My Favorite Cards from June

 Here are my favorite cards made this month - they look like summer!

Thanks for visiting!

Summer Fruits

 I have 2 neglected rolls of washi tape that I thought I should give a little love to; they both feature summer fruits and flowers.

supplies: white cardstock, Doodlebug Gingham dp, Pink Fresh Studio Blossoms and Berries washi sprigs, Sunny Studio Fancy Frame Circle die, sentiment from Berry Bliss

supplies: white cardstock, green dotted dp, Pink Fresh Studio Lemons and Blueberries washi sprigs, Stitched Scallop Rectangle dies, sentiment from Altenew Painted Greetings

I think these little sprigs are perfect for last-minute cards.  I have found that fussy-cutting the designs is pretty easy, though there are dies to match.  I store what I don't use all together.  Then it just takes some color coordination with design papers or inks and you've got a card!

Hope these have given you some inspiration!

Sending Smiles

 Here's another card with a hand-made plaid background, in cool colors this time.

supplies: white, Mint, Surf Blue, Audrey Blue, Peacock Teal, and a dark green cardstock, Pink Fresh Studio Dainty Plaid cling stamp and matching layering stencils, faded jeans (for stamping), broken china, and cracked pistachio distress inks (for stencilling), The Greetery Sunflower Botanicuts dies, Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangle die, Simon Friendly Flowers sentiment, stamped in broken china

Once again, Simon's cardstock colors are a pretty good match for my distress inks!

Thanks for stopping by today - I appreciate your visits.

Brushstroke Blossoms

 I've been trying to use supplies that have been neglected.  Today's card uses some Tim Holtz Brushstroke Flowers dies, and I used solid cardstocks from some ancient 6" paper pads.

supplies: white, 2 yellows, 2 peaches, 2 greens cardstock, Lawn Fawn Rainbow Watercolor Wishes dotty patterned paper, Brushstroke Flowers 1 dies, a Tim Holtz Sentiments Label Sticker, Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangle

This big fluffy flowers look like summer to me, and the dotty paper in the same colors makes a nice background for them. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Daisy Days - 2 Birthday cards

 Here's another hardly used set of stencils with matching stamps, dies, and even background papers that I have neglected.  I made this first one for a birthday in May, and enjoyed the processs so much I made another in a different colorway.

supplies: slate cardstock (for sentiment), The Greetery Daisy Days Fill-in-the-Blank paper in grey, Daisy Days stamp/stencil set, The Greetery Daisy Days die set, Pink Fresh Studio Rise & Shine and Altenew Green Valley inks, small blending brushes, Hero Arts Sending Love Mail sentiment

I made the 2nd card for a birthday, too, using another of the Fill-in-the Blank papers.

supplies: white and bright pink cardstock, same supplies as above (Fill-in-the-Blank pale blue paper), Simon Trio 15 Greens and Carnation and  Altenew Pocketful of Sunshine and Silverstone inks, blending brushes, Simon Birthday Circle die, adhesive foam to pop up daisies, scallop rectangle die from (retired) MFT Blueprints 20 die set

I decided I wanted the biggest flowers to be actual daisies in white, and to mix up the other elements with different colors.  After doing the "berries" in Carnation, I decided to use that color again for my sentiment.  And this time I die-cut the panel with a small scallop edge so that some white from the card base shows, to reinforce the white daisies.  I think this has a fun fresh feel with these colors, almost tropical!  

I'd like to enter this last card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Vacation, since the tropical vibe it gives off makes me think of summer. 

As always, thanks so much for visiting - hope I've inspired you in some way.

