My April Favorites

Here are my favorite cards that I've made this month.

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

Happy Wednesday - welcome to our challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

Our theme this week is the ever-popular Anything Goes!  The team is showcasing Mama Elephant products.  I have 2 cards using their Corner Flowers stamps.

supplies: white cardstock, Mama Elephant Corner Flowers, Zig markers and water to color, sentiment from Simon Big Scripty Greetings, Tim Holtz String Stencil, Simon's Rosie Cheeks, Melon, and Duckling inks, small blender brush, sequins to match

This set has another large group of flowers - I used that one on my next card.

supplies: white and Surf Blue cardstock, Corner Flowers, Nuvo markers, Simon Mandy's Flowers sentiment, Hero Arts Nested Rectangle dies, Spellbinders Floral embossing folder, Doodlebug tiny heart sprinkles, adhesive foam to pop frame up

As you may know, the Simon Says Stamp store is accepting new orders, but will have longer shipping times, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  With this in mind, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our prize gift cards for now.  But we will continue our challenges each week, and we'd love for you to play along with us.  We're all in this together!

Garden Hugs

Here's another Flower Power card using Altenew goodies - perhaps for Mother's Day?

supplies: white and black cardstock, Altenew Garden Treasure, inked with Cherry Blossom, Enchanted Garden, and Green Valley mini inks, pink and green markers for small flowers, sentiment from Simon Thanks & Leaves, clear sequins

I stamped and cut out the various floral elements, then played around with arrangements.  The large pink flower is popped up above the rest, and I added some sequins to the small pink ones for sparkle. 

How are you doing?  Be safe and well!

Sweet Friend

Playing with some favorites today.

supplies: white, black and Carnation cardstock, Altenew Painted Flowers stamps, Simon Rosie Cheeks, Rose Apple, Teeny Bikini, Duckling, Melon, and Clementine inks, Altenew Green Valley mini inks, Sunny Studio Frilly Frames Eyelet Lace die, a Hello die, and a stamped (retired) sentiment from Avery Elle, pale pink sequins

How is everyone doing?  Be safe!

Sunny Days Ahead Blog Hop, Day 1

Simon Says Stamp has released a new bevy of products, called Sunny Days Ahead!  I'm thrilled to be participating in the first of 2 days of blog hops to show off all the new goodies!

You should have arrived here from Bobby Lemanski's blog.  If you have just happened upon me today and want to start the hop from the beginning, go to the Simon Says Stamp blog to start.  We'll be giving away a $25.00 coupon at every stop on the hop, so don't forget to leave a comment!  The winners will be announced at the Simon Says Stamp Store Blog next Wednesday, April 29.

Today I have 4 cards, 3 of them featuring the new Stylized Tulips die and 1 card using the CZ Design Extra Large Congrats die.

One of the prettiest spring plantings I've seen prominently featured pale pink and yellow tulips.  This first card is inspired by that garden.

supplies: white, Surf Blue, Cotton Candy, Green Leaf and a pale yellow cardstock, Stylized Tulips and Thanks dies, adhesive foam strips

I popped the pink tulip up and paper-pieced the sentiment in the same colors that I used for my flowers.

Next up, I used some subtle prints to piece my tulip in brighter colors.

supplies: white and black cardstock, various Doodlebug patterned papers, Stylized Tulips die, 4 Seasons die and sentiment

And lastly, I added some shading with oxide inks and colored pencils before piecing them back together for this one full of warm sunshine.

supplies: white, yellow, and Green Leaf cardstock, MFT gingham dp, Stylized Tulips and Painted Hello dies, mustard seed and mowed lawn oxide inks with pencil shading

And finally, I have a card using the new  CZ Design Extra Large Congrats die; I decided to use it for a wedding card, using the colors from the invitation we received.

supplies: eggshell cardstock, Simon CZ Design Extra Large Congrats and Elegant Roses dies, stamped sentiment from Floral Bliss,  (retired) Modern Rose Blooms cling stamp, broken tumbled glass oxide ink, a off-white enamel dot, foam squares to lift up rose

