SSS Happy Camper, Groovy Flowers

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

A really simple card today using the recently released Groovy Flowers dies.

There are three sizes for flowers that you can use on their own, or layer for more dimensional flowers.  I cut the three sizes from three shades of pink.  The flower detail pieces were cut from white and the centers from gray.  I then mixed and matched the pieces to create a variety of flowers.

For the background, I pulled out a panel from my stash that had been created ages ago.  This was just white mist over black cardstock using the Parquet stencil I designed for Neat & Tangled ages ago.

The flowers were popped up with foam tape.  I added a sentiment strip to finish things off

SSS Cozy Hugs, Batty for You

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

Happy Tuesday!  Hope everyone in North America had a nice long weekend!

I'm sharing a fun card today featuring the Batty for You set from the Cozy Hugs release.

This is a really cute set that gives you several options for personalizing your bat with multiple smiles and eyes.

I started by stamping my bat body and wings with Gina K Black Amalgam ink and then coloring him with Copics using my neutral grays.

The branch was just hand cut from a scrap of black cardstock.

The background was inked using blending brushes.  I started with a very light application of Lemonade at the top, and then added some purples, using Heather, Twilight, and Iris.

I needed a skinnier alpha for this, so I pulled out my old Journaling Alphas for Neat & Tangled.  The letters were die cut from white cardstock, which I softened just a bit with a very light application of Lemonade ink.

All of the pieces were adhered to my inked panel except the body of the bat which was popped up with foam tape.

This was a fun one to make.  Thanks for stopping by!

Waffle Flower Crafts Moon Bay Stencils

 *This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

Hi friends!  Today I've got a card featuring the Moon Bay stencil set from Waffle Flower Crafts.  

These were designed by my crafty friend JJ, and I love how quickly and easily you can create the landscape. It's a set of three stencils, and not only are they very easy to line up, but the spaces are a good size and far enough apart that very little masking is required.

For my card I used some darker colored inks to create a moody evening scene.  I used Sunbeam for the sun/moon, a combination of Cadette, Royal, and Sweets for the sky, Sage with a bit of Pine for the green areas, Twilight and Iris for the mountains in the background, and Galaxy for the land areas in the foreground.  For the water, I used Cadette with just a touch of Royal for the water.

Once my inking was complete, the panel was trimmed down, and after it had thoroughly dried I gold embossed a sentiment from an old Neat & Tangled sentiment set.

To finish things off, I die cut a large frame using the Waffle Flower Wooden Frame dies form Matte Gold cardstock, and then popped it up with foam adhesive.

The stencils really do all the work here.  So easy!

Printmaking Florals Background - Blank Tags

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

A quick and easy project today.  One of the fun things about the Printmaking Florals Background is that the strips peel apart so you can use them separately.  

I thought it would be fun to create some 'blank tags.'  I confess to often being in a bit of a rush when we need to attend an event, and often I don't have a card that's quite right, so it's nice to have tags on hand that I can write a quick note on.  So, similar to blank cards, it's nice to have something that is genereic enough to use for any occasion.

For these tags I stamped a row of the florals at the top and bottom of my tag with white pigment ink.

The tags dies are from my old Classic Tag 2 set for Neat & Tangled.  

I had originally cut the top tag piece from white cardstock, but I felt like it was too much of a contrast, so I swiped my pigment ink pad over some kraft cardstock until I got the coverage I wanted and then die cut those top pieces out.  

The sentiment is from the All About You set and was embossed with Hero Arts white embossing powder.  Before I stamped it, I first set the pigment ink with my heat gun and used a powder tool.  

I love how the sentiment really pops because the other whites are just that white pigment ink on kraft so more subtle.

Super quick and easy!

Found items and a Mish Mash of Companies

Hi all!  We're freshly back from vacation and I'm simultaneously digging out from being gone, and gearing up for school to start for the girls.  One of the benefits of my recent craft room cleanout/purge was that I found a bunch of items that I had previously stamped/colored/die cut, but hadn't used for one reason or another.  I decided I needed to put those items to use.  The first little guy to get used is this sweet squirrel that Elena Roussakis illustrated for Neat & Tangled a while back.

I decided to pair him with the retired Charmed set from Mama Elephant, they go together perfectly since Elena illustrated both.  It was around this time that I decided I would go ahead and create two cards using the same basic formula, so I stamped/colored/die cut two sets of the wreath, banner, and bow.

I knew I had used Warm Grays to color my squirrel, so I used more muted colors for the elements on this card.  The wreath was colored with G20, G21, G24, and G46, the little flowers in the wreath and bow were colored with R20, R22, and R24, and I used W0, W1, and W3 to add some shading to the banner.

