bunny kisses...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a card for Color Throwdown and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  I used a new Simon Says Stamp and die set called Bunny Kisses to create a little scene.  Take a look.

The CTD colors this week are peach, sage and cream.  I focused more on the peach and sage colors, although I do think my peach is more of a pinky peach than an orangy peach.  I used Pinkfresh Studio Coral Berry to stamp the larger (momma) bunny and then Stampin Up! Flirty Flamingo to stamp the inside of the ear, nose and cheek.  The smaller bunny was stamped using Bundled Sage distress ink and the inside of the ear was stamped with PTI's Ocean Tides.  Originally I had the nose and cheek for the smaller bunny stamped in the Ocean Tides, but I changed it to Coral Berry.  I think it looks better.  I used an MFT cloud stencil to add the background clouds using a warm grey ink and then an MFT grass line stencil to stencil in the grass using Bundled Sage.  I used a very light hand with both colors.  The little hearts were also stamped in Coral Berry.  I added little pom poms to the bunnies' tales for a little bit of fun.  The sentiment was stamped, die cut and adhered with thin foam squares.   Simple, but cute I think.  This will be going to one of my great nieces for Easter.

sweet winter wishes

 Hello!  I'm back with another card.  What???!!  Two cards in two days!  Haven't done that in a long time, lol!  Anyway, I have a card today for several challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches (layout), Time Out (theme of new), Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (something new) and Color Hues.   My in real life friend, Greta, is now a member of the Time Out design team so I just had to play along with their challenge.  Here is what I made.

The Color Hues challenge is to use light blue and dark blue.  Couldn't pass that one up and I really like the sketch at FMS so I decided to put them together.   My new item is the cute little tag that I placed my Birch Press Design Felicity Snowflakes on.  It came in a Simon Says Stamp card kit that I purchased in the fall and had never used.  After die cutting the tags and the snowflakes I adhered everything together and then added the white twine to each tag.  I decided to have the center tag sport a bow instead of the way I did the other two.  Thought it looked cute.  Then I had to find a sentiment that would work with the small tags.   I hunted through my supplies and finally found this cute little sentiment set from My Favorite Things called Snowglobe Sentiments.  The size of the sentiment was perfect for the size of the tag.  I stamped it using a dark blue ink on the same light blue cardstock I used for the tags.  I adhered everything to a white cardstock panel and then added light blue gems to the center of the snowflakes and to the sentiment strip.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

clean and simple cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with two clean and simple cards today.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown, Freshly Made Sketches and the Pinkfresh Studios monthly challenge.   The idea to use my Pinkfresh ink cubes for my squares came from my friend, Greta.  She shared a card on Instagram where she used ink cubes to add squares of color.  I thought it would be perfect for the layout of Freshly Made Sketches.  I initially tried it with just pressing the colors on to scrap cardstock, but I didn't like that everything came out a little too wonky.  So I decided to press the colors (Sapphire, Slumber and Key Lime) on to white cardstock and die cutting with a small square Spellbinders dies.  I layered the squares on to a white cardstock panel and then added the sentiment (from a very old Pinkfresh Studio stamp set) and then added the leafy branch die cut from orange glitter cardstock.   I also added white crystal gems from the Spellbinders Essentials Crystal mix gems pack and the little white baker's twine bow.   And yes... I stuck faithfully to the sketch!  Sometimes when you have an idea that is a good as this one you just need to go with it!

This next card is for the MFT Design Superstar challenge.  I love creating clean and simple cards and so I had to play along with the challenge.  I used the MFT Spread Your Wings mini stamp set and matching dies.  I stamped 3 of the butterflies in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colors with Copic markers in shades of blue-green.   After coloring and die cutting the butterflies I added some silver Nuvo Crystal Drops to the bodies of the butterflies as well as little dots on the wings.  Then I figured out how I wanted to arrange the butterflies on my card front.  I used two retired MFT die sets (Mini Stitched Scalloped rectangles and ovals) for the main panel and the small oval.  I was going to use a light gray panel, but decided to go with all white in the background so the butterflies would pop.  I arranged them in a manner that draws in your eye and adhered them to the card front along with the sentiment.  I almost added more dots of the Nuvo drops, but decided that in this case less is more!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a couple of cards...