This card started with a white-embossed panel of Modern Rose Blooms.  Next I sponged on some tumbled glass oxide ink.  I die-cut the big word from it, and 4 others from eggshell and glued them together, then attached them back into place.  Then I added an Elegant Rose to mimic the background, and a stamped sentiment.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Day 2 of this Blog Hop.  Again, it will begin at the Simon Says Stamp blog.  Don't forget that each stop on both days will be offering a $25.00 coupon to the store for a random commenter, and if you buy anything on either of these 2 days, you can also get a free gift!  Use the code sssink to get a free Intense Black ink pad (see the banner at the top of this post to see it).

You'll be glad to know that the Simon Says Stamp store is shipping again!  For more information, you can watch this video.

Click HERE for all the new goodies, and for more inspiration, don't forget to visit our Sunny Days Ahead gallery.

Thanks so much for coming by today.  Here's today's Hop Order.

Simon Says Stamp Blog   

Jennifer McGuire

Kristina Werner

Cathy Zielske

Nina-Marie Trapani

Nichol Spohr

Lisa Addesa

Heather Ruwe

Suzy Plantamura

Kathy Racoosin

Barb Engler

Cheiron Brandon

Lea Lawson

Betty Wright

Bobbi Lemanski

Lin Brandyberry

Simon Says..........Flower Power!

Happy Wednesday - welcome to our challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

Our theme this week is Flower Power, and the team is playing with Altenew products.  

My first card uses a large flower die called Peony Dream.

supplies: white, black, Green Apple, Green Leaf, and 3 yellow cardstocks, Peony Dream dies, Simon's Script Thanks dies, Sunny Studio Frilly Frame die, peacock feathers oxide ink and a blender brush, yellow enamel dot

HERE are some other cards I've made using these beautiful dies.

For my 2nd card, I went from this big flower to lots of teensy ones, using the Ditsy Print stamps.

supplies: white, black, and orchid pink cardstock, Ditsy Print stamps, Altenew Rose Petal and Green Valley mini ink cubes, Fine Frames dies, Simon's Painted Hello die, stamped sentiment from (retired) Avery Elle Simply Said Hello

I stamped the floral spray across my card panel multiple times, then chose 2 of the Fine Frames to add over it, along with my sentiment in black.

I've made several cards now with this Ditsy Print set, and they are very relaxing to work with.  

As you may know, the Simon Says Stamp store is accepting new orders, but will have longer shipping times, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  With this in mind, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our prize gift cards for now.  But we will continue our challenges each week, and we'd love for you to play along with us.  We're all in this together!

Dawn's Color Challenge

Dawn McVey (@dawnsing on IG") issued us a color challenge earlier this week.  She is known for her love of color, a trait we have in common.  This is a challenge for me, indeed, as I generally stick to more pastel colors and Dawn's colors are always bright.  She gave us 5 colors to work with, and I managed to get them all onto this card.  She uses red and hot pink together all the time, and that was the hardest for me.  Here's what I came up with.

supplies: white cardstock, dps from Sunny Studio Rainbow Bright and a couple of their Gingham paper pads, My Favorite Things Stitched Flowers dies, leaf die from a Hero Arts January card kit, and stamped sentiment from (retired) Hero Arts Heartfelt Wishes set, Doodlebug sprinkles

To make things a little easier on myself I decided to CASE one of my own cards from years ago.  These Sunny Studio dps had the closest tones to Dawn's colors.  

I think I managed to make them work together - I used a trick I learned from quilting: if you use a color at least 3 times, and spread it out over the surface, it will usually work.  This was a fun challenge, thank you, Dawn!

Edited to add:

Some of the entries to Dawn's challenge were other vignettes like she originally posted, and it was interesting to see what people pulled together using her colors.  So I decided to try my own.

