A Father's Day card

I needed a Father's Day card for our youngest son, the father of our adorable grandchildren, and used some classic Hero Arts stamps along with a new Stamp & Cut die.

supplies: Hero Arts Screen Shadow, Tide Pool ink, Silhouette Fern, peeled paint and forest moss distress inks, Happy Stamp & Cut die, cut from gold foil paper,  unknown sentiment, embossed in Ranger super fine detail gold

I'd like to enter this into Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe challenge for June, choosing the right column: heat embossing, die cutting, and my favorite color, blue.

Ombre

I've seen a couple of challenges that ask for an ombre design, so I stamped some more of my Altenew Painted Flowers using Simon and Hero Arts shades of inks ranging from mint to pool, then fussy cut them and assembled them against an embossed woodgrain background.

supplies: Hero Arts pool layering papers, the light and medium shades for my card and embossed panel, Tim Holtz Alterations woodgrain embossing folder, Altenew Painted Flowers, many mint and pool/aqua shades of inks, Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut, with Winnie & Walter's Big Bold Happy "birthday" sentiment, embossed in white on black cardstock, Simon's moonshine sequins

I'd like to enter this into Virginia's View Ombre/Monochromatic challenge:

and also into the Sparkle & Shine challenge:

Thanks for stopping by!

the Color of Fun!

I have 2 posts today - to see my Guest Designer card for Craft Stamper Magazine, please scroll down a post, or click HERE.  Thanks!

Today is the day I can finally share some cards using some of the new releases from Simon's Color of Fun release!  I think this is one of their best releases; it includes TWELVE scrumptious new colors of ink, and beautiful new stamp sets and dies!  Heidi generously sent the Wednesday Blog team some of the new goodies, and here are the results of my playing.

supplies: Simon's Many Thanks stamp set, Simon inks: new Spring Rain, new Melon, Hydrangea, and Green Apple

This scribble flower set called Many Thanks was designed by WPlus9, and is so much fun to play with! I've come to the conclusion that there is no right or wrong way to use these stamps - just pick a pleasing color combination and stamp away!  The new colors I received were Melon and Spring Rain, and I mixed them with my old favorites Hydrangea and Green Apple today.  I used those colors for the main outlines of the flowers and the leaves, and then found some coordinating inks from my own ink collection that were a bit paler to fill in the colors on each flower.

Next up, the new die called Carousel Horse:

supplies: Simon Carousel Horse die, Simple Letter Outlines and Color and Sunshine stamp sets, Audrey Blue and Apple Green cardstock, washi tape, sequins, a scrap of Doodlebug swimming pool chevron sugar-coated cardstock

And my final card uses the new Birthday Circle die.  I have lots of summer birthdays, so I used some citrus colors again for this one:

supplies: Simon's Birthday Circle die, Green Apple cardstock, Diagonal Stripe stencil, new Melon ink, Big Birthday Wishes stamp set, Green Apple ink, moonshine and orange sequins

I inlaid the Birthday Circle into my stencilled background, and in so doing, I was able to rotate that inner circle for a little more interest.

So what do you think?  Which are your favorites from this new release?  Mine are the Big Scripty Greetings and the Game Tile Letters stamp sets and some more of those luscious inks: Hollyhock, Wisteria, Blue Jay, and Jelly Bean!

Don't forget that there's a fantastic Color of Fun Blog Hop going on starting today over at the Simon Says Stamp store blog - wait until you see the amazing inspiration there!  

Guest Designing at Craft Stamper!

Because I won a challenge back in April, I get to be a guest designer at The Craft Stamper's monthly Take It Make It challenge today!  This month the challenge is Take a Technique: Texture, and here's the card I made for it.

supplies: Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Open Book embossing folder, Altenew Vintage Roses, lots of different inks, Hero Arts sentiment from Hello Sunshine Daisies, Simon's Stitched Rectangles die

I started by trimming a piece of white cardstock slightly smaller than my card front, then die-cutting a stitched rectangle from it.  The sentiment was stamped on the rectangle and set aside.  Then I embossed the "frame" that was remaining with a rose pattern.  Next I stamped a swath of roses, fussy-cut them out, and attached them to the embossed frame.  The stitched rectangle was glued to the card base, and the embossed frame was lifted above it with dimensional squares.