 Hello!  I'm popping in with a couple of cards to share.  The first card is for the current MFT sketch challenge.   I have been looking at the Birdie Brown Unicorns & Glitter stamps and dies for a very long time.  I went back and forth about getting them, but finally pulled the trigger.  My reasoning for getting them... my soon to be five year old great niece who likes unicorn!   So this card is for her birthday.  I stamped one of the little girl images, as well as the little puppy image in VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink on smooth bristol cardstock.   I then colored the images with ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers.  Kaia, my little niece, has blond hair so of course the little girl had to be blond!  Hendrix, Kaia's "big brother", is white (I think he is a Bichon Frise) so I just added a little bit of color to him using light gray markers and blending them out.    I ink blended Spun Sugar and Kitsch Flamingo distress oxides on some smooth bristol  and die cut it with the scalloped rectangle.  I die cut a white cardstock panel and adhered the ink blended piece and then stamped the sentiment.  I adhered Kaia and Henny to the card front and then added the two rows of sequins.  I hope Kaia loves her card!

The second card is for the Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.  I don't often do color blocking because I generally don't like how my color blocking turns out.  But I decided to put that aside and have another try at it.  I found cardstock in the CTD colors, cut strips to fit a thin piece of white cardstock cut to A2 size and adhered them.  I have had the SSS April card kit since well... April and have never used the stamp set.  So I pulled that out and heat embossed the large floral image in white on the color blocked piece.  I then die cut it with a rectangle die.  I stamped a sentiment from the stamp set on a banner I die cut from white cardstock and popped that up on the panel.   There is a butterfly in the stamp set so I heat embossed that in white on vellum, die cut it and popped it up on the sentiment.  For once I do like how my color blocking turned out, lol!

Thanks for stopping by and if you live in the Pacific Northwest I hope you can stay cool during our heatwave!  Have a lovely day!

clean and simple cards...

 Hello!  Popping in with a couple of clean and simple cards.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.   When I saw the CTD colors I immediately thought I would make a more masculine card and this card was scheduled to be sent to my sister-in-law's husband.  Then my mom called and asked me if I would make a card for her for my son who is turning 15 on Monday!  (How did that happen?).  Since I had this card almost completed I told her I would give it to her to give to Gabriel.   I used the Altenew Trigonometry stamp and die set.  I used the dies and the happy birthday sentiment.  I die cut the triangles from aqua, blue and gray cardstock and then figured out the arrangement based on the FMS layout.  The triangles I didn't use I simply stacked behind the ones I did to give them a little more dimension.  I die cut white cardstock with the largest Spellbinders Essential rectangle die and then the center of that panel with a smaller one.  I adhered the frame that was created  flush to the card base with tape adhesive and then popped up the smaller panel with foam tape.  I added the triangles and the sentiment that I stamped in VersaFine Clair Twilight ink and die cut with a banner die.    I hope Gabriel likes it!   I'm going to add this to the As You See It challenge to create a masculine card. 

This next card is for the MFT sketch and color challenges.  I haven't played along with either of those challenges in ages and when I saw the fun sketch I just had to get a card done!   Despite the fact that this card is pretty simple it was not simple to make.  It took me four times to get the butterfly right!  Then I had trouble with the element that I would layer behind the butterfly as well as the to banners.  Finally got things figured out and the card put together!   I generally don't do this, but I actually had all the elements (except the pearls) adhered to the card before I stamped the sentiment.  Thankfully the sentiment stamped well!   I finished with my favorite pearls... Rainbow Fish from Trinity Stamps!   There are pearls in the mix that matched perfectly with the blue and green colors in the MFT color challenge!