I picked a simple pink print for the background and a frame using a couple of my go to dies, the large scalloped frame from the Neat & Tangled Scalloped die set, and a frame die from MFT with a great hash detail.

The sentiment for the banner was also from the Charmed set.

The wreath was adhered directly to my patterned paper, but everything else was popped up with foam tape, including the frame.  

For the second card, I decided to create a Christmas version since I need to keep building my Christmas card stash.

For my 'main character,' I picked this sweet little penguin from Neat & Tangled's Santa's Wonderland set.  He was colored with Cool Grays, and I used those to add accents to the banner also.  I went with some deeper/richer colors for the wreath and bow using G21, G24, G28, and G29 for the wreath and R32, R35, R37, and R39 for the reds. 

The card was assembled in the same way, but I used a red print for the background and kraft for the frame.  The sentiment is from Hello Bluebird.

It was fun to use some items from my stash and also get the Copics out.  I feel like I haven't done a ton of coloring lately, and I do enjoy it!  

Thanks for visiting!  I'm busy working on STAMPtember samples!  If you follow me on Instsagram you might have seen that I have started illustrating again and I have several new designs that will be available from Simon Says Stamp as part of the STAMPtember release.  I'm thrilled and so happy to be illsutrating again!

The Daily Marker 10 Day Coloring Challenge Finished Cards, Day 3

I've got two more cards featuring images I colored during Kathy Racoosin's most recent coloring challenge.

Today's cards both feature journaling cards from my scrapbooking stash.  I have a ton of journaling cards, and I'm always looking for ways to incorporate them into my cardmaking.  

This first card features a pretty common journaling card format - there's a pattern on the top portion of the card, and then a white band at the bottom.  This format is perfect for cardmaking because that white space is just right for a sentiment.

I added a couple mats to the journaling card, a print from a My Favorite Things paper pad, and then a simple white cardstock mat.  For some texture, I added stitching around the white mat.

The image and sentiment are from Neat & Tangled's Slow and Steady set.  

I was really excited when I was flipping through my journaling cards and found the one I used for this second card.

I thought all those letters were perfect for a reading themed card.  

My stamped/colored image, from My Favorite Things Magical Friends set, was fussy cut and adhered directly to the journaling card, and then added a sentiment from Mama Elephant's Good Reads set.

Since the journaling card/image really stand on their own, I just added a simple dark gray mat.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll have some more finished cards to share next week.

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp.

The Daily Marker 10 Day Coloring Challenge Finished Cards, Day 2

Hi all, I've got a couple more finished cards to share today.  These two came together pretty quickly because they are stamped scene images by Anita Jeram for Colorado Craft Company.

I mentioned yesterday that I needed to step up the Christmas card making, so although these could have been winter or birthday cards, I went ahead and made them holiday cards.

This first card features the main image from the Snow Happy set.  I started by adding a sentiment from my Scandinavian Prints Christmas set for Neat & Tangled.  

Then I trimmed my panel down a bit, and adhered it to a light blue card base.

The frame is kraft cardstock that was first die cut using a rectangular die from My Favorite Things, and then cut a second time to add the oval opening using the Card Front Dies from Neat & Tangled.

The frame was then popped up over the image with foam tape.  Super simple, but you really don't need a lot with a large image that carries the day.

The second card features one of the images from the Christmas Presents set.  I love this image, but had ben kind of avoiding it because there are so many things to color in it and sometimes I get overwhelmed by having to find all the different color/shading combinations.  Solution?  Go with a monochromatic color scheme.  In this case, I went with sepia tones.

I thought about making this just a birthday card since the colors aren't really Christmassy, but decided to go ahead and go with a Christmas theme.  The sentiment is from Neat & Tangled's Santa's Wonderland set.

Papertrey Ink's Honey Nut cardstock was the perfect match for the color scheme, so I went with that for the base, but trimmed the panel down a bit more than I normally do so you can see more of it.

I'll have a couple more finished cards to share with you tomorrow!

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

SSS Geometric Builder Squares, Take 1

Hi all!  I finally carved out some time to focus on these Geometric Builder Squares dies from Simon Says Stamp.  Just like a few weeks ago when I was working with the Geometric Circles, I'll be sharing several days worth of cards using these guys.  

Today I thought it would be fun to create essentially the same card, but in two very different styles.

For both of these cards I used the square that cut four triangles.  For this first card, I cut the die twice using four different shades of solid cardstock.  

