Published in May CARDS!

I just wanted to pop in and share a card that was published in the May issue of CARDS magazine.  I've done this design before, but I really liked the colors they asked us to use: coral, yellow and turquoise.

supplies: Amuse and BoBunny dotted papers, Hero Arts Stitched Frame, Layered Flowers, and Luscious Patterned Flowers (sentiment), and Die-Namics Chevron Stripes, pink button

This was an especially pretty magazine this time, and I'm so honored to be part of it!

Masculine Cards at The Craft's Meow

Welcome to our monthly Blog Hop at The Craft's Meow.  Each month we choose a different theme, and this month it's Masculine cards.  You should have arrived here from Karen's blog.  If you'd like to start at the beginning, please go to The Craft's Meow blog, where there will be a list posted, and once you get started, you'll be directed from one blog to the next.  Here's my card for today:

Masculine cards are difficult for me, but I've found that choosing masculine colors and keeping the design simple usually pleases most men.  I used this argyle pattern from the Holiday Foundations set, stamping it in 3 different colors, and then simply added a big sentiment from our Many Thanks set.

Don't forget to leave a comment at each stop of our Hop, including the Craft's Meow blog, by 11:59 EST Sunday, June 9.  Lisa will choose one lucky person to win a stamp set of her choice and the winner will be announced on Monday, June 10!

Thanks for visiting me today!  Now hop on over to Nina's beautiful blog for another masculine card idea!

Sweetness

Cath's inspiration for us this week at the Tuesday Trigger is just what she named it: Sweetness and Light.

This reminds me of our stays in bed and breakfasts in Maine; I so prefer them to hotels.  My mind immediately went to this Penny Black paisley stamp and here is my entry.

supplies: Hero Arts Delicate Flowers and Untitled Word Shadow, stamped in Butter Bar ink and Penny Black Paisley Outline, stamped in Charcoal ink and colored with markers.

Thanks for visiting me today!  It's our 42nd anniversary (are we old or what?) - wish we were going to one of those B&B's!  

Simon Says.......Masculine or Father's Day!

It's June, and that's our month to honor our Dads and the important men in our lives, so our challenge this week at the Simon Says Stamp blog is "Masculine or Father's Day!

I decided to use this Tim Holtz Birthday Blueprint stamp, and after that decision was made, everything just fell together......thinking of my husband the former engineer, I chose papers that he would like to piece this gift  (the burgundy dot for the gift looks like a tie he'd wear), and putting the whole design on graph paper went along with the blueprint theme.  Both of those papers are from Studio Calico and the others are My Mind's Eye and Basic Grey.  I also used some Core-dinations solids in burgundy and dark teal to carry the colors out to the edges of the card.  My letters are Die-Namics By the Letters dies, and my little "with love" sentiment is from Hero Arts Friend, You're the Best.

Generous Heidi has given us another $50.00 gift voucher for the random winner of our challenge.

to spend in the Simon Says Stamp store!

An Anniversary card

Our youngest son and his wife will be celebrating their anniversary at the end of this week, and here's the card I made for them.  It fits the CAS-ual Fridays challenge, so I'm sharing it today.

I used My Mind's Eye washi tapes, a sentiment from The Craft's Meow Typically Teen, and the little hearts from Simon's Just a Love Note, along with Navy, Latte, Tide Pool and Butter Bar Hero Arts inks.  Nice and flat for mailing!

Just for You

Before we get started this morning, I'd like to refer you back to THIS POST.   Simon Says Stamp has just offered a $100.00 gift certificate to someone who sends Maddy a card!  Please help us get as many cards to Maddy as possible!

Good morning, and Happy Weekend!  I'm just popping in today to share a sunny card using Penny Black stamps.

There are so many things that can be done with this Every Happiness cling set, but for this card, I used just one of the many panels included in it.  I stamped it in VersaMark ink and white embossed it, then colored in the details with markers.   I've been drawn to sunny yellows lately - they exude cheer!  Next I stamped the sentiment around it in black, and "stitched" around the embossed area with a fine black marker.   The stamped panel was trimmed out and thinly framed with black cardstock, and attached to a larger panel from the Madison Designer paper pad, also framed in black. To finish,  I added a gingham ribbon and a tiny punched butterfly.

Thanks for visiting me - I hope I've brightened your day!

From Simon's May Card Kit

I have 3 cards for today, using bits and pieces from several of the Simon Says Stamp Card Kits this year.

The lovely floral panel is actually packaging that was included in with the 2 lace trims we received in the May Card Kit, one of which I used here also.  They were from Webster's Pages.  Does anyone recognize it?  I'd buy it in a flash if it comes as a design paper!  I just couldn't let it go to waste, so I trimmed it and used it as my main focus here.   I placed my sentiment (Simon's Just a Love Note stamp) banner over a shape of similar size that had Webster's logo or a price code in it.  I think the blue cardstock that I used for my card base came from the April kit, and the bright green that I framed with came from the January kit, but don't hold me to it!  The little white paper roses are from my own stash.  I think this will be perfect to send to my Mom or one of my sisters....

I have a couple more cards made using the May Card Kit from Simon Says Stamps.  I believe it sold out like its sisters........the papers were lovely soft colors and subtle patterns from GCD, and I let them be the stars on this first card:

I simply made banners from 3 of them, attached them to a dove grey card base, then embossed them with this hearts embossing folder. Then I stamped the sentiment from the Best Mom Ever stamp set in bubble-gum mid-tone ink on cream cardstock, cut it out and popped it above the card. 

