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!

Birthday Jubilee

 I've been needing to replenish my birthday cards, and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge pushed me over the edge!  It's their 16th birthday, so the challenge is to make some birthday cards.  Here's one:

supplies: white and Cotton Candy card, Simon's Jubilee embossing folder/die set, white pigment ink, markers, sentiment from Waffle Flower Sweet Lattice Sentiments, adhesive foam squares

This is such a pretty embossing folder, and it also includes a die to cut out the square motif, which is exactly what I did, coloring it in more pinks, and then popping it back in place.  I've used this die back when it first was released HERE, and still think that a whole set of these in different colors with different sentiments would make a lovely gift for someone!

Thanks for stopping by!

Floral Thank You

 Today I'm using a stencil set from Honey Bee stamps that was designed for the holiday season.  It includes 2 large floral designs that I think will work year-round.  

supplies: white cardstock, My Favorite Things pink and green plaid design paper, Honey Bee Stamps Floral Noel stencils, Altenew Lime and Cherry Blossom mini inks,  Penny Black Stitched Stackers dies, Pink Fresh Studio Perfect Sentiments stamp and die, Spellbinders Berry color essentials gems

I've used this sketch before, several years ago, and I like the bit of plaid peeking out and the subtle edging on the smaller panels.  

Thanks for stopping by today - hope your day is going well! 

Nature's Blooms

 I recently got a new die from Papertrey Ink called Nature's Blooms Elegant Edges.  Here are  some cards I made with it.

supplies: white, blue, and green cardstock, PTI Elegant Edges: Nature's Blooms dies, The Greetery Tartan Builder Diagonal stencils, tumbled glass, cracked pistachio and prize ribbon distress inks, Pink Fresh Studio Phrase Builder Sending sentiment dies

The plaid panel was already stencilled and in my scrap basket, so I just had to find some cardstock to match the colors and a sentiment.  I really liked using a plaid with these dies as I saw Brenda Noelke do when they were introduced at the end of December.

I wonder when they'll figure out how to make a blue rose?  I'll be the first in line to have one!

Next I matched it up with an embossing folder.

supplies: pink and white cardstock, PTI Elegant Edges: Nature's Blooms dies, Tim Holtz (retired) Roses embossing folder, Simon Sending Smiles die

I used the edging die to cut an extra piece of pink cardstock to line the white detailed panel, which was then put atop the embossed roses panel with a large sentiment die. and the negative die-cut of the long leafy sprig.

And one more, because I like mixing stripes with florals, and I had to have some yellow roses.

supplies: white, yellow, green cardstock, unknown green stripe patterned paper, PTI Elegant Edges Nature's Blooms dies, Spellbinders A Little Hello Sentiments stamp/die set 

Thanks for hanging with me for this long post today - have a good one!

Time for a Wreath!

 You know I love making wreath cards, so here's one that features some heart berries for this month!

supplies: white, pink, 2 greens cardstock, Hero Arts (retired) Envelope Accessories leaf sprig, Memory Box (retired) heart sprigs from Scrollwork Heart Circle Frame, bow from Spellbinders Garden Wreath Add-Ons, Pink Fresh Studio Perfect Sentiments stamp and matching die, Simon Peony ink

This would work for so many occasions: Valentine's Day, of course, and because of the sentiment, birthdays, girlfriends, etc.  

I lightly traced a circle onto my white panel, then glued down the leaf sprigs only at the bottoms so that they sprung up a bit.  This gives me dimension, but also room to tuck in the next leaf or heart sprig.  

As always, thanks so much for stopping by today.

Spellbinders Club Kits for February: Luxe Damask BetterPress

 My BetterPress kit came a little later than my other Club Kits this month, but it was worth the wait!  It's called Luxe Damask; here's what I made with it.

supplies: pink and grey cardstock, Spellbinders Luxe Damask BetterPress Plates, Hero Arts Soft Granite and Charcoal inks, rectangle dies, Be Bold Blooms, Floral Spray dies, enamel dots, adhesive foam squares

This lovely set has a registration template to help place the design all over your card, or you can just center it.  Along with the pretty damask design, there are 3 sentiments: the Easter one you see here, plus one for Spring and a Thank You.  This is a keeper!

After completing my design in grey ink on pink card, I cut a rectangle out from its center, matted it in a darker shade, then popped it back into place with foam squares.  Then I added my flowers and sentiment.

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!

Abstract Triangles

 My dear friend Linda had an extra foiling plate, and generously sent it to me!  She also came up with the idea for both of us to use this plate to make a Valentine's card and post our cards on the same day, what fun!