I did a walk through our house (and basement) looking for things in her colors.  I have collected Teddies forever - this is a cherished one that I inherited from a friend's Mom.  At one time I collected tins, mostly reproductions, but that coffee one is the real thing, found in Maine, I believe.  I added my Winnie-the-Pooh books, some paper flowers that I made in Dawn's colors, and a heart pincushion made from felt, lace, and buttons that I made years ago (I collect hearts, too!)  And to pull in more of Dawn's pink, I threw in some spools of thread and some buttons, as a representation of all the needlework I've loved doing down through the years.

A Set of Cards

Today I'm playing with The Greetery's Botanicut Sunflower dies.  After I'd made the first card, I really liked how the color looked so much richer against the kraft cardstock, so I decided to make a set of 4 cards, each using the common element of kraft cardstock plus another pastel, and changing up the sentiments for each.

supplies: kraft, Cotton Candy, yellow, Lavender, Surf Blue, and Green Leaf cardstock, plus darker shades of pinks, yellows, purples and aquas, The Greetery Botanicuts Sunflower dies, Spellbinders Hemstitch Rectangle die, sentiment dies from My Favorite Things and Winnie & Walter

Here are my cards one by one.

Each of these uses the same recipe, to start with the palest of each color, and use it for the base of the flowers, the sentiment, and the card base, then use darker shades of that color for the flowers.  The Hemstitch Rectangle, a workhorse for me, helps to break up the kraft just enough.

We're off to a new week, another week closer to returning to normal, I hope!  Stay home, please!

Some Daffodil Cards

My favorite product from a spring release this year at Simon Says Stamp was the Daffodil Stem die.  Here are a couple cards using it.

supplies: white, 2 yellows, and Green Apple cardstock, Daffodil Stem die, a 2005 Hero Arts Spring Memories woodblock stamp, tumbled glass ink, sentiment from Newton's Nook Little Lilies, Sunny Studio Frilly Frames Eyelet Lace die, markers for shading

I was tickled to be able to use this old Hero Arts text stamp in the background!

Did you know that there are pink daffodils?  I thought it would be fun to use pinks for my next card.

supplies: white, pink, cream, and Green Leaf card, Daffodil Stem die, Newton's Nook Woodland Spring sentiment, a PTI Mix and Mat die, tumbled glass distress ink, some markers for shading, doodlebug heart sprinkle

These Newton's Nook sentiments have the sweetest font and their size is perfect with this die.

Lastly, I thought I'd do some paper-piecing with my little Doodlebug prints.

supplies: white cardstock, Doodlebug and Sunny Studio dps, Daffodil Stem die, sentiment and banner die from (sold out) Hero Arts January card kit

Here I used 3 layers for the orange part of the flower for some dimension.

Thanks so much for your visit today! 

Knock on Wood, part 2

I was really inspired by our theme for this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, so much so that I have 2 more cards for today following that theme.

Both of my cards today use wood plank design papers as an element. This first one is very similar to Wednesday's card, I just changed up the elements.

supplies: white cardstock, woodplank design paper, Tim Holtz Wildflower Stems 1 dies, colored with distress inks and a sponge dauber, Lumber embossing folder, sentiment sticker, twine bow

I thought these daisies would look good against this wood plank design paper, and I embossed it too, thought it doesn't show up very well in my picture.  

Next, a spray of little flowers dies, also against a wood plank paper.

supplies: white and Surf Blue cardstock, Craft Consortium Wood Textures paper pad, Tim Holtz Funky Foliage dies, plus 2 yellow flower dies from my scrapbag, distress inks to color, Simon Stitched Circle and Small Hello dies, aqua and white pearls for flower centers.

I cut a circle from the woodgrain paper, mounted it on my card base, then constructed a little flower swag around part of it.  As above, most of the flowers and ferns were cut from white cardstock, then colored with distress inks.

Thank you for stopping by.

Simon Says.........Knock on Wood!

Happy Wednesday - welcome to our weekly challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

Our theme this week is "Knock on Wood!" - use anything that looks like wood or is wood-related: embossing folder, patterned woodgrain paper, wood embellishments, or stamps. We are highlighting Tim Holtz products today, a perfect match for this challenge!  I had such fun with this one - I made 3 cards!