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

i'm thinking of you...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.   I recently got some new products from Stampin Up! and I couldn't wait to use the new stamp and die set I got called Hand-Penned Petals.    There are solid image stamps that can be used to fill in the outline images or you can color the outline images with your favorite coloring medium.  The solid image stamps don't completely fill in the outline giving your a more artsy look.  I went with stamping one of the outline images using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and then filled in the flowers with a bright pink ink and the leaves with a medium aqua ink.  I then die cut the image with the matching die.  I used a die from MFT to cut the rounded corner panel behind the floral image.  The sentiment is from another Stampin Up! set and was stamped in the Nocturne ink on a medium aqua cardstock, trimmed down and then one side matted with the scalloped edge die included in the Hand Penned Florals die set.  I die cut a white cardstock panel with an AJVD rectangle die, adhered it to a light gray cardstock base and then layered on the smaller panel, floral image and sentiment.  I finished with some Rainbow Fish pearls from Trinity Stamps.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!  

a couple of cards...

 Hey there!  Popping in with a couple of cards that I made over the last few days.  First up is a card for Color Throwdown.  I recently purchased a few things from the Greetery and pulled them out for this card.  I purchased the pretty Bittersweet  Bouquet stamp set which is more of a fall themed stamp set.  I used it to create a more spring like card.   It was really easy to stamp all the different layers in the image and then die cut it with the matching die.  All the inks are from Catherine Pooler.  The sentiment is from another new set I purchased called Simply Wonderful.  The set contains all of these beautiful scripty sentiments and then the large word "wonderful".  I picked the sentiment for the front of the card and stamped it.  I then stamped the word "wonderful" using the two green inks I used for the leaves on the inside of the card.  I finished off the card with the pink die cut bow (also from the Greetery) and some red jewels from Pretty Pink Posh.

Here is the inside:

The second card is for Freshly Made Sketches.  I recently made a purchase from Scrapbook.com.  If you haven't purchased things from Scrapbook.com you should give them a look.  They often have a free with purchase item, good sales and other promotions and carry most of the major stamping brands.  When I made my purchase they were offering a 6x8 pad of paper from a company that I had not heard of called P13.  The pad of paper looked really pretty so I decided to add it to my cart.  I'm so glad that I did!  It is BEAUTIFUL!  So I used it to create my card.  I die cut some butterfly patterned paper with a fishtail flag die from MFT.  On the backside was a woodgrain pattern so I used that for my background and adhered the banner.  The sentiment is from a Stampin Up! set called Floral Gallery.  I almost used the stamp set that coordinates with the dies, but just couldn't pass up using the beautiful papers!  I die cut the sentiment from another piece of patterned paper, additional die cuts from scrap paper, adhered them together for dimension and adhered it to the card front.  I trimmed out three of the butterflies, applied a little bit of Star Dust Stickles (looks very pretty in real life) and adhered them.  There are sentiments in the stamp set to use with the die cut sentiment.  I couldn't decide which to use so I will add something later.  Most likely inside the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a shamrock and a peony...

 Hello!  Hope your week is off to a good start!  We have had a little bit of snow here in my corner of the Pacific Northwest.  The weather report actually calls for rain, but it is cold enough that the rain is coming down as snow!  Won't be sticking around, tho... thankfully!  I have two more cards to share.  I have been in a crafting mood lately and finally participated in a couple of challenges that I always want to take on, but mostly never seem to get the chance to do.  First up is a card for the current Inspired By challenge.   I have a couple of rainbow dies from MFT and used one that is sort of wonky to create my rainbow.  I die cut green glitter cardstock and gold mirror cardstock then alternated the two for my rainbow.  I die cut scrap white cardstock three more times with the die and adhered those to my top pieces to create a nice sturdy rainbow.   I die cut three small hearts using the AJVD Stitched Dot Hearts die set from green glitter cardstock to create my shamrock and the stem from the gold mirror cardstock.  I adhered the rainbow  to a panel of white cardstock and then added the shamrock.  I couldn't find one sentiment in my large collection of stamps that had anything to do with luck!  So I ended up using this lovely verse that is part of a sympathy stamp set from AJVD.  Originally I stamped it in green directly on my panel under the rainbow, but it wasn't straight!  I didn't like the look of the green so I when I restamped it on my banner I used watermark ink and embossed it in gold.  I like that much better!  Also sending this off to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to use green.