Old and New

 Since I have a little more time now, I've been revisiting some of my old cards for inspiration.  Today's card is a result of that, using some elements from THIS (first) card, mixed with a new embossing folder just released at Spellbinders.

supplies: white cardstock, various Petite Prints design papers from Doodlebug, Wplus9 Doodle Buds clear stamps, Pink Fresh Studio Perfect Sentiments stamp and matching die, Spellbinders new Splish Splash embossing folder, teensy enamel dots for flower centers

I chose 3 bright colors from the Doodlebug spectrum, a bright royal blue, bright orange, and hot pink, and stamped the flowers from teeny florals, the centers from gingham, and used a yellow dot for the very center of each flower, then paper-pieced them, adding a weensy enamel dot.  For the leaves I used all kinds of patterns: stripes, gingham, dots, graph, woodgrain, etc.  To me, this is quilting all over again, but in a fraction of the time!

Usually when I use more than 1 flower, I cluster them in a group, but this time I marched them down my card in a line, then just added a simple sentiment.  I think this embossing folder is going to be a favorite!  

Thanks for stopping by today!  

Anniversary Roses

 I took advantage of a Memorial Day Sale at Birch Press Design and brought home this lovely.  In my opinion, you can never have too many roses!

supplies: white, 3 peach shades, and 2 green shades of cardstock, Rose Bunch Contour Layers dies, leaves from Altenew Garden Picks dies, (retired) The Crafts Meow Sweet Sentiments

On her wedding day, this bride carried shades of blush roses.  These new dies are a perfect size, needing nothing else but some leaves and a sentiment.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Lacey Stitched Butterfly

 Now that I have a bit more time, I've been enjoying pulling out my existing supplies and enjoying them again!  Today I have a butterfly card.

supplies: white and pink cardstock, Memory Box (retired) Cottage Meadow design paper, Spellbinders Stitched Glimmer Butterfly dies, pink variegated embroidery floss, 6 strands,  Wonderful Script Sentiments dies, Mini Blooms & Sprigs dies, stamped sentiment from Winnie & Walter (retired), enamel dots

I wanted to use some of my Mom's variegated floss again, and chose pink this time.  After constructing my butterfly, I went looking through my old printed papers for a background for it - don't you think this Cottage Meadows paper is perfect?  So pleased to use up something "old"!  I also really liked Yana's lovely font that she used for her "beautiful" die - it reinforces the femininity of this design!  As I did once before, I added some teensy flowers to the butterfly - these ones mimic the paper well!  

Hope you're having a great day - thanks much for stopping by today!

Woodblock Wednesday

I've been enjoying finding a woodblock stamp to play with each month for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday challenge!  This month I have a Penny Black stamp called Scented Message, dated 2012, with a bonus sentiment from Paper Inspirations (no date shown). 

supplies: parchment cardstock, faded jeans distress cardstock and another in a slightly lighter blue, Penny Black Scented Message, Paper Inspirations Forget Me Not, Pink Fresh Studio Folk Edge Rectangle die, blue, green, and yellow markers

Everything I used to make this card is old - I used 12" cardstock for the blues, and a mottled creamy cardstock that I term "parchment" that I get at a local paper store, plus the 2 woodblock stamps.

Here's a picture of the stamps.

I hope you'll dig out your woodblocks, old or new, and play along too - you can find all the info here.  

Heavenly Blue

 .....that's the name of the Morning Glory seeds we plant each year to share a bean pole with a clematis.  The seeds take a while to germinate, and a little longer to climb, and set their flowers, but when they open they live up to their name in spades!!

supplies: white, Fog, blues from a Memory Box Ocean Blue 6" paper pad, Green Apple, Green Leaf, and Bazzill Gumdrop green cardstock, Altenew Climber Flowers layering dies, Simon Mini Slimline Lattice die, sentiment from Poppy Perfection, adhesive foam strips

Here's a photo taken in our garden in years past of these morning glories.  Isn't the color amazing?

Last year DH made the mistake of fertilizing this plant once it popped up from the soil, and we got a huge crop of leaves only, with maybe 5 flowers total!  Evidently they thrive on neglect, so this year, all they'll get from us is some water now and again!

Thanks for your visit today - I hope yours is a great day!

