Quilted hugs

Here's a card  made using the colors from the MFT Color Challenge going on now:

supplies: Die-Namics Quilt Square Cover-up, navy and ivory cardstocks and Doodlebug dps, Lawn Fawn hugs die, button to match

Thanks for visiting!

Watercolor butterflies

Just playing today, using some new Hero Arts Stamp and Cut sets.  These are so fun to use!

This uses their Butterfly & Flower set, along with the Hello set.  I started with a piece of watercolor paper, and after determining where my sentiment would be, I stamped and masked the butterfly in a diagonal wave across the card.  Then I went back in with my Spectrum Aqua floral set and some assorted watercolor pencils (for some of the blues, greens, and the magenta) and colored them in.  I also stamped a few on a scrap piece of cardstock and die-cut those ones after coloring them.  The "hello" is die-cut from black cardstock, and then I stamped the smaller sentiment underneath, and then popped the die-cut butterflies here and there along the front.  

After days of gloom, it's turned out a beautiful sunny day here, just in time for the Cleveland Indains season opener!  Enjoy your weekend!

I'd like to enter this into a new challenge to me, at Craft Stamper Magazine.  The challenge this month there is

'Take A Technique: Colour'.

Make a Wish

Here's a card using supplies from Simon's April Card Kit.  Put on your shades!

I made my card base from orange peel cardstock, and cut the kraft gold foil sheets into strips, then stamped 2 of the sentiments from the stamp set called Big Birthday Wishes, and gold embossed them.  I added 2 of the star brads to finish, breaking off the brads and securing them with small adhesive foam squares.  

This stamp set is a great one for birthdays, especially for masculine ones, I'm thinking!

Simon Says.........April Showers/Spring Flowers

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

This week our theme is April Showers/Spring Flowers, either or both.  The DT are playing with Memory Box products this week, and if you have any we'd love to see you using them also!  Don't they make the most wonderful dies?

I, of course, zeroed in on the flowers part of the challenge.  Here's my first card:

supplies: Memory Box Bella Bouquet, Winnie & Walter Big Bold Seasons cutaway, 2 pinks, a green, and white cardstock, pink gingham ribbon, My Mind's Eye enamel heart, embossing folder

I cut the flowers in the bouquet out of 2 different pinks, then applied them to the stems, adding a second layer for a little dimension.  

I used a stencil for my next card along with finger daubers and distress inks to color the individual blossoms.

supplies: white and Bazzill Robin's Egg Blue cardstock, Memory Box Garden Peony Blossoms stencil, dusty concord, broken china, and shabby shutters distress ink, finger daubers, Die-Namics Happy die, birthday sentiment from Hero Arts Sending Smiles Messages

It's your turn now!  We have a $50.00 gift voucher to the amazing 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!

More tulips and gingham

I wanted to play in the 3rd Sparkle and Shine challenge, and was influenced by the tulips and the pink and yellow in the photo inspiration we were given.  Here's my entry, a spring shaker card:

supplies: Simon Say Stamp's Floral Bookmarking, Impression Obsession Gingham,  picked raspberry distress ink, Hero Arts butter bar and green hills inks, Winnie & Walter's Big, Bold Seasons cutaway, Simon's Tiny Flowers sequins, Spellbinder's circle die

Happy Spring!

Spring Blessings

I had a little email chat recently with Wanda.  She and I share a love of gingham, and she reminded me that spring was a good excuse to bring them out again to play.  The next day I saw the challenge at The Card Concept, and I was off and running!

supplies: 1995 PSX tulip stamp, alcohol markers to color, Impression Obsession Gingham stamp, Audrey Blue Ink, Simon's Handwritten Sentiments, Audrey Blue, Bazzill Candy Hearts, and a green cardstock, Spellbinder's Scalloped Rectangle die

This is also the time of year to bring out this old discontinued PSX stamp that I got at a used stamp sale ages ago; it doesn't have a name, just a stock number on it.  I colored it using the Card Concept colors for this week then cut it into a scalloped rectangle shape and framed it with more coral.  The gingham was stamped on a scrap of paper and framed in a matching cardstock also.  After putting these together, there was no good place for a usual sentiment banner, so I stamped it on green cardstock and fussy-cut it.  

Thanks for your visit!

Spring Pastels

Here's a card made with 3 challenges in mind.  CAS-ology and the current challenge at the Simon  flickr group wants Spring cards, and Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge asks for pastels.  I'm all over it!

supplies: white and cotton candy cardstock, Simon Says Stamp Butterfly Drift die, papers from Basic Grey's Vivienne and Lawn Fawn's Let's Polka and Let's Polka, Mon Amie pads, Wplus9's Hand Lettered Thanks, pink and yellow sequins

I cut the butterflies out of cotton candy for the frame, and the 3 other papers for the various butterflies, bending up the 3 flowered butterflies for some dimension as I glued them into the frame.

As always, thanks for visiting!

Simon Says.........Happy Birthday!

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

It's our 6th birthday at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog!   Our blog began on April 1, 2009. We want to thank you for supporting us these 6 years!   

