My First Valentines!

I was lucky enough to win the My Monthly Hero January Card Kit, and here is my first play with it:

supplies: watercolor paper and white notecard, abandoned coral distress ink, Hero Arts die and sentiment from Card Kit, tiny pearls, Winnie & Walter Audrey's cutaway scalloped stitched die

I smooshed some coral distress ink on a watercolor panel, die-cut my heart, then added more of the same color to the tiny hearts and added some tiny pearls.

Isn't the sentiment perfect?

And another, using the other 2 dies in the kit:

supplies: white notecard, poppy layering paper,  Lucy's shaker mix, small sentiments, and acetate from kit, abandoned coral distress ink, smooshed, Winnie & Walter hugs and Audrey cutaway panel

I should have dumped more of the shaker mix inside my shaker, but, since this is my first sampling of Lucy's mixes, I want to make it last!

In other news, have you seen the brand spankin' new Hero Arts catalog?  It is being unveiled today!  I've got my eye on some pretty flower stamps and they will also be releasing 14 new hybrid inks!!  Hero Arts inks are a staple in my stamping, so I'm excited about these new ones!

Thanks for visiting, as always!

Make it Monday

This week we get to choose whichever 2015 Make It Monday challenge we'd like to play with!  I chose Betsy's Watercolor Smooshing technique.

supplies: Canson Bristol paper, PTI's Garden Variety and Garden Variety II, mostly distress inks, water, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Winnie & Walter Audrey's Cutaways

I smooshed a watercolor panel, stamped my images and sentiment, then cut a panel out of it.  I'd usually throw away the resulting "frame" from that cut, but this time I decided to use it, reinserting and popping up the stamped panel for dimension.

Smooshing is lots of fun - give it a try!

For You

We finally got a dusting of snow here this week, along with frigid temperatures, so I stayed inside and played some more with my Painted Flowers.

supplies: peach and cream cardstock, green plank dp from Simple Stories Summer Vibes, Tim Holtz Gothic stencil and Liquitex modeling paste, Altenew Painted Flowers, Avery Elle Oh Happy Day sentiment

I got the idea for this design from an ad I saw on Instagram, and love how it turned out!  

Enjoy your weekend - I'm looking forward to watching Downton Abbey again on Sunday!

Merry Monday challenge

Have you visited the Merry Monday challenge blog?  The idea behind it is to make 1 Christmas card each week, so by the time that Christmas rolls around, you'll have a good supply of cards to send out.  I ran out of cards this past Christmas, so I'll hopefully be playing as often as I can.

This week's challenge is white on white.  I had loads of already cut snowflakes, so I put them to good use for my entry:

supplies: white and silver glitter cardstock, various snowflake die-cuts, some of which I can't identify anymore, Winnie & Walter In a Word: Merry cutaway, stamped sentiment from Hero Arts Joy to All, Pretty Pink Posh sequins

Simon Says.........Something New!

It's Wednesday and that means a new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!

Our theme this week is "Something New"......you can interpret that anyway you like!  The design team are all using Wplus9 products this week.  I chose this "new to me" Spring Wreath die that includes these tiny flowers - they remind me of apple blossoms in the spring!

supplies: Simon's woodgrain and Green Apple cardstock, 2 pink cardstocks, and a green bias-stripe from Echo Park's Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes pad, Wplus9 Spring Wreath and Hand Lettered Hello dies, Simon's Stitched Rectangle die, tiny pearls

Now it's your turn!  I can't wait to see what you make!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store for one lucky random winner of our challenge!

Do you use Instagram?  If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too!

Purple Posies

I recently ordered and received Altenew's purple inks in the cute little pack, and had to have a play with them.  I used 3 of the 4 colors.

supplies: white and purple cardstock, Altenew's Painted Flowers and Shades of Purple inks, Winnie &Walter In a Word: Thanks and Audrey's cutaways, Pretty Pink Posh sequins

This makes me think of a little posie of violets!

Please stop by again tomorrow for our first Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of the year!

MFT Color Challenge

Interesting colors this time at the MFT Color challenge.  Aren't they pretty when blended?

supplies: pink cardstock, MFT DieNamics Quilt Square Coverup, dps from Lawn Fawn and BoBunny, Lil Inker Spring Flowers die, lime button, Simon Many Thanks sentiment

Here's the color swatch:

Thanks for stopping by - hope your week is off to a great start!

