Feminine Valentne

I wanted the Simon Says Stamp February 2013 CardKit to make mostly Valentines, and here's another one, using the one of the gorgeous papers, along with the doily from the kit.

The sentiment comes from the Simon stamp set Just a Love Note - love the script font and it goes along with all the other girly elements on my card.  The pink rose is from my own stash.  

Hey Girlfriend!

I am playing with the newest CardKit from Simon Says Stamp - LOVE all the papers in it!  Everything on my card is included in the kit except for the little pearl in the flower center:

This could be for any occasion, but I'll be using it for a girlfriend Valentine, because of those sweet dangling hearts; the new Hero Arts Pale Tomato mid-tone ink is a perfect match to the papers!  I hear that this kit is getting close to selling out, so better hurry if you'd like it!

Pure Play

When I saw the adorable Tuesday Trigger that Cath posted for us this week:

my mind went instantly to making a card using ONLY die-cuts.  I don't have all my supplies here in Florida, but I do have most of my dies, so I pulled out a Doodlebug Design pad called Hello Spring, and started die-cutting these elements in the soft spring colors of the papers.  Here's my take on the Trigger:

I used the Oh Happy Day, an exclusive Simon Says Stamp die along with the Wplus9 dies called Folk Art Florals, adding some natural twine to hang the birdhouse, and some small buttons in spring colors.  

This was really fun, thanks, Cath, for the inspiration!  Happy Birthday to your Mom; I hope that her birthday was a happy day for her!

And since this incorporates letters, I'd also like to enter this into CAS-ual Friday's Love Letters challenge.

Snip and Stick

If you're here to see my card using the February sketch at The Craft's Meow, please click HERE.

Happy February, all!  Today I'm thrilled to share that I'll be a Guest Designer at A Blog Named Hero this month; thank you, Mary Dawn and Linda, for this honor!

The challenge for this first half of the month is paper-piecing, one of my favorite techniques.  Playing with fun printed papers is just like playing with fabrics like I did when I was a quilter.  Today I used a 6" paper pad from pebbles called "Family Ties", and 2 of my favorite Hero Arts stamps, Pattern Hearts and Flowers and Made with Love.

I used a 3/4" square punch for the squares that I used around the border on my card, which I cut to 4 1/2" X 5 1/4" to make everything fit, and a Nesties Scalloped Rectangle die for the white panel.  The flowers were stamped on 4 of the papers, then pieced back together as shown, and then popped up above the card.  To finish I added some pearls.

Please visit A Blog Named Hero to see the Design Team's projects for this challenge - I know you'll be blown away!   And I hope you'll make something, too!

February sketch at The Craft's Meow!

It's the first day of a new month and that means another sketch challenge at The Craft's Meow!  Nina has given us another beauty:

I just got the new pad of Farm Girl papers by October Afternoon, so I pulled those out for my card.  So glad I also got the matching brads - they fit perfectly in the centers of my flowers!

I used 2 TCM sets for this card, Stitched Sentiments II and Stitched Flowers.

   

I hope you'll visit The Craft's Meow blog to see some more examples from the Design Team using the sketch, and then enter!  The winner will receive a TCM set of her choice!

You can enter as often as you like, and it's not necessary to use TCM stamps, although if you do and win, you'll also get a 15% discount on a 2nd set of your choice!  You have all month to enter; the deadline is Feb. 28 at 9:00 PM Pacific.   Hope to see you there!

Simon Says......Anything Goes!

Happy Wednesday, and almost the end of January - can you believe it?  The end of the month challenges at Simon Says Stamp are always your favorites - Anything Goes!  Guest Designer Glenda, my teamies and I are using Penny Black stamps this week, and we'd love to see you using them, too, but it's not a requirement to enter our challenge.  Here's my card this week, using some of my favorite things: music, flowers, pearls, lace, and aqua!

This Penny Black Petal Party clear stamp set is fast becoming a favorite of mine - the flowers are just gorgeous, and can be colored as I did, or paper-pieced with equally lovely results.  I paired it with some music background paper, and some strips of paper from some older My Mind's Eye paper pads.  I stamped the sentiment from the set and trimmed it out using a Nesties Labels Twenty die, and then added some lace and aqua pearls to finish it.  I love the way it turned out!

Heidi is again offering the random winner of our challenge a $50.00 gift voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore, to spend on anything you'd like!  

Need some ideas to get started?  Come on over to the Simon Says Stamp challenge blog to see some beautiful cards by the Design Team!

An Itty Bitty card

Another challenge at Moxie Fab World's 75 Creative Card Challenges is to make a miniature card, no bigger than 3" square.  I've always been intrigued by tiny things, and I just got this cute No Matter What set by Verve and decided to use it for my card.  It measures 2 1/2"  X  3 1/2".

