Peony Smiles

May is peony season here, though this year, I have a knockout rose that bloomed before the pink peonies did - it's been a weird spring!  We have old-fashioned peonies, transplants from a neighbor, in white, red (really dark pink), and pale pink, but I've seen pictures of yellow ones, so today I brought out an old favorite die set that is amazingly still available and made a card with them.

supplies: white, blue, yellows, and greens cardstock, blue gingham dp, Altenew Peony Dream dies, Pink Fresh Studio (retired) Phrase Builder Sending dies, Lawn Fawn Fancy Scalloped Rectangle dies

Peonies are one of God's miracles!  The amount of petals in a single flower blows my mind!  Here's a photo of one of our white ones.

Have a lovely day!

A Graduation Card

 .........for a special young man.  I used the colors of the University he will be attending in the fall.

supplies: white, orange, and navy cardstock, Simon's Extra Large Congrats dies, Reverse Graduation Sentiment Strip, Your Next Stamp Mini Star Splatter stamp, orange and blue enamel stars

I've made this card before, but this is the first time I've used the shadow die.  

Do you have many graduations this year?

Woodblock Wednesday!

 Here's my card for Amy's Woodblock Wednesday.  This month I was inspired by a place that we've been going to for walks.  It was formerly a 36-hole golf course, but when the parents retired and the kids weren't interested in continuing the business, the family donated most of it to the local park systems here!  All last year we enjoyed watching the trees and wildflowers develop and grow.  Now this spring we'll start all over again!  

I chose this Hero Arts Design Block called Silhouette.  It's dated 2008.  I've always stamped it in black or white to make a true silhouette, but today I used some oxide inks in the colors of new spring growth.

supplies: white and jade cardstock, Hero Arts DesignBlock Silhouette, salvaged patina, cracked pistachio, mermaid lagoon, and lucky clover oxide inks, sentiment from Simon Brushed Flowers, some punched butterflies

I randomly applied the 4 colors of oxide ink to the stamp.  Then I cut the panel down into smaller

sections and matted them with jade cardstock.  Here's a picture of just the card.

You can see more entries at Amy's blog HERE.  

Just a Note

 I've used this sketch before, but with all stamping.  Today I thought I'd play with a favorite floral layering die set.

supplies: white, shades of aqua, yellow, and green cardstock, Altenew Mini Flower Cluster dies, The Greetery Opposites Attract sentiment, Lil Inker (retired) Circles and Diamond Stitched Pattern cover plate

After assembling my floral cluster, I trimmed down some white cardstock and stamped my sentiment, then used the cover plate over that.  Then I matted the panel, attached it to my card base, and added the flowers.  

These posies have always made me think of flowering fruit trees, but today I chose to make them blue.

Can you believe June is almost here?!  It's still on the chilly side here, and my husband thought we had a light frost a few nights ago!  Still, I'd rather this than the dive into summer temps we've had some years.  We are enjoying a nice slow unfolding of our gardens this year.

Sketchbook Roses

 Here are some older supplies mixed together for a feminine birthday card.

supplies: white cardstock, Whimsy Stamps Mix-n-Match 2 dotted paper, The Greetery (retired) Sketchbook Roses stamps and matching die, Spellbinders (retired) Picot Petite Oval die, Curved Everyday Sentiments, adhesive foam squares

I was in the mood for some layered stamping, and went through my The Greetery collection.  This one is retired, but so easy to stamp, and I got the matching die (still available) more recently.  I enjoyed looking through my frilly oval dies, too, and tried some different combinations, but ended up with this Picot one, also retired.  And those curved everyday sentiments come in handy for when you want a smallish sentiment to not cover up too much of your design.  It's a glimmer plate, but today I used my BetterPress machine and black ink to make it.  The matching die comes with it, and it's one of those that does multiples at one go!

How is your week going?  Thanks for stopping in!

Floral Harmony

 I was in the mood to try a blackout card again, and pulled out this gorgeous Simon 3D embossing folder called Floral Harmony. It lends itself beautifully to this technique.

supplies: white cardstock, Simon Says Stamp Floral Harmony 3D embossing folder, alcohol markers, VersaFine Onyx Black ink, Spellbinders Postage Edge Rectangle, Curved Everyday Sentiments glimmer plate/die set

This technique involves embossing a panel, then turning it over to the debossed side, coloring in the details, and then rubbing a black ink pad over the entire surface.  I like it because you can be as messy as you like when coloring; the black ink covers up all the "outside-the-lines" mistakes, and fills in the etching details perfectly!

I'd encourage you to try this technique with any 3D folder you have - the results are always stunning!