A birthday card

Just popping in today with a card that I made for my dil.

supplies: white, mint, Audrey Blue, and sky blue cardstock, various shades of ink from mint to blue, Avery Elle Brushed stamp set, Winnie & Walter In a Word: Happy  and Audrey Cutaways dies, and text stamp from Big,Bold, and Happy stamp set, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear sequins

After stamping my brushstrokes and splatters, I die-cut the Happy from that panel, plus 3 more plain white ones, glued them all together, and inserted them back into place.

Thanks for stopping by!

MFT Sketch challenge

I have a long wishlist of My Favorite Things products, so I will be entering their challenges more often.   Here's my card for their current sketch challenge:

supplies: white, black, pink, and green cardstock, vellum, DieNamics Scribble Roses Overlay and Layered Leaves dies, Wplus9 Hand Lettered Hello stamps, pink pearls

Miriam's sample card for this challenge reminded me that I had these Scribble Roses, so I cut enough to fill a square panel and then followed the sketch.  The added pearls help secure the vellum to the rest of the card.

Peace on Earth

This seems like the perfect card to start out the New Year.  It's also for the current Share Joy challenge; see the sketch I used below.

supplies: Taylored Expressions Birch Tree cutting plate, white and Surf Blue cardstock, a retired BoBunny snowflake dp, blue glitter cardstock, snowflake die, sentiment from a retired The Craft's Meow clear set, and snowflake sequins

I have always loved birch trees - one of the reasons we bought our house was because of a big birch tree in the yard!  Last year a group of friends met and shared their dies, one of which was this Taylored Expressions Birch Tree cutting plate......I cut 2 of them and have been hoarding them all this time!  I think I need to add this to my own arsenal!  

Here's the sketch we were given for the challenge:

Wishing us all Peace in this New Year!

A Look Back.......My Favorite Cards of 2015

It's been my habit in past years to do a post at the end of the year showing my personal favorites of the cards I've made that year.  If you need any information for any card, just click on it and you'll be taken back to its original post.  This year I chose just one card from each month.......

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

As you can see, this year I fell in love with the beautiful multi-step flowers of Altenew, and used lots more dies.  But overall, I'm still a flower girl.

 Do you do a similar post with your own favorites?  If so, leave me a link in your comment, and I'll come visit you......

Thanks to all of you who visit me and leave comments.  Commenting is on the decline, and so I truly treasure those that I receive.  Wishing you all a happy, healthy and creative 2016!

Simon Says........Party!

It's time for our last challenge of the year at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog!

Happy New Year!  Our theme this last challenge of 2015 is Party!  I made 2 New Years cards, one glitzy and one more colorful:

Supplies: black, gold and silver glitter cardstock, DieNamics Happy die, Hero Arts Alphabet dies, gold and silver sequins

Those sequins can represent either champagne bubbles or confetti!

This one is a little more colorful:

supplies: aqua and white cardstock, "confetti" design paper from an old American Crafts pad, DieNamics Happy die, Winnie & Walter Big, Bold & Happy sentiment stamps, Simon Moonshine sequins

Now it's your turn!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store for one lucky random winner of our challenge!

Do you use Instagram?  If you do, we'd love you to add #ssswchallenge to your challenge entry uploads so we can see them on there, too!

Just a Note

I finally have the die being featured at Wplus9's monthly Throwback Thursday challenge!  Here's the card I made using it.

supplies: pink and white cardstock, dps from Pebbles Garden Party pad, Wplus9 Quilt Cuts 2 die and Doodle Buds sentiment, tiny pink heart button, Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangles die, cut into a square, Winnie & Walter Audrey Cutaways scalloped panel

I CASEd Maureen's last card.  This tiny little star quilt block is so fun to work with, and the prints in the paper pad were just the right size for it!  Anytime I get to play with paper quilts is a good day, and this sentiment is one I use often when I'm sending out a card.

As always, thanks for visiting!

Merry Christmas......from our home to yours!

Just got this darling Winnie & Walter stamp set called Happiest of Holidays, along with some of their In a Word dies, so I combined them for this last Christmas card of 2015.

supplies: white and red cardstock, Winnie & Walter Happiest of Holidays, Winter Woodland, In a Word: Merry and Audrey Cutaways, Spectrum Noir markers, Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil, texture paste

I'll take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!  Hope you can spend it with those that you love!