I then assembled my pattern on a piece of scrap white cardstock by using the same square, i.e. the four colored triangles are in the same order, but I changed the orientation of the square itself, rotating it a quarter turn each time.

I used Altenew's Caps Bold Alphabet dies as well as a sentiment from the retired Typed Sentiments set from Neat & Tangled.  Which was embossed and popped up with foam tape.

For this next card, I pulled four different patterned paper scraps from the piles and piles of scraps that I have, and cut the die twice from each.

This time, I wanted a more quilted look, so the pattern is more regular.  I started by creating a larger square using eight of the triangles, and then expanding the pattern from there to complete the look.

Again, I used a scrap piece of cardstock as my base.  I wanted a more uniform look, so I trimmed my card base down 1/4" so there's 1/2" border all around (the quilted piece is 3" x 4 1/2").  

To add to the quilted/homespun look, I stitched around the border of the quilted piece.  

The sentiment was created using Pinkfresh Studio's Lea's Ornate Lowercase dies and another stamp from the Typed Sentiments set.  I added a bit of stitching to the ends of the secondary sentiment, although my zig zags got a little too close to the 'me' for my liking.  The alpha dies were originally white, but I thought the contrast was a little too much, so I just die cut another set of letters from a soft gray and adhered them over top.  Super easy fix.

Which version is your favorite?  Isn't it so fun to see such different looks from the same basic card?

More from these dies coming soon!

The Greetery Mimosa Musings

I picked up this Mimosa Musings set back during the Greetery's Black Friday sale, and am finally getting around to using it.  I just love these unique flowers, so different.  I like that they work as a focal point, but because of their size can also be used to fill out other floral arrangements.

I wanted to create a simple stamped panel for my cards.  I used the MISTI to create these, so I could try a couple different color schemes.  Because I was stamping on kraft and I wanted that lighter layer of color to really show up, I stamped the initial flower layer first with white pigment ink and then with the lighter shade of dye ink.  

I used Altenew inks for the colors - Misty Morning and Dark Night for the blue card and Wisteria and Andromeda for the lavendar card.  I used Evergreen ink for the leaves on both cards.

The large spray of flowers was used first to frame two corners of the card, and then I used the smallest spray on the inside to frame out the center of the card where the sentiment would be.

The sentiments are from my old Foliage Frame set for Neat & Tangled and were stamped with Versafine.

Originally I was going to just have these be one layer cards, but I wanted a bit of accent/defiition/texture, so I trimmed down the long ends just a hair and added stitching along those borders.

Thanks for visiting!

SSS Geometric Builder Circles (Take 1)

I had been pining after these Geometric Circles since they were released and I took advantage of Simon's Black Friday sale to pick them up.  

These are just so much fun to play with and there are so many possibilities.

For this card I used the basic die which has the circle in the square, and used the pinwheel inside circle die.

I selected an autumnal rainbow of colors from Papertrey Ink (Limeade Ice, Simply Chartreuse, Ripe Avocado, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Terracotta Tile, and Pure Poppy), and cut the pinwheel circle once from each of the colors and the basic square frame six time from white cardstock.

I then cut six squares of white cardstock (I used a thinner cardstock for this) just under 1 1/2" (which is the size of that basic square die) and ran them through my Xyron machine to get an even coat of adhesive on them to use as bases.

Then it was just a matter of adhering all the little pieces to my bases.

Once these were done, and I had decided on the basic layout of my finished squares, I decided to create a color blocked background that would match the diagonal lines of some of the circles.  To do this I cut three pieces of cardstock, using a few of the darker colors from the pie shapes, into 4" squares and then cut them in half diagonally from one corner to the other.  These were then adhered to a scrap piece of cardstock to create the color blocked pattern, and then trimmed down as needed.

Once the background was done, I adhered the six die cut squares with foam tape.

The sentiment is from my old So Many Sentiments set for Neat & Tangled and was embossed in white and popped up with foam tape.

I am loving these dies, and have several other cards in the works...I got the Geometric squares too, so be prepared for lots of geometric cards!

More Oldies but Goodies

As promised, I've got a couple more Oldies but Goodies Christmas cards to share today.  This time I'm mixing and matching products from a bunch of different companies, but I've again stuck with the same basic formula for each of the cards.

I started by stamping my images on Neenah Solar White cardstock and coloring them with Copics.  Then I fussy cut around the top of the images, but left the bottom of the stamped image attached to the panel, kind of like faux partial die cutting.  Once that was done, I was ready to put together cards.

This first card features the Walter image from Purple Onion Designs.  He was colored with Cool Grays, and I used my trusty red combination (R22, R24, R29, and R39).  