This next card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I always want to play along with that challenge because I love a good sketch, but never seem to find the time.  I did this weekend... yay!    I pulled out the MFT Peony Perfection stamp as it is perfect fot the sketch and I had never used it!   I love floral images, but get a little intimidated by how complex they can be.  I never know if I'm putting the shadow in the right place, but I decided that I just needed to get over that and color things how I think they should be and so I did!  I used my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers for the coloring as well as a couple of Polychromos color pencils.  I stamped the image using VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink on smooth bristol cardstock and started coloring.  Once the coloring was done I trimmed out the flower.  That was a trick, but I got it done!  I used the MFT Rectangle Extraordinaire to create the element across the card.  I blended on distress oxide in Tumbled Glass.  Going heavy on the top and fading down to the bottom.  I then die cut the panel with a rectangle die.  I adhered the flower in the center and then stamped the sentiment (from Simon Says Stamp) in Tumbled Glass distress oxide underneath.  I also discovered that apparently I do not own any stamps that actually say Happy Easter!  So funny!  Anywhoo.... I finished off the card with lots of sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

pinwheels and flowers...

 Hey there!  Popping in to post a couple of cards that I made today.   I seem to be in a clean and simple state of mind right now so both cards are pretty simple.  First up is a card for the current Color Throwdown challenge.  I love pink, blue and gray together so couldn't pass up this week's challenge.  I finally made something with my Pinwheel Party stencils, dies and coordinating stamp set from the Greetery.  I used Spun Sugar and Faded Jeans distress oxide inks for the pinwheels.   The sentiment was stamped using VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist ink and the panel die cut with a rectangle die.  I adhered the panel to a white cardstock base and then added the pinwheels.  I finished things off with sequins in white and blue to the centers of the pinwheels and a few pink sequins on the panel.  Super clean and simple!  I will also add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

The second card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I have played along with an MFT sketch challenge in ages.  I almost combined it with the MFT color challenge, but decided to just do the sketch.  I stamped one of the images from the Magnolia Blossoms stamp set on white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored very simply with Copic markers.   Once the image was colored I die cut it with the largest stitched mini scalloped oval die (no longer available).   The sentiment is from the MFT Flowers in Bloom stamp set.  I adhered the oval to a panel of light gray cardstock and then to a white cardstock panel.   Again, very clean and simple. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a deer and snowflakes...

 Hey there!  I got some crafty time today and I managed to make TWO cards!  Pretty proud of myself although I'm sure I have made at least two cards on the same day in the last few weeks, lol!   First up is a card for Color Throwdown and Freshly Made Sketches.    Amy Rohl, who is one of the designers over at CTD, created the most amazing cards using die cut poinsettias and die cut deer.   My card is something of a shameless case of her brilliant designs.   I die cut a tag from green cardstock and then two more from white cardstock and adhered them together.  The poinsettia was die cut from white cardstock using the AJVD poinsettia die and the deer from aqua cardstock using another AJVD die.   The AJVD deer die set includes a pair of glasses and other items to decorate your deer.  I die cut the glasses and a little dot from pink cardstock and adhered those to the deer.  The poinsettia was adhered to the tag and then I added the deer.  I looped pink baker's twine through the hole in the tag and tied a knot at the end.  Everything was adhered to a rectangle die cut from white cardstock.  The sentiment is from the AJVD Light of Christmas stamp set.  I stamped it using VersaFine CLAIR Morning Mist and die cut it with a banner die.  As a finishing touch I added Glossy Accents to the glasses for a little shine and realism. 

