Building my Holiday Stash

Hello there!  Today I have another card for you using Papertrey, The Greetery and Memory Box Dies.  I will be entering this into a few of my favorite challenges and one that is new to me;  Outside the Box (Memory Box Frame It Up Challenge), The Paper Players (Marvelous Metallics), the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge (Bling It On). 


I had one last piece of this musical Gold Foiled Cardstock that I've been meaning to use with these particular dies, so I grabbed it with a few other supplies and started working to create my card.

I made a 5.5 x 4.25 inch top folding card base from Stardream Metallic Gold Cardstock.  This is a #105 Cover Weight, shimmer cardstock.  I wanted to die cut the music score and treble clef from Gold Glitter Cardstock, so I matched the cardstock to the glitter paper.  I have several different shades of Gold Shimmer Cardstock, so it was important to choose the right one.

I love specialty cardstock so I've built my supply slowly and most of my specialty card stocks come from PaperPapers.com.  I have found them to be the most reasonably priced and I can purchase in 25 sheet packs.  You get free shipping with a $50.00 order in the US and I don't seem to have any trouble placing a fifty dollar order. Ü

Next, I pulled a piece of White Satin Cardstock and die cut the largest Pierced Feature Frames: Rectangle from that.  Next, I die cut the Musical Interlude and Treble Clef (Memory Box) dies from Gold Glitter Cardstock.  These dies are very delicate, so I had to think a bit about how I was going to get the effect I wanted.  I wanted the die cuts to go across the top of the frame to be the focal point.  First, I attached the right side of the musical score with Multi Medium Matte, lining it up along the pierced detail line in the frame and let it dry for a few minutes. Then I glued the musical score to the treble clef and let that dry.  I laid them upside down on my glass mat to let them dry with an acrylic block on top to keep them from moving.  Once they were dry, I adhered them to the white frame so that the three die cuts adhered to each other.  Turning them face down, I added a double layer of foam tape on the backside.  I cut the music paper slightly smaller than the frame to fit behind it without showing outside of the frame.  Then I adhered that to the card base.

With the Glitter Paper, the foiled paper, and the shimmer metallic cardstock, there is a lot of shimmer, shine, and bling on this card.

I cut a couple of different tags/labels and stamped some Holiday sentiments on them to add to my Christmas Card Stash. Both of the sentiments came from Papertrey Ink stamp sets.  

    

While I had the dies out, I cut an extra set to make another card.  I don't have any more of the music sheet paper, so I just used some Peacock Shimmer Cardstock and added some sequins and gems in the background.  That way, if you are like me and rarely buy patterned paper, you can see that it still makes a beautiful card, while being what most would consider clean and simple. 

It's been fun having time to get back into doing some challenges.  I'd better get busy posting these in the challenges before I run out of time.  The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge will change tomorrow, so I need to get cracking!  

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope to share a few more cards before next week's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop on the 25th.  I have my projects completed for that, but I still need to write the post.  See you soon!  

Simon Says - No Stamps Allowed!

Hey there!  I just saw the new Wednesday Challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and lo and behold I just finished making a card that totally works for this challenge so I thought I'd pop in here with a blog post.

If you saw my last post, then you know that I have been playing a ton with some of my new goodies from Hero Arts and the Delicates Dies from Papertrey Ink.  The most recent kit from Hero Arts is Art Deco in Style which I love so I am still playing with that and other dies I have in my collection.  When I first started cardmaking, I couldn't stamp worth a darn, so I made lots of cards with die cuts only.  This is definitely a  throwback to those days.  

Part of the reason I really like Art Deco is that the lines are always so graphic which makes for a super striking look in a card.  

The cover die I am using is in the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit for February 2019.  With other things I have in my supplies, I could play for weeks with this stuff!  

My card project for the Challenge is simple die cutting at it's best for the most part.  I did decide to use a technique that Jennifer McGuire shared during that blog hop that you can find at this link.

