blog by 8:00 PM PST tonight for a chance to win this new set!  The winner will be announced on the blog tomorrow.  And I hope to see you again tomorrow for another preview of one of our other new sets! 

The Craft's Meow June Release Preview Day 1: Beautiful Rose

Here we are at day 1 of The Craft's Meow June release previews!  Today's stamp set is called Beautiful Roses, and it's designed by Nina B.  There are 3 wonderful images (all with roses), and 3 sentiments, too; so appropriate for this month of roses!  

For my first card I chose this Rose spray and colored it like my favorite Peace rose.  It starts out a lovely pale yellow, and gets pink edges as it opens.  I remember this rose in my Grandfather's garden next door.

I carried through the pink and yellow theme throughout my card, popping my 2 sprays above a tiny pink gingham edged with adhesive paper lace, and then added a yellow grosgrain bow and one of the sentiments.

For my next card I went about as far away in style as I could get.......I chose the circle motif from the set and then based my card on circles:

I used a sketch that I had pinned on my Pinterest boards, and papers from Basic Grey and Studio Calico, along with a wood veneer arrow.  

Please visit The Craft's Meow blog to see what my team-mates made for you today, and then leave a comment there by 8:00 PM PDT tonight for a chance to win this set .  And come on back tomorrow for another preview of a June release!

Mixy Matchy Style

I was really taken with the challenge at Moxie Fab World that Cath calls Mixy Matchy Style - combining many patterns in a pleasing way.  I should be able to do that easily, given my background in quilting; one of my favorite parts of making a quilt was choosing the fabrics.  But this was a true challenge to me.  Compared to some of the examples that Cath showed us, this is pretty tame, but it's a start!  After playing with dozens of patterns,  here's what I came up with for my first try:

I started with that K&Company Susan Winget bird grand adhesions sticker.  I've had it for years and decided I'd make it the focal point of my card.  The papers I finally decided on come from so many collections, old and new: October Afternoon Sidewalks and 9 to 5, My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose Mabel and Bramble Rose, Fancy Pants Park Bench, and Basic Grey BowTies.  I added some Hobby Lobby lace, washi tape from Michael's and stickers by Cosmo Cricket as my sentiment.

It all came together once I decided on this Page Maps sketch that I had pinned.  Without that I'd still be playing with my papers!  This was really fun, Cath, thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone; I'm going to try another one soon!

Circles and Smiles

suppplies: Wplus9 Quilt Prints, Fresh Cut Florals (pink centers and leaves behind button), Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages, Darice embossing strip, Martha Stewart tape, dotty button, Doodlebug Designs bumblebee baker's twine

This is another card using Wplus9 stamps to enter into 2 challenges: Cloud9's June Blog Hop, Anything Goes and the Monday Mood Board:

Thanks for visiting!

Penny Black Stamp Squad Blog Hop!

Welcome!  I'm so excited to be participating in the first ever Penny Black Stamp Squad blog hop!  Not only are we hopping, we're giving away stamps, too! Leave a comment along the hop at each stop, including the Penny Black Blog, for a chance to win a selection of Penny Black stamps.

You should have come from Greta's blog.  If you'd like to begin our Hop from the beginning, and for a listing of all blogs participating, please visit the Penny Black Blog HERE.

Here's the card I made for today:

I really love this background stamp called Indian Wheel!  It will adapt to anything else you pair it with.   I used it here in a partial panel, and then stamped, colored and fussy-cut the beautiful poppies from Blooming Garden, and added my sentiment (from the Friendship set) in a banner form.  Love these corals!

Now, please hop on over to my sweet friend Judy's blog, Livin' the Dream.  I just know she'll have something amazing to show you!

I'm in love!

.......with these 2 new sets from Wplus9 that just came in the mail!  I couldn't wait to ink them up, and luckily I had a great inspiration photo from the Monday Mood Board to get me stamping.  Here's my card:

The 2 new sets are called Backgrounds and Borders 1 and Fresh Cut Florals.  If you are a stamper, these are your stamps!!  Here's the Mood Board this time:

I used the same colors and honed in on those buttons, which I made into flowers on my card.  I added some enamel dots from Teresa Collins to them as flower centers.  So glad they are available; they run a close second to my beloved pearls.....

I'd also like to enter this card into the Cloud9 Blog Hop, their last, sadly, which is Anything Goes.

Simon's June Card Kit

Here's a card made using materials from Simon's June Card Kit, now sold out AGAIN! (but you can get these elements separately, if you'd like.)  For this card I chose some of the lovely papers from the included Basic Grey Hipster papers, along with the wood tag - isn't it fun?  And then I added my own die-cut butterfly and some enamel dots, pulling out some of the colors from the papers.  Love this dark chocolate with the aqua, don't you?

Here's one more card using this June Card Kit:

This one uses a part of one of the Hipster Snippets along with stamping from the Kelly Purkey stamp set "Dude!" included in the kit. I just added my own twine and another enamel dot.  Isn't that "Shattered" Tim Holtz Core'dination panel nifty?  

Simon Says........Transport!

Welcome to another Simon Says Stamp challenge!  this week our theme is Transport - planes, trains, bicycles, where will you take this challenge?  The Design Team and our Guest Designer Wida are all using Basic Grey products this week.  We'd love to see you use them, too, but it's not necessary to enter.  Here's my card for this week:

All of the papers are from Basic Grey's BowTies paper pad.  I added some Studio Calico Transportation wood veneer shapes that I colored with inks to match the papers, and some die-cut letters using my Die-Namics By the Letter dies.

As always, our Heidi is offering up another $50.00 gift Voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store!

Please don't forget to join in with our Send a Card to Maddy Card Drive, we have a whopping $100 voucher to give away !! More details HERE

Also we have a Simon Says Stamp Summer School currently happening over on the Simon Says Stamp Blog ! Lots of fabulous designers are taking part and there are lots of Goody Bags to win !!

A Dream Come True!

Hello, friends!  I've been keeping a little secret for a few months that I've been bursting to reveal, and today I finally can!  I've been invited to be a part of the brand new Penny Black Stamp Squad!!  There will be 5 of us total, and we're all so excited to be able to share our love of Penny Black stamps with you!  Here's a little sneak peek of my card that will be featured on the Penny Black Blog today.

I hope you'll visit over there and say hi, and then come back there every day this week to meet another of my new team-mates! 

Skidding in by a hair!

I was thinking I had more time for Cath's Tuesday Trigger this week, but I don't, so here is my second entry for this beautiful Trigger.

supplies: yellow cardstock, dps from BoBunny's Soft Shades Double Dots pad, Wplus9 Blanket Stitched Blooms, PTI's Friendship Jar (sentiment), Darice Simple Interlock embossing folder, paper doily.

Just LOVE these pastels with the sunny yellow and that crisp white!  Thank you, Cath!

Nature's Textures

The current challenge at the Flourishes blog is to make a card that is inspired by the textures of nature.  I have long wanted to do this, so here was my push!

Using Flourishes Lilac set, I stamped the lilac spray, then paper-pieced the leaves and stems.  That was then die-cut into this Nesties Labels Eighteen shape.  After punching out several shades of blue and purple with  my Martha Stewart hydrangea punch, I then pieced in the individual florets.  The finished panel was then framed in a pale green and popped above my card front, which was embossed with a Sizzix ornate frames folder, also adding some more texture.

This photographed a bit more blue than the card actually is, but I'm pleased with the results. This lilac set was one of my first purchases from Flourishes, and, since it's a sentimental favorite flower of mine, it remains one of my favorite stamps.

Thanks for visiting me today!