Flower Market Bouquet

 Here's a pretty set of layering stamps from The Greetery that has come and gone and I've only used them a few times......time to fix that!

supplies: white and periwinkle cardstock, pale yellow check patterned paper, The Greetery (retired) Flower Market Bouquet stamps and matching die, Simon Says Stamp Heather, Violet, and Iris inks, Altenew Warm Sunshine, Chamomile, and Grass Field inks, Simon Pretty Bows, sentiment from Waffle Flower Full Bloom Sentiments, Lawn Fawn Fancy Scallop Rectangle die

I've done this bouquet before in pinks, and wanted to try something else, and I really like this purple and yellow combo!  (The purples look a bit bluer here than they do in real life.)  I'm loving my new bows dies and garden sentiment set that I got recently, too.

Hope your spring is coming along where you live - this is my favorite time of year!

More Lilacs

 Just sharing a card I made for my sister for Mother's Day, this time using stamped lilacs.

supplies: white, mint, and an aqua/grey cardstock, Sunny Studio Lovely Lilacs, Altenew Spring Bouquet and Green Meadows mini inks, sentiment from (retired) Simon Mom & Dad Icons, Hero Arts (retired) Watering Can die, Spellbinders (retired) Branching Out embossing folder and Hemstitch Rectangle die

My Dad gave us starts of lilacs that are these pink/purple color; he just called them double reds, so I tried to find inks that would approximate this color.  After inserting them into the watering can, I tried out various colors for a background, and ended up with this mint - always refreshing!  It's a shame this leafy embossing folder has been retired - I find myself reaching for it often.

Hope your week is going well - thanks for stopping by!

Summer Solstice Garden: Echinacea

 Here's the 2nd set of dies I received from Susan Tierney Cockburn's latest collection for Spellbinders  These are coneflowers.

supplies: white, Colorwheel Coral, rust, and green cardstock, a plaid dp, Echinacea dies, picked raspberry distress ink, sentiment from Thanks Enclosed Sentiments dies, oval die

Coneflowers used to come only in a bright pink color back when we started gardening, but have since evolved to many beautiful color combinations.  One of my favorites mimics a sunset, with shades of pinks and corals.  So I started with a coral cardstock and brushed on picked raspberry distress ink from the center outwards, then cut my centers from a rust cardstock.  This plaid design paper was subtle enough, yet had the right colors to complement my flowers, and then I just added a simple sentiment, suitable for so many occasions.

I hope you'll give Susan's Summer Solstice collection a look; this one also includes Anemones, Petunias, Begonias, a new sentiment pressplate, and a beautiful 3D embossing folder.

Thanks so much for coming by today!

Summer Solstice Garden: Cosmos

 Susan Tierney Cockburn has designed some more pretty flower dies for us in her latest collection that she calls Summer Solstice Garden.  I chose 2 of them; today I'll be showing you the Cosmos set.

supplies: white and pastel colors of cardstock, inks to match, Spellbinders Cosmos dies, Four Petal Floral 3D embossing folder, sentiment from Nature's Botanical Garden Sentiments BetterPress plates/dies

I've been repeatedly seeing an IG picture of cosmos in a color mix I'd never seen before, called Apricot Lemonade, so I thought I'd try and duplicate those colors for today's card. The Cosmos I'm familiar with are usually in shades of pale and rosy pink and white.  After I'd constructed my flowers, I remembered this gorgeous embossing folder, and sure enough, I think it sets off my flowers perfectly.  I wanted to get as many of the background flowers onto my card, so this is a 5 X 7 card for a change.  The sentiment is also by Susan.

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll be back in a few days with the Echinacea (Coneflower) set that Susan included in her collection.

For Mother's Day

 Happy Mom's Day to all of you out there!  Hope it's special for you in every way.

Our Mom has been gone 3 years now, but lilacs are forever connected in my mind to Mother's Day because of her.  So I pulled out these dies and made a card for the occasion.  I was going to put "miss you" as the sentiment, but couldn't find one that was just right, so I'm leaving a sentiment off for now.

supplies: white, pale and medium aqua cardstock, Sunny Studios Frilly Frames Eyelet Lace dies, The Greetery Botanicuts Lilacs, Simon Says Stamp Pretty Bows die

These lilac dies are the most realistic of any I've seen - Betsy gives you individual florets to add to the body of the lilac flowers to add dimension and more color.  They are a treasure!  This year I added a new Simon bow to this sprig of them, popped up with a tiny adhesive foam piece.

Thanks for stopping by - have a lovely day!

Spellbinders Club Kits: Clear Stamp and Die, Embossing Folder, Caboodle dies, and BetterPress Plates

 The Spellbinders Club Kits for May are now available to new subscribers, through May 27.  The theme this month is Pages & Phrases.  Here are my final 3 cards.