My next card was fast and easy also, especially since I already had the vase of flowers stamped and colored.  It uses the lovely embossed and die-cut panel that was included in the kit.

The pretty vase of flowers from Jane's Doodles Mom's Flowers is a perfect fit inside the circle.  I popped the panel above my pink card base, fit in the stamped image, and finished with some dots of Petal Pink liquid pearls.

As you can see, the Card Kits are a fantastic value; each one includes a stamp set and supporting papers and embellishments.  Did you know that you could subscribe and never have to worry about them selling out? 

Thanks so much for visiting me today!

A card for Maddy

You may remember last year that the Simon Says Stamp family asked for us all to make some cards for Maddy and her family.  Maddy is a young teen diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was undergoing chemotherapy to battle it, after receiving a stem cell transplant from her sister Melanie.  Sadly, she has had a return of her disease, and we are asking for more cards for her.  You can find all the details HERE, with an address, a Caring Bridge blog link, and a picture of this valiant young woman.  Could you find it in your heart to send a card of encouragement to her?  Here's one that I made and sent last week:

I know it's hard to think of what to say, but you could make it very simple, tell her she's in your thoughts, and then sign it and add your hometown.  Thanks so much!

EDITED TO ADD:  Heidi at Simon Says Stamp is offering up a $100.00 gift voucher to someone who sends Maddy a card.  Please visit the Simon Says Stamp blog for details.

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

It's the last Wednesday of the month, and that means our challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp is Anything Goes!!  This week the Design Team and May Guest Designer Annette are playing with Bottle Cap, Inc. and/or Authentique products.  If you own any of these products, we'd love to see you use them!  I had SUCH fun with the bottle caps; I've never worked with them before.  So I made you 2 cards today:

This first one uses papers from Authentique's Lovely collection.  The bottle caps I chose are flattened chrome caps and here I filled this one with a circle of one of the papers, and then placed it into the center of my die-cut flower.  My sentiment is a stamp and die combination by Simon called Expressions for You.

I made a really easy card for my 2nd sample today, playing with some new washi: a  washi paper from We R Memory Keepers, which I also used to line my bottle cap, and a Queen & Co tape.  I added a sentiment from the Simon exclusive Flower Friend, stamped in Hero Arts Red Royal mid-tone ink and a double bow of twine.  

Heidi has given us another $50.00 gift voucher for the random winner of this challenge.

You can use it for anything you'd like at the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!

Mixing old and new

As I was browsing my blogs as I do each morning, I saw that Penny Black is bringing out a new release!  2 of the new stamps are really lovely frames, and that reminded me of a PB stamp that a sweet friend gave to me a few years ago; it's also a frame, from 1997 called Ruffle Frame.  So I pulled it out and CASEd the card shown on the blog today, using what I have here at home.

supplies: design paper from the Madison pad as background, Graceful, Petal Party (sentiment), Ruffled Frame (#303K)

Every day this week some of the new stamps will be shown, and some lucky ducky is going to win the full release!  Hop on over to the Penny Black blog to get the details!!

Thanks for visiting today!

All Things are Possible

This challenge at PTI's Make it Mondays has reminded me how much I enjoy paper-piecing - it's great for those of us who aren't into the Copic thing or don't want to color all the time.  There are so many pretty papers out there, especially now with the miniaturized 6" paper pads! So here's another one for the challenge:

This set is the Violet one from PTI's Year of Flowers.  I used Graphic 45 papers from their Secret Garden collection (it's hard to find purples nowadays!  Does anyone have any suggestions for pretty ones?).  The background is a Hero Arts lattice cling stamp, as are the pearls.

ETA: I'd also like to add this to Moxie Fab World's Mixy-Matchy Style Challenge, since Cath now allows us to use cards made up to a month ahead of her challenges, if they fit the specifications.

Thanks for visiting!

This makes me smile!

This is Maile's last week as our Muse at CASE Study, and Chupa chose a wonderful card for us to CASE!  When I saw it my mind went instantly to a favorite leaf spray and a flower, both made by Hero Arts.  After I'd stamped the leaf and saw the dots I decided to make this ALL about the dots, and here's my entry for this week:

Materials used: Hero Arts CL338 Be Yourself (large leaf sprig), Green Hills mid-tone ink, CL496 Layered Flowers, Technique Tuesday Simply You by Ali Edwards (one of my FAVE sentiments), Echo Park Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes paper for flower, BoBunny soft shades double dot for die-cut leaves (Sizzix Sizzlits Branch with Leaves), green dotty button, white twine, my DH's hole punch for the dots on the flowers.

Thank You

Today's my day to have a post over at The Craft's Meow.  Here's a little sneak peek of it:

I hope you'll visit The Craft's Meow today and leave me a comment there.  Thank you!

Make it Monday - Paper Piecing

Did you see Melissa Phillips GORGEOUS paper-pieced flower card at the Make It Monday challenge this time?  I could NOT not play after seeing it.......that girl could sell me the phone book - she is such an inspiration!  My version is quite a bit simpler, but still a CASE of her beautiful card:

I thought this Hero Arts flower and the matching smaller version of it would work well for her paper-piecing technique.  I decided to use the papers from Graphic 45's Secret Garden Patterns & Solids because I could get all these in the same pattern, and the reverse of them was a solid, which worked for the smaller flower.  I centered my flower with a button, and added the PTI sentiment from Flower Fusion #12 and a peach Martha Stewart butterfly punch.  My background paper is from Memory Box.