Dogwood and Bluebirds

 A few weeks ago, I looked out my front window and saw just this scene!  The dogwoods had just opened and there sat a male bluebird looking straight back at me!  I wasn't fast enough to get a real picture, but I've got it in my mind, and this will commemorate that moment.  

I get so excited about bluebirds now because it's taken them 50 years to appear in our backyard here in NE Ohio, and there is nothing else like them!  Every year now for the past 2 or 3 years, they build a nest in one of our birdhouses, and have at least 2 broods.  It's fun to see them flitting back and forth across the backyard - a dazzling streak of beautiful blue!

I needed a thank you card for Mother's Day, and here it is.

supplies: white, Surf Blue, chocolate, pale and bright green, pale orange, medium and dark blue cardstock, Honey Bee Lovely Layers Dogwood dies, Spellbinders Sweet Birds on a Branch dies, Pink Fresh Studio Perfect Sentiments stamp and die, adhesive foam squares to pop up birds

These dogwood dies are a lovely size and go right along in scale with the darling little birds. 

Thanks for your visit today - hope you'll come back again!

Timeless Butterflies

 Spellbinders has a new Timeless release, several of which are these gorgeous silvery-edged butterflies!  I received 2 sets, the Twilights, and the Summer Days; each consists of 7 different butterfly stickers in various sizes and colors, each 2 layers: a sticky bottom layer edged in silver, and a heavy acetate top printed with all the gorgeous details.  Here's what I made.

supplies: white and metallic silver cardstock, Spellbinders Efflorescent Flora 3D embossing folder, purple Twilight butterfly sticker, pink Summer Day sticker, sentiment from Snowflake Wishes stamp/die set, silver embossing powder, clear rhinestones

I wanted these butterflies to be the focal point, as they were a real WOW! when I opened my package; each one is edged with a silvery kaleidoscope and make quite the impact!  So I found an embossing folder with flowers and leaves in scale to them, and just added a sentiment in silver and some rhinestones on their bodies.

Here's a 2nd card, this time mixing just one of the larger butterflies with some Doodlebug 6" design papers that feature butterflies, too.

supplies: white cardstock base, Doodlebug Hello Again design papers (including sentiment), yellow Summer Day butterfly sticker

I used the largest of the butterflies on my first 2 cards today; the packs contain 3 large and 4 smaller designs, each one different.  For my final card, I used 2 of the smaller ones from the Summer Day set.

supplies: white and black cardstock, a plaid dp, Summer Day butterflies stickers, sentiment from Stampendous All the Sentiments, Doodlebug tiny heart sprinkles

My phone finally captured the sparkles on the top green butterfly - that's how all of them look - a lovely twinkle!

There are 6 different sets of these butterflies, each one prettier than the one before.  I hope you'll give them a look!  

Happy Mother's Day!

 Here's a card for Mother's Day.  I said in an earlier post that I associate lilacs with this day, so this time I made them in 3 different colors and put them against some blue gingham.

supplies: white and blue violet cardstock, Doodlebug buffalo check dp, Pink Fresh Studio Ornate Oval Frame, The Greetery Lilac Botanicuts, distress inks in shaded lilac, wilted violet, blueprint sketch, picked raspberry, seedless preserves, antique linen, mowed lawn, and rustic wilderness, finger daubers, MFT Essential Messages

If you're a Mom, I hope you get to spend the day with your kids!  Mine live too far away, so I look forward to some nice phone calls today!  

Adding this to the Simon Wednesday challenge: Use Die-Cuts.

In the Garden

Oh my, I love my new set of stencils from Taylored Expressions!  They are one of their Triple Slim Layering sets, and they are perfect for this time of year!  It was fun to make some mini-slimline cards again, too.  