Today I have the Clear Stamps and Dies to show you.  They're named Crayon Creations!  There are 15 stamps, including 5 sentiments and elements to put together these crayon cuties, and the 10 matching dies enable you to cut everything out.  Here's my card.

supplies: white and black cardstock, confetti/dotty patterned paper, Crayon Creations stamps and die, star sequins, adhesive foam squares

When I saw the "brightest" sentiment, I decided to use bright colors of inks.  I first did the pink one, using the appropriate die first, then stamping onto it.  The other 2 crayons were stamped onto my trimmed rectangle panel, leaving a space in the middle for the die-cut one.  Then I just stamped my sentiments, matted the panel, mounted it onto some paper that looked like confetti, and added some star sequins for glitz.

If you want to make the same kind of card, but use only dies, then the Caboodle item for this month, Yay! Crayons, is for you!  This is a set of 10 dies.  (I didn't use them all on my card today).  I mixed them with the embossing folder, Abstract Study, and used a sentiment/matching die from the stamps/dies of the month.

supplies: white, black, and colored cardstock,  black and white stripe pattern paper, Caboodle Yay! Crayons dies, Abstract Study embossing folder, Crayon Creations sentiment and matching die

Lastly is my BetterPress card.  The kit is called From A to Z.

supplies: green and white cardstock, a subtle-print from my stash, Spellbinders From A to Z Betterpress plates/die, leaves from Club Blooms, butterfly from my scrap basket, adhesive foam strips to lift sentiment

The plan was to surround the sentiment with leaves, but I felt it needed something else, so I got out my scrap basket and added this stamped butterfly.

Here are the Club Kits I used today; just click on the picture and you'll be whisked away to the Spellbinders store!

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 Club Kits: Large Dies, Glimmer Plates

 The May Club Kits from Spellbinders are now available, through May 27.  This month's theme is Pages & Phrases.

My first card showcases the Large Dies, Spell It Out Fridge.  And there's an upsell die set called Fridge Staples so that you can stock your fridge inside!  Here's my card.

supplies: colored cardstock, Spell It Out Fridge dies

This set has 17 dies, everything from the body of the fridge (with a hinge so that you can make an inside version also, see below), to handles, fridge magnets, a polaroid picture, and various notes and ledgers.  But the star of the show is the mini alphabet included so that you can make your own message!  Here I chose to say "Love You!", and then grouped more of the letters down at the bottom, including those in my Grands' first names.

This month we have an upsell set of dies called Spell It Out Fridge Staples.  You can use it to populate the inside of your fridge!  Here's the inside of my card before I attached it to the front above.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, Spell It Out Fridge body and shelves, Spell It Out Fridge Staples

How fun is this!  I used everything from the Staples die set and had fun coming up with color combinations using cardstock colors.  My favorite is the jam jar, complete with gingham cover!

My last card today features the Glimmer plates, called Scribbled a Note.  The kit includes Satin Pewter foil, which is what I used for the pencils, then switched to black glimmer foil for the banner sentiment.

supplies: white, black, bright yellow, red, and navy cardstock, Scribbled a Note glimmer plates and die, Satin Pewter and Black glimmer foils, (retired) Everyday Sentiments stamp and die

I glimmered the pencils on bright yellow, red, and navy, then used the included die to cut out some individual pencils.  There are 4 different small sentiments that complete the scribbled sentence, but I chose to use a larger hello from a retired stamp and die kit from last year instead.

Here are the kits that I used today.  If you click on the picture, you'll be taken to the Spellbinders store.

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! 

 

May Spellbinders Club Kits - Dies, Stencils, Stitching, 3D Embossing Folder

 The Spellbinders Club Kits are available for new subscribers, now to May 27.  The overall theme this month is Pages and Phrases!

My first card features the Dies of the Month, Classroom Chronicles, and Stencils, Write On.

supplies: white and colored cardstock, vellum, Spellbinders Write On stencils, distress inks, Classroom Chronicles dies, adhesive foam squares and strips

The dies are a 19-piece set this month that feature this apple, and a variety of books with school-related words on their spines.  And once again the stencils have 2 designs; this one uses 4 of the stencils.  I love these chubby pencils so much that I didn't want to cover them up, so I chose to  put my focal image on a vellum panel, which I then popped above the surface.

Next up are the Stitching dies, Stitched Study Nook, paired with the remaining stencil from the stencil kit.

supplies: colored cardstock, a plank patterned paper, Write On stencil, Stitched Study Nook stitching dies, purple and beige embroidery floss, 3 strands

There is minimal stitching this month.  I had earlier stenciled the "wallpaper", so I built the rest of the scene around it.  Didn't add a sentiment this time, but there's plenty of room in the upper left for one when it is used.