Here's mine.

supplies: white and Cotton Candy cardstock, Pink Fresh Studio Abstract Triangles hot foil plate, Gold Matte glimmer foil, Paper Rose Lace Heart Frame die, Pink Fresh Studio (retired) English Garden washi tape, Spellbinders/Tammy Tutterow (retired) Sew Tiny Sentiments, gold embossing powder, tiny gold sequins

I like the modernity of the abstract triangles background against the traditional heart and flowers motif.  The gold foiling is subtle, as is the gold highlights in the washi flowers, so I also embossed my sentiment in gold and added some tiny gold sequins to the centers of each flower.  

Here's Linda's version - she used hers with her BetterPress machine, isn't it cute?  Thank you, Linda, for this fun challenge!

Snow Friends

 Today's card was made using a favorite snowman set of dies.

supplies: white, black, pink cardstock, green plaid dp, Whimsy Stamps Blurry Flurries pink snowflake dp, Lawn Fawn Build a Snowman dies, Taylored Expressions Birch Tree cutting plate, sentiment from Simon Snowflake Season, adhesive foam squares

I thought it would be a bit different to use pinks and green this time.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today - have a lovely day!

In Memory of Sidnie

 The Simon Says Stamp family got some bad news earlier this month when our Wednesday Teammate Sidnie Des Jardins passed away.  

The Wednesday Challenge is dedicating this week's challenge to her.  Lols kindly asked a few "retired" members of the Wednesday team to participate, too.  Here is my card.

supplies: white and Cotton Candy cardstock, Simon Vintage Garden sentiment, (retired) You Have My Heart floral spray, Sunny Studio Quilted Hearts embossing folder

Sidnie will be missed.  You can see more cards for her at the Simon Wednesday Blog this week.

Thanks for visiting today.

All Scraps!

 The Spring Cleaning bug hit me last month and I attempted to organize my unused but finished flowers and sentiment dies so that they would get used.  It took me 2 days!  (I keep everything!)   

In the process I found 4 of these Club Blooms flowers and paired 2 them with an unknown but probably retired hello die and some gingham cut with some deckle-edge rectangle dies, also retired, from Spellbinders.  The shape was just about perfect for a mini-slimline, so here's what came of it all.

supplies: white, pinks, and teal cardstock, Doodlebug gingham dp, Spellbinders (retired) Deckle-Edge rectangles, Club Blooms flowers and leaves, unknown hello die, adhesive foam 

Pretty simple design, but that pink gingham makes me happy, and it feels good to put these scraps to use!  

Hope your day is a fine one - thanks for stopping by!

Spellbinders Glimmering Flowers Release

 Spellbinders is releasing a new collection called Glimmering Flowers!  I was excited to get a little suite of products from it: a glimmer plate and stencil bundle called Glimmering Peonies and a set of glimmer sentiments and a die to cut them out called Curved Everyday Sentiments.  Here's what I did with them.

supplies: white, doll pink, and gold foil cardstock, Glimmering Peonies plate and matching stencils, Cherry Blossom and Green Valley mini ink cubes, Curved Everyday Sentiments glimmer plates and matching banner dies, Champagne glimmer foil

Peonies are everyone's favorite flowers!  I used the 5 stencils to color mine in soft pinks and greens after foiling the image using Champagne glimmer foil - I love this subtle gold!  The sentiment set has 14 different sentiments for all occasions - I know it will become a staple!  I also like that you foil 7 sentiments at a time, then use the included die to cut them apart - so much easier than foiling them one at a time!  I used the die to cut out some extra banners from gold foiled cardstock, and used 2 of them to frame up my sentiment before popping it above the panel.

This collection also includes a similar suite featuring buttercups, if you're so inclined.  I hope you'll give this collection a look!

Altenew February Inspiration Challenge

 I was taken with the colors for this month's challenge at Altenew.  I would have preferred to use my Altenew floral dies, but they are at home, and I'm here in Florida!  Fortunately I brought along this Fragrant Florals Craft Your Life kit.  Here's what I came up with.

supplies: white and charcoal cardstock, Fragrant Florals stamp, matching stencils, embossing folder and die, Altenew mini ink cubes in Lime, Baby Pink, Fuschia, and Orange Cream, blending brushes, a Spellbinders sentiment

I like this tiny sentiment - it doesn't cover up too much of this lovely image!

Here's the inspiration we were given for this month - pretty snazzy, don't you agree?

Woodblock Wednesday January

 Here is my entry for this month's Woodblock Wednesday.  With Valentine's Day coming up, I decided to do something with a heart.  I used an old Rubber Stampede woodblock called Bleeding Hearts.  There's no date on it.

supplies: pink and white cardstock, PSX Bleeding Heart,  Spellbinders Bow from Christmas Wreath Add-Ons, Tammy Tutterow (retired) sentiment from Tiny Sentiments, Pink Fresh Studio Stitched Scallop Rectangle die

Hope you'll join us this month.  It's fun to see your wood treasures!

