Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Papertrey Ink, World Stencils

 


A quick card share today using the World Map stencil from Papertrey Ink.  This is actually a set of two stencils, one for a vertical and one for a horizontal card orientation.  I placed the the horizontal stencil over my white cardstock and very softly inked the top with Worn Lipstick and the bottom with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.

I then added some gold splatter.  I used the Champagne Gold color from my Starry Colors watercolor set, so a very light, subtle gold.


Once that was dry, the sentiment, from The Greetery's Scripted Holiday Sentiments set, was stamped with Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide and then clear embossed.

The completed panel was popped up over a soft gray card base.

Loving how quickly I can create with stencils these days!

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Uniko Ink and Flip Stencils

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

I've been eyeing the Ink and Flip stencils from Uniko for a while now.  Bev recently had a sale, and I jumped at the chance to pick up a couple.  I got the Christmas Star and Snowflake stencils.  Just as the name suggests, you create the patterns by inking, turning, and also flipping the stencils.

These are SO easy to work with, you can definitely mass produce a bunch of cards in a hurry.

For each of the stencils, I used just two colors:  Sky and Dusk for the Snowflake card, and Carnation and Peony for the Christmas Star card.  To mix things up a little bit, with the Christmas Star stencil I did not flip/rotate exactly, I did it a bit offset because I like the extra motion/layering you get when you do that.  There are some great samples on the Uniko website where folks selectively inked the areas to create rainbow cards, but I went simple and easy this go round.

Finishing off the panels was really easy as well.  For the snowflake, I used sentiments from the Holiday Messages set inked in Versa Clair black.

For the Christmas Star, I die cut the Merry & Bright sentiment twice from white cardstock and once from Champagne Matte.  These were adhered together and then directly to my card panel.  I also added a few Trinity Stamps Boiled Sugar embellishments.

Can't wait to ink these up again! 

Thursday, November 14, 2024

SSS Festive Fun, Peace

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


Today's card features a couple of new dies from the Festive Fun release: Holly Sprig and Scripty Peace.  Sometimes it's fun to create with just dies, it is often quicker than stamping for me.

I started by adding a light wash of color to a watercolor paper panel. I used a lot of water and just a bit of blue and brown color.  This was set aside to dry.

Next, I die cut Holly Sprig as well as the Scripty Peace sentiment and shadow piece from watercolor cardstock.  These were then lightly watercolored, except for the shadow sentiment piece which was left plain.

Once all my pieces were dry, I adhered the berry pieces to the holly leaves and the sentiment to the shadow piece.


The Holly Sprig was adhered directly to my background panel, although I only added adhesive to the stems/bases of the leaves so that the ends come up a bit for extra dimension.  The sentiment was popped up with foam tape, and I let one of the leaves sit over the top of it to add depth.

The entire panel was then adhered to my card base with foam tape.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

SSS Festive Fun, Tea Time Dies

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.



I've got a card to share today using the Tea Time dies from Simon's Festive Fun release.  The set creates four finished pieces which are all shown here.  The pieces were cut from white cardstock, colored with Copics, and adhered together to create the finished pieces.

Meanwhile, I created a grid to guide their placement by using the stencil with the largest openings from the Tiled Art stencil set.  I inked the openings very softly using Morning ink.


The completed die cut pieces were adhered in each of the inked squares, and then I stamped the sentiment, from an older retired set called Winter Wishes, with Versa Clair black ink.

That's all for me today, hope everyone had a nice long weekend!

Friday, November 8, 2024

SSS Festive Fun Release Blog Hop

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.


Happy Friday!  Today I'm participating in hop celebrating Simon Says Stamp's Festive Fun release.  You should be arriving here from Lisa Addesa's blog, and I've got the full list at the end of this post in case yo need it.

As with all good hops, there are prizes to be had.  Simon is giving away a $25 store credit at every stop along the hop.  All you need to do is a leave a comment to be entered.  In addition, with every $100 order of Festive Fun products this weekend, you'll automatically receive the above Cozy Together stamp and die set.



I'm sharing a couple of very simple cards created using the gorgeous Heartfelt Snowflake die.  The die was cut three times from Glossy White cardstock, and the die cuts were adhered to a panel of Bold Brights Color Blend cardstock with liquid adhesive.  The excess portions of the snowflakes were trimmed off the panel and the entire piece was then adhered directly to the card base.


The sentiments are from the Reverse Winter Sentiment Strips set and popped up with foam tape.

These were so quick and easy to make, you can easily mass produce these in a hurry.  I love the way the look of these Color Blend cardstock panels, but could certainly use ink blended cardstock, solid cardstock, or tone on tone patterned paper as well.


Your next stop on the hop is Anna-Karin Evaldsson, and the full hop list is below.  Happy hopping and good luck!

Simon Says Stamp Blog
Caly Person
Nichol Spohr
Jennifer McGuire
Suzy Plantamura
Amy Rysavy
Emily Midgett
Debby Hughes
Lisa Addesa
Miriam Prantner
Anna-Karin Evaldsson
Kim Hamilton
Jean Doeringsfeld
Carly Minner
Bobbi Lemanski
Lea Lawson

Thursday, November 7, 2024

SSS Festive Fun Release

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.




There's a new release at Simon Says Stamp today.  As you might imagine, the Festive Fun release is filled with all sorts of holiday goodness.

Today I'm sharing a card featuring this gorgeous bow image from the Old Fashioned Christmas set.  I love the size of the bow, and thought it would look great on a gift.

The bow wast stamped on some Neenah Solar White cardstock and then colored with Copics.  I used R22, 24, 29, 59, and 89.  The bow was then fussy cut.  