I'd like to thank Craft Stamper magazine for allowing me to be their Guest Designer today, and I look forward to seeing what you make for this challenge!

I'm in love......yet again!

Today I've been playing with WPlus9's Watercolored Anemones and here is my first finished card using the set:

I wanted to try doing a yellow and blue scheme, and I'm pleased with these results.  I REALLY like the Lake House ink by Wplus9!  I won it some time ago from Jennifer McGuire's blog, but haven't really used it until today - what a lovely shade of blue!  My yellow flowers in real life are a bit less gold and more bright, but you get the idea here.  I love the shading stamps that Dawn has provided us, to make the flowers and leaves look more realistic!  After I'd filled my panel with the flowers, I added my new Big Bold Friends die and sentiment from Winnie & Walter; I've been so tickled being able to have "Sending Hugs" easily now more and more from multiple companies, and of course, I must have them all!  Simon is bringing one out today as part of a set of scripty sentiments, and it's on my list, too!

This Watercolored Anemone set uses multiple-step stamping, and Dawn has grouped the parts so that we know what goes with what.  After a few practice stamps, they are pretty easy to work with.  I know I'll be using this one lots; it's really fun to play with!  Thank you, Dawn!

Simon Says.........Friends/Superhero

Welcome to another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge!

This week our theme is a fun one: Friends or Superhero: create something for a special friend or your very own Superhero!  The Design Team are using Mama Elephant products; you don't have to use them to enter, but if you have some, we'd love to see them used!

I had a very special friend in mind when I made my cards this week.  Mary Anne's signature color is pink, so that's where I started.  One card is full of pattern, and the other has a little more white space:

supplies: Mama Elephant Honey Bunny, papers from Bundle of Joy Dots & Stripes, an old Echo Park dp for the sky

supplies: Mama Elephant Honey Bunny, Lawn Fawn Let's Polka, Mon Amie paper, Die-Namics stitched tags, Sizzix flowers embossing folder, Heidi Swapp Confetti stencil, Hero Arts bubble gum ink, pink gingham ribbon

Now it's your turn!  As always we have a $50.00 gift voucher

for the random winner of our challenge, to be used at the amazing Simon Says Stamp Store!

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!  Here's where you can find me.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge DT Call!!

Would YOU like to join the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Design Team ? We are looking for ONE talented designer to join us !

For more details CLICK HERE to go directly to the Wednesday Challenge DT application post 

This is exactly the way I made it to this amazing team, and you can, too!  All you have to do is leave a link to your blog on our Challenge Blog post referenced above!  Good luck!

Simon Says.......Make it Masculine!

It's Wednesday!  Time for a brand new challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge!

This week we're asking you to Make It Masculine, and the design team are using products from CAS-ual Fridays or Waffle Flower.  I chose a set by Waffle Flower called Pattern Play that could be used for either masculine or feminine, and made 2 cards.

supplies: Waffle Flower Pattern Play, Simon's Khaki and Green Apple Inks, Hero Arts Happy Stamp & Cut set, Memory Box Meadow Leaf die, beige and Simon's Apple Green cardstock, Prima button, May Arts twine 

I think using either stripes or plaids on a masculine card works, and I also try to keep my design fairly simple and use natural colors.  

supplies: Waffle Flower Pattern Play,  Hero Arts Tide Pool, Green Hills, and Latte Inks, Impression Obsession Greetings Top Edgers die, Teresa Collins wood dots, brown and cream cardstock

Now it's your turn!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher

that will go to the random winner of our challenge this week, to be spent at the Simon Says Stamp Store!