These sets are designed to make 3 different designs all at one time, using these large stencils, then cutting the large finished panel into thirds.  Here are my results.

supplies: white and pink cardstock, In the Garden stencil set, mini inks in Pink Fresh Fairy Dust, Rise & Shine, and Morning Sky, Altenew Lime, Fresh Leaf, Lavender Fields, and Snapdragon, blending brushes, Simon Says Stamp (retired) Best Mom Ever sentiment

supplies: white and lavender cardstock, In the Garden stencil set, same inks as above, Winnie & Walter (retired) Big, Bold, and Happy sentiment stamps

supplies: white and Audrey Blue cardstock, In the Garden stencil set, same inks as above, Simon Says Stamp Vintage Garden sentiment

Isn't the font on this last card beautiful?

These came just in time to make some Mother's Day cards, with an extra that will work for many occasions.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Lilac Clusters

 I got this lilac embossing folder maybe a year ago, but then was a bit intimidated by it.  But I was encouraged to give it a try after seeing Caly's beautiful results.  Here's my first play with it.

supplies: white cardstock, Lilac Cluster embossing folder, distress inks in shaded lilac, wilted violet, blueprint sketch, salty ocean, mowed lawn, and tumbled glass, sentiment from (retired) Simon Joys of Spring, a Pink Fresh Studio washi butterfly

May is the month for Mothers here in the states, and I will always associate lilacs with it.  My Mom has been gone for 2 years now, but it's nice to remember her with a card like this.  

Thanks for visiting!

May Spellbinders Club Kits!

 The Spellbinders Club Kits are available now through May 27!  You are going to love this tropical theme that runs throughout all the kits!

For my first card I mixed the Small Dies of the Month: Tropical Friends, with the 3D embossing folder: Scattered Tropical, and used bright colors of cardstock.

supplies: white, black, and bright colors of cardstock, Tropical Friends Small Dies of the Month, Scattered Tropics 3D embossing folder, All You Need Sentiments glimmer plate and die, gold glimmer hot foil

Aren't these new goodies fabulous?!  I had such a good time playing with them.  With this embossing folder, it's easy to build your own tropical scene!  

Here's another card using it, along with a few of the Large Dies of the Month, called Grand Tropical Flamingos.

supplies: aquas, dark teal, and green cardstock, Scattered Tropics 3D embossing folder, rubbed with a teal and a green ink, leaves and flowers from Grand Tropical Flamingos, enamel dots, Hello dies from Petite Blooms and Sentiments

The Large Dies of the Month: Grand Tropical Flamingos don't disappoint either! I used another part of the set and paired them with the Stencils of the Month: Tropical Spray.

supplies: white, black, 2 shades of pink cardstock, Grand Tropical Flamingos dies, Wonderful Script Sentiments die, Tropical Splash stencils, 2 middle shades of Seashore inks, adhesive foam to pop up flamingos

I googled flamingos to see how they're colored. They get this color because they eat shrimp!  AND their knees are a brighter color than the rest of their legs!   I also found out also that a group of them is called a flamboyance!  Of course it is!  For that reason, I chose my "Hello beautiful" sentiment for this card.

The stencil this month has a very pleasing design to me, and though it's called "spray", and I took it to be water, I think it could look like leaves, too, and be very useful in all kinds of situations!  

Here's another card that uses most of the rest of the large dies for this month (you'll see a leaf and flower from the 2nd card above).  I put them against the Embossing Folder: Latticework.

supplies: desert storm, white, yellow, pinks, and teals cardstock, Latticework embossing folder, swiped with white pigment ink, leaves and flowers from Grand Tropical Flamingos, sentiment from Wendy Vecchi Vintage Florals dies

The Large Dies have a nice selection of tropical leaves, plus this large flower and the small one.

Next up is are the Stitching Dies: Stitched Pineapple.

supplies: white, black, kraft, and golden yellow cardstock, Stitched Pineapple stitching dies, golden yellow embroidery floss, 3 strands, Scattered Tropics 3D embossing folder

I made my own sentiment because the pineapple is a symbol of hospitality.