I cut an arched frame from a piece of patterned paper using an MFT STAX die for the front of the card, and stamped/embossed some snowflakes on a panel of light blue cardstock using a stamp from Ellen Hutson's Abstract Paint Strokes stamp set.

The sentiment, from Neat & Tangled's Scandinavian Prints Christmas set was embossed on a banner from the Scalloped dies set.

The snowflake piece was adhered directly to my card base as was the little penguin, and the patterned paper frame and sentiment strip were popped up with foam tape.

The second card follows the same formula, but this one features an owl, Flora, also from Purple Onion Designs.  The owl was colored with Warm Grays and I used B32, B34, and B37 for the scarf, and E70, E74, E77, and E79 for the tree stump.

The snowflake were embossed on a piece of grout gray cardstock and instead of using patterned paper, I stamped a panel of kraft cardstock with The Stamp Market's Jumbo Plaid background using white pigment ink.

The sentiment for this one is from Neat & Tangled's Nativity Play set, and I used another of the banners from the Scalloped die set for it.

I still need a few more cards for the season, but I'm getting close to being done.  Still have lots of goodies in that stack of Christmas products that I pulled to work with and am looking forward to getting some more stamping done this weekend!

Oldies but Goodies, WPlus9 Holiday Hugs

Happy Wednesday!  Today I've got a couple cards featuring WPlus9's Holiday Hugs set.  This is one of my favorite WPlus9 images, and it's pretty easy to color.

These cards are basically the same design, but to keep things interesting, I switched up the color schemes  between them.

For my first card, I colored the bear with warm grays (W0, W1, W3), and the scarf/girl's outfit with R22, R24, R29, and R39.  I used E000, E53, and BV00 for the skin tone, and C5, C7, and C9 for her hair, and then die cut my image.

Embossing paste was spread through Simon Says Stamp's Falling Snow stencil on a piece of Cement Gray cardstock, and set aside to dry.

Meanwhile, I freehand cut a snowdrift, and stamped the sentiment on it.  

The dry stenciled piece and snowdrift were cut down to fit within a scalloped die cut panel, and adhered to the card base, and the colored image was popped up with foam tape.

For the second card, I went with cooler colors.  Instead of fully coloring the bear, I just added a thin line of color (N1) next to each of the stamped lines.  I used the same series of reds to color the bear's scarf, but the little girl's outfit was colored with B00, B12, B14, B06, and B18.  The skind was colored with E00, E21, and E95 and the hair with E13, E15, and E18.

The rest of the card was put together in the same manner as the first, but this time I used a light blue for the sky piece and a white scalloped panel.

The sentiment is from Neat & Tangled's Scandinavian Prints Christmas set.

That's all for today, but I have one more Oldies but Goodies post to share this week, see you tomorrow!

Oldies but Goodies , N&T Christmas Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone!  I've been trying to be judicious in my crafty spending this year, and haven't bought many new Christmas sets.  Instead, I've been enjoying pulling out a lot of older product for my Christmas cards.  Today I used some older Neat & Tangled stamps and stencils.  

For my first card, I stamped one of the reindeer from the Oh Deer set in Gina K Amalgam ink, colored him with Copics, and then die cut.  

I cut a panel of kraft cardstock, die cut a circle to create a frame, and then spread embossing paste through the Fa La La stencil.

Once that was dry, I finished the card, by adding a snowflake print to my card base as well as a hand cut snow drift from a scrap of white cardstock.  

The reindeer was adhered on top of the snowdrift, and then the stenciled panel was popped up over top with foam tape.  I added a sentiment from Hello Bluebird's Typed Christmas set that was stamped on one of Neat & Tangled's Skinny Strips dies.

For this next card, I stamped, colored and die cut a few of the images from Neat & Tangled's Nativity Play set.  Then I went to work on the stenciled background.

I started by adding Dylusions Lemon Zest and Pure Sunshine Ink Spray to a panel of white cardstock.  Once that was dry, I spread embossing paste over the panel using the Radiating Star stencil, and set the panel aside to dry.

In the meantime, I added a bit of brown ink to a scrap of white cardstock to serve as the ground in my scene.  This was stamped with one of the sentiments from Neat & Tangled's Little Baby Jesus stamp set.  The first part of that sentiment was stamped on a white banner.

The brown frame was cut using an older My Favorite Things frame die.

Then it was just a matter of assembling everything.  The stenciled background and ground piece were adhered directly to the card base, everything else was popped up with foam tape.  

Hope you are all staying safe and healthy!