Willow Snowflake

 Here are 2 cards that features the Willow Snowflake die from Simon's Season of Wonder release back in October.  I love snowflakes, and don't have many this large, so I scooped this one up!

supplies: white cardstock, silver glitter cardstock, vellum, various Christmas print dps in pink and green, Simon Willow Snowflake dies, pink heart gem

I used a sketch that my friend Mary Anne shared with me recently - it's a great way to use up leftover scraps!

Here's card #2.

supplies: Surf Blue and aqua glitter card, Willow Snowflake die, Snowflake Visions embossing folder, sentiment from Warmest Wishes clear set, white pigment and High Dive inks

This die is very delicate!  It comes with a matching shadow die that you see on my first card in vellum, but for this card I wanted only the snowflake by itself.  Adding the small circle sentiment in the center gave me a place to put an adhesive foam square so that I could lift it above my card base.  

Wish I could capture the extreme sparkle the glitter card adds.

Hope your week goes well - thanks for stopping by today!

Autumn Blessings

 Looking back through my older supplies, I was horrified to see that I've only used this pretty bottle only once before!  So now's the time to give it some love.

supplies: white cardstock, The Greetery Tartan Builder Diagonal, (distress inks in squeezed lemonade, saltwater taffy, and picked raspberry distress inks), All Bottled Up, Budding Beauties Autumn, and (leaves from) Autumn Sketches, Altenew mini ink cubes in pinks, yellows, oranges, olive, and brown

After stamping and cutting out the bottle, berry sprigs, and leaves, I arranged them onto a trimmed white panel, sponged in the center with some yellow ink.  I was originally going to just put this over a white card base, but found this plaid that I had made last year some time, and thought it was perfect!

LOVE it when that happens!  The little label is a mix of sentiments from the bottle set and the Autumn Sketches - it reads "Autumn Blessings from me to you".  I decided that would stand for my sentiment.

I really enjoyed working with these colors - a nice change from the traditional fall colors!  

Poshta Design Sewing Kit Essentials Introduction!

Here I am again to showcase Poshta Design's introduction to the Sewing Kit Essentials being released tomorrow, Saturday, August 19!

Today's items include:

Sewing Kit Essentials Scissor Keeper Die (retails for $32)

Sewing Kit Essentials Needle Book Die (retails for $50)

Sewing Kit Essentials Thread Bobbin Die (retails for $6)

(not shown) Sewing Kit Essentials Floss Drop Die (retails for $4)

Here are my makes, starting with the Scissor Keeper.

supplies: Sewing Essentials Scissor Keeper dies, Cascade and Dahlia Blossom felt and floss (from Trick or Treat color story), my own pink button

I was SO impressed with the engineering for the closure of this scissor keeper - there are tiny magnets sewn into the body and the closure!  And I really love the combination of these 2 colors; they are scrumptious!  I haven't done this lazy daisy stitch for eons, and you can see how my stitching improved as I went on.  There's a little die included in this set that gives a guide for stitching, as well as 2 flower dies, 1 of which I used here.

Next is the Needle Book and the Thread Bobbin.

supplies: Sewing Essentials Needle Book and Thread Bobbin dies, Dahlia Blossom and Cascade felt and floss (from the Trick or Treat color story), my own ribbon, button, and white cardstock and floss

Here you can see both flowers on the cover of my book.  The die set also includes large and small pockets and an inside page die, plus more, to accessorize the book.  Here you can see the inside page with a small pocket and needle channels.

supplies: Sewing Essentials Needle Book dies, Shortbread felt (from the By the Bushel color story) and Dahlia Blossom felt and floss (from Trick or Treat color story), white cardstock and floss

I love how these turned out!  The scissors case measures about 5 1/2" from tip to top, and the Needle Book is 3" by 3 1/2 " closed.

Lizzie is doing a $50 gift certificate giveaway over on her blog HERE, the winner chosen from comments there.  Winner will be announced on Saturday, Aug 19 at 9 am.

Many thanks to Lizzie for inviting me to play with her wonderful designs!  I thoroughly enjoyed doing so!  

Once again, everything you see, plus the autumn and Halloween items I showed you in the past 2 days, will be available for sale at Poshta Design tomorrow, August 19 at noon Eastern time.  

Stitched for Christmas

 Spellbinders has released a new collection of stitching dies, called Stitched for Christmas!  Here are my samples.

supplies: white, cream, pink, yellow and greens cardstock, pink metallic cardstock, Stitched Poinsettia and Holly dies, cream, pink, and green embroidery floss, 3 strands, Holly & Foliage 3D embossing folder, sentiment and pine sprigs from Mix & Match Holiday Greetings dies, pink metallic sequins

I've always loved pink poinsettias, so that's the direction I went for this first card, and I made a cream flower, also, then used cream and pink floss for my stitching.  After arranging the elements, I decided to bring in some glitz with a metallic sentiment, matting, and sequins.