I also cut two strips of Neenah Solar White cardstock to use as ribbons to 'wrap' around my box.  After determining where I wanted them to intersect, I used scissors to narrow the strip in that area to mimic where the ribbon would be cinched a bit with the bow.  These strips were then colored with the same markers.


For the 'box' itself, I simply cut a panel of kraft cardstock, adding a tiny bit of inking around the edges with Cappuccino ink.  The box and the strings were adhered to my card base, and then then the bow was attached.  I used a tiny piece of very strong clear adhesive tape in the center of the bow, and then foam adhesives at the edges of the loops and tails to give it more realistic dimension.

The sentiment is from my Christmas Block Art set.

That's all for me today.  Be sure to head over to Simon to check out the full release.  I'll see you back here for a fun hop tomorrow!

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

October 2024 in Books

October was a decent reading month, a nice mix of books of all types.  Here's the rundown:–

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife - Anna Johnston - fiction - five stars - This was a cute book.  Frederick Fife is an elderly man who has fallen on hard times, he's about to be evicted from his home because he can't pay the rent.  He is at the park when he sees a man in a wheelchair who appears to need some help, but then an accident occurs and Frederick has now been mistaken for the man in the chair, Bernard Greer.  He tries to explain the mix up, but no one pays attention and he takes up residence at Bernard's nursing home where he begins to make friend and help those around him.  A very sweet read.

Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother's Life - Kao Kalia Yang - biography - five stars - The story of the author's mother Tswb, a Hmong from Laos who becomes a refugee after the US leaves Laos.  Her family survives wandering in the jungle for several years until she meets the man she marries.  His family decides to leave the jungle and go to a refugee camp.  After many years, they are able to emigrate to the U.S., but Tswb never sees her mother again.  Tswb's story is difficult from beginning to end, life in America is a struggle as well, but they are able to raise kids who go on to college and help to support them later in life.  Excellent read.

Spy School Goes Wild (Spy School, #12) - Stuart Gibbs - juvenile fiction - five stars - The latest Spy School book sees Ben Ripley kidnapped, along with his nemesis Murray Hill.  They're being taken to Africa to perform slave labor for a construction project as punishment for foiling the Chang family's plots.  Ben manages to escape, and when reunited with his team, thwarts Chang's most recent scheme.  I thought the premise of this one was pretty interesting (in terms of Ben getting kidnapped).  These books are always a fun read.

Here One Moment - Liane Moriarty - fiction - four stars - I really enjoy Moriarty's books, but this one was a little bit of a disappointment.  The premise is that a woman on a flight starts predicting when people will die and from what.  Most people think she is just a kooky lady, but when the predictions start coming true, people start to freak out a little bit.  It was interesting to see how people reacted to their predictions, tried to change their fates, etc.  I enjoyed the characters a lot, but I wasn't crazy with how the book resolved itself.  It was a bit of a let down, I was expecting something better, although now that I'm typing this I remember I felt similarly about Apples Never Fall.  I'm thinking Moriarty needs to think through the full plot of her books a bit more.

Brooklyn (Eilis Lacey, #1) - Colm Tóibín - historical fiction - four stars - This is an older book that has been on my list for a while, but the author recentely wrote a sequel, so I figured I needed to finally ge around to reading the first book.  Eilis' family in Ireland has fallen on hard times, the kids have slowly left home to find work away from their hometown.  With few job prospects, Eilis' sister arranges with an Irish priest in Brooklyn to have Eilis move there and work in a department store in the U.S.  I enjoy immigrant stories and this one was good.  There's not really a particular plot arc, it's just her story, but I really enjoyed the character of Eilis, her experiences, thoughts, etc.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next book.

I Cheerfully Refuse - Leif Enger - fiction - four stars - I read and loved Peace Like a River a couple of months ago, so wanted to try something else from Enger.  This is is his most recent book.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, I guess something more like the previous book and this was not that.  Still a very good story, but a very different genre.  This isn't quite post-apocalyptic, but something along those lines.  Society/governmenet has broken down, the climate has changed significantly.  The main character, Rainy, is on the run due to circumstances that he has just kind of fallen into following the loss of his wife.  The book covers his journey around Lake Superior, those whole help and do not help him, and how he heals from the loss of his wife.  I felt like this book was a little less focused than Peace Like a River, but still quite good.

My Side of the River - Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez - autobiography - four stars - Elizabeth is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.  She, and her brother, are American born, and when her parents tourist visas run out, they return to Mexico to renew them, leaving Elizabeth and her brother in the care of a family friend.  Unfortunately, the visas are not renewed.  Elizabeth navigates staying in the U.S., depending on the kindness of others, to complete high school and then college.  After graduating from college, she brings her brother back to the U.S. as well.  Elizabeth's story is is a difficult one, and she is pretty honest about it.  I wa a little put off by the style in the latter part of the book.  She seemed to have a huge chip on her shoulder which was off-putting.

Hera - Jennifer Saint - fiction - three stars - A retelling of Hera's story.  This one was a disappointment, more like two and a half stars rounded up.  Saint tried to paint Hera as a strong character who doesn't want to marry Zeus, but does because she knows she can't not.  She plans to somehow be his undoing, but this plot line fell flat.  Hera never really was able to carry this out and it just made her sem weak.  Also, it seemed like Saint felt compelled to be exhaustive in her mythology and cover all of the women Zeus impregnated.  This got repetitive.  I really just never connected with Hera, she wasn't a sympathetic heroine at all.

Favorite book this month was The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife least favorite was Hera.  I still have lots of books lying in wait.  Hoping to put a big dent in the TBR list before the end of the year.  Right now I'm reading and loving The Lion Women of Tehran.  Please do share what you have been reading!