The second card is for the MFT sketch challenge.  I tried my hand at creating a tree from snowflakes!  I have an older set of MFT snowflake dies and I cut all of them from white and light gray cardstock.  I then layered one white and one gray of different snowflakes together.   Once they were dry I arranged the snowflakes on a panel of aqua cardstock.  When I had roughly the shape of a tree I adhered the snowflakes with liquid adhesive.  I added aqua colored jewels from Pretty Pink Posh to the centers of all the snowflakes.  The sentiment is from a now retired MFT sentiment set.  I stamped it on vellum with watermark ink and heat embossed in white.  Trimmed it down to a thin strip, wrapped it around the panel and adhered it in the back.  The panel was adhered to a light gray cardstock base.  Adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of let it snow.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Christmas Cheer!

 Hello!  I'm back with an other post.  This one is for the current MFT sketch challenge, the Paper Players challenge and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.   I have never been into stamps of animals.  My preference for images is florals.  But... I absolutely adore the sweet little images of foxes, bunnies, birds and other animals designed by Stacey Yacula.   So last week I received an MFT/Stacey Yacula stamp and die set called Christmas Cheer.  I just love the little bunny in the stamp set.  So using the theme from Paper Players, the sketch from the MFT sketch challenge and dies (for the SSS Wednesday challenge) I created my little card.   I stamped the bunny, the Christmas tree and the treeline on watercolor paper from Tim Holtz and then colored the images with watercolor pencils.   Once everything was mostly dry I die cut them with their matching dies.  To create the more angled slope of the treeline I trimmed off the little trees and then angled the little hills so they were a little steeper and then die cut with a rectangle die.  The same die was used to diecut some very pale blue cardstock.  I stamped the sentiment at angle directly on the snowy slope.  I adhered the treeline to the rectangle and then added the smaller trees, the Christmas tree and finally the little bunny.   

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

More Christmas cards...

Yep... still making Christmas cards!  I think I still need a couple more, but need to make out my list to know for sure.  The first card is for Color Throwdown.  I recently got the Spellbinders Kaleidoscope Plaid die set and have been wanting to make a card with it so I used it for this card.  I die cut the bottom layer from green, the middle from red and then the top layer from aqua.   I was going to go in one direction and tried the idea I  had in mind.  The idea didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, but that happens, right?   So I just moved forward with the rest of my idea and finished the card.  I used my Glimmer hot foil system to foil the senitment in silver on green cardstock and then I used two dies from a Spellbinders small die kit to create the little bow for my present.  I die cut white cardstock using a Spellbinders Essentials Rectangle die and adhered the kaleidoscope plaid piece to the rectangle and then added the bow.  To bring in a little more silver I added silver flatback pearls from Spellbinders to the center of the bow and to the present.  Going to add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes. 

Don't forget that Spellbinders is having a huge sale going on through tomorrow.  Click here or on my side bar to head to the sale.  Lots of great deals to be had!

The second card is for the MFT sketch and color challenge.  It looks alot like the first card in layout and honestly I didn't plan it that way.  I actually made this card before I made the CTD card!  I love snowflakes (seriously... who doesn't?) and have several older snowflake stamp and die sets from MFT so I pulled out one set to create my card.  I used inks from MFT and PTI for the snowflakes.  To bring in the red I stamp the sentiment from an older MFT sentiment set with watermark ink on red cardstock and heat embossed with white embossing powder.   The sentiment was die cut with an MFT fishtail flag stack die.  I used an MFT scalloped rectangle die for the center panel.  I arranged the snowflakes and the sentiment strip on the panel and adhered them with liquid adhesive and foam dots.  Once I had everything adhered down I added Nuvo Crystal drops in Morning Dew.  I was going to add more around the snowflakes, but I just didn't have the nerve to commit to that, lol!  So... I kept it clean and simple.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!