This card uses Light Blue, Medium Grey, Dark Blue Shimmer Cardstock and of course the gold cardstock that gives all of that shine.  The diamond die cuts are from very old QuicKutz dies that I have had for many years with 5 different sizes in the group.  I have another card that I will be using them for coming up ad the "hello" die cut is from the Hero Arts Stamp and Cut Hello Set.

Everything here is super simple and all you have to do is the die cutting and assembly.  I cut several of each piece I was working with so I could just play with the colors and see what combinations I could come up with.  In fact, I will have more cards to share in the coming days.  I am enjoying my time playing with these dies, stencils and other products.  

Just a short and sweet post for today.  I'm still working on getting my links list straightened out but hope to have that done by the end of this coming weekend.  

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Stampendous

Hello!  I'm back with my post for this week's Designer in the Spotlight at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.  This week our theme is "Anything Goes" and we are featuring products from Stampendous. You don't have to use Stampendous products to enter the challenge, but if you have some, we would love to see them used. This is my last week in the Designer Spotlight and it has been a treat to get to create alongside some of my favorite ladies! Thank you so much for having me along this month. You've left such sweet comments for me here on my blog and I really appreciate it.   

Simon Says Stamp generously provides a $50.00 Gift Voucher each week for each of their blog challenges. Winners are selected from all of the entries by Random Draw each week.  Thank you, Heidi, for providing that each week.

For my card, I started with a piece of Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper and heat embossed my images using Versamark and Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder.  When I buy the pads of watercolor paper, I take them to Kinkos and have them cut into 4.5 x 6 inch panels so they are a little bit larger than the size I need when making a card. I like to die cut my background panels for that super crisp and clean cut so the smaller size makes it easy.

Whenever you do heat embossing of your outline images, this creates a channel for the water to flow in. Easy-peasy!  I worked in a Jewelry Store many years ago where we sold lots of loose diamonds and created custom mountings for engagement, wedding and dinner style rings.  Many of the smaller stones were set into a channel to keep them contained and water works the same way.  I'm just creating a little gold channel when I heat emboss.  You can use any color of embossing powder that you like.  I just happen to like this one the most.  I go through about 6 jars of it a year. I do a lot of heat embossing and the most important thing is to use some kind of a powder tool first!

For all of my watercoloring today, I wanted something easy, so I smooshed a bit of Distress Ink onto an acrylic block and picked it up with a water brush to color my images.  For the Lilacs, I used Seedless preserves and the darker blooms just have additional layers of color on them and the same is true for the leaves and butterfly.  The leaves were done with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and the butterfly with Peacock Feathers Ink.  This is an easy way to color without the stress of trying to use "real" watercolors in the correct technical manner.

Once all of the painting was finished and dry, I went back in with my Tonic Aqua Shimmer Pen and gave some shimmer to all of the images, especially the butterfly and let it dry again. Once it was dry, I die cut all of the images with the coordinating dies.  I cut a stitched rectangle using the WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Stitched Rectangle Die to cut a white background panel and did a bit of ink blending with some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink.  I used a combination of Thin 3D Foam Squares, Scotch 3D Foam Tape and Ranger Multi Medium Matte to adhere the elements to the background panel and I put a piece of fun foam behind that panel to give a little bit more dimension.  I really considered adding for sequins or confetti but in the end, I liked the simpler image much better.

For the sentiment, I used the Simon Says Stamp "oh hello there" die to die cut the sentiment, but just used the word "hello".  I love the handwriting of this die (Kristina Werner's I'm sure) and it's one that I use often to send cards to friends.

Thank you so much for stopping by today to see my card!  I appreciate all of the kind and encouraging comments.  I've linked the supplies I've used below for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you).