Not much explanation needed here; I just stamped the little heart flowers and the sentiment, colored it in with   Spectrum Noir markers and then added some heart pearls and Martha Stewart punched butterflies.

Making My Mark

I haven't played at CAS-ual Fridays for awhile, but this is my week!  The challenge is simply to make a CAS card and use markers.

I wanted to use this new Hero Arts Tall Flowers stamp again, and the colors from the current Hero Arts blog challenge: canteloupe, pool, and soft olive.  I stamped the top of the stamp, fussy-cut around the flowers to eliminate the stems, then glued them to my white card base.  A simple sentiment was all that was needed to keep it CAS.  

Thanks for stopping by!

From the Heart

Here's another card for the Moxie Fab World 75 Creative Card Challenges week: Make a Window Card challenge.

I used the last of this lovely printed paper from last year's BoBunny Kissing Booth paper pad, affixing it to a white card panel, then cutting out the Spellbinder's Scalloped Heart die, then running it through a Sizzix Vines embossing folder.  The panel was then popped above my white card base which had been stamped with my sentiment (an oldie from Hero Arts, CL163 Always Heart), and then I added a white seam binding bow anchored with a pretty Bella Blvd flower button from Kathy.  Another Valentine to add to my stock for this year!

Find Joy

I've been trying to get back into some challenges that I enjoy making cards for, so here's one for the Moxie Fab World's Card Challenge Week: Make a Card with a Window.

I first trimmed a white cardstock panel to fit inside my card, made from Tide Pool layering paper from Hero Arts.  I die-cut a butterfly window from the white panel, and then ran it through a cute Darice butterfly embossing folder.  On separate white cardstock I stamped the butterflies (Hero Arts 657773 Antique Flowers and Butterflies stamps and dies), colored them with markers, used the matching dies to trim them out and then added the bigger one to the card base and the smaller ones were put onto the embossed panel, along with the sentiment banner (Hero Arts CL129 Anytime Messages).  Here's another picture to show my butterfly window:

Make Your Own Background Paper

It's been too long since I've played along with one of Cath's Moxie Fab World challenges!  This one, to make your own background paper, sounded like fun, and I got to use some new to me stamps that were sent to me by a generous friend.

Using 4 different green inks (Hero Arts green hills, grass, field greens, and forest green), I stamped 5 of the leaves from  the Leaf Prints set (HA CL395).  Then I trimmed it to the size you see and ran it through a Swiss Dots embossing folder, inked the dots lightly with one of the green ink pads, framed it in green, and attached it to my white card base.  I stamped a small sentiment (HA CL342 Everyday Sayings), and die-cut some fern-like leaves (Memory Box Meadow Leaf). Those were attached with a button and popped in the corner of my background panel.  

This challenge is just one of 5 different challenges taken from PaperCraft's newest publication: 75 Creative Card Challenges:

I hope you'll check them out and enter also - you have until February 4th.

You & Me

I'm sharing another card I made using Simon Says Stamp exclusives: their Fresh Daisies die and Just a Love Note stamp set.

It's nice to have a sentiment that is vertical for a change, and I think it pairs well with this long flower die.  The tiny little hearts stamped near the bottom are just so cute!  I know I'll be using them lots for my Valentine's cards!  The chevron paper border is from Simple Stories "Sn@p Color Vibe" paper pad.

Thanks for visiting today - hope you have a great one!

A Beauty Full Birthday

Hello! Happy Friday!  I'm stopping by to share a card that is going up today at The Craft's Meow blog.

We're not even to the end of January, but I'm looking towards spring already, and made this card that I can use for the many spring birthdays coming up this year.  When I think of spring, I think of pastels, so I used these sweet papers from a collection last year by Simple Stories called Baby Steps.   The stamps on my card are from one of my favorite sets "Fly Free".

I stamped the birdcage and white embossed it, cut it out using a Nesties Labels 18 die, and then punched some Martha Stewart butterflies to add more dimension.  I used  a light brown ink for the sentiment because that color was in the plaid background paper, and I wanted to keep the soft feel going.

I hope my card inspires you to pull out some stamps and get ahead on your birthday cards during these long days of winter!

Just a Love Note

I'm working on my Valentines for this year - it's a tradition in our family to send to family members, and I've added lots of girlfriends to the mix, too.  Here's my latest:

There are some really fun sentiments and motifs on the Simon Says Stamp "Just a Love Note" exclusive stamp set; don't you love those tiny hearts?.  So I gathered up some Spellbinder's Scalloped heart dies and some papers (Basic Grey "Lucille" and Authentique "Lovely" Collection) that I liked and this is the result.  The felt heart button is from my stash.