Next I have 2 cards using the fun Stitched Starry Argyle plate.

supplies: red and teal green cardstock, pewter metallic kraft cardstock, Stitched Starry Argyle stitching plate, holly and berries from Stitched Poinsettia and Holly set, Joy dies, adhesive strips to lift word and holly

I love this argyle plate!  I used 6 strands of a teal green and a wheat floss to stitch it, then trimmed it very slightly so that I could mat it with a peacock green card.  I used the same cardstock colors for my holly and berries, stitching tone-on-tone for them.

Next is a winter card using the same Starry Argyle plate, done in blues this time.  After stitching in 2 shades of my favorite blue, I pulled out 4 ancient snowflakes from my scrapbasket and layered them as the focal point.  I left off a sentiment for now.

supplies: white and 2 shades of blue cardstock, white glitter cardstock, 2 shades of blue embroidery floss, Stitched Starry Argyle Stitching plate, a dark blue gem 

It doesn't show up here, but the largest white snowflake was cut from white glitter card, so between that and the blue gem in the very center, this is very sparkly!  I separated the 4 layers with adhesive foam squares for some dimension, but everything compacts back nicely when put into an envelope.

This plate is called "Starry" Argyle, but I think it looks like teensy snowflakes in between the stitches, so I changed to blues for something a little different.  Of course, this plate doesn't have to be holiday or winter themed, either - choose other colors and make a masculine card.  

Hope you've enjoyed my take on these new dies - thanks so much for stopping by!

One Big Hug

 I was in the mood for some turnabout stamping, and pulled out this Blooms Turnabout.  I did it in pinks and yellows this time.

supplies: white, Green Leaf, Green Apple, Doll Pink pale pink and pale yellow card, Concord & 9th Blooms Turnabout stamps, sentiment from (retired) Simon's Happy Every Day set, kitsch flamingo, picked raspberry, squeezed lemonade, and mustard seed oxide inks, Altenew Lime and Fresh Leaf inks, Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms dies, Winnie & Walter (retired) Noel scalloped rectangle die, adhesive foam squares

This turnabout set actually has 2 turnabout stamps, one for the leaves, another for the flowers!  The turnabouts are fun to play with and always give pretty results, no matter what colors you choose!  And I think this Be Bold Bloom flowers are a nice match with the floral stamps..

Thanks for stopping by today - have a good one!

Spellbinders July Club Kits Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the Spellbinders July Clubs Blog Hop!  I have 2 cards for you today!

To celebrate this month's release, we are giving away a $25 gift certificate to THREE lucky blog readers, selected from comments left on the Spellbinders blog!  The giveaway closes on Sunday, July 23 at 11:59 PM MT, and the winners will be announced in that same Blog Hop post the following Wednesday.  Winners are responsible for shipping costs, duties, and taxes.  

Please note that gift certificates cannot be applied to Club Subscriptions, but can be applied to past Club products, Club extras, and regular releases.

You should have arrived here from Allison's blog.

I wanted to play once again with the lovely Layered Poinsettia Tree dies, and gave my card a kind of woodsy feel this time around with traditional Christmas colors..

supplies: red, green, and cream cardstock, a woodgrain dp, Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia Tree dies of the month, sentiment from this month's Large Die of the Month kit, Stocking Full of Joy, Postage Edge Rectangle die

This month's 3D embossing folder is a favorite for me this month - such amazing details!

supplies: Doll Pink and Green Apple cardstock, a Christmas plaid dp, Adorning the Tree embossing folder, white pigment ink, sentiment from Tiny Merriment add-on die set

This design is an easy one - just a matter of matting up the embossed panel and adding a sentiment.

Now it's time to move on to Sheri's blog!  Enjoy the hop!  If you get lost, just start at the beginning HERE for a list of all the stops.

Layered Christmas Stencils

I REALLY like these new Spellbinders Layered Christmas Stencils!  Here's my card using the Merry Christmas Foliage set and die bundle.

supplies: white, and doll pink cardstock, Merry Christmas Foliage stencil set, distress inks in kitsch flamingo, picked raspberry, twisted citron, mowed lawn, evergreen branch, pine needles, and tumbled glass, Merry Christmas Foliage die, Lawn Fawn Fancy Scallop Rectangle die, adhesive foam squares

The stencil set is 6 pieces.  You can put the sentiment right in the center, using only the stencils, or ink  it separately and die-cut it with the matching die like I did, and pop it up.  

There's a similar set that says "Noel", and a tree that says "Joy",  if you enjoy these stencils!  I hope that Spellbinders will bring similar sets out for everyday - they are fun to play with and give lovely results!

Thanks for visiting today!