Arches Hot Pressed Watercolor Paper 9 x 12 #140 Shop at: SSS	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Distress Ink Mini Cube - Mowed Lawn Shop at: SSS	Distress Ink Mini Cube - Peacock Feathers Shop at: SSS
Distress Ink Mini Cube - Seedless Preserves Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Refill Shop at: SSS	MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
Scotch 3M Foam Tape Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS	SSS Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Stampendous Lilac Die Cut Set Shop at: SSS
Stampendous Lilac Stamp Set with Stencil Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS	Tonic Aqua Shimmer Pen Shop at: SSS
Versamark Ink Shop at: SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS

Simon Says "Floral Frenzy" featuring Altenew

Hello!  I'm back with my post for this week's Designer in the Spotlight at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog.  This week our theme is "Floral Frenzy" and we are featuring products from Altenew.  You don't have to use Altenew products to enter the challenge, but if you have some, we would love to see them used.

Simon Says Stamp generously provides a $50.00 Gift Voucher each week for each of their blog challenges. Winners are selected by Random Draw each week.  Thank you, Heidi, for providing that each week.

If you've been here before you probably know that Altenew is one of my favorite stamp companies.  They are known industry wide for their gorgeous layering floral stamp sets. Each month for the last year, they have released a special set called Build-A-Flower which is a stamp and die collection for $35.00.  As a person who always wants the dies, I love these sets and have nearly all of them.

The newest flower in the Build-A-Flower Collection is Build-A-Flower Chrysanthemum.  This particular stamp & die set has a few unique characteristics.  First is the very painterly look of the blooms (oh how I wish I could paint like that) and the die is different as well.  One part of the die cuts the exterior of the bloom and the other cuts some of the interior petals.  By only cutting some of them you can pop them up for a little bit of dimension.  You can use either one or both, but not both at the same time.

The leaves and the blooms each have three layers.I stamped my blooms using the Tea Party Collection of Inks in Pink Pearl and Coral Bliss with the third layer done in Heartbeat on one bloom and Coral Berry on the other.  The leaves were stamped in inks from the Green Fields Collection; Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades and Evergreen.

For the background panel of my card, I wanted it to seem as if it were a sunny afternoon so I ink blended some Citrus Burst Ink on the background panel using a Mini Round Ink Blending Tool and then gave it a few bursts of Iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist. Citrus Burst is from the Pockletful of Sunshine Mini Cube Collection.  I colored in the butterfly from another set using a Zig Clean Color Real Brush Marker in the color Carmine.

I die cut the background panel with a stitched rectangle die and adhered it to a top folding white card base. I arranged my blooms then heat embossed my favorite sentiment from Beautiful Day onto a scrap of white card stock.  I cut the strip to adhere it to my card with a piece of foam tape under the right hand side.

I really love this Build-A-Flower Chrysanthemum set from Altenew.  I am anxious to try a few more colors with it although I can tell you it is just as beautiful in the pinks of the Rose Petal Collection.  I have several of the Mini Ink Cube Collections and I love that I don't even have to think about which color to use for which layer.  Altenew has already done all of that for you with the collections.  Each set contains a light, a medium, a dark and a very dark ink in the same color family so there's no guesswork involved.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  The supplies I've used are linked below for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you).

Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS	SSS Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz Mini Round Ink Blending Tool Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers - 48 Set Shop at: SSS
Altenew Build-A-Flower Chrysanthemum Shop at: SSS	Altenew Tea Party Min Cube Collection Shop at: SSS	Altenew Green Fields Mini Cube Collection Shop at: SSS	Altenew Pocketful of Sunshine Mini Cube Collection Shop at: SSS

Photo Inspiration at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Hello! I am back for another Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge March Designer In the Spotlight Post. This week we are featuring Your Next Stamp products for our theme of Easter Inspired. You don't have to use Your Next Stamp products to enter the challenge, but if you have some, we would love to see them used.

Simon Says Stamp generously provides a $50.00 Gift Voucher each week for each of their blog challenges. I actually won one of these right after Christmas and got to splurge on a purchase. That was a lot of fun!  Thanks again to Heidi for providing that each week.

We have this beautiful inspiration image and colors to inspire us this week.  My card uses the Hoppy Friends Stamp Set from Your Next Stamp along with a few other Simon Says Stamp Products and a bit of no-line coloring.

This is my first attempt at a no-line coloring look so I started by putting the image in my Mini MISTI and stamping it onto X-Press It Blending Cardstock which is made specifically for use with Copic or other alcohol markers.  It is silky smooth and I find it much easier to achieve the look I want with much less work vs. using a heavy cardstock. I stamped in Barely Beige Ink which is perfect for a no line coloring look.  I'm not typically a fan of images that have been stamped in black and colored in, so I wanted to try this ink out today.  I got this color for this specific purpose but I haven't tried it before now. I could tell right away that it would be perfect for this technique. You can also use light colored Distress Inks to help those lines fade completely away.

I have a moderately sized collection of Copic Markers but I knew that my Warm Greys would be just the ticket to go with the Barely Beige Ink so I pulled them out.  I ended up using only two markers with a very light touch of Colorless Blender for the bunnies.  Most of the bunnies were done with the W-1 Marker using a short flicking stroke to mimic their fur.  Occasionally I would use W-3 to add in a bit of darker color. For the inside of the ears and the tiny noses, I used two different colors; R11 for the bunny on the right and RV10 for the one on the left.  Like people, I assume they all have different tones in their natural coloring. I tried to start at the top of the head and work my way inward, much in the same way their hair would  naturally grow.  I've never actually had a rabbit for a pet so I did it the way my small dogs have it.  I'm assuming it would be similar on all animals so if my bunnies look like Yorkies, you'll know why.  Ha ha!  I have two Yorkies and we get them groomed every 6 weeks so they have the cute little teddy bear faces.

I just kept flicking in short strokes until eventually I filled up all the blank white space.  Then I went back in and added a bit more shading with the darker marker and then blended that back out with the W-1 Marker. Because I was flicking instead of coloring, it maintained some of the white and lightest tones for a natural look.  I hope it looks natural anyhow!  I am not a certified Copic Colorist and I have only minimal skills, but I was really pleased with how these little cuties came out. They aren't meant to be accurate, they are only meant to be cute!

Once I had the coloring finished, I used some Stitched Square dies from MFT to cut the bunnies out and a coordinating mat in Simon Says Stamp Cotton Candy Cardstock.  I mounted that to a background panel of  Simon Says Stamp Lavender Cardstock. I cut another Stitched Rectangles from Simon Says Stamp Surf Blue Cardstock and made a card base from Simon Says Stamp Mint Cardstock. I die cut two white and one gold "Easter" and adhered them together and then to the card with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I stamped the "happy" sentiment on a scrap of white cardstock with Versamark and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder and put a narrow strip of foam tape on the left hand side and adhered that to my card.  I added a few touches of Nuvo Dew Drops in Rosewater and Key Lime for a finishing touch.

I hope you'll be inspired by our challenge graphic and join us over at the Simon Says Stamp Blog. Don't forget, you could win a $50 Gift Voucher! Be sure to stop by next week as we are featuring Altenew!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  The supplies I used are linked below for your convenience (Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you).

Copic Marker - R11 - Pale Cherry Pink Shop at: SSS	Copic Marker - W1 - Warm Grey Shop at: SSS	Copic Marker - W3 - Warm Grey Shop at: SSS	Copic Marker RV10 - Pale Pink Pastel Shop at: SSS
Copic X-Press It Blending Cardstock - 10 Sheets Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	MFT Stitched Square Stax Shop at: SSS	Mini MISTI Stamping Tool Shop at: SSS
Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Barely Beige Ink Shop at: SSS	SSS Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	SSS Cotton Candy Cardstock Shop at: SSS
SSS Easter Wafer Thin Die Shop at: SSS	SSS Lavender Cardstock Shop at: SSS	SSS Mint Cardstock Shop at: SSS	SSS Stitched Rectangles Dies Shop at: SSS
SSS Surf Blue Cardstock Shop at: SSS	Tonic Nuvo Jewel Drops - Key Lime Shop at: SSS	Tonic Nuvo Jewel Drops - Rosewater Shop at: SSS	Versamark Ink Shop at: SSS
Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Your Next Stamp Hoppy Friends Shop at: SSS