Sealed for Summer release from Spellbinders

Here are 2 cards that use several elements from the new Sealed for Summer release: the Floral and Vine 3D embossing folder, and the Glimmer Bouquet foiling plate. 

supplies: white and gold mirror cardstock, vellum, Floral & Vine 3D embossing folder, Glimmer Bouquet plate and matching die, Gold glimmer foil, Zig markers and water, Punch & Pierce Frame Sentiments dies, gold confetti

After embossing with this pretty folder, I foiled the floral bouquet and colored it, then cut it out and centered it on the embossed front, then added my sentiment with its shadow on vellum, along with some gold confetti to the centers of the smaller flowers and around the edges.  As always, the foiling takes this simple design up a notch!  And that embossing folder is another keeper!  

For my next card I went monochromatic, with tiny white touches.

supplies: white and Peach Sorbet cardstock, Sealed for Summer Glimmer Bouquet, Blush glimmer foil, sentiment from Illustrated Floral Glimmer set, Essential Glimmer Rectangle glimmer plate, peach alcohol marker, white gel pen

I foiled the bouquet and some older glimmer dies on a panel of Peach Sorbet cardstock using blush glimmer foil, then added some extra color and details with a peach marker and a white gel pen.

Thanks for coming by today - enjoy your day!

Love You

 Our 52nd anniversary was earlier this week, and I wanted to share the card I made for my husband this year.  I carried yellow roses on our wedding day.

supplies: Cream, Bazzill Gumdrop green, Green Leaf, several yellows, and Matte Gold cardstock, Simon Love Is Background cling, Vintage Photo distress ink, Honey Bee Lovely Layers Rose, The Greetery Love die

This lovely rose die has almost too many layers - I used 6 of them for the main flower, with 3 colors of yellow cardstock. 

Thanks for coming by!

Spellbinders Club Kits for June

The Spellbinders Club Kits for June are now available!.  Here are my cards  -  this month's overall theme is based on the ocean.  

The 3D embossing folder of the month is called Scattered Shells.  

supplies: kraft, aqua, and white cardstock, Scattered Shells 3D embossing folder, white pigment ink, a retired sentiment

All of Spellbinder's embossing folders are a nice big 5 3/4" X 8 3/4" in size, so you can make a full-size slimline with any of them.  I chose to do so this time because I wanted you to see as many of the details as I could get onto my card!  I simply embossed a large kraft panel in this folder, then gently rubbed on white pigment ink to bring out the details for you.

The regular embossing folder of the month is called Splish Splash, and I adore this design!  I'm sure you'll be seeing it appearing here lots!  I made it into a birthday card, and embellished it with a butterfly.

supplies: white and aqua cardstock, Splish Splash embossing folder, white pigment ink, Hemstitch Rectangle die, Lots of Wishing You stamps and matching dies, butterfly and flower dies from a former card kit.

Here is the Glimmer Kit: Sending Waves.  It comes with 2 different wave designs to foil, dies to cut them out,  and a sentiment. There's also an add-on kit with 4 more sentiments that can be foiled, with matching shadow dies. This month the kit comes with Skybright glimmer foil, a pale, silvery blue color.

supplies: black, white, and 3 shades of aqua cardstock, Sending Waves glimmer plates, foiled sentiment from Ocean Wishes Sentiments Add-On hot foil plate set, Skybright glimmer foil, whale from Whale in a Bottle (this month's Large Die of the Month Club Kit), aqua jewels

Next is the Large Dies of the Month kit: Whale in a Bottle!  It has 20 different dies!  How fun to make a shaped card!

supplies: white, shades of grey, shades of blue and green, shades of brown cardstock, Whale in a Bottle dies

Just look at all the details we have to make an underwater scene!  And the bottle, cork and tag can be used for other projects, too.