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!

Hero Arts Tic Tac Toe challenge

Hero Arts has a challenge going for all of June involving a Tic Tac Toe board.  I chose this column: circles, background stamp, and watercolor.  I watercolored this butterfly earlier today as I was coloring with Kathy, and I decided to pair it with my favorite Hero Arts background stamp and used my new Butter to Orange Ombre ink to stamp it.

supplies: Hero Arts Artist Butterfly, watercolored with Spectrum Aqua markers and fussy-cut, Leaf & Floral Background, stamped in Butter to Orange Ombre ink, Hello Stamp & Cut die, mandarin card base and iris layering papers, spellbinder's circle and scalloped circle dies, metallic orange and purple sequins

I stamped my background on white cardstock, cut a circle into it, framed that circle with a scallop, and then lifted the whole panel above my mandarin card base.  Then I simply added my 4-layer sentiment and my butterfly.

Thanks for stopping in!

A Lovely Day

One more play with my Painted Flowers, this time all in purples; maybe a birthday card for my youngest sister - she always has loved these colors.

supplies: Altenew's Painted Flowers, Maggie Holmes Open Book embossing folder, Spellbinder's Floral Oval die, The Craft's Meow retired sentiment, corner rounder

Talk about timing - Virginia has just started another of her monthly challenges at Virginia's View, and this time the theme is ombre or monochromatic, so I'll be entering this there.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Painted Flowers

Still playing with my Painted Flowers set, this time pairing it with some Amuse dots and gingham papers that Barb sent me and I've been hoarding.  Recently I saw a little corner garden that was done in purples-lavenders and peachy-oranges, and so I chose those colors for my card today.

supplies: Altenew Painted Flowers, Hero Arts Hello Stamp & Cut, Simon's Stitched Rectangles, Amuse orange dot and tiny gingham papers

Beginning a new week - hope it goes well for you!  I'll have 1 more card using this set early this week.....

Sending Hugs

I haven't played with these wonderful Altenew Painted Flowers in awhile, so I pulled them out and started playing, trying different color combinations with them.  Then I decided to CASE a card I made last year.

supplies: Altenew's Painted Flowers, Simon's Handwritten Sentiments (a meld of 2 of them), Doodlebug dotty washi tapes, Paper Sweeties sequins

I think I love this one even better than the original! And since the flowers have been fussy-cut, I'll enter this into the Power Poppy Cut it Out! challenge.

And since I used some Paper Sweeties flower sequins, I'll also enter this into their challenge for this month, too.

Thanks for visiting today - have a great weekend!

Color Throwdown #344

Here's a card for the current Color Throwdown challenge.  The colors are so pretty, I dreamed about them, but couldn't come up with a design.  Until I saw a card of mine from 2010 pinned recently; it used this lovely Hero Arts Antique Brocade background, so I pulled it out and went from there.  Other supplies: Avery Elle Oh Happy Day sentiment, and PTI's The Sweet Life roses.

Here's the inspiration colors:

Maybe it was that pink lemonade that haunted me in my dreams?  Whatever, these colors are especially pretty together!

Another Throwback Thursday card

This is my 2nd entry for this month's Throwback Thursday challenge at the Wplus9 blog.  The idea behind this challenge is to pull out some of our old stamps and use them again - I'll all for that, especially with this adorable Blanket Stitched Blooms from 2013. I was influenced this time by Maureen's 3rd card, but instead of using a curved die for the bottom of the raised panel, I did some fussy-cutting:

supplies: Blanket Stitched Blooms, spun sugar, squeezed lemonade, and bundled sage distress inks, Simon's surf blue ink and sentiment from Flower Friend and dots from Flowers on my Mind, moonshine sequins

I've used this set many times, but have never inked up the smaller flowers which are on the bottom of the card, so thank you, Maureen, for making me give them some love!  This card reminds me of something by Mary Engelbreit!