My next card features the Glimmer Plates: Tropical Bloom, and one of the TWO bonus items in the Caboodle this month, Tropical Bloom stencils to color it with!

supplies: lavendar and purple glitter cardstock, Tropical Bloom glimmer plates (includes sentiment), fuchsia flower glimmer hot foil, Caboodle Tropical Bloom stencils, 2 shades of purple and a green ink, blending brushes

I received some fuchsia flower glimmer foil, a new color to me, so I decided on a monochromatic design for this card.  After foiling and stenciling my panel, I trimmed it so that I could add some extra twinkle with a bit of glitter cardstock on the left and top of my card.  There's a 2nd sentiment in the glimmer set: Thinking of You, and cutting dies to match both sentiments.

My last card features the Stamp and Die set of the Month: Let's Get Together.

supplies: white cardstock, Let's Get Together stamp/die set, markers to color, Latticework embossing folder, tickled pink and saltwater taffy distress inks, adhesive foam

This set also has 3 more sentiments and a smaller image to color, with dies to cut them out.

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 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, saving 60% AND get the free Tropical Bloom stencils AND Betterpress Tropical Sentiments plates by choosing the Deluxe Caboodle!  

Bluebirds of Happiness?

 I have been watching Aaron Leventhal's Hanging with Hero series, and I highly recommend it if you haven't already seen it.  The first episode was with Jennifer McGuire, and the second with Tim Holtz, and they have been so interesting, and really makes you proud to be part of this industry!  I highly recommend that you watch them.  There are more to come, also!!

Recently Simon Says Stamp had a stamp/die set on sale that has been on my wishlist, so I jumped and got it home.  Here's a card I made after watching Aaron's videos, and also being inspired by Yana Smakula's use of these same supplies.  She made her sentiments vertical, which reminded me of one of my all-time favorite Hero Arts sentiment stamps, from 2011.  So I dug it out and here's my first card with my new (to me) goodies!

supplies: white, orange, and blue cardstock, Simon Says Stamp Printmaking Birds stamps and matching dies, medium and dark blue and orange inks, sentiment from (retired) Hero Arts Made with Love, MFT Wonky Stitched Rectangle die

Following Yana's example, I stamped my sentiment to one side, then perched 1 bird on top of the vertical element and then dispersed the other birds all around it.

This stamp set consists of a set of these 8 birds in outline form, plus stamps for the bodies, the tummies, and the wings and tails.  Once you get set up, you can easily make sets of all different colors of birds, and then use the matching dies to cut them out.  I already have a bag full of 4 other different colors of birds, which I can group all together like this, or use just 1 or 2 combined with something else.  And I really like the sentiments that are included in the stamp set; since I love my birds so much, I know they'll be used lots!

Here's a 2nd card that I made after unearthing this previously stamped plaid background.  I had already stamped birds in aquas and yellows, so all I needed to do was to choose a sentiment from this set!

supplies: white and Surf Blue cardstock, Printmaker Birds and matching dies, aquas, yellows, and black inks, The Greetery Tartan Builder Diagonal layering plaid stencils, squeezed lemonade, tumbled glass, and vintage photo inks

Thanks for visiting me today - and I hope you'll take the time to watch those videos I referenced above!

Washi Butterflies!

It's May!  

Here are a couple of cards that I made after receiving the Pink Fresh Studio Fluttering Butterflies washi and matching dies.  I have a lovely collection of their floral washi designs, and thought that these butterflies would be a nice accompaniment to them.

First I used just the elements in this set, which are lots of butterflies, along with some leafy stems.  I simply arranged them on a pierced leafy background and popped up a sentiment.

supplies: white cardstock, Memory Box Pinpoint Leaf cover plate, Pink Fresh Studio Fluttering Butterflies washi, matching dies, Perfect Sentiments foiling plate and die, gold glimmer foil, adhesive foam

Next I mixed 2 of the butterflies with a floral washi design, Hydrangea and Rose.

supplies: white cardstock, Paper Smooches (retired) Fab Frames die, Pink Fresh Studio Hydrangea and Rose washi, Fluttering Butterflies washi, and matching die, Taylored Expressions (retired) Handlettered Sentiments cling, gold embossing powder, adhesive foam

These washi tapes are beautifully designed and colored, and are a joy to work with!  Hope your day is full of joy!

I'm entering these into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Feminine.