The Small Dies of the Month are called Dancin' Octopus & Friends!  The Octopus and little squid have a hinge apparatus so that when the card is tilted, their legs swing back and forth!

supplies: various colors of cardstock, Dancin' Octopus & Friends dies, sentiment from the Ocean Wishes Sentiments add-on Glimmer sentiments, Teal glimmer foil

There are 12 dies in this set - I love the seaweed and starfish they included!  The sentiment is one from the Glimmer add-on sentiment kit.

And lastly, here's my card using the Stitching Dies of the Month: Stitched Shell Card Front.

supplies: cream, pale pink, and aqua cardstock, Stitched Shell Card Front dies, pink and cream embroidery floss, 3 strands, foiled sentiment from Sending Waves glimmer kit, Teal glimmer foil, pearls

I was inspired by the shells we find on the Florida Gulf Coast where we sometimes winter.  There are lots of shells on the beaches, and my favorites are the creamy scallop shells with pink markings on them.  So I cut 4 cream shells and stitched them with pink floss, and 3 pink shells and stitched them with cream floss for my card.  My sentiment is part of this month's Glimmer of the Month kit, foiled in Teal glimmer foil.

You can look HERE for information on Spellbinders Clubs.  Each is available only from the 6th until the 27th of each month.  If you click on my links under each card, you can see the details of each product.  You can subscribe to the kits separately, but there are also lots of ways to combine several of them (scroll down and look under Value Clubs).  And you can "unjoin" a subscription at any time without any penalty.

Daisy Layers - Spring, Summer, and Fall

 I fell in love with these Honey Bee Stamps Daisy Layers, and finally got them home to play with!

First I used the stamps and the matching stencils together.

supplies: white cardstock, Honey Bee Daisy Layers stamp set and matching layering stencils, Pink Fresh Studio Fairy Dust pinks and Rise and Shine yellow mini ink cubes, mowed lawn distress ink, sentiment from Tammy Tutterow/Spellbinders (retired) Happy Grams cling stamp and die, Lawn Fawn Fancy Scallop Rectangle die, adhesive foam squares

I like the combination of this pretty spring bouquet with the lacey edging!  

Next I switched to fall colors and used alcohol markers to color the stamped images.  There is a 2nd bouquet of fewer daisies, no greenery, that duplicates the larger image.  That can be cut out and lifted above the main image for dimension, so I did just that, lifting the layers with foam, then adding a simple birthday sentiment.  And I used a different edging die this time, too.

supplies: white and pumpkin cardstock, Honey Bee Stamps Daisy Layers stamp set, Pink Fresh Studio Folk Edge Rectangle die, sentiment from a retired Simon set called Birthday Flowers, adhesive foam squares

It's nice to have the stencils when you want a quickly colored design, but I also enjoyed the freedom of coloring the flowers and greenery with markers to get more colors into the design.

And one more time, really simple this time, making the daisies white for a summer card.

supplies: white and Audrey Blue cardstock, vellum, Daisy Layers flowers and sentiment, alcohol markers in various greens and a pale grey, yellow enamel dots, Simon (retired) Detail Ringlets cover plate

I used both floral stamps once again for this card, fussy-cutting them both so that I could add the bouquet to the pierced quilt pattern on a blue panel for my background.  The sentiment is one of many from the stamp set - I liked the mixed font.

No matter how you treat this, this is a gorgeous design!  Thanks for coming by today.

Heart Wreath

 June is the month for weddings, and therefore anniversaries.  We have our fair share in our family, and today I have a card that would work for an anniversary, or just any "thinking of you" occasion.  I mixed some favorite stamps for this card.

supplies: white cardstock, Impression Obsession Wooden Plank cover-a-card cling stamp, Wplus9 Silver Lining ink, (retired) Simon You Have My Heart wreath, Tri-blend markers in Magenta and Jade Green, sentiment from Avery Elle Loads of Wishes, small adhesive foam squares

I stamped the wreath partially a 2nd time just to get an impression of the large flowers in it, so I could color and cut them out and add them to the wreath.  Since my card is so simple, I thought it needed a bit more distribution of color.

Thanks for coming by today - I hope it's a good one!