So of course, our theme is birthdays this week.  The Design Team are using all Simon Says Stamp products this week, and if you have them we'd love to see you showcasing them, too!  Here's my first card for today:

supplies: Simon's Lots of Dots, white pigment ink, Sending & Wishing, Wishing die, Crystal Reflections sequins, picked raspberry, mustard seed, and ripe persimmon distress inks

I wanted to do a bokeh effect and started by sponging on distress inks to my trimmed watercolor panel, then overstamping several sizes of the solid dots with white ink.  After drying thorougly, it was affixed to my card base, then I cut and stamped my sentiment and added some of these colorful crystal reflections sequins.  

I used cooler colors for my second card:

supplies: Simon's Oh Happy Day die, Audrey Blue, Green Apple, and a yellow cardstock, Love This (stamped sentiment), Stars & Dots stencil, peacock feathers, mustard seed, and shabby shutters distress inks

It's your turn now!   Because this is a special occasion, we have not one, but SIX $50.00 gift vouchers to the amazing Simon Says Stamp store for some lucky random winners 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!

Thanks

I wanted to share a card I made for a recent Scramble at the Hero Arts Flickr group.  Our hostess Janet asked us to use words prominently in our design.

Starting with a subtle tone-on-tone check design paper, I overstamped Hero Arts Friend Definition and then overlayed that with their Large Lotus Pattern and spread on some texture paste.  When that had dried, I trimmed it on an angle, added a black frame and put it on a white card base.  I also added some black enamel dots and a die-cut from Hero's Thanks Stamp and Cut set that my friend Linda had shared with me.  To finish I wrapped some crinkle ribbon around the top of the card.

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Smell the Flowers

I liked the sketch at CAS(E) this Sketch this time, and have been drawn to yellows lately, so this is also for the Fusion Card Challenge.

supplies: white and Bazzill Juicy Pear cardstock, Authentique Classique and Doodlebug Kraft in Color papers, Essentials by Ellen Bold Blossoms dies, PTI's Vintage Picnic sentiments, Simon's Crystal sequin

Thanks for stopping by!

Bloomin' Hugs

Here's a play I had with my new Bold Blooms stamps.

supplies: Essentials by Ellen Bold Blooms, embossed in white and sponged with distress inks, Lawn Fawn Hugs die, paper doily, rose and white cardstock

I love how big these flowers and leaves are, and these are the smaller of 2 sizes in the set!  It doesn't take much else to fill up a card with these pretties in hand!

Enjoy your Sunday!

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

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

It's Anything Goes week once again, and the Design Team were treated to some Spectrum Noir Aqua Markers to play with!  AND they'll be providing a prize in addition to our regular prize this week - how generous is that?

I have 2 cards for you, colored with my new Aqua Markers, one very busy and the other very CAS.

supplies: watercolor paper, Bazzill Candy Hearts cardstock, Floral and Essentials Aqua Markers, Hero Arts Tweed Background, embossed in white powder, Hero Arts Floral Blossoms, Simon's Sending die and sentiment from Sending & Wishing stamp set, Doodlebug Tangerine sprinkles

Starting with a piece of watercolor paper, I white heat embossed the Tweed Background, then chose a variety of yellows, pinks, and oranges from my Aqua Markers and randomly scribbled them on that stamped panel.  Next I spritzed the panel with water, which allowed the colors to blend and run together, and then I blotted the whole thing with a paper towel.  This brought the white embossing out again.  Next I colored 2 pinks and 2 greens directly onto my floral stamp, spritzed it lightly, then stamped it onto another piece of watercolor paper.  After it was dry, I cut it out carefully.  The Sending die was glued to the bottom right, and then the whole thing was popped up above the tweed background panel.  To finish, I added the tiny sentiment below, stamped and white embossed on cotton candy cardstock and some tangerine sprinkles.  

supplies: white and green cardstock, watercolor paper, Aqua Markers Floral set, Penny Black Dancing Daffodils, Winnie & Walter Big, Bold Seasons

Again, I used a markers to color directly onto the stamp, then spritzed the stamp with water and stamped on watercolor paper.  After it was dry, I stamped my sentiment.

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

And Spectrum Noir has offered an Aqua Markers set of the winner's choice to one lucky random winner!!

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!

My Favorite Things Bonus Sketch with PageMaps

There is a great sketch challenge at My Favorite Things - they're playing along with one of PageMaps sketches, and it appealed to me immediately:

I pulled out my March Card Kit from Simon Says Stamp, added some Die-Namics rolled roses,  and here's my entry:

supplies: Authentique Classic Beauty papers and a fussy-cut journaling card (doily),  Paper Smooches dashes die for stitch marks MFT Rolled Roses, large and mini, leaves from Wplus9's Folk Art Florals dies, sentiment from Simon's On My Mind stamp set

I haven't made a rolled rose in ages, but I still love that they always turn out so pretty!  Thanks for coming by today!

Spring Flowers

Barb has posted another challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Flickr group, and the theme this time is Springtime/Easter.  I'm always up for pastel colors and flowers, so inspired by a pink and yellow garden of tulips I remember a few years ago, here is my entry:

supplies: pink,  yellow, and white cardstock green gingham dp from Doodlebug's Hello Sunshine pad, a dotty embossing folder, tulips from Simon's Floral Bookmarking set, stamped and fussy cut, sentiment from Winnie & Walter's Big Bold Seasons cutaways and stamps, Simon's Stitched Rectangles die

This challenge runs through April 2 and there are 2 random winners of a $25.00 Simon gift voucher so I hope to see you there!