For my first card I used Tim's Lumber 3D texture fade for my background, and some wildflower dies as my focal point.  

supplies: kraft and white cardstock, Lumber 3D embossing folder, vintage photo distress ink, Wildflowers dies, sponged with distress oxide inks, Small Talk sentiment sticker, twine

After embossing the woodgrain into my kraft paper, I swiped a vintage photo ink pad along the top lightly to bring out the woodgrain details.  That panel was then trimmed a bit, darkening all the edges before attaching to the card base of the same kraft.  Then I cut out the wildflowers from white cardstock and used a tiny blender brush and oxide inks to color each one.  I used some Press and Seal to hold my arrangement together until I could add some glue dots to the back of it, then attached it to my card, allowing the tops of the flowers to stand out a bit.  Next came the sticker sentiment, and finally a twine bow.

For my 2nd card, I started with a wood plank paper, and inspired by Michele, I stencilled over it with oxide inks before framing it up.  

supplies: fog, smoke, and worn lipstick cardstock, woodgrain plank dp from SN@P Wood & Notebook Basics paper pad, Floral Layering stencil, worn lipstick and cracked pistachio, with touches of abandoned coral, mustard seed, and evergreen bough distress oxide inks, small blender brushes, Simon Sketched Flowers sentiment, a Winnie & Walter Audrey Cutaways rectangle die

As you may know, the Simon Says Stamp store is accepting new orders, but will have longer shipping times, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  With this in mind, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our prize gift cards for now.  But we will continue our challenges each week, and we'd love for you to play along with us.  We're all in this together!

Flourished Fretwork

Spellbinders generously shared 2 sets of Becca Feeken's newest die designs that she calls Flourished Fretwork, and today I'm sharing some cards that I made with them. Becca does intricate dies like noone else!

This first die set is called Richelieu Square.  Looking at the design, I thought of a kaleidoscope, and so I chose 2 of the 6 dies and some jewel-tone cardstock for this first card.

supplies: black, 2 pinks, 3 purples, and 2 turquoise cardstock, Richelieu Square dies

Starting with a 4" square black panel, I first cut out the square design, then the circle inside it.  I did the same for all of the other colors.  I attached wide packing tape to the reverse of the black panel, and then inlaid the other colors into it.  When I was finished I framed it with the lighter of the turquoise colors and attached it to a 4 1/4" square card base.

Now I think it looks more like a quilt, and I love how the black makes all the colors pop, kind of like a modern Amish quilt!  This card took me all day to put together, but I must say that it was just what I needed, considering the state of things right now.  It was very therapeutic.

I used the square detailed die once again for the next card, adding in an outer border, which is also included in the set.  This card is a really simple design in just 2 colors, pink and grey, and you can see how different it looks from my first card.

supplies: Cotton Candy and Slate cardstock, Richelieu Square dies, and a birthday die sentiment, adhesive foam

With the added border, this card measures out to 4 3/4" on each side. The sentiment die I used is part of a past Small Die of the Month set, and it fits perfectly inside the space in the center!  I love when that happens!

My next 2 cards feature the Oval Coronet dies; I changed up to pastels for this first one.

supplies: white, black, green, blue, lavendar, pink, and yellow cardstock, Oval Coronet dies, Rose Creations flowers and leaves, enamel dots to match

Once again, I used only the ornate dies from the set to cut from a white panel.  There is a plain oval die in this set, which I used to cut a blue oval for behind the central design, then I mounted the white panel onto a green card and added my flowers and sentiment.

And my final card, using just the inner ovals to show off their design.

supplies: white, Surf Blue, Audrey Blue, Lavender, purple, Green Apple, and Green Leaf cardstock, Oval Coronet dies

After cutting the detailed oval, I affixed the trimmed panel to a Surf Blue A2 card, then cut it again in the other colors and inlaid them back into the design, allowing some of the paler blue backing to show through around the edges.  The design is so symmetrical that I decided to wait for a sentiment until I have a use for this card.

Many thanks to Spellbinders for allowing me to play with these new dies!