My next card shows you the 3D embossing folder, Stacked Stories.  

supplies: kraft cardstock, vellum, Stacked Stories 3D embossing folder, flower and leaves from Mini Blooms & Sprigs, a retired Impression Obsession sentiment

This month's folder has 11 different book spines all stacked up on top of each other.  I embossed just half of the folder, and turned my panel so that the books appear to be on a shelf, then carefully colored in the raised parts of the design.  This old sentiment from my stash seemed perfect, so I added some garden elements to reinforce it.  

Here are the Club Kits I used for my cards today - just click on the picture and you'll be taken to the Spellbinders store.

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!  

 

Some Hero Studio Monthly Mini Cards for May!

 I was so tickled to be asked to help showcase this month's Hero Studio products!  They have a floral theme going on, so of course I said YES!  The collection is called Flower Shoppe.

My first card was really fun to put together, using May's Studio Fancy Dies, Village Florist!

supplies: white, various shades of aqua, pinks, yellows, purples, and greens cardstock, Village Florist dies, sentiment from Flowers Bloom, my own tiny alphabet, a few teensy gems in flower centers

These dies are a set of 32 - everything you need to make your own little shop!  It went together very easily.  I couldn't resist naming mine "Lin's", using a tiny alphabet set that you will see in a few days.  I would love to work in such a shop, being surrounded with all those colors and scents every day!

My next card today features the May Cling Stamp, Floral Tiles.

supplies: white, yellow, and green cardstock, Hero Arts Hero Studio Floral Tiles cling, yellow ink, Village Florist flowers and leaves, Thinking of You Stamp & Cut, tiny pastel pearls

I made a tone-on-tone design with happy yellows, then just added a large sentiment die and some of the flowers from the Dies of the Month that you'll see more of below.  

Next up is the Stamp and Cut Studio Set, Flowers Bloom.

supplies: white and black cardstock, HA Studio Flowers Bloom stamps and matching dies, aqua enamel dots, my own leaf dies

This set consists of 15 stamps, 4 of which are sentiments, and 11 dies to cut out the flowers.  After coloring the flowers with markers, I arranged them across my card, used some Press n' Seal to hold them together until I could secure them on the back, then added a thin black strip to separate the sentiment, and sprinkled some enamel dots.  

And here is my last card that uses the Layering Stencils, Boho Bouquet.

supplies: white, pink/coral, and black cardstock, Boho Bouquet stencils, kitsch flamingo, worn lipstick, and mowed lawn oxide inks, picket fence distress crayon, Hello Stamp & Cut 

We had a little hiccup with this set, as I only received 3 of the 4 stencils, missing the one that puts down the solid parts of the leaves.  I decided to try it anyway, and I don't think it looks too bad!  The stencils will make a nice big 5 X 7 card, but I used an A2 size cardbase.  After doing my stencilling, I put the detail flower stencil back on and ran it through my machine with an embossing mat and plate.  And I used a white distress crayon for the centers of my flowers; that worked better than any white ink I had here on hand.  

Hero Studio items are revealed on the first of every month, and the subscription window remains open until the 27th.  You can subscribe any time and cancel hassle-free. Prices are discounted 6 - 14% off retail, and you get FREE shipping! Any leftover kits are available a la carte to anyone the following month, but they tend to disappear quickly during their debut.

I want to thank Kelly at Hero Arts for reaching out to me with these wonderful new goodies - I've thoroughly enjoyed playing with them!  

Birthday Cards from the Garden

 Time to replenish my birthday card stash, so I pulled out this favorite Hero Arts Flower Garden fancy die and made a couple cards.

supplies: black and white cardstock, Hero Arts Flower Garden cover die, markers, Simon Painted Happy Birthday dies, irridescent gems

I have used this cover die lots and lots, but not with a black background until today; I am always astounded how much the colors pop against it!  I layered the sentiment 3 times to make it stand out against all the busy-ness behind it.

Here's another one, going pastel this time.

supplies: white, yellow, pink, lavender, and green cardstock, Flower Garden cover plate, My Favorite Things (retired) Stitched Mini Square Square Stax die, sentiment from Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice Sentiments, adhesive foam squares

For this card, I cut the Flower Garden twice, attaching the first one to my pieced pastel backing, then cutting the 2nd one apart and coloring it to match the backing colors.  I attached the floral clusters to my sentiment square, then popped the whole thing above the card front.

It's amazing how different these cards can look!  That's why I love this cover die so much!

Thanks for